The Chaplaincy and St Martin’s Church rejoice in the “outreach” ministry to the migrant labour workers that God has entrusted to us. We can only say with the Psalmist that because of this ministry, God causes us to sing a new song of praise to Him every day (Psalm 33:2, Ps 96:1, Ps 144:9, Ps 149:1). Invariably every morning we have the opportunity to minister to the poorest of the poor; in their sickness we take them to the hospital, when they are hungry and thirsty we meet their needs; when it becomes difficult for them to sleep, shivering with cold, we provide them with warm clothes; when they are in trouble with their visas, we meet the concerned authorities and help sort out their issues – more often than not we get their respective embassies involved; when they feel lonely, when fear and anxiety grips them and when they feel helpless, we strengthen them with the word of God and teach them to pray to our heavenly Father. Every day we sense a feeling of fulfilment as we are reminded of Matthew 25:31-46 and we hear Jesus saying to us:

‘Truly I tell you, just as you did to one of the least of these, who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ (Matt 25:40)

Arulraj and Sadiq Daniel are Chaplaincy church workers for the migrant labour ministry amongst men. Both of them have the call of God and are a gift from God to us. They minister day and night, carrying the burden of the migrant labour men and giving of themselves unreservedly to the work of the ministry.

Sadiq Daniel joined us on 3^rd December, 2009 to work among the Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Pasthuni, Afghani, and Nepali speaking people, which according to Patrick Johnston’s book “Operation World” is one of the neediest language groups in the world. Arulraj ministers among the Tamil, Telugu, English, Malayalam, and Kannada speaking people. Together they minister to about 600 men each week.

This year (2011) God has in a very definite way, led us to minister to migrant labour women. The apathetic attitude towards them is appalling. It all started with Arulraj locating two women’s camps in Al Quoz and Satwa. We mobilized some volunteer women from St Martin’s to visit these camps and minister to these women. What they saw moved their hearts with compassion and they willingly sacrificed family time to visit these camps on a weekly basis. Our goal in the coming year is to appoint a full-time women’s worker to the Migrant Labour team and we hope that this will bring joy and relief to many women.

This is indeed a worthy investment for the Kingdom of God – if reading this has touched your heart, and you feel led to get involved or make a contribution to this ministry, please contact us.