When Lydia Sim moved to Singapore in 2015 from her hometown in Kuching, Malaysia, all she wanted was to make a good living.

Having just graduated with a degree in biomedical science, she had planned to work in a hospital here.

However, she never expected that her decision to move across the Causeway would transform her life so radically – and in more ways than one.

An unusual student

When Lydia first arrived in Singapore, she worked at a hospital – her first job – for eight months. 

But workplace stress made going to work a chore. “I was so anxious. I was dragging my feet to work every day,” said Lydia, now 32.

In the common area of the hospital was a piano. During every lunch break, Lydia would scoff down her food so that she could play the piano there, as form of escape.

“Doctors and nurses who saw me would say, ‘Ms Sim, you can play very well. Why are you working here?’” said Lydia, who has been playing the piano since she was four years old.

While she had always wanted to pursue a music degree, she never had the courage to do so. But her colleagues’ remarks made Lydia re-think her career choice.

In 2016, she finally plucked up the courage to quit her hospital job and start teaching piano at a music school.

Lydia and her students at the music school.

Her students were mostly children. But in the second year of her two-year contract, a 60-year-old woman came for a trial lesson with her.

Armed with a book of Christian worship songs, Auntie Maryaan told Lydia that she only wanted to learn how to play those songs. It was her desire to play the piano for her cell group during their worship sessions.

Auntie Maryaan befriended Lydia and eventually became Lydia’s godmother. Here, the two are celebrating Auntie Maryaan’s birthday.

“Back then, I was the kind of person that if you tell me about Jesus, I will run far, far away,” said Lydia. In the past, she had felt pressured by Christians she encountered to accept the faith.

However, despite her reservations, she agreed to teach Auntie Maryaan: “I started playing songs I had never heard before.”

A song that moved her heart

After the trial lesson, Auntie Maryaan asked to have regular hour-long lessons with Lydia.

“I was really packed in that school, students back-to-back. I only had one hour to rest and would have loved to have no students then. So I told her, ‘Sorry, I only have half-hour slots’,” said Lydia.

“In my heart, I was thinking: Take it or leave it. I was very arrogant. Then suddenly, there was a voice within that spoke to me: ‘Take her.’ Right away, I changed my mind.”

From then on, Auntie Maryaan would come every week with different worship songs to learn. To get familiar with the songs, Lydia would watch videos of the songs on YouTube before their lessons.

“I got exposed to Christian songs – Hillsong, Don Moen. One day, there was a song called Still. As I listened to it, I felt like big arms were covering me,” Lydia recalled.

“I was alone in Singapore, a foreigner. I was lonely. There was a need in my heart. I was seeking solace.”

After that experience, Lydia approached Auntie Maryaan to make sense of her emotions: “I told her, ‘Auntie Maryaan, I felt like crying when I listened to the song.’”

Upon hearing what Lydia shared, Auntie Maryaan invited her to church. Lydia declined. “But she was very chill. She never pressed me,” Lydia recalled.

Lydia celebrating her first Christmas as a Christian in 2017 with Auntie Maryaan.

Not only that, Auntie Maryaan showed Lydia love like she had always wanted to experience.

“She would bring me liang teh (herbal tea), cake. We would text each other.  With her, I felt love.”

“If You are real, show me”

After some time, Lydia expressed an interest in the Christian faith.

“I asked Auntie Maryaan, ‘Good Friday, what do Christians do?’ I was interested in knowing a different culture,” she explained.

Auntie Maryaan invited Lydia to church again, promising her that there would be “nice music”.

“Being a musician, I love music. So I went,” said Lydia. “My life changed after that. When I stepped into the place and the music started, tears started flowing. I felt something in my heart.”

But when she was asked if she wanted to know Jesus, Lydia demurred. Those around her prayed for her instead.

After that, Auntie Maryaan taught Lydia to pray. Suddenly, the young woman saw the world through fresh eyes: “Everything was very beautiful. The trees were greener, the sky bluer … I already felt something in my heart was different.”

Auntie Maryaan (right) was the spiritual mentor who not only pointed Lydia to Jesus, but also helped her on her journey to becoming a Christian.

One day, she issued God a challenge: “If You are real, show me.”

That very night, Lydia saw Jesus in a peace-filled dream.

When she woke up, she texted Auntie Maryaan: “I saw Jesus. I want to accept Him right away.”

After becoming a Christian, Lydia stared serving in her church’s worship ministry.

The following year – 2018 – she was baptised. Her relationship with Auntie Maryaan was so instrumental to her Christian faith that the older woman also became her godmother a few years later.

Divine provision

The decision to accept Jesus into her life would lead Lydia to new paths.

She had always had a love for adventure. She has spent a month as a housekeeper in a backpackers’ hostel in New Zealand, worked for four months at a resort in the United States and made a life on her own in Singapore.

But each of these journeys had been for herself.

In 2019, Lydia went on a working holiday to New Zealand.

Two years ago, Lydia felt God call her to “reset, renew and realign” in a journey for Him.

She ended up spending a year teaching children and youths to play the keyboard at the Living Waters Village in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. (Read more about her experience here.)

It was an adventure that allowed her to “see the faithfulness of God” in providing for her financially, restoring her relationship with her mother and smoothening out the rough edges of her character. (Read more about it here.)

Lydia in her first week at the Living Waters Village.

Months into her return to life as a freelance piano teacher in Singapore, those lessons remain. When she left for Indonesia, she gave up all her students and her rental apartment. Re-starting life in Singapore required faith.

“I just started recruiting new students three weeks ago and the students are pouring in … I see how God provided for me.”

Before her return, Lydia also prayed for God to provide a place for her to stay. Within two days, a friend contacted her to ask if she would like to rent a room in her house.

“I had not even come back to Singapore and He was already preparing a place for me to stay.

“It has been seven good years journeying with Him.”

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