Neo Ming Wei felt like a modern-day Job. Losses came one after another – unexpectedly, unrelentingly.

After completing her Masters in piano performance in the United States, Ming Wei asked God if He would allow her to further her studies and get to know Him more at the same time.

Miraculously, her graduate assistantship (a largely sponsored scholarship) at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale was renewed and she could pursue her second Masters in collaborative piano. The granting of a graduate assistantship twice to the same student was virtually unheard of at the time.

Ming Wei (left) with her parents at her graduation ceremony for her Bachelors in Music from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore.

She had come to Christ in America after experiencing the tangible love of a Singaporean family and other international students who had cared for her while she was still finding her footing in a foreign land.

The Singaporean family in the United States who made Ming Wei (extreme left) feel at home.

“I wanted to grow in my knowledge of God and I was learning so much from the church that I was in. I believe God performed the miracle of renewing my assistantship so that I could stay on,” recalled Ming Wei, now 40.

Ming Wei (front row, in blue) hanging out with church friends from Calvary Campus Church in the United States.

When she returned to Singapore for a term break in June 2010, she noticed that one of her feet was swollen. Medical checks showed that her poor blood circulation was the result of a huge cyst sitting on her kidney. Doctors told her they had to remove it before it caused damage to other organs. There was a 50% chance it was cancerous and life threatening.

Ming Wei had a surgery which entailed the removal, not only of the cyst, but also her right ovary.

Ming Wei and her younger brother playing the piano as children.

Ming Wei and her brother on a holiday with their parents.

“I was fearful of getting ovarian cancer. There were so many injections. It was overwhelming. I just kept reading the book of Psalms in the hospital,” said Ming Wei.

When she was discharged from the hospital, she slept in her mother’s room so that she could be cared for as she had lost a good 10kg through her illness.

Ming Wei (in black) was water baptised with a group of her church friends in America.

Ming Wei’s water baptism in the United States.

But two days after her discharge from the hospital, her brother took his life in her room.

Ming Wei spent the next six months in Singapore grieving over the death of her brother and recuperating from her operation. Fortunately, her cyst was found to be benign.  

“I remember just going to my keyboard and sitting there for hours to worship and read the book of Psalms for comfort. That’s all I could do,” she said.

“I poured out my emotions before Him as I sang and played. Some songs just came out of my overflow of worship and as an expression of my grief as I tried to make sense of everything.”

Loss upon loss 

In 2011, Ming Wei returned to the United States to complete her second Masters degree. Just as she was settling into her new term, she received a phone call informing her that her father had stage 4 liver cancer.

There was no further treatment for him. Her father was given a prognosis of two months to live.

Ming Wei dropped everything and returned to Singapore to spend her father’s final two months with him.

“I wailed and shouted at God then,” recalled Ming Wei. “I had all these questions of why and why so soon for yet another family member to die.

“I felt like life was so unfair and filled with so much pain and grief. I was lost, confused, angry and afraid. It really made me question if God is really good.”

But while she was worshipping God during her Quiet Time one day, she felt His near presence and heard His whisper.

Ming Wei spent hours worshipping God on the piano during her season of pain and grief.

“I answered your prayer of wanting to get to know Me more ­– to know Me is to know Me in suffering,” came His still, small voice.

“He asked if He alone was sufficient for me, despite my not having all the answers to all that had happened,” said Ming Wei.

She did not find what He said to her to be cruel. Instead, she was filled with awe at His presence and sovereignty.

“It was in these low valleys of life when I experienced Him as my Comforter, Counsellor and Prince of Peace. He’s really all that I needed, even in my pain. When I worshipped on the keyboard, I felt His love for me rushing in,” she said.

Her father died in late November that year. She was comforted by the fact that her father had received Christ and had been baptised before he passed on.

Ming Wei taught piano to students at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts upon her return to Singapore.

