A one-year transit in Singapore turned out to be 64 years for Ernest N. Poulson Junior. Poulson Jr was born to Ernest N. Sr and Annetta Minnie Poulson of Miami, Florida on a stormy April Fool’s morning in 1926. He was a 10-pound baby who grew into a six footer.

Poulson, the eldest of three boys, often spoke of a very happy childhood - the family though poor, had a positive outlook. His mother’s educational philosophy allowed him to learn through observation and imitation. He was also deeply influenced by his God-fearing maternal grandparents.  

Poulson was baptised at age nine in a Presbyterian Church in Miami by Pastor Daniel Iverson, writer of the hymn "Spirit of the Living God".

Due to the Great Depression in America, his family moved from Miami, Florida to Arizona. They joined a Baptist church and underwent baptism by immersion in order to identify with the church’s distinctives. It was in high school in Arizona that he met Verda May Sutter. The couple married on June 4, 1946 when Poulson returned from serving in the Navy. They were blessed with two daughters, Sharon (born in 1948) and Sandra (born in 1951).

As a teenager, Poulson worked hard delivering newspapers to supplement the family’s income. He had a ten-mile route, morning and evening, and an additional round to collect subscription fees. 

December 7, 1941 was a turning point in Poulson’s life. That was the day when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The next morning, Poulson decided to enlist in the Naval Air Force. He was too young to enter the Navy, so he underwent preparatory boot camp training where he acquired basic and developmental skills that would serve him well for the future.

After completing Naval boot camp, Poulson had a significant one-hour layover in Los Angeles while waiting for his next assignment. He set out for a walk at 11pm and spotted huge lights on the skyline with the words "JESUS SAVES". He strolled towards it and discovered the name, Church of the Open Door. Its doors were literally open at 12 midnight with someone on the organ, others praying, some sheltering from the cold, and yet others seeking counsel. He made a mental note to check this out on a Sunday, which he did.

In 1948, when he was studying at Biola, he became a member of the Church of the Open Door. It was this church, under the leadership of Reverend Dr J. Vernon McGee, that commissioned him for the mission field.

From a very young age, having committed his life to Jesus, he was convicted to “share the gospel” with those who did not know Jesus. His parents meanwhile were secretly praying that he would become a missionary one day. He answered the call in his early twenties and enrolled at Biola College (now called Biola University). At Biola College, Poulson was involved in “Christ for Indonesia Fellowship”, a student missionary fellowship which he and a close friend, Ais Pormes, started. He believed God was calling him to Indonesia to serve alongside his friend and prayer partner Pormes, who was starting a new Bible college there. 

After receiving his BA in Theology in 1952 and while waiting for his visa for Indonesia, the president of Biola College, Samuel Sutherland, invited Poulson to do some internship work at the college. One task given to him was to drive Reverend Calvin Chao, the acting principal of Singapore Bible College (SBC) who was visiting America to recruit workers for the newly established college. At the conclusion of his visit, Reverend Chao invited Poulson to come to Singapore to help at SBC. Chao believed that it would be opportune for Poulson to assist at the college whilst waiting for his visa to be processed.

Poulson, with only sufficient funds for one ticket, flew to Singapore and arrived on March 17, 1953. Six months after his arrival, his wife, Verda May and their two daughters joined him.  

Poulson taught Bible, English language and Theology to Chinese speaking students through an interpreter. He also began studying Bahasa Indonesia in preparation for his future ministry. The door to Indonesia never opened. Instead, Poulson saw God’s providential hand opening various ministries in the college and in the churches in Singapore. 

In 1958, Poulson began the English Department (known today as School of Theology, English). The first classes were held at the Poulsons’ home in Holland Road due to the lack of space at the college. 

Poulson started the first evening Bible school at the premises of Short Street Methodist Church, also because of a lack of space at SBC. The evening school which offered a Certificate of Christian Studies drew hundreds and even thousands of laymen from different denominations. Until his retirement in 1988, Poulson taught in the evening school. His Old Testament classes attracted almost 200 students, at any given time, with some even having to sit on the floor! (The Evening School continues today under the name Centre for Servant Leaders, CSL.)

When Poulson first arrived in Singapore, he was introduced to a group of young people who met in Chinatown. He was invited to teach and preach at this preaching point which eventually became Grace Baptist Church. He served as counsellor for seven years and held weekly preaching sessions to train lay preachers. 

As dean of the English Department, Poulson was invited by Dr Chong Kwong Teik (a medical doctor who had a vision to train Malaysian Christians) to help establish and teach at Pusat Latihan Kristian Melaka (PLKM, Malacca Christian Training Centre) which later became Malaysia Bible Seminary (MBS).  

As a leader, Poulson had great foresight. He enrolled the first cohort of Bachelor of Theology students with the Melbourne School of Divinity to certify that the programme at SBC was on par with other colleges that were offering the Bachelor programme. The outstanding results of the students confirmed this. 

In the early 1980s when many alumni and Singaporeans were going abroad to study and deciding to relocate to America and other countries, he knew he had to act quickly. He spoke to seminary heads of Ivy League evangelical colleges like Dallas Theological Seminary, Talbot Theological Seminary and Wheaton Graduate School. He designed the Master of Divinity so that courses were taught to complement each other, like Greek exegesis, English Exposition and Hermeneutics to be applied to Homiletics. Tan Kim Sai, alumnus of SBC and former principal of MBS, wrote: “We have high respect for Rev Poulson as an able administrator and leader, a learned scholar and effective teacher, and above all an affectionate big brother… ” ^[1]

In 1988, Poulson retired from SBC and was invited to be senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church because a theological crisis had caused a split in the church. He accepted the invitation because of his love for the people and served there for eight years. During that season, he also taught at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Singapore. Upon his retirement, in appreciation for his faithful service over the decades, the church conferred on him the title “Pastor Emeritus”. 

