One came from China, the other Indonesia: The unlikely love story of two missionaries

They could not have come from more different worlds.  

Eeleen, 36, hails from a minority tribe in the city of Shangri-La in Yunnan, China. During the bitter winter, temperatures in her hometown can plunge to minus 10 degrees Celsius. Eeleen has lived there with her parents and brother most of her life.  

Larry, 44, was born in Sidikalang, a town in North Sumatra, Indonesia, near Lake Toba. The weather there is warm and humid but Larry is not often around to experience it. For the last 19 years, Larry, who has lost both his parents, has been traveling to different parts of Indonesia doing mission work.  

Yet both of them had at least two things in common.  

One: Both loved God deeply and sought to serve him faithfully. It was a love borne out of – or in spite of – the unusually difficult circumstances of their lives.  

In 2011, Eeleen became one of the first few – possibly even the first – Christian among the 100,000 residents in her hometown, after a Singaporean missionary shared the Gospel with her. Though there was no fellow believer there that she could talk to or learn from about her newfound faith, she would go on to do God’s work, including becoming a missionary in Africa.  

Larry found himself alone when he was three years old. His father left the family and his mother died shortly after from a blood disorder. Despite feeling abandoned and lonely for most of his life, he encountered God in a youth camp in 2001. Since then, he has been doing ministry work on the islands of Indonesia.

Two: They were both feeling the pressure of being single. 

In the minority tribe from which Eeleen hails, females get married at around 18 years of age. In 2018, when Eeleen returned from Africa where she had served as an interpreter for a mission team there, she was already 28. Her family members, concerned, pressured her to go on the blind dates they set up for her.

In the meantime, Larry was feeling burnt out after serving in the mission field for more than a decade. He also felt intensely lonely, having been largely by himself from his childhood days. Being an orphan, this feeling was not helped by the fact her was a traveling missionary.

Larry told Salt&Light: “I had reached a point where I was so discouraged that I pitied myself. I was in my late 30s, with no money, and I was not successful in the eyes of the world. I wanted a partner to serve the Lord alongside me but which girl would want me?”    

God saw the needs and heard the heartfelt cries of these two missionaries and brought them together in a completely different part of the world – right here in Singapore. 

“Sell all and go” 

One night in 2016, Larry found himself tossing and turning in bed, mulling over whether or not to go to Singapore to join the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) School of Frontier Missions programme.  

In the midst of his burnout, a friend of Larry’s recommended the YWAM programme. When he heard this, Larry’s heart leapt. Yet there were many obstacles in the way: He had no money to go, his command of English was poor and he did not know anyone in Singapore.  

As Larry lay sleeplessly in bed that night, he heard God whisper to him: “Son, what do you have?”  

“I have nothing,” was his immediate thought. The Lord’s question came back again.  

Larry looked around his home and listed his possessions to God: “I have a small motorcycle repair shop, a TV, a bed and a fan.”  

“Sell all and go,” came the reply.  

Larry struggled with this instruction because, if he did as he was told, he would have nothing left to his name when he returned.  

Yet when morning came, Larry remembered how Abraham in the Bible had surrendered even his own son to obey God and he decided to take the leap of faith. He sold off everything he possessed to friends and neighbours.

Together with a donation that God sent his way, Larry found he had enough to cover his voyage to Singapore.

Two images in a vision

As part of his year-long course, Larry attended a silent retreat at Montfort Centre. He was glad for the rest. But he felt deep loneliness and sought out the spiritual director to pray for a life partner for him. 

As he waited on the Lord in the pavilion in the garden, he boldly asked God to show him who his future wife would be. It was then that he received a vision of two boys sitting on a bench and a map of China.  

“I felt hope but didn’t really understand it. Was God saying He would take me to China for mission work? But that was not what I was asking Him. I also did not have any Chinese friends,” he noted. Though Larry did not understand its meaning, he drew the two pictures he received from God in his journal.  

