Singapore River Cruise with the Joo Chiat Ministry
On the 6th of March 2022, a collaborative effort between the Joo Chiat Ministry of Charis Methodist Church, SG Accident Care, and East Asia School of Theology (EAST) saw an evening’s sail along the tranquil Singapore River with our migrant workers hailing from across the Asian region. I was invited to write a reflection on the evening, which taught me a little more about my island nation from the vantage point of our water bodies. Moreover, it was a blessing to befriend our migrant worker friends and even contribute to their oasis of memories in this foreign land so ‘pandemically’ far from the warmth of home.
In sharing this piece, I hope to encourage some of our community members to volunteer with these ministries and welcome more of our migrant worker friends to spend time getting to one another better.
Our evening began at EAST with our participants joining us for dinner and conversation over mutton biryani. As participants came at different times and had multiple procedures to follow as per COVID-19 measures, the volunteers were stationed accordingly to allow a seamless and welcoming experience. While some helpers tended the entrances and assisted participants on registration, others prepared the meal boxes and tables on the upper level. Logistics aside, helpers at the dining area also made it a point to sit and get to know the participants from the onset. There was a naturalness in everyone’s initiative, and as a first-time volunteer with this group, I never felt at a loss. The people who had done this multiple times remained approachable to me and were exemplary in their interaction with the participants.
The programme proved an opportunity for me to catch up with members of my church community (especially during times like these) and to remember how easy it was to make someone’s evening and how Christian outreach need not be so difficult or momentous. A simple outing and my time were more than enough resources to practise what our Lord taught us in loving our neighbours as ourselves.
I would have thought that our guided tour of the Civic District was to be nothing unfamiliar, but doing so with the migrant workers made for a pleasantly refreshing walk. For I had ever mainly observed the architecture of the National Gallery and monuments of our history through Singaporean eyes, with Singaporean perspectives, and ‘Singaporean’ remarks. Walk down these paths with a person who had been working here seven years but had not quite settled in, coupled with another person who had only been here two years but already feeling a connection with the spaces, and I was learning about my country all over again with a broader set of lens. Now, complement that lens with the recognition of Singapore as a high-traffic melting pot of peoples and the proverbially prophetic label as the ‘Antioch of Asia’. Any Christian can see why it is so meaningful to join such programmes lest we became comfortable leading our own lives and bubbled within.
A particular sight I beheld during the river cruise was not the luminosity of Marina Bay from the barrage’s idyllic centre but the brightly lit smartphone screens and equally gleaming smiles of our participants aboard the vessel. You might wonder why they would have their phones out when they could directly feast their eyes on the glittering fluorescence of Clarke Quay through the bridges to The Fullerton Bay Hotel. Photos and captured moments, surely, and just as I had thought. Until I saw them speaking to those ‘photos’, I realised that many of them could not bask in the Singaporean night sky without sharing their experience with their family back home. There and then, amidst the chatter of families catching up, it was poignant knowing that our participants could still turn their gaze heavenward and know that their loved ones were sharing the moment looking at the same moon.
I ended the night tired but filled with much more than the mutton biryani I had for dinner. And if I were to return for more, I hope that I could do so with a little more company of friends. I also wish for more migrant workers to take us on such offers in the future and help us better understand hospitality and friendship while they sojourn on our island. Most of all, may we be sensitive to the Spirit’s call on us should God so free us up for a season to meditate on Him through such an experience. I hope you enjoyed this short reflection.
