Karen Liew was not born into a Christian family even though both her parents, Ng Poh Gee and Liew Lee Hin, were educated in Christian schools. But God led her through her circumstances to Wesley Methodist Church (WMC) where she found her footing in serving.
A third-generation Methodist Girls’ School (MGS) alumna, Karen attended the same school as her mother, aunts and grandmother. As might be expected, her father, Liew Lee Hin, and her grandfather were from Anglo-Chinese School (ACS). Karen’s husband, Ho Tzin Yih, and father-in-law were also from this school; naturally, her son, Matthew Ho, also attended the same school.
At Primary Three, she was invited to a Vacation Bible Study (VBS) group and accepted Christ there.
“I was a believer only in name. It wasn’t till I was in secondary school when I was invited by a classmate to Sunday School that I understood more about Jesus and seriously invited Jesus into my heart. My parents did not have any objections to my attending church with my sisters.”
Karen’s heart started being drawn to Jesus at the Brethren church she attended then, a very small but warm and welcoming church in a suburban neighbourhood. Many of her friends in the Sunday school, who were from very humble backgrounds and stayed in 1-room HDB flats, were first-generation Christians. She saw first-hand the trials faced by many of the young people with strong family objections: “I saw fathers coming into the church and literally beating their children, dragging them kicking and screaming home. I also saw them continuing to come to Sunday school with bruises on their faces.”
A combination of circumstances led Karen to WMC. “Our Sunday school superintendent then attended some meeting where he was gifted with tongues. He was so excited about it and wanted to share that experience with everyone in the church. He organised a session for the entire Sunday school and all the kids were equally puzzled and excited at the same time about this new movement.
“But you can imagine how the elders of the church viewed this! As a result, the church split and the superintendent left to start a new church, bringing along with him a large number of church members. I stayed, but as the church swung even more towards conservatism, I left searching for another church. I had cousins attending Wesley and so I moved naturally to it. That was 1987, and I’ve been in Wesley since.”
Music and Missions
Baptised in WMC after Baptism and Membership Class (BMC), Karen joined the Vocal Ensemble (currently defunct).
“It was pretty radical then as we were an acapella group formed by Worship and Music (W&M) Pastoral Team Member (PTM) Lim Swee Hong. We sang ethnic songs from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Taiwan—all in native languages. That was the first time in my life I sang songs in our local dialects as well—Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese.”
She did not know it then, but this experience changed her spiritually and equipped her to make her foray into missions. “It was also my first personal encounter with missions, as Swee Hong’s objective for the singing team was to minister to the nations. We travelled to East Asia to minister to the churches and communities there.”
So charged was Karen for missions, she went on multiple mission trips.
These trips laid the foundation for her subsequent ministry where she combined her love for singing with ministering to the sick and dying.
Not one to be daunted by circumstances, and still passionate about missions, Karen participated in digital missions during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving tuition to students in Timor Leste.1 In 2022, the Methodist Missions Society (MMS) assigned her two female students, 13-year-olds Pedriana and Nofia.
For a year, Karen engaged with them once a week, sending PDF versions of the books she would use to engage them in discussions. The topics she covered included science and women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)—scientists, engineers, astronauts, etc. In this way, she hoped to inspire a sense of empowerment in the young girls and open their eyes to the possibilities for women.
Timor Leste had no wifi set-up, so engaging with them was challenging, as any teacher who has ever taught an online class can empathise with. Glitches were common, as her tutees connected with her using their parents’ phones. Unfazed, Karen pressed on, encouraged by the positive shifts in her student’s mindset about the possibilities for their future. This was especially so when she found out that Pedriana was chosen as the team leader of a group of students selected to represent Timor Leste in the FIRST Global Challenge,2 held in Athens, Greece in September 2024.
She observed: “While the Timor Leste team did not win a prize, it is an inspiration to me that they were able to attend and obtain a ranking amongst the 190 countries that participated in this Challenge.”
Karen’s love for music and singing is shared by her son Matthew, aged 18. For him, music is a way to destress.
Matthew’s first choice of instrument had been the cello. From very early on, Karen advised against it as it was difficult to carry around. So when a friend’s daughter gave up on the violin, Matthew inherited it. The family made it a point to pass the violin on once he had outgrown it, continuing the practice of sharing and extending the life of things.
Matthew started serving when he was nine years old, joining the Wesley Young String Ensemble formed by Claire Lewis, who was then a Pastoral Team Member (PTM) of the W&M Ministry. In his growing years, Matthew performed in various special church events at WMC, sometimes with Karen, as well as in performances outside the church.
