Well, well...it's Monday afternoon here in the UK, and I am typing this in the University of Warwick library while waiting to see my course director in an hour and a half's time.
Well, one week has passed since I have arrived in Warwick. It's been a flurry of paperwork, really...not much of an orientation. So far I've settled everything except my bank account (which is the most important thing of all!) and my UK line. But I think I will settle into campus life well...I've even signed up for a student society already - the Revelation-Rock gospel choir. I have finally realised my dream to be part of a gospel choir: getting in touch with the musical side of my Pentecostal roots! There's also a musical being held by the Singapore Society (SingSoc, in short) here, and my SingSoc buddy has asked me to join. Given how I also want to take German or French while I am here, I don't know if I will end up overloading myself; but we'll see :)
Weather-wise, things are pretty comfy at a nice and cool 10 degrees celsius: a welcome change to the heat in Singapore. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous. When I was teaching in Chung Cheng High School back home, I would frequently hear about their lake (a point of pride for them). HA! Wait till they see the lakes here on campus: they've got ducks of different kinds swimming about, geese, and even swans. On top of that, the sky here has the same shade of blue as that in the opening of The Simpsons, believe it or not. I am also happy to say that, despite the claims of naysayers that there is no sun in England, the sun comes out pretty frequently here.
The food here is also surprisingly decent. Thanks to the influx of Indians and Pakis to the country, you can find Chicken Briyani and Butter Chicken microwave dinners here for just £1. I don't think I've eaten anything distinctively 'Western' for the past few days, except the occasional roast beef and sandwich. Last night, I experienced the hospitality of my Chinese flatmates. I wandered out of my room, down the corridor into the common flat kitchen, and there were three of them cooking. I thought I'd cook after they were done, but then they made my share and insisted that I join in. I am grateful to them, as well as to God, for such small provisions scattered here and there. That event, I think, stood out to me as a show of how God can find creative ways to provide for me.
I also attended my first church service yesterday morning. I went to some mid-autumn festival celebration held by the Christian Union; it turned out to be some evangelistic event, and so I was bored out of my skull. When I stayed behind to help clean up, however, I connected with Willie and John, two really nice guys at the Christian Union. Willie met up with me the next day to bring me to this church called Myton, which is an independent church that is cautious but open to the things of the Spirit - which was comforting to a Pentecostal like me :) It was obviously a family church, and very warm. I kind of liked it.
I am glad for meeting Willie and John at the Christian Union, as well as two Singaporeans from the CU named Adelene and Jasmine, who are very friendly to me. I also met a half-bubbly Malaysian there named Joanna. My original Malaysian acquaintances are all right, but they are, as I said, a bit too loud and tend to talk only about their own things, so an outsider will feel every inch an outsider with them. My introverted personality and awkward social skills do kick in, and so I sometimes wonder whether I will find a good friend or two here; but I think with the Christian Union people and with the Myton church, I might get comfortable to the point where I can really connect with them meaningfully...
In the meantime, I look forward to meeting my fellow English coursemates. I'm particularly looking forward to having a blast of a time with fellow English dweebs, cracking jokes about Shakespeare that no one else will understand, haha.
On a more personal note, I have been getting the sense of how hard and insensitive I am to God nowadays. I guess it didn't help that 2008 was a year in which I was coming out of one of the most painful failures of my life, and 2009 was just too busy for me to recuperate. The teaching at Chung Cheng, with its accompanying emotional drain, just made it worse, haa. While I was walking down the footpath a few days ago, the realisation of how insensitive I was to God, how lackadaisical and jaded I was, hit home with quiet but fresh force. And, as if to confirm what I instinctively felt, I couldn't even think of words to express my inner state to God...awkwardly then, stumblingly then, and quietly, I started praying in tongues. Probably, the Spirit's language is about the only thing that can draw out what my heart needs to say to God right now.
I've still got the questions God challenged me with before I left Singapore running through my head - why are you doing this? why are you going overseas to study? what are your motives? for your own gain and glory, or for my gain and honour? And of course, the words that God keeps saying to me again and again in different ways: you will seek Me and you will find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. And knowing that only the Spirit can draw words out from my heart and that only the Spirit can open my self and centre to God, the only way to answer the Lord's questions to me, and to answer His call to seek Him, is to cling ever tightly to the Spirit. Please pray for me that God will continue to relentlessly draw me after Him, and that I will let Him draw me out to where I can never go back, away from self-centredness, away from anger and bitterness, and into His very Self.
Cheers, all! Thanks for all prayers by all of you: they are deeply appreciated at such a juncture in my life. Will email you guys soon!
