https://www.odbm.org/en-GB/devotional/devotional-category/partners-in-christ?ts=1793923200000
Mark 6:6-7, 12-13 NIV: 6He was amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. 12They went out and preached that people should repent. 13They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
My husband’s serious illness left him weak. But when a physiotherapist prescribed exercises to grow strong again, Dan showed little interest. Then one day I did the exercises with him. “We’re growing strong!” I told him, lifting my arms and laughing. Soon, he was laughing too as we did three sets of the strength-building routines—surprised we both enjoyed working together to do what had at first seemed hard.
Jesus modelled best the profound power of working together on a difficult job. While going around teaching “from village to village,” He summoned His twelve disciples and “began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits” (Mark 6:6-7). (Patricia Raybon, Our Daily Bread, 6th November 2026)
I started in church music ministry when I was around 16 years old, essentially just playing chords with the church acoustic guitar to accompany the singing during Sunday worship service. I only started leading worship when I was around 25 after graduating from university and started work as an advocate and solicitor of the High Courts of Malaya. This was also by necessity rather than choice as we had established a breakaway church and everyone chipped in. In the previous church, we were not yet qualified to lead worship.
It was only 16 years ago that I began to lead worship with my wife playing the piano that I progressed much more musically. She often corrected my singing in terms of my atrocious tempo and phrasing and is a stickler for discipline in delivery. She was musically trained with a diploma in piano but also sang alto for the Oriental Singers (the less known Malaysian/Singaporean aspirational copy of the famous Maranatha Singers of the 80s/90s). So singing using manuscript music was not unusual for her.
That was the bit where I directly benefited from my wife’s musical background. However, we have been serving God together since our dating days, from just singing in the church choir in the previous church to working in the church committee when we set up the independent church, and later leading the young adults cell group in our local church for more than 10 years now. That is why I believe two is always better than one in ministry and Jesus clearly demonstrated this by sending out the 12 two by two. There is immediate support and encouragement if we faced opposition and we could cheer the other up if one of us is down or distraught.
While there are obvious advantages of having your girlfriend or spouse as your partner in ministry, you could team up with a like-minded brother or sister in Christ if you are single as in the case of the 12. In the Faculty at Varsity, we all had a senior as a mentor to help us through our undergraduate years. Perhaps the church should have something similar for singles to help each other in ministry and spiritual growth.
In a blink of an eye, we are now at year end and in less than 2 months, it will be Christmas again! How time flies and how we are not getting any younger! Work hard at our day jobs, serve God, get involved in a ministry but treasure our time here on earth – lead a balanced but fulfilling life centred on God’s will! Have a good weekend, everyone! Take care
