I was visiting Audrey Lee and her husband, Jerry, at their home – a quiet, lived-in space tucked away in a central neighbourhood. It was meant to be a simple weekday lunch, but it turned into something more – a soul-quietening encounter.

Audrey, a member of Cairnhill Methodist Church, discovered a calling to art and ministry after her retirement. Her journey – marked by faith, creativity, and quiet service – touched me deeply, as it has touched many of those navigating second acts or quieter seasons of purpose.

We had met at the opening of the Methodist Welfare Services Eunos Nursing Home. She was serving on the oversight committee; I was there in my capacity as Chairperson of the Methodist Welfare Services.

Our initial conversation had not been long, but it lingered. We discovered we were both unexpected creatives. Neither of us had gone to art school. 

“He turns my mourning into dancing”, a piece from the Isaiah 61:1-3 series

“He sets the captives free”, from the Isaiah 61:1-3 series.

I began drawing in 2014, during a sabbatical while pursuing an MBA, after reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. The book challenged me to develop my right-brain abilities – creativity, design, empathy – which complemented my background in engineering and systems thinking.

I started with pencil and pen sketches, eventually incorporating watercolour. Drawing became a personal rhythm of reflection, and it has helped me grow as a communicator and leader.

For me, art was a way to stretch my inner world and carve out creative space in the edges of daily life.

Audrey picked up drawing in 2016, three years after retiring from her corporate career in 2013. She shared:

“It began in 2015 when I received my very first prophetic art card at a session conducted by a Christian arts collective. It resonated deeply with me and I went ‘WOW!’ So I returned the following month for another piece – and then, another. 

“In 2016, I attended The Throne Room conference, which featured workshops teaching prophetic art. Around the same time, TRAC Methodist Prayer Ministry was conducting similar lessons. I eagerly learnt from these and also attended various teachings on hearing God to gain Scriptural understanding. I had no prior training in art, so I started to learn to draw and paint from scratch.

Personal encouragement cards for missionaries and staff of Methodist Missions Society.

“I decided to put into practice what I had learnt. When the opportunity arose, I asked my church leaders if I could provide encouragement art cards for Alpha participants. They agreed. The  participants were complete strangers to me. 

“When I gave out the cards, some of the recipients started to cry, including mature men. I remember thinking: “it can’t be that my drawing is so bad that it would make them cry. It must be the Holy Spirit touching their hearts.

“Later, they shared how deeply the card spoke to them. I was just as amazed myself. Since then, I’ve looked for every opportunity to steward this gift. I’ve since created over 1,300 cards, including 300 cards my friends helped to do, to bless the staff of two nursing homes during the COVID lockdown. The reaction is often one of wonder and amazement. 

During the COVID lockdown, Audrey and her friends created 175 encouragement cards for the staff of a nursing home.

“Most recently, I’ve branded it as ‘Divine Doodles’ and offered it at Christian conferences, redemptive business summits and Bible reading events.”

That discovery drew Audrey into cultivating her new gift. She sought out art communities and carved out time to practise. 

Audrey held a modern kintsugi workshop with 90 participants from the worship team from Paya Lebar Methodist Church.

“I encountered international workshops that integrated art into discipleship themes and they deeply ministered to me. That inspired me to develop my own art-based workshops, which I initially shared with church friends.

“Eight years on, I’m still sharing them wherever I can – including weekly sessions at a halfway house.”

A Methodist Mission Society retreat for staff and missionaries doing a Bible-themed art jam with Audrey.

Art and the heart

Audrey’s home, where she conducts workshops under the name Draw Me Near Lord, isn’t just a home – it’s a gallery of faith. 

The walls bloom with acrylic paintings, Scriptural reflections turned into visual poems. 

“He heals the broken-hearted”, part of Audrey’s Isaiah 61:1-3 series.

Many of them echo Isaiah 61: Proclaiming good news, binding up broken hearts, releasing captives. 

The colours do not shout, they speak; they soothe. They carry the weight of someone who has not just read Scripture, but prayed through it with a paintbrush.

But her paintings were only the beginning.

Audrey brought out her journals – volumes filled with coloured pencil drawings of her daily readings. Not complex illustrations, but quiet meditations, a form of visio divina. 

Audrey’s daily devotions sketching with a verse a day from Galatians all the way to Titus.

“This is how I hear from God,” she explained, flipping through the pages. I noticed she was an intent student of Paul’s letters. Her reflections spanned Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians – chapters not just read, but inhabited.

These offerings are not just for herself.

