PARTNERSHIPS for KINGDOM WORK

Audrey Ong, Pastoral staff for Missions at Toa Payoh Methodist Church.

In Toa Payoh Methodist Church (TPMC), we understand and believe in partnerships for Kingdom Work.

For the past 20 years, TPMC has partnered with various missions agencies including MMS to send missionaries to different parts of Southeast Asia to minister and reach out to the local communities. Through MMS, we first sent our missionary, Carol Ong, to Cambodia and some years later, we sent Angela Sng to minister among the Shan people in Northern Thailand.

Working with missions agencies ensures that our missionaries are connected and taken care of when they are in the field. Over the years, we have also been able to see that our missionaries have developed and extended their ministries with the help of the missions agencies.

Angela and her husband, John Preedakasemrung, started their ministry among Shan children, providing a safe and nurturing environment to disciple the children at Term Fun Home. With guidance from the Pastor-in-Charge of the local Methodist church (Shineforth Methodist Church) they were serving in, they have also gathered and made disciples in a Shan congregation. Since 2018, the Shan congregation, now known as Mittaphab Methodist Church, has officially been recognised as a local conference in the Methodist Church in Thailand.

Term Fun Home, Thailand

Carol has also been able to start a new ministry in the last two years, reaching out to the local community where the residents work in the nearby factories in Odem, Phnom Penh. She has been able to tap on the resources including those of the Methodist churches in Cambodia and the COSI alumni as she started work at the Third Place Ministry.

The Third Place, Cambodia

In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak when the situation was uncertain and overseas travel was restricted, their work did not have to come to a complete halt. There was the network of missionaries to lend a hand where needed and to provide continued leadership to the ministries and the local churches.

It takes the larger community to advance of the Kingdom of God.

Partnering with missions agencies such as MMS has also meant that missionaries could tap on the resources and support of other churches and organisations within the Methodist network. It takes the larger community to advance of the Kingdom of God.