“I Had No Need for God”
In her fourth year as a primary school teacher, Ng Poh Gee left teaching in Singapore and followed her husband to start a new life on Christmas Island. It was there that Karen was born. Poh Gee recalls the idyllic life there: “We loved the life there. Although I could apply to teach there, I remained a housewife, growing vegetables and rearing poultry. We bartered with the villagers near where we lived, exchanging our vegetables and poultry for their fish. Karen was a happy child, playing with the neighbours and villagers.”
Karen remembers witnessing the annual red crab migration, the only recollection she has of her time there.
When Karen was five, the family moved back to Singapore as she could not gain admission to a kindergarten there.4 The Liews had two younger daughters—Sharon and Tracy.
Back in Singapore, Poh Gee returned to teaching. Because she loved teaching younger children, she taught at the primary level in various schools for 30 years: Raymond Primary School (Balestier), Keppel Cantonment Primary School, Canossian Convent, and even a school for the deaf.
Although she had attended MGS as a student and occasionally attended church with her Christian cousins, she believed she did not need God, calling herself a “free thinker”. In fact, she retired after 30 years of teaching, still angry with God for taking her mother (who died of liver cancer) away when she was just 19! Her mother, whom she described as having a heart of gold, had helped neighbours by lending them money and giving them her own children’s clothes!
Her sister, who was educated in Chinese, accepted Christ first. Poh Gee reacted negatively, with a tinge of envy:
“Why was it that [my sister] could accept Christ when I could not? That night, I was angry and upset with myself as I knew about God, yet I was unable to open my heart.
“I had a dream that night, and I saw the words in capital letters ‘GOD IS COMING.’ I was puzzled and called my niece, Mabel, who attended Bedok Methodist Church. She asked me to turn to Psalm 121. When I did, these verses jumped out at me:
I lift up my eyes to the hill—where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. …
The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life (v. 1–2, 7, NIV)
“Later, I attended the weekly Bible study group Mabel formed at her house for my sister (her mother) and another good friend who attended Barker Road Methodist Church.
“Shortly after, Mabel encouraged me to attend a church camp with their family and I agreed. The speaker was Benny Ho, and during one of the sermons, I was struck down and started mumbling in tongues. After that, I knew that God is real.”
But she was still not ready, not until her oldest daughter, Karen, invited her to attend a church in Changi to hear a lady pastor preach. It was only after the sermon, when the song Jesus Loves Me was played, that Poh Gee burst into uncontrollable tears. When a church leader went to comfort her, she started pouring out all her anger about her mother. The leader prayed for her, and she felt comforted.
These occurrences confirmed for Poh Gee that she could no longer keep God waiting!
Seeing God’s Hand Everywhere
Even before Poh Gee accepted Christ, she could sense God’s power and grace. We see this in the advice she gave her daughters to get baptised before going overseas for their studies. She also accompanied Matthew to music lessons when he was young and recognised God’s gift in his talent for playing the violin.
After her conversion, when Sharon and Tracy went overseas to study, she felt assured of their being protected. She saw God’s hand in her daughters’ lives. Tracy, for example, had Christian housemates who brought her to church. Later, when Tracy asked her mother’s opinion about which company she should work for, Poh Gee told her to seek God for answers and wait for His approval!
Poh Gee’s faith continued to grow in response to events in her life that confirmed God’s love for her and her family. One such event was her husband’s bypass operation. She recalls: “Lee Hin’s heart stopped after the bypass operation. That started a flurry of prayers from family and church friends; amazingly, the surgeon who operated on him happened to step back into the hospital, and he ordered Lee Hin to be wheeled back to the theatre to undergo a second operation.”
Lee Hin recalls: “Before the first operation, I had said the Lord’s prayer, after which I heard a voice say, ‘When you recover, remember to do good.’” Soon after his recovery, he joined a baptism class and went on to serve, first driving the van to transport Befrienders to Older Persons (BOP) volunteers to hospitals and nursing homes where they had singing appointments. When a volunteer came on board who could drive the van, he left to serve as an usher, heeding Wong Tien Poh’s4 call for ushers.
Poh Gee also encountered amazing events during her travels that revealed God’s loving hand upon her.
During a holiday in Guangzhou, she misplaced her wallet at the hotel and could not remember where she had left it. While searching frantically, she prayed and “distinctly heard the word ‘counter’”. She promptly went to check the front desk, which was crowded with people, and found the wallet exactly where she had left it. “God must have closed the many pairs of eyes in the vicinity, so that I could get it back, with all the money intact.”
