From gang violence with bows and arrows, to youths clutching precious Bibles, LoveTimor missionaries recall the past 21 years

The number 21 is symbolic of a coming of age.

As LoveTimor celebrates its 21st birthday, Salt&Light takes a look-back at the spiritual empowerment of a nation, one “suku” (village) at a time, and a look-forward to Timor-Leste from receiving church to Antioch, in the words of four people who have sown into LoveTimor: Senior Pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church Daniel Khong, Executive Director of Transformation Alliance Pastor Selvam Muttu, Covenant Evangelical Free Church missionary Pastor Sarah Chan, and Co-founder of Cocoon Wong Li Shan.

What moved you to be involved in LoveTimor?

Pastor Sarah: I first heard about Timor in 2006. I was only 14, but I remember the images and stories vividly – this young nation, right on the doorstep, torn by war, poverty and loss.

There was a rallying cry for the church to rise together and love Timor into a place of hope. Even as a teenager, something in me stirred.

From the moment Pastor Sarah stepped into Timor, she was convinced that “God is doing something very special here, and I want to give my life to be part of it”.

In 2009, I finally made my first trip. I’ll never forget standing on a mountain in Maubisse where our team was serving, looking across the vast valleys. As I prayed, I began to weep uncontrollably. It wasn’t sadness – it was the overwhelming sense of God’s love for this land. In that moment He whispered three words into my heart: “You’ll be back.”

That trip left an indelible mark on me. I was inspired by the missionaries I met – not only from Singapore but from around the world. As a teenager, it convinced me: God is doing something very special here, and I wanted to give my life to be part of it.

Senior Pastor Daniel Khong leading a recce trip to Timor.

Meeting President Xanana (middle) at his office in 2004 with the LoveSingapore team led by late Rev Dr Rick Seaward (in light blue shirt).

From 2009 until 2022, I returned once or twice a year, building friendships with Timorese friends and growing in kinship with the wider Love Timor community. It never felt transactional, never just about “projects” or “trips”. These connections grew into genuine family.

Today, some of the Timorese friends I met at 17, I get to serve with as fellow pastors. Being based here the past three years, serving alongside the LoveTimor team, has been one of my greatest joys. There is authentic love, care, and a camaraderie that says, “I’ve got your back!” I know that if even if an emergency happens in my village at 2am, there are people will drop everything, make the 1.5-hour drive up to be there. And really, what greater blessing is there than to walk in your calling, do what you love, with people you love.

Pastor Selvam: I  first went out as a pioneer missionary with my family to East Timor in 2000 under Victory Family Centre when a letter was sent from East Timor to our church in March 2000 to come and help their war-torn nation.

Shallom School grew from 25 students to over 600 children, until there was no further capacity to grow.

District Anchors celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the LoveTimor vision in Batam with Indonesian partners.

While in Timor I sensed vaguely that God is about to do a new and a great work and that it may involve LoveSingapore churches. There was a growing sense in mid 2004 by LoveSingapore, then led by the late Rev Dr Rick Seaward, that it was a kairos moment for Singapore churches and the global church to go and love East Timor and see her transformed for God’s glory.

When LoveSingapore Committee churches made their inaugural trip to East Timor in August 2004 and met with then President Xanana Gusmao, he  invited us to come and help the nation with her post-war widows and orphans. The LoveSingapore leadership quickly sensed God’s leading to East Timor, our neighbour.

Li Shan: I was involved in the video production of the first LoveTimor video which was used to mobilise the churches. I ended up mobilising myself.

It was the awesome thought that I could be involved in laying the foundations for a young nation, being able to make an impact, right at the beginning. It is also perhaps due to the fact that it was a personal invitation by Lai Kheng, to be involved in a very specific way, and in my context, to pioneer the ministry of Cocoon in Timor.

What was the situation on the ground when you arrived?

Pastor Sarah: On my first trips to Timor in 2009, I witnessed the early years of the LoveTimor movement. It was a season of beginnings – new churches being planted, new ministries being birthed, there was such a buzz of many new missionaries and mission teams coming through with much excitement.

Despite hostility in certain villages, the Lord’s love and light broke into the darkness.

But beneath the newness were deep scars of the land. My Timorese friends would share their stories of the crisis and war – losing family, hiding in the mountains, watching homes burn. These memories were still raw, freshly imprinted in their hearts. The word I always came away with was resilience. The resilience of a people healing from unspeakable loss. The resilience of missionaries persevering even when hostility was real in certain villages. Yet through it all, the Lord’s love and light were breaking into the darkness.

