whom Jesus came for
By LIM YEEN FONG
A LITTLE boy grew up in a family
of five in a one-room rental flat in Toa Payoh. He was brought
up by his grandmother while his parents went out to work.
They saved enough to support his medical studies. He was grateful
to have made it with his average grades.
He had become a Christian and his reading of how God looks at
the poor in terms of a "preferential option" fired his
imagination. How apt that he had always felt that one of the noblest
reasons for becoming a doctor is to serve the poor.
So he treated the poor like royalty whenever he saw them during
his training in hospital. They formed a large pool of cases from
whom he learned much.
He was happy to be able to give away expensive drug samples to
those who could not afford them. He was touched by their clear
displays of gratitude and their expressions of thankfulness.
When he started working in private clinics, he continued to experience
the joy of waiving part of the fees for patients with empty wallets.
But his employers shared no such satisfaction.
He realised he had to start his own practice. He chose to set
up his clinic at Beo Crescent in the Bukit Ho Swee neighbourhood,
and called it PWYCA - Pay What You Can Afford.
Throngs were soon paying a few dollars at his clinic for what
would have normally cost several times more. But some of the poor
were coming and going in taxis, flaunting mobile phones and flashing
gold jewellery.
He closed PWYCA. Then he knocked on the doors of a family service
centre near his clinic and struck a deal: any client accompanied
by a social worker will be treated for a token $5.
It is a token because even the poor thinks that free treatment
must be sub-standard. It is also to subsidise those who will not
return for follow-up because they are embarrassed by their financial
straits.
He has since formed a happy partnership with his social worker
colleagues to help relieve the plight of many bound by poverty.
They are caught in a destructive cycle of delinquency, gangsterism,
drugs, chronic unemployment, physical and sexual abuse.
He volunteers at the social agency by conducting workshops and
planning programmes for a multi-disciplinary approach to guide
the down and out of society to recovery. He has roped in other
medical care providers for the cause.
For the last nine years, he has been offering medical care at
preferential rates to the needy while directly giving his time
and services at the agency.
And for this, Dr Tan Poh Kiang was recently given the Humanitarian
Volunteer of the Year 2005 Award from The Milk (Mainly I Love
Kids) Fund by President S. R. Nathan. The fund aims to free children
and youths from their social and economic disadvantages.
Dr Tan and his wife, Lie Joan, worship at Pentecost Methodist
Church at the 11 am service, together with their 10-month-old
daughter, Alexis. Their elder girl, Ella, five, is in Sunday School.
A member of Pentecost MC since
1983, he is actively involved in trips to COSI outside Phnom Penh,
teaching at youth camps and the 17-Up Youth Ministry, giving health
talks to Glowing Years Ministry (Gym) members and running health
screening sessions from time to time.
The Church's failure to follow Christ's example in seeking to
reach the struggling and suffering masses weighs heavily on his
heart.
"In serving them, we will
experience a form of spirituality that better reflects the life
of the Lord," he said. "Many of us want to serve but
we are so caught up with the daily grind of career, family and
other commitments that we have never risen above our intent.
"It is regrettable that over the years this has become the
norm. The Church must lovingly insist that we need to walk our
talk."
He thinks that "many good, decent, sometimes very generous
Christians always wishing they could do something for the poor
must go out of their way to look for the equivalent of the lepers
and prostitutes whom Jesus came for. Because they are not going
to come to Pasir Ris Drive 6."
He encourages us all to "do something by starting small and
going slow. After all, we don't know how many more days we will
have this side of eternity".
Lim Yeen Fong is the Church Manager of Pentecost Methodist
Church.
Dr Tan and his family worship
at Pentecost Methodist Church.
QUOTE:
WALK OUR TALK
'Many of us want to serve but we are so caught up with the daily grind of career, family and other commitments that we have never risen above our intent. It is regrettable that over the years this has become the norm. The Church must lovingly insist that we need to walk our talk.'