It started with one carved wooden owl from Indonesia that kept him company as he worked late into the night and early hours of the morning. Then a couple who came to him for pre-marital counselling bought him another owl figurine while on their honeymoon in Australia because the one on his desk looked lonely. Before he knew it, “the two became 10, and the 10 became 100” as church members and friends would come up to him and slip them into his pocket. He now has more than 500 owl figurines. 

Retired pastor Ps David Wong’s home is a museum of sentimental objects from various phases of his family’s life. Like a clay jar that had been smashed during a road accident in India. These mementos are lovingly labelled with captions of their origins. 

Friends know him as “a chronicler and archiver” with a habit of keeping papers, notes and old photos. Even when he is approaching age 72, and trying to declutter his home.

Written at age 14. Coming across a letter (above) he had filed between his important documents, Ps David realised he never knew the identity of the anonymous marker of the Bible correspondence course who had encouraged him and marked his papers.

He also has a habit of reuniting with people from his past, where his records and keepsakes often come in handy. 

Last year, he discovered the identity of – and met – his first Christian encourager 57 years after they first corresponded.

This was after he came across a letter he had written at age 14, while going through a briefcase of important documents with one of his two daughters. 

In between his baptism certificate, marriage certificate, and Masters degrees, was the letter, in his handwriting, sent to the address on a booklet from the Bible correspondence course. He wrote that he had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. The date on it was August 8, 1963.

A reply scrawled across the letter read: “Very good. The course will help you grow.” The encourager did not leave his name.

Through a series of God-led contacts, Ps David met Robert Tan, 92. He was the director of the Emmaus Bible Correspondence Course. He would have marked David’s papers and written that note of encouragement. Their reunion  was an affirmation and assurance that Elder Robert’s work over many years had eternal significance. 

A teenage David signed up for a Bible correspondence course as he was hungry for more Bible stories a school teacher had introduced him to. It would be 57 years later, when at age 71, he would meet the man who marked his papers on that course: Robert Tan (right), age 92.

It would only be two years later when young David would meet his first Christian friend – a schoolmate – who would invite him to church. 

(This story continues from Part 1 with more God-led reconnections and seeds that were planted and sprouted in the life of the schoolboy who would ditch medicine for ministry.)

The storyteller

At age 13, young David’s interest in reading English was piqued when a teacher, Mrs Tay, read his Primary Six class abridged versions of classics like The Count of Monte Cristo and The Black Tulip. 

The one that grabbed his attention was the story of a young boy who was sold away as a slave and eventually forgave his brothers who had done this. 

Mrs Tay told the enthralled schoolboy that the story of Joseph – who eventually became the Prince of Egypt – had come from the Holy Bible. Hungry for more such stories, young David signed up for the Emmaus Bible Correspondence Course almost straight away.

Ps David as a teenager (left) with his first converts: his younger sister and brother. They became Christians after he shared the Gospel with them.

He would be reunited with Mrs Tay three times.

The first time, was when he was in Secondary One, at a primary school reunion. Mrs Tay was so proud that not one, but four of her students had made it to RI (Raffles Institution). It was a big deal for a primary school in the “backwaters”.

He would reconnect with Mrs Tay ten years later, when he and his bride-to-be decided to track her down and invite her to their wedding. Jenny had also been taught by Mrs Tay. The couple had met at Saturday bible study at a flat in Bukit Merah. He had to been tasked to take care of newcomers. She was 15, and a newcomer who visited with two friends. The other two friends dropped out. “I tell people I have been taking care of my wife since then.” Their relationship blossomed while they were in their teens.

Ps David met his wife, Jenny (above), when she was a newcomer to the Bible study he attended. They were both in their teens. Turns out they were both taught by the same teacher who sowed the seeds for Ps David’s faith and love for reading.

“She was very proud that one of her students became a pastor,” he told Salt&Light.

They lost touch again when Ps David left for England, where he earned two Masters degrees in Arts and Theology.

Then another primary school reunion – this time 20, 30 years after graduation – brought teacher and pupil together again. Mrs Tay and her husband had retired by then, and Mrs Tay was serving at a Methodist church. 

Mrs Tay had left such an impression on his life. Not only had she planted the seed of his faith, but also his love for reading. Ps David is also a prolific writer who has written lyrics to six musicals and authored a dozen books which have been translated into 11 languages.

“I asked her to be my godmother. I kind of adopted her. Or she adopted me,” Ps David said.

“Whenever I had new books out, she would buy them and give them to her friends. Or she would ask about my next mission trip as she wanted to support them.”

Mrs Tay has since passed on.

“In our lives there are people who come in just for a brief moment but leave behind a deep impression,” he said of Mrs Tay.

