"We are not alone. Our kids are not judged here."
"Meltdowns in public were very frequent when they were younger. They would roll on the ground, scream and cry loudly, bite, kick and hit us," shared Melinda.
Young Voices Alfie Lim is a 28-year-old lawyer and serves in the Youth Ministry at Christalite Methodist Chapel. / Photo courtesy of Alfie Lim
"I can still recall one particularly stressful incident. The boys went totally berserk at an MRT station when they were about 15 years old. Benjamin was triggered by something and started shouting. That affected Alex. Both started running around and shouting, alarming the other commuters. My helper felt helpless and was sobbing away. I rushed down to find the three of them in a room with nine station control staff trying to calm them down. I felt so humiliated, desperate, frustrated and stressed." To find a place like GEMs has been a huge relief for Adrian and Melinda. "We feel very well supported here. We are not alone. Our kids are not judged for their behaviour. It is like a big family where the children can make friends outside school. The children look forward to attending GEMs every Sunday," she adds. The blessing that the GEMs ministry brings is best expressed by its members. "Yi Cai and I were in the same school but we never met in school. We met here. I like to dance and worship God with my good friend, Yi Cai," said Joanna. Yi Cai, who is autistic, nodded in agreement.
The GEMs team welcomes volunteers to join them in their mission. Email Pearly Sim at
pearlysim@faithmc.sg for more information.
10 Methodist Message
October 2022
"I am thankful I got caught because otherwise I would have just continued what I was doing." "Actually, we can be thankful that we have food and a roof over our heads."
T
hese are snippets of what inmates have shared with me in my short time volunteering with the prison fellowship ministry. The story begins sometime in late 2020, shortly before Covid-19 hit. I had borrowed and read Jason Wong’s Trash of Society: Setting Captives Free. The book traces the author’s journey of faith and work, including, among other things, his substantive contributions to the Yellow Ribbon Project and his years working for the Singapore Prison Service. It revealed to me a compelling alternative vision of hope and flourishing even in the midst of what most reasonable persons would consider to be a terrible state of affairs—imprisonment. After some prayer and reflection, I signed up as a volunteer with Prison Fellowship Singapore, to support their work despite being relatively young compared to the typical volunteer in this ministry, as I only came to realise subsequently.