Pastor Selvam: The initial needs, as President Xanana directed us, was to focus on the widows and orphans. The land was greatly impoverished, unemployment was rampant, there was much uncertainty about the future, youth gangs and militia groups still posed problems and the country lacked clear direction.

Praying for Juvita, the “first fruit” from Shallom School and Agape Baptist Church. Juvita was a top student who was sponsored to study in Indonesia. She later returned as a teacher.

Pastor Selvam ministering at the Timor Summit in April 2025.

There was a strong sense that we needed to help Timor-Leste village by village. Churches soon got involved in villages and began community projects, youth work, agricultural and farming work, water projects and sending dental and medical teams.

Less than two years after churches moved into Timor-Leste, civil conflicts raged in 2006 and threatened to break up a fledgling nation. Two years on in 2008, the attempted assassination of the President nearly split the country apart. Despite dire challenges, churches quickly responded to the dire needs and continued to serve despite danger and acute shortages . Those years from 2006 to 2011 were very trying years indeed.

Li Shan: I arrived in Timor in the middle of the 2006-2007 internal crisis. The neighbourhood where our work started was a hotspot for violence where warring gangs were having fights and shooting bows and arrows at each other.

What is one encounter that grips your heart as you think about God’s people in Timor?

Pastor Sarah: I think of the youth in our village receiving Bibles for the very first time – holding them tightly to their chests like the most precious treasure in the world. Or the families who walk hours across mountains just to gather for church, hungry to hear the Word. Or the elderly man who cannot read or write, yet listens intently to every sermon so he can go back and share the message with his village. Or how we had three break-ins into our home, and the Lord moved the hearts of these boys to repentance – they experienced God’s grace through forgiveness, which has led to tangible behavioural changes in their lives. Or even youth who joined our English Courses and Kids Clubs, now leading Kids Club outreach programmes independently in the village!

Pastor Sarah has poignant memories of the youth in the village receiving Bibles for the very first time – holding them tightly to their chests like the most precious treasure in the world.

One of the most moving encouragements came when our local church caught the vision that the church is not just part of the community, but God’s very heart in the community. Together, we dreamed of starting a pre-school in our village – something they never dreamed they could do as “ordinary farmers”. But they shared and owned that vision. Fathers came daily to build the school with their hands, unpaid. Mothers came to cook for the workers, knowing this was for their children’s future. At the same time, the Lord was stirring hearts in Singapore – people we had not even spoken to – who miraculously gave the exact amount needed to build the preschool.

Then came the moment when five village farmers volunteered: “We will go for teacher training. We will serve the pre-school!”

Now, before school begins each day, we open the Word together with this team. And it’s not just routine – they dive into Scripture with tears, prayer and humility, allowing God to break and shape their hearts. Their lives are personally changed even in their families. Because of these teachers’ love and obedience, we now also hear story after story from parents of these pre-schoolers, amazed by the changes they’ve witnessed in their kids. They used to say they can’t do much as “just farmers”, but now they are disciplemakers!

These are the kind of moments that remind me the Lord Himself is building His Church here. In ways we never expected, always in ways that leave us in awe.

Li Shan: At one time street violence plagued the city, incited by martial arts gangs. Almost every young man looked for identity and belonging in a gang. Without us realising at first, the first young man whom we started studying the Bible with belonged to a gang. He was gripped by what he was reading in the Bible and, because of his tangible life transformation, his cousins started to join in the Bible study as well.

It was truly God’s Spirit at work in them. Despite the fierce persecution that they received from their gang leaders, they remained firm in their faith.

Li Shan founded Cocoon, which started a pre-school in 2015, an after-school care programme in 2021 and now teacher training in 2025.

Pastor Selvam: Once, I was deeply frustrated by the very slow or no progress of my work in Timor and the Lord spoke to my spirit to not back down but stand my ground; He will bring His army to the nation. Almost immediately I was revived and my spirit posture was resolved by new hope that God is about to a great work beyond anything I could do in that land. But I no idea then what army He was talking about.

However, the monthly pastors prayer in Dili gradually pulled local churches together. Pastors who were distant and estranged from one another began to forge new relationships, and God began a healing work. This unity movement was tested many times but the prayer meetings went on monthly for years and the perseverance started to bear good fruit. The spiritual climate gradually changed. Local churches were revived and God began to raise up His choice servants for the LoveTimor Movement after a span of 10 years

Pastor Daniel: One of our FCBC Timor members was having some issues in university because the faculty would challenge her with: “Why are you part of this Singaporean church? These friends of yours from Singapore, they come once in a while and that’s it. Where are they now?”