Later that year, he left for Malaysia to work amongst the Orang Asli, an indigenous people, as part of his School of Frontier Missions internship programme. 

The next year, he received a Facebook friend request from a woman called Eeleen. It turned out that while Eeleen was on a short-term mission trip to Uganda, Africa, she had browsed through Facebook and added Larry as a friend when she saw that they had many mutual friends who were missionaries. She felt encouraged when she saw a picture of him worshipping God with his guitar in Malaysia.  

“I didn’t know whether he was single or married – it did not cross my mind. I don’t usually add people I don’t know but when I saw his picture, I felt he was a man of peace,” said Eeleen, who noticed that Larry was active in mission work and that they seemed to have similar values and calling.  

Larry was surprised to see Eeleen’s profile picture of herself with an African child, and surmised that she was a missionary. He accepted her friend request but they did not chat much. She was just another Facebook friend at the time.

In 2018, Eeleen returned home after spending a year in Africa. Her family was getting anxious about her marriage prospects as she was already 28. In China, any unmarried woman above the age of 27 is commonly referred to as sheng nu, or leftover woman. Her cousin and friend volunteered to accompany her on blind dates that her family had set up with three men who had been screened for wealth, status or power.  

The blind date

“I knew I shouldn’t have gone as the Lord had already told me that He would prepare a partner for me and the men were not Christians. Yet I bowed to the pressure and went anyway,” Eeleen told Salt&Light.  

That night after she returned home, her heart was heavy laden with guilt. She felt a strong conviction from the Holy Spirit and repented.  

“God, I am sorry that I did not trust You and went for the blind date. I surrender this area of my life to You and will not go on any more blind dates. I will trust you. I ask for a partner who has a heart to serve You, whether as a missionary or a Pastor,” she prayed.  

Soon after, she found a job as a training manager at the Shangri-La Hotel in her hometown. She busied herself with learning the ropes in the new job.  

That same year, Larry was asked to return as a staff member to help run YWAM’s Discipleship Training School and School of Frontier Missions programmes in Singapore.  

A colleague casually asked him how long it had been since he had seen his relatives in Indonesia. Eight years, Larry replied. Being a missionary, he did not have the savings to return home to visit them.  

Immediately, the colleague decided to sponsor Larry’s trip back home. Soon he was flying home with gifts for his aunts.  

“I will provide for you”

During his flight back to Indonesia, Larry heard the Holy Spirit whisper: “I will provide for you.” He knew in his heart that the Lord was referring to a life partner.  

He also heard a voice telling him: “Visit your mother’s grave and I will provide for you.”  

“I didn’t really believe the voice because it sounded like a pagan practice of needing to visit the grave,” Larry admitted.  

He left it till two days before returning to Singapore to visit his mother’s grave. He reasoned that he should, since he did not know when he would be able to return to Indonesia again.  

At the grave he prayed: “Even though my mother’s life on earth was short, I am thankful for her. Through her life, I was born to serve You.”  

After he returned from his mother’s grave, he was surprised to find that four of his maternal aunts had prepared a traditional meal specially for him. He was taken aback as, in his Batak tradition, such a meal is usually prepared for elders in the family, to honour the older generation and ask for their forgiveness before they die. On other occasions, such a meal is prepared to present urgent wishes to God or confer special blessings upon a person.  

His aunties sat in a circle on the floor, with him in the middle. The feast laid out in front of him included a whole pig and chicken, with all their parts arranged ceremonially.

Each of his aunts, who are Christians, took turns to stretch out their hands and bless Larry, saying he would be married before the next time he returned home. 

“I was very touched that they would do this for me,” said Larry.

From phone calls to video calls

When he touched down in Singapore, the first person who contacted him was Eeleen.  

It turned out that one week after Eeleen repented before God and promised Him that she would not go on any more blind dates, her hotel sent her to Chengdu for a training workshop. Every day after training ended, she found herself with some free time to scroll through social media and that was when she saw the picture that Larry had posted of visiting his mother’s grave. More than one year after they had first chatted briefly online, she messaged him on Facebook again.  

