After having two sons, Joshua Naidu’s parents really wanted a daughter. Instead, Joshua was born to them in 1967.

So, when their much desired daughter was finally born shortly after, it became too much for his parents to bring up four children. So they sent him away to live with his grandparents, and for the next six years, Joshua lived apart from his siblings.

When he was reunited with his family, he quickly found out that his father had a drinking problem and was often abusive.

Once, in a drunken stupor, his father dangled the six-year-old Joshua out of the window from their ninth storey flat in Circuit Road.

“I grew up feeling that they did not want me,” said Joshua, his voice breaking.

As a result, he often acted up and became rebellious in his teenage years.

“I remember my parents remarking to me that they should have given me away when I was young. That led me to feel even more abandoned,” said Joshua, now 58 and a father of four daughters.

Unable to deal with his rebellious streak, his parents sent him away again to his grandparents for another six years when he was 11.

The only time young Joshua recalled feeling a sense of love was when his Mathematics tutor shared the Gospel with him.

“I felt love and wanted to give my life to the Lord. But I didn’t because my father said he would kick me out of the house if I did,” said Joshua.

By the time Joshua ventured out into the working world as a young adult, he was battling depression and suicidal thoughts.

“I worked as a guest relations officer at Shangri-la hotel. But I didn’t know who I was and I really wanted to know what’s the purpose for my life,” said Joshua.

Why are you smiling all the time? 

At the hotel, he had a colleague who was always smiling.

“I asked her why she was always so happy and smiling all the time. She told me she has Jesus in her heart,” he said.

She brought him to her church and it was then, at 25 years old, that he gave his life to Jesus.

“I have been waiting for you all these years,” Joshua heard God tell him. At that moment, he suddenly had a flashback to the time when he was six and in a Christian kindergarten. The preschool teacher was singing “Yes, Jesus loves me” and Joshua felt a warm feeling of love enveloping him.

After having this encounter with God, Joshua was on fire for God. Eager to grow in his faith, he took up his pastor’s recommendation to attend the Discipleship Training School (DTS) run by Youth With A Mission (YWAM).

One of the key modules at DTS is the “Father Heart of God” segment where students are guided to perceive and experience the Father’s love for them as His children.

“That was when I encountered God healing all my feelings of being unloved and unwanted. The lack of relationship with my biological father distorted my view of our Father God. From then on, I began to discover my identity in God,” said Joshua, adding that he wept the most during that module.    

“One day, you will be teaching this course,” he heard God whisper to him during the module. But Joshua promptly dismissed it, feeling too broken to be used by God in such a manner.

Yet barely a year later, the then 29-year-old Joshua became the associate pastor at his church – Full Gospel Assembly – overseeing the children’s ministry, and then later its mission outreaches. Both are his passions – serving the children and reaching the lost.

A dying three-month-old baby in Indonesia

Over the course of many of the mission trips that he has gone on, Joshua has seen the miracle-working power of God.

“I have prayed for people and there were cases in which the deaf are healed and can hear, and the lame walk,” said Joshua.

During a mission trip to Kalimantan, Indonesia in 2002, a family wanted Joshua to pray for their three-month old baby who was dying.

Joshua agreed to, but not before asking them to remove all the paste and flour that the local witch doctors had instructed them to put on the baby.

Joshua then led them into a time of worship and prayer.

“Though the baby’s eyes were sunken in, we noticed that she began suckling on her mother’s breast during worship. It gave us hope,” said Joshua.

Her father passed the baby to Joshua and asked him to give her a new name.

“As I held her, I could feel so much of God’s love on her. I gave her a new name called Grace,” he said.

As Joshua lifted up Grace in his arms, she looked up at him and smiled, before passing away.

Joshua, who was expecting a miracle, was left shaken and broken at what had happened. That night, he could not eat or sleep.

The next day, he gave Grace’s parents a small offering for her funeral. Before moving on to the next village to continue his ministry work, Joshua prayed for them and received a word from God for them.

“The next year, the same time, I am going to visit you and I am going to dedicate a new child that God is going to give you,” Joshua told them, before leaving the village.

When he returned back to Singapore, Joshua stepped into his newly-bought flat with a heavy heart. He was still thinking of the baby who had died in his arms.

