As Irene Chong lay weakly in a bed in Paris, it dawned on her that she could not live without Jesus. 

Ten years ago, she was vacationing with her family in France when she was struck by a sudden health crisis. The then 40-year-old, who had always been healthy, spent a whole month in a hospital in Paris, including two weeks in the intensive care unit (ICU). 

Stranded in a foreign city and bedbound for those weeks, Irene spent her days on the hospital bed crying, staring at the ceiling and asking God why.  

“I’m an obedient child of Yours – I go to church, I serve you. Why me?” she lamented to God. 

There, in the City of Lights, Irene entered “a very dark time”. “I thought my life was over and that God was going to take me home,” she told Salt&Light.

Her life as she knew it was indeed going to be over. She eventually recovered and God did take her home … to Singapore.

On hindsight, Irene recognised the terrifying episode was the best thing that could have happened to her. 

Away from any support community, trapped in a hospital where no one spoke English except her husband who was her main caregiver, she believed “God was really isolating me, shutting me off everything and in with Himself.”

During her two weeks in ICU, as she talked to Jesus every day, Irene came to three conclusions: She could not live without Jesus, life was transient and God was calling her to serve people. 

That was Irene’s first real encounter with God.

When she returned to Singapore, Irene walked away from a thriving career in banking and went into grassroots work to serve the underprivileged.

Today, Irene is the Partnerships Director at the Singapore office of Compassion International, a child sponsorship and Christian humanitarian aid organisation with a mission to release children from poverty. 

The lost sheep 

A third generation Christian, Irene grew up in church participating actively in the choir, the youth ministry and the children’s ministry.

“I was a Martha with a stellar Christian CV, but I did not have an intimate relationship with God,” she told Salt&Light. 

“I didn’t understand who He was.”

Irene grew up in church serving in the choir and other ministries but admits she did not have an intimate relationship with God before her watershed in Paris.

The health crisis in Paris was a turning point for Irene: It was when she truly understood what living for God meant.  

One day in hospital, she saw an image of Jesus leaving the 99 sheep in the fold to reach for that one lost sheep.

“I felt God wanted me to serve the underprivileged, that one sheep that has fallen into the pit,” she reflected. 

After she removed herself from a hectic career in banking, Irene transitioned into real estate investment, which afforded her more flexibility to spend time with her family and to answer God’s call.

The mother of two, who led worship in the children’s ministry in her church for many years, felt God was directing her to help children.

Irene signed up as a grassroots volunteer serving children in the Kembangan-Chai Chee rental estate. The families that live in the rental flats often struggle with social and economically disadvantages.

For five years, she visited families, distributed food to needy households and tutored children preparing for their Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE).

Irene’s first students in the homework club of the rental estate were five struggling children who had just three months to prepare for PSLE. These children often skipped school and failed subjects offered at foundation level (a level under the Ministry of Education’s standard curriculum.)

Under Irene’s tutelage, all five children passed and progressed to secondary school. One did well and went on to the Normal Academic stream.

The neighbourhood sat up and took notice of the remarkable turnaround of those five children. 

People started bringing their children to the homework club at which Irene volunteered. The class grew over the years and the number of children preparing for PSLE exams went up to 30 at one time.

Parents would come up to Irene and tell her: “Teacher Irene, I know you teach my children. They keep talking about you.”

Irene gives out vouchers from bookstores so the children at the homework club can buy books and stationery.

“That really melted my heart,” Irene smiled. “God gave me success. When He asks us to do something in accordance to His will, nothing can be against you.”

More than a tutor, Irene became a friend and a mother to the children in the rental estate. She bought vitamins for some of the children, admonished them to strengthen their immunity, taught them negotiation skills and sponsored bookstore vouchers for the children to buy books and stationery. 

The children in the rental estate would reach out to Irene in their trouble. They would ask her why she was so nice to them.

Irene noted ruefully that for some of these children, a mother was someone who reprimanded them and was unable to provide for them.

The curious love of this teacher prompted some children to ask her what she does and who she is. When these doors open, Irene would candidly share her Christian faith.  

“Because Jesus loved me, I love people and show the image of Christ,” she shared. 

