the 2nd episode

fuzzzzzzzzzzy. and a cockerel.

i haven't gone stark raving nuts and applied for membership in the time-honored portals of mental institutions worldwide, but i thought i was pretty much heading that direction when i opened my sleep-encrusted eyes the morning of the 14th, day 2. everything was fuzzy, my back felt pretty much like it just had 50 Communist Army officers tramping all over it with spiked boots, and there was a definite buzzing around my head. and no, i was pretty sure i wasn't out clubbing the night before. or was i? my brain wasn't being very cooperative either, threatening to overspill and trickle gelatinously out of my ears when i tried to rationalize the fact that i was very uncomfortable and there was a dastardly crowing going on incessantly in the background. so i settled for sitting up to survery my surroundings, and the events of the past 24hrs came flooding back into my consciousness like a nasty deluge of Ganges river floodwaters down a Karachi street.

welcome to Noh Bo Academy, Day 2. land of the no water supply, crazy flies and superb human spirit.

as most of us haven't managed to adjust to the startling biological schedules in the place, we were a little late on the morning cleansing routine, ending up with a harried breakfast (fried rice, vegetables and egg!) and all warmly welcoming the proposition by Ps Tang to shift devotionals to eveningtime. what we omitted to consider, as Ps Tang subsequently pointed out, was that we as mission workers should begin our day right with God, aligning our eyes towards His purpose and asking for His guidance and protection over the course of the day. it also resolved this niggling little enquiry i had in my heart (apparently my heart, as we know it, has many more chambers than the usually advertised 4, and it's up to me to surrender them all to God, one by one, even if it's shameful or painful, but yes, i digress, again.) about whether there was anything fundamentally wrong with doing QT at the end of the day, since there was a greater likelihood that i could have thanksgivings on hand to mention over quiet time. i now realise that it's better to begin fresh before God, presenting our petitions before Him, and then, as He goes about implementing His will in our lives, we give thanksgiving as blessings come along. or rather, that's the mindset i'm currently adopting. knowing how prone my mind is to travel, especially to the more temperate Mediterranean, i'd not wager any money on this concept being a permanent resident.

and thus we launched project WalkThrough, which covers the Old Testament from Genesis all the way to the birth of Christ. first speaker - yours truly. it was a pretty surreal experience, standing before a seemingly legion-istic congregation of tanned faces, all so impossibly youthful and many even downright childlike, and lecturing on the more carnal of human behavior for Creation (eliciting not a few giggles amongst the crowd and the translator, Christone) and Fall. i almost felt that i was doing a vulgar disservice to the obviously underaged audience, but i knew that i was doing what was right in God's eyes, and that gave me comfort and calmed my thumping heart to go on and finish off my aeons-long speech till Noah and his family finally disembarked from the choppy boattrip to nowhere. (didn't know that StarCruise already had its claws deep into biblical tours, albeit the passengers were, admittedly, under duress) Min darling launched a brilliant prizes-included quiz about my segment, which was a good idea to reinforce learning (and i suspect, rote learning, cos the pace was a little brisk for the students to grasp the full nuances of our messages; and this was true even for the entire teaching course), followed by a robust and lunatic period of aerobics where min pranced around trying to educate the students on the various landmarks in their classroom such as the persian gulf. in truth, she would make a very admirable teacher, cos she has this knack for imparting flavor and personal touches into her lesson to make it come alive with relevance for the students. so for all those a*star cronies hunched over your polished teakwood desks playing with your gold pen holders, here's a burgeoning star ready for harvest for biomedical research :D after min's repartee, it was simon's turn. it was really a story-telling time full of revelry and fun as he went full blast through ancient biblical history, to the point of no return - actually, it was more like a point 6 keywords too far down the list, but we could tell simon the sacho was truly in his form and so thoroughly engrossed in disgorging nuggets of biblical knowledge to the students that he forgot what it was that he was meant to teach. haha :D now that's what i call on fire (for God, and perhaps even a little self-immolative too), man! :D

