Soon I will be at the crossroads like many others around my age. This is the final week that I will be having lessons in the place I have called my 'second home' for the past five years. Sure, I have not lived on campus before, but surely my experiences as a hobo in the late night with the Arts Club and NUSSU were comparable if not, more unique than the life on campus. NUS was a place that was always remain special to me. While one might question that such experiences would still be shaped elsewhere as long as I possess the same mentality and all, I believe, that my group of friends that I have met, the opportunities that were given to me prior or as a result of the people I met, would never be replicated in anywhere else. 

Of course if there would be a time to dwell on about all the times I had in NUS, it might go on for hours and hours. Things that have been ongoing recently however, truly touched my heart and gave my courage to move forward. Not my courage I know, but His. I still remembered the times when I had so much doubts about going to Colombia for my internship. I did not even know whether it was possible, but He guided me all the way, watched over me even with the window panes of the bus shattered on me, He was still there. That I returned and there were whole new challenges waiting, to face the crossroads of life: to look for a job, a career. Yet He answered without a doubt to my prayers. I remembered facing the new year, I was looking to pray as per usual. It was hardly any easy when I was alone in the wilderness of South America (not exactly) and I was without the comfort of my church. By sheer belief I decided that I should still do it and so I did.

Months down the road, and some friends are panicking. I was able to offer my help and assistance, words to calm minds not because I was better than anyone, nor because I was more rational, but only because He has shown me the way to go. He was gracious and more than all I could wish for, answered my prayers. I was fuelled by my dream to apply for just one application as a Foreign Service Officer and would not budge until I was knocked out by the assessment criteria. By His blessing, as I was beginning to have doubts again, He came into the situation and made it happen. No words could truly express my gratitude to Him as I prepare to embark on this unknown journey, doubtful of the future but once more knowing that He is always with me and for me.

Interesting and applicable as it is to hear that the Noah's Ark is actually an archetype of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Just as God chooses to punish the world, He extended His mercies as well to the family of Noah and anyone who would believe him. Alas, the men of the old world did not and they succumbed in the end to the flood. Noah, and the countless pairs of animals resided in the Ark while the flood was raging. Just as Noah and co. were safe and sound in the Ark, so are we today in Jesus Christ. While we may stumble and fall, and question the many things that were ongoing in the Ark, we will always be in His safehouse, under the protection of His wings. As with the Ark, Jesus wants us not to look around and focus on the storm, but to look up to Him and see the provision, the light, and rest in Him knowing that the Ark will withstand all barrages and we will emerge at the end of the trials and tribulations, preserved, stronger and with new hope. 

While I may stumble in my life, I want to know that I do so in the arms of my Saviour, that I would be always able to rest in His arms and trust in His protection. Amen.

Its the start of the 5th week of internship program, and my 6th week in Colombia. Needlessly to say, I have been counting down, not because I have not enjoyed my time here so far. In fact its the contrary, that there is so much relaxation and enjoyment that I am worried that I will not get used to the lifestyle when I'm back in Singapore. Thank God for His means and ways, the easy way out and I'm proud to take it because while it is definitely easy for me, no one shall say that it is an easy route ultimately. My Lord gave His life to so that I could have what He had, and more abundantly.

What's new for this week probably would be some updates on my last weekend trip to Bogotá. It was kind of daunting, honestly because I had not expected anyone along my journey to speak English. True enough, I had to converse in Spanish throughout my trip which, thankfully with the blessings of my Lord was not too bad! Struck up a short conversation with someone on the night bus ride to Bogotá, managed to traverse around Bogotá and got back safely in one piece! Not to mention that I also got to make a new friend called Mario, a fellow traveller who was from Argentina, grew up in Spain, worked in Singapore and now working in Germany. Certainly made me feel less lonely on a Saturday night! :)

Made some observations as well, and I do not know whether it is true. The larger cities in Colombia seemed to be more modern, developed and possibly less touristy. In a sense, the sights and sounds to visit and to impress is kind of dampened. I have the same feeling as I had in Medellín when I was in Bogotá. Well, at least Bogotá still had a historic quarter. But perhaps it was under this impression that I felt necessary to go on a day trip equivalent near Bogotá. It turned out not to be a day trip technically since the moment I reached Bogotá, I was on my way in another bus to a town 2 hours away called Zipaquirá. I did not have much expectations on this town; there was only one attraction that I was interested. And even so it did not pique my interest that much.

