Adopt-A-Dorm: Singapore Testimony

By Jillian Goh

Our Church Adopted a Dorm

When the foreign workers situation started to blow up in a Singapore, I didn’t know what to make of it. Pictures of foreign workers cramped in small rooms started surfacing in the media (again) as allegations of errant employers not providing food and protective equipment became more rampant.

And it made me uncomfortable. It made me uncomfortable because it made me confront the sheer amount of privilege I enjoyed as a Singaporean who never had to worry about the shelter over my head or where and when my next paycheck would come. It made me uncomfortable because there was injustice and gaps in our society that needed attention and action. More importantly, I felt uncomfortable because I knew God’s heart was broken by what was happening to them.

As I delved deeper into this issue, reading commentaries from local Christians, I was surprised to find that the Bible actually repeatedly calls on us to care for the foreigners living among us. Not in a vague and theoretical sense, but in very practical and actionable ways. Among them this verse struck a chord with me…

“Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.” Deut. 24-:14

It opened my eyes to our country’s insatiable demand for cheap labour, the cheaper the better. And I was recently challenged to rethink my stance during a sermon where the pastor challenged the congregation - will we collectively as a people agree to pay more for our houses and other infrastructure so that our migrant friends could earn a better living for themselves and their families? It is a difficult question to give a resounding “YES” to, because it potentially means taking away significant resources from ourselves and passing it on to the foreign worker community. But my prayer is that even as I struggle with these thoughts and challenges, God would continue to convict me of what He is true and right. 

Open the eyes of my heart

Before COVID-19 happened and threw Singapore’s migrant worker issue into the spotlight, there were two incidents that changed my perception and attitude towards our migrant worker community in Singapore.

One was a JC friend who despite her apathy for most things, shared with me that the one group of people she felt most deserving of help were the migrant workers in Singapore. It was probably the stark contrast in how she viewed most things rather nonchalantly versus her heartfelt “lobbying” for the migrant worker community that made me curious. We had many conversations in school about (i) why in particular did she care so much for the migrant worker community and (ii) what could be done to alleviate their situation. Those conversations sparked off an intellectual curiosity but there was still work that needed to be done in me.

My second encounter was a much more personal experience and has been etched in my memory ever since. On my way to school one day, I was approached by a group of young secondary school children who were doing fundraising at Little India MRT Station. As usual, I was in a rush and felt too lazy to do anything, so unsurprisingly I ignored them with a swift raise of the hand. Then, walking right behind me were 2 migrant workers who were NOT actively approached by the students, yet they walked towards the students and started to fumble in their pockets. 

As I saw them dig deep into their pockets, I realized they were looking for money to donate to the fundraiser. They happily dropped their 50-cent coins into the tin, smiled and walked away. Both the students who received the donation and myself were not only surprised but exceedingly humbled by their generosity. Honestly, after witnessing that incident, I remembered feeling so ashamed by my lack of empathy and so moved by their compassion. God opened my eyes and took the huge planks out of them as I recalled the story of the widow with her 2 copper coins. 

That incident really upended the stereotypes I had of migrant workers and softened my heart towards them. It made me realize that God does not see people as we see them, because He knows them for the entire being, while we on the other hand are limited by our prejudices, the stories we hear from others around us and the media. I would like to add that the unforgettable incident though impactful, is only a stepping stone to a longer, ongoing journey.

These two experiences were catalysts that I believe God allowed me to go through so that my eyes would be opened and it was no longer possible for me to sweep the problems I seem them face under a rug.

Adopt-A-Dorm Initiative: Why am I doing this? Why did I volunteer?

I am volunteering because I felt God place a burden for them in my heart and I wanted to respond to it without overthinking it, which I tend to do before serving. I felt challenged and honestly was quite worried, but with God’s faithful providence with each step I took, I was motivated to continue. 

After delivering food to the dorm, what are my impressions? What did I see? How do I feel?

I was pretty overwhelmed the first time I went to deliver food to the dormitories as I  visited multiple small dorms in the West of Singapore. I still remember at one particular dorm, I saw more than 10 curious workers in masks peering outside of a grilled window to see what we were doing at their dorm. When I saw how many of them were housed or rather squeezed in one place, it made me realize the plight that they were in and how difficult it must be for them to socially distance and quarantine themselves for such a long period. At the same time, I also caught my human self falling prey to stereotypes as I felt uncomfortable when they started staring at me. It made me reflect and realize that even though I have a burden for them, I still had a long way to go to correct my own attitudes and the deep-seated stereotypes I held while learning from the way God loves.

It also made me realize even though they might have very little at the moment, they still had a very positive disposition. One of them I interacted with told me that they didn’t need all 46 packets of food we brought them, he repeated that he only needed 45 packets and wanted me to know that that was enough for them. The fact that they were contented, and not just preserving their own well being was really humbling to witness.

The work of serving and loving migrant workers is continuing in Singapore through Adopt-A-Dorm and other Initiatives. Check out another story of a church serving with Adopt-A-Dorm here.

Jillian Goh is part of our first Singapore Cohort.

