Antoinette: He would backslide, disappear from
maybe more of an older brother and friend. There were
church, then come back and receive Christ all over
times in the early days where he would miss church
again. Every time he came back, a few of us would catch
and my wife would ask Brother Samuel Ko, the then
hold of him: ‘Eh, tell us, what have you been up to?‘ and
president of Christ’s Ambassadors (the youth ministry)
we would just welcome him back.
and I to go visit him to see what was wrong. Usually it was disappointment over some issue but he would get over it quickly.
Yat Wan: Getting him to
What challenges did you face as his Spiritual Parent?
memorise Scripture! After much
Antoinette: He would dig into the Word, dissect it in
perseverance, he did well. Our
all directions and ask me many questions which I couldn’t
community spirit was the glue
answer! Because I couldn’t answer them, I would take
that bound us all together. We did many things together: played games, swam, went to church, attended youth meetings and
them down, ask my boss Pastor Dowdy for the answers, and then get back to him. But by then, he would have more questions for me!
had many overnight beach prayer sessions. We built our friendships and were strong as a community. In those days, we did not have modern conveniences like
Yat Wan: Yes, several occasions,
mobile phones, SMS, Internet, Facebook, blogging, etc.
in fact! He rebelled, stopped
Nothing beats the face-to face interaction of personal
attending church, ‘backslided’ and
care and follow-up!
ignored our best attempts to contact
Do you recall a particular incident where you felt like giving up?
him. Eventually, prayer and continual perseverance
Mervyn: I wouldn’t consider myself his spiritual parent, 62
brought him back into the fold. The youth camps,