YMI Magazine Sample Pages

Cover photo by Ian Tan Inside cover photo by Joshua Ong

YMI ©2017 Our Daily Bread Ministries All rights reserved.

Discovery House is affiliated with Our Daily Bread Ministries.

Requests for permission to quote from this publication should be directed to: Permissions Department Discovery House P.O. Box 3566 Grand Rapids, MI 49501 Or contact us by email at permissionsdept@dhp.org All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com Product Code J5756 ISBN 978-1-62707-808-5 Printed in the Singapore First Printing in 2017

The voice of Christian young people to fellow young people

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Facing life’s challenges 2

Living for His glory

Inspiring through art

YMI is part of Our Daily Bread Ministries.

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I S S UES 1 1 1 4

I Can’t Stop Sinning: What Should I Do?

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Why I Hated The Youth Ministry

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Letter To A Christian Misfit

The Day I Got Tired Of Going To Church

Why Love Isn’t A Good Feeling Why We May All Be Guilty Of Racism

Eat. Work. Play. Sleep. Repeat.

It’s a cycle we’re familiar with and may not spend much time thinking about. It’s time we pause, take a step back, and ask the obvious why: Why am I doing all these? Why am I feeling this way? Why am I alive?

At YMI (which stands for Why Am I?), join us as we ask questions about all that we’re experiencing in life.

Life should not be a mundane cycle. Let’s live for Jesus.

Let’s live for tHIS reaSON.

PEOPLE 40 44 48

Rapping And Dressing To Be A Blessing

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Quitting My Job For Nepal

To Reach The Poor, He Became Poor Where Gospel Meets Hip Hop

A RTS PACE

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Capturing Creation

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Bloom In Doom

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Broad Strokes, Big Reminders

Just Trying To Find Myself

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ISSUES

WHY I HATED THE YOUTH MINISTRY It took me just three weeks to conclude that I hated the youth ministry.

I think the feelings were mutual. And so I left.

WHY DID I GO TO CHURCH IN THE FIRST PLACE? WHOM DID I GO TO SEE? WHOM DID I WORSHIP? WHAT DID I TRULY SEEK?

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BY AMY JI fter six years, I was annoyed with the whole Sunday school affair. Crazy action songs. Kiddy puppet Bible stories. Even the sweets for reciting the week’s memory verse no longer appealed to the pre-teen in me.

overheard some of the youth leaders discussing how to “deal” with the “hyperactive” me. According to them, I wasn’t the “right fit” for this youth ministry. I was too loud and disruptive for their taste.

The youth ministry, however, sounded promising.

On occasion, they came to lead us in a time of songs. The songs they sung were loud and lively; they dressed well and sang passionately. In short, I thought they were very cool.

But when I finally got old enough to join them, it took me only three weeks to conclude: I hated the youth ministry.

A couple of months later, I had run out of excuses for not attending the Saturday youth service. Rather than risk incurring my mother’s wrath, I began to visit other church services that were being held at about the same time. At least I wouldn’t be lying when I told her I was going to church. And I reckoned that I would eventually find one that would suit me—where I would be loved and accepted for who I was.

In the first week, the girls sitting behind me “whispered” nasty comments to each other about my boyish dressing and choice of short hair. In the second week, a close friend of mine got herself a boyfriend and abandoned me. In the third week, I

This went on for about a year and a half. Visiting a new church, making new friends, discovering problems—the whole cycle would begin all over again. It was a cycle that not only wore down my selfconfidence, but also affected my belief in God. What

And so I left.

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Photos taken by

Radion International PEOPLE

ould you bear eating your deceased pet dog instead of burying it?

TO REACH THE POOR, HE BECAME POOR He cancelled his order for a sports car and gave up a high-paying job to embrace poverty and uncertainty. Eugene Wee shares what motivated him to take this bold plunge.