On a cruise in Japan, she realised that her phone was missing after leaving the cruise to go on a land tour. Providentially, the taxi driver had handed her his card. She was later able to find an English-speaking local who helped her contact the driver, only to be told that he had returned her phone to the cruise ship she was on!
During a tour in Korea, she lost her spectacles. She searched everywhere, trying to recall where she could have misplaced them. Then, she heard God telling her, “kimchi”. She recalls: “I was sceptical but found my glasses at the very kimchi shop we visited two days prior.”
Her response? “How could I not love God?” Though she did not need any more proof of the power of God, she adds, “I see what God is doing in Karen’s ministry to the terminally ill; I also see what Sharon does when she teaches dance to children with special needs. How could I doubt the power of God to heal and transform lives?”
Mentors and Encouragers
Karen fondly remembers the mentors, shepherds and encouragers who served alongside her: Lim Swee Hong,5 his wife Maria Ling, Paul Satari, and the late Rev Juliette Arulrajah, among others.
“I was inspired by what I learnt from them. Swee Hong was not merely a technical coach who taught me singing and conducting—he was also a shepherd. The group started as a singing group but had an eye on outreach and missions. Paul Satari would accompany the group on mission trips, providing the mission bent, and Maria Ling did the equipping, providing the boost in spiritual gifts. It was a complete package—the group was totally equipped!”
Karen recalls how Paul Satari, a seasoned missions staff member, equipped the team with his knowledge of the field and gave them practical advice on strategies to handle scenarios they were likely to come across in their mission journeys, especially those in regions steeped in superstition. For example, he taught them to boldly declare God’s name and authority when faced with challenging situations.
From Kathlyn Tsang, whom Karen served alongside in the Prayer Ministry for 15 years after attending a class on spiritual warfare, Karen learnt to pray for God to act. Karen recalls how Kathlyn trained intercessors to pray for services,6 an integral part of the ministry’s work till today.
Like Karen, Poh Gee also learnt much from her mentors. In addition to her mother, who taught her to give generously to the needy, Poh Gee recalls two mentors in particular. The first was Mrs Ee Chin Kwok.7 “I joined the Befrienders programme which she started, doing visitations with her. Her concern and loving-kindness for the elderly inspired me to be like her. Small gestures like remembering their birthdays and buying a small pandan cake to celebrate with them stand in my memory. I am so blessed in my life, and I want to pass on this blessedness to others.”
The other was Shirley Koo.8 “Shirley befriended me after my baptism and recruited me to join her ministry. Her friendliness and enthusiasm in ministry work inspired me to participate in all the different ministries together. She was also the one who encouraged me to take part in missions.”
That was how Poh Gee ended up immersing herself, as if to make up for lost time, in the ministry’s various sub-ministries—a dizzying list including Endless Praise, Blessings Craft, BOP, Glowing Years Ministry (GYM)’s Kopitiam, and Wheels D’ Way.
Poh Gee also recalls how God enabled her to do things she knew she would not have been able to do on her own. One experience stood in her memory:
“There was this gentleman whose wife had died from diabetes. When I visited him at home, I asked if I could see his kitchen. There, I was appalled to see, in the sink, mountains of takeaway food containers stacked one on top of another, in addition to stacked pots and kualis (woks in Malay).
“I was even more appalled when I turned the containers over to discover hundreds of maggots in all of them! Although I was aghast, I did what I could—threw the containers and the maggots away, and cleaned up the pots and pans—until I told a co-volunteer to take over as I was about to throw up!
“I was aghast—but sad too—that someone could arrive at such a state. So that’s why, even with tears welling up in my eyes, I could do what I did—clear it all away for him. And that’s why I continue to visit him.”
God Draws Out Their Passions and Giftings
Karen confesses to being very shy as a young person, often afraid to try new things even though she was interested, citing fear of failure and lack of self-confidence. After attending a NETWORK9 class, however, she realised that her fear was irrational as she was depending on her own strength. She gravitated towards Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (NKJV). “There was such liberation with that revelation, and my life was transformed.”
This liberation saw her approaching women on MRT trains and cleaners at her workplace to just talk to them, when before she would have been gripped by fear.
“I think our encounters do not mean we always have to share the gospel immediately, but our encounter could be just one small step in God’s plan to lead them into the kingdom.”
Poh Gee’s second daughter, Sharon, maintains that she is fully immersed in ministry through dance for a simple reason: “This has always been how I want to give back to God for the talent He has given me, to be able to plant seeds and share the gospel through music and dance.”
