A lawyer by training, Cheryl Li had been practising since she graduated from Law School. She was hardly involved with young people before but today she is serving with Youth Guidance (YG) Ministry, reaching under-privileged youth as a volunteer.
How did you come into contact with SYFC?
It must be God’s will. I attend Adam Road Presbyterian Church (ARPC) and an ex-YG staff, Ruth Song, once made a presentation about herself and mentioned SYFC. I thought it was an interesting organisation, so I put it on my Google search tab. But I promptly forgot about it.
Soon after that, the firm I was with for 11 years wanted me to work full-time. I had been on part-time since my children came and I wasn’t prepared to convert to working full-time in this season of my life since the two of them are still very young. So, I left to look for another part-time job.
One day, as I was clearing the Google tabs on my phone, I saw the SYFC tab and thought, “Why not give this a try?” I sent in the necessary information and two days later, I got a call from Laurent Tan, who coordinates YG and is also from ARPC. After hearing from him, I was a bit nervous. Other than short teaching stints while in university, I had no other experience working with youth. I thought I should look for another job. But one day in church, the preacher taught the passage on “the harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few.” I knew I could not ignore this anymore, so I messaged Laurent immediately after the service to say, “Ok! I’m on.”
Wow! How has it been for you so far volunteering with YG?
I help to conduct after-school programmes for girls from the girls’ home. I’m enjoying it a lot. In fact, a lot more than I had expected.
What are some challenges you face?
As a mum, it’s quite hard and sad to understand where some of these kids have come from and what they have gone through. But that also strengthens my resolve that this is where I want to be right now. I’m an introvert. Sometimes I enter a room with a lot of students and I feel very overwhelmed. But after every session, instead of feeling very drained, I’m happy and energised.
How has the Lord encouraged you in the work?
I saw how some youth respond to the YG staff and I’m thinking this is an amazing work. We get to sow the seed of the gospel in these young lives – there’s no greater work than this.
How can our readers pray for you?
Personally, please pray for me for opportunities and courage to share the gospel to the youth I meet. For everyone in YG, please pray for energy, which we all need. And for encouragement from the Lord that though we may not necessarily see results for years and years and years in this work, it is worthwhile since we are sowing the seed of the gospel.
