Coming home has never been so challenging for Singaporean Michael Ong.  

In answer to God’s call, the former social work university lecturer had uprooted his young family from Singapore in 2001 to live in Vietnam for some 14 years, seeking to play a part in tackling the varied social problems plaguing the Vietnamese through academia and counselling work. 

In the past, the Ong family had always made it a point to return to Singapore twice a year to spend extended time with family. Home was, after all, only a two-hour flight away.  

Michael (in blue) and Jacqueline (in plaid shorts) sharing a meal with their neighbours outside their house in Hung Yen, Vietnam.

The global Covid-19 pandemic, however, changed everything for them.  

The Ongs have not seen their ageing parents in Singapore, and their daughter, Grace, who is studying in the United States, for almost two years, given the lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed all around the world.  

Grief and missed opportunities 

The last time they were back in Singapore for Chinese New Year last year, Michael’s father, who has dementia and Parkinson’s disease, could at least recognise his son.  

But when Michael video-called the 88-year-old some months ago, the old man could no longer recognise his son.  

His anxious mother hinted for him to come home as soon as he could, lamenting that his father might be holding on to life because he was waiting for his son to come home.  

Michael and Jacqueline in the kitchen of their house in Hung Yen, Vietnam, where they have lived for some 14 years.

“Coming home we are!” Jacqueline, his wife, declared to her husband. With both her parents no longer around – she’d lost her mother to cancer five years ago – she knew a thing or two about the preciousness of being in together with one’s parents.  

Her heart was also grieving over other losses. Being separated from their daughter for two years meant she missed out on Grace’s 21st and 22nd birthdays, as well as her recent university graduation in May.  

Michael and Jacqueline’s daughter, Grace, graduated from Calvin University in Michigan, United States, in May, but they could not be present due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

“Grief is about processing the losses of what could have been, the missed opportunities in life. During this time, we hear of many people dying with their loved ones not being able to go back to see them, and of people having to witness significant events like weddings over Zoom,” said Michael.  

“So we decided we must come home to be around my ageing parents, and to try to help out at home,” he added.  

Little did he know that their homecoming would prove to be one onerous journey.  

Both of them were then comfortably settled in their respective jobs and ministry. 

For the last two to three years, Michael has been running a retreat house – with counselling services – for the weary to find rest in Hung Yen, a province in Vietnam. Prior to that, he had also pioneered a café-style of social outreach by providing counselling and other mental wellness workshops to those who dropped by for a cuppa.  

Jacqueline, also 51, taught art and Mandarin at an international school.  

He is faithful

Yet, compared to the urgency of heading home, those engagements did not matter as much now.

Over the last few years, Michael’s dad’s health had deteriorated to the extent that he had almost died several times.  

So, Jacqueline left her job when her school’s summer holidays came around. The situation for Michael was more complicated.  

What would they do with their rented house that was currently their home-cum-retreat centre? If they kept it, they would have had to keep paying rent. If they terminated their lease, where would they store their belongings? The cost of storing the items, and the transport costs to deliver them, would have added up. 

The bigger headache was visa issues as theirs had expired in May. Due to Covid-19 and other reasons, their application to extend their visas faced many bureaucratic hurdles. They had submitted their applications in March but, even by early June, they had yet to receive any reply from the immigration department.  

Their colleague who helped with the processing of their visas was told that it may take another month or so. Or, another two. Who knew? However, they had already booked their air tickets to return to Singapore on June 27.  

“We were worried about whether we would be held back and questioned at the airport customs if we had expired visas. We wanted to leave the country legally but we had no control over the timeline of when our visas would be approved,” said Michael.  

Apart from visa and housing issues, the couple found themselves having to grapple with changing rules and regulations surrounding the rapidly evolving Covid-19 situation in Singapore.

Just as they decided to return to Singapore, the Government increased the 14-day Stay-Home Notice to 21 days at a government-designated facility. That meant more expenses for them to bear and they would have had to dig into their savings.  

