In January this year, I got a phone call from a lady asking to buy “How the Moken Sea Gypsies got their Book,” the biography of missionary Aunty Say Bay which I had written. The lady sounded in a hurry, desperate almost, to buy a copy. I suggested that I could have the book mailed to her but she insisted that she wanted to come down to pick it up as soon as possible.

June came to my office with a friend. She was shy and seemed in a hurry to leave. I was absorbed in what I was doing. It didn’t occur to me that I had missed the opportunity to talk to her until after she left. My curiosity got the better of me – why didn’t I ask her, get to know her. After all, it isn’t everyday that any one gets a call from someone so desperately looking for my book (yes MY book). I sent an sms to June at Au’s encouragement.

“Would you like to meet?” I sms.
“Meet?” The reply sounded surprised.
“Yes meet.”
We fixed a time and place. She was as excited to meet as I was.

June told me that she was feeling depressed and was searching for a song on the internet when she stumbled on my blog. She said that an article that I had written really spoke to her. It had answered the very question that she had been asking God. She said she began reading my entire blog. (And I always wondered if anyone ever reads them!) After our first meeting, the seventeen-year-old asked if I would mentor her.

In 1998, I left the student ministry after being involved with teens for eight years. The Lord called me then into media and communications. I wasn’t at all unhappy about pulling out of the teens ministry as I had started to feel ineffective and the need to relate to young adults or people my age. The world of teens had grown too alien for me.

Then in 2008, the Lord spoke to me about getting involved with youth again. I wasn’t the most thrilled about the idea but I realised that if he had called me into a media ministry, then I would HAVE to relate to “digital natives”– and that means youth. God was serious about wanting me involved with them — he sent one right at my door step without my even looking for her.

It has been about two months since I began meeting with June. It has been fun. I am excited about coaching June in her exciting journey of life that has barely begun.