How pleasantly surprised I was! While traffic was bad, much of the town was quaint and peaceful, and I had a long stroll to the Catedral de Sal, otherwise known as the Salt Cathedral. In the end, I would have rated my trip to Zipaquirá as the week's highlight more than my visit in Bogotá! Well, that's just me I was just awestruck when I got to witness the magnificence of the cathedral that was built underground in a salt mine. All the sculptures were hewn out of the salts and the rocks surrounding it. In fact the salt mine was constructed, or should I say dug in three different levels. The initial church had actually collapsed and the current one was built to replace that. I'm just glad that God had led me to it! Could have been at other places at that time but I was directed there so... :) 

Another highlight was the visit to Cerro Montserrat, which was a mountain peak that overlooked the entire Bogotá. The trip was the most memorable, because I woke up at 0430 HRS to walk to the foot of the mountain. Along the way I had to cut through many dodgy alleys, deserted roads in the middle of the night, and even had someone approached me to tell me "el peligro de ser robaron" (be careful of robber). In the end I spent half of the second day exploring the historic quarter and tried to find a bus to another day trip town. But I guess everything is kind of divinely arranged, since I was worried that I might be late for class on Monday morning and it panned out at the end that I would change my bus ticket to an earlier one and got back home midnight of Monday! Haha. Actually the historic center (otherwise known as La Candeleria) is pretty beautiful and magnificent. The Iglesia Museo de Santa Clara was indeed one of its kind; I have never seen such a densely furnished church in my life until I been into that. Oh well, after all it was supposed to be a church museum. :p

Tell me about bus riding in South America! Hahaha. Everyone told me it was going to be really rough and all, but I slept pretty well on my night bus! Just as I got complacent and thought that it was not so bad, my trip home helped me discover the truth. The night bus was contending traffic with many trucks on the road to Bogotá and so drove much slower than the day bus, which was zooming at corners around 80km/h, approximately 2000m above sea level. Try that again and tell me what was going on in your mind when you take the front seat of the bus. Yes, I was given the front seat. LOL!

Before everything there are a few technically(s) about this post. Hahaha. Technically, its supposed to be "semana tres" since I was here a week before internship started. And technically no. 2 it should be "semana cuatro" since I am writing this in the fourth week. But no matter I shall just write anyway its only for people who are interested, and I doubt there aren't many! :)

But apart from all it has been increasing good thanks to my Lord who made all things smooth and possible. A few things to blog about so let me just write about work first. Work has been by far, fair, though I really wished I could do more rather than what I am doing now. Its starting to become easier to understand the victims and their complains, definitely due to the Spanish lessons that I have been taking since the start of the week. The agency does a lot more than what I initially expected; while many victims are suffering for displacement through force and threats, a huge number also suffers from deprivation of rights. Such rights enshrined in the constitution of Colombia for example, the right to healthcare. There have been many cases whereby the family members of the patient seek assistance because the hospitals deny treatment and care due to their inability to pay. Others are the lower classes seeking legal assistance and advice because most of them could not understand what the government or relevant agencies are writing to them. I was looking at one of the documents that they presented and it was related to the humanitarian aid and assistance that they were allocated. Apparently there are so many victims that application for aid required one to queue; these victims meanwhile have to eke out their own existence under the circumstances of forced displacement. Honestly, I do not think that the government is weak or bad, its just that the amount of people involved bores down the entire bureaucracy. It is just a vicious cycle repeating itself day after day.

That said, it sometimes seems like the hands of the government are pretty tied. I was speaking to one of the lawyers working there and he said that most of these armed groups are not what I imagined: robbers with guns but actually real guerillas living in the mountains at the peripheries of Medellín. They raid the communes from time to time, force people out of their homes and occupy the houses. Sometimes they sell it to get cash to fund the illegal groups, and sometimes they just turn it into their base before the police comes cracking them down. Due to the topography of the region, it is extremely difficult for the police to maintain a strong foothold in these regions. Indeed, while the downtown is not exactly the safest place, most of the police I have seen in Medellín are concentrated at the downtown because it is a relatively flat area in the valley. The top public university here, University of Antioquia happens to be rather left-wing and is constantly clamouring for changes as their basic rights. Quite a few times i was told that the area at the workplace was going to be unsafe and chaotic because of the protests that are taking place. There was a day when the other interns heard an explosion from one of the student-made "potato bombs". While these events are more disruptive than dangerous, it kind of formed a part of my experience here since my workplace is near and it would usually be blockaded, rendering it difficult for us to get it and out. Thank God that we have yet to experience such a situation yet, but my heart goes out to both parties, the victims and the reformers who all desired more changes to be made in their progressive country.

The interns got to enjoy a break over the weekend in the day trip to Santa Fe de Antioquia. It was supposed to be the capital of the Antioquia department very long time ago and was one of the staging areas for Simon Bolivar and his revolutionaries when they were fighting for independence against the Spanish. I was quite looking forward to it because it was a day trip and we got to do a fair bit of horse riding like the paísas living in this region back then. But most of the time on horseback I was just cautious and praying to Jesus Christ to calm my horse down. Seriously, it looked rather shaky and jittery. And it always wanted food like grass, leaves, everything. To treat it nice so that it would treat me nicely, I just brought it to the closest grass patches everytime we stopped so that it could graze. The highlight of the riding was crossing the river which I kind of almost fell into the water because my horse tripped. LOL. And after a long while in the countryside it was lunch which I found to be rather extravagant but paid for already. The prearranged tuk-tuk trip around the town didn't really happen till it was dark so I only got to see the colonial setup and architecture after dusk. 

