During May, 2002, Coram Deo Consulting went back to Singapore to do another strategy engagement for OMF, a missionary agency which focuses on East Asia.  The May 2002 team lived in Singapore and worked with the Agency on the issue of mobilization of youth.

 

  At the National Orchid Garden

Background: God's work in Asia

 

OMF has been serving in missions in East Asia for several generations. Founded in 1865 by British missionary Hudson Taylor as China Inland Mission, OMF was forced to leave China in 1949 during the Communist revolution.  Relocating its headquarters to Singapore, CIM changed its name to Overseas Missionary Fellowship and widened its focus to East Asia.  The Singapore National Office, housed in the same building as the OMF International Headquarters, was established to mobilize Singaporeans whom God calls to overseas missions and to provide member care to those missionaries.  

 

The Church in Singapore has witnessed tremendous growth during the past 20 years, the result of an active Christian student movement on campuses during the 1960s and 70s.  During the 1990's, the Singaporean Church began to increasingly focus its efforts and resources on overseas missions.  Despite this surge in interest in overseas missions, OMF Singapore did not experience an increase in its own mobilization of missionaries.

Engagement:   What's on the mind of youth?

 

The purpose of our project was to provide the Singapore National Office Director with an overall understanding of what youth in Singapore are thinking about in terms of missions.  What are their impressions of missionaries and mission work?  What exposure have they had to missionaries and mission work?  What are they thinking in terms of God's call to "go and make disciples..."?  For those who have felt called to missions, what steps are they taking to pursue the call?  For those who have not felt called, what role do they see themselves playing in God's plan for the world?

 

 

Willing subjects of a focus group - students at Paya Lebar Methodist Girls School

 

Teaming up in pairs, we traveled throughout Singapore for three weeks, interviewing approximately 50 youth ranging in age from 16 to early 30s.  We conducted both individual interviews and focus groups.  Through the interviews and focus groups, we listened as the youth related their impressions and experiences.  Many had been on short-term missions trips.  They described those experiences and the often powerful impact the cross-cultural interactions had on them.  We also interviewed several mission agencies that focused on providing missions experiences to youth.

 

Though our discussions, we identified a spectrum of views on the subject of missions.  We spent our last week putting together our findings in a 25 page report which was made available to everyone who participated in our project, including all of the organizations we interviewed.  We also presented our findings to the Singapore National Office of OMF.

The Team: Integrating work and faith

 

 

Matt and Tim at the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

 

The Coram Deo Consulting team consisted of five students from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.  We spent most of our time together - living in the same house, eating, working, and relaxing as a team.  Though the working environment on the engagement was intense, we did enjoy ourselves in Singapore.  We went to the renowned Singapore Night Safari, the Botanic Gardens, and a couple of us spent a Saturday on Sentosa Island.  Singapore has a well-deserved reputation as a food paradise - every type of food is available.  Some of us looked forward to trying local food at every meal.  Others were less adventurous - preferring to stick mostly to western food, with a few forays into the unknown every once in a  while.  We were guided by Sze-Yunn, the Singaporean on the team.

 

 

Steve at the Botanic Garden

The  chance to meet and talk with youth in Singapore and hear how God is working in their lives - how many of them are hearing and responding to God's call to missions - was an awesome experience.  Each of us is at a different place in our spiritual journey and God used the trip in different ways in all of us.

Following are brief bios of the team members.

 

Timothy Bonney - Tim is a first year MBA student focusing on marketing and general management.  Prior to coming back to school, he worked in the field of marketing research for four years.  He was Product Manager of a service focusing on the foodservice industry and was responsible for new product development, budgeting, hiring, and training.

 

Mathew D. Cobbett (matt@coramdeoconsulting.com)– Mr. Cobbett was formerly a Senior Consultant with Deloitte & Touche prior to pursuing his Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Michigan.  His experience leading consulting projects includes many engagements for non-profit clients.  Engagements for non-profit clients include writing a five-year strategic business plan, an organizational restructuring, and several business process reengineering projects.  He served for several years as president of the Board of a community symphony orchestra in Detroit, Michigan.  Mr. Cobbett is a Certified Public Accountant.

 

Michael Navarro - worked in the investment management industry for several years, most recently with Morgan Stanley.  He was also an analyst in the corporate finance group at Bank of America prior to attending the University of Michigan Business School where he recently received his MBA with emphases in finance and corporate strategy.

 

Sze-Yunn Pang (pangs@umich.edu) - Prior to business school, Sze-Yunn, a Singaporean, worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore.  In the diplomatic service, Sze-Yunn served for 3 years as First Secretary (Political and Economic) at the Singapore Embassy in Beijing, where her main duties were to analyse political and economic developments in China, network with Chinese leaders and policymakers, and provide policy recommendations to the Singapore Government.  She has also worked on regional security matters in Southeast Asia, Singapore's relations with the United States, and represented Singapore at the United Nations in New York.  At Michigan, Sze-Yunn is Co-Chair of Coram Deo (i.e. Christian business students at UMBS), Co-Chair of the Asian Business Conference (one of the largest student conferences at UMBS) and Associate Editor (Arts and Leisure) for the Monroe Street Journal (the UMBS newspaper).

 

Steven Tillack – Prior to business school, Steve worked in Germany for 7 years in a finance capacity for KPMG and Motorola.  His main duties at Motorola were to conduct financial reporting and analysis for the Personal Communications Sector.  At the University of Michigan, Steve focused on Strategy and Finance.  He is married and currently resides in Boston.