Stories of Hope

12/01/2025

In the span of a few years, Amanda lost both her husband and parents. All alone with two young children, she struggled to keep going.

One night in the midst of depression, Amanda heard a voice urging her to end it all. But when her daughter passed her a Bible and told her to read it, something happened…

08/01/2025

Evelyn Lee found her younger brother Bernard lying face up in the driveway of their friend’s unoccupied home.

A random stranger had st*bbed Bernard 13 times in the back.

Bernard Low, a realtor, had been preparing to rent out the property. The ambulance rushed to hospital but the 27-year-old d!ed on the way there.

Evelyn was distraught. How would she tell their parents that their precious only son – conceived after a string of 12 daughters – had been k!lled? Would they survive the shock?

Four decades after Bernard's tragic passing, his sister Evelyn shared her family’s story of unspeakable grief and pain … and the miracles that came out of her brother’s d*ath.

Evelyn Lee and her husband Georgie found her younger brother, Bernard Low, lying face up in the driveway of their friend's unoccupied home when they went to meet him. He was still alive but unresponsive.

05/01/2025

How did a former dr*g addict and a school teacher end up together? Swipe to read how love and forgiveness bridged the gap between them. 👩🏻‍❤️‍👨🏻

01/01/2025

At 15, Jenny Lim got pr*gnant and married a gangster boy. She was part of a female triad that got into fights, smoked, drank and gambled nightly.

She had four children with her husband, whom she divorced after discovering he had cheated on her. She was never around to care for her kids.

A school dropout, she dealt in p*rated cassette tapes, counterfeit health drinks and home appliances in Tanjung Pinang. She spent all her earnings on jewellery.

Then her drinking buddies got her hooked on dr*gs, and she lost everything. Even her family stopped picking up her calls, because she would ask for money or to be bailed out.

She was such a feared woman nobody dared approach her ... except for a Christian counsellor in prison.

Stories of Hope wishes all our readers a very happy new year and a 2025 filled with great new beginnings!

Jenny Lim was notorious in her kampong for being "havoc" (wild and uncontrollable). "Gangster girl", as neighbours called her, was just 15 years old when she got pregnant and married "gangster boy", who was 20.

29/12/2024

“There is a woman here whose child is having a brain problem. Can you come up, please? The Lord wants to heal your child.”

Kalwant Kour had been to countless doctors and healers. She finally brought her daughter to a healing rally, and heard this. Would her girl finally be cured?

25/12/2024

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” But what if it doesn’t really feel like it, and it’s a bit strange how everyone is joyful about the season except you?⁠

⁠Don’t worry, you’re not alone in facing the holiday blues. Read on for 4 rock-solid handles that will keep you going, grateful and connected to those around you.⁠

The year-end is touted as "the most wonderful time of the year". For those of us who don’t have many plans during this period … things might be different

22/12/2024

Jen Wang discovered she had aggressive cancer when she was pregnant. She decided to undergo chemotherapy despite risking the health and life of her baby. 🤰🏻❤️‍🩹

What made her so sure that she had made the right choice?

13/12/2024

In 2022, their first TikTok Christmas invitation went viral and garnered more than 100,000 views. It attracted close to 300 RSVPs.

Once again, David Loh and wife Esther Chua have issued an open invitation on TikTok to people in Singapore who may otherwise spend Christmas alone.

David Loh and wife Esther Chua have issued an open invitation on TikTok for people in Singapore who may otherwise spend Christmas alone. In a short video blasted out, the couple said: "It's the time of the year when it's really going to be difficult for some. Christmas is the time when the lonely ge...

12/12/2024

This Friday to Sunday is your last chance to catch “snow”, gift and craft stalls, Christmas carols and more at the 2024 festive market at Church of the Good Shepherd. But you can still walk into its compound every evening in December to enjoy the Christmas lights, and the peace and joy of the season.

There are also opportunities for those searching for a deeper meaning to life, as one 12-year-old girl – and subsequently – her father discovered.

Kaylee had wanted to attend church, but had been "too scared and shy" to attend on her own.

08/12/2024

Vivi was left to parent three young children alone when her husband Vincent fell back into crime.

Having lost his savings after his business failed, the former dr*g addict had resorted to trafficking dr*gs to pay his family’s bills.

He could not stop ... And she didn’t know how to help him.

So in desperation she pleaded: “Please let my husband get arrested!”

🧡 Read Vincent and Vivi’s story below.

04/12/2024

Two years after she got married, Aw Qi Qi’s past caught up with her.

She started getting flashbacks from the first nine years of her life. In her mind, she saw herself being caned while bathing, put in restraints in a dark place, being chased out of the house and being hit with a belt.

Each time a memory surfaced, it threw her into an emotional tailspin of d*pression, grief, shame and regret.

Qi Qi had told her husband about some traumatic events from her childhood during their dating days. But when these flashbacks started, she did not know how to tell him about them.

“I just asked for space to deal with them each time they came,” said Qi Qi.