then it was breaktime for the kids, as we gathered for a time of peer feedback and devotionals, where Ps Tang shared about Lazarus and the Rich Man, and imparted to us the value of holding Godly qualities above mortal possessions. it's very true that we do get caught up in the midst of all the excitement for material status and fame; humans degenerate faster than a block of blue cheese left in the incubator when faced with the prospect of fame and wealth. ask anyone, rich or poor, if they consider themselves being too happy at the moment or having too much wealth, and chances are, if you get an answer in the affirmative, you've stumbled across the 2nd coming and are looking at Christ in the face, so congratulations and let's bring out the jolly shandy. it's a fact of life - a dastardly characteristic lovingly indoctrinated by Satan into our wretched genes since the Fall. cos he couldn't get at God, he decided to erect his own throne, and defined wealth, riches, mortal fame, popularity and all things that eventually come to pass or fade away as his royal scepter and crown. it's a powerful message, and perhaps in the midst of squalor and biting suffering, it struck home in more than a few hearts in our team as we contemplated our beautiful ending - we get to travel home and be with our beautiful families in a habbohotel alter-reality after 7 days, but these kids that we've come to share the Gospel with haven't got anything to travel to but their dreams. and we have the burden of sharing God's dreams for them with them, to break through their hardened hearts and despondency and general laissez-faire about their ill lot in life. it is a burden easily carried by the flippant, but one that weighs down on the chordae tendiniae (heartstrings for the protesting laymen) when one attempts to grasp the full extent of what was required of us at that very place. in a sense, it was back to the drawing block for me - same situation as the scenario when i'm faced with terminal patients left, right and centre, and i possess not even a smidgen of the intellect required to save just one. but this time, i am empowered to make a difference. in this place, at the very moment, i could do things. i could choose to reach out and reach deep, or i could leave the lessons there as it was and consider my job done. the latter requires so much less effort, and imparts such a nice warm afterglow of satisfaction and self-back-patting, but that would be tantamount to complete absence, in my own opinion. i was there for 3 days, and i fully intended to make full use of that 3 days. i don't want to waste a single monent of it, and i was akin to a kamikaze pilot running on low fuel when he finally understands his mission. so i gassed up by throwing myself into the people, and blast me with a crab's pincers if they weren't completely welcoming, compliant and heartbreakingly convivial. it was as though God was nodding His head in Heaven and blessing our little team as everyone all suddenly got hit by Zeus' lightning bolt of diligence and a sense of mission - the singspiration was a roaring success, thanks to the great kicking off led by Dot. i've never seen, heard or felt such tempest in songs of praise, and i know in my heart that even the biggest congregation in singapore couldn't rival this little bunch of people on fire - because their songs came from their hearts, and they truly wanted to sing and dance. if anything, singaporean worships are a little mechanical and detached, and if it were a photograph it'd have jaded edges and sepia tone.

then we broke for games, which was a madcap tag where little dots of colorful rice zoomed imperceptibly across a yawning chasm between 2 ends of a field, chased by colorful little geriatric-speed rice (our team) who also, in colorful language, expressed aloud our disbelief that humans were capable of such rapid translocation without the help of chemical boosters such as fireworks in the butt. it must be the 2,3 bisphosphoglycerate (known fondly as 2,3 BPG to meddies) covalently bound to the Hb, and the polycythemia associated with poor oxygenation at high altitudes. i only managed to tag a girl, the last standing female member of the karen team, and was awfully proud of myself for such a glowing accomplishment. (attributed to a greater scale to the fact that she probably lost her wits to fear and shock at seeing attila the hun hot on her heels than the fact that i outran her)

dinnertime! i was getting increasingly perplexed by the fact that we had a seemingly endless supply of eggs and meat despite the apparent destitution of the village, but eventually this whodunit was resolved by Ps Tang's revelation that we were paying them obscene amounts of money they probably have never seen before to buy ingredients for the amount of "luxury" food that they probably have never had the chance to taste or even see before. so that solves it - another poor village infringed by meat-hungry foreigners with pockets full of cash, even when they have no seeming need for cash at this far-removed place cos everything they need, they pluck/collect/gather/hunt/grow, and who knows what they actually do with the useless pieces of paper with the sovereign's head on it when we offer it to them. in a place with minimalist currency trade and primarily subsistence farming, it's almost a joke to wield cash for what we purchase - kinda like giving a jovial family friend a top-of-the-line, high-tech, voice-controlled hairdryer when he's completely bald.

after dinner, it was the first night rally. being the initial exposure to expectant hearts pliant to the Gospel, i'm sure many amongst us were teetering with anxiety and a keen urge to rpove our mettle. but God's providence far overrides any humanly attempts at securing a willing audience, and truly when we fell back on His grace, everything was well. the testimony sharing and the message by Nick was very inspiring and truly touched me, and though altar call was less than expected, the short exposure would be my main explanation for it. it wasn't that they didn't like the message, in fact, i'm sure many were simply too reticent to approach the altar publicly. nonetheless, the individual prayer offer was taken up by many, and i was heartened to see a firm foundation being laid for subsequent sessions of the rally. furthermore, as paw htee doh later told me, most of the students attend evening service at the church from 7pm onwards, which coincides with our rally timing, so it was really a choice of 2 good things. and we all know, i'm sure, the feeling of wanting both the double oreo oreo cheesecake, and the sinful deluxe double chocolate with chocolate mousse cake. it's one same God, so i know He makes His will in His own way :D

and so we ended our very eventful first day, which was, in all manners of speech, a success. i was immensely proud of being part of the team and even the icicle-inducing shower afterwards did nothing to drench my passion for the next day's activities. and so we fell into sleeping ugly sleep to soothe the jagged nerves of our bodies, and the rest of the tale will follow at the next post!