They met as strangers at the wedding of a mutual friend’s son. By the time the dinner ended close to midnight, Guan Yeow Kwang and Jason Wong were poised to become Kingdom partners.

“We ran out of subjects to talk about and started to talk about seniors,” said Yeow Kwang. The topic was a natural choice given that both men were in their 60s.

That conversation proved significant. A year later in November 2025, the pair co-founded the Caleb Generation, a movement under One for Jesus that seeks to mobilise and develop the silver generation in Singapore churches.

Jason Wong (right) and Guan Yeow Kwang (second, right) with the Caleb Generation core team at the planning meeting for the inaugural Senior Ministry Leader’s Forum that took place in April. All photos courtesy of the Caleb Generation unless otherwise stated.

This is mapped out in two ways: The first is to help seniors live fruitful lives by stewarding the time, talent, treasure, ties and testimonies God has blessed them with to better serve Kingdom purposes.

The second is to build an ecosystem to connect stakeholders across churches, Christian institutions and social service agencies, so as to deploy Christian seniors strategically and fruitfully as a blessing to Singapore.

Jason, who has initiated several national movements including the Yellow Ribbon Project, Dads for Life and One for Jesus, said: “The Caleb Generation aims to see seniors rise up in God’s purposes in this nation.

“We want to see every senior know and live out their purpose in God – to be fit, faithful, fruitful, flourishing and finish well.”

Take the tougher mountain

The movement’s name is inspired by Caleb, one of the 12 spies sent by Moses to scout out the Promised Land in Numbers 13.

At 85, instead of retreating into the sunset to enjoy the last years of his life in quiet, Caleb asked Joshua for a mountain occupied by the Anakites and their fortified cities (Joshua 14:12). The Anakites were renowned for their size and strength, and were among the most feared warriors of the land.

Caleb’s request for such an formidable challenge even in his eighties is a powerful example of wholehearted commitment to God’s purposes till the very end, said Jason.

Jason (seated) with his grandchild and Yeow Kwang (standing in white shirt) at the vision-sharing session to chart the way forward and prepare for the launch of the Caleb Generation.

This desire to mobilise seniors in church and challenge them to “take the mountains” is, at its heart, part of Jason’s lifelong passion to reach the next generation.

At the Senior Ministry Leader’s Forum in April, the inaugural event by the Caleb Generation, Jason reflected: “I became a grandfather five months ago. As I was carrying my grandson, I understood why Caleb asked for the toughest mountain.

“He did it because he knew that if he didn’t take down the mountain, he would be passing it on to the next generation.”

More life to live for God

At the time Yeow Kwang had that long talk with Jason, he was just about to retire from decades in banking and was seeking God for what was next.

He had already served on the board of his church – Foochow Methodist Church – for close to a decade. He had also been the Vice-President of the Chinese Annual Conference within the Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS) for a maximum of three terms. Currently, he is the Secretary of the Trustees (SOT) of MCS.

Since Yeow Kwang was 40, he had believed that he should “never take life for granted and to always steward whatever time God has given to each of us as diligently as possible”. That belief had stuck with him after his father passed away unexpectedly.

One morning, when his father was 68, the older man awoke and complained of indigestion. Days of over-the-counter medication brought no relief. When he finally went to see the doctor, he was diagnosed with liver cancer.

“From the diagnosis to the time he was called home to the Lord was six weeks. That reminded me of how life can be very fragile,” said Yeow Kwang.

When he met Jason, he was nearing 70 and still believed he had more life to live, especially since the life expectancy of Singapore residents has been increasing over the years.

“If we live longer, how prepared are we socially and spiritually? Can we live purposefully and fruitfully for as long as our natural lives on earth extend?” he asked.

In Jason, Yeow Kwang found a kindred spirit who shared the same concern.

“We have brought the secular view of retiring into the church. In the secular world, after you retire, you rest and relax,” said Jason. “But there is no retiring in the Kingdom of God. When I hear that people are retiring in secular work, I should get excited. We can gather them to do God’s work.”

Yeow Kwang agreed: “You keep moving as long as God gives you strength and breath. This mindset is something we hope to promote among our seniors.”

The expanding work

The work of the Caleb Generation boils down to three ‘M’s:

• mobilising seniors,
• motivating them to play a bigger role in in the Kingdom, and
• matching their talents to areas of need.

The plan to match resources to needs had its genesis much earlier. Two year ago, a Pastor asked Jason if he knew someone who could preach the Gospel in Cantonese to his brother who had been hospitalised.

However, the one person whom Jason had in mind could not make it. In the end, Jason went and shared the Gospel in his broken Cantonese. Even though the man accepted Christ by God’s grace, the incident got Jason thinking.

“We need to come together to create a directory so people know the resources available,” said Jason.

The work of Caleb Generation.

In the pipeline now is an online directory where churches can input resources they have or search for resources they need in their outreach to the elderly. This includes people who can share the Gospel in dialect, activities in which seniors can participate, senior groups that can be part of outreach events, dialect services, and organisations and social service agencies with expertise.

The same directory will also allow people, especially seniors, to volunteer in senior ministries and outreach – evangelism and missions – where the needs are greatest. 

Explaining the rationale for the directory, Jason said: “About 12% of Protestant believers are seniors. How can we meet their needs better? But we don’t want to stop there or else it will be inward-looking.

“There are also many seniors ready to serve. How can we bring them together, connect them so they can learn from each other and draw resources from each other, or match them with the places that they can serve in?”

Such a unity is part of the One for Jesus ethos, where it is not only about reaching that one person for Christ, but also coming together as one to do so.

Said Jason: “Everyone has a small stone to create a ripple where they are. If we gather all the stones, it will create a huge ripple.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Senior Ministry Leader’s Forum (August 26, 2026)
• Caleb Conference (November 9, 2026)
• National Christian Senior’s Festival (November 9, 2026)

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