“God, if you are real, prove it to me”: Social worker and WP cadre Frieda Chan on crises and miracles

Not in the wind. Not in the earthquake. Not in the fire.

When God revealed Himself to Elijah when he fled to the wilderness in the book of 1 Kings, it was through a gentle whisper, a still small voice.

For social worker and Worker’s Party cadre Frieda Chan, 43, God has showed up in her life both through dramatic manifestations as well as simple promptings in the quiet of the night.

Thunder and lightning

One occasion when God answered through thunder and lightning was during her pre-university days when she was going through a rough patch.  

Her grandma was dying from cancer and Chan was stressed out by fractious relatives eager to share their faith with her grandma. Some of her relatives were Catholics and Christians, while the rest were of other faiths.

Chan (middle) as a child, with her aunt and cousins.

“Whichever faith Grandma chose to believe, I figured one side would be wrong and so she only had a 50% chance of going to heaven,” said Chan with a chuckle. She was not a believer then.

In school, her morale was low as that was the year that the Ministry of Education announced that all Centralised Institutes would be closed down (Chan was studying at one of these pre-universities then). Chan, then president of her school’s student council, faced further embarrassment when she found out that her results were so bad that she had to repeat her third and final year of school.

Chan (with red schoolbag) in her class photo from Boon Lay Garden Primary School.

Walking home from school in the rain one day along Bukit Batok Road, Chan, in candour and despondency, started cursing and swearing at God.

“God, if you are real, prove it to me,” she challenged Him.

Immediately, she heard the loud crackle of thunder and a burst of light as lightning lit up the sky above her.

Shaken, she changed her tone with God.

“God, if you are real, give me some time, I will complete my exams first and then take time to clarify and seek you with an open heart,” said Chan. She did not want to believe in God then as she was afraid that she was only turning to Him when times were difficult and may turn her back on the faith when circumstances improved.

She recalled being extremely irritated when people on the streets evangelised to her with Gospel tracts.

“I didn’t understand why He had to be the way, the truth, the life. I hated the ‘the’ word,” said Chan, who would then go to a nearby library to do her research on religion and come back with points to refute the street evangelists.  

“I started out trying to prove that Jesus was a liar or someone sincerely deluded in believing that He is God,” said Chan. “But the more I researched, the more I proved myself wrong. In the end I swallowed my pride and accepted that Jesus is Lord and Saviour.”

She accepted Christ at the age of 21, after exploring the faith by secretly attending church and cell group after her ‘A’ levels.

Her family was of a different religion and, at that time, they only noticed her persistently reading a book that looked like a present, as its cover was hidden beneath wrapping paper.

It was a Bible and Chan was afraid of her parents’ reaction if they came to know of it.

Chan, who became a believer at the age of 21, had a church wedding with husband Melvin.

Her fears were realised when they found out that she had become a Christian.

Knowing that her church service was at 10.15am on Sunday mornings, her mother would set requirements for her to sweep and mop the whole house and clean the windows before she could leave.

“It was meant to stop me from going to church but, somehow, God made time stop instead. I woke up at 6am to start cleaning and I didn’t rush it but there was always just enough time left for me to shower and then go to church,” said Chan.

God took Chan’s simple faith and led her to full-time ministry after she graduated, though she had already received five job offers in social work by her third year in university.

A still, small voice

In the Christian organisation where Chan rose to become a deputy director, Chan saw how God intervened to help his children in very practical ways.

She recalled a mission trip to China. Christianity was considered a sensitive topic in certain parts of the country, so she and some colleagues went as “teachers” to a local church.

A teenager walked into the church one day and requested prayer for her sick mum. So Chan went over to her house, but the mum happened to be sleeping then. While waiting for her mother to wake up, the teenager asked “Teacher Chan” for help with her Mathematics homework.

“I was panicking and asking God what to do as which teacher cannot teach? But I not only scored D7 in my ‘O’ level maths in school, how was I to know what the mathematical terms are in Chinese?” said Chan.

What happened next bewildered Chan.

“The words in explaining how to prove the angle just came out of my mouth. As in, the mouth was mine but someone else took  control over it and in my mind I was thinking, ‘What did I just say?'” said Chan.  

The next day, the teenager came back and told Chan that all the questions were answered correctly.

