Testimonies > > Chai Kiat Shing
Leaders & Staff Testimonies
The spartan barber room at Breakthrough Missions cannot compare with the air-conditioned
salons outside. Yet many brothers trust me to provide them the haircutting
service not just because of the skill
God has given me, but also because it is free of charge.
I was interested in looking good from a young
age, and allowed my sister to experiment with my hair and she created many
different styles. Owing to my interest in hairdressing I took up courses to be
trained as a professional hairstylist, and that was when my life started its
downward spiral.
I met a drug addict client in the salon and
I was soon lured into the quagmire of drugs and
horse-racing. When my gambling debts piled up I turned to loan sharks and drug
trafficking. In 1993, at the age of 23, I was locked up in a drug
rehabilitation centre. After I was released I failed to report regularly for my
urine tests and became a wanted man.
In my family, my elder brother was also a drug
abuser who had spent some time in a halfway house. When he saw the pathetic
state I was in because of drugs, he persuaded me to check into the centre too. I
agreed. A few months later, accompanied by the centre’s supervisor, I turned myself
in, and was jailed a second time.
On my release, I returned to this halfway
house with the intention of learning English. When I saw how the other
brothers’ lives were changed, I too accepted Jesus as my Lord and submitted to
Him.
2 years later, I returned to work at a hair salon, but I was unable
to cope with the work stress and needed to depend on prescription drugs from a
psychiatrist. I also had an extended dependence on “ice”. For a long time I
deceived myself that I could control my drug consumption. In the end I was
reduced to such a state that I even brought heroin into the Institute of Mental
Health, and was jailed for 1 year because of that.
After my release from prison in December 2014,
I came to Breakthrough Missions.
When I went back to work as a hairstylist I had looked up my old friends after
work and enjoyed heroin and ice again. But at Breakthrough I saw Kim Hai, who
was once my drug buddy (and now an helper at Breakthrough) with 4 fingers
missing due to injection of LSD. It was a wake-up call for me, still wallowing
in drugs. If I should lose my fingers one day it would be the end of my career
as a hairstylist.
As God sounded the alarm bells He also moved a
social worker at Breakthrough Missions to persuade me to return. I went through
much heart-wrenching struggle before submitting. In 2020 I was promoted as a
member of staff of Breakthrough, and the responsibility that came with this new
position constantly encouraged me to serve with loyalty. In retrospect, from
the journey I had taken I realized that one would forget his roots if he tried
taking shortcuts. It is most important that we lay a strong and firm
foundation, whether it is in training to be a hairstylist or in spiritual
discipline. In the past, my blind pursuit of material wealth shaped my
attitudes, behaviour and ultimately my life. I felt that I had returned to the
right path when I came back to Breakthrough Missions, for all will come to
nought without the blessing of God.
