“God is sending these people to our doorstep”: Geylang Ministry reaps a harvest after many years of sowing into the red-light district

He stands in the hall of a little house set within a church. On this night, the area has been transformed into a Wishing Station. It is Christmas and Geylang Ministry (GM) has organised a party for those who throng the red-light district of Geylang.

In the late 2000s, Geylang also became a popular housing area for migrant workers. Today, shops offering products and services catering to these workers speckle Geylang. 

Said Debbie Zhang, 55, who founded the NGO that reaches out to men and women in the sex trade in the area: “I was walking around looking for some guests to talk to and I saw him.”

Debbie Zhang at a volunteers’ debriefing session after carolling at Aljunied during Christmas.

As they chatted, Debbie discovered that the man was from India and had been working in Singapore for four years. Brought up as a Christian, his family later renounced their faith. They then converted to another religion.

“He told me that this was the first time he had stepped into a church since then. When he received our party flyer, he told himself that he would come back to church.”

The man was among the nearly 300 foreign workers who attended the Christmas night event in December 2024 at Geylang Chinese Methodist Church, drawn by flyers GM had been distributing in the streets since November. Of these, over 40 gave their lives to Jesus even though there was no sermon preached.

“It was not possible because the people spoke so many different languages – Bengali, Tamil, Hindi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Telugu, Chinese, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Malay and Indonesian.”

Instead, there was a hearty meal, door gifts, game stalls with prizes for every participant and a wishing tree.  

GM ordered 300 bento box meals to treat the migrant workers to a sumptuous dinner. Fruits and cakes were also served.

“I didn’t expect any salvations. We just wanted to show them love, bless them with a wonderful Christmas so that when they go home and think about Singapore, they will remember this.

“This shows they just want to be embraced,” said Debbie.

Light up Geylang

GM’s outreach this Christmas past is the largest since it began its work in the lorongs (alleyways) of Geylang’s red-light district. Apart from the party at GCMC, there were carolling sessions over two days instead of just the one in other years.

On Christmas Eve, about 40 GM volunteers carolled door to door at Geylang’s red-light district, handing out 550 goodie bags along the way. This is a tradition they have held for 14 years.  

Blowing the shofar at the start of the carolling, a clarion call to arise and bring the Gospel to the people in Geylang.

“In the beginning, we were only able to carol outside two brothels. Our goal was simply to worship God in the red-light district, praying to soften the spiritual ground,” said Debbie.

“The people only knew me then. My face was the passport. If we had different groups of carollers, they would bring my photo to show them that they were with me.”

It took more than a decade of work before GM saw a sliver of acceptance among the “uncles”, “aunties” and girls in the sex industry. Debbie and her volunteers have pounded the streets handing out Gospel tracts, gone on walks to cover the area in prayer, celebrated the birthdays of those in the trade every month, and sown God’s love and seeds of the Gospel into their lives.

During the pandemic, GM delivered food and groceries to those shuttered in the brothels. They even sponsored trips home for the girls who could not wait out the lockdown.

For the girls who had become Christians but had returned home to their own countries, the ministry connected them with shelters and churches back home, and even conducted regular online Bible study classes for them. 

“God is faithful. This year, we prepared 80 tealight candles for those who accepted Christ through the Geylang carolling. But God exceeded our expectations. We had 126 salvations, the most in GM’s history.

“A lady was moved to tears during our carolling and one ‘uncle’ could not hold back his tears when he talked about his late mother who was a Christian,” Debbie reported in GM’s newsletter.

The harvest is plentiful

On Christmas Day, nearly 100 GM volunteers went to three separate locations at Aljunied to carol. Some 1,500 goodie bags were handed out to the mostly migrant workers who had gathered to listen. 

The GM team before carolling around Aljunied.

“Carolling in Aljunied is new. It has been upon my heart since the red-light area opened up in 2022. I felt God wanted us to reach out to the people who visit Geylang as well, many of whom are migrant workers.”

The GM team split into three so that they could carol at three different locations in Aljunied.

That GM managed to not only get permission to carol in the streets of Aljunied and at the gates of GCMC is no small miracle. GM has been trying for years to partner the church. 

GM carollers at the gate of GCMC who partnered them this year.

“I find the location of the church very strategic. We just want to use the church to gather to pray before we do our weekly tracting and for the debrief after that, and to store our gift packs.”

After several years of trying, Debbie finally gave up seeking the church’s support only to have a member of GCMC contact her the following year, offering financial support. In time, the church also gave GM space to do their work.  

“This is really God’s doing after so many years.”

The partnership also meant that GM had a place and opportunity to engage those in Geylang in deeper conversations about faith.

“In the past (when speaking to them) on the streets, we would only get to find out who they are and where they come from. We don’t have a chance to get them to share about their lives or ask if they are open to our faith. So we thought a party would allow us to talk to them more personally.”

This was exactly what happened last Christmas. Over dinner, as the guests played games, while they wrote their wishes and hung them on the two-metre tall Christmas tree, GM volunteers shared the Gospel with the guests.

GM volunteers having deeper conversations and sharing the Gospel with the guests at the Christmas party,

Of the nearly 300 foreigners who turned up at the party, a large number were foreign workers from countries with limited access to the Gospel. Many often visit Geylang for the cheap groceries and food from their hometown.

“That is a mission field. You know how hard it is to go to these countries for missions? Now God is sending these people to our doorstep. We can just share the Gospel with them in Singapore.”

Plugged in to the Body

More than 50 people became Christians at the party and the other outreach events. Of those, 19 are being followed up by a Tamil church. The other converts will be introduced to churches with English or Chinese services, depending on the language they are most comfortable with.

“Our hope is that churches will embrace them,” said Debbie.

But attending worship services in the morning may be a challenge for these foreigners who work even on Sundays. So Debbie is considering having a Sunday evening Christian fellowship and Bible study group for them instead.

She has more plans ahead for 2025.

“I hope to do something in Geylang similar to Celebrate Christmas in Singapore at Orchard Road. Build tents so we don’t need to worry about the weather. Then we can do more.

“When we caroled at the streets of Aljunied, the people seemed so blessed by our singing. I believe our carolling and the party did make their Christmas very special. Many of them even recorded the whole carolling.” 

Meanwhile, GM will continue to do what they have always done to reach those in the area – love.

“I believe love is the universal language that is able to break all barriers to bring them to God. Because of our love and kind gestures, so many came.

These bags, a reminder of the power of God’s love, were filled with treats and given out as goodie bags.

“It is my prayer that the churches in Singapore will open their doors to reach out to the community, even simply inviting them to watch free movies so they can kill time instead of coming to Geylang to wander around on the streets.”  

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