CALLED: SK Lye of SIM East Asia

BY TIM ALLAN

God can call people into mission at any time. For some, he places it on their heart when they are very young, but for others the process of leading, guiding and shaping takes much longer.

By his own admission, Sue Kheong Lye definitely fits into the second category.

SK, as he is known, gave his life to Christ in his teens but God then moulded him for more than 30 years before moving him into fulltime mission work.

He said:

“When I look back, I can see how God has been so gracious to me. Very rarely have I felt God’s call on my life, but I can see that he has been opening doors and closing doors to bring me to full-time mission work.”

SK was born into a non-Christian family in Singapore, the youngest of three brothers and with a younger sister. In that family, he is still the only Christian.

His parents were Taoists and practised ancestor worship, but still sent their three sons to a Christian mission school, perhaps drawn by the subsidised fees and the high quality education.

SK says: “When my oldest brother started to talk about church, my parents were very opposed and stopped him going. Because he was the oldest, he had the responsibility of keeping the family name going and they did not want him to become a Christian.

“They were not happy when I started going to church, but they didn’t stop me. When I got baptised, my father did not come, but my mother did.”

SK’s career has taken many twists and turns. He started in the Singapore Air Force, then gave that up at the age of 31 to study in the UK. By that time, he was married to Christina and they had two young children – a son, Deming, who now has three children of his own in Singapore, and a daughter, Mei Xuan, who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The family intended to spend two years in the UK, but ended up staying for 13, after SK completed his PhD and became a university lecturer in information technology. They returned to Singapore in 2000, so Deming could comply with his national service obligations.

That led SK into a variety of jobs, first as an IT management consultant and then as a high-powered civil servant. All the while, God was opening some doors and closing others. Eventually, and after much delay, God led SK to RBC, an international mission now known as Our Daily Bread Ministries. RBC’s International Director approached SK about a role, but when SK asked for time to complete his work contract, he approached Christina.

SK says: “He later told me that if you get the wife, the husband will follow. It’s ‘buy one, get one free’! He was very right.”

Two years later, SK followed Christina into RBC, joining to head up their IT and Communications departments. When RBC decided to re-structure and turn the international office into a regional office, it seemed that door had closed. But God opened another.

SK says: “Christina and I had heard about SIM and we felt God wanted us to serve as paid administrative staff. Christina had looked at working with OMF but that was a self-supporting role, and I’d had an interview with a UK Bible college for a registrar’s role, but that was also self-supporting. We were still talking to SIM, thinking we would be suitable for salaried roles. But when we started talking to them, they made it clear that they wanted us to take on director level roles, which meant we would have to raise support!

Christina went on to serve for five years as Personnel Director, before taking a missions role at Bartley Christian Church, SIM’s founding church in East Asia.

SK is still serving SIM East Asia and has also been helping with the regional leadership development programme. He is very open to going wherever God leads him.

He says: “I think God has been preparing me throughout my life, teaching me to be obedient to his call. Even in my disobedience, he was always there, leading me to this point in my life. It is my belief that God calls me to service for a season. As such, I do not see myself as serving till I retire. I also see God as using each season to teach and grow me for the next season of service, wherever that may be. Hence, I am learning to ‘go’ when the next ‘door’ is opened by God."

PLEASE PRAY

• For God to make it clear to SK and Christina where and how he wants them to serve in the future and that SK would sense God’s leading as they come to some decisions.

• That SK would be able to take a greater role in the Regional Leadership Development programme to help equip future leaders for SIM East Asia and other entities in the region.

• For God to help SK and Christina balance the demands of ministry and family life and that they might have a profound gospel impact on their grandchildren’s lives.

SK with his wife Christina, son Deming, daughter-in-law Li Fen (left), daughter Mei Xuan and grandchildren Angie (left) and Evan