To which she replied: “My Singapore friends may not be here with me right now, but my Jesus is still here with me.”

Enthusiastic short-term mission trippers to Timor.

Baptising an FCBC Timor member.

I always remember this story because it always reminds me of the strength of the Timor Church’s conviction. It reminds me that there is a new generation of Christians in Timor, whether young or old, who are all in to see God’s Kingdom in Timor Leste.

What fruit have you seen since?

Li Shan: On April 26, 2024, the final day of last year’s LoveTimor Summit in Dili, our team prophetically carried two district banners to take a photograph, as a sign of faith that these two districts would be the first locations where Cocoon can be birthed.

Cocoon started off with English courses for children, youth and adults. Along the way, they gave out study awards, taught computer and ukulele, forming a soccer team and held spelling bee competitions.

Since 2018, the annual Timor Summit has seen an increasing number of local pastors and missionaries stepping up to strategise, plan, organise and preach at the Summit and workshops, observes Pastor Selvam.

We knew that we’re going to do teacher training for Aileu, where Covenant EFC and the local Presbyterian church would be starting a pre-school. I told my Timorese leader, Francisco, to take his district banner, Bobonaro, as a prophetic declaration of faith.

In the recent months, a new opportunity was given to Cocoon to do teacher training and even start schools in rural places by a private organisation. On April 25, 2025, our leaders were invited to meet the current Minister for Education at a private function by the beach. At the function, the team was assured of the plan for Cocoon to facilitate the work of school planting and teacher training. Francisco said with tears in his eyes: “Now I can finally see a preschool starting in my rural village. Do you remember the photo we took last year? It’s exactly a year after the prophetic declaration!”

This encounter speaks to me about God being faithful to His promises to the Timorese people.

Pastor Daniel: The first time I joined in for the LoveTimor Summit was in 2024. It was a great time of hearing and learning from many international speakers, many of whom were pastors from Singapore. But in 2025, it was vastly different. Practically all the speakers were Timorese pastors or localised missionaries. 

Pastor Daniel’s first visit to FCBC Timor members in Luro in 2023.

A Salvation call at a LoveTimor evangelistic youth rally in 2025.

I believe it is representative of the new season of God’s work in Timor. In the early years of this movement, it was largely overseas pastors, churches and ministries that were influencing and driving the work of the Kingdom. But now, we see the local church taking both a greater ownership and leadership for God’s work. I think this is something incredibly beautiful.

What is your hope for the next phase of LoveTimor?

Pastor Sarah: There are now fewer missionaries, but many more churches and ministries led by Timorese leaders themselves. At the annual LoveTimor Summit, more than 800 leaders gather from across the nation – and missionaries are vastly outnumbered. What a joy to see what has truly become a movement!

Yet one thing has never changed: the hunger. A hunger to be discipled and to make disciples. A passion to see a righteous generation arise that will transform this developing nation. A vision to see Timor not only as a nation that receives missionaries, but one that sends them.

I think of pastors in their 70s in remote villages – faithful men and women who have carried the church almost single-handedly through persecution, hardship, and loneliness. They lead the congregation, the youth, even Sunday school. And now, they face the challenge of passing the baton to the next generation – well into their 70s!

When the new converts became so many that Pastor Angelina (standing, middle) prayed for help, God sent her three Singaporean missionaries, including Pastor Sarah (standing, second from left).

This is the new critical season we are in. Timor has come so far, but until every village in Timor knows not just the name of Jesus but the fullness of His transforming glory, we’re not done yet.

Until Timor herself becomes a sending nation, we’re not done yet!

I am often puzzled by a well-meaning comment I hear from both locals and visitors: “Wow, what a sacrifice for you to live so simply in a rural village!”

My genuine response has always been: “No, this is not a sacrifice. It is a privilege. It is the absolute grace of God I GET to be here. There is literally nowhere else I would rather be!”

There are moments in the most ordinary days – sitting with a neighbour in the village, or even while making yet another long trip for visa paperwork – when tears well up in my eyes as I whisper, “Thank You, God, for yet another day in Timor.”

Truly, how often in our lifetimes do we get the joy of walking so closely with the Lord, playing a tangible part in building the youngest nation in Asia?

Psalm 2:8 keeps echoing: “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance.” I’m humbly, boldly, asking the Lord for Timor as my inheritance, for His glory! Would you?

“We’re not done yet!” LoveTimor looks forward to fresh momentum even as 200 gather for 21st anniversary celebration

The post From gang violence with bows and arrows, to youths clutching precious Bibles, LoveTimor missionaries recall the past 21 years appeared first on Salt&Light.