Alumni Gordon & Diana’s Life and Ministry
EAST Alumni Gordon & Diana with friends at Reunion Dinner 2022
What is a “Safe, Sound, Sleeping Place (S3P)” for Kok Meng and Diana? No, it’s not their bedroom nor their home but a special shelter. Read on about the husband and wife alumni of EAST who ministers cross-culturally in Singapore and beyond!
- Can you (Diana) share how different it is spending CNY here (in Singapore) as compared to back in Shanghai or with your parents in your hometown in Anhui?
Of course, there is no firecrackers in Singapore! In Anhui, my hometown, we still can play with fireworks and firecrackers. My niece loves it. In the past, I would travel from Shanghai to Anhui for reunion dinner with my parents and sisters’ families. My sister and I would go to nearby village to buy CNY snacks and goodies. My hometown is a mountainous area near Huang Shan – my niece and I love hiking in the mountains during CNY. On the first day of CNY, my family normally joins the local church for service.
Alumna Esther on Life Lessons at EAST
Alumna Esther & Family
Esther is an EAST alumna who graduated with a Master of Divinity in Christian Ministry in 2017. She came from Indochina to be equipped at EAST. She came as a single lady and has returned to her home country married, and now has a son Josiah who is turning three. Together with her husband, they are pastoring a local church of over 40 members. Below is an interview of her experience at EAST, some life lessons and prayer requests.
Alumnus Matthew’s Calling to Mongolia
Alumnus Matthew Ong in Mongolian Countryside during winter.
EAST Alumnus Matthew Ong graduated from EAST with a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Ministry in 2018. He received God’s calling to Mongolia through a pastor’s light-hearted response to a baby’s cry in his congregation, “Is there a Mongolian baby crying in our midst?”
That question was God’s prompt in his heart back in 2014, which led to a friendship with the first Mongolian family (Luya and Tuul) attending his home church, Glory Presbyterian Church. Between then and now, Matthew has made four to five trips to Mongolia itself, getting to know the country and the people better.
“Now, I’m ready to go home and bear fruit.”
(Left) Mr Tan Eng Kwang, EAST Admissions Officer. (Right) Mr Vitou Ngeth, 2021 graduate, Master of Divinity in Christian Ministry.
Ngeth Vitou (Cambodia), MDiv Christian Ministry
“First we clean the land and let the cows soften the soil; then we let the land rest and heal, add in fertilizers and plant rice.”
Vitou, 33, speaks like a pro because from the young age of seven, he was already helping his parents on their three-hectre rice fields.
First, we clean the land
Vitou’s spiritual growth path started at 21 at a Bible School in Sihanoukville (western Cambodia), four hours from his hometown in Takeo. “I wasn’t a believer then,” he says. “I enrolled at the school only because it was free.”
The fifth child of a family of six children confesses that he grew up very angry about being poor. “I dreamed of finding a better life for my family; my father died early and my mother lived a hard life,” says Vitou. “But when I accepted Jesus in my first year at the college, my dreams changed to helping others find eternal life.”
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