Her father’s last wish was for her to finish her studies. Though Ming Wei worried about leaving her mother behind (her mother had been suffering from depression for many years by then), she decided to head back to the US without delay to complete her studies.

Often, she found herself crying during her lessons. But God gave her the grace and strength to push through with her studies and she graduated with her second Master’s degree in May 2012.

Returning to Singapore meant returning to be the caregiver of her mother. She also worked as a freelance musician and educator.

In 2014, she felt led by God to produce an instrumental piano album of covers of worship songs. She included a few of her own songs she had composed while she was grieving.

She sowed a few thousand dollars to fund the CDs as a form of her first-fruit offering to God. The CDs went to friends as gifts.

Music that brings healing 

“I felt strongly in my heart that I was supposed to be using my music for His glory,” Ming Wei said. “I had been given several prophetic words that there would be healing through my music and that my music would help others encounter His love and presence,” said Ming Wei.

Ming Wei’s first worship album.

Later that year, her mother’s psychiatrist – formerly the head of psychiatry at SGH (Singapore General Hospital) – heard about her CD and asked if she could compose an album of piano tunes to alleviate mental stress and help with insomnia. The production was fully funded by Lejia Society, a charity the doctor had set up to support those with mental health conditions.

“I saw the hand of God in that,” said Ming Wei. “This was what I was supposed to do with my music.” She entitled the album “Serenity”. 

Ministering to others 

The CDs, all 1,500 of them, sold out at mental health and Christian conferences. It is also available on Spotify.

A man with bipolar disorder who had bought her “Serenity” CD reached out to her to say that he was “at a stage of my life when I am beginning to get in touch with the ‘trauma’ that my body has kept within”.

As he listened to the track “Grace”, a plethora of emotions was released. “I came to learn how I should handle all these pent-up emotions that I have kept locked up for years. It was a necessary nudge that I needed to begin feeling,” he texted Ming Wei.

As God opened doors for her to minister through her music, a latent dream was revived.

Since graduation, she had dreamt of holding a recital at The Esplanade.

But she had not had time, having been her mother’s caregiver for over 20 years. During Covid, her mother’s depression and anxiety had escalated. Before she enlisted the help of a domestic helper, her daily caregiving duties included helping her mother shower, change diapers, prepare meals and give her medication.

Ming Wei (extreme left) performing with Inspire Church at a Chijmes Christmas event.

“I wanted to usher in God’s presence through my music,” said Ming Wei. “When Covid hit, I realised I did not want to wait till the conditions in my life were right.” 

The Esplanade gave her the green light and her recital was scheduled for July 2021.

An unknown number

Around that time, Ming Wei received a call from an unknown number. She picked up the call, worried that it was linked to her mother’s healthcare.

The caller said he was from the Singtel tech support team and was calling about Internet issues she was facing. She followed his instructions and was transferred to the “police” who told her authoritatively that her account had been hacked and that she needed to download a certain software for them to fix the problem. Unknown to her, as she held the line, scammers were busy hacking into her bank account and transferring out her savings to an overseas syndicate.

The next morning, the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) called to inform her that she had been scammed. Her life savings – a six-figure sum – had been stolen. The CAD officer said it was unlikely that they would be able to recover her savings once the funds crossed international borders.

“Many questions flooded my mind. How was I supposed to care for my mum now? How was I supposed to pay for the rental at The Esplanade and my musician friends who were going to collaborate with me? I was really down and had dark thoughts of not wanting to live,” remembered Ming Wei.

“I just kept praying that, if this was something God really wanted me to do, He would make a way.”

A sum of $5,000 was needed for the recital to proceed as planned.

“I was praying for a miracle. I told God it doesn’t matter if I receive the sum by instalments or in one lump sum,” she said.

Soon after, at a prayer group meeting, she was asked to share her testimony. A woman who heard her story wanted to bless Ming Wei with a love gift, but it would be given out over five months.