In the meantime, we travelled to a iron-cast wooden bridge called Puente de Occidente which apparently was an engineering marvel when it was built in the 19th century. But the gem that really caught my eye here was the Iglesia de Santa Bárbara. I was glad somehow that we did the tour at night because it would have looked very different in the day. Approximately one hour around the town with the exciting stories and myths about the various buildings. Essentially much of it still looked like it was three centuries ago. :o

It has been great as well, being able to speak with my dear girl every night before I sleep and every morning before I wake up. The talks of going on an internship or a NGO volunteering, or just a trip (my graduation trip) really keeps us looking forward. I know its early but I just have to say it first: I must go to the Caucasus region this May! :D Its like a full stop to a fruitful 5-year to a place that I have been dreaming over and over again.

Meanwhile, preparing for a weekend out to Bogotá and I guess I will write more when I return, hopefully with new and joyous stories! All glory goes to Lord Jesus Christ!

Well the first week of my 10 weeks internship is kind of done, and I have to say that there are ups and downs to my expectations. Indeed, one should just live life without any expectations simply knowing that God is good and He shall provide. But before all as it is my birthday now (still, in Colombian time 2204h) I shall share my best memories that my sweet babyyy has given me.

it comes but once a year

should we jiu na me suan le

maomao and a little tiger

coming 25 months together

but no!

25 months of the 25th year

thats the point of this poem here

not so literary but it's ok right dear~

a farmer and his field 

that's how right our love feels

make me happy make me smile

and all that trouble becomes worthwhile

a year older and hopefully wiser

probably upgraded yet still a woodblock here

out to the working world you venture

God and I have got your back here

Hahaha it is true when she said its not so literary because if you do it that way it kind of sound awkward. But hey! I love this poem, because my dearie wrote it for me. By His grace yes, everyday has been a blessing and it's great to see love every morning I wake up. :)

Internship so far was alright I suppose. There was also this need to pen down some of my thoughts since at the end I would need to submit two reports, one to IE Singapore and one to IRO. Initially I thought that once I had better command of Spanish, I could proceed to do something more important at Personeria de Medellin. It's an organization that deals with cases of violation with human rights and proceeds to investigate, listen and draft reports for solutions and recommendations. As much as it sounds like research, it is actually pretty operational. The importance of this organization could not be emphasized more than the fact that everyday hundreds of people come by the Personeria to address their concerns. While I do not seem to be able to achieve much because of the specificity, the expertise and the sensitivity of the job, being attached to the officers on the ground was really helpful.

In the one week, I was able to get a glimpse into the lives of many living in Medellin; not those living in the well-to-do communes like El Poblado or Belen, but perhaps those at San Cristobal, San Javier etc. Under the supervision of the officers, we were able to catch a glimpse in the field work.

One of the phrases that I witnessed during the declarations was "deplazamiento forzado y amenaza a manos grupo armado", which means "displacement by force and threat at the hands of armed group". Most Colombians, while living a pretty happy life, live on tenterhooks in truth each day. It made me observe first hand, the importance of this organization. As in Political Science, the oppressed and the destitute need an outlet to quell dissent. In this regard, the Personeria acts as one in my opinion. But more than that, they attempt to truly address the concerns, improve the lives of those living in the poorer regions. I pray to God that I would get to experience more in the coming weeks despite my unimportance and my lack of Spanish proficiency.

With a few other interns, we also did a walking tour on Friday and was introduced to the history of the city. Something that really reached out to me was the fact that the people in Medellin was super proud of their metro line. Well, it's kind of something that even the capital, Bogota does not have. The metro line in Medellin was actually part of the transportation system of the city that was awarded the Most Innovative Transportation or something like that. I have to agree when the few of us decided to venture out today to take the Metrocable. It assisted greatly, the people living on the outskirts of the city to bring them to work. What's most important is that rides are charged on a flat rate to encourage people living in the slums to go into downtown to work. :) For me, the ride itself was just work the trip.

Unusual for me to have a long post so I will break some stuff to the next one. Basically I'm glad that I have kind of worked out the trip schedule for my post-internship trip in South America and the Andes! But I'm sure there are still some details to be ironed out and refined. I shall post it up in the next entry!