Another such person includes a nurse who handed him a tract which had a picture of Jesus calming the storm, when he was age 10 and warded for TB (tuberculosis) – a killer disease in the 1950s – at St Andrew’s Mission Hospital.

“I never found out who the nurse was. I doubt she is still alive today.”

5-Day Club

The seed of faith Mrs Tay planted has multiplied with Ps David’s ministry.

When he and wife Jenny returned from England, they lived in a rented flat. 

During the school holidays, they ran the 5-Day Club – a programme that is part of the Child Evangelism Fellowship. Over five mornings, they provided refreshments and invited their neighbours’ children to their home for vacation bible school. 

Many years later, after preaching at a church, a woman came up to Ps David with a husband and children in tow.

“She asked me: ‘Do you remember me? I was your neighbour. I attended the 5-Day Club in your home. If not for the 5-Day Club, I would be a medium today.'”

Unbeknown to him, the neighbour, who was the same age as his elder daughter, had been helping another set of neighbours who were mediums. She was almost inducted to become a medium.

“Something that she heard during the 5-Day Club turned her around. And to cut a long story short, she became a Christian,” he said.

Ps David has used this story to encourage Sunday School teachers. “You never know,” he tells them. “You teach all these kids – especially the ones from non-Christian homes. And one day, you meet them again and they are married with children and worshipping at church.”

Mass wedding reunion

During his time at Mount Carmel Bible Presbyterian Church, Ps David married about 223 couples. He managed to round up more than 50 of them for a reunion in September 2009. 

“When we invited them, some wives wanted to come, but their husbands didn’t want to. Some husbands wanted to come, but their wives didn’t want to. They had been married for 20, 30 years, and many had reached a point where the marriage was stale, their relationship jaded.”

The celebration started with a reunion dinner followed by a seminar the next day on the second part of marriage.

The avid archiver asked each couple to look for an envelope with their names on it, and to go back to their tables and open it together.

Couples that Ps David married looking at long-forgotten photos and letters to “bring them back to the day they got married”.

A montage of the wedding photos of couples who participated in Ps David’s reunion.

One of the couples was Moh Peck and Siang Chuan (in opening photo, standing first and second from left) who were students when they were counselled separately by Ps David. They wrote in An Owl’s Journey, a collection of 20 essays to commemorate Ps David’s 70th birthday: “… all of us were amazed to each receive a copy of our wedding photo, together with some notes and cards that he had faithfully kept all these years. What a blessing that was! We have never met anyone who, after more than 20 years would still have mementos of our wedding to give us. And he did this for every single one of the 50 plus couples who were at that reunion.” 

In the envelopes were also homilies Ps David gave at their weddings – to remind them of the themes and Bible passages they had selected.

The idea was to “bring them back to the day they were married” and to remind them of how they felt for each other.

Many had forgotten about the photos taken, and letters on honeymoon written to Ps David; one couple insisted they wrote no such letter telling Ps David about a quarrel on their first holiday as newly weds. “They were trying to argue with me. I said you take a good look at your handwriting. Things that they have written that they have forgotten are there on paper.” 

3-D objects

“I try to encourage people – especially married couples – to try to preserve memories not just in two-dimensional photos, but in 3D, three-dimensional objects that you can hold in your hand,” said Ps David.

“It also helps to seal relationships.”

Ps David and wife, Jenny, at a surprise party thrown for his 70th birthday. From Biblical Graduate School of Theology (BGST) Facebook page. Ps David was BGST’s co-founder and former vice-president.

He laments that these days too many things are in digital form. “It’s a pity. It’s not tangible. You can’t touch, feel and read them.”

He also reminds one not too be too hung up on earthly objects (Matthew 6:19-20).

The objects he collects are of no or little commercial value, but are priceless in terms of the memories they stir up. “The objects should be valued not so much for their commercial value, but of memories of people and relationships that they evoke.

Ps David’s family’s collection includes a beautiful rock embedded with gold nuggets from one of the places that evoke “common memories” for his wife and him. They lugged it back from the country where he and his wife had spent significant time. They had the gold tested: It turned out to be phyrite (iron sulphide), also known as  fool’s gold. 

Then there’s also the inexpensive clay jar he bought while on a mission trip in India in 1985. It was broken into several pieces when the jeep he was in collided head-on with a truck on a mountain road. Ps David was sitting up front next to the driver. He could have died. He was injured, but not as badly as two other team members.

“My first thought was to throw it away,” he said of the broken jar.

But he brought it home and put it back together as a reminder of God’s protection and mercy.

“A home should be of such memories,” he said.

Read Part 1 of Ps David Wong’s story on how he found and met his first Christian encourager from his teens – 57 years later (below): 

Truth be told: It takes courage to be kind

Wedding videos that help couples remember why they said “I do”