As a child, Olivia Choong always went to church with her family. But she struggled to relate to the Sunday services.
“I only went to please my parents,” said Olivia, now 43. “I found church very boring and couldn’t understand anything.”
Although Olivia was confirmed at church, she never saw much meaning or value in the faith as a child. All photos courtesy of Olivia Choong unless otherwise stated.
She could not grasp why they were “so interested in this old stuff”.
“I wasn’t sure it was real,” she said.
Olivia’s mother saw value in a good education. So she dug into her savings to send her daughter to college and boarding school in Perth.
There, Olivia continued to attend church – but only because it was expected of all students.
Olivia with her college mates in Perth.
Everything changed when Olivia entered university. Unshackled from the confines of parental supervision and boarding school, she revelled in her newfound independence.
“I wanted to have a party lifestyle and do all the things that came with it.”
“The freedom felt awesome at that time,” said Olivia. “I wanted to have a party lifestyle and do all the things that came with it.”
Her parents disapproved. When they visited her in Perth, Olivia’s dad asked her to go back to church.
During university in Perth, Olivia felt free to live the life she always wanted.
“I only went when he was around because I didn’t want to upset him, not because I really cared.”
After completing her post-graduate studies in public relations, Olivia returned to Singapore and quickly landed her dream job with a top global communications company.
But she found corporate life tough. At her workplace, she felt pressured to act like someone she was not.
Fresh out of university, Olivia (right) discovered that her dream job was not what she had expected.
“It wasn’t what I thought it’d be,” confessed Olivia. “My dream job was shattered.”
“I didn’t want people to think badly about me. So, I did a lot of things I didn’t want to do. I was miserable.”
Olivia’s dating life was not much better. She was in a long-distance relationship with a man who expected her to behave in a certain way that did not come naturally to her.
“He wanted me to be more feminine. He said I should be more like this and like that,” she said.
Olivia became deeply unhappy from her constant efforts to please everyone around her.
Olivia (right) struggled for many years to live a life true to who she was.
“I didn’t want people to think badly about me. So, I did a lot of things I didn’t want to do. I was miserable.”
Hungry for a more satisfying life, Olivia turned to her passion.
“At the time, I didn’t have a hobby but I cared a little about the environment, so I made a choice to start something that was truer to myself.”
In 2007, Olivia launched Green Drinks Singapore, a non-profit eco-focused society that facilitates sharing and collaboration between various stakeholders in the community. Her name is now synonymous with Green Drinks as well as The Tender Gardener, a popular gardening blog she started.
Olivia (centre in grey) is the president and co-founder of Green Drinks Singapore, which facilitates sharing and collaboration on eco matters. Photo by the National Climate Change Secretariat.
However, Olivia still felt a lingering loneliness in her heart.
She tried to fill the hole by investing herself in a new romantic relationship, but it wasn’t enough. When it ended after two years, Olivia was once again left feeling hollow.
“I put all my eggs in one basket, pinned so much hope on things working out. Now, I had no life. I was depressed,” she admitted.
Wanting to find herself, Olivia delved into New Age spiritualism.
For over 11 years, Olivia consulted astrologers and psychics, picked up meditation, and also explored different supposed healing methods. She also experimented with crystals, tarot card reading and other common New Age activities.
For 11 years, Olivia (right) explored New Age practices in an effort to find peace.
“I was looking for peace and I somehow convinced myself that I had a new identity in the New Age movement.”
She spent thousands of dollars on a variety of New Age programmes, goods and services.
“I just felt there was still emptiness in my life,” she explained. “So I dabbled in so much spiritual stuff in my drive to fix myself.”
But none of it made her feel any better.
Then in 2017, Olivia met a former hard rock singer who would change her life in a way she never expected. Levan Wee, now 40, is the ex-frontman of rock band Ronin.
He had added her as a friend on Facebook. For a year they never talked, until Olivia saw a status update that Levan’s dad had passed away.
She messaged him to see how he was. It led to more online conversations. When Levan asked to meet, the attraction was instant. They soon became a couple.
“I found him very interesting, I was very drawn to him,” said Olivia.
Thanks to similar ethical and moral values, they felt connected with each other on a profound level.
Then Levan, a hardline atheist for decades, began having supernatural visions in mid 2020.
Olivia was not shocked.
“I was not interested in Christianity at all. I thought, ‘These Christians are hypocrites!'”
“I was ready for this because this is common in New Age practices,” explained Olivia. “So when Levan said he felt God was communicating with him, I thought, ‘Great!’
“But as someone into New Age stuff, I didn’t have a fixed idea about who God is.”
