But the years following my graduation felt more like a rude awakening than a dream come true; hopping from job to job, having long periods of idling in between and feeling lost.
As the years kept going and I was nowhere near where I had imagined my career would be at this point, I started having sleepless nights filled with anxiety as I questioned if I was meant to go down this path.
And it was on one of these sleepless nights when I was kept awake with anxiety that I heard God’s gentle and peaceful voice in the midst of the chaos in my mind:
“I’m not done with you yet”
And as the words echoed in my heart, I started to let go of all the expectations I had, as I learnt to trust that God would be with me and use every part of my experiences for His glory; it’s okay to feel lost and incomplete!
While there was still uncertainty as I continued searching for work, I carried a renewed sense of hope and had faith that God would lead me and provide for me.
And so, I spent much of my idle periods actively serving on short term mission trips overseas, youth ministry in church as well as Christian ministry at an international school. At the same time, I grew deeper in my faith in God as I saw firsthand how God could use my incompleteness to show His complete glory - my time, my gifts, and my life experiences!
And after coming back from a mission trip in 2019, I felt God challenging me to embark on a new journey - to serve Him full time in ministry work.
As I prayed about God’s call for me to go into full time ministry, I came across an opportunity for a traineeship as a digital content creator in the Digital Strategies Team in Cru Singapore. While I didn’t have any experience with managing social media nor copywriting, I was drawn towards the idea of content creation and how the Church could use the digital mission field to make disciples online.
And so I applied and gave the 6-month traineeship a shot.
Social media has become almost a staple in modern society - brands are using them, celebrities are using them, and even politicians are using them. Especially with algorithms in place to enhance personal user experience, and a highly competitive and congested scene, having an influential presence on social media is a big challenge; there is a need to be consistently creative and relevant, yet retaining authenticity.
Data analytics is an eye opening experience; observing the social media behaviour of young adult Christians in Singapore, we could learn more about the common struggles that they are facing in Singapore today. While there isn’t a lack of content in social media that speaks to these issues, the Church still needs to have a relevant presence in this field - an authentic voice that can speak biblical truth into daily living without being too moralistic or unsympathetic.
This is what Cru has given me the opportunity to do - speaking biblical truths into the issues they face in this fast changing world, we are helping young adult Christians to see the relevance of the Scriptures in their daily lives, and to live out biblical principles.
Despite not being professionally trained for the social media job, God had equipped me with enough applicable skills and experience to do the job; a creative mind and an eye for contemporariness from my art background, paired with the authenticity and relational skills gained from my experience in ministry. On top of that, I had a patient and nurturing team to lead me in honing these skills well.
Bringing these into the job, plus being a young adult Christian myself who face similar pressures and struggles just like everyone, I realised God had given me a voice - and I was only just learning how to use it.
Through the various communities of friends who are going through the same adulting phase as me and the conversations that I would have with them, God has also helped me gain new valuable insights to bring to others online.
More than a year later (I have since joined Cru as a full-time staff after my traineeship), the growth in our social media presence and engagement is an encouragement for the work the Digital Strategies team has done. And every once in a while, I would even chance upon other accounts who have shared our content on their own platforms or receive text messages from friends about how the content has been speaking to them.
Yet, as much as these are measurable results, I often have to remind myself that disciple-making is more than these figures; it is about co-working with Christ to guide people towards Him to the best of our abilities, and trusting that God will complete the rest in His own ways.
And of course, I am not perfect in my craft (nor do I think I ever will be); planning and writing content is a skill that I am still honing, and there is no ideal or perfect formula to getting it right all the time (not to mention the social media trends are changing almost every week!). Moreover, in the midst of all the busyness of meeting deadlines, it can be easy to rely too much on my own skills & understanding, and run dry of ideas.
But instead of feeling discouraged or defeated, these moments serve as a reminder that God’s not done with me yet - and that’s okay. Because I can have faith that He will complete the work with me.
Reflection:
Will you join our team?
Cru Singapore’s Digital Strategies Team is recruiting! We are looking for potential content creators to join our team! If you enjoy writing content, doing graphic design or even video production, reach out to us and we will be glad to speak with you!
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