In addition, travellers to Singapore were required to do a Covid test within 72 hours of their scheduled flight. Only with a negative test result would one be allowed to board the plane. What if they had a positive Covid test result days before their departure? That meant they not only would have had to give their flight a miss, but they would have run the risk of overstaying in Vietnam. It was also a chicken and egg situation: If their visas were not approved, they would not have their passports back and they needed their passports to take the Covid test.  

“Coming home has never been so daunting,” said Michael, who found himself so stressed over their predicament that he had trouble sleeping.  

Michael knew the God who had called him to Vietnam to serve the people there would be the same God who would pave the way to bring him back home to reunite with his parents despite the fluctuating circumstances. 

He recalled how God had rescued him out of the pits of depression in 2011 when he had witnessed crises happening to his staff at work and when he’d had a difficult time with the university at which he was volunteering. 

So, he brought all his worries to God in prayer.  

“It’s about going back to the rudimentary truths of our faith. I not only tried to be brutally honest with Him, but also aimed to trust in His character ruthlessly,” said Michael.  

“He is faithful and He heard our prayers and many others who prayed for us. One by one, all the issues were resolved,” said Michael, still in wonder.  

A good friend of theirs and her family decided to stay at their rented house in Vietnam, eliminating the need for them to move their belongings and helping them defray part of the rental costs.

Friends who heard about their situation chipped in to support them financially.

A few days before their flight, they received the good news that the quarantine period in Singapore has been reduced to 14 days, thus reducing costs.  

The visa issue was also miraculously addressed in the nick of time. They happily paid the fine for “overstaying” and renewed their visas so they could leave Vietnam legally.

Michael joining the queue to check in to his Singapore Airlines flight at the airport in Vietnam.

It was a Thursday when they finally collected their passports. They did their Covid tests the first thing on Friday morning and collected the results on the same day at 4.30pm.  

As he left the hospital and waited on the street for a taxi to take him home, Michael texted his wife that they now had their requisite negative test results. As he typed: Can go home now, a flood of emotions overwhelmed him and he teared.  

“Going home has never been so difficult. For the first time in 20 years of living aboard, I realised that I truly miss home,” said Michael.  

Touching down 

It was the first time they had a few rows of empty seats to themselves on the almost empty plane ride home.  

Some 50 passengers were on board the big plane, but only seven disembarked in Singapore. The rest were in transit. 

Jacqueline and Michael on an almost empty flight from Vietnam to Singapore.

Once they alighted from the plane, their path was clearly demarcated for them. They could only use one lane that led them to a chamber to do their swab test.  

Changi airport was deserted. Perpetually everything was wrapped in white plastic, with barely any sign of life.  

The couple were greeted by an empty Changi Airport upon arrival.

The couple proceeded from one designated station to another. Each time they passed some test or checkpoint, a sticker was pasted on their chest. Soon, they found their top plastered with stickers of many colours.  

Upon boarding the bus that was to take them to their designated hotel for quarantine, they found the seats still wet with disinfectant liquid.

“We were glad to be home. The difficulty of coming home had made returning even sweeter,” said Michael.  

In the past, home to him was wherever his wife and daughter were – whether it was serving the people in Vietnam or furthering their studies in the United States. (Michael had also studied for his Masters in the US). 

Now, he has different ideas of what home means to him.  

“Home is where you know you have the right to be,” Michael said contemplatively.  

When Jacqueline had booked their flight tickets some weeks back, she had remarked to her husband that it was the first time she noticed the airline including a clause in the document. It read: You are permitted to enter Singapore.  

“Simply through our citizenship and passport, we could come home. It was a good feeling to be welcomed instead of feeling rejected,” said Michael.  

It reminded him of him having a place in heaven, simply because Jesus has paid the ultimate price on the Cross to prepare a place for His children.  

“Jesus is our passport and God is waiting to welcome us home. We have a right to enter His kingdom and come home as His children because of His blood on the Cross.

“You are His beloved and there is no need to take a Covid test to earn it,” he said with a smile.  

Answer to a quiet prayer

As the bus wound down the road, it stopped at Swissotel The Stamford.  

Buses taking their passengers to Swissotel The Stamford for quarantine.

