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by Josh Oldfield ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations...’ The Great Commission sometimes seems just a little too... great. 7.6 billion people. 7 continents. 7000 languages. 17,000 people groups. Two things strike me from those statistics. Firstly, that’s a lot of sevens. Weird. Secondly, the scale of the task. Jesus must be made known in all those languages. In all those people groups. I do not know where to begin. I am overwhelmed. I stand paralysed. Our world is bigger than it has ever been. Not just the number of people, but the number of connections. I have friends and family in six continents and I can interact with them all immediately across the internet. How many people in the history of our world could say that? G.K. Chesterton wrote to a guy called Mr Kipling. I really hope this was the cake guy, but I suspect it was not. Sad. [1] Anyway, he wrote this: ‘Mr Kipling, with all his merits, is the globe-trotter; he has not the patience to become part of anything.’ [2] Chesterton accused Kipling of being so obsessed with seeing the world all at once that he could not find his place in it, and I think we often do the same. The world is so big we become lost in it. We cannot find our place. We want to change the world for Jesus, but when we find we cannot do it all at once we become discouraged. I cannot both plant a church in Paris and translate the Bible in Peru. I cannot care for the homeless in London and serve the poor in Los Angeles. It is not possible, because I am not God. [3] So where do I start? Somewhere. Paul writes this to Titus: ‘The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.’ (Titus 1:5) Paul leaves Titus in Crete. He tells him to stay. Chesterton might say that Titus must become part of something. He stays in this place, with those people, ministering for this purpose. Has it ever occurred to us that even overseas missionaries, for the most part, live in one location: with those people, and that purpose? They don’t do everything. How do we respond then to such a big world and such a Great Commission? Start somewhere. Work out one or two causes God has made you passionate about. Support them. Pray for them. Give to them. And by implication, don’t give to other things. Become part of something by making the choice to not be part of that other thing. Most organisations would far rather you support someone wholeheartedly than everyone half-heartedly. We would love you to support a Bible translation project. We think that is one of the best things you could do to see Jesus made known. But we would rather you start somewhere – give and pray for something – and that doesn’t have to be Bible translation. [4] Whatever you do, have the patience to become part of something. You may find you help change the world. [1] It turns out he wrote The Jungle Book, which isn’t a bad alternative to cake. [2] G.K. Chesterton, Heretics (Massachusetts: Plimpton Press), p18 [3] OK. So it is theoretically possible, but highly unlikely. And probably highly stupid. [4] It’s worth saying you should probably start with your local church! Language group estimates are courtesy of the Wycliffe Global Alliance. People group estimates courtesy of joshuaproject.net . Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe UK .

Daniel, Wei Lei and Joshua Jesudason, a Singaporean family, served as members of Wycliffe Bible Translators among the Daga people from 1985 to 2005. This people group is located in eastern Papua New Guinea in the remote mountains of Milne Bay Province. The Jesudasons lived among them and translated the New Testament into the Daga language. This 14-minute video shows where they lived, aspects of the culture as well as the vernacular literacy programme, media work, social enterprise and community development projects. It closes with the celebration of the Daga New Testament at the dedication on 18 June 2005. Fast facts about the Daga: Population:13,000 Main language: Daga Religion: Christianity (60%) and Bahai Old Testament: No Jesus film: Yes