From grassroots to philanthropy

After four years in grassroots work, Irene was recruited in 2018 into the board of The Metropolitan YMCA Singapore (MYMCA), a social enterprise focusing on children and youth.

For five years, she sat on the fundraising committee of the MYMCA, including the last two as its chair. 

On the board of Metropolitan YMCA, Irene was actively involved in fundraising and now chairs its social enterprises committee.

Irene was subsequently invited to be on several other boards including Society for the Aged Sick and the National University of Singapore Alumni to support fundraising, engagement and ambassador efforts. 

“God again gave me success in this area,” she said. Her efforts helped double donations to these charities and pivot them to new areas for long-term sustainability. 

Her career in banking and real estate had given gave her access to people with substantial financial means, a network she was able to tap into and secure support for community programmes. 

“God is using me to serve the needy using the resource of the rich,” Irene told Salt&Light. 

In 2019, Irene felt God directing her to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), a postgraduate preparatory course for senior roles in the public sector.  The school typically attracts mid-career students in their 30s. Irene was in her late 40s by then and had neither history nor aspirations of working in the public sector. 

She was puzzled by the call but applied anyway.

“I told God ‘Since You want me to do it, I will obey’,” she told Salt&Light.

When she did not get through to the stage of admission interviews, Irene thought she was off the hook. But she got notice a month later that she was accepted without an interview.

It turned out that for the first time ever that year, the school was freely admitting Singaporeans of mid- or senior management and who held leadership positions in the community. 

“When I got in, I was in tears,” she laughed. “’What have I done?'”

She doubted she would pass the course after being out of school for such a long time. 

Despite her misgivings, Irene answered the call of God to enroll in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and graduated the oldest in class.

But she finished the one-year programme and graduated with a Masters in Public Administration.

After her year at LKYSPP, Irene sought God on His next assignment for her. He showed her in a dream countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, places she had travelled to in her banking days when she served her clients.

“I thought maybe the Lord wanted me to go back to banking,” she recounted.

But Irene did not return to banking.

Old place, new mission 

In 2o23, Compassion International hired Irene as its Singapore partnerships director to raise funds for child sponsorships. 

As a local representative of Compassion International, one of Irene’s key roles is engagement with regulators and navigating government work processes, as well as cross-cultural management. All these are skills she picked up during her course in LKYSPP. 

Irene on a field trip in Medan last year serving underprivileged children.

Irene saw then that God had set her up and trained her for this assignment with Compassion International. Her 15-year career in banking and subsequent work in real estate investment and philanthropy serving the wealthy had put her in touch with many contacts with financial means that supported her fundraising efforts for the underprivileged.

Her grassroots work in the rental estate had trained her to work with children and her time with LKYSPP equipped her with essential skills for her partnerships role. 

“It was like a jigsaw puzzle that God was piecing together,” she marvelled.  

“When God wants to use you, He will prepare you like He did with Jesus for 30 years,” Irene said.  

Her work with Compassion International took her on many field trips serving disadvantaged children in cities like Manila and Jakarta, places she saw in her dream.

She realised then that God was guiding her back to those places with a new mission: To serve the children where once she served her clients.

“So I went from serving the rich and powerful to serving the poor and helpless in the same place,” she told Salt&Light. 

Love and obey

Despite her passion for serving underprivileged children, Irene admitted that ministry can be “very hard work” that can get one down. 

“But when God is for you, nothing can be against you,” she asserted. 

The transformation in the lives of the children oppressed by darkness and poverty also keeps Irene going. 

A testimony that stood out is that of Ita Novita Sari, a young Indonesian girl who had been supported by a Korean sponsor since she was nine years old. Ita finished her PhD in Korea through a scholarship, married a Korean husband and is now serving as a research fellow in Singapore. She eventually turned to Christ through her journey and is now an ambassador for Compassion International.

“It is not [simply] humanitarian work,” Irene explained. “It is bringing hope to the children, pulling them out of the poverty cycle into a different life.”

Irene’s journey has taught her three things.

“One, when God calls, He will prepare,” she said.

“Secondly, when we love God, we will obey. When God called Moses, he obeyed. When Jesus said ‘Follow Me’, the disciples followed immediately.

“Finally, when God is for you, nothing can be against you. I have found that whatever obstacles I have faced, I have overcome with God.”  

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