For now, thank God and my Lord Jesus Christ for all that have worked out. :) 

Quite a few things to write about, but firstly, I wanted to tell my babyyy that I really love her, and I really do appreciate all the things that she have done for me. <3 Tried to give her a surprise on our 2 year anniversary even within my midst of work. Glad that she was really pleasantly surprised! And of course she even made the effort to send me a postcard when arrived before I flew! Hahahaa. Not to mention that now we are so far away and we still chat with each other on Facebook everyday. I really love it when we set it to Skype once a week; absence really make the heart grows fonder and I would really look forward to see her every Sunday! This is definitely the work of God, only He can perform such miracles of love!

Almost a week into Colombia, can't really see that I'm sad but neither am I really happy. How do I put it, its just the feeling of uncertainty and lost. I genuinely did not expect the inertia to be so high, moving into a place which I have no established forms of communication. Certainly I had hoped that I could meet more people who can speak English, but it seems like Colombia is a predominantly Spanish speaking country with little knowledge of English. Now that I have moved into the apartment, my landlady is a nice woman who unfortunately can't speak a bit of English. On top of that, all the inability to communicate just builds up. All thanks to my lovely babyyy who saw a rare side of me today and she reassured me that she would be there for me! So will my Lord! Felt so touched and loved and I just want to write it down that I'm thankful!

And so of course life goes on here. Most of the time I'm holed up in my room but hopefully by God's grace I would gain some courage to head out on my own pretty soon! Tomorrow would be the starting day for my internship. Praying to my Lord that everything would go well. It is really in these times when we are lost and down that the magnificence of our Lord shines even more. Praise the Lord! :)

Amen.

Something special was enacted and played out last Sunday in church. While it certainly was not the norm since the preacher on the pulpit was not Pastor Prince but Pastor Lawrence, small and yet astonishing revelations were once again shown to everyone. For me, it really highlighted the grace of God, and His wisdom that knows no boundaries. Regardless of who is on the pulpit, so long as He ordains, the Holy Spirit will deliver. Such is the magnificence of our Lord.

The focus point henceforth is fixed on a cup, the cup that was passed from us. Imagining it in another way, it’s kind of like a group of people you and I playing Russian Roulette or Pass the Bucket and somehow, the end is at hand. You and I were meant to take that cup. But by some form of divine intervention, it was passed from us. Oh the mercy of our God! But what is the story of this cup? I found it interesting, therefore a post to share some thoughts.

The story brings us back to a familiar place called the Garden of Gethsamane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Jesus, our Lord was literally crushed like the harvesting of the olives on those ground when He fervent prayers caused Him to sweat blood in Matthew 26:37-39,

³⁷ And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. ³⁸ Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

³⁹ He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Jesus showed Himself as a man, like us who was not willing to take the cup; He that is without any sin should not have to take this cup meant for the sinners. Yet not as He willed, but as God has willed He said, He would therefore take it. Matthew 26:39 is the evidence that God loves every one of us and has had the Son of God take our place when He did not deserve it! And so, what was in this cup that was so dreaded that by the grace of God was passed from us? In Isaiah 57:17,

¹⁷ Awake, awake!

Stand up, O Jerusalem,

You who have drunk at the hand of the Lord

The cup of His fury;

You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling,

And drained it out.

More telling in supporting verses like Jeremiah 25:15 when the proclamation of the judgment on all nations was made in the Old Testament,

¹⁵ For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me: “Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.

And later in the New Testament in Revelation 16:19,

¹⁹ Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.

Jesus took the cup of God's wrath and fury on behalf of us in the greatest display of His love for man. What more could we ask for? Later in the service it was shown, how God did not just fill the cup of of His fury to the brim, but overflowing, and that Jesus took it all up at the Calvary that today, we can be sure that God has expended His judgment, His fury on the Cross and mercy and blessings will follow us for the rest of our lives. The judgment has been passed, and Jesus Christ had borne it all for our salvation! If we cannot believe in Christ and our God, then who can we believe in in this world today?

Always love it when I am able to share some of the sights that I have witnessed that I have enjoyed. In this case, it was something that stirred me deeply. While I was in Hungary back then in May 2012, I took several picture in Veszprém which saw Christ hanging at the top of a cliff. I do not really know how the scene at Calvary would have looked like, but certainly, our Lord Jesus Christ was hung between heaven and earth, drank the wrath of God for the salvation of all man. No one, could ever or even presumed to think to be in the same position and predicament as Him. 

Because of His love for me, I can therefore boldly declare that this cup has forever been passed from me and that all believers can see His love for us and in turn love others as how He had loved us in the first place!

Galatians 2:20 - ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

I know for one my Lord, even though I have uncertainties in my heart with regards to my career, the outcome for the internship in Colombia etc., I just need to fall back on You and You will catch me with all You have. More than anyone else in this world, more than anything else I need. 

Just You, Lord Jesus Christ, my trust is in You.