The last 21 years of his life were spent doing his favorite work -- teaching the Word of God. When Poulson first arrived in Singapore, he had connected with Bethesda Gospel Hall, a Brethren assembly. He was taken by a Christian gentleman whom he met at the Department of Statistics, to a mid-week prayer meeting at Bethesda in Bras Basah Road, later relocated to Ang Mo Kio. After the leaders questioned him about his beliefs (in Poulson’s words, “like an ordination examination”), they allowed him to share the Word that night. That first exposure to the Brethren assembly opened more doors to other Brethren churches in Singapore. 

To Poulson, nothing happened by coincidence when one’s life is in God’s hands. When Poulson was ready for a second retirement, a renewed contact from a Brethren church led him to teach for 19 years at Bethesda Bukit Arang, four months every year. Concurrently, another Brethren church, Bethesda Serangoon, invited him to teach for 14 consecutive years, every three months in the year. On the longevity of Poulson’s commitment, Elder Christmas Lee once made this introduction that “Dr P is our oldest preacher who teaches at Bukit Arang every July to November, and Bethesda Serangoon every January, February and March, from now till Jesus comes.”^[2]

Poulson forged deep friendships with many of the local Singaporeans. The first man he met in Singapore, Cheang Wai Pun, and his family became close friends. Poulson not only officiated the marriage of Cheang, but also Cheang’s eldest son. He also conducted the funeral of Cheang and his wife. 

As early as the 1960s, Poulson secured a licence from the Registry of Marriages (ROM) Singapore, to officiate marriages. Throughout his ministry he officiated more than 500 marriages. Long before ROM saw the need for premarital counselling, Poulson was already practicing this as he believed marriage is sacred and should not be entered into lightly. Every couple who intended to marry in the church had to attend premarital counselling. This practice became a part of the ministry of Grace Baptist Church.

During his 64 years in Singapore, Poulson influenced many lives through teaching, preaching, training, mentoring, and counselling. He served on the board of several Christian organisations, was a consultant to churches, and was involved in counselling and pulpit supply both in Singapore and Malaysia.  

He loved the Word of God and believed in the power of prayer. Anytime he had an audience of one or more, he would turn to the Word to encourage them. He woke up at 4:30am to study God’s Word and pray, a practice he kept till his short illness, three days before the Lord called him home.

He taught a weekly Bible class to medical students at the University of Malaya (now National University of Singapore or NUS), in the early 1960s. His students included Dr Chew Pin Kee and Dato' Dr David Gunaratnam. Chew later became a respected leader of Bethesda Bukit Arang. Dato Dr Gunaratnam, a dentistry student from Malaysia, later set up his own practice. He became the founding chairman of OMF Malaysia Home Council while also serving as elder in Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church, Kuala Lumpur. Dato Dr Gunaratnam recalled fondly that Poulson would visit him in his government postings at various towns in Malaysia and would hold Bible classes and conferences there. 

He was involved with Youth for Christ and helped in the weekly teaching ministry at the Soldiers’ & Airmen’s Scripture Readers Association (SASRA). It was here that his eldest daughter Sharon met and married a British serviceman, Colin Woodland, who upon his retirement became the general secretary of SASRA. 

Poulson was invited by the late prison chaplain Reverend Khoo Siaw Hua to work with English-speaking death row inmates in the early 1960s. He also served with a drug rehabilitation centre, Hiding Place, impacting the men and forged deep friendships with the people. He participated and ministered at Keswick conventions in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. 

In commemoration of Poulson’s 50^th anniversary of ministry in Singapore, he was presented a plaque bearing the names of 50 churches, organisations and ministries that he was involved in! 

Although Poulson was redirected by God to Singapore instead of his original plan to serve as a missionary in Indonesia, he never forgot the country that he had prayed for. God opened opportunities for him to visit and preach in Indonesia. Later, he made visits to many of the Indonesian alumni who had graduated from SBC, encouraging and preaching in their respective churches.

The alumni of SBC remember Poulson fondly as Dr P, and many continued to keep in touch with him long after their graduation. He continued to engage with them in many vital areas such as counselling, ordination, officiating their marriages, and dedication of their children.

Verda May, Poulson’s wife, was actively involved in different ministries in her own capacity. She helped with Sunday School work at different churches, including Grace Baptist Church and Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church. She was also involved in Bible studies with young wives of the leaders of Grace Baptist Church, evangelistic Bible classes with Japanese women in the neighbouring residential estate, Scripture Union and Youth For Christ and sponsored fellowship groups such as those at Raffles Girls’ School and Singapore Chinese Girls’ School. When the Poulsons lived on the SBC campus, she devoted her time to mentoring students and landscaping the garden. 

In 1975, Poulson received an honorary Doctor of Ministry degree from his alma mater. 

Although he received many accolades, he remained humble and saw himself as God’s instrument, pliable in His hands. Several friends had asked him to write his life- story but he chose to spend the rest of his life teaching and preaching God’s Word. However, he co-authored three devotional booklets for Advent and Lent with Koh Siang Kiang, his god-daughter and co-worker, towards the latter part of his life.

Ernest N. Poulson Jr died on October 13, 2017 three days after teaching his last Tuesday Bible class, "Meet God Mid-Week (MGMW)", a class he began in 1989 after his retirement. His memorial wake was a celebration of a life well-lived that impacted thousands across the world. An article in The Straits Times on October 23, 2017 was entitled “Tributes poured in for long-serving pastor Ernest Poulson who counselled death-row inmates”. He was honoured for having served in Singapore for more than 63 years ^[3]

Poulson is survived by his wife, two daughters, a son-in-law, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.