She was born in Singapore and is currently working in a Dutch fintech firm as a marketer. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies and dancing.

The Unwelcome Regression of Globalization

By Tommy Lee and Sarah Lee

Jun Du and Angelos Delis, professors from Aston University, recently published an article in the World Economic Forum about the inevitable change COVID will bring to globalization. But let’s be honest - unless you run a company that provides a product, or your long awaited new fillintheblank is delayed yet again due to the coronavirus, you likely aren’t thinking about global supply chains on the regular. But maybe you should be. The times are changing, and these changes have very real material and spiritual implications on how we run our businesses, our ministries and our lives.

How So?

A quick primer on globalization: It relies on a worldwide network of manufacturers, resources and information (a supply chain) to allow businesses to produce goods and services in the most cost-effective way. For example, the computer you just ordered - those manufacturers often use highly specialized pieces that are created by only one or two overseas suppliers. If one of those suppliers is shut down due to, let’s say, a pandemic, they can’t complete the production of your computer. Their efficient and cost-effective chain of supplies has been disrupted and you can’t get your computer until they find a new supplier or their existing supplier is able to get back into their factory again, create a product and ship that product. The implication? You can’t get your work done, make money, provide for your family. This concept applies to an unbelievable amount of goods and services we use today. 

Globalization really began to advance in the 1800s, with the First and Second Industrial Revolutions. As shipping, air travel and the internet has been made exponentially more efficient, international trade has become deeply embedded into the fabric of almost every country.

Why is Resource Global so concerned about globalization?

Every person reading this is affected by globalization and the supply chain. And every person reading this is affected by the way COVID-19 has severely deconstructed the “norms” we have come to rely on. Many in the Resource Global family run businesses and organizations in Africa and Asia and the factories you run have been brought to a standstill due to this pandemic. The economic impact on your businesses and the people you employ is astronomical. How do you lead in a way that honors God in perhaps the most difficult season of your lives, especially when leading will most likely result in cutting jobs and wages?

And for the rest of the Resource Global family who depend on these goods and services to run your ministries and families, you may not be a direct part of a supply chain but you are most certainly a consumer. The ease at which you obtained supplies to run your daily lives is disrupted. Let’s just talk toilet paper for a second. What was once just a grocery store afterthought has now become a scavenger hunt prize subject to price gouging. So much time and energy has been wasted on finding what was once taken for granted. And the same goes for prescription medications, medical supplies and even simple things like eggs and flip flops!

And don’t forget that as globalization is disrupted and the economy is in a freefall, those running or working for nonprofit ministries are watching their donations dry up overnight.

So What Are We to Do With All This?

• Be Prayerful - Thy kingdom come Lord! Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!

• Be Mindful -  Remember our cohorts, indeed all of our churches, are filled with young marketplace leaders who deeply desire to run their companies in a way that honors God. 

• Be an Intercessor - There are believers around the world who are weathering historic, and often life-altering, change due to this unexpected de-globalization.

• Be Flexible - God is not a “that’s the way we’ve always done it” kind of God. His heart is to conform us into His image and He rarely accomplishes that without trial and change.

• Be Humble - The glory is God’s alone, and that may mean your way of life changes indefinitely.

• Be Ready - How is God asking you to be ready for change, to be a bridge-builder, to stand in the gap for those on the other side of the chain?

Some of the hardest work is still before us. Businesses, many led by fellow believers, will have to rebuild or reinvent their supply chains. Jobs will be lost. The economy will continue to take a hit for the foreseeable future. Donors will stop donating and consumers will stop consuming while we travel the long road to a new stability.

According to Du and Delis, “Nobody can predict the next crisis. But the most reliable and efficient insurance by far is to build a strong international cooperation network.” While this is true for the efficiency of future global trade, it is undoubtedly true for the global Church as well.

To view the World Economic Forum article, click here.

Building Lives & Transforming Communities

An Interview with Rudy & Bao Yan on using their marketplace skills for Kingdom Work

Resource Global Singapore Cohort 2020: Husband and wife Rudy and Bao Yan are leveraging their professional architectural training and entrepreneurial strengths to accomplish amazing Kingdom works. In this interview, they share their journey on being missional with their business – and their goal to transform marginal communities.    

What led your thinking towards integrating faith and work, and being missional with your business?

After graduating, I (Rudy) worked in large architectural companies. After 7 years, I started asking God if there was anything more to my profession and my faith. In 2014, at the peak of my career, I resigned to pursue God in a mission school. I bought a one-way ticket to Africa where I was part of Heidi Baker’s Iris Global Ministry. We lived among the poor community – HIV stricken, lepers, widows, orphans, child soldiers and child brides. This proved to be life changing.

My eyes and heart were opened to poverty of epic proportions. It was no longer statistics to me. Poverty has a face. Poverty has a name. It has smell, and it has context. This brought about a paradigm shift to how I would later intersect my life, my profession and my faith. I became cognizant of my skills as tools of transformation.

