After encountering God in miraculous ways while studying in Canada, Ginny Foo committed herself to full-time ministry after graduation. She spent nearly two decades doing church-planting work in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, but left the ministry disillusioned, with nearly nothing to her name. Read the first part of her story here.
The flight back to Singapore from Manila, Philippines took just four hours but it felt like an eternity to Ginny Foo.
Memories of the last 19 years that she had spent with the church establishment – 12 of which were dedicated to church-planting work in Asia – flooded her mind and heart.
Now, she was returning home to live in her sibings’ home, where her parents also resided. She had no idea what the future held for her, or how long her meagre savings of S$2,000 would last.
Ginny with her mother and her siblings later on in December 2023. This is the house that she lived in after she returned to Singapore from Manila.
A wave of embarrassment crept over her.
“After nearly two decades of dedication and service, I was coming back empty-handed, with no stable career and no significant achievements – just deep wounds and disappointments,” Ginny told Salt&Light.
At first, she kept her emotions to herself. But eventually, she found the strength to open up to her sister and the counsellor that her sister referred her to.
The moment she began to share with others, a dam of emotions broke, and Ginny sobbed uncontrollably, surprising even herself.
“I knew I needed to confront my anger, sadness and disillusionment. But above all, I needed to seek God’s grace — grace for myself and for those who had hurt me. I had to find a way to reconcile the years of service with the disappointment that now coloured them,” she admitted.
Now, she was left to start life over at the age of 38, after “wasting” her prime years serving a church that she now knew had lost its way.
Wrestling with God and finding healing
“If I ever have to ask my family for money once my remaining S$2,000 run out, I will stop being a Christian and conclude that You are not real,” Ginny cried out in anguish to the Lord.
That was the state of her spirit and soul at the time.
But as she sat in quiet moments with Him, she felt His healing wash over her soul like a balm.
“God reminded me that the years I spent serving Him and His people had not been in vain. They had shaped me, even in ways I couldn’t fully see at the time,” said Ginny.
The journey had broken her but it had been necessary for her growth.
Over time, as she chose to release forgiveness and bless those who had hurt her, healing slowly began to take place.
During this time of healing, she began attending the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer (LCOR), a welcoming congregation made up of families.
“They didn’t know the full extent of my journey, but they offered me a space to heal, to be real, and to simply be. The warmth and sincerity of the people brought me to a place where I could begin to trust again,” said Ginny.
Ginny leading worship at LCOR.
An outing to the zoo with her church’s cell members.
She knew she needed to figure out how to rebuild her life — not just spiritually, but financially and professionally as well.
As she began searching for positions in medical laboratories, she wondered if she could truly thrive in the corporate world after having stepped away from it for so long.
She soon secured a few interviews, but Pathlab, the same organisation she had worked with in Penang, was the first to respond with an offer.
Pathlab Singapore’s medical director, after reading her resume, asked her a pointed question: “Why did you leave such a promising career at a renowned hospital, only to go to Penang, then the Philippines?”
When she shared about her desire to serve the Lord, he simply replied: “You could have gone far in your career but you took the wrong path.”
Though he later offered her a job, she eventually turned it down when another private laboratory – Seng’s Lab – hired her as its laboratory manager.
A timely lifeline
The salary that came with that job felt like a lifeline. Her S$2,000 had depleted, but she did not need to ask her family for help.
“God had provided for me exactly when I needed it,” said Ginny.
However, the relief of starting a new job quickly faded as she realised that the family running the lab was operating it in a way that compromised both ethics and standards.
Ginny tried to make the necessary changes but she faced fierce resistance from the family.
Even Dr Seng, the owner of the lab, was powerless in the face of this family’s influence. When he later made the difficult decision to sell the lab in 2001, Ginny felt it was time to move on.
Through an old contact of hers whom she knew from her time at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Ginny managed to land a job as a business development manager at the laboratory of another major medical provider.
Five months into the job, however, she began to question whether that was the right path for her. Unlike the warm, team-oriented environment at the Mount Elizabeth laboratory, her new workplace was cold: Departments operated in silos, and there was little room for collaboration. She also could not meet her clients’ expectations as she often failed to get timely feedback or approvals from her general manager.
Ginny left the role after her probation period. That was a stressful decision as, by then she had expenses like rent and a car loan.
“But in this moment of despair, I found myself questioning whether He would show up again.”
Ginny sent out her resume again, and eventually landed a promising interview with an American clinical trial company that planned to establish a new lab in Singapore. They hoped that she could collaborate with the new medical director that they would hire to set up the facility.
In the meantime, Ginny felt that it would be wise to pursue a medical science degree to bolster her qualifications, which she did.
While she waited for the American company to offer her the job after finalising the hire of the medical director, Ginny went to study and held a part-time job in the interim.
The last quarter of that year – 2003 – rolled around and there was still no offer. Then the dreaded phone call came. They informed her that their headquarters in the US had decided against starting a new lab in Singapore so they would no longer be hiring.
Ginny’s heart sank with the news. She felt cheated and angry, and wondered why they had strung her along for almost a year.
“This time, I truly felt like I couldn’t endure another setback, another disappointment, or another door slammed in my face. God had been so good to me in the past. But in this moment of despair, I found myself questioning whether He would show up again,” she told Salt&Light.
The days of small beginnings: Turning a lab around
In November 2003, Ginny was invited to interview for the position of Laboratory Manager at Gribbles Pathology, an Australian group. Her interviewer seemed positive about her application but weeks went by with no news. It turned out that the person who had interviewed her had left his position and returned to Australia.
She began to feel disheartened. Then, just before Christmas, she received a call for a second interview with Gribbles’ new chief manager, an Australian who had recently arrived to take over the role. It turned out that Ginny had been strongly recommended by the previous manager.
In January 2004, Ginny landed the job and was tasked to ensure that the small Singapore lab that Gribbles had purchased could handle testing locally, instead of sending samples to Malaysia.
“I was told that the Singapore operation was in the red, and my task was to turn it around. This was more than just a corporate challenge. It felt like a divine assignment,” said Ginny.
She managed to make significant strides in improving lab operations, and soon the lab began seeing an increase in workload and new clients.
In December 2004, however, they received news that Gribbles Pathology had been fully acquired by Healthscope, one of Australia’s largest private healthcare providers.
The chief general manager that Ginny reported to had been recalled back to Australia, leaving her without a direct supervisor heading into 2005.
