The call came in 2018. Singaporean actor and film-maker Zhu Houren felt God asking him to share the Gospel with the elderly.

He refused.

“I had never served amongst the elderly before and I never had the gift. I was not a filial son either. So I rejected God’s calling.

“I thought I would use His Word to reject Him because that would be more spiritual. In Matthew 16:24-26, Jesus told His disciples to ‘take up his cross and follow Me’.

“I thought I was very humble. I told Him, ‘I am not Your disciple. You are talking to disciples’,” he recounted in Mandarin at the LoveSingapore Summit 2026.

God persisted.

A call to all

In 2020, Jason Wong texted Houren 大哥 (brother) – a moniker his Christian friends use to address him – and challenged him to share the Gospel under the initiative One for Jesus.

The idea is to encourage every Christian to share the Gospel with at least one person within the next 10 years.

Houren pondered his strategy: Should he share the Gospel in the first year then rest for the next nine, or rest for nine years before sharing the Gospel in the final one?

It was then that God touched him, saying: “Some people cannot wait nine years.”

Houren remembered that in Mark 8:34, Jesus was talking to the crowd when He said that whoever wanted to be His disciple had to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him.

Houren (standing, second from left) with the people he goes with to minister to the elderly. Fellow actor Chew Chor Meng (right, seated) is among those who connects Houren to the elderly. Photo courtesy of Zhu Houren.

“I may not consider myself a disciple yet, but Jesus was calling to the crowd and I am part of the crowd. So I decided to respond to Him and share the Gospel with the elderly.” 

None too far gone for God

God would teach Houren just how open the elderly are to the Gospel.

In September 2023, Senior Pastor of Hope Singapore Jeff Chong asked Houren to visit a church member’s father. The elderly man could only speak Hokkien.

“When I visited him, I realised he was not only sick, he was suffering from dementia. I had never shared the Gospel with someone with dementia before,” said Houren.

“But when I shared, he woke up and accepted Christ.”

Houren thought it was a one-time miracle. But six months later, he was asked to visit a woman in her 90s. She, too, had dementia.

“But the Holy Spirit touched her and she said that she knew that Jesus had come to save all mankind. The elder in my church led her to accept Christ as her Lord and Saviour,” he said.

A month after that, Houren was sharing the Gospel with another elderly woman in her 80s, who also had dementia. The woman prayed to receive Christ.

Said Houren: “Through all this, I realised that with man it is impossible, but with God it is possible.”

All the way to Canada

The next year, God gave Houren a bigger assignment. That September, he had planned to visit Shanghai with his wife, but God impressed upon him the need to go to his brother-in-law in Canada.

In obedience, husband and wife took a 20-hour flight to Montreal. 

The morning after his late-night arrival, Houren attempted to strike up a conversation with his brother-in-law, who not only had dementia but also Parkinson’s disease.

The ailment had ravaged his body. His brother-in-law could no longer move and needed help even to feed himself. Dementia had robbed him of his speech, and he could only give simple “yes” and “no” replies.

“I used prayer to tell him that God wanted to bless him. After the prayer, he took a long time before he said ‘Amen’. He only said it after his wife reminded him. Then he said, ‘Amen.’”

The next day, Houren told his brother-in-law: “Yesterday we asked God to bless us. How about we thank God today?”

He then proceeded to share with his brother-in-law God’s salvation plan through a prayer of thanksgiving. This time, the moment he finished praying, his brother-in-law said “Amen” on his own.

Houren and his wife Vera. Photo from Zhu Houren’s Instagram.

The next morning, Houren prayed with his brother-in-law again. This time, he prayed through Psalm 23.

Though his brother-in-law often seemed to be in a mental fog, those morning prayers made a difference. When Houren’s wife asked the brother-in-law one morning if he had slept well, he answered her: “Very well. Houren prayed for me these few days. So I slept very well.”

Houren said: “That was the longest sentence I had heard him say since we came to Canada.

“I took the opportunity to ask him if he wanted to accept Jesus as his personal Lord and Saviour. That day, he accepted.”

After saying the Sinner’s Prayer, his brother-in-law broke out into an old hymn. It used the words of Apostle Paul from 1 Timothy 1:15, about him being the worst of sinners. Then, to Houren’s surprise, he proceeded to recite The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).

“I realised that many years ago, someone must have sown the Gospel in his life. We were only there to harvest at the opportune time,” Houren told Salt&Light.

His brother-in-law passed away in August 2025, a year after he became a Christian.

“If I hadn’t gone to Canada then, I would have missed the opportunity. Luke 9:23 says to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. ‘Daily’ means whatever God has asked us to do, we should not delay.”

In the last four years, of those with whom Houren has shared the Gospel, at least 30 have prayed to receive Christ. Among them seven that he knows of have since passed away. This has made him even more aware of the urgency of this “last-chance” ministry.

Never give up

In 2024, Houren shared the Gospel with a man in his 90s. Though his grandchildren had prayed for him for many years, and he had been to several evangelistic rallies, the man never responded to Christ.

That day, however, he agreed to pray the Sinner’s Prayer with Houren.

“So I told him, ‘Thank God that He has borne our sins.’ He agreed about that. Then I said, ‘So that He can be our personal Lord and Saviour.’ This second part he didn’t reply.

“When I wanted to continue, he raised his hand to stop me. Then he moved off in his wheelchair. I had never been rejected in the middle of the Sinner’s Prayer before.

“I felt like such a failure. Why like this? Then God reminded me to take up my cross daily. Even if I face failure, I must continue.”

This January, Houren visited the man again and found out that he had accepted Jesus with his family members.

“God wants us to continue and not give up,” he stressed. “What He can do is beyond our imagination.”

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