The Heart of a Sower

This article was first published in the June 2013 issue of Word@Work.

“...One who sows righteousness gets a sure reward.” - Proverbs 11:18b (ESV)

After an incredible encounter with God around the age of 15, Richard Woo was filled with passion and love for the Lord and aspired to share God’s love with others in a meaningful environment, sowing the seeds of salvation in their lives.

His first step of faith into full time ministry took place when he enrolled into Trinity Theological College (TTC), quitting his job in the banking industry in the process.

Richard’s compassion for the unfortunate led him to become a pastoral volunteer at Changi prison, where he ministered to inmates for 13 years. While Richard was still involved in the prison ministry, he felt the Lord leading him towards ministering to the sick in hospitals. He became the Chaplain of St Andrew’s community hospital and then St Luke’s community hospital, serving the patients and staff with joy and compassion.

Richard then joined The Bible Society of Singapore (BSS) and now heads the Social Concerns Ministry, collaborating with other partner organisations to show God’s love to people in our community.

The Work of a Sower

The Social Concerns Ministry of BSS is frequently looking for new ways to extend God’s love to others. It currently focuses on touching the lives of migrant workers, patients in hospitals and nursing homes, as well as inmates in prison. 

Richard gladly fosters relations and collaborates with many partner organisations to help bring the Word to those most in need of it. If any organisations require help in their ministry, Richard is happy to support them as well.

He has helped BSS collaborate with Prison Fellowship Singapore, printing 3000 copies of the Freedom on the Inside Bible in English and another 3000 in Mandarin for distribution. The hope of the gospel is spread amongst the prisoners.

BSS and the Asia Evangelistic Fellowship (AEF) are currently discussing plans to work together to produce Scripture resources such as pamphlets in Tamil, which AEF can distribute to the Tamil speaking foreign workers in Singapore.

Richard is involved in helping to distribute audio Bibles amongst people who are unable or find it difficult to read the Bible, thus meeting their spiritual needs. Some audio Bibles have been distributed to the elderly in All Saint’s Home and the Salvation Army, and responses have been very positive.

The Role of Volunteers

While BSS has been able to help meet some needs of people in the community, we are always looking for ways to do more. One of these ways is to bring in volunteers to help us reach people.

Richard’s life encapsulates what is needed in a volunteer: a heart of love, compassion and an attitude of service. It is appropriate that he looks after the volunteer groups at BSS, who “serve the Lord in different capacities and rendering their services according to their gifts.” These volunteers do the same work of full time ministry staff on their own time while not getting any monetary compensation, showing an impressive level of commitment and dedication.

There is a great need for volunteers in ministry to help us carry out God’s work today. The Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:3-12 serves as an important reminder to us to be sowers of His Word so that we will be like the seed that falls onto good ground and bear much fruit. We ask that you prayerfully consider joining BSS as a volunteer to help us spread the light of the gospel to others.


The long journey of the Bunong New Testament

Story by Bonnie Lepelaar, Bible Society in Cambodia. This article was first published by United Bible Societies.

Tot Nhernh, 93, vividly remembers the panic he and his family felt as the bombs started falling on their village in north-east Cambodia. It was the 1970s and the Vietnam war was spilling into the region as members of the Viet Cong crossed the border to hide.

With their village totally destroyed and desperate to escape the continued US bombing in their region, Mr Nhernh and his family, along with many others, crossed the border into Vietnam. Not only were they traumatised by the destruction they had witnessed, they were also deeply worried that in their haste to leave they hadn’t had time to make offerings to appease the spirits.

Mr Nhernh is a member of the Bunong tribe, which, like all the hill tribes in Cambodia, is traditionally animist, regularly sacrificing livestock to the spirits. Although they were relieved to have escaped the bombs, and were trying to rebuild their lives in Vietnam, they felt overwhelmed with grief and fear.

But then some Vietnamese people began to visit these desperate refugees. They offered them help and friendship, and also shared some good news: God loved them and had released them from all bondage through his son, Jesus. Mr Nhernh recalls how he felt all his fear falling away, replaced by a peace and freedom he had never experienced. He was among several Bunong refugees to become Christians, learning much about their new faith during their time in exile.

Return home

When the war ended, he could not wait to return home and share the Gospel. He and the other new Bunong Christians planted small churches in Bunong villages, and also evangelised other hill tribes, including the Krung and Tampuan. They, too, had lived in fear and obligation to make costly sacrifices to the spirits, and were overjoyed to hear about the freedom and peace they could have in Jesus.

Although work to translate the Scriptures into Bunong had begun in Vietnam in the 1960s, the work had been disrupted by the war and the manuscripts lost. Some small portions of Scripture in Bunong were published before the war but these were only available in Roman script – understandable to the Bunong in Vietnam but not to those in Cambodia, who use Khmer script.

So Mr Nhernh and other Bunong evangelists in Cambodia were sharing the Gospel by simply telling people the story of Jesus. Later, people began writing out the few Bunong Scripture booklets that were available into Khmer script so that these could be shared more widely with Cambodian Bunong people.

The two decades of communist rule that followed the war were very difficult for the Church in Cambodia, particularly for ethnic minorities like the Bunong. But Christianity grew steadily, and today, around 10% of Cambodia’s Bunong people are Christians. (Around 75% of the Bunong in Vietnam are Christians.)

50 years after the first attempt

This May, around 50 years after the first attempt to translate the Scriptures into Bunong was stopped by war, the Bunong people of Cambodia and Vietnam will finally receive the very first New Testament in their language. Undertaken by Vietnam Parntership, the Bible Society in Cambodia and SIL, it will be printed in both Khmer and Roman scripts.

Are Bunong Christians looking forward to getting the first New Testament in their language? The look of delight on the face of 93-year-old Tot Nhernh when he thinks about holding it in his hands says it all!