Exploring Our Backyard

From 2 to 8 August, a team of five students and two staff from Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS) Macao were hosted by NUS students from CVCF and VCF’s International Friendship Group (IFG). This was part of IFES East Asia’s new exchange programme, Student Exploration, Encounter, and Discovery (SEED). Through SEED, students explore new perspectives on student ministry through interactions with peers from a different movement, learn how to extend hospitality, and broaden their sense of worldwide missions. Two students who hosted the Macao team share their reflections below.

Receiving each other at the airport

During the visit, we toured a broad range of sites: churches and cathedrals, Trinity Theological College, NUS, and even spent time in one of Singapore’s most under-resourced estates. The programme intentionally showcased both Singapore’s well-known landmarks and its lesser-seen aspects. As hosts, we also served as guides, preparing background briefings and interpreting the history and cultural context at each stop. I personally brought them to see the local Peranakan culture and explained its social significance.

While the Macao team demonstrated courage by coming to a foreign country to learn about our student ministry, I found myself needing to gather up a different kind of courage, namely that of representing my community. I wrestled with questions such as: “Am I sufficiently prepared to answer their questions? How well do I understand our own practices and history? What concerns might they have brought with them?”

Despite my anxieties, their warmth, curiosity and receptiveness created a safe environment for exchange. I observed God working quietly through their openness, which in turn freed me from fear and allowed authentic sharing.

This experience has reshaped my understanding of hospitality. Rather than a superficial “niceness,” hospitality emerged as layered and intentional. It involves deliberate choices about what we offer, our stories, context and rhythms of life. It also involves creating space for reciprocal learning. The visit also prompted a personal reassessment – as a local, I had become comfortable with daily practices and cultural touchstones to the point of taking them for granted. Hosting an international group permitted me to slow down, re-learn our identity and present it with renewed clarity and purpose.

Isaiah Yee, NUS CVCF, Nursing, Year 3

Considering our colonial history at CHIJMES

We brought them to various churches in Singapore to learn about the local landscape of Christianity, ranging from larger contemporary churches like New Creation Church to historical churches like Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church, and even Trinity Theological College. Besides the “tourist” things like trying local delicacies, we had a guided tour around Jalan Kukoh, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Singapore, led by Dr Tan Lai Yong (see featured photo).

We also spent an afternoon in NUS, which was a personal highlight for me, as we learnt about each other’s CFs. Compared to FCS Macao, we are blessed to have many CFs across different campuses. Being small, they faced limitations in engaging the campus and at times lacked staff workers for the ministry, yet they remain faithful in spurring each other to good works and engaging with His Word assiduously. However, they do encounter similar difficulties with us, such as the youths being less “religious”, or Christian youths being split between serving in church or CF, and Christian youths wrestling with complex social or academic issues. Knowing that we all, across the world, undergo similar trials, 1 Peter 5:9 reminds us to resist and stand firm.

It is also heartening to see that the Lord of the harvest has been bringing in the harvesters to sow the seeds of His Gospel across our generation – the call is for us to be faithful to heed this call, regardless of where we are globally. All creation seeks and reaches for Him, yet He is not far off, whether in Macao or Singapore; may we offer to be His hands and feet to draw all men to Himself.

Warren Wong, NUS VCF, Social Work, Year 3