The Holy Light Church was founded by a young missionary from the Presbyterian Church of England, Reverend John Cook in 1886. Then, Cook was much assisted by a Scotsman, Datuk James Meldrum, who was the son-in-law of Reverend Benjamin Keasberry, a tutor to Sultan Abu Bakar. The church grounds in Jalan Gertak Merah were given by the late Sultan. At the time, the Sunday worship services comprised Chinese (Teochew) and English sessions, and many British civil servants and servicemen based in Johor Baru attended them.However, when Meldrum passed away in 1908, the English service also came to a halt. It was not until August 1952 that the new resident moderator of the church, Reverend George Hood, revived the English service. Between 1952 and 1973, foreign missionaries -- Hood, Richard Shad, Robert Elder, Derek Gill, Gilbert Lum, Cecil Gracey, Donald Elliot and Robert Irving -- continued to minister the English-speaking congregation as it was difficult to find an Asian who was prepared to serve as a pastor.Their prayers for an Asian to take over the ministry were finally answered in December 1973 when Yeo, then 31 years old and a former secondary school teacher who had just graduated from the Singapore Bible College, was inducted as a preacher of the English service. Hood, 92, who now lives in Scotland, later wrote that when the hopes of getting an Asian pastor were realised, it was like rain falling on dry ground, bringing new life and growth of the seeds that the foreign missionaries had planted. Then on Aug 31, 1979, Yeo was officially ordained as the church's first Asian minister.