“I wasn’t very excited because I thought she mainly spoke Mandarin and I didn’t want to spend much time online,” Larry said. “But the Holy Spirit reminded me about His promise of a provision of a life partner and after witnessing the many signs that were from Him, I started to be more open towards her.” 

However, his command of English was so rudimentary at that time that he had to enlist the help of a Korean-American classmate from YWAM to help him craft his messages to Eeleen.  

After texting to and fro, the pair decided to migrate to audio calls to chat. The first time they called each other, they talked for three hours.  

“I thought her English would be bad but actually it was better than mine,” said Larry sheepishly. 

Then, they shifted to video calls. The first time they saw each other live online, they stayed on the call for four hours.  

“We shared our life stories, our past, our different cultures and our prayer requests. It was such a big thing for me because finally I have a believer friend to talk to about life and about God,” said Eeleen.  

That was also when Larry found more common ground and common friends between them and felt more assured about this friendship with Eeleen. 

Soon, they found themselves chatting with each other every day, sharing deeply with one another.  

On August 8, 2018, both of them committed to seriously exploring a relationship with each other, even though they still could not meet in person. 

Two months later, Larry went to Thailand for a YWAM conference and met Eeleen’s former bosses there. Their suggestion was for Larry to go to China to meet Eeleen in person to get to know her and her parents better. 

The plan was for Larry to fly over to China and for both of them to serve the Lord together on a mission platform so that they could observe each other and get to know each other better in community, while staying accountable to their ministry leaders.  

Finally face to face

It was a year later in 2019 when Larry finally had the opportunity to go to China. His leaders decided to release him for two months as he worked on the mission platform while getting acquainted with Eeleen.  

The first time Larry met Eeleen in person was like a scene out of a book. Her teammates teased her as one of them pulled a shy Eeleen to meet Larry. Though Eeleen was nervous, Larry did not seem to have any jitters. Visibly amused, he introduced himself and carried himself confidently.  

During those two months, each saw how the other loved the Lord and was committed to a life of missions. Their values and hearts aligned.  

Two days before he was due to return to Singapore, Larry travelled nine hours by bus to visit Eeleen’s parents in their hometown. Apart from honouring her parents by paying them a visit, Larry also took the opportunity to share the Gospel with them at Eeleen’s request. Over the years, she had been sharing with them about her faith but they were not ready to convert to Christianity. 

Understandably, her parents also had reservations about her mostly long-distance relationship with Larry.  

“Marrying a mute from our village might be better; at least he knows our customs and our language!” her mother once remarked to her.  

Yet in the two days that Larry stayed with them, her parents saw how serious he was about their daughter. He also shared the Gospel with them in a simple way using white, black and red bowls on the table. White represented the perfect state of the world and black represented sin that disrupted God’s relationship with mankind.

When he explained about the red bowl symbolising Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, her mother seemed to understand. In their culture, they would offer pig’s blood to the mountain and also spread it across their doorposts.  

Baptism on a winter’s night

Her mother decided to accept Christ that cold, wintry night – it was minus 10 degrees Celsius – and Larry baptised her at 10pm in a bathtub in the house.  

“It was so cold that we had to boil water many times over two hours to be able to baptise Mum. But we were so happy,” Eeleen told Salt&Light.

Before Larry returned to Singapore, her parents told them they approved of the marriage and urged them not to delay it. 

The following year, in 2020, Larry planned to go to China to ask for Eeleen’s hand in marriage. He had his flight ticket and visa ready, but his plans were disrupted due to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Feeling disappointed and lost, the young couple devoted themselves to praying together remotely. When the church went online due to the pandemic, Eeleen joined the Zoom fellowship held by Larry’s church in Singapore. 

The church in Singapore supported her as she discipled her mother, since they were among only a handful of Christians in their hometown. Eeleen also found a job so as to save up some money to head to Singapore when borders opened.  