by Evangeline On a recent trip to Northern Thailand, I had the privilege to visit and stay in several villages with which Wycliffe is involved. Here are three lessons I came home with and prayers for the people I met during my stay: Trucks full of pumpkins Lesson 1: Fair trade for farming communities The family I stayed with for two nights in village A owned a ‘garden’. From the first day we met and ate together, they cooked delicious vegetables that had been freshly harvested from their garden. On the last morning before leaving the village, our host father and daughter took us out to their garden to show us their pride and joy. It was not a mere garden but a vast plot of farmland which stretched up and down the hills! On it, they grew pumpkins and squash, long beans, fruits, and many others. Although we politely declined, our host father and daughter persisted in plucking and giving us some of these produce, in particular, a type of pumpkin which he claimed was great for desserts. A few days after we had left village A, we stopped at a shop in a small town. Within moments, three small pickups full of pumpkins pulled into the garage next to us and started unloading them. They tossed the pumpkins one by one from the pickups to the boys on the ground who, with clearly seasoned hands, swiftly arranged them in neat little piles. A Wycliffe Thailand staff who was with me then told me that they were selling the pumpkins to the shop (the ‘middleman’) for a measly price, which would then sell them to big retailers for a large profit. We felt sorry for the men and boys who were laboriously tossing the pumpkins. I was also reminded of our host father and family from village A, who so lovingly and painstakingly grew and harvested their produce – they too would be like these pumpkin farmers, expending so much energy and resources, only to be exploited by the middleman. Prayer 1: pray for these villagers, that they will not only be blessed with a rich supply of crops to sell and feed their families, but also that they will receive fair trade for their produce. Lesson 2: A small act of kindness, a lasting impact One morning in village B, we were told a story of a lady who had been so poor that her body had not been able to produce any breast milk to feed her newborn baby. A kindly old missionary who had heard of her plight had bought her supplies of milk powder enough to feed her baby. It was because of this missionary’s loving act of generosity towards her, a stranger, that the lady and her husband had decided to give their lives to Jesus. They vowed never to forget God’s goodness. While having a drink at a roadside stall later that afternoon, the lady who owned the stall showed us some portraits of her recently married daughter and husband. She then proceeded to share with us how happy she felt for her daughter, but at the same time expressed concern that her daughter seemed lukewarm about her faith in God. If her daughter was not strong in her faith, how would the subsequent generations know the true and living God? She herself and her husband were believers in Christ, having experienced His unconditional love many years ago through a fellow believer. This lady was the poor lady who had received the gift of Christ through a simple offering of milk Prayer 2: pray that we will live our lives such that others will see Christ in us and turn to Him. Pray also for all the believers in Christ, young and old, that their faith and love for God will be passed down through the generations, such that God and His everlasting goodness will never be forgotten. Lesson 3: Learning from the poor widow My previous line of work had entailed countless visits and occasional stays in rural villages in two countries. Owing to these experiences, this recent trip to the villages, albeit in a different country and terrain from which I was familiar, thankfully did not come as a complete shock. Nevertheless, there were still many differences and adjustments to be made; there was the language barrier, an unfamiliar culture, and unfamiliar places and faces. One thing, however, never fails to impress me no matter where I go: the sacrificial kind of hospitality constantly shown to me. Each time I have stayed in a ‘poor’ village, my hosts have almost always, somewhat embarrassingly, apologised for not having ‘anything’ to give in return to what I have ‘given’ them. But I should have them know that the poor widow who gave two small copper coins gave more than the large amounts any of the rich people had put into the temple treasury (Mark 12:41-44). The simple meals that they so lovingly cook for me, the best rooms in the house they so sacrificially offer for me to sleep in… a fancy meal or accommodation offered by the monetarily rich could never compare to the hospitality and warmth my village hosts always extend to me. Prayer 3: in the more often than not materialistic world we live in, pray that we will think not like the world but like Christ, remembering to give sacrificially rather than out of abundance. On this note, I fittingly close by remembering Wycliffe members worldwide, as well as all our faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, who have given everything they have to serve God. May the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be praised now and forever. Amen. Evangeline currently serves as a Communications Executive in Wycliffe Singapore. She worked for NGOs in Cambodia from 2012-2016, with short stints in Nepal in-between.