Audrey’s friends at her home on a personal planning retreat, holding their encouragement cards.

Since discovering this practice, Audrey has brought it into the lives of others: Staff at nursing homes dealing with unspoken grief; residents at halfway houses, reclaiming their worth. 

She invites them to draw not just what they see, but what they feel, and what they hope to believe again.

One story she told me moved me deeply. A woman recovering from drug addiction drew a picture of herself being embraced by Jesus. 

Visions received by a halfway house participant in an Art Encounter workshop: “She walks towards the cross with her dark past being forgiven, being lovingly created by God; God holding her hand in this journey of life towards radiance; she surrenders her broken pieces and He gives her a brand new heart.”

That simple act of creating art unlocked something long buried. The woman saw herself – perhaps for the first time – as still loved, still welcomed, still held.

To Audrey, it was a moment of revelation: She came to see how she could be part of a restoration process led by the Spirit of God.

Her experience reminded me of Life of the Beloved, a book by Henri Nouwen. In it, he described the spiritual life in four movements: Chosen. Blessed. Broken. Given. These are not just abstract ideas, they echo the very actions of Jesus at the Last Supper. He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples. 

In that sacred sequence, we see the rhythm of a life offered to God and others. Audrey lives out each one.

She was Chosen, not just in retirement, but all along. Even her corporate career – with its meetings, deadlines, and structure – was part of the preparation, one that shaped her with discernment, listening, and leadership, all of which she now carries into this quiet, contemplative season.

She is Blessed, not through accolades, but through the quiet joy of watching others heal.

She walks among the Broken, not recounting her own wilderness, but helping others walk through theirs in gentleness and grace.

And she is Given, offering her time, her story, her creativity to those who need it most.

Audrey conducts weekly Discipleship through the Arts workshops at a halfway house.

Each medium she uses has a spiritual element: In her art workshops, she introduces participants to kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with gold. 

She said: “I came across a craft workshop on modern kintsugi. After learning it, I felt it would pair beautifully with inner healing so I adapted the workshop weaving in verses and reflections on healing, particularly Isaiah 61:3 – ‘He heals the brokenhearted‘. I name it ‘Modern Kintsugi – Embracing Brokenness, Receiving Healing, Celebrating Restoration, Pursuing Purpose’. 

Pieces completed by participants in a modern kintsugi workshop as they reflected on embracing brokenness, receiving healing, celebrating restoration and pursuing purpose.

“Early this year, I facilitated this for a church retreat with 90 participants – the largest I’ve led.  Many experienced healing from long-standing heart wounds that very afternoon.”

Participants begin by breaking bowls, sometimes into fragments, even powder. Some shards leave behind gaps too large to close. Someone once asked Audrey, “How do we fill this hole?”

She answered: “Sometimes, we need that hole to let God’s light shine through.”

That stayed with me.

Engaging the “other half of Church”

Our churches often form disciples through preaching, study and structure. But in their book The Other Half of Church: The Christian Community, Brain Science and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation, Jim Wilder and Michel Hendricks point out how much of our formation happens in the emotional and relational part of the brain: In joy, in community, in story. 

We have trained the mind, but often missed the heart.

Audrey’s work is the missing half of discipleship.

Audrey, her sons and a friend painting a mural at the entrance of Chen Su Lan Methodist Children’s Home.

She doesn’t preach from a pulpit, but she helps people reclaim dignity through art. She makes healing feel possible again –sometimes for the first time in years. Her quiet ministry affirms that discipleship isn’t only taught – it is drawn, shared and lived.

Over lunch, we spoke about her husband Jerry, now retired, and their two sons—both grown, making their way in the world. There was a calmness in the air, but not idleness. Audrey isn’t winding down; she’s stepping into a new kind of rhythm – of presence, of healing, of quiet joy.

I found myself reflecting on all the Audreys we may have in our pews – retirees, caregivers, creatives, thinkers. People who are still waiting to be invited into deeper service. Not with a title, but with a canvas. Not with a pulpit, but with presence.

Maybe it’s not about doing more, but seeing differently.

Sometimes, God saves the boldest strokes for our second act.

When paint speaks grace, it tells the Gospel in colour, in story, in healing.

And those like Audrey might just lead us – quietly, faithfully – into the other half of the Church.

Audrey Lee conducts Discipleship through the Arts workshops, covering topics from “Discovering your identity in Christ” to “Processing good grieving”. To find out more, you may follow her on Instagram or subscribe to her Substack here. 

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