MY CAREER â GODâS CALLING
HE CALLED ME TO BE AN ACCOUNTANT! On completion of the âAâ Levels, I was accepted by Turquand Youngs and Co, the largest public accounting practice in Singapore at that time, as âJunior Audit Clerk Câ, the lowest rank in the professional order of the firm, working in the daytime and studying accountancy through correspondence courses and night classes.
As anyone in public accounting practice can testify, the work was challenging. rough my career, which spanned 26 years from 1971 to 1997, I progressed to management level. With more responsibilities, life became more stressful, but it was my daily quiet time and interaction with God that kept me going.
There were many days when I would walk into the oïŹce in the morning somewhat dreading what the day held as there would be issues involving integrity and compromise, diïŹerences with clients and worse, diïŹerences with my superiors over matters of principle and the pressure to compromise.
I would pray and ask the Lord to âjust take me through todayâ and invariably when the day ended I will be going home with a spring in my step rejoicing and marvelling at the way the Lord had been in my workday taking me through each challenge. My mental perspective throughout my career has been that IÂ work for the living God, He is my employer, the company was just the place that God had placed me to serve Him.
SHARING MY FAITH
âI saw my colleagues as people whom Jesus loved and died for, so it was easy for me to mentor and cheer them on in their careers, build deep friendships with them and share my faith.â
It made such a diïŹerence in perspective, I gave of my very best because I wanted to please Jesus. I saw my colleagues as people whom Jesus loved and died for, so it was easy for me to mentor and cheer them on in their careers, build deep friendships with them and share my faith. e clients we served too appreciated our professionalism and complimented us on the objectivity of our reports and the usefulness of our recommendations.
There were two milestones in my career â when the firm, which later became known as Ernst & Young, awarded me the âCPQ Awardâ, CPQ stood for Client service, Performance and Quality, and the âWinning with Teamworkâ award. I did not seek those accolades, I only sought to be the âsalt and lightâ in the community that God had placed me, but I guess, as Jesus said, âa city set on a hill cannot be hidâ.
In 1997, God called me to the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF), where I am serving as the Assistant Director for Finance & Administration. The skills and experience gained from working in an international public accounting firm continue to be put to good use.
When I was recruited, OMF was seeking to implement a worldwide integrated accounting system covering 28 countries. The system had to be robust and transparent, meeting the regulatory reporting requirements of all the governments in the countries we worked in. It had to be operationally cost eïŹective and simple enough to be useful to missionaries who are not necessarily trained in management sciences.
I now work with a team of Christian professionals to deliver accounting services to more than 2,000 field workers whose gifting and focus is frontline evangelism.
My career continues to be just as exciting and satisfying â God has called us to âmake disciples of all nationsâ, it makes no diïŹerence whether our âcallingâ is in a secular business environment or in overt Christian work. Wherever we are called, we are called to be the âsalt and lightâ.
MUSIC
November piano duo recital
THE METHODIST SCHOOL OF MUSIC (MSM) is presenting âDuo Delightsâ, a piano duo recital on Nov 7, 2009 at the Esplanade Recital Studio at 7.30 pm.
Pianists Dr Andjelita Chendra and Ms Celine Tan Chia Ho, both accomplished members of the schoolâs piano faculty, will perform works by Arensky, Byloo, Posman, Gershwin, Rachmaninov and Bortkiewicz.
Andjelita completed her Superieur Degree (Doctorate Degree) in Piano Performance at the Koninklijk Muziek Conservatorium de Bruxelles, Belgium. A winner of several piano competitions in Indonesia and Europe, she has been on the teaching faculty of the MSM since March 2002.
Celine earned the Masters of Music (piano performance) degrees from the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester, NY). A regular accompanist for recitals and music examinations, she has performed in numerous piano master-classes and summer camps throughout the United States, Europe, Malaysia and Singapore. She joined the MSM teaching faculty in July 2003.
Tickets are available from the MSM (tel: 6767-5258) at $15 each.