BY AlVIN CHIA

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That was one of the hard decisions Singaporean Eugene Wee, 35, had to make while living among the Hmong, an ethnic minority in Phetchabun, a province in northern Thailand, sometime in 2008. His adopted dog had been tragically run over by a truck that day and villagers were looking on to see who would take the carcass home to eat if no one made a claim.

Improving the lives of the Hmong was why Wee, a former public servant, had set up Radion International, a Christian non-profit agency, in 2007. Radion advocates putting the Christian faith into sincere, practical actions. The organization runs programmes to provide aid to marginalized communities. Their work includes sheltering the poor and helping at-risk children and youth who are vulnerable to vice and drug abuse, as well as women who are victims of domestic violence.

It all started with a feeling of emptiness when things were going well for Wee in his career. “I often pondered if a nice career, cars, and wine were all to

life and what would all these mean at the end of the day? What would I say when I stand in front of my Maker? That I have invested my entire life chasing the glitter of the world?” he says.

So he quit his job at the age of 26 to volunteer at a refugee camp among the Hmong for a year. After returning from the stint, he did more research on the Hmong community. He says, “The more I read, the more my heart bled. There were just so many needs, so many social issues, so many communities that have been unreached, yet so little help actually trickles to the ground.”

Despite that realization, he struggled to make the decision to go into full-time mission work for the long term. “I was torn between my career and going up to the mountains,” Wee says.

Two back-to-back sermons in his church from the book of Haggai finally convinced him. “The whole book of Haggai questions how we can continue to live in the comforts of excess when there is so much need out there,” he explains. He was particularly struck by Haggai 1:8, where God instructs His people—who had been focusing on building their own houses—to build 9

JUST TRYING TO FIND MYSELF PEOPLE ARTSPACE

BY JUDE DIAS, SHAWN QUAH, MICHELE ONG, ABIGAIL LAI, JOANNA HOR, VANIA TAN Throughout life, we’re always on a quest to find ourselves. What makes us who we are? Why is identity so important to us? These are the stories and struggles of different individuals. Which do you identify with?

It feels like my world is crashing down on me. Why is it crashing down? I’m scared. I didn’t do anything wrong.

Why is she leaving me? Why isn’t she saying anything?

Did I do something bad? Did I say something wrong?

What is happening? I feel like I am not myself anymore. What is happening to me? I am losing it.

I’m losing myself.

Nothing I draw feels good anymore. Every letter I write doesn’t look good no more. She inspired me. But she’s gone. I did so much. I sacrificed so much. For what? Am I really lost? Is it really all over? Forgive me dear Lord for pushing you away in all of this. You were always here.

From the beginning. You are still here with me and I never noticed. In my misery, I never saw you standing next to me.

Strengthen me O Lord. Heal my heart. Fill my mind with the thought of you. Give hope to my bones so that I can stand up again. Wipe the tears from my eyes so that I can see the beauty of your face. I want to hide so that I can heal. But I know that no matter where I go, you will find me.

Make me new again Lord.

Make me all about You. I want to believe.

I know you will.

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Why did I say yes again?

Hadn’t I decided to rest for a year?

It’s funny how I felt so tired from the last road trip that I told them no more. Now a few months later, they pitched another road trip to me. This time they promised a shorter route and I said yes. Why do I do this to myself!

My body says no but my mind says yes, yes to escaping from the mundane, from all the issues I am facing, from having to deal with people.

Into the excitement of travelling! Oh the food, the new sights and the fun we will have. I know that I will have to come back again to face these issues. But the addiction of travel has me locked down tight. Even now we are planning where to travel each year up to 2020!

But this is no different from running away, away from problems.

Did Jesus run away when he was facing the greatest problem in front of him? I wouldn’t have my salvation if He did. Am I going about all this the wrong way?

Help me Jesus to deal with my problems. Help me Lord not to attempt solving them in my inadequate ways. But to trust in you and let you work in my life. Help me Lord to lean all the more on you.

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