History

From the moment she made up her mind to devote her life to serving God, Pastor Serena Teo Chiew Len knew that preaching was not her cup of tea. Yet, she could not ignore her calling or her love for teaching.

She solved the problem by combining both vocations and became an education pastor.

Unlike regular pastors who preach Sunday sermons, attend to the spiritual needs of members of their parish and perform religious ceremonies like baptisms, weddings and funerals, Teo’s work is focused on special education.

She serves the community, regardless of race or religion, by providing hope and comfort to parents of children with dyslexia and other learning disabilities (LD) such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and even autism.

“I wasn’t such a good student at school so maybe this is why I can empathise with what dyslexic children face,” said the former student of Kuen Cheng Secondary School who now serves as education director of Katsu Dyslexia Centre, a non-profit organisation affiliated with the Methodist Charis Church in Petaling Jaya.

Unobtrusive in her favourite everyday wear of jeans and T-shirt, the 48-year-old is easy to talk with whether you are a child or a grandparent.

She is not only adept at dealing with LD children but is also used to comforting distraught parents who are at their wits‘ end over what to do with their children who are struggling in school.

“Parents of dyslexic children usually start to panic after their child fails miserably in Year One or Two as a result of their inability to read. Some realise their child's affliction even later.

“I know of parents who tried enrolling their kids at expensive learning centres but to no avail. It’s not that these places are no good, it’s just that children with dyslexia need to be taught to read using techniques that are different from those used to teach normal kids,” she said.

Before she started the remedial reading programme at Katsu (Japanese for “champion”) in 2002, Teo too had minimal knowledge about teaching children with dyslexia.

“I had just returned from a 10-year stay in the United States in 2000 and was helping my brother (former pastor Teo How Ken) to run Rumah Charis for the Children when I discovered that a number of the kids there could not read and were doing badly in school.”

So Teo set out to do what she loves most - teach.

The public soon heard about her efforts with the Rumah Charis children and was approached by parents of dyslexic children who pleaded for her help in dealing with the children.“As an education pastor, I am trained in the teaching of Christian religion, not reading. But my heart goes out to those parents and I wanted so much to help them,” said Teo.

Her prayers for a solution was answered when her intensive research into the teaching of children with dyslexia brought her attention to a book called Why Our Children Can’t Read and What We Can Do About It by Diane McGuinness, a reading consultant and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida.

Based on McGuinness’ work, Teo put together a remedial reading programme and set to work on a trial basis with just three children in January 2002.

“By August, I knew the programme would worked and got ready to accept more children with reading problems,” she said

Katsu officially began its classes with 60 children in January 2003 in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.

Now based in Taman Angkasa off Jalan Puchong, the centre provides one-to-one remedial reading classes to 35 children with dyslexia and behavioural intervention therapy for 25 children with autism.

Some of the children are from as far as Sibu, Sarawak (had lessons for two solid months before returning), Mentakab, Ipoh, Taiping and Malacca.

Teo encourages parents to sit in during the classes so that they can pick up the correct techniques to coach their child at home.

For Teo, there is no joy like seeing her charges making headway in overcoming their disability.

“It's the kind of happiness that money can't buy,” she said.

Yet, even a pastor has moments of frustration, and for Teo this happens when the fees received are just enough to pay the centre's teachers and cannot cover the rent or the utility bills.

Sometimes, donations arrived in the nick of time to erase her financial worries while at other times she had had to dig deep into her personal resources for a temporary solution.

Teo is married to an environmental engineer from Hong Kong who is now stationed at a paper mill deep in the jungles of Parawang, Sumatra.

The couple met in the US where Teo graduated with a Master's degree in Christian Education at the Scarritt Graduate School in Tennessee and was later ordained an education pastor in 1992. She had earlier obtained her Bachelor's degree at the Taiwan Theological Seminary after deciding to pursue her calling at the age of 24.

Teo, who became a Christian when she was 18, worked as director of education and youth, at two American churches in Florida and Maryland before returning to Malaysia in 2000.

Article taken from The Star Online (Wednesday July 13, 2005) by SHARIFAH FATIMAH