Seeing his wife transformed after accepting Christ, Eeleen’s father also invited Jesus into his heart in February 2021. Larry and his church group in Singapore guided Eeleen via Zoom to conduct a baptism for her father back at home.

That was how Eeleen’s family became the first Christian family in their minority tribe. 

Reunited in Singapore 

The following month, Larry rejoined the staff at YWAM’s School of Frontier Missions. 

Eeleen also applied for a visa to join the YWAM school in Singapore. It would be the first time she had the chance to attend a Bible and mission school programme, and her time here allowed her and Larry to get to know each other better and to seek the Lord about their relationship.  

In July, Eeleen finally arrived in Singapore, bidding farewell to her family and her home, full of anticipation for a brand new life ahead with Larry. She was filled with peace as she left with the blessings of her father and mother, and the knowledge that her parents had received salvation.  

As they spent time together daily at the school, Larry saw that Eeleen was truly a godly woman and that they could work together as partners. Eeleen felt a sense of home and security when she was with Larry.  

Of course, there were also moments of friction between them. Quarrels arose due to differences in language, culture and personalities.  

The differences in language were smoothed over as they relied on Google Translate to bridge the gap. Their command of English continues to improve.  

The more frustrating aspects in relating to each other mostly had to do with culture and upbringing.  

“In my culture, we speak loudly. Since young, my parents have been using ‘big voice’ to speak to each other yet I know it doesn’t mean they are quarrelling. But Larry finds that I speak too loudly,” said Eeleen.  

On her end, she found that Larry was too “jungle”, lacking the mannerisms of “city people”.  

Apart from eating with his hands, he also ate much faster than she did. She preferred conversing over a slow meal.  

When asked how they resolved such differences, Eeleen laughed: “I just tell him I would make mala hotpot for dinner tonight and he can use his hands to eat it if he wishes. He loves Chinese food.” 

In August 2021, God answered their prayers and arranged for them to receive pre-marital counseling with a Singaporean couple whom Eeleen got to know in 2013. This couple, whom they call “Uncle Steven” and “Aunty Phyllis” has walked with them through the years.

A month after the School of Frontier Missions programme ended in December, Larry proposed to Eeleen at a beach in Sentosa.

Without much savings, both of them had planned to wed in a simple solemnisation at the Registry of Marriages in February.  

But as they started planning it and praying over their financial challenges, they experienced miracle after miracle. 

The Singaporean couple who counselled them had a cell member who worked at the Metropolitan YMCA. The cell member offered them a hugely discounted wedding package of S$4,000 to hold a reception for 50 people at its premises at Stevens Road.  

The couple tabulated the costs and confided in their classmate from YWAM that they would roughly need S$5,000 to cover most of the expenses of a reception.

Subsequently, a supporter of that classmate gave her a donation of exactly S$5,000 (without having prior knowledge of Larry and Eeleen’s situation) and asked if she or any others whom she knew needed that amount. Their classmate instantly knew the money was meant for the couple.  

Their classmate also blessed them with a simple wedding package that included a gown and suit rental, as well as photography and makeup, so Larry and Eeleen were all set for their big day.  

Beyond provision of the material aspects for the wedding, Eeleen was most grateful to God for Uncle Steven and Aunty Phyllis who prepared them for marriage before they said their vows.  

This was crucial, said Eeleen, because she needed inner healing from the hurts sustained in her previous years of doing ministry work. She did not want to bring such baggage into her marriage. 

It was also important to the couple that they got to share their testimonies at their wedding. When their classmate told this to a videographer friend, that friend offered to film the couple’s video testimony. This was yet another incident where God used total strangers to bless the couple.  

On February 26, 2022, the couple wed in a beautiful hall at Metropolitan YMCA, in the presence of God and many friends from church and the YWAM community.  

Whether from nerves or otherwise, Larry missed the cue to kiss the bride and had to be prompted a second time, to cheering and laughter from the audience.  

Later, the couple learned that their Pastor had paid for the wedding reception, so they could use the money that they had in hand for their living expenses and school fees.  