“But it came to a point that I realised that it was affecting our marriage. As I did not want to talk about what was troubling me, we no longer communicated openly,” she said.

The su*cidal thoughts that had plagued her during her teenage years also returned.

Today (4 December), Qi Qi and her husband Jeffrey celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary. How did they make it work?

Two years into her marriage, Aw Qi Qi's past caught up with her. She started getting flashbacks from the first nine years of her life. It included being caned while bathing, restrained in the darkness overnight, chased out of the house, and hit with a belt for no reason.

28/11/2024

A Superhero Christmas party for the young and young at heart. A flashmob telling the Nativity story. A European-style Christmas market complete with falling “snow”. Church spaces twinkling with lights. Christmas church services and carols by candlelight.

Starting this weekend, Queenstown is set to be Singapore’s hub of Christmas festivities, with churches uniting to host December-long celebrations that welcome all to soak the glow of the love, peace, warmth and joy of the season.

See our guide for navigating the festivities.

A heroes Christmas party for the young and young at heart. A flashmob telling the story of the nativity. A European-style Christmas market complete with falling "snow". Church compounds draped in twinkling lights. Christmas church services – at least one with carols by candlelight.

20/11/2024

Samuel Lee’s father was mending a punctured car tyre by the roadside when he was knocked down by another vehicle.

By the time he was rushed to the hospital, his condition was critical.

The doctors delivered heartbreaking news to Samuel’s mother.

“The chances of him surviving were slim. Even if he did pull through, he was likely to spend the rest of his life bedridden,” recalled Samuel, who was just three at that time.

Samuel’s mother was overwhelmed with fear and uncertainty.

How would she care for a bedridden husband while raising three young children alone?

“Yet within a month in hospital, he was discharged – to the amazement of the medical staff,” said Samuel.

My father, Daniel Lee, was mending a punctured car tyre by the roadside when he was knocked down by another vehicle. He lay there injured and helpless for over an hour, before an ambulance finally arrived. By the time he was rushed to the hospital, his condition was critical.

17/11/2024

Richard Tan, a hardened drug dealer who fled Singapore, faced a shattering moment when his wife, who was arrested alongside him, was forced to give birth in a police station.

"It broke me completely. What kind of man am I if I can’t even protect my pregnant wife and newborn son?”

Visit our profile for Richard's full story.

10/11/2024

Mistreated since young and eventually abandoned at age 9, Aw Qi Qi grew up believing she should never have been born. But one day, when she was filled with hopelessness and despair, she heard someone say, "Come home, my child..."

Visit our profile and discover what saved Qi Qi from ending her life at 15.

03/11/2024

At age 12, he lost the ability to stand. At age 18, the muscles around his lungs and heart had weakened to the point that he needed round-the-clock medical care. At age 20, he had a near-death experience.

Nicholas Tham, now 21, has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic disorder in which muscles in the body are progressively lost over time.

Instead of dwelling on his fear of becoming bed-bound and trapped in a paralysed body while fully conscious, the plucky 21-year-old is learning to focus on the things he can control, such as drawing a design to be printed on merchandise that will be sold to raise funds for Singapore Christian Home, where he lives.

As for what he is unable to control, Nicholas commits it all to God.

Nicholas Tham was six when his mother noticed his gait was different from other children and took him for a medical examination. He was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic disorder where muscles in the body are progressively lost over time.

27/10/2024

Indonesian Pastor Chandra Tobing’s ancestors cann*balised the first two missionaries who came to their tribe.

The third missionary almost suffered the same fate. He was Ludwig Nommensen from Germany.

“But before they could k*ll him, there was a great thunder. The Batak people thought it was a sign from their gods, and released Nommensen,” says Ps Chandra.

What did Nommensen do differently?

Ps Chandra was 10 when his grandfather shared their family history which has been passed down through the generations.

“He said that many Tobings are pastors ‘because we have the meat and blood of missionaries in our body’."

Read how Ps Chandra channels his ancestors' ferociousness in a different way.

Chandra Tobing's story has curdled the blood of former gangsters and recovering drug addicts at a halfway house in Singapore. When the Indonesian pastor shared that his ancestors ate the first two missionaries who came to their tribe, no one wanted to share a room with him afterwards, he mused.

20/10/2024

Images of her pork lard rice went viral when diners started raving about it on social media.

It was something that Linda Ng ate as a child when her family didn’t have much money.

So rabid is the demand for the rice that she’s been offering it as an option on the omakase-style Nonya feasts she creates for private diners at her tastefully-decorated penthouse.

How did a Cantonese home-taught cook, who only had her first taste of Peranakan food when she met her husband, learn to whip up an inventive parade of dishes that keeps diners clamouring for more?

Bookings for March to July 2025 at Linda’s Table Private Dining will be released at noon, November 16, on Instagram (.pd) and Facebook (Linda's Table).

It started when she was five. She and her younger sister were living with their maternal grandmother, while their mum helped out in a shop and their dad worked in construction to support the family. "We left the house when it was pitch dark at 4.30am every day and followed our grandmother to the mar...