This domestic helper won 150 helpers to Christ

While waiting at the training centre in Indonesia for a potential employer from Singapore to hire her as a domestic helper, Mariana Kareri entered into a same-sex relationship.

“I was very bitter towards my ex-boyfriend for impregnating another woman. After that happened, I found that I enjoyed the attention from other women instead,” said Mariana, who also had a reputation for being dominating and “tomboy-ish” since she was young.  

After a long wait, Mariana, then 32, finally came to work in Singapore in 2006.

While working here, Mariana also had a girlfriend.

“I was looking for love. In name, I was a Protestant Christian back at home but I only went to church once a year for the Christmas celebration,” she told Salt&Light through a translator. 

She heard the voice of God for the first time

After two years of living in Singapore, Mariana was invited to Cornerstone Community Church’s Bahasa Indonesia Fellowship.

During a service, Mariana distinctively heard the voice of God for the first time.

“Stop what you are doing. My love is enough for you,” God said to her.

That day, Mariana gave her life to Jesus.

However, Mariana struggled with giving up being in a same-sex relationship.

“I came from Sumba, Indonesia and many people back there knew I became a lesbian. So, there were many temptations for me as women would come and pursue me, even in Singapore,” said Mariana.

During that time, Mariana’s right leg suddenly turned black and became so sore that she had difficulty walking. Like other domestic workers, she feared being sent back home by her employer due to her injury.

Pastor Peter Sam, the language congregational pastor of Cornerstone’s Bahasa Indonesia Fellowship, told Salt&Light: “Then, she was still in a same-sex relationship and we felt the sudden leg pain was a spiritual attack. I told her that she has to make a decision for a breakthrough – either follow God wholeheartedly or go back to her old self and her old life.” 

Mariana told him that she did not like her old self. She repented that day and stopped engaging in same-sex behaviour.  

She also joined the congregation’s prayer meeting via phone.

“They prayed for my leg to be healed and for God to use my feet to reach souls,” said Marianna.

The next day, she no longer felt any pain in her leg, although it was still black.

Two days later, the skin on her leg was no longer black but had returned to normal.

“It was a miracle. The power of Jesus in the lives of His people is very real. I realised that He cares for me so much that I want to live according to His will,” Marianna who cried with joy when she was healed.

From then on, Mariana began to enjoy praying and attending all the training and equipping classes that the church conducted.

Her transformation thereafter was so pronounced that her friends around her felt the difference. Where she used to be arrogant, rude and fierce, she became more patient, humble and caring.

A regular evangelist at Paya Lebar

Mariana started to actively evangelise the domestic helpers who congregate at Paya Lebar MRT and City Plaza on their off days on Sundays.

On a typical Sunday, Mariana would arrive at her church in Katong at 7.30am to help clean the worship room so that it would be conducive for service later that morning. Once she was done cleaning, she would take a bus to Paya Lebar where she would befriend the domestic workers, pray for them and invite them for the 9.30am Sunday service. Sometimes, if time was too tight to take the bus, she would pay for a taxi to bring them to church.

If the clean-up that morning took longer than usual, she would head to the nearby maid agencies at Katong Shopping Centre instead. After getting the owners’ permission to share the Gospel with the workers there, she would proceed to talk to them and invite them for the church service next door.

Mariana reaches out to the domestic workers stationed in maid agencies in Katong.

Pastor Sam observed: “Sometimes, the agency owners try to dissuade the helpers from going to church by warning them that they may miss out on the opportunity to be hired should a potential employer drop by during that time.”

Mariana would tell them to trust God and honour Him first, and they have since seen a number of instances where the helpers who chose to go to church were hired shortly after they returned from the service.

After service, Mariana would continue her outreach in Paya Lebar till it was time for her to return to her employer’s home. She would minister to the helpers by listening to their struggles, giving them counsel from God’s Word and praying for them. For the helpers who expressed interest in knowing more about God, she would follow up by inviting them to church the following week.

“I received salvation from the Lord Jesus for free, and what I received from God must also be passed on freely. I really hope my fellow helpers can experience God as I do,” she said.

Mariana’s personal testimony of how God had rescued her from a lesbian lifestyle also gave her the boldness to approach fellow helpers who struggle with same-sex attraction. She would befriend them and share her own story with them.

“When I see them kissing or behaving intimately, my heart is sad but I also feel overwhelmed with God’s love for them. I share God’s love and His truth to them and some ask to be prayed for,” said Mariana.

She is also not afraid to venture into hostile places and bring His light there.

There is an obscure but known place among the migrant worker community where workers engage in sexual activity under a particular MRT track. Other workers would be stationed as lookouts to ensure the smooth running of activities there.

Mariana would go up to the women and dissuade them from providing such services, and invite them to church instead.

Pastor Sam said: “I found out that Mariana was reaching out to them and that many of them have become daughters of our church only when the construction workers started coming to church to find me.

“They asked me for money because some of the women who attended our church apparently owed them abortion money. We are glad these women are coming to church now.

Pastor Sam added that he emphasised to the construction workers that what they were doing was against the law.

By the end of a decade of street evangelism at Paya Lebar, Mariana had brought more than 150 workers to Christ. For those who could not afford Bibles or were suddenly repatriated home, she gifted Bibles that were bought with her own salary.

Over the years, her own faith has grown. Whenever she learns something useful, she would share it with other domestic helpers by teaching it to them over Zoom or WhatsApp. She also used to preach once a month at her church’s second service for the Bahasa Indonesia Fellowship.

In 2016 and 2018, she had the opportunity to visit Israel. A businessman kindly sponsored the trip for some members of the Indonesian congregation as a way of giving back, after he and his wife were brought to the faith by their own domestic helper.

Mariana is now 51 years old. She currently cares for an elderly woman who requires tube-feeding every three hours.

This intensive care meant that Mariana has had to stop her outreach work in Paya Lebar, and she only has a limited time to be in church on Sundays.

Pastor Sam told Salt&Light: “My hope is that, one day, we can employ her to be our Bahasa Indonesia Fellowship’s resident evangelist. She used to tell me: ‘Pastor, you don’t worry about souls. I will bring them and you help me to disciple them’.”

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