Pilgrims on the Journey
“One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” (Psalm 145:4)
The Bible speaks often of passing on our faith and testimonies to the next generation. This is instrumental within the church family, where we have the privilege of interacting with someone else’s toddler, child or teenager and also someone else’s parent or grandparent. From peers, we enjoy camaraderie and shared struggles; from older saints, we gain a mature perspective and pearls of insight from living their faith and having it tested and refined.
We spoke with two couples of different generations: Vincent and Sachie Ong, and Mori Shigeyuki (known to many of us as "Shige") and Kitty, on how they journey and encourage one another in their walk with God.
A providential encounter
Vincent and Sachie first met Shige and Kitty through an unexpected turn of events which led them to GBC. Vincent recounted, “We met Uncle Shige when we visited Japan Christian Fellowship Church (JCF) at Minden Road. After the Fukushima incident, many parts of central and northern Japan were affected. Communications were cut off and Sachie was very worried about her family. At that time, Sachie wanted to be connected to God again so we decided to find a church. At JCF, we met Uncle Shige who was translating the sermons from Japanese to English. While Sachie could fully understand the Japanese sermon, I could not so I was actually listening in via the translator who was Uncle Shige. Uncle Shige shared that he actually worships at a local church which is GBC, where his family including Aunty Kitty, Toshi and Kiyoko worship at.”
Shige then encouraged them to visit GBC as he felt that it would not be easy for Vincent to continue at JCF because he would have to rely on a translator. So after visiting JCF a few times, Vincent and Sachie decided to visit GBC to see what it was like and they have stayed on since. Vincent expressed that it was God's plan for them to meet Shige at JCF. Through that encounter, Shige and Kitty also became their marriage mentors, alongside GBC’s then pastor, Pastor Arnold and Effie.
From L to R: Effie, Pastor Arnold, Sachie, Vincent and Kitty
God’s sustaining grace
Shige and Kitty Mori have been ministering to younger couples, in particular Japanese interracial couples, as they have a heart to evangelise to and disciple Japanese and they themselves are in an interracial marriage (Shige is Japanese and Kitty is Singaporean Chinese). As they got to know Vincent and Sachie, they started a Bible study with them and began to journey with them in their walk with God.
We asked Shige and Kitty why they are drawn to ministering to young couples such as Vincent and Sachie. Shige explained that older couples, having lived longer and thus having had more life experiences, would have gone through more trials and sufferings. Through these sufferings, many would have grown in their faith and hence would be able to point younger couples to God and encourage them to persevere in their walk.
Drawing on his own life experiences, he shared how God has grown his faith through suffering: “When I came to know the Lord, I came to realise that I was dead in my sin. After knowing Christ, I came to realise that while I have a new life in Christ, that does not mean everything has changed. It is a really gradual change.
I was given the opportunity to get married, the opportunity to have Toshi and Kiyoko; and business wise, I prospered. Through my business, I thought it was necessary to spread the gospel to the employees, suppliers and even customers. That’s what I did for ten years: first to let people come to know the Lord, and after that grow the company. That was the belief I had and the business prospered. But after ten years, the Lord took this business away from me, and I cried out to the Lord, ‘Why? Am I [not] serving you? I was serving you Lord, why do you take this business away from me?’ I really cried out. For a period of time, I was very down, I thought ‘Why did this happen? Why did this happen to me?’
But I came to realise, without this kind of discipline from the Lord (Heb 12:7-11), if I went on with the prosperous company, surely I would become proud. So He took the most important thing I thought for me, from me. And I came to realise the most important thing is the Lord!”
Shige continued, “After that, I recovered from a kind of depression and gradually came back to the Lord. I studied God’s Word, started teaching the Bible, and that made me grow a lot. So I recommend anyone who wants to grow— teach the Bible, so that you have to prepare and so will learn! And also listen, be quick to listen, slow to anger. This is how I grew. In my case, my growth came from suffering. It is very hard, but if you really depend on the Lord, come back to the Lord, suffering is probably the best way for us to know Him much deeper.”
Seok Eng then and now.
From his experience, Shige realised that the Lord allows suffering to come to us so that we can learn to stand firm in our faith and in His word. These lessons from suffering are one of the things older people can share as they share their lives and of course the good things in life as well! He sees precious value in sharing how their faith is lived out, focusing especially on how the Lord was with them and encouraged them, and how they grew to be more like Jesus.
Reciting Romans 5:3-5 by heart, Shige said, “We can even rejoice in the time of suffering, because suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces proven character and proven character produces hope and hope will not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Just as I have been encouraged by the Lord through suffering, when I listen to young people’s problems patiently, I can encourage them that we can rejoice in a time of suffering which will produce perseverance—this is like sanctification—becoming like Jesus. Clearly, the apostle Paul says that suffering can change us, together with God’s Word, so that’s how I share my faith with the next generation.”
