Myself - By God's Grace

Although I was born in a Christian family, the son of two missionaries, in Singapore, I only truly rededicated my life to God at the very end of Secondary Two, or 8^th grade. I was fortunate that my parents were strong Christians who ingrained Biblical values in me since I was young. I remembered how I was absolutely consumed with God, doing Quiet Time for at least an hour daily. I was fortunate to receive my secondary education in one of Singapore's best Christian schools, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent). At the same time, I was also fortunate to be part of the Boys’ Brigade, 12^th Singapore Company, a Uniformed Youth Organization in my secondary (high) school which stressed the application of Biblical principles in all aspects of the organization. After my appointment as Christian Education Non-Commissioned Officer (CE-NCO) in late 1994, I was fortunate to have Mr. Jonathan Ng, the captain of the company, who "adopted" me as nephew and was exceedingly generous towards me and my family. Although many times it seemed that as a missionary family we would be living on sunshine and fresh air, my family had always managed to meet our financial needs because of God’s grace through His servants such as Mr. Ng and many of my friends.

Mr. Ng, a Bible Study leader with 20 years' experience by then, began as mentor to train me systematically to grow as a Christian. Because of our organizational constraints, I was already placed in leadership positions at that age. I benefited from the experience, because of constructive (though at times blunt) advice given by him and many other older Christians, and because the environment was one where you would not be torn down if you made a mistake. The single most important lesson I learnt during these years was that the most important role Christian leader had was not to organize activities, write reports or manage projects. It was to nurture people spiritually.

Throughout my Junior College (11^th/12^th grade) years, I continued to serve and grow within the Boys’ Brigade. God opened the way for me to enter Raffles Junior College, the most prestigious in Singapore. It was officially secular, but it had a Christian principal and understanding teachers who were compassionate enough to grant me monthly financial aid and even to find someone to pay my examination fees for me. I joined the Student Venture campus ministry, meeting every morning (7.10am) before school started to worship God and listen to his Word. The very fact that these 80-strong public gatherings were allowed was an act of God; they were banned in most other colleges. With God’s grace, I was also selected as a member of our college’s canoeing team. I learnt a lot from my experiences in the team. One of my close canoeing friends, Adrian Lee, passed away in June 1996 as a result of a tragic accident (a car rammed into his bicycle from behind), but the testimony of his life and how God worked even through his death helped at least 17 people to accept Christ as their Lord. We were motivated to form a canoeing Christian small group as well. During this time, I attended Wesley Methodist Church, Singapore's largest Methodist church, and served in the Sunday School as a worship leader. At the end of 1997 I went to Jakarta, Indonesia to see the church my parents were pastoring. I was impressed by the heartfelt worship the Indonesians had, made a lot of friends among the youths there, and to this day I have a burden in my heart to pray for the people of Indonesia.

On Jan 21,1998, I entered into National Service. Because of that I had previously been relieved of my responsibilities in the Boys’ Brigade, but stayed in the Officers’ Bible Study as a member. My basic training was a fun time where I made a lot of friends even in the tough times we went through. It also opened my eye to types of people of different backgrounds which I had not mixed with before. My "A" Level Examination results came out in late March. To my surprise, I did better than I expected, and did not fail my Physics Special Paper as I thought I would. It was clear God was guiding me towards what he wanted me to be. I was to be a high school teacher. After a long and tedious selection process, I was finally granted the S$350,000-value Public Service Commission Overseas Merit Scholarship (Teaching) in August 1998. It was a real act of God!! I was one of the 100 in the entire country who were so fortunate this year. I disrupted from National Service in early August; at that time I was in Officer Cadet School, where I also grew a lot as a person, both in trusting in God and in understanding other people. I had received offers of admission from Brown University, University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "UIUC? What’s that? A washing powder??" That was my parents’ initial reaction to PSC’s advice to enroll there. Apparently it was the best in Physics among these three, so I thought that was a good enough reason to go there. God had better reasons.

Our last day in Basic Military Training School. My

section (Charlie 4 Section 3) - the best friends I made

in the Army. 5 of us were posted to Army or Police

Officer School - a staggering proportion.

August 19, 1998, I bid farewell to my parents, relatives and friends, and stepped abroad a Singapore Airlines flight for the adventure of my life. 10000 miles away from home, I learnt to be independent. It was a time when I grew spiritually as well. Not only did I have close Singaporean friends, I also had close friends among the Americans; included two adopted uncles one of whom, a retired UIUC arts professor, I spent my Christmas in 1998 with, and my Intervarsity Christian Fellowship small group – the "Eternal Brotherhood". God really blessed me and worked in my life through this small group, and I was able to sort myself out and grow spiritually because of the help which my friends had provided me. Indeed, it was no coincidence that I was here at UIUC – God had planned it all in advance.

The Eternal Brotherhood - my best non-S'poean friends

in UIUC. Actually only half are shown in this picture

because we haven't gotten down to a complete group

picture, even after a semester. (God forgive us

procrastinators...) But we're working on it...?

I’m still growing! There are tonnes of stuff I don’t know about God. I really want to keep growing in Christ and use the gifts he has given me to help others know God better too.

My experience as a young worship leader

At the end of my first year as a Christian, I was asked to prepare some songs for a Christian fellowship camp worship session. Similarly, in June of 1994, I was put in charge of preparing worship sessions for my Boys’ Brigade Company leadership training camp (LTC-2). Although my musical competency helped me get by these without fatal mistakes (eg singing in too high a key), I realized that I was in actual fact a young Christian who had no idea about the principles of worship; these were basically just sing-a-long sessions if anything. In late 1994, I was appointed the Christian Education Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO), and one of my responsibilities was to lead the Company devotions. I set about my tasks with great zeal, printing new transparencies, bringing in instruments such as the trumpet, keyboard and drum set, and bargaining for extended worship sessions. I even led a chapel for 800 students with my friends twice. But "it is not good to have zeal without knowledge". I realized I still did not know how to lead worship as it should be done.

I was part of the worship team for a special Boys' Brigade

service at Barker Road Methodist Church, in 1997.

In my Quiet Time with God, I learnt that basically God wanted me to concentrate on the roles of worship leading and training people. God used a breakthrough worship experience to encourage me to persevere in learning about worship leading. I began to read books on worship, talk with experienced worship leaders, buy lots of worship tapes to listen to how good worship is like. As a worship leader in my junior college Student Venture Ministry, I obtained the important necessary experience in a supportive spiritual environment. Also, I began to lead worship in my Sunday school periodically. I also continued to lead worship in the Boys’ Brigade occasionally as well. These helped me to practise what I had learnt about worship.

I think I am entering into a new phase in my development as a worship leader. God has opened new doors for me to receive further training, especially in the aspect of co-ordination of a praise band. I am excited about what God has prepared for me. Simply because I know I deserved none of these; God had given it to me out of his immeasurable, all-surpassing grace.

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© Copyright Wesley Cheong 1999