Land Rover©MENA, Flickr.com We were in the Land Rover on our way to a children’s cultural festival hosted by a village school. “I say, Ali, how often do you listen to those stories on your phone card?” my husband Frank asked as we wound our way through the hills. My family and I had been living in this region for a number of years and Ali, a local man gifted in storytelling, had become a close friend. “Every day,” he answered. “Every morning I get up and listen, listen, listen.” Ali had been invited to share a short story during the program. The other passengers in the Land Rover were our children, looking forward to a lazy day in the sunshine. "Tell us what you're listening too, Ali," my husband continued. "I'm listening to the part about the Prophet Abraham right now," Ali explained, as he launched into the story about Abraham's descendants, namely Isaac, and the deception Jacob played to steal his brother's blessing. On and on Ali went, recounting chapter after chapter in accurate detail, entirely from memory. My heart swelled with amazement and joy as I listened to Ali and with pride as I watched my husband. Frank mostly played the role of uninitiated listener, but I noticed his questions were always timed over the places Ali left out an important detail or two. It was only when Ali got rather mixed up between the story of Abraham’s servant meeting Rebekah and the story of Jacob meeting Rachel – both of which happened at a well near Haran – that Frank switched his role to that of "expert" until the two stories got untangled. By the time we got to the village, Ali was telling us about Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams! The festival program began on time, by local standards. My children and I joined a crowd of young students sitting in folding chairs in front of the stage. There was singing and dancing; the children too performed songs and skits. As the music rolled, groups of men began to trickle into the school yard and occupy the empty space behind the seated audience. Before long, I noticed little knots of women bashfully slipping closer and closer, one bush at a time, on the high hill above the school building. After an hour or so, the ranks of women in the "balconies" had swelled to quite a crowd, and they'd forgotten their shyness and were openly enjoying the entertainment in the school yard below their perch. This was a multilingual event. Some items were in Arabic, others in various other languages the children had learnt in school. There were also songs and speeches in the local language, the heart language of all those gathered there. At last it was Ali’s turn. It was the first time I, personally, had seen him with microphone in hand in front of a large group of people. I was impressed by his calm command of the situation. "Well, do you want to hear a story?" he asked the children in his, and their, beloved native language. "Yes!!!" they chorused enthusiastically. And away he went, faithfully recounting the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Tears pricked my eyes as I looked around at the crowd, little children to old people, all sitting within range of the microphone, and all listening to something which they had likely never heard before. It was over soon, Ali stepped down, and the program continued. Wow. It was long past nightfall by the time the entertainment was over, chairs and equipment packed up, supper served, and we began the hour-long journey home. Two other men had joined us in the Land Rover. It wasn't long before Frank asked Ali if he had any more stories to tell us. Such a question for Ali is entirely rhetorical! He was immediately ready with his current favorite, Ruth. "It's a long one!" he warned his fellow passengers with a laugh. Ali started at the very beginning and went all the way through, pausing only when one of the passengers needed to answer the phone. Each time he hung up, the man turned to Ali, "Okay, keep going," he said. "You were at such-and-such a place." Tears again pushed against my eyelids as I listened. The children slept. The engine roared in the background. Ali’s voice was the center of the moment, and the men followed the story closely. What a holy moment! "Well, there you have it," Ali laughed contentedly as he relaxed in his seat at the end of the tale. "All 18 minutes’ worth!" "That is a good story," the other men agreed. "Yeah," Ali said. "But nowadays, there aren't many people left who want to hear these stories. Everyone is too busy with the internet, his phone, and all that." "Where did you get this story?" the other man asked. "Well, I listen to them a lot," Ali answered ambiguously. "It's a well-known story where I come from," Frank put in. "My father used to tell it to me." The other passenger spoke up. "That story is not just any story," he pointed out. "That's a historical account. It has actual places in it. Like Bethlehem. That's a real town still today." "You are right!" Frank answered in mild surprise. We had helped in the preparation and recording of these stories, and I think this was the first time anyone had recognized this place name as being an actual, physical location. As we pulled into town, I found myself reflecting on the events of the day, and I felt I saw His coming reaching further into this dark place. I felt a bit like Mary in Luke 2 pondering all these things in her heart. I wonder what this is the beginning of... Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe Global Alliance.

