Mental Health

From life overwhelming, to life overflowing

I tried to be the perfect girl. I thought that amid all the hustle and bustle, I was discovering myself. I thought I knew it all. I thought I had figured everything out, had my future panned out in...

Singlehood

Give me marriage or give me death, I told God

When I was 27, I left everything I had and knew in Singapore to pursue God’s calling for me as a missionary in Japan. On the morning of my 28th birthday, I sat in a cafe in Tokyo, and wrote in my...

Mental Health

Serving God amid depression

Around the world, 1 in 5 young people suffer from mental illness. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that that an estimated number of 350 million people are affected by depression and about...

Mental Health

An open letter to Despair, in the wake of 2016

Hello Despair, my old friend. I’d never thought it would end up like this, but our relationship has grown remarkably over 2016. I am convinced that you now deserve a place among my inner circle of...

Illness

I feel like ants are eating away at my flesh: Living and dying with ALS

When Lum Kum Sung was a teenager, he lived the #YOLO life. An adventure-seeker, he loved anything that got him on his feet. His social life was also rich – friends jio-ed him for many activities...

Life & Death

The art of dying

I’ve sat through too many funerals this year. I remember the white sheets, the flowers, the smell of groundnuts. Some of the deceased lived full lives. More than half were young. Invariably, a...