Receiving the call to go at one of the lowest moments in his life

At one of the lowest moments in his life in 2002, the biggest call of his life came.

“It’s time to go,” Joshua felt God impressing upon his heart.

Immediately, doubts and hesitations flooded his mind.

“But God, how can I go when my family is not saved yet? I also just bought this flat and have my renovation loan to pay off,” Joshua told God.

His answer came swiftly.

“Before you board the plane, your family will be saved and your debts cleared,” God assured Joshua, who was married with two young children at the time.

“But there will also be a crisis in 2003 – do not be shaken,” He added.

Joshua kept God’s words to him in his heart with a quiet expectancy.

The following year, a crisis did indeed happen. His mother was diagnosed with bone cancer, with the cancerous cells present in her hips, ribs and collarbone. The doctor suspected that the cancer had spread to her kidneys, and gave her six months to live.

In despair, his non-believer mother agreed to go with Joshua to a prayer and healing session in Malaysia.

“The Holy Spirit met with her there and she burst out in tongues. Her body began swaying back and forth and I felt wave and wave of heat coming from her as I stood behind her to support her,” said Joshua.

When they returned to Singapore for a check-up, the doctor could not find any cancer cells in her. She would go on to live another 11 years.

It was this healing miracle that brought both of his parents and his sister to faith.

His mother was so fired up by her newfound faith that she asked her son if she could tag along on his next mission trip.

Coming back full circle 

It happened that his next trip was back to Kalimantan. When Joshua and his team landed in the country, he was received by a pastor who was beside himself with excitement.

“Come quickly Joshua, we have a baby dedication celebration to get to,” the pastor said to him.

Joshua had completely forgotten about the prophetic word he had given the grieving parents that he ministered to the year before.

They were in the village waiting for Joshua to dedicate their newborn baby to the Lord. The pastor shared with him that the couple was one of the most active members in the church community.

“Back then, I didn’t understand why God did not heal their three-month old baby. But God’s plans are higher than our plans. Things have come full circle and the community of believers has been growing there,” said Joshua.

Meanwhile, God had been speaking to Joshua and his wife about their missionary calling. They were drawn to different nations and people groups, but God highlighted the Isan people in Thailand to both of them.

Joshua and his wife Margaret.

“Most missionaries to Thailand head to places like Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai. But God confirmed Isan to us by letting us meet a rare Isan missionary, and an Isan restaurant suddenly popped up near where we live in Singapore,” said Joshua.

Isan comprises of 20 provinces in northeastern Thailand and only 0.1 per cent of the people there are Christians. Within Isan, God drew Joshua’s attention specifically to the province of Ubon Ratchathani.

Joshua sharing about Isan and Ubon, the places and people he has been called to.

A year later in 2004, Joshua and his wife, with two young children in tow, packed their bags and boarded the flight that would take them to Thailand.

“God made good on His promises. By then, my family members were all saved and we had collected enough love gifts from family and friends to clear our home renovation loan,” said Joshua.

Yet every step in the years ahead continued to be a journey of faith for the Naidu family.

A journey of trusting in His timely provision

In the first few months after they arrived in Ubon, Joshua recalled having just 20 Thai baht in his wallet.

His wife told him to drive to town to get the family some food and diapers for the children, who were three and six years old at the time.  

“I didn’t have the heart to say no to my wife so I just went in a beat-up car that a pastor had loaned us. As I drove, I was worried about providing for my children but I decided to just give thanks to God,” said Joshua.

Not having Internet at his home, he pulled up at an internet café and used half of his remaining 20 baht to pay to check his email.

He noticed a two-day-old email from a friend in the United States. His friend wrote to him saying that he felt led by God to send him a love gift of USD$1,000, the equivalent of over 30,000 baht.

With hope rising in his heart, Joshua went to the nearest supermarket and tried using his ATM card, but found that the money has not come in. Then, he looked at his watch and saw that it was only 11am. Bank transfers were usually credited at 2pm.

“I walked round and round the mall till 2pm. True enough, the money came in right then. I could do my grocery shopping and save the rest for our house rent which was due,” said Joshua.

