With a heart for the people in his village, Nihar (not his real name) wanted to dedicate his time to telling them about Jesus.

But the Nepalese man also needed to support himself and his family. So, he would spend five months a year working as a porter during the mountain climbing season, hoping to earn enough money to last the other seven months as he served as a pastor in his village.

“But whenever I come down from the mountain, I’d find that my whole church has disappeared because I haven’t been there.”

This conversation took place close to two decades ago. Nihar was sharing his predicament with James Lee, a Singaporean businessman who was in Nepal at the time for a mission trip. Moved by Nihar’s situation, James offered to give him S$100 a month to help him out.

Some time later, the two men met again. Nihar was no longer climbing mountains for a living.

“Your S$100 allowed me to go into full-time pastoral work and I’ve been reaching out to my village. The church grew from 15 to 30, and then 50!” he told James excitedly.

From that encounter, a vision was confirmed in James’ heart: “Our Singapore dollar is so powerful. Why don’t we use this S$100 to release people into full-time work?”

Growing churches with just S$100 

This vision had already been brewing in James’ heart during his first mission trip to Nepal, where he saw many villagers like Nihar who had the heart to serve God full-time, yet lacked the financial ability to do so.

During his Quiet Time one morning on the trip, he felt the Holy Spirit say to him: “I’ve given you relationships in the business world. Gather your friends, fund these people and release them so that they can be effective.”

This would become the heartbeat of Touching Young Lives International (TYLI), a missions funding organisation that raises a donor base of mostly Christian businessmen and professionals to empower church planters to reach the poor and unreached in Asia.

Some TYLI members blessing widows with household staples in Laos. Apart from supporting the church planter with S$100, TYLI also helps to meet ad-hoc financial needs.

These church planters are recommended to the team by “connectors” – foreign full-time workers whom the team gets to know personally through local Bible schools, churches or other missions organisations. When these connectors return to their countries, they keep a lookout for church planters who may benefit from TYLI’s work.

Since 2007, TYLI has committed to giving each approved church planter S$100 a month for five years (along with meeting other ad-hoc financial needs), with the hope that members will be eventually able to support their pastor through tithing.

“Some churches have become independent after just three years. One church even told us that they have learnt from TYLI and started to support other church planters as well,” James told Salt&Light.

TYLI is currently supporting about 150 church planters in nine countries, including Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, India and Indonesia. The team estimates that they have supported approximately 450 church planters – many of whom have become independent – since 2007.

“Quantity, quality and quickly”

The registered society operates on zero cost as all nine committee members are volunteers, on top of being regular donors.

Only 0.3% of donations go to fees during bank transfers, while the rest of the 99.7% goes straight to the church planters, said James, who holds the weekly TYLI meetings in his company’s office in Ubi.

TYLI member Eng Tian (left) at a TYLI-sponsored medical camp in India.

Apart from sharing their resources, the team also gives their time to visit church planters – each at least once every two years, and out of their own pockets – in what they call “the ministry of encouragement and presence”.

In person, they minister to the church planters and provide them with training to help them to disciple their flock well.

David Chan, who took over from James as TYLI’s chairman in 2020, told Salt&Light: “In John 15:16, Jesus says, ‘Go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.’ ‘Go’ is really the work of evangelism. ‘Bear fruit’ is discipleship. No point having thousands of converts but few reaching the finishing line.”

James added: “We don’t want just quantity of souls, but quality of souls. So quantity, quality and quickly, because time is running out.”

While it is a heavy commitment to visit each church planter regularly, most of the team members are either retired or semi-retired and have found a renewed purpose in this new season of their lives.

David shared how being retrenched from his job as a banker when he was 55 led him to redirect his time, energy and resources more meaningfully through TYLI. “We are redeploying our time,” said David, now 64.

All nine TYLI committee members, most of whom are in their 60s, are volunteers and regular donors.

Henry Teo, 65, TYLI’s secretary and former businessman, also shared how he decided to give his time and energy to missions after realising he only had limited time left to make a lasting impact.

“If God gives me extra time, what can I do that is eternal? A lot of things here we can’t bring (with us when we die). But the soul, God, relationships, these are things we can bring eternally.”

Joining God’s great mission

Through their regular “encouragement trips”, the team has seen the fruits of their giving.

Last year, David saw how seven non-believers readily received the Gospel when he accompanied two local pastors to a village in Nepal last year.

He also shared about one of their connectors in Indonesia who found an unreached mountain tribe of 10,000 people. Through his outreach efforts, which included trekking to their village for three days, some 50 families came to Christ. Today, 400 people in the tribe are Christians and TYLI has supported two church planters there, he said.

According to an internal report, the team has seen more than 17,000 new believers and close to 15,000 baptisms in the churches they support over the last five years. “We don’t have to start a church to win souls,” James said.

Rev Chris (second from left) in Cambodia during an “encouragement trip” to visit church planter, Ps Rady (third from right).

The team is aiming to support 200 church planters and already has discipled a group of Filipinos who had worked in Singapore for a season, to start TYLI Philippines.

They are believing that God will continue to provide for His work in Asia.

Rev Chris Wong, a former businessman who co-founded TYLI with James, shared how God had challenged him to stop contributing financially to TYLI for a season. “God said, ‘See how I will provide without your giving … It’s not about you’,” he recalled.

Sure enough, more than enough funds came in to support the work. “So many miracles happened along the way. Sometimes when we see the bank statement, we have to lay hands on it and start praying. And somehow people will give,” said Rev Chris, 67.

It is the team’s hope that as more church planters are empowered financially, more unreached people will come to know who Jesus is and His great love for them.

Henry pointed to Revelation 7:9, which says: “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”

Said Henry: “This is going to be a reality. God is going to use willing people to reach out to every nation, tribe, people and language. It’s a matter of whether we want to be involved.”

If you’d like to partner TYLI in their work with church planters, tap here.

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