Agreeing, Sachie added how her faith has grown as Shige and Kitty walked with them through the loss of her first child, “My faith has surely grown after we lost our first child. Uncle Shige and Aunty Kitty were with us through that time and fellowshipped with us. He strengthened and guided us through the study of the Bible and encouraged us to trust God through the difficult seasons. He also prayed for us continuously and committed to meet us every week—all of that was done in love.”
Vincent echoed how his faith has grown through the years as he delved deeper into God’s word and also sought to love the church through service, “Before I met Sachie, I worshipped at True Way Presbyterian Church. I knew God but I was just like a ‘Sunday Christian’. I visited church on Sunday mornings, listened to sermons, sang a few hymns but that was about it. I didn't really think much about God at that point of time and what He is doing in my life and how Jesus had given up His own life for the salvation of us all. My faith has grown a lot since I visited GBC. I have served in Sunday School before and now I'm a CLOBS Bible study leader through encouragement from my care group. So that helped a lot.”
He highlighted another example of how Shige and Kitty have been instrumental in helping him and Sachie, “Uncle Shige shared that we could face struggles because we come from different backgrounds and cultures. He told us that living together will not be an easy task, but as long as our hearts are centered around God and with His Word taking root in our hearts, we will be able to forgive one another. We can also be more gracious, loving, forgiving, and able to understand that God put us together for a reason and we are to live out God's plan for us.”
Pilgrims on a journey
In their years here, Vincent and Sachie have also made friends with peers around their age. These relationships have also helped them to grow. We asked them about the difference in seeing and learning from someone older compared to people in a more similar season in life. Vincent explained, “I think this is more of a personal question of whether you are comfortable learning about God with an older person or with a person around your age with whom you share similar struggles. It's a combination of both for me because we have older saints in the church who have more experience, as such they are able to provide godly and sound advice on various issues to both Sachie and me as well as other young Christian couples, such as how to build our home centered around God. At the same time, it is also a good thing if we are learning about our faith with someone around our age group because we'll be sharing the same struggles and we can try to encourage one another through difficult times. We know that we are not alone in this and can thus help one another to persevere. Hence, I think walking with both age groups is very beneficial to the Christian growth.”
Shige and Kitty went on to highlight that our walk with another generation isn’t always unidirectional, “Younger people actually can help the older people—older people are becoming weaker and less active and in a way, sometimes discouraged in life, so younger people can encourage older people. This is very important especially in a care group, the older people can benefit a lot from the younger people.”
Kitty added that such intergenerational fellowship is very important and it benefits both the young and old. She emphasised that both parties must be willing to share, not pressured to share but just being comfortable with one another and have the willingness and commitment to walk with one another. She expressed, “We allow them to ask us hard questions. We are open to share even our quarrels!”
She went on to encourage the younger generation to not be afraid “to approach the elderly, to get to know them, and maybe invite them for a meal, and have a chat once in a while.” Shige added, “Older people need to talk to younger people, I keep myself young by talking to younger people. Older people are lonely in a way, the younger generation can talk to the older people. Just talk to them and that makes a big difference because I can tell you they are normally lonely.”
Persevere in the race
Finally, Shige exhorted the younger members to not give up but to be faithful to the gospel, saying, “Some of you have parents who are still not believers. Do not give up, continue to share the gospel. I encourage you to never give up until the last moment. Because according to the Bible, an eternal death or eternal life with the Lord is a big, big difference. The reason why the Lord saved people like us is so that we will share the gospel. And that’s really the only purpose He really saved us [for]. We must not forget this.”
And to the older members, he exhorted similarly, “Until the Lord takes us home, He has a plan to use us. Continue to seek what His use is. Like I said, the answer is very clear—to share the gospel. It may be to share the gospel with a neighbour who does not know Jesus, or to share the gospel with the non-Christians around us. As long as we keep that in mind, the Lord will continue to use us until He calls us. We can’t save, He’s the one who saves but He uses us to share the gospel. When one soul is saved, all of heaven rejoices and we rejoice too."
Kitty summarised, “We can ask ourselves, ‘What legacy would you like to leave behind?’ Having journeyed with the Lord, be it short or long, from the time they came to know the Lord, is there a legacy they would like to leave.”
Shige also encouraged older members to continue to pray for the younger members. “Prayer is very important, because the Lord listens to our prayers when we pray according to His will. Surely prayers for encouragement are according to His will and He listens. Pray for the family, children and grandchildren, generation to generation, and pray for all your colleagues and of course for younger people. Prayer is one of the important roles for all the folks.”
Sachie chimed in, “I have been very encouraged by the experiences and wisdom of Uncle Shige and Aunty Kitty. As I age, I would like to be like them, to sacrifice my time for someone else and walk together with them on the faith journey to show love, kindness and care that I have received.”