Thanksgiving

Praise the Lord - our insurance for the IBM laptop came through! So we should be getting a replacement laptop in the next few days. God is indeed gracious and good all the time!! =)
..Of course, it's easy to give thanks in such situations, but the Bible tells us we are to give thanks in all circumstances. Do remind me to give thanks, even when situations don't seem the most hopeful :)

Just had an assessed role-play parent interview this morning. Got some really useful feedback.. In other words, there are many areas i need to improve on, and many skills i need to acquire. Not sure if i thought the course would be easier than i'm finding it now, but so often i'm faced with my imperfections and immaturity in many situations.. All the more reason to depend wholly on the Lord in all things - for this course, just for life in general! Am encouraged that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". Thank God that His strength is made perfect in my weakness.

Too much sensibility

I seriously think that Austen's books are as bad as those romantic comedies we have at the movies.. Even though she might seem cynical at times, especially about certain characters, all her heroines still have happy endings.

On another subject, Karen caught the mouse! She set the trap for it overnight (with prawn i think as bait) and found it in the morning, so had to dispose of the body. She got up early for her morning shift so i wasn't awake to witness any of it. Of course now i have even more respect for her! No, Simon, it wasn't white; it was brown, so maybe more a rat than a mouse.. And yes, Debbie, i suppose i should always look on the bright side of life ya!

Company at home

Yay - Karen's back so i'm not home alone anymore.. And quite perfect timing because i was kinda freaking out from what i found yesterday morning. I had left a loaf of bread on the table top overnight (which, on hindsight, perhaps was a bad idea) and so i woke up to find a hole in the bag with bread crumbs around. Plus, the plastic cap of the oil bottle had been gnawed at - either that, or spontaneously corroded it seems.. So after letting my imagination run wild and panicking and thinking of the dirty rats i've seen that run around the London underground tracks and calling home (!) to tell my mum about it, it has been confirmed with Karen: she has had a mouse in the house before and even caught it with a mousetrap. So.

Not necessarily following on from the above example alone - maybe i'm thinking of my fellow Bible Study group members who were stressing out over mid-term exams - but definitely we know that life is not a bed of roses, even (and perhaps especially) for followers of Christ. It's a life-time's journey of trusting and hoping and having faith in what is real even though we can't see it, and having that eternal perspective in mind.

Mid-term blog

I figure it's really the middle of term since it's Wednesday of the 7th week (out of 13) of term. Things are starting to get busy! ..and i'll be back home for the holiday in no time ;) Really thank God for bringing me thus far, and for His grace throughout this journey 'til now.. For those who have asked, it's still quite fun being independent and cooking for myself - perhaps the novelty hasn't worn out yet ;P Wouldn't say i'm a good cook though - as long as it's edible it's good enough for me ;)

Met some of the OCF people for their weekly lunch-time prayer meet yesterday. Very encouraging to see these faithful few who have been meeting regularly for a time of sharing and prayer. May i also be an encouragement to them in any way i can! We definitely must help each other along this road that's often difficult to tread. But that's why God gave us each other - we are not alone! :)

The Course (so far)

More about my course, especially for those who might be interested in this area perhaps.. It's really a combination of practice based on developmental theory. Technically, since it's a course in 'developmental' psychology, that actually stretches throughout the whole life-span. But most end up working with children, which is what i hope to do. To aid us becoming effective practitioners, we have 3 external placements hopefully in a variety of settings such as primary and high schools, or private clinics etc, which will start from next term onwards.

This term, i'm doing 5 modules:
1) Assessment - we've covered the assessment of children so far, which i'm mostly familiar with, but will soon be moving on to assessing adults, which should be interesting.
2) Practicum - this module has been focusing on the actual practice, especially interviewing and counselling skills (which i haven't been explicitly taught before). The role-playing we've been doing has been very nerve-wracking.. Especially since it's our coursemate pretending to be a 50-year old man wrestling with his mum's terminal illness and the whole issue of euthanasia :P
3) Research methods - the stats bit starts next term but this term it's all about carrying out an evaluation project and reading articles critically, which i find especially difficult. i find it hard being very critical about almost anything :P
4) 'Selected Topics' - this term, this module has covered aspects of behaviour management as a teacher, and from next week onwards, we'll be learning about working with indigenous people groups. The behaviour management part should be very applicable to me, but once again, theory is very different from practice ya!
5) Teaching and learning perspectives - this module is part of the Grad Dip Ed component of the course, so we learn about how teaching theories apply to real life in the classroom in essence.
Also, i've just spoken to a potential supervisor about my thesis, and it sounds really exciting.. Think i'll be able to do something that has had little previous research in the area, and with practical implications for Singaporean students :)

Might have expressed this sentiment before, but i really think that teaching might be one of the most challenging jobs around, after parenting probably.. and i still do feel that it's a lot easier working with kids one-to-one than in a group setting.. Have much respect for all the good teachers out there, and pray lots for my dear friends who are teachers or training to be teachers. On the whole, trust that these 2 years are a time of equipping for me and shall remember to enjoy the actual course itself as an integral part of my time in Perth ;)

Life Story

At the OCF small group Bible Study meeting last Friday, we were studying John 12, which included the passage on how the Jews refused to believe Jesus' true identify. So as part of the sharing/application question, we went round to share why we believed. Basically, we all got the chance to share our personal testimonies and - really praise God - clearly, although our stories are all different, it was such an encouragement to see how the Lord has revealed Himself to each one of us in His special way. Truly it is only by His grace and the work of the Holy Spirit that any of us can open our spiritual eyes to see the truth. But we first needed to take that step of faith, and ask Him to show us.

Speaking of blindness and sight, the speaker at yesterday's church service was actually a physiotherapist who is visually-impaired. Quite wonderful how he can quote so comfortably from Scripture, as well as referring to his braille Bible. He will soon be going to Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar to teach the blind people there how to do massage and get employment. A great example of how God can use us all in our unique circumstances to touch the lives of others.

Godliness with contentment...

Last week we had a cold spell and a storm with strong winds and rain which brought the temperature down to about 11 deg celsius on Friday.. and i found myself totally unprepared for the cold :P Have whined enough about it (won't be complaining about heat, even in Singapore any time soon! ;) and in short, i went out to buy a fleece sweater and gloves on Saturday. Really got me thinking about how easy it is to be discontent. I can immediately think about 10 things i wish i had (a car, those nice Hush Puppies shoes, an air ticket to go back home next weekend..) instead of giving thanks for the things i already have! And what more in the light of the various recent tragedies that have struck like the earthquake in Indonesia and the helicopter crash that killed the 9 Australians. Feelings of happiness and contentment are so much more fleeting than feelings of sadness or despair it seems - a single sad thing can ruin happiness, but it would be much more difficult to escape unhappy thoughts.. Which brings me back to the definition of joy and rejoicing in the eternal hope we have in God. How are we to be joyful always, give thanks in all circumstances? Only by resting in the knowledge of God's love and having that unwavering faith that He's in control..

Ok will go back to preparing for my open-book exam for my teaching module on Friday now, while appreciating the lovely warm weather this week :)