Ming Wei prayed about it and felt that she was to receive it, but was puzzled over why God had specified five months to the giver. She went to check her calendar, and found that the date on which the first instalment would come would be exactly five months leading up to her recital. She also discovered that each instalment was $1,000, and she would receive a total of $5,000 – exactly the sum she had asked God for.

“My mind was blown when she said that God told her it doesn’t matter if she gave all at once or by instalments. That was exactly what I had in my mind when I prayed. I was in awe of how God not only came through, but the level of detail with which He came through,” said Ming Wei.

Subsequently, a number of her relatives and friends also pitched in to help her financially. Preparations for the recital were going well.

One day before New Year’s Eve, however, trouble befell her again. Ming Wei received a text message that was sent from the same official OCBC channel that she usually receives from the bank.

“A payee has been added to your account. If it is not from you, please tap on the link to alert OCBC securities,” the message read.

Stung by her previous scam experience and wary of unauthorised transaction, Ming Wei quickly responded to the message. Ironically, it turned out to be the infamous OCBC phishing scam where some 800 account holders were scammed of $13.7 million dollars. Ming Wei became one of the victims. She lost about $30,000.

“I was really devastated because I had lost all the money that my friends and family were so kind to bless me with after my first scam,” said Ming Wei. “Why was I so stupid? I thought I had to give up on my recital as there were no funds for it.”

A divine appointment 

Ming Wei was understandably in no mood to attend a New Year’s Eve gathering the next day. Nevertheless she decided to go.

At the gathering, her friends prayed for her. To everyone’s surprise, the host’s husband suddenly offered to bless Ming Wei with a sum of money, mysteriously adding that he would share the back story with her another day.

Ming Wei was stunned, and wondered if her dream to have a recital was once again possible.

A week later, when she returned to the house, her friend’s husband shared his story.

He told her that about 15 years ago, he had made a pledge to God that he would tithe his very first paycheque if God helped him pass his exams to become a lawyer. He did pass his exams but forgot to honour his word until God reminded him recently of his pledge.

He thought of various churches and charities he could donate to. But God told him to hold on to the money until the end of the year and he was to give it to someone at the time.

When he heard Ming Wei’s name while they were praying for her at his house, he knew she was the one God wanted him to give his money to.

“His first paycheque was $7,000! It was more than what I’d expected – enough for my living expenses for the month and to hold the recital. I happened to be at his house on the last day of the year. I couldn’t help but tear up,” said Ming Wei.

“I knew God’s hand was upon this recital as it was not something I could have done on my own strength.”

Though the amount she had lost was eventually restored when OCBC gave its victims goodwill payouts, Ming Wei knew God had already come through for her both times.

Of Hopes and Dreams

The long-awaited Esplanade recital took place on January 25, 2022. Though she mostly played classical pieces, she also added a composition of her own. It was entitled “Of Hopes and Dreams”.

Ming Wei (at the piano) performing with her fellow musician friends at The Esplanade.

“It was a piece that I felt God wanted me to include. At my lowest point, as I sat in the stillness before Him in my room, He had given me the starting notes for the song,” she said.

Though it is an instrumental song, Ming Wei hopes that listeners are able to relate to its themes of harbouring hopes and pursuing dreams despite the harshness of life’s trials. 

Ming Wei performing with a vocalist at the recital.

Some audience members told her they were more moved by her own piece than the classical greats. Some of them had teared as she played the song. The song later won her the second prize in the music category of an international competition held for people with mental health conditions and their caregivers.

Since then, Ming Wei, who is also a part-time lecturer at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, has continued her music ministry by teaching music to low-income children and volunteering at a girls’ home.

Worship is how Ming Wei ushers in His presence and where she wages spiritual warfare.

Looking back, she believes that the trials she had experienced allowed her to release healing and wholeness to others through her music.

“I have gone through the crushing and tasted loss. As 2 Corinthians 1:4 says: God comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God,” said Ming Wei.

“He has given me the gift of playing the piano. It is the place where I fight my spiritual battles, experience His Presence and contend for the well-being and healing of others.”

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