Joshua Wee, 21, a National Serviceman, volunteers with Through the Roof (TTR), an initiative of the arts element in EDGE Ministry.

How did you come to know SYFC?

My first contact with Joel Choong was when he spoke at my church youth service. We connected because we were both interested in building keyboards and he was my senior in the same polytechnic. A few years later, my brother Jeraiah joined Project Serve and reconnected me with Joel who I discovered works in SYFC, reaching out to art students. Upon graduating from polytechnic and before my enlistment, I joined Project Serve to explore how I can also reach out to art students.

Why Art Students and how has your experience been so far?

Being a design school student and having interacted with people in my course and from different art schools, I have come to realise that many have questions about this world and struggle with self-identity. And I know the gospel has all the answers to life’s questions. I have shared with some and found them quite chill and curious to hear the Christian perspective to different issues.

Once, in a chat about dating, they were quite shocked at the way Joel and I treat boy-girl relationships. To them, we are old-fashioned but that gave us the opportunity to explain why we hold certain values.

Share some struggles as a volunteer and how you overcome them

I have a very low social battery. The amount of time spent with some students, especially in creating and finishing a project, can get very intense and exhausting. But every time I feel tired, I ask God for strength and love, and I just carry on getting to know the students.

Now as a National Serviceman, it can get a bit overwhelming with TTR projects to complete, church ministry and family commitments. On most days, after work and dinner, I don’t have the brain space to be creative and just want to rest. Being in charge now of a collaboration group with a working adult and a fresh graduate from art school, I need to coordinate the meetings and make sure we finish our zine* on time. This is tiring but God enables me to work this out slowly.

What are your joys as a volunteer?

It’s very exciting to see TTR grow from one staff to two, and now with more volunteers. Not only that, TTR is known in the arts circle, especially with our RISO printers. The TTR Instagram account has a growing number of followers which means more creatives are interested in what we do.

How can our readers pray for you?

For good time management. Though National Service takes up much time, I want to be responsible to finish projects entrusted to me and spend time with the young people in my church cell group.