5 minute read
CALLED AND RE-CALLED
by Stanley Seah. Stanley and Bee Leng are in their sixties. They worship at Agape Methodist Church and were her pioneer members. Stanley was the first staff of the church and left to answer God’s call in 2018 to serve in Laos. Stanley enjoys playing squash and has joined The Belgian Club in Vientiane so as to continue his love for squash. Bee Leng enjoys trying new recipes when she cooks.
I went into full-time overseas in 1997 at the age of 40. Sometime in 2016, my wife reminded me that we always had this desire to serve in a less-developed land. After much praying and seeking the Lord, in 2017, we read in Harvest Force that MMS was looking for a couple to serve in Laos. After applying and going through the process in order to determine our calling and suitability, we finally left in March 2018 as a couple to help Singapore Mission School (SMS) in Laos.
From March 2018 till December 2019, my wife served as a Kindergarten Teacher and I as the Operations Manager. During those 22 months, we were able to help the children in the school, and forged a close, caring, and loving friendship with the people there. Our going there was indeed a Kairos moment. As I was on the ground, I was able to help implement the many operations and structural changes set by the School Board. My wife was able to step in to teach the K2 children as the then teacher had to go on maternity leave. The school gave us a memorable and wonderful farewell party when we had to return to Singapore to attend to some personal issues and family matters at the end of 2019.
In 2020, COVID-19 disrupted everybody’s plans and ours included. In September 2020, we were challenged by the late Ms Juliette Arulrajah to return to SMS as the school was in a transition of being handed over to MMS. As we had a meaningful and fruitful time there, God answered our prayers and called us to go there and serve again. However, due to COVID-19, we could only go back to SMS in October 2022.
Since our return, we have witnessed God’s bountiful provision and goodness in blessing the school.
Since our return, we have witnessed God’s bountiful provision and goodness in blessing the school. These are the blessings upon blessings which we have witnessed:
We saw an increase in the enrolment of students from around 70 plus in September 2022 to 105 in January 2023, and it is still increasing.
Donations of S$30,000 were received from an individual just in time when we needed to build up the third floor of the existing building to accommodate the increase.
Completion of the legal transfer of SMS to MMS was finally achieved in February 2023 after a lengthy process and application by our appointed lawyers that started at the end of 2020 with the relevant government agencies.
Although we had 105 students, we also began to see more wanting to enrol in our school. We had about 20 children waiting to join our Kindergarten 1. We then had to look at adding more rooms to accommodate more Kindy children. In God’s perfect timing, the tenant of our next door shophouse abruptly left the place in May 2023. We sensed this as God answering our prayers and therefore contacted the owner and successfully leased the unit in July 2023. This has allowed us to expand the then Kindergarten unit of two shophouses to three with that lease. Being adjoining units, the ground floor of the three shophouses became for us a big Kindergarten as the walls between them were knocked down to allow movement and better usage of the space.
We were also blessed to be able to recruit like-minded staff to cope with the increased needs. And we are still praying for more as we are experiencing growth in our enrolment.
We are so thankful to Agape Methodist Church’s strong support. Otherwise, we would not have been able to take this step of faith to go back to Laos.
God has indeed shown that He is faithful and our Provider in our times of need. We know that He will continue to bless SMS and us because this is His work. Do continue to pray for us to be in the centre of His will so that we can be fruitful here at SMS. To God be the Glory!