Chan graduated in 2018 with a Master of Human Capital Management from the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Through her six years in Christian ministry, even when Chan was put in charge of ministry teams that were either in financial deficit or dying through a lack of manpower, she saw how God equipped and provided – sometimes right to the last minute, in classic George Müller style.

Crisis and reassurance

Growing her faith through knowing God experientially proved crucial as she would soon hit a crisis that she did not see coming.

That year, in 2006, her former university classmate asked if she was available to volunteer and help out with the duties of a principal election agent in the 2006 General Election as their current one had broken down under stress.

After consulting three leaders from her workplace who felt that her volunteer work would have no bearing on her full-time work, she helped out with their campaign for a week at night.

Shortly afterwards, however, the director of the organisation she was with asked her to leave, citing concerns over how her volunteer work may adversely impact the organisation.

She then found herself having to explain to her supporters and funders why she was asked to leave, as her ministry work was supported by donations from them.

As her departure was sudden, some people did not believe that she was asked to leave over such a reason and speculated that she must have had committed some sin.

“It was a hurtful time because these were people I trusted, yet there was so much negativity. I asked God why I had to sacrifice so much even though I was just helping a friend and had done the necessary things in checking with the leadership before I did so,” said Chan.

God reassured her of His presence and protection, this time, through rain, or the lack of, again.

She had met her friend, who had also been supporting her work financially, to explain her situation. They were at Pickering Street and it was raining heavily. Chan urged her friend to step into the shelter at a five footway lane as they were getting wet but her friend was preoccupied with furiously berating her, urging her to be honest and confess the sin that led to her dismissal.

“She was so absorbed with scolding me that at first she did not notice that she was getting drenched in the rain but somehow I stayed dry. We were out in the open but somehow I was shielded from the rain,” said Chan.

“After a short while, she noticed and commented how come she was wet but I was dry but she continued being busy with her scolding and later left in a cab,” she added.

“Values such as accountability and responsibility are in sync with God’s character,” said Chan, who ran for elections in 2011 and 2015.

God, what was this all about? Chan asked God shortly after.

“I realised that God had made a miracle meant to encourage me, though my friend did not have eyes to see it,” she said.

After leaving the organisation, Chan took on consulting and lecturing jobs that paid relatively well.

Yet her bank balance at that time was consistently in the range of two digits, as she would get promptings from God to give her money away to various people.

“It was so frustrating to have to give away money even before I can touch it,” said Chan with a laugh.

There were two occasions, Chan recalled, when God woke her up in the middle of the night to do His bidding.

The first time, He told her to call a friend and then go down to her house. Despite being embarrassed at having to call her friend in the wee hours of the morning, she did so, though nothing seemed to be amiss with her friend.

On those two occasions, she had to take a taxi as there was no public transport at that time of night. In her heart, Chan was complaining and pleading with God as she did not have enough money to pay the taxi fare and was worried about the cabbies hauling her to the police station.

Chan and husband, Melvin, with their four-year-old son.

Strangely, when she arrived at her destination, the two cab drivers told her in Mandarin that she need not pay the fare, without her first having to tell them that she did not have money.

“I learnt that when we are a channel or vessel for God, He is very real and will take care of things,” said Chan, who later went on to do child developmental work at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and juvenile protection and justice work at Gracehaven, a children’s home.

Chan  also learnt that the friend God had instructed her to call had popped sleeping pills in a suicide attempt, but was vomiting them out while talking to Chan on the phone.

In sync with God

Eventually, Chan joined The Workers’ Party in 2006 and ran for elections in 2011 and 2015, as she wanted to advocate for causes such as support for caregivers and single mums.

Chan (front right) with fellow WP members and volunteers.

When asked how her faith informs her politics, she said she makes it a point to tackle issues constructively instead of attacking a person or his character.

“Values such as accountability and responsibility are in sync with God’s character and that is why I strive to present facts objectively when I advocate for issues that I stand for,” said Chan, who is married to a property officer. They have a four-year-old son.

Whether it is through thunder or lightning, a voice in the dead of night or receiving shelter from the rain, Chan has seen God’s faithfulness through the big and  small moments of her life.

“I have learnt the lesson that God provides and faithfulness with little can yield much later.”