FROM THE NATIONAL DIRECTOR

Viloane Ko

Viloane Ko is the 9th National Director of Singapore. He is married and has two children.

Before being appointed as the National Director in April 2021, he served on the National Leadership team and led a student ministry. Before joining the Navigators Singapore as a full-time staff in 2011, he was a scholar and researcher of Agency for Science, Technology and Research. He earned a PhD from the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Science and Engineering.

Viloane’s discipleship journey started when he came to know the Lord during his university days through the Navigators. He had 20 years of experience raising labourers and leaders through life-on-life discipling among the students and graduates.

Viloane’s life verse is “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29). He is passionate about being a servant, a channel of blessing and a learner. The journeys of learning from discipleship, missions and leadership excite him.

He looks forward to bringing a breath of fresh air to the Navigators Singapore to see renewal, re-energization and regeneration. His vision is to see a new wave of disciplemakers next door to everywhere for Singapore and beyond! (Matthew 9:36-38).

December 2012

This has been quite a year for the Singapore Navigators … our 50th Anniversary! You would think that being so “old” we would have taken it easy. On the contrary, it was full-speed ahead. We launched two new ministries … one at Republic Polytechnic, and one to 20 and 30 year-olds. We hosted a first-time-ever Navigator conference for students from around Asia, with over 300 coming from 8 countries. Of course, we had some special anniversary events as well: a Topical Memory System Challenge (completed by 46 who were each able to repeat the 60 verses of the TMS word-perfect, at one session) ….

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September 2012

We had a wonderful 50th Anniversary Celebration Dinner on 18th August at the Grand Ballroom of the Orchid Country Club. Close to eight hundred Navigators, ministry pioneers, ministry partners, and current volunteers came together for the culmination of a year of celebratory events which included an island-wide prayer walk, a scripture memory challenge, the NavMemories Stories Project and a commemorative journal “With Eyes Singled to His Glory.” At the dinner, Doug Erdmann, our National Director, refocused our attention on the task God still has for The Navigators. Here are excerpts from his speech….

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March 2012

As students leave their tertiary schools and enter the workforce they face a lot of adjustments. First and foremost is the adjustment to a job. (It is true that our young men have experienced non-academic work during their stint in National Service. But life in NS is a bit different from the hustle and bustle of the marketplace.) A second adjustment is to serious relationships with the opposite sex, relationships that often lead to marriage. A third adjustment is to the receipt of regular and substantially increased income, and the need to decide how to use that income….

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December 2011

In Matthew 9:37, Jesus tells us that “the harvest is truly plenteous, but the labourers are few.” In the verse following, He asks people to pray for labourers. As Navigators, we do pray for labourers. Indeed, we not only pray for them, we work hard at producing them, building young Christians up to be disciples, and then giving them the skills and vision to minister to others. But if we stop there, we really are not accomplishing what Jesus sought. Jesus not only wanted labourers to be raised up, but for them to be “sent forth into His harvest.” Harvesting has to do with giving the incredible gift of eternal life ….

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September 2011

I’ve heard it said that there are two resources necessary for ministry to happen…people and funds. I’ve also heard it said that it’s easier to trust God to provide the latter than the former! Not sure if that’s true, but you may recall me mentioning in our March NavNews that we’ve been asking God to provide us with more full-time staff. He has answered! Chris and Pat Lian joined last month. Chris was a lecturer at St. Andrews J.C. Previously he was a volunteer with our teen ministry and headed the post-secondary ministry. Along with serving as a deacon at his church, he and Pat currently enjoy a fruitful ministry in their ….

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June 2011

P.Y., our campus director at NUS, is moving to Thailand. Opening a student work in Bangkok is a high priority for the Asia-Pacific Navigators. Some unique circumstances have made it clear that PY should take this on. He, his wife, and their two young children moved from the U.S. to Singapore three years ago. We will miss them, but are excited that they are getting the chance to “advance the Kingdom” in a new country. Please pray for their quick adjustment. Their departure means we need a new director at NUS. We are excited that we have another missionary available to take on this role. J.K., and his wife C.H. ….

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March 2011

Navigator ministry is carried out by two types of people … labourers and full-time staff. Labourers have a regular job, and spend their off hours actively ministering to students, friends and work colleagues. Full-time staff are financially supported by others, and so have their schedule completely free for ministry. Right now we especially need more full-time staff. We sense the Lord is telling us to, “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.” (Is. 54:2). Opportunities are presenting themselves to start works at several additional tertiary and ….

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December 2010

Staff recruiting. There are many ministry opportunities before us and we need staff to cover them. So, as Jesus did with a few fishermen, we asked several this year to “cast down their nets” and join us as full-time staff. Two excellent young men responded—one now ministers to university students at NUS, and another will be ministering to secondary school students in February. There are others who are seriously considering the possibility. Please thank God for these two men, and pray that more will join us! ….

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September 2010

When I was a college student, I was invited to my first Navigator “vacation training programme.” For 9 weeks, I lived with 30 other Navigator students in a fraternity house in Boston. We were put into teams with a team leader. During the day we worked at regular jobs. At night and on the weekends, we did Bible study, heard messages, did evangelism and had fun team activities. It was amazing—the positive changes that took place in my character and walk with God over those 9 weeks…all because I was exposed to a training environment….

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June 2010

The Navigators have a God-given vision of multiplying labourers in Singapore and around the world. To help give “voice to the vision” we have been blessed with two excellent communicators… Angeline Koh and Aurelia L. Castro. Angel is one of our field staff who has served as our communications director since 1998. In 2006, she recruited Au from the Philippines, and together they have been writing and producing this quarterly NavNews, updating our website and handling other corporate communication. They have done a fantastic job, receiving ….

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March 2010

The Singapore Navigator ministry to students has been very fruitful over the years. Indeed, I am told that at one point the number of students involved in the Singapore Nav ministries was second only to those involved in the U.S. Nav ministries, which is particularly amazing in light of Singapore’s size relative to the rest of the world. These students, about 10,000 of them over the years (according to former national director Jim Chew), have now graduated and are living and working primarily in Singapore. Our goal for these students while in school has always ….

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