Over the past 30 years of being in the dance industry, Sharon has organised many fundraising concerts with the students and parents of her dance school. The money raised supports local and international charities and the Special Needs community.
Every fundraising event and mission trip has left a deep impression on her—whether it be supporting orphanages and children’s hospitals, partnering others to build schools and roads and plant trees, providing support for heart surgeries in Cambodia, supporting the Operation Smile medical team locally and in the Philippines, working with Harvest International, and supporting the Autism Resource Centre in Singapore.
Sharon often encourages the students and parents of her dance school to join her on her trips.
Why is Sharon so relentless in her community efforts? “My family and I have been blessed and have so much more to do and give to those who are in need, wherever they may be.”
In Sharon’s latest foray into missions, she was involved in the official opening and dedication service of St Paul Methodist School (SPMS)10 in Timor Leste on 7 July 2024. She has this to say about the experience: “Timor Leste was an amazing journey where I saw God’s hand providing each step of the way. Learning to trust Him was very important because we went there with many unknowns; yet, He provided resources, including the needed finances.”
What started as a proposal to choreograph one item—a mass dance involving many of the school’s 800 students at the ceremony—culminated in a massive dance-studded part of the ceremony.
Sharon produced and directed the show segment, choreographing eight dance items with prayerfully-chosen songs, in addition to four songs sung by the choir, depicting the journey of the school.
Some 250 students aged eight to 18, who had never danced before, were involved, with 150 in the mass dance. Sharon, together with two of her dance assistants, Xin Yi and Nicole, formed the school’s first dance team, while Lily, Sharon’s good friend and supporter of her dance school, helped form SPMS’s first choir.
Another important volunteer on the trip was none other than Poh Gee, Sharon’s mum.
Poh Gee always jokes she merely tags along on Sharon’s mission trips. Sharon has a different view: “My mum is always my go-to person when I take trips to do community work in the region. She’s chaperone to my dancers; she’s great at logistics; she keeps an eye on the girls’ things—their bags, belongings, etc.”
In Timor Leste, Poh Gee became Sharon’s right-hand man (or woman!) because of her adeptness at sewing and, no less, her gift as an encourager.
To visualise the enormity of the full production, it is important to know that Poh Gee and Sharon were in Timor Leste a month before the event. Poh Gee, as head of the sewing team, was aided by three seamstresses and six parent volunteers. Together, they sewed 180 costumes in Singapore and mended close to a hundred pieces of frayed tablecloths in Timor Leste to make them suitable for the ceremony. Surely, this was more than merely tagging along for Poh Gee!
The team brought over 350 kilogrammes of costumes (including leggings, shoes, headpieces and props) in 14 suitcases—a logistical headache even if one only considered how they were to be brought over given the luggage restrictions. But they were all brought over, without a hitch. “God wanted us to be there,” is Sharon’s description of how the logistical nightmare was resolved.
Sharon’s inspiration to use dance to minister to the community came from her time at the London College of Dance and Drama. While in London, she had opportunities to perform in several churches. Her church was involved in the marketplace community, and she saw firsthand how dance could engage and draw youths into the church community, keeping them off the streets.
Coming home in 1995 after her studies, her desire to bring dance to the community was ignited when she was approached by the People’s Association to develop the dance programme at the then Changkat Community Centre, now renamed Tampines Changkat Community Club, in a community that Sharon describes as a “young and upcoming heartlands community.” She also founded Dance Spectrum International, her own dance school.
In these, Sharon saw opportunities to bring joy to people through dance. Working with the grassroots and the Community Centre (CC) management, she curated a curriculum that taught classical ballet, modern, tap and contemporary dance, bringing dance to the fore.
She shares: “It was pure joy to see dance being enjoyed by people who hadn’t had the chance to see, say, a ballet performance in full.”
At church, Sharon felt blessed to be asked to dance solo and choreograph dance pieces, the result of her exploration into dance as worship. In this way, she and her fellow WMC dancers were able to bless the church through shared dance numbers. “My oldest group of Wesleyan dancers were from the senior fellowship!“ she quips.
“We Sing Whatever Brings Patients Comfort and Joy”
The story of this family is one of God providing opportunities for His children to serve in different circumstances and junctures in their lives, equipping them for the challenges they face along the way.
In 2015–2016, Karen heard a message over the pulpit about pastors visiting the sick and elderly but sometimes struggling with the worship part of it. “The thought came to me that it was something I could do, as I enjoy singing, especially worship songs. But I felt it was impossible since I was working full time, and pastoral visits often took place during the day.”
