Christine Teng was five years old when she had a life-changing encounter. 

Told by a Sunday School teacher to line up in her church’s sanctuary, young Christine had the impression that this was a queue for food.

But as her eyes wandered across the stained glass art lining the hall, one image caught her gaze. The faint but glimmering depiction of Mary holding baby Jesus left her in awe. 

Turning away, she saw a man in a white robe standing along the red-carpeted aisle leading to the stage. No one else seemed to notice Him. 

Then she heard an audible and gentle voice: “Christine, go and get baptised.”

Oddly enough, it was also as if someone had “downloaded” the concept of baptism into her mind there and then. 

Even the Pastor who was baptising her by sprinkling was shocked. Christine recalled that he asked her at least twice whether she knew what baptism was about. She replied confidently that she was giving her life to Jesus. 

Before her baptism encounter, Christine had only known church to be a place where she enjoyed eating and playing with other children.

It was only later that Christine realised it was her mother who had signed her for baptism. However, in her childlike innocence, she did not know any better. 

“As a five-year-old, I thought I was queuing up for food,” she said with a laugh. “But in that moment, the Lord gave me an understanding of what baptism meant. It became my first personal encounter with Him.” 

Knowing the One behind the voice 

Born in Penang, Malaysia, Christine’s early years were marked by traditional rituals from another religion until an evangelist from Singapore visited her village. Her mother was among those who responded to the Gospel. 

“My mum had survived two near-death car accidents, and for a long time, she didn’t know what or who had saved her,” Christine said. “But after hearing the Gospel from the evangelist, she knew it was Jesus.” 

Before the age of five, Christine and her family moved to Singapore and planted themselves in the Chinese church where the evangelist was from. That was where she first encountered Jesus. 

Young Christine with her mother.

Though her mother eventually stopped attending church due to the demands of housekeeping, Christine and her younger brothers continued going for Sunday School.

By the time she was in primary school, she was attending a different church – one that offered a shuttle bus service.

During this time, she not only grew in knowledge due to the Bible quizzes and Scripture memory, but also in faith. 

On many occasions, Christine would hear this inner voice, which she now recognises as the Holy Spirit. At times, it would also guide her to make decisions that could not have come from her natural self. 

“When God speaks to me, there’ll be this fire that suddenly comes up inside of me. Every time I experienced this, I would know that God is real.”

The warmth that stirred in her heart was unmistakable.

Even at a tender age, God was drawing her into a deeply personal relationship, one that would anchor her through the heavy storms of life that were ahead. 

The heaviness of home

At 13, Christine joined the youth ministry of a different church. In that year, she also began praying to God and asking for wisdom. 

“That was when my eyes were opened to see the reality of what was going on at home. I had been living in that same environment for so long, and I didn’t know it was wrong.”

Growing up, family life was strained. Her parents quarrelled frequently over finances and putting food on the table. She also witnessed domestic violence.

“There were times when I didn’t even have a house to live in because I had to pack my things and stay at a distant friend’s house with my mum. Sometimes I would also find myself living in a warehouse,” Christine revealed.

“In a way, there was no home. Even home didn’t feel like home to us.”

The situation persisted for years, finally leaving her family fractured when she was 16.

All this while, Christine was still showing up to serve in her church’s Alpha Youth runs using her gift of hospitality. Welcoming people came naturally to her, and she was asked to befriend guests and plan games, among other tasks. 

Christine at an outing with her youth ministry.

However, everything unravelled on Christmas Day in 2018.

Fearing for her mother’s safety, Christine had urged her to go back to Penang. Her father also disappeared for two months, leaving behind only a small allowance. 

Even though he eventually returned, things escalated to the point that Christine felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to reach out to a family service centre for help. 

After a search on Google, Christine decided to contact the second listing on the results page. She soon realised how divine this was – it turned out that this centre already had a social worker who had been assigned to her family for over a decade. 

That quickly led her to a meeting with the social worker and child protection officer who assessed that it was no longer safe for her to live at home anymore.

“Just like that, I got transferred to live in a boarding school for the next three years. I didn’t even take anything with me. Only my house keys, earpiece and my phone – that’s it.”

Christine (third from left) with her Bible study group in the boarding school.

Having to borrow everything else from clothes to soap and shampoo, Christine also saw how God provided for her every need. 

She did not have to pay for her lodging because there was already a fund that had been set up for students in Singapore who did not have a conducive environment to live in. 

Most of her polytechnic school fees and daily expenses were also covered by bursaries and scholarships. However, she still chose to work part-time during her holidays. 

There, she juggled studies, financial responsibility and the emotional weight of everything she had been through – all while battling grief, depression and suicidal thoughts. 