Jacqueline looked up and squealed in delight, as she had been asking God if He would bless them with a hotel that comes with balconies so that they would feel less cooped up. 

“I am learning that our God loves to delight our hearts as His children,” said Jacqueline, who later found out that they were allocated a room 32 floors up, with a magnificent view of the Marina Bay area.  

Little did she know at the time that the view resembled a painting her husband had just completed before they returned. It was the only painting he had wanted to do of Singapore as it reminded him of the time he and his siblings last took a walk there.   

Michael had painted this view of Singapore in Vietnam.

“The morning we flew home, I posted the picture and titled it: Coming Home on Facebook. I’d whispered a prayer, ‘May I have this view for our quarantine?’” said Michael.  

That was exactly the view that greeted them when they opened the doors of their room at 9pm that Sunday night. The night lights beneath them dazzled like the stars in the sky.  

The Ongs were pleasantly surprised with the enchanting night view of the cityscape from their SHN hotel room.

It seemed like a perfect homecoming.  

Apart from having a breathtaking view of the city waterfront, they also had ringside seats to enjoy watching the planes and helicopters that flew past as part of the National Day Parade rehearsals. There was also a segment of fireworks.  

Jacqueline enjoying her balcony views from the 32nd floor, a quiet prayer request that God had answered.

Family and friends pampered them by sending them deliveries of local food they had missed while living in Vietnam.  

With the Marina Bay view perpetually before him, Michael made two more watercolour paintings of the area that resembled his original.  

Michael taking in the view before him to create two more watercolour paintings.

“I had worked on the original for the past one year. Being able to paint a similar scene in a room God had provided for us showed us that He is always watching over us, even when we think no-one knows or cares about what we are going through,” he said.  

Their quarantine was no holiday, however.

On the fifth day of their quarantine, Michael’s mum called. She was panicking.  

“Your father cannot breathe and an emergency ambulance is taking him to hospital. Can you ask if they can let you out for a while to see your father?” she asked her son.  

She was relieved that he was back in Singapore but wondered if her husband would die before seeing his son. So close yet so far.  

Michael held his breath that day, preparing for the worst.  

His father was found to have pneumonia. But he did not succumb to it.  

Once Michael completed his quarantine, he headed straight to the hospital. Only one visitor was allowed at a time.  

“Dad, do you recognise me?” Michael asked his father.  

There was no answer.  

“He was in his own world. Even a total stranger would have at least said hello to me,” said Michael, who  wondered if his dad had disowned or abandoned him.  

Michael visited his father in hospital directly after his SHN.

Though he knew it was because of dementia and Parkinson’s, Michael was still overwhelmed with emotion.  

He went forward to hold his father’s hand, and pressed his ear to his father’s mouth.  

His father mumbled something that he could not make out.  

How he wished he could take off his mask, Michael thought. Perhaps that may have helped his father remember him. It was a strange feeling, not to be acknowledged as a son.  

A longing for our heavenly Home

His father, who is now unable to walk, was discharged from hospital last Monday.

Michael and Jacqueline are learning to care for him, hoping to relieve their 83-year-old mum’s load by helping her out in his care especially at night and on weekends.    

Michael back home with his father and mother in their flat in Bedok.

“We may be more of a hindrance than actual help, but I think spending intentional time with them makes a difference. It may be just sitting with them as they watch TV, or helping them clean the house,” said Michael.  

Michael helping to clean up the kitchen of his parents’ home in Bedok. He and Jacqueline are staying with them while they are in Singapore.

Both of them plan to be in Singapore for the next four to six months. Should the global Covid-19 situation stabilise, they hope to head to the United States to finally reunite with their daughter. 

“We miss her so much and may miss another of her birthdays,” said Jacqueline, tearing.  

“It’s a longing like how our soul yearns to return home,” said Michael. “Imagine what it would be like to return to our heavenly Home!”  

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. (2 Corinthians 5:2) 

This is the first story in our National Day series leading up to August 9. Read the other stories below.

A National Day Prayer for Singapore

This pastor is “brother” to thousands of migrant workers