by Tan Huey Ying (Salt & Light) Photo: Gift Habeshaw, Unsplash “Hi, I’m David Tan.” “David … ten?” “No, tah-n.“ If you’re Singaporean (or Malaysian), it would be easy to hear, in your head, how this exchange had sounded. Dr David Tan, Executive Director of Wycliffe Singapore, introduced himself at a phonetics course in 2002. The trainer, who was of Caucasian descent, couldn’t quite catch Tan’s pronunciation of his name the first time. But he was determined to. Having spent several years in the United Kingdom, Tan was used to his name being pronounced differently so he was surprised and mildly amused at the effort that the trainer was putting in to “get it right”. Tan soon realised why that mattered so much. Heart language “I only spoke Hokkien for the first six years of my life,” he told Salt&Light. “In those days, if you’re poor, you don’t go to kindergarten.” Tan went straight to Primary 1 where he learnt English and Mandarin. But he was a Hokkien-speaker through and through. The years he spent in the UK did nothing to erase his heavily-nasalised intonation which was the influence of his Hokkien roots. (Hokkien is a language with a liberal bank of nasalised vowels such as png, which means rice.) The language that you grow up with as a child is a strong indicator of your social status and there is an element of judgment – mostly unfair – associated with it. Tan had felt the reality of this social stigma; in school, his “Hokkien-ness” had been looked down upon. So, while it had no bearing on his eventual academic achievements and his career, he never fully embraced his identity as a Hokkien-speaker. The first time that his “heart language” was accorded with respect by his phonetics trainer, Tan realised that his own experience was a small reflection of what speakers of “minority languages” go through. The Bible translation work that Wycliffe was doing had always made sense. But it suddenly resonated on a much deeper level. The God who does not eat alone Reaching people in their own language means more to them because this basic respect accorded to each one speaks of a sense of value, worth and status. It conveys the message: You matter. Words carry different connotations in various languages, so the same concept might be explained differently depending on the language used. The depth of their ministry is limited by the understanding of culture and language. This is the experience of missionaries, including Bible translators, across the world. Amongst the Makonde people in Moçambique, for example, generosity and sharing are the key values held above all else. So calling someone a person who eats alone is one of the biggest insults you can give. The love of God in John 3:16 was thus the most generous act of God toward all of mankind and the New Testament translation displayed a God who, like the Makonde people, values generosity and sharing. At the Bible dedication ceremony in 2014, a Makonde translator shared their insight of God: “Our God is not a grasping God. He is not a keep-it-to-yourself God. Because of His love for us, and His desire to bring us to heaven, He did not hang on to his Son. Truly our God does not eat alone.” Photo of a Bible dedication ceremony on Romblon Island, Philippines, in April 2019. In the 1990s, the late Phyllis Rappa, a Singaporean missionary, together with several local and foreign translators, worked together to translate the Bible into Romblomanon, the local language. The Gospel, when translated into the heart language of a people, says: “God speaks your language.” And they understand His character better, said Tan. That is how the Gospel takes root because Christianity, unlike other religions, was meant to be translated. Not just in language but in terms of culture. Only then does it transform people and cultures from the inside out. Changing times This is central to the work that Wycliffe engages in: Translating the Bible with an understanding of the culture of those whom it is meant for, and then discipleship through Scripture engagement. In the past, the job of Bible translators used to be a linear process: Get to an inaccessible and remote village. Live there, learn their culture and language. Translate the Bible with the help of native-speakers. Check, proof-read, print and then use the translation to teach and disciple the community. Each project, usually consisting of the New Testament and several other key books of the Old Testament, would take at least 10 years to complete. Times have changed, however. Isolated communities are few and far between and most people within the community can at least speak the national language. Technology and even socio-economic trends have impacted everything from physical accessibility to education. “We are not living in the Stone Age anymore,” Tan noted, adding that younger generations are also better educated than before. The key task at hand is still translation, he said. But the subtasks of use and distribution happen in smaller and faster cycles. The moment some chapters of the Bible have been translated – often by native-speakers who also speak the national language, you can get it printed, recorded into audio or visual format and then disseminated while the translation continues. From translators to church planters The role and work of a Bible translator has become something closer to that of a trainer and facilitator – sometimes even church-planter – varying with the political, social and religious contexts that they are placed in, from “open” countries like the Philippines, to other places known for their strict rules and limited freedom of religion. The power of the Word means that native-speakers who are involved in the translation work almost always become followers of Christ as well. Through daily and close interaction, Wycliffe’s Bible translators take on the roles of spiritual parenting to these new believers. They build spiritual disciplines, create small Bible study or “Bible-storying” groups that help believers mature in the faith. Naturally, the need for other materials that facilitate engagement with Scripture grows. Bible study materials, teaching videos and even songs have to be created – alongside the ongoing Bible translation. A bible-storying workshop held by Wycliffe in 2016. Tan, himself, has seen how a church is built as a by-product of translation efforts. A native speaker who came to Christ as a result of being involved in the translation process had the apparent gift of evangelism. Through her, the small gathering of believers quickly blossomed into a fellowship of over 50 people. Another native speaker was a young believer when Tan started working with him. But as Tan discipled the man over four years, he soon served as a key leader in the same fellowship. The Word at work To date, at least 1.5 billion people still do not have the Bible translated in their language and there are about 2,000 languages where no Bible translation work has even begun. But more than 2,500 languages have “active translation and linguistic development work” that is ongoing. One day there will be “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelations 7:9). Despite the change in the nature of the mission fields, Wycliffe’s raison d’etre remains: Translate the Word, transform the world. One life and one tongue at a time. Reproduced with permission from http://saltandlight.sg/service/wycliffe-translates-the-word-to-transform-the-world/.

