Updates from the Kongs – Jan to Apr ’23

Dear friends,

We hope you had a good start to 2023 and a blessed Easter!

As 2023 began, both Jon and Phoebe sensed that this is a year which we are called to step out in faith. We submitted our letters of resignation to leave our local church as full-time workers by end-April.

We also began attending a Thai diaspora church, and are thankful for the opportunity to be involved in a Thai community in Singapore. The church is mainly made up of Thai ladies who are married to Singaporean men (when both of us attended the church, many of them were confused as Jon looked like a Thai and Phoebe looked like a Singaporean!). Many of these couples have children who are educated in Singapore and hence, have limited Thai language. The vision of the pastors is to plant seeds for the Great Commission within the families, so that they can eventually bring the gospel back to Thailand. We have heard many testimonies of the ladies going back to their hometowns to share the gospel and conversions taking place. We praise God for how He has been using these sisters in Thailand!

Thus far, we have been helping in child-minding duties and translating the services from Thai to English for the Singaporean husbands and visitors. Jon has also been invited to preach at the service end of this month.

Photos above: Jon and Phoebe taking turns to help in the translation of the services. Translating the services from Thai to English has been very challenging but fulfilling. Through the process, we force ourselves to pay attention to the speakers and learnt many new Thai terms. We are glad that we can serve the church in this way as we have been wanting to contribute to the community and this is what we have been asked to help in.

Jon is thankful that the person who is due to take over his work at church is adapting quickly and becoming more familiar with the tasks required. He is reminded that despite all human effort, all work belongs to God and despite our own failings and incapabilities, it is God who will sustain His work to fruition.

In March, Jon was glad to be able to host a missionary in Thailand with a team of Thai teachers who came to visit Singapore for a week. Both Jon and Phoebe were blessed with the opportunity to hear from the Thai missionary and for the chance to fellowship.

It is a bittersweet experience for Phoebe to be leaving as a full-time church worker. She truly thanks God for the God-fearing and like-minded co-workers that He had sent in her path. As Phoebe reflects on the past two years and four months of serving in outreach work, she is grateful for the many opportunities to be involved in sharing the gospel to both the young and old. It has been a privilege to witness many hearts turning to Christ! Here are some highlights:

• Last July, before Mdm D’s husband passed away from terminal cancer, both Mdm D and her husband received baptism in their rental flat. We rejoice that Mdm D’s husband accepted Christ at his deathbed. Mdm D was brought up in a Christian family but did not attend church regularly due to busyness of life and her pre-believing husband. Since the passing of her husband, Mdm D had been attending our church’s Mandarin service faithfully and was accepted into membership on Easter Sunday! Do continue to pray for Mdm D as she grieves her husband’s death and handles life and her health issues.
• Mdm T responded to an altar call at a Mandarin mid-autumn evangelistic outreach last September. She then responded to another altar call at a Christmas outreach event and said that she would like to be baptised. Chinese New Year came in February and she responded to the altar call a third time. She finally received baptism in March this year! May Mdm T continue to find joy and certainty in the Lord’s salvation.
• Last Christmas, Phoebe had the opportunity to share the gospel to ZQ, an eight year-old girl who comes regularly to the drop-in centre. The centre is usually filled with noisy kids, however, that afternoon, God protected the time for Phoebe to have one-on-one time with ZQ to have a simple activity of Christmas cookie decoration, and to share about the birth of Christ and why He came into the world. Praise God, ZQ shared that she believes Jesus died on the cross for all sins to be forgiven! Although ZQ is from a Buddhist family, her parents buy her Christian books where she had already read about Jesus. Pray that she will continue to grow in her faith.

However, sharing the gospel is also full of obstacles. In a recent Easter outreach event to kids at the youth centre, a Chinese pre-teen came in with a hijab and claimed to be a newly-converted Muslim. She shared that she learnt about Islam through the internet and was not influenced by her parents and peers. Pray that God will reveal Himself to her during this stage of exploration. When the Easter story was shared at the event, a few kids responded negatively while others wanted to find out more. Indeed, it takes time to sow the seeds of the gospel into the hearts of people. Phoebe was reminded that when the Apostle Paul shared about the Creator God or “unknown god” at Areopagus, some mocked, others wanted to hear more, and some believed (Acts 17:16-34).