But God was working within her. When a retired missionary was diagnosed with cancer, Karen and her family visited the missionary at her home often and spent wonderful times worshipping together, singing songs of praise. After her condition worsened and she had to be hospitalised, Karen was very troubled each time she visited, not just because the missionary was in a multi-bed ward that was very noisy but because they couldn’t worship and sing.
She remembers: “I literally climbed into the bed and lay beside her to hold her and sing softly to her as we cried together.
“It was a very difficult experience for me to feel so powerless in supporting her during this time. After her death, I kept thinking that there had to be something more I could do to bring comfort to those who are dying.”
Karen read in the newspapers about the No One Dies Alone (NODA)11 programme that supports dying people who have no family or friends to be with in their final hours. Intrigued, she did some online research, which led her to discover Threshold Singing12—a practice of using music and song to support those who are dying in their final journey.
But this movement was active only in the US and UK, with no similar initiative in Singapore at that time. So she set the thought aside.
During a Bible Study session, however, Karen distinctly heard God tell her to start a group of Threshold Singers. “I told God ‘NO’. If there were such a programme, I would happily join it, but I cannot and I don’t want to be a leader to start such a programme. I wouldn’t know how to anyway, so NO!”.
Karen continued to dodge God, but she also continued to be bothered for many months, until she gave up and told God, “Okay, I surrender. If you want me to do this, show me how and bring me the people to help me.” And, of course, God provided.
Her mentor Lim Swee Hong was invaluable in encouraging her and helping her to set it up. She recruited singers from the Vocal Ensemble, the group she was formerly in, who were interested and willing to join her in this endeavour. It helped that her cousin was also the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Assisi Hospice then, which opened doors for her to approach the hospice to start this programme in Singapore.
Karen and her fellow volunteers visited patients at their bedside and ministered to them in song. They did not only sing sacred songs, hymns and choruses but also pop songs—not only in English but also in Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Malay, Japanese and Tagalog. Karen explains fondly: “We sing whatever brings patients comfort and joy.”
“My Family Is an Inspiration to Me”
Matthew remarks: “Seeing a lot of people around me serving, both my family and friends, is really an inspiration for me to contribute—not necessarily in the same way that they do, but using whatever I can to contribute meaningfully.”
He vaguely remembers accompanying his parents to Christian Outreach and Social Concerns (COSC) events, often involving migrant workers. A nagging question Matthew had, and still has, is why young people don’t seem to do more for others. He thinks that “it’s difficult to conceive of doing anything on top of the school workload.”
That’s why Karen maintains that for the young to serve in the church, parental involvement and encouragement are imperative. “It’s more than bringing them along to events; if we want to encourage young people to serve, the onus is on parents who will need to manage the logistics, ferrying them to and fro. Of course, a little coaxing also always helps.”
Matthew joined the Methodist Festival Orchestra (MFO)13 when he was nine and has remained a member since. At 11, he also joined the Singapore National Youth Orchestra (SNYO). Between the ages of 15 and 17, he served as the Music Director of the orchestra at ACS Independent, from which he graduated in 2023.
Having served in the church since he was young, Matthew finds it surprising that it was only recently that he stopped being the youngest chorister, when someone younger than him joined Dawnbreakers.
He also notes that young people often come with preconceived ideas about how they want to serve. For him, classical music—his forte—is not always palatable to the congregation. Still, he is grateful to be playing occasionally at services. “It’s an advantage to be serving with the Dawnbreakers. It accommodates a wide variety of worship, from traditional to contemporary styles.”
He feels that aligning the talent sets of youths and the needs of the church is not easy, but he is confident that it is possible. “Somehow or other, there is a plan to lead you to where you are meant to be. It’s probably not where you thought you would be, nor doing what you thought was meant for you, but there is a place that God has for you.”
Matthew reassures other youths who are keen to contribute to the church but may feel dispirited by the lack of welcome or the difficulty in finding like-minded individuals to serve with—or are otherwise apprehensive—that God will, in time, provide. “Who else knows but God?”, he says.
For now, Matthew is content with being a regular member of the Methodist Festival Orchestra, where he gets to play at special events organised by the Methodist School of Music, and to accompany the Dawnbreakers during service at WMC.
Karen shares: “I feel proud to be known as Poh Gee’s daughter, or Matthew’s mummy, in church—as we are recognised as a family serving God together.”
Such are the ties that bind.