This year, Camp Wycliffe brought us to a little village nestled in the beautiful mountain ranges of Chiang Mai. This mountain village is home to a total of just 16 households from the Kool* tribe, so it is a relatively small village. A simple wooden house serves as the church building for this cosy community of less than a 100, all of whom except one household are apparently believers in Christ. The most beautiful feature of this humble church building is that it is symbolically perched atop a hill, at the far end of the sloped dirt road which runs through the village. In this little village, we stayed for three days and two nights. All of us campers were divided into groups of three or four, and were assigned to stay with different host families in their houses. Although the villagers were from the Kool tribe and spoke the Kool language with each other, some of them also spoke and understood standard Thai. As such, every group had at least one member who could converse in Thai with our host families. On the first evening we arrived in the village, our hosts met us at the village church and brought us back to their respective houses. We enjoyed the pleasures of cooking (weak attempts), dinner, and warm albeit largely nonverbal conversation together with our host families, before taking a quick splash of a shower and putting on our Sunday best to head back up to the village church. Daylight was already waning and a light shower had formed by the time we started walking up to the church. My group’s host family waved us goodbye from the house as they told us that they would not be joining us at church due to the rain. It was slightly disappointing as we had rehearsed a special song in their Kool language as well as a skit about Jonah’s story to present to the villagers that evening. Many other villagers also could not make it because of the rain. In the end, only a small handful showed up. Nevertheless, the few villagers and us campers (and a host of insects!) were blessed to be able to worship together in the little church that evening. Picture this: a tiny wooden house surrounded by the darkness of night and pouring rain; huddled together inside the dimly lit house is a group of people of different colours, speaking different languages, worshipping together – a preview of Heaven… One church, one faith, one Lord. Written by Anonymous Wycliffe camper, 2019

Teaching older children. Why would a literacy trainer need to know how to give injections to ducks? Miss Wind is a young lady from a people group which is spread across neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia. The 22,000 members of this group in her country are largely marginalised, with many living in poverty in remote villages. Fewer than 2% of the people are Christians, and they face discrimination when seeking employment. Low literacy levels contribute to their poverty. Although the translation of the whole Bible was completed in 2014, it is in a Roman script which few can read. Miss Wind, a third-generation Christian, partnered with foreign missionaries in a city for several years to train literacy teachers from among her own people. The original plan was to train a few from each village to teach other villagers how to read the Roman script Bible. After some time, she realised that this strategy was not very effective as these teachers often got too busy with their lives after returning home and did not persevere with teaching. It became her prayer and dream to move to a village to live among her people. A year ago, her prayer was answered! She was finally able to move to a village and model the type of ministry she and her partners envisaged – integrating literacy training, scripture engagement and community development in a holistic ministry. She hopes that this will transform the lives of the villagers, not only through encountering God through the scriptures, but also through improving their overall health and well being. In previous visits, she had already built relationships with the local believers in this village, and the local pastor allowed her to have a little house built near the church for herself and a female friend. Living here, she is able to train villagers from three nearby villages to be literacy teachers, supervise them more closely, and provide immediate help and advice when they encounter difficulties. Teaching younger children in her home. The nearest school is half an hour’s walk away along a dangerous highway, and many of the younger children do not go to school. So Miss Wind decided to teach some of the village children on weekdays to read both the national language and Roman scripts, and also some arithmetic. She also integrates literacy training with Sunday school lessons. About 80 children ranging from 4 to 14 years old come to her house on weekdays or attend the church on Sundays. Injecting a duck. She also engages the children in a variety of livelihood projects, partly to generate some income for their families, and partly because they are more open to learning new skills and techniques than the older people. So far, they have helped her grow vegetables, raise chickens and ducks, and prepare the feed. She is also exploring the possibility of raising pigs. Being a town-bred lady, the learning curve has been very steep, and she has had to deal with a number of unexpected difficulties – for example, her ducks suffered from “duck arthritis”, and she had to learn to inject each one with medicine! Miss Wind also works with the ladies in the village, integrating literacy with lessons about healthcare and hygiene. Recently, she arranged for a village woman to learn dressmaking in the town. The plan is for her to teach the other women so they can earn some additional income from tailoring jobs. In the short time Miss Wind has lived in this village, she has developed good relationships with her neighbours. One family who had been opposed to Christians has allowed their children to attend her classes, and their children are coming to faith. Although her livelihood projects have yet to bear much fruit, she rejoices in the opportunities they give her to spend time with the children and women, and be the catalyst for transformation in both their physical as well as spiritual lives. Wycliffe Singapore supports work among minority groups in a number of countries to bring them God’s word in their heart languages. Find out more about supporting a project here.