“When I moved in (to the boarding school) initially, I felt very relieved because it was a new environment that was so peaceful. I had never felt like this in my life,” shared Christine.

“But then afterwards, it slowly turned into thoughts of abandonment, grief and loss. I lost my family and I lost myself.”

While her peers had spent their adolescent years discovering more about themselves and their interests, Christine never had this opportunity. 

Always standing by to handle a volatile situation at home, she constantly felt like she was in a fight or flight mode. 

“I didn’t even know who I was or what I liked. A lot of these things were a big question mark to me. I even forgot who I was.”

Diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, Christine’s mind was often filled with a lot of noise and chaos, and she would find herself crying because of what she had experienced. 

Crying out to God

On one particularly bad day in 2020, she remembers standing at the railings of the boarding school, looking down. 

“What if I just ended it all?” came the thought. 

It was almost as if her life had chipped away, piece by piece, until she felt completely alone. 

“I felt like my heart had just broken into a million pieces – unrepairable and irredeemable,” she said, comparing herself to a broken vase.

“Everything had changed so suddenly, and I had no more hope to cling to.” 

But in that moment, she heard that familiar, gentle Voice again, nudging her on the inside. 

“Christine, why not give your life to Me instead, and see what I can do with it?” 

Likening it to a ray of light that suddenly pierced through the darkness, Christine observed that when the Voice broke through, it was almost like the whole room became quiet and peaceful again. 

In the depths of her grief, she cried out to God: “I’ve lost my mental health, emotional health, physical health and financial health. I don’t have anything left – but if You want my life, take it. I feel like an orphan or widow.” 

In that moment of surrender, she chose to trust God despite what remained of her faith. After giving her life to God, what flooded her heart in that moment was just peace. 

Christine (first from right) with fellow students and the chaplain of her boarding school.

After this incident, Christine felt led to read book of Job, and found herself resonating with how he had also lost everything. Tentatively, she made a second prayer.

Her parents were divorced, but she asked God to give her a home where the rest of her family could live under the same roof. 

“I will go out into the world to do whatever You tell me to do,” she promised. 

Two months later, as she walked past a church and heard the bells ringing, she added a quieter, almost sheepish request: “God, if it’s in Your will, it would be nice if You gave me a house on my birthday.” 

“Honestly, I didn’t even believe He would answer,” she admitted. “There are so many bigger needs in the world. Why would He care about someone as small as me?” 

Taking the step to apply for a rental flat, her first attempt was rejected. However, she sensed the Holy Spirit prompting her to file an appeal through her Member of Parliament.

Her case was raised to the Housing & Development Board (HDB) – and this time, it was approved. 

When she received the confirmation letter, one line stood out: The appointment date to collect her house keys was on June 21, 2021 – her 19th birthday. 

Against all odds, Christine’s house keys collection date fell exactly on her birthday.

“That was when I remembered what I had prayed,” she said. “I had thought He dismissed my cries and abandoned me. But no — He heard every one of my prayers.”

She received the letter from HDB just a week and a half before the date. The surprise of it undid her.

“When I saw that letter, I teared so much,” she said. “For the first time in my life, I felt heard – not by family or friends, but by God Himself.”

Discovering a life of purpose

In the two years that followed, God brought Christine into a deep season of inner healing. 

“I spent a lot of time reading the Bible and going on walks with God,” she said. “I would talk to Him like a child talks to a father, and His replies were always loving, kind and gentle.” 

It was also during this season that she sensed a calling into the financial industry – a direction that made little sense on paper. She graduated with a diploma in gerontology, the study of ageing. Finance was an entirely different world. 

“I was honestly dumbfounded,” she remarked. “I even questioned whether I had heard wrongly and prayed for multiple confirmations, and He gave me every one I asked for.”

Christine with her friends from the polytechnic where she studied gerontology. Though she had no relevant background, God opened the door to a new industry.

One of these happened at a shopping mall in Orchard when God prompted her to look around. Surrounded by luxury brands, Christine felt the Lord speak to her about how there were people in countries who did not even have their basic necessities met.

This was swiftly followed by a thought on how education was the key to breaking the poverty cycle and then a single word: Africa. 

“I was like ‘Huh?'” said Christine in disbelief. Archiving that conversation, she prayed but did not think too much about it. “Africa is a very big continent. Give me a specific country,” she told God.

That answer came unexpectedly through a sermon podcast that briefly mentioned about fundraising for Somalia. Not knowing where that country was, Christine searched it up and found that it was in Africa.

“God, if this is really You, send a missionary who is going to Somalia to come and find me.”

Nine months later, Christine was attending a discipleship course in church (pictured) when God used one of her course mates to connect her to a missionary to Somalia.

