WE ONCE WERE NOMADS
My main two ministries at church; leading home group bible studies and in Soul's Sistas' bible studies have been recently been stopped.
For home group, we're trying something different. Tutorial style set readings (of the book of Romans) and then discussing what particular interests us. Personally, I like to approach bible study in a systematic way, book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, inductively. I'm guilty as charged of simply sieving through it. Call it my biblical kiasu mentality. I don't want to miss a thing. Or just say I need a structure to follow. So, this has been something of a first for me. And I find myself all over the place so for my own good, I'm going to try to use Max Lucado's Grip Of Grace to guide me through it.
As for Soul Sista's we decided to focus it as a relational ministry; building up the women and encouraging them by pointing the sisters as well as non-christian and christian visitors toward Hope Chapel's main program. The Church. Call that something I learnt from my MBI course I've been taking.
The point which I have digressed so far from is that, all this has opened up time for me to use in other places. And I've been keeping quite busy juggling serving in new roles in Hope Chapel Namba, my TEFL course, my MBI Biblical Studies Certificate. I keep humming and hawing between the regular Biblical Studies Certificate or the Scofield Bible Studies one. My most recent decision on it, is to save the Scofield intensity (and cost) for the possibility of a fully credited Graduate Diploma in Biblical Studies/Missiology from the East Asia School of Theology for a little more than what Scofield would cost me. I hadn't realized I could do it that much cheaper... (duh).
Just today I took my final exam on the first subject I had enrolled in for the MBI Biblical Studies Cert (but couldn't decided which course to credit it toward) and now, I'm waiting for the material on Biblical Basis of Missions so I can start working on it alongside preparing to go to Thailand. All this is exciting.
But not half as exciting as some going-ons down south on the equator where CurlySu is awaiting her flight to Brisbane where she will be relocating for studies for the next year and a half or two. I remember what it felt like the first time I left to move away from Singapore. All under my skin, my nerves were tingling like pins and needles. Quite honestly and probably to my folk's dismay, I did not share the sentiment of saddness at all.
I eventually did learn to share it much later after I had established myself in Sydney since it was quite clear my home became somewhere else other than where my family and friends were. But I remember after the three, or was it four year mark that I became very well acquainted with the concept of being a Global Citizen with mates (and "home") all over the world. It's not just leaving them, its that they also leave for all over. Take Japan for example. A lot of my close friends are obviously expatriate like me. So, they go back to New Zealand, Australia, England and Canada and other random places like Colorado, Arkansas, Belgium and Kenya. I'm still sad when I have to leave friends in places all over but I think I've reached a certain level of understanding acceptance mixed with a certain hope that having been nomadic for awhile, I'll probably see them again the future. Nothing to say of the future possibility of meeting all of them in Heaven too.
Audio: I'd Do Anything by Simple Plan.
Biblio: Grip Of Grace by Max Lucado.
Cerebrio: God, I pray you move the hearts of all my friends to draw close to you and seek your salvation so that I may share my final joy of meeting you, with them even if I can't always share my treasured moments with them here on earth.
For home group, we're trying something different. Tutorial style set readings (of the book of Romans) and then discussing what particular interests us. Personally, I like to approach bible study in a systematic way, book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, inductively. I'm guilty as charged of simply sieving through it. Call it my biblical kiasu mentality. I don't want to miss a thing. Or just say I need a structure to follow. So, this has been something of a first for me. And I find myself all over the place so for my own good, I'm going to try to use Max Lucado's Grip Of Grace to guide me through it.
As for Soul Sista's we decided to focus it as a relational ministry; building up the women and encouraging them by pointing the sisters as well as non-christian and christian visitors toward Hope Chapel's main program. The Church. Call that something I learnt from my MBI course I've been taking.
The point which I have digressed so far from is that, all this has opened up time for me to use in other places. And I've been keeping quite busy juggling serving in new roles in Hope Chapel Namba, my TEFL course, my MBI Biblical Studies Certificate. I keep humming and hawing between the regular Biblical Studies Certificate or the Scofield Bible Studies one. My most recent decision on it, is to save the Scofield intensity (and cost) for the possibility of a fully credited Graduate Diploma in Biblical Studies/Missiology from the East Asia School of Theology for a little more than what Scofield would cost me. I hadn't realized I could do it that much cheaper... (duh).
Just today I took my final exam on the first subject I had enrolled in for the MBI Biblical Studies Cert (but couldn't decided which course to credit it toward) and now, I'm waiting for the material on Biblical Basis of Missions so I can start working on it alongside preparing to go to Thailand. All this is exciting.
But not half as exciting as some going-ons down south on the equator where CurlySu is awaiting her flight to Brisbane where she will be relocating for studies for the next year and a half or two. I remember what it felt like the first time I left to move away from Singapore. All under my skin, my nerves were tingling like pins and needles. Quite honestly and probably to my folk's dismay, I did not share the sentiment of saddness at all.
I eventually did learn to share it much later after I had established myself in Sydney since it was quite clear my home became somewhere else other than where my family and friends were. But I remember after the three, or was it four year mark that I became very well acquainted with the concept of being a Global Citizen with mates (and "home") all over the world. It's not just leaving them, its that they also leave for all over. Take Japan for example. A lot of my close friends are obviously expatriate like me. So, they go back to New Zealand, Australia, England and Canada and other random places like Colorado, Arkansas, Belgium and Kenya. I'm still sad when I have to leave friends in places all over but I think I've reached a certain level of understanding acceptance mixed with a certain hope that having been nomadic for awhile, I'll probably see them again the future. Nothing to say of the future possibility of meeting all of them in Heaven too.
Audio: I'd Do Anything by Simple Plan.
Biblio: Grip Of Grace by Max Lucado.
Cerebrio: God, I pray you move the hearts of all my friends to draw close to you and seek your salvation so that I may share my final joy of meeting you, with them even if I can't always share my treasured moments with them here on earth.
posted by The Chilibuddy @ 10:44 pm ::
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