Engineer Richard Bow hadn’t been happy with his job for some time so when the opportunity to work in Singapore came up he jumped at the chance.
However, Richard soon became lonely and homesick. “I was doing excessive hours. Work became my life,” he says.
“One night I went out for dinner and there were no free tables, so I sat with a man who was by himself and we started chatting. His wife was doing a church course, and he invited me to come to a service. I said, ‘I’d love to.’ I’d always wanted to go to church, but never really had anyone to go with.”
Richard went to an Easter service at St John’s, Farrar Road, and joined a Bible study group. “Every service I was picking up on something new from the sermon. Things started clicking,” he says.
The rector asked Bishop of Georges River, Peter Tasker, to find a church for Richard back in Sydney.  “He said Panania was a very fast growing church with a welcoming, family atmosphere.” Richard now attends the Sunday evening service.
“I have picked up so much,” he says. “Looking at Mark as a bigger picture and piecing together its themes has shown me the full glory of what’s in the Bible. I realise why God drew me to Singapore. It was not for work, but to bring me into a relationship with him. I used to think in terms of coincidences, now I see God is in control of everything.”