Soon after, Levan experienced a series of powerful encounters with God that finally convinced him to become a Christian.
Levan’s sudden acceptance of the Christian faith took Olivia off guard.
Still having negative feelings towards the faith, Olivia thought this was the beginning of the end of their relationship.
“I was not interested in Christianity at all. I thought, ‘These Christians are hypocrites!’ If Levan joins them, we aren’t going to work out.”
Levan went on to start a Christian music ministry.
But what happened next changed Olivia’s heart completely.
“God came and met me where I was,” she said.
For many years, Olivia had felt harassed by spirits. She traced it back to a hidden trauma.
When she was in primary school, her Chinese language tutor would cane her for no apparent reason, even when she achieved good grades. As a result, Olivia became angry as a child and resented studying.
For a long time, Olivia struggled to forgive her Chinese language tutor for caning her.
When she shared this trauma with Levan, he surprised her by describing a vision he received.
“He wasn’t even there when it happened. Yet he somehow described where I was sitting when my tutor hit me, which side she sat next to me.
“Then Levan told me that God was right there with me all along and that I did not suffer in vain – that I should write a positive children’s book out of my bad experience.
“Levan wasn’t there when it happened. Yet he described where I was sitting when my tutor hit me.”
“Levan also told me that God says I’ll create the book with a female illustrator whom I had not yet met.”
Olivia was curious.
Some time later, as Olivia was scrolling through Instagram, she came across the work of a female illustrator living in Singapore.
She prayed a simple prayer, even though she was still resistant to the Christian faith: “God, if she’s the one I’m meant to collaborate with, show me a clear sign.”
Olivia told no one about this request.
Olivia enjoying her time gardening. Photo by Monica Lie.
Just days later, Olivia was selling a plant to a first-time Carousell buyer. They chatted and the man mentioned that he had bought another plant from someone he met through Instagram.
It turned out to be the very same female illustrator that Olivia had sought God for confirmation. What were the odds?
Olivia reached out to the illustrator, who agreed to collaborate with her on the children’s book.
Shocked but delighted, Olivia began to wonder: Was God really calling out to her when she had tried so hard to run away from Him?
Three months later, Olivia was at a friend’s house having lunch when the conversation shifted from gardening to Christianity.
“The more we talked about God, the more curious I became,” Olivia said.
“When praying, I physically felt this thing enter my body and drive out all the other not-so-holy things.”
Then her friend’s wife prayed with her to invite Jesus into her life.
“When I was praying, I physically felt this thing enter my body. I felt it drive out all the other not-so-holy things in me,” she said.
She later learned that this was the Holy Spirit entering her.
Not too long afterwards, Olivia met a pastor and his wife over breakfast.
It was the first time she had met them. When they prayed for her, the pastor’s wife saw a vision of a snake spirit falling away from Olivia. She also told Olivia, “Your lower back pain is gone.”
Olivia realised that the New Age practices she thought would heal her had actually been causing her harm.
Olivia was amazed.
“I never told her about the lower back pain I suffered from for years.”
Olivia had also never told her about a New Age awakening she had experienced years ago. “I was told that it involved an activation of a coiled snake at the base of our spines,” said Olivia.
“So the pastor’s wife had no way of knowing on her own except if God told her.”
Since finding faith, Olivia (third from left) has been happy to meet other Christians with Levan (second from left) – a far cry from her past attitude towards believers.
Even more miraculously, Olivia was instantly healed of the backache that had plagued her for a long time.
She then realised that the New Age practices she thought would heal her had actually been causing her harm.
Olivia went on to renounce her past New Age beliefs.
“I finally saw how they were all a deception to distract me from God. I knew I had to leave everything behind to follow Him,” she said.
After more than 20 years of avoiding church, she is now able to enjoy attending worship services with other followers of Jesus.
“I feel like I’ve finally come home.”
The Christian faith and Bible, which she once found boring, have come alive for her.
“Previously, people would tell me how and why I should be a believer. But then when I read the Bible for classes, for exams, I found it dry.
“But now when I read it, I marvel at God’s stories. The Bible is a living book, not dead.”
Coming to faith has also brought Olivia closer to her parents, who started sharing their own faith journeys with her.
Olivia (left) with her family. For many years, her dad had stopped asking her to return to church. But he clung on to the dream that God gave him: Of Olivia attending Sunday service with him again one day.
Looking back on her path, Olivia said: “I didn’t find peace doing all those other things when I was away from church.
“But now I no longer feel empty because I know I have a relationship with a God who truly knows me by name. I feel like I’ve finally come home,” she said in wonder.
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