That day, he learnt to trust not only in God’s provision but in His perfect timing.

The work ahead in Ubon

His early years in Ubon was spent supporting church planting efforts.

God, however, had also given him a glimpse of the specific assignments awaiting him in the years ahead.

While he was still in Singapore in 2003, Joshua received a vision of arrows shooting out of Thailand. He felt it was about discipling the local Thais so that they would become global missionaries in time to come.

On a particular sleepless night in 2006, God laid in his heart two vulnerable groups of people: Pregnant teenage mothers and abandoned babies. Joshua later found out that Thailand had the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Asia.

Not knowing what to do about this issue then, Joshua simply obeyed God and registered a foundation, knowing God would bring to pass His plans in time.

In 2008, doors were opened to Joshua to teach the DTS Father Heart of God module at YWAM Khon Kaen, just as God had whispered to him years ago.

“God not only healed my childhood brokenness, but He used me to show others how our Father God sees and loves them,” said Joshua.   

He would later go on to start a YWAM base in Ubon itself in 2012, running DTS courses for believers.

DTS outreach in Cambodia.

Initially he rented a shophouse to run the discipleship course, but God later showed him a piece of land in the district of Samrong to buy to build a future home for YWAM Ubon.

By faith, Joshua bought a piece of three-acre land in Samrong in 2012. God gave him the vision to build five buildings and three houses for its discipleship and foundation work. It marked the start of a long journey of trusting God to provide for them as they had no major church supporting them.

In 2012, the Naidus bought this three acre land in Samrong by faith. The rainbow was a reminder of His promises.

In the first few years, they used the land to plant and harvest rice for sustenance. Then, they began filling it up with soil and letting the land settle to ensure a stable foundation for future construction.

It was only in 2000 that Joshua had amassed enough money to build one building.

“So, we got the contractor in to draw up plans for one building. But God reminded me that I was doing my own thing, because his plans were for five buildings,” said Joshua.

In obedience, he asked the contractor to redraw the plan to build five buildings. As a result, the construction costs increased by four times.

Joshua was confident he had heard God rightly on this matter and proceeded to sign the contract, despite not having the funds for it.

“What made it even more scary then was when the pandemic happened and I could not go back home to Singapore to share about this project and raise funds,” said Joshua.

Driving a stake in the ground and taking it for Jesus.

Construction began at the height of the COVID pandemic.

Nonetheless, God led people to give to the project every month without fail when he needed to pay the contractor.

While the buildings were being built, Joshua and his team continued ministering to the people as one crisis hit after another – from the pandemic to the biggest floods the area had ever seen.

Doors were opened during the pandemic for Joshua and his team to do ministry in the hospitals.

The 2023 flood in Ubon was the biggest it has seen since 1976. The flood waters reached up to two storeys high in many places.

Joshua distributing food and water to flood hit areas around Ubon.

Last year, in 2024, Joshua and his team moved into their premises in Samrong to conduct the first run of DTS there. Today, most of the buildings have been completed, including a safe house for teenage mothers and abandoned babies. Over the years, the development project had cost close to S$1 million.   

They moved into their land on June 1, 2024.

Their buildings in Samrong.

Having their first run of DTS in the new land.

Joshua later found out why God had led them to Samrong: There were only three or four Christians and not a single church in its 108 villages.

Starting an English Learning Club in Samrong.

2025 marks 21 years since Joshua and his family have stepped into the mission field. He has brought up four daughters while out in the field, with his youngest – 15-year-old Joanna – still living with him and his wife in Thailand. 

Joshua’s youngest daughter Joanna celebrating her 15th birthday.

Joshua and Margaret’s daughter Amanda, on her own DTS outreach in Papua New Guinea.

Joshua and Margaret’s daughter Esther with her nursing friends in Melbourne.

Joshua and Margaret’s daughter Carissa with her husband and one-year-old son in Singapore.

So far, Joshua has led YWAM Ubon to run 11 cohorts of DTS, on top of also establishing a Discipleship Bible School (DBS).

A graduating cohort of Discipleship Bible School.

“Looking back, God can and does turn everything around for good,” said Joshua.

“Nothing is wasted in our lives and God desires to walk with us every step of the way.”

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