On 4 June 2022, the English Presbytery ordained Preacher Yeo Seng Yong who currently pastors the Chinese congregation of Living Praise Presbyterian Church. Preacher Yeo came to hear the gospel twice in his younger years, in both instances, shared to him by people who have backslidden and left the faith. In God’s good plans for Seng Yong, seeds sown in his heart would sprout to grow beginning with his army days while posted in Taiwan. Seng Yong recounted: “During the two months of military posting, I witnessed first-hand the corrupt nature of human beings. It shocked me in my fellow campmates indulging in pornography, prostitution, and drunkenness. They got into fights too with the locals, and tried to smuggle toy guns and pornographic magazines back to Singapore by hiding them in the army vehicle. But once we were back in Singapore, the same campmates who had lived wildly in Taiwan transformed back to their usual law-abiding nature. All this made me reflect on the problems in this world. I started to recall what the Bible wrote about sin entering the world, the corruption of human nature, and how accepting Christ who has died for our sins can be the only solution.”
Yong Seng then contacted a former classmate who took him to join a church service. He made a lot of friends soon, integrated to church life, and was baptized a year later. He looked back with full assurance that God’s word in Ephesians 1:5-6 materialized in his life - how God “predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.”
In preparation for the next important season of his life - marriage, he sensed God’s calling to full-time ministry too. After prayerful discussion with his wife-to-be and consultation with his pastor, Yong Seng quit his job and enrolled in Singapore Bible College.
Now as a pastor, Yong Seng is learning much in ministering to the Mandarin-speaking elderly. He does not see his work as an outreach to the sunset ministry, albeit his congregants are in their autumn season. He says: “The Han Chinese is still the world’s largest ethnic group, with Mandarin being the world’s most spoken language in terms of native speakers. If we are a mission-minded church, we should not undermine the importance of Chinese Ministry. Down the road, I will still see myself serving in the Chinese Ministry as a “local” missionary. I also hope to bridge the gap between Chinese Ministry and the other ministries. Not only just the gap in culture and language, but also the gap among different generations.”
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