Jungle Of Steel And Concrete

Being around GCF people for a while, I hear a lot of war stories about ordinary men and women who try to follow Jesus in the dog-eat-dog world.

One of the memorable ones is Nehemiah Lee's story

A journey of faith through the jungle of steel and concrete by Nehemiah Lee

Twelve years ago, I founded Nehemiah Reinforced Soil Sdn Bhd. It is a construction company. The mission is to make a decent living without having to get involved in corrupt practice. The mission seemed naive.

It seemed like an impossible task because the construction industry is rife with corruption. It is a jungle out there made of steel and concrete inhabited by unscrupulous players we called 'the cowboys'. The rule of the game is to do everything and anything possible -- whether corrupt or otherwise -- in order to win, i.e. in order to so-called 'survive'.

As a new low capital start-up with peanut financing from mum and pop, cash flow was extremely tight. All suppliers wanted cash terms from us and all our customers wanted credit terms. Bankers would only lend us umbrellas when our cash position was proven to be sunny.

One of the earliest challenges came from a quantity surveyor whose job was to certify our progress claims. He hinted that if we greased his palm, our claims would be certified much quicker without any hassle.

We would get our money much earlier so that we could pay our suppliers and workers. After all, all the other sub-contractors were doing likewise. We pretended to be stupid, ie., did not take the hint. Sure enough, our claims remained uncertified. Each time we called up, we
were told that there was something wrong with our claims. We had to re-submit time and again. Considering the tight cash flow situation we were in, the pressure to give in was tremendous. I am glad to report that we did not buckle under the pressure; we did get our claims
certified eventually. Somehow, money came in from other sources to help ease our cash flow. We also had understanding suppliers who were sympathetic and supportive.

Another incident demonstrated the challenge we faced as the promoter of a new proprietary retaining wall system. We were bidding for a fairly big project. All technical submissions and clarification had been presented and accepted in principle. But the official refused to
release a letter of approval. We were privately told, "Why should your company be helped?" It was understood that some inducement would resolve the problem. We politely declined to oblige although we needed the project badly. Our faith that divine help would intervene was
severely tested. After some agonizing weeks of silent impasse, miraculously the official relented.

The approval letter was released unconditionally.

Not all cases however ended up well whereby we collected money due to us or we got the projects we needed. For example, we had to take a hair cut because we did not oblige our paymaster by providing the necessary fictitious invoice for him to avoid tax. He was a Dato', by
the way, and a very young one. We lost projects because we refused to pay the 'commission'. We lost a certain competition because the project manager was bribed by our competitor.

The question is how we managed to survive despite our disadvantaged position due to our commitment to the mission. In fact, not only did we survive, we have been doing fairly well by industry standards. Many apparently valid reasons could be forwarded to explain why we are
still around today. For example, we worked very hard. We have good, clean and honorable friends in the right places who helped us without asking for favors in return. We were lucky.

Somehow, we are at the right place at the right time. The market somehow turned in our
favour. And many more valid reasons. But we believe the bottom line is divine intervention. We have received undeserved favour called grace from the Holy One above. Our faith and trust in the Almighty One has been vindicated. We are saved by grace through faith.

The next question is, "Does it get easier now compared to earlier days?"
The answer is, "Yes and no".

Yes, because we are more established now, we have stronger financial footing and we enjoy a good reputation or brand recognition.

No, because the corrupt practices are still quite rampant in the construction industry.
Click here to continue

If you are around PJ SS2 this Sunday, do drop by for a personal conversation with LT Jeyachandran from Ravi Zacharias International Ministry....

We'd do a personal, heart-to-heart chat with an Asian leader who has a wealth of experience in having dialogues with Hinduism and Islam in pluralistic India...

Come hear LT will share his experience and thinking together on the new paradigm of interfaith dialogue...

Why Dialogue?

"No world peace without peace among religions, no peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions, and no dialogue between the religions without accurate knowledge of each other" (Hans Kung)

Date: Sunday (2 April)
Time: 1.30 pm
Venue: TOUCH COMMUNITY CENTER (Community Baptist Church, SS2)
No 14A, Jalan SS 2/10,
(same row as KAYU restaurant, and the center is just above the Claypot n Pan Restaurant)

For details contact Hedonese - 019 3356095