After 3 months in Africa, I returned to Singapore and was determined not to live life the same way and thus Genesis Architects was born in 2014 and based in Singapore.

How did you envision that Genesis Architects would be different?

I wanted Genesis Architects to be used by God as a vehicle for purpose-driven design. The practice would strive for design excellence commercially, but it would also be equally focused on working on mission-aligned architectural projects that would transform lives and communities in developing countries. Architecture, in a simple expression, is humanitarian. It provides roofs over families, classrooms for children to secure a better future. Thus, we established our branch office for Genesis Architects in Rwanda.

Share with us some of your pro-bono projects?

In Rwanda, I teach at the University as a Visiting Lecturer and we started to hire and train some of these architectural graduates. The missional purpose was to empower them to transform their own nation - and we firmly believe that Rwanda shall be built by her people. In the recent Resource Global Online Class, Michael Ramsden shared that true leaders build capabilities, not create dependencies. This really resonated with us.

Our current projects in Rwanda include a blind school for 300 children - providing them with a safe environment for learning; and a vocational school for tribal communities to be equipped with literacy and practical skills - providing them with opportunities for modernisation. Telling them that God loves them is not enough, we should also give them practical ways of coming out of poverty.

In Mozambique, we are involved in designing a full-fledge university under Heidi Baker’s Iris Global Ministry. Our contribution is cross-disciplinary - from the masterplanning, to the architectural and interior design, landscaping, as well as fund-raising. The aim is to empower and equip the next generation of Africans, by offering a comprehensive range of courses from medicine, law, engineering, business administration, marine biology, maritime studies, and a theological school.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, we are partnering with a non-government organizations, including Justice Rising, to design prototypes and build 40 primary schools in rural areas. These schools are supporting child soldiers, child brides, and refugee children. Our works also include raising awareness. So far, 18 schools have been completed.

We also have works in Southeast Asia. The Living Waters Village in Kalimantan is home for about 700 children who were orphaned or abused/ abandoned by their parents. We are helping them design several facilities - from an air strip, to a 1200-seat auditorium, and elderly care facility for the older family members of the children to be cared for in the Village. Pastor Ronny Heyboer ,who founded the Village, wants the children to honour their parents as it’s commanded in the Bible.

I also lecture at the Singapore Polytechnic and, in 2017, started accepting interns, and focuses on students at risk. We expose them to our pro-bono humanitarian projects and we have seen how interns respond positively to the entire experience. Realizing how their skills can be used to make a difference in people’s lives have given them added meaning and purpose.

What have you learnt or how have you been changed through all these experiences that you have?

One thing we have learnt is that we must stay true to our call and our core beliefs. It’s easy to focus only on economic gains. We want our practice to glorify God, and build projects that will really transform lives.

We see God’s hand in the fruits of our work. In DR Congo, children used to be trained as soldiers to kill in exchange for food. The vulnerable get sold off as child brides; the defenseless coerced against their wills. In our schools, things are different. We provide the children with meals, love, and education for a better future.

We also see how God provides for us in our businesses. Once, when we were presented with a pro-bono University project, we weren’t sure how our involvement would look like – as a pro-bono project of this scale would require a lot of time and resources without the revenue.

We prayed, and felt God’s peace and leading to take this up. And when we did, God really surprised us - within the same month, we landed our biggest commercial project yet - a resort island project in The Maldives.

On another occasion, when we felt led by the Holy Spirit to hire and train genocide survivors who were architecture students from Rwanda. We knew it would also cost us a big sum of money. And praise God that when we obeyed Him, He provided. Soon afterward, we were awarded a very unique project - to design a production studio for a singer-songwriter in Taiwan and, through that, the funding for our African interns was secured.

Whenever we say yes to a missional project, God would never fail to provide. When we step into His vision, His provision always comes. It shows that we serve such a great, generous, and faithful God. Abba God wants us to serve our brothers and sisters without being short-changed ourselves.

For Christian business owners, I would say the most important thing is to sincerely seek God. Don’t embark on your own ideas, but seek God and listen for His assignment and leading. Do not despise what is in your hands, these are clues to the assignments God may have for you. And do not despise humble beginnings, it could be as simple as feeding one person and this is already delighting God’s heart. Remember that God’s economy is different from man’s economy. God is a God of abundance and can open heaven above for our businesses. God’s laws and economy work differently. The Bible says He measures the entire universe by the span of his fingers. That’s how big God is, and He can provide - just not always in the form and manner and timing that man can think of.

How can people contribute to the pro-bono projects that you are involved in?

We have various pro-bono projects in Africa and Southeast Asia. Perhaps God will put on people’s hearts how they can play a part to be used by God to impact lives and transform communities. It could be lending their direct expertise to help the schools, or contributing financially to help with the construction or operations (running the programmes and providing meals for the students), or any way that the Holy Spirit would inspire and lead. We would love to welcome like-minded individuals and corporations to come partner us in these Kingdom projects and experience what God is doing through and for His children and glorify Him.

Please visit www.genesis-architects.com if you are interested to learn more about our practice, or are looking to develop/ design your new space!