Hard-Earned Lessons from Starting Poly Revival

Hi My Name is Jaryl Timothy. I’m turning 19 this year in Y3 Nanyang Poly! I lead Poly Revival, a student-led network wanting to inspire generations to live authentically where the Lord places us. Here are some stories and learnt I’ve learnt and wish to share!

1) If you know God says go, no one can say no.

I remembered as I initially started Poly Revival with some of my friends, there were tons of pushback from all sides.

Poly Revival launched in 2021 wanting to do a Worship Night and we pitched the idea to many organisations and their student campus leaders, however not many were keen on the idea of a worship night and many people were concerned about the legality of a Worship Night.

There were support from a few individuals but generally this new movement was something that people didn’t see a need for. Many leaders from different Christian CCAs had an attitude of “why do you need revival” and many seniors also told many of team members to leave Poly Revival and spread many false rumours about us. So, me and my friends ended up having very little people that wanted to gather together to pray and seek for revival.

In the end, we decided to shelf the worship night for another time and were quite disheartened and doubting whether God really called us.

And then we just felt He called us to open up a space in every polytechnic for prayer and intercession to be raised. All we did was obey, we gave the call on Instagram and many other networks, then suddenly so many people that we’ve never heard before came and joined us.

We initally started with less than 10 people on our team , but the Lord has grown our combined network to about roughly 200 people (as of April 2022 including freshmen and seniors)! If you ask me, every plan, strategy and command was given by the Lord, and we only got where we are by the grace of God.

So if God calls you to something, you bet that he’s going to be there to pull you out of trouble and clear a way for you. Just as the Pharisees recognised that the move of God can’t be stopped (Acts 5:39), so will people recognise in due time that your ministry is from God.

“If God calls you to something, you bet that he’s going to be there to pull you out of trouble and clear a way for you.”

2) Surround yourself with like-minded people.

When the process of seeking for revival gets extremely messy and painful, you need people that totally understand you, people who suffer alongside you.

For me, there were many nights of crying in the shower and feeling hopeless for Revival and the calling that God gave me. It honestly continues to be messy and painful to continue to give up things you like. I still remember when God asked me to give up the girl I liked and cried for hours and I called my leaders to ask for emotional support.

Build that culture of supporting one another and carrying each others burdens (Galatians 6:2) because in seeking revival, it will hurt… But at least we can go through it with friends and brothers and sisters who carry the same flame.

“Build that culture of supporting one another and carrying each others burdens because in seeking revival, it will hurt… But at least we can go through it with friends and brothers and sisters who carry the same flame. ”

3) Don’t assume on people, be humble.

It got extremely frustrating for me as my team and I felt that some leaders just didn’t care about Revival and Unity. They rejected the pitch of unity so strongly that it came off as they just didn’t care. I for a long time slandered and assumed that they were just unworthy to lead- out of my frustration that they rejected my idea of a united Poly Worship Night. However after talking to them, I realised that each of them cared about unity in their own individual way, and that I took their decision of ministry too personally.

Even they actually did hold that position that unity isn’t important, people change, things change, God is a God that changes many things- starting with us. So be humble and keep step with the Lord 🙂