“It was a divine appointment. God had to re-arrange my schedule such that I would be able to meet this person that specific day. My mind was blown.”

Sensing that God was asking her to set aside a portion of her salary to eventually start an education-related initiative in Somalia, Christine was also surprised by how God had opened the door to a new industry she had no background in. 

While waiting for graduation, she had applied for a part-time job as a personal assistant but was given the option to be a full-time financial consultant instead. 

Christine also passed all her finance exams on her first attempt, receiving the notice of her official licence on July, 7 2023 – a date that carried its own significance. 

“The number seven in the Bible represents completion,” she said. “So 7/7 felt like God saying, ‘You made it.’

“Looking back, God didn’t need my qualifications or my intelligence. All this while, He just wanted my heart.” 

The doors that God opened

Today, Christine works in the financial sector, providing for her family and saving up for mission work in Somalia.

But for her, the workplace has never just been about a career. It is where she believes God has placed her to be salt and light. 

The pleasant surprise that Christine received in her inbox on July 7.

That conviction was deepened during a particularly turbulent season, when she felt the Lord prompting her to move out and live independently at the age of 21. Home was a two-room flat with one bedroom, and Christine wanted her family to have more space, among other reasons.

Navigating the stress of finding a new place, Christine found herself unable to function at work. That was when her manager, Sandra, pulled her aside – not to reprimand her, but to counsel her and pray with her. 

“She did it because she loves God and she loves people. She was the one who showed me what it really means to minister in the workplace,” said Christine. 

Christine and her teammates. Her manager, Sandra (second from left), has been a great support to her.

Within 24 hours of that prayer, Christine paid the deposit on a new room and received the keys.

When the agent asked what date she planned to move in, she checked her calendar. The only date she was free fell on June 21 – her birthday, again.

But the amazement did not stop there. The room that God had provided was in a condominium — a far cry from anything Christine had ever known. She had almost dismissed it entirely.

“When I was viewing the property, I felt a peace I couldn’t comprehend,” she said. “I had never felt anything like it before. It felt too good to be true. I had forgotten that God is good.”

A day before her move, she also realised that eight specific prayer requests she had brought before God — things she had considered too small to ask for, such as a nearby park, a swing and an affordable coffeeshop — had all been answered in that single property.

“It was an added assurance that God was with me,” she said.

Making a foray into a new industry has also been daunting, but Christine is grateful for the Christian community that she found. 

It was during a particularly stressful period when attending Alpha in the Workplace brought a lot of encouragement too. 

“I was the youngest in the room,” said Christine. “Most of them were in their 50s or 60s.” Drawing from her background in gerontology, she found an unexpected connection with those older than her.

Once, she remembers how God used a video testimony to remind her of Psalm 23, assuring her of His rest and refreshment. It was the same Word that God had also been showing her during her Quiet Time that week. 

“Alpha isn’t just for people exploring faith. It’s also a space where believers can encounter God again. He can use anything — and anyone — to speak to us.”

Christine with other like-minded Christians at the N5 Conference 2024, a kingdom-focused conference for those in the finance industry.

Now a facilitator for Alpha in the Workplace, Christine journeys with other financial consultants who are seeking purpose in their life. She will also be one of the speakers at the Alpha Workplace Conference 2026 held on July 4.

Looking back, the 24-year-old sees how God has sustained her through the years — not from a distance, but through an intimate, personal presence that began the day a five-year-old girl heard a voice in a church sanctuary and decided to follow it.

“He was even closer in the valley than I thought He was. It’s also in the valley that we get to experience the closeness to God. His presence is all that we need.

“Sometimes in life we get confused in our priorities, thinking ‘If I only had enough money’ or ‘if I only had enough followers’. But what we should be thinking is this truth, ‘If I only had Christ, how much more abundant would my life be?’”

During her discipleship course, Christine was given the chance to engage in some craft work. She chose a “C” mould for her name and a cross to convey the message of “Christ in me”.

Viewing herself as a broken bowl mended with kintsugi – the Japanese art of reconstructing broken vessels using lacquer and gold – Christine said: “I thought I was so irreparable, but God was still able to repair me and rearrange the pieces such that I became even more beautiful than I was before.

“The Lord also revealed to me that the gold in kintsugi is actually the anointing in our Christian life. It changed my life, and He will use that same anointing in me to touch the life of others.”

– Additional reporting by Gracia Chiang

READ MORE:

How to have “clean hands and a pure heart” in the business of financial planning? Ps Benny Ho teaches from Psalm 24

7 ways you can bring God into the workplace

Demolishing the secular-sacred divide: 4 ways to integrate faith and work