Written By Annabelle Yau
I was sitting alone in my apartment in Singapore. It had been a long, discouraging day after school. But in front of me was a bowl of warmed-up chicken soup and a plate of reheated heart-shaped waffles, and looking at them, I smiled — because I remembered I wasn’t alone.
A sister in Christ had brought me a thermos of chicken soup and a Tupperware of homemade waffles during Bible Class the day before. I thanked her, and she waved it off saying it’s “a small thing.” She mentioned she had extra and thought I could use a home-cooked meal. It’s been twelve years, yet I still remember. So it couldn’t have been that small of a thing.
In January 2026, the youth of our church began exploring the theme of “Navigating the Christian Life Abroad.” A few of us compiled experiences and advice from brethren who had lived overseas — to help the younger ones understand what to expect, the challenges they might face, and how to navigate them. As I read through the accounts, a pattern kept emerging: what people remembered most weren’t the grand gestures. It was the small ones. An invitation to someone’s home. A ride offered without being asked. A meal bought by someone you weren’t even close to. A text that arrived on the right day.
These small acts had become anchors — in seasons of loneliness, uncertainty, and spiritual wavering.
Proverbs 19:17 says, “He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.”
I used to read that and ponder over it. Lend to the Lord? How can I lend anything to Him? But there’s a hymn I’ve always associated with this verse – The World’s Bible:
Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today,
He has no feet but our feet to lead men in His way.
He has no tongue but our tongues to tell men how He died.
He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.
That’s what it means to lend to the Lord — to act as an extension of His hands. And so those moments where we feel seen, cared for, and loved by our brethren? They are not just kindness from a person. They are God’s care, reaching us through the church of His people.
Philippians 2:13 puts it plainly: “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” or the New International Version states “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose.” The service we do, the good we offer — it is in order to fulfil His purpose. Knowing that, will we not also care for others as God cared for us?
When I think back on my own journey, the moments I return to are specific and small. An unprompted invitation to a hotpot dinner in the middle of my loneliness overseas. A dinner treat from a sister in Christ I barely knew, who sat across from me and quietly gave me advice on surviving loss — at a time when I was close to giving up my studies. Texts I didn’t expect. Conversations I didn’t know I needed. None of them were grand. All of them stayed.
In line with this year’s theme — “Growing in the Grace and Knowledge” (2 Peter 3:18) — we have been encouraged to grow, serve, host, teach, and do more. These are good and necessary things. But sometimes the thought of doing something big can seem daunting and unachievable.
So let me remind you — and myself — of what people actually remember:
The thermos of soup was “just leftovers”.
The hotpot invitation was “just dinner”.
The text was “just a text”.
Yet these small things became anchors in seasons of loneliness and uncertainty. They became the moments people carried with them, years later, still.
May we never underestimate the power of the smallest act of kindness in someone’s journey of faith. Start small. Start now. Start with just “a small thing”.