The Dream Centre

Last Saturday night, the base went out to do a mooncake distribution to the Chinese ladies in Geylang. Debbie felt the need to do something for these girls as Mooncake Festival is the second-most important festival in China where families celebrate together. Thus they would be feeling great sadness being away from their families.  


I ran into a young girl on the busy street just outside the base. She didn't know what I wanted until I spelt out that it was Mooncake Festival and we were Christians wanting to bless her with a mooncake. Her bewildered face gave way to a huge smile and she revealed her vulnerability, saying, "This is the first time that such a thing is happening to me.... the feeling is strange!" And as we walked off, she was left smiling from ear-to-ear and waved goodbye happily, girlishly. 


Over the years, YWAM Singapore has been trying to establish a ministry to people in Geylang. Geylang is the hotbed of vice, in all forms. I've had a contact call me late at night and tell me he's in Geylang, helpless, vulnerable and confused after a big argument with his wife about the family's major financial trouble, and he did something he regretted, was full of remorse and needed a friend to set him straight and give some support. 


I know of 18-year-olds who hang out in the dark alleys running gambling dens and working with their fathers who do the same. I know my friend's elderly father who goes to Geylang for his fix every day, oblivious to the fact that his family knows and has to endure the humiliation. 


You see, I can put faces to the vice. Geylang, to me, is not "a dirty area full of prostitutes, foreign workers and danger".... it is a place where strongholds over people turn them to sin. But ask yourself: if the people there - middle-aged uncles with wives and children at home; choiceless women duped into prostitution; immigrants living in a harsh, loveless environment - if these were people you know, wouldn't you do something for them? Wouldn't you love them and help them? 


Lives are going down the drain. About 3 or 4 years ago, I had the privilege of meeting Matthew Barnett of the Dream Centre. The Dream Centre started as a small church in Los Angeles, with this 20-year-old white guy conducting services in a bad, bad neighbourhood. He faced gangsters, shootings, drugs and homeless folk who looked and smelt bad, at the doorsteps of his church. Yet, he persevered in his call to transform the city by letting these gangsters into church services, nervous as he was; feeding the hungry; praying for the insane/hurting/drugged-out/gun-toters as he risked his life. Today, the Dream Centre is my inspiration for what we can sow by laying our lives down and letting God rule.  


Matthew Barnett was in Singapore then to speak at a conference, and I had gone specially to hear his keynote message. Like an awe-struck fan, I zipped to his side when he finished his message, introduced myself as a YWAMer and told him we had been trying to minister in a rough neighbourhood, like his. 


"Oh you're from YWAM!" His eyes lit up, like something clicked. "You guys are doing such a great job!" Wow, I was floored. My 'idol' knew about us and thought we were doing something worthy. He actually gave me his mobile number and asked me to call him while he was in Singapore if I wanted to meet up. I kept that mobile number in my phone for a good number of years.... I never called him because.... well, sheepishly, I didn't feel that I could sustain enough conversation about what we had done. Truth is, I felt alone in my cause. I wasn't sure if it amounted to anything because there were so few of us championing this.


So I'm glad we went out to the streets last Saturday in droves. I'm glad Debbie isn't alone, and I really hope you heard my heart and God's as you read this. I'm glad this seems like a new season for our base, one of unity and deeper relationships, and a corporate call to the unreached.