Missions is the Heartbeat of God
Sapphire Daogas joined HVMC in April 2020, at the start of the COVID lockdown, as a Missions Pastoral Team staff and also to oversee the Filipino Fellowship Ministry. Her other responsibilities included the Usher Ministry, our ACS (International)’s weekly Christian Fellowship and the Parents Prayer Group.
Sapphire’s experience with missionary work started back in 2002, when she was still single and heeded God’s call to serve. Her pastor sent her to pioneer a church in a small remote village, inhabited mostly by poor farmers, up in the mountains in northern Luzon, Philippines. It was a place where political rebels hid deep in the jungle. She lived there for two years with a native family, without electricity, and water had to be fetched from a deep well.
It was back in Singapore, in 2000, that she met her Filipino husband, Benjamin Daogas, when he was the speaker at a Frontier Missions course, where she was serving with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Benjamin has been a missionary with YWAM since 1989. They married in 2005 and from 2009 to 2015, served as missionaries in Vietnam.
You could say that Benson, their 17-year-old son, was a missionary baby, for he “served” with them in Vietnam. He had his first real exposure when the family went on a short mission trip to Timor-Leste in June 2023.
The Daogases are HVMC’s first missionary family to Timor-Leste.
Sapphire speaks about their decision:-
Why Timor-Leste?
In 2016, we had to return to Singapore from Vietnam for my cancer treatment. Just before the COVID lockdown in 2020, I applied for a post in HVMC, on the encouragement of Pastor Lorna Khoo. In late 2023, after I had recovered from my lung surgery and was recuperating at home, I started to seek God and asked Him when we could be back to "our mission field", for that was our calling and where we truly belong. I knew that our time back in Singapore was all for a reason and only for a season. So, when my oncologist confirmed that the cancer was gone, both my husband and I knew that the time had come for our family to be launched out into the field once again.
In March 2024, while seeking and waiting upon the Lord, Pastor Jeremy Ong and Jenny Bose, our new Missions Chair, shared and encouraged us to pray about being HVMC's first missionary family to Timor-Leste. We were asked to take three weeks to pray for God’s leading.
Father son bonding at Cristo Rei of Dili, Timor-Leste
Benjamin & team preparing dinner for student hostelites in Gleno, Timor-Leste
Initially, because my husband’s main calling is “to go to the frontiers” - where less than 1% of the population is unreached and to plant a church where there isn’t any - he could not see himself in Timor-Leste. But when the Lord spoke clearly to him about Abraham's obedience in Genesis 12:1, he knew that "obedience is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22), so he decided to obey and trust God's guidance.
As for me, I told God that I was willing and open to go to any country He called me to, if only He would "tell me so”. But God was silent. Then at our final decision-making meeting, God "showed up suddenly", and I saw a vision of Him walking right in front of me on a straight path! I knew instantly that God had confirmed that Timor-Leste would be my destination.
Our Ministry Plans in Timor-Leste
Ministering to St Paul Methodist School students
We plan to be there for between two to four years, depending on God’s leading. The St Paul Methodist School principal and Methodist Missions Society Country Director, David Chan, has already arranged for us to serve, and work, as teachers in the school through the teaching and discipling of young Timorese, and to support the pastoral care ministry and counselling of students.
Our Challenges
As we prepare to leave Singapore, one of the challenges for us right now is to look for a full-time caregiver for my 84-year-old mum.
As a family, one of the first things we need to do is to learn Tetum, the Timorese local language.
Benson connecting with Timorese students during June 2023 mission trip
For Benson, the first few months may require some adapting to the environment, culture, food and people, since this is his first time going out "into the field" with us. Although we have tried to mentally prepare him, he has to be ready to personally live and experience life and challenges in Timor Leste, even if it's only for a season.
How HVMC Has Made a Difference In Our Lives
Filipino Fellowship celebrating Sapphire’s birthday
For many years, we did not have a home church to support us or call our own, but now we have one, because God led me to HVMC, and subsequently brought my husband and son to worship and serve there too. Seeing our family become HVMC members, and now blessed with the opportunity to be the first missionary family sent to Timor-Leste, I know that with His divine guidance and leading in our lives, we are exactly where He wants us to be. So, to God be all the glory!
To our pastors and church leaders, thank you for your grace, understanding and patience, teaching and guiding me especially in my weakest areas. We are grateful for the love and the faith you have in our family, and for your support in prayer and financial matters.
To our congregation, we will miss the love, care, laughter and fellowship with our HVMC family, especially the friendship of individuals, and our Filipino sisters.
How You Can Support Us
Pray for us in your Life group and corporate prayer meetings and during your personal prayer time with the Lord! Write to us (bensap2018@gmail.com) and visit us! We would love to hear from you and know you better too! Do visit your brothers and sisters in Timor Leste at least once in your lifetime, especially since it is one of the countries our church has adopted!
Missions is God’s heartbeat. His deepest desire is for us to know and experience Him, actively reaching out to others with His message of salvation and repentance. When God sent His son into our world (John 3:16), Jesus became our first missionary! "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..." (Matthew 28:18-20). It doesn't mean you have to be a missionary, it just simply means all Christians are to make disciples. So, let us all respond to God's commandment.
Interviewed by
Low Yee Lan
MOSAIC Team
Share This!