Romblon – a peaceful island of crystal clear water, white sandy beaches and balmy tropical climate – what an idyllic place! But when Phyllis Rappa first visited the island, what motivated her to decide to live and work there was not the beauty of the place, but the needs of the people. Specifically, they needed to hear the word of God in their own language, a language which speaks to their hearts. She said, “I immediately felt peace and knew that God was leading me to that project.” The Romblomanon people number about 106,000, living mainly on the several islands which comprise the province of Romblon in central Philippines. Although most claim to be Christian, traditional animism and witchcraft still influence the lives and practices of the people. 30 years of service Phyllis worked as a secretary in Wycliffe Singapore before she joined Wycliffe as a member in 1987. After she completed her linguistics and other training, she left for the Philippines in 1990. She was assigned to the Romblomanon project in 1993, and remained with that project for nearly 25 years. Of course, she did not work alone – she was joined in 1995 by Rence and Pauline Law from Hong Kong, and worked alongside local translators on the team. Her first house had bamboo walls and a grass roof, with no running water or electricity! She used kerosene lamps and well water. Later she had a small house built near the beach which she shared with a local helper. Always fond of children, she spent most of the first two years learning language and culture by spending time with the village children and writing down her cultural observations in a notebook. She prepared a 1000-word dictionary, and studied the grammar and sound system of the Romblomanon language. Translation work is long and slow, and there are always many interruptions from village events, help requested by the villagers, personal health issues, etc. The team persevered and the New Testament was finally completed in 2017. During that time, in 2007, Phyllis had to return to Singapore for cancer treatment, only returning to the Philippines in 2009. Years later, cancer recurred, and she returned to Singapore in February 2016, passing away in September 2017. During that last period in Singapore, Phyllis continued to work on the translation when she was able. A grand celebration The Romblomanon New Testament was published in 2019, and the team organised a Bible dedication and grand celebration on 27 April 2019. It was a moving experience for many of Phyllis’s supporters. One of her long-time supporters said how she appreciated being able to see where Phyllis had lived and worked, and even eat at her favourite restaurant. Her nephew commented that the completed New Testament was a wonderful legacy of his aunt’s life. The Word became flesh Phyllis’s was an incarnational ministry. She gave up the comforts of Singapore to live among the Romblomanon people, share their experiences, play with their children, and show them God’s love. She went there knowing full well that others before her had experienced sickness and spiritual warfare, and she chose to return even after her first bout of cancer. Her aim was to help them experience the truth of John 1:14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Please continue to pray for the Romblomanon people as they hear God’s word in their heart language. May their lives be transformed by this Word! Wycliffe Singapore supports work among minority groups in a number of countries to bring them God’s word in their heart languages. If you would like to find out how you can be involved in this work, please contact us.

