If there’s anything that I’ve learned over the past five days, it’s how much I don’t know about my dad.

He wore many hats – he was the National Director of YWAM, Antioch 21, the chef, the person who ironed my school uniform, that’s also my dad.

Reading and hearing all the different stories about him have revealed to me, my sister and my mum more about him. 

I would like to give you a glimpse of Chean family life over the past few months.

My sister, Ashley, and I have been increasingly involved in school and our other commitments as she’s in JC, and I’m in university now. Mum had all her commitments. And of course, Dad had his – he had an endless list of things to do and people to meet.

A few months ago, knowing that my sister was going to set out for Discipleship Training School in YWAM overseas, he sat us down and said to us that we needed to pull together as a family and treasure the time we had left with Ash.

So we committed to make ourselves available for family dinner. But none of us knew what we were really preparing ourselves for.

Family dinners have always been sacred to us. And Dad would do everything he could to make sure his evenings were free so that we could spend time together every day. And after dinner, family devotion would follow.

Joseph’s wife, Kim, and daughters Ashley and Olivia in worship.

We always looked forward to dinner, with Ash and I sometimes asking days in advance: “Mum, Dad, what’s for dinner, what’s for dinner?”

They were like: “Wait lah, we are planning nine hours in advance? We haven’t even had breakfast yet and you’re asking about dinner.”

But we looked forward to dinner time so much. And Mum and Dad would send us the menu that they had planned.

After that conversation with Dad, dinner times became much longer.

If none of us had a zoom call or anything else to attend to, dinner would last for over an hour. Sitting on the counter, we have a bell. One of us would ring it when the food was ready. So when we heard the bell – ding – the other three would come to the dining table. And we would sit down and pray. Oftentimes I was the hungriest and I would sneak a bite and my dad would look at me like: “We haven’t prayed yet.” 

And after praying, we would eat and we would talk about our day, about almost anything and everything.

Most of the time, it would end up with Mum and Dad having their adult talk. And then Ash and I would compete for who could sing more off-key.

Sometimes, even long after the food was gone, we would stay at the dining table and just talk for hours.

Honouring her dad’s love for worship, Olivia closed her eulogy by singing Phil Wickham’s “Living Hope”.

If he came back from a trip, he would share with us all the places he had been to, all the food he ate and the people he met there. And I’m sure you know my dad was a great storyteller.

I loved hearing his stories and sometimes he would take us along on his trips. So over the past few years, I actually followed him to Korea. And when I was much younger, I would follow him around in Singapore wherever he preached. Sometimes Ash and I would even get the chance to speak with him. And we both enjoyed that a lot. But gradually I became shy. Ash continued to follow him, but I preferred to watch him from afar.

But even then, I was always proud of him. And every time he spoke about God, I could see that he came alive.

Worship was an important part of my dad’s life. And he shared this aspect with me and always encouraged me to use my musical instrument to worship God. 

As at press time, over 5,000 had tuned in to the live stream and recording of Joseph’s wake tonight (Tuesday, November 21).

This is an excerpt of Olivia’s eulogy for her dad, Joseph Chean, at his wake on Tuesday, November 21. 

Details of tomorrow night’s wake and funeral on Thursday are as follows:

• Wake visitation times 
  10am to 10pm on Wednesday, November 22
  Glory Sanctuary, St John’s-St Margaret’s Church
  30 Dover Avenue, Singapore 139790 

   

• Wake service
  7.30 to 8.30pm on Wednesday, November 22
  Glory Sanctuary, St John’s-St Margaret’s Church 
  30 Dover Avenue, Singapore 139790 

   

• Funeral service
  12.30 to 2.30pm, Thursday, November 23
  Glory Sanctuary, St John’s-St Margaret’s Church
  30 Dover Avenue, Singapore 139790 

  The cremation service that follows will be for family only.

Click here for the live-stream videos of the services.

Live-stream: Joseph Chean’s wake and funeral services, 21-23 November 2023

Honouring Joseph Chean, a leader who honoured God through togetherness

“Joe gave me courage to stay the course”: Jemima Ooi

Here’s where you can pen your memories of Joseph Chean