Ying* (not her real name) was barely in Indochina for a month when she found herself in the lock-up, waiting to be questioned.

“The prison cell was very small with cobwebs around, not a very nice place,” she recalls.

That experience did not deter the then 29-year old from extending her stay in the country. “I was supposed to go out for a year when we arrived in November 2017, but within the first three months, I knew I was going to stay there longer term.”

To be sure, Ying had laid out a fleece. A quick phone call home sealed the deal: “My parents are not believers so when they said OK, that was a go-ahead sign to me.

“People asked, ‘You’re not scared, ah?’ Somehow, I just have the assurance that God sent me for a reason.

“I also felt that if I missed this boat, that could mean missing this generation. I believe they are the key to change in the country,” Ying says.

Rural church

This is her third year in Indochina. She stayed on when she could have chosen to return to Singapore because she saw the need (Matthew 9:35-38). 

The original plan was for her team – herself and two friends trained in communications and the arts – to spend a year establishing a rural house church. The three girls had come to the country as part of their church’s year-long missions programme for lay members.  

When they first arrived, they were unaware that beyond the capital city, different laws and rules applied, all decided by the local provincial leaders.

In the province where they were, just to live in the rural district required a separate local visa, “so our whole itinerary, which included crossing the border for visa renewal, was not going to work”.

“We were worried that we would be the missions team that went out to the field and returned with nothing.” 

Those fears were unfounded when a chance meeting turned the situation around.

They bumped into Mr T*, an American-born local. 

“He said, ‘Oh, you need to get a visa and you need to come under the school’,'” Ying recalls.

Mr T had been in the country for more than a decade, ministering to unreached people groups in the country’s interior. He also helped the private school recruit foreign teachers. 

At that time, the school only had a fledgling enrolment with fewer than 20 students and four visas had already been applied for the American missionaries. Besides, the financial backers of the school were not believers and were not keen to do more.

Survival mode

“We went into survival mode. We fasted, spent a lot of time in prayer and sought the Lord. We would check with each other to make sure we heard God correctly. Then we went ahead to execute the plans.

“We took it upon ourselves to lay the ground to convince the investors that we wanted to serve, and were not just using the school as a visa application vehicle.  So, we went to the school daily to wash the toilets and clean the compound.

“The investors were pretty impressed. They could see that we genuinely wanted to be in the school and decided to help us apply for the visas. But before we could get our visas, the authorities turned up.” 

Ying’s team was summoned to the local police station.

Just several months earlier, a group of Korean missionaries had been deported for sharing the Gospel among the locals.

Christianity was not welcomed in the provinces.

Local believers were constantly harassed; there were even accounts of people being beheaded because of their faith. Christians were struck off the official registry and were not recognised as members of the community. 

“The community saw how the students were transformed. Parents told us that their children were able to control their emotions better. They began to be receptive towards Christians,” says Ying. On the weekends, there is a Saturday outreach to the children who live in the slums and in the streets.

“It’s like not having your pink IC in Singapore,” Ying explains.

There were also continual reports of authorities forcing believers to sign papers to renounce their faith.

The interrogation for Ying was nerve-wracking to say the least. “I wasn’t sure what I should or should not say, but I thought I would just tell the truth and prayed for wisdom.

“I found out that we had been watched. The police knew every place we had visited since we entered the country weeks before.

“So, I had to be very wise with my answers, and then somehow it just wrapped up quite nicely,” Ying recalls.

Facing the giants

Once settled at the school, Ying’s team moved ahead full throttle, designing the curriculum and preparing the materials. “God downloaded to us creative ways to teach the Word,” she says.

“For listening comprehension, we would play games like ‘David and Goliath’ and have a quiz with proper MCQ (multiple-choice questions). For the older youths, they would watch movies like Facing the Giants and write a reflection piece and a film review.”

One student, when asked what was the most memorable point about the movie, wrote: “With God all thing is possible.”

“It brought them one step closer to the Gospel. No way was this possible before,” Ying said. 

In one year, student numbers quadrupled from 17 to 69 as parents found their children better behaved after attending the school.

Biblical principles are woven in to the class curriculum with hands-on and fun lessons. Beyond learning the English language, the teachers also regularly engage students with song, dance and drama skits.

“The reputation of the school grew and we received favour from the community. Mr T, who has been in the country for 12 years, says he can see the chains broken down. People were no longer scared to be associated with Christians anymore.  

“While we couldn’t be in the frontline sharing the Gospel, we played a back-end role. Teaching English in school became our main ministry with a Saturday outreach to the children in the slums.

“I think because we delivered our dues in the marketplace, they opened up to us.

“Now when I visit the homes, some even say, ‘You are a Christian, right? Can you pray?’

“Before, they would not ask for prayers, especially when they know you are of another religion. That is a big breakthrough.

“At the start, everything was pretty crazy. Looking back, I know the church sent us in a Kairos time,” Ying reflects as she remembers the verse from Zechariah 4:10.

“I can see God’s timing and hand in my life – the different training, job stints and experiences in both ministry and the secular sphere served to prepare me for a season like this.”

“This can’t be real!”

The change also came from within.

Ying, who is now a self-supporting missionary, explains: “Before, when people say ‘just go for it!’, I wouldn’t, because I am also a very practical person. All my friends know I plan my finances carefully.

“When I went to the field, I don’t know what happened … I went crazy!

“One day, I found out that my bank account balance just had three digits, and I thought, ‘This can’t be real.’

“That same night, Mr T discussed plans to send a local mission worker’s child to our school. It is the law that students need to pay fees. I thought, if I sponsored the child, my account balance will drop even lower to two-digits, I have never seen my savings account that low. 

“You know, you can battle so much in the mind until you take the action of accountability. So, I quickly called for the child to be sent to school, just in case I changed my mind.”

“Three weeks after that, I thought I’d just check on my bank balance to see if I have enough for my monthly expenses.

“My bank balance had increased to four digits. I thought, ‘How can this be true?’

“There were deposits of $50 here and another $20 there.

“I found out that one of my ex-colleagues whom I barely knew, had shared on social media that I was in Indochina, and people whom I didn’t even know gave.”

“I use to think, ‘What? Live by faith? That cannot be!’

“When you really experience it, it is like, ‘Wow!’  Just don’t defy the voice.

“When God calls, He really provides. Now, I really, really believe that!”

In the last three years, the local school has taken on a new name and has an enrolment of 80. “The students keep coming because they are experiencing God’s love, it’s in the atmosphere,” Ying muses.

She still meets up with her first group of students, some of whom have received overseas university scholarships to China and Russia.

Ying continues to share the Word with them and prays that they will rise up and commit to the faith.

“I am quite a numbers person, a KPI (key performance indicator) kind of person,” she confesses and adds, “At the end of the day, you can do a lot of good work but what about salvation? There’s the ultimate struggle that I have. You can change their habits, teach them how to take over the work, but if you don’t have God, it’s as good as nothing.

“But God really lay upon my heart that these youths will be the first generation of Christians. I am praying for them to rise up and have the breakthrough. 

“I know God has called me for this season.” 

*Names have been withheld for security reasons.

“There is no safe place in Afghanistan.” She went anyway

I was a failure but a family gave me a home; today I’m the National Director of YWAM Singapore

Would you let your daughter go to Congo and Rwanda? “It’s our honour,” say this missionary’s parents