On 14 December 2018, 13 members of Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church left for Chiang Mai. Hannah Koh, as well as first-time mission trip participants and father-daughter pair, Ho Kuen Loon and Faith Ho, share some reflections from their experiences. Hannah Koh Upon reaching the city, we began a 2-hour journey up the mountains to the Bui* village. We were joined by a Thai team led by the director of Wycliffe Thailand, Pastor Tharawat. The next day we dived straight in, taking part in a gospel rally for the Bui people. We saw the Lord’s providential hand as He opened the door for the rally to be hosted by the provincial governors on their district office grounds. It began with a children’s programme in the morning, facilitated jointly with a church in Chiang Rai which we have partnered for 9 years. We thank the Lord for the children who prayed the sinner’s prayer to receive Christ. The day ended with a night rally which had a turnout of more than 600 people. It was a collective effort of a few churches in the surrounding area. We had a wonderful time of performances, testimonies and preaching. On Sunday morning, we were privileged to worship with the local house church in the Bui village followed by a lunch fellowship with the members of the church. We met again that evening at a local believer’s home for a time of worship, personal sharing and prayer. The next day, we returned to Chiang Mai for a day of learning and understanding more about the work being done by our mission partners there. Our first stop was Payap University where we saw the powerful work of the linguistics department which trains people for the work of translating the Bible into the local languages/dialects. Our team was given a hands-on opportunity when we spent the afternoon making clay bricks! This is an effort by Wycliffe Thailand as part of a community development programme to help villagers find more affordable housing options. We also visited the Wycliffe Thailand office where we learnt more about their various ministries and future directions. Finally, we were joined Pastor Tharawat’s cell group which was a time of encouragement and blessing. In the last leg of our trip we joined Pastor Tharawat’s church in setting up and celebrating a Christmas rally, and conducting a Sunday school programme for their children. Ho Kuen Loon and Faith Ho Faith It was the first mission trip for both of us, and the 11-day trip was a most humbling and eye-opening experience. Being able to embark on this trip with my father and a committed team was even more meaningful than I had imagined. Having this opportunity to share the Word of God beyond the reaches of my country and hear countless stories from various people was incredible. In the village, the pastor of the small home-church in the village shared his story of being wrongly accused of selling drugs after he had driven two men who were carrying drugs over the border. He was the only one arrested, was tortured to confess to a crime he did not commit, and jailed for almost 14 years. While there, he came to know Christ, and when he was released, he was not resentful, but rather, eager to serve God wholeheartedly. So what did I learn? What did I find? I rediscovered God in a foreign land. I had to recognise and come to terms with how often, in our safe and comfortable space in Singapore, I had relied on my own might rather than His. I had forgotten that God is so big, strong and mighty (as the children’s song goes), and is not limited to a place, or anything at all. There’s nothing my God cannot do. And as a disciple of God, I am called to Him, and called to ‘make disciples of all nations’ – not only people in Singapore, but people across borders, languages and cultures. Kuen Loon In the Bui village, we met the only 20 Christians among the 10,000 Bui people, a people who do not even read and write their own language. PSPC has been in partnership with Wycliffe missionaries in Thailand to do Bible translation, and they are now into the sixth year of the 10-year project. We witnessed their amazing work and faithfulness. I had always wanted to go on a mission trip but did not know how or when. When my 14-year old daughter, Faith, expressed an interest to go on her first mission trip, I told her I would go with her. We prayed about it and went on to find out more. When Faith decided to join this trip, I kept my promise and signed up too. It was a busy period for me at work and in church, and we had to forgo our usual year-end family vacation. But God is always faithful to see us through and expand our time when we are serving Him. It was one of my best decisions, and indeed special to participate in a mission trip with my daughter. We now have a common experience and our relationship has grown much deeper. I encourage parents to consider doing this with their children. I developed a deep sense of appreciation for long-term missionaries after getting to know the challenges they face. My main personal takeaway after the trip was that going on a mission trip was a key and most essential part of my discipleship journey. It reminded me that God has commanded us to go out and make disciples, and my relationship with God has grown deeper. In closing, I would like to thank God for this privilege of having had a front-row seat and firsthand experience in the field. * Not the real name. Adapted with permission from the article which first appeared in PSPC’s newsletter, Messenger, Jan-Mar 2019.

This Is Home, Surely? A Guide for Parents of Singaporean “Third Culture Kids” By Sharon & David Tan “Where are you from?” An easy question for most to answer, but a very tough one for Third Culture Kids (TCK). Children who grow up outside Singapore may not feel that they belong to Singapore, but they do not belong to the host culture either. An increasing number of Singaporean families are living overseas for various reasons, and their children are growing up as TCKs. On returning to Singapore, they have to adjust to Singapore culture, make new friends, and continue their education in the Singapore education system. This book provides Singaporean parents with suggestions to smooth their children's re-entry to Singapore. With experience drawn from the real-life experiences of the authors' children and others they know personally, this book will be helpful to families of TCKs through the whole process of preparing to leave Singapore, while overseas, and when they return. The Authors David Tan is the Executive Director of Wycliffe Singapore, while Sharon serves in Communications. They lived and worked overseas for more than a decade with their daughters, returning to Singapore when the girls were 14 and 16 years old. One of their responsibilities is helping families who are preparing to go overseas to plan for their children’s well-being and eventual re-entry. To purchase print copies, please contact us . Price: S$5 each (plus postage and packing if applicable). Ebooks are available on: Google Play (Epub) , Price: S$4; Amazon (Kindle) , Price US$2.99.