Jubilee
We just had the last training session for the program.
I miss it already.
It's a beautiful experience to learn something new every session,
be it about human behavior or techniques in close up communication (aka counselling),
together with a roomful of people with the same heart.
Full of questions,
full of enthusiasm,
full of passion for going out to journey with a family in difficulty.
Every break time I'd go around to get to know more about others.
there are counsellors, missionaries, aspiring social workers...
each of them having either a fascinating occupation or passion or interest.
The one thing i keep hearing from social work practitioners,
is that in this journey you get to know yourself and grow as well,
and more often than not it is your demons you conquer first as you come face to face with the issues buried in your own life surfaced in someone else's problems.
If there's something else i learnt today as well,
it's that i'm woefully inadequate.
Ethical boundaries are often grey
(what do you if a husband confides in you about an affair and he says you can't tell the wife? how do you balance confidentiality to the husband vs truthfulness to the wife?)
and things are never clear cut.
it's pretty scary,
going into something and feeling completely lost.
But i suppose again,
i am reminded it is all God's grace.
God's grace that the door opened even though i know nuts,
God's grace that He will pull me through as i wade in murky waters.
The lesson from Good Friday is simply:
Abide.
Abide, then advance (His Kingdom).
And so again i constantly remind myself to get back into the presence of God,
to cling on to Him,
because otherwise i'm just so going to sink in the muddy waters.
ít can't be a bad thing to put yourself in a situation,
where it's either you have God or you die, metaphorically or otherwise.
there's no "me and my abilities" to fall back on.
Massive gamble.
massive faith.
and Abraham believed God.
and Ewong, with her inadequacies and insecurities and small faith, believed God.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I suddenly remembered that it's the Division U contest today,
and spontaneously decided to take a cab down to catch it.
The taxi ride was so cool.
I jumped into the front seat and chatted with the driver like he's a friend giving me a lift.
It helped that he is a sales man during the week so he's really chatty.
Half hour and $16 later,
the speaker i so wanted to catch was already on stage.
Members of the audience are not allowed to enter the venue when a speaker is on,
so i was kept outside the door.
grrr.
didn't see him in action at all,
but i could hear him.
in any case,
there were 3 more speakers coming up.
2 of which were also high level speakers.
The peak of speeches for me are entertaining inspirational speeches.
So hard to get it right,
but when you do get it right,
it's like reaching the peak of a long mountain hike.
a moment to savour.
it's not going to happen everyday.
I witnessed a speech today that came close to that.
highly entertaining,
with a good memorable message.
not the highest level,
but close.
i thought about my own speech coming up next week,
and it pales so much in comparison.
mine generates deathly silence.
i wonder if i should boost it up a little bit,
then again,
what's the purpose of me making the speech?
my goal was never to win the contest.
it is just a message that needs to be heard.
-----------------------------------
Week 3 of training coming up!
We just had the last training session for the program.
I miss it already.
It's a beautiful experience to learn something new every session,
be it about human behavior or techniques in close up communication (aka counselling),
together with a roomful of people with the same heart.
Full of questions,
full of enthusiasm,
full of passion for going out to journey with a family in difficulty.
Every break time I'd go around to get to know more about others.
there are counsellors, missionaries, aspiring social workers...
each of them having either a fascinating occupation or passion or interest.
The one thing i keep hearing from social work practitioners,
is that in this journey you get to know yourself and grow as well,
and more often than not it is your demons you conquer first as you come face to face with the issues buried in your own life surfaced in someone else's problems.
If there's something else i learnt today as well,
it's that i'm woefully inadequate.
Ethical boundaries are often grey
(what do you if a husband confides in you about an affair and he says you can't tell the wife? how do you balance confidentiality to the husband vs truthfulness to the wife?)
and things are never clear cut.
it's pretty scary,
going into something and feeling completely lost.
But i suppose again,
i am reminded it is all God's grace.
God's grace that the door opened even though i know nuts,
God's grace that He will pull me through as i wade in murky waters.
The lesson from Good Friday is simply:
Abide.
Abide, then advance (His Kingdom).
And so again i constantly remind myself to get back into the presence of God,
to cling on to Him,
because otherwise i'm just so going to sink in the muddy waters.
ít can't be a bad thing to put yourself in a situation,
where it's either you have God or you die, metaphorically or otherwise.
there's no "me and my abilities" to fall back on.
Massive gamble.
massive faith.
and Abraham believed God.
and Ewong, with her inadequacies and insecurities and small faith, believed God.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I suddenly remembered that it's the Division U contest today,
and spontaneously decided to take a cab down to catch it.
The taxi ride was so cool.
I jumped into the front seat and chatted with the driver like he's a friend giving me a lift.
It helped that he is a sales man during the week so he's really chatty.
Half hour and $16 later,
the speaker i so wanted to catch was already on stage.
Members of the audience are not allowed to enter the venue when a speaker is on,
so i was kept outside the door.
grrr.
didn't see him in action at all,
but i could hear him.
in any case,
there were 3 more speakers coming up.
2 of which were also high level speakers.
The peak of speeches for me are entertaining inspirational speeches.
So hard to get it right,
but when you do get it right,
it's like reaching the peak of a long mountain hike.
a moment to savour.
it's not going to happen everyday.
I witnessed a speech today that came close to that.
highly entertaining,
with a good memorable message.
not the highest level,
but close.
i thought about my own speech coming up next week,
and it pales so much in comparison.
mine generates deathly silence.
i wonder if i should boost it up a little bit,
then again,
what's the purpose of me making the speech?
my goal was never to win the contest.
it is just a message that needs to be heard.
-----------------------------------
Week 3 of training coming up!