“Many people back in my hometown don’t even have a passport because few travel overseas. Here I am, being able to get married in Singapore. It feels like a dream,” said Eeleen.  

Through their adventures together in the last few years, the two missionaries have experienced God in fresh new ways.  

“In the past, I did believe that God is real but did not deeply experience Him as my Provider. It has been a faith journey from the very start, being the first in my tribe and hometown to come to Christ, then coming over to Singapore knowing no one except Larry,” said Eeleen.  

“But seeing our answered prayers and miracles of finding each other, getting married and surviving financially here despite us not being able to work, we know we can trust Him with our future and so much more,” she added.  

For Larry, their divinely-crafted love story has showed him that God did not forget him. 

“All these years I served the Lord, I thought I was ending up tired, poor, lonely and such a failure. Now that some of the puzzle pieces have come together, I see that He did not forget me or my work,” he said. 

“He was not too busy to answer my prayers. In His timing, he returned me with abundant blessings beyond my imagination.”

Married and ministering together in Lampung

For the last four years, Larry and Eeleen have been living in Lampung, Indonesia. They had initially thought they were bound for East Kalimantan, but God impressed upon them to remain in Lampung and serve the people there.

After their wedding in 2022, Larry took a short course in music production at LASALLE College of the Arts, while Eeleen learned to play the keyboard and studied Bahasa Indonesia.

“Eeleen has spent the past few years learning Bahasa Indonesia on her own, and by God’s grace, she can now communicate comfortably and naturally with local people,” said Larry proudly.

“She is teaching Mandarin at a local Christian school, where she has the opportunity to build relationships with students and teachers. We are increasingly seeing how God can use the things He has placed in our hands – language, education, music, hospitality and relationships – to open doors for ministry.”

Larry, on the other hand, ministers at a local Christian hospital, where he regularly visits patients and their families. He spends time listening to them, praying with and for them and sharing God’s Word and “the hope we have in Christ”. 

Just this past July, God opened a door for the couple to set up a business that is also a mission. The first floor is a small café, and the second floor is a music studio which serves as a place for worship, fellowship and Bible study.

Larry told Salt&Light: “May this little place become a place where young people encounter God, hearts are restored, and the Gospel is made known. May His will be fully accomplished in our lives—not ours, but His. All for His glory.”

Not an easy journey, but one they share

Life is not without difficulty for Larry and Eeleen. “These years have not always been easy. We’ve experienced many ups and downs, changes, disappointments, and moments when we had to simply trust God one step at a time,” he said.

They have been trying for a child, and went through two miscarriages early in their marriage. “It was a very painful season for both of us. There were certainly moments when we questioned and wondered what God was doing. But through that journey, God has been teaching us that our lives and our future are ultimately in His hands. We may not understand every part of His plan, but we have experienced His grace carrying us through, and we continue to choose to trust Him.”

They may face difficulty, but having one another to lean on and to journey with is a gift from God. The couple are grateful for Uncle Steven and Aunty Phyllis, who have become spiritual mentors to them.

“We have walked through seasons of brokenness, tears, pain, and deep emotional and spiritual struggles; moments when we truly did not know how to keep going. Yet, they never stopped standing behind us, praying for us, encouraging us, and reminding us that we were not alone.

“Through their love and faithfulness, God carried us through some of our darkest valleys. We are deeply grateful for their love. When we are weak and have no strength left, God faithfully sends people to hold us up.”

One of the biggest things the couple has learned these four years is that ministry is not always about moving on to the next place. Sometimes it is about staying, persevering, putting down roots, and faithfully building what God has already placed before you, said Larry.

“We are still very much on the journey, but we can look back and see God’s fingerprints through every season – the good ones and the difficult ones. And that gives us confidence to keep moving forward, not because we have everything figured out, but because we know the One who is leading us.”

To find out more Larry and Eeleen’s ministry and to support them, you can contact them at larrymanik@yahoo.com or eeleenw@gmail.com

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