Church Retreat

This past weekend was a public holiday in Singapore due to Hari Raya (the end of Ramadan), which meant we got Monday off from school.  Due to the long break, my church planned their church retreat for that weekend and we all went to a resort in Malaysia.  The resort was pretty nice, especially the food, but there wasn't that much to do besides golf.  It was alright though, because most of our time was planned out anyways.  Now this is a new church that I have only begun going to for about 2 and a half months now, so my main motivation for this trip was to get plugged in and meet other people from my church, which I did with astounding success.  That is one of the walk-aways from this retreat, but another major one is a renewed sense of purpose with my position here in Singapore.

One of the talks we heard while on the retreat was on living a gospel centered life and what that means for our daily lives, and it really challenged me to try and let the gospel motivate my daily thoughts and actions.  Another one of the talks was about building up our city, Singapore, and in what ways we could do that.  It was here that I really remembered and regained that sense of purpose that God had given me last year.  That purpose being to impact the lives of my students, demonstrate the love of God to them, and in doing so, glorify Him.

I have this amazing opportunity to impact Singapore for the glory of God everyday in my classroom, and I have no doubt that that is what He brought me here to do.  It is my purpose, and I plan to carry it out until he directs me elsewhere.

So it begins...year 2

Today marked the start of my second year teaching in Singapore at the International Community School.  Already I feel a sense of confidence and ownership within my classroom that was either non-existent or a little shaky at the start of last year.  My only concern is that this confidence does not turn to complacency.  All in all, it was a great reunion with most of my students and a wonderful introduction to my new ones. I am excited to see what God has in store for this year!