David and Ruth have been members of Redland Parish Church since 1975 and have served in various roles over the years. They thought that that pattern would continue until they attended the OMF national conference in March 2000, when God showed them they must change direction and consider a role within OMF. A visit to Singapore and Thailand in the autumn of 2000 helped them see the possibilities of service in an administrative or support role, particularly in managing an OMF guest house.

They were accepted by OMF in March 2001 and left in 2002 to go to Singapore, where OMF has its International Headquarters. David and Ruth now manage the guest house and help to look after the children who come to Singapore with their parents for orientation courses that are held three times a year.

David has recently overseen a major rebuilding project that has seen the transformation of the Headquarters site and he also acts as Buildings Consultant to OMF, using his experience and knowledge as an architect, in the countries where OMF is working. 

In the summer of 2006 they returned to England for a period of 'home assignment', and swapped places with Redlanders Gerry and Clare Nichols, who spent 6 months in Singapore looking after the Guest House. 

Singapore
Singapore is an island, the same size as the Isle of Wight, with a population of four million who are ethnically diverse; Chinese, Malay, Indian and others. It is 100 miles north of the equator, so it has a hot, wet, tropical climate with an average temperature of 27 degrees C.

Singapore has one of the highest standards of living of any country in the world. It is a key trading centre for Asia, with a huge container port.

There are four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil and about 95 per cent of the population speak English.