Finally I have time to share about my blessings from the past week.
Firstly, I want to thank God for a good job. I'm working at Mapletree Investments' Asset Management department as a temporary administration assistant assisting the administration executive, Joo Ai. You have seen my previous blog mentioning about her having a very sweet voice. She is a mum to 2 kids, 9 years old daughter and 11 years old son. She was married at 24, gave birth at 26… haha, 'hip' mum.
My friendships with the 2 Christian colleagues; Deana & LC, are fruitful. We always have biblical conversations during lunch time. I thank God that even at work I can receive biblical inputs from others and share my learning with them. I enjoy lunch time!!! They always try to bring me around to new food courts or hawker centres around harborfront to explore new food. Deana recently shared with me a place where they give free Christian talks – Crest, a Christian book shop at far east plaza – I haven really check it out though.
My ‘lao ban’… always ask me the same question, “You ok?”
Then I always reply with the same answer, “Yup!”
I appreciate it though.
I never expected to have such a good first working experience. I got this job on my first interview. I thank God I did not have to go through the experience of being rejected by a company. I also realized I was the highest paid temp employee among the others that was working for Mapletree just before I did… haha… not like as if my pay is super high, but I thank God that I didn’t get their kind of pay – that one really cheap (x3) labour.
I’ve learnt a lot during these few days, of which many, I have nothing big or important to do; so I’ll usually spend time to do ministry stuff. I even fell sleep during work yesterday – I really do all I need to do le…
I feel that the other colleagues quite like me too. Haha, it’s good because they will be more willing to teach me more stuff and more lenient when I make mistake.
During the most recent DL huddle, we had to share something about us. I had to share my fear. At that point, I really don’t know what I really fear, so I just said worms. However, I didn’t really want to share about those cliché things, but I really got nothing in mind. This question really bothers me – I kept thinking about it on my way home and it suddenly struck me – I fear… haha... you think I so stupid to disclose it publicly and let people use it against me… whahaha… ok, but I can give clue.
I think I fear these 2 things, of which, 1 is known by most people – _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ & _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. Oh, why did I suddenly insert the DL huddle incident here? I realized about 1 of the fears I had while working.
Anyways, back to blessings.
I’m very blessed with a good team in North – Joyce, Daryl, David.
They are a bunch of leaders that have their own conviction in Christ. They know what they want to do for God and what they need to do for God – in their personal lives and in their ministry. It’s not difficult to lead them because they know what they want and how to get there. I simply just need to evaluate and approve their plans – just like the senior managers in my work place; everyday sign documents can le… haha… They are people that make the difference in the North. They execute plans and follow through the plans. They have to lead their people and solve their issues.
From the North CLs, I learnt that it is not difficult to lead people pastorally. Students of different personalities, strengths or background can lead other students. As long as your heart loves the people you lead, then the other things (e.g. skills, resources…) can fall in nicely to help you to be an effective leader, but if you have the skills but not the heart – no use. Just like ornaments on Christmas trees – your skills are for ‘bai sui’ purpose only. So many times, I see the leaders who love God and love their people, worked hard to learn skills, to find resources… and in the end reach their goals – so the issue is not about what we don’t have but are we giving what we have for the Kingdom. The right heart manifested into right attitudes in leadership.
Their attitude towards God and God’s people motivated them to achieve beyond themselves. They taught me that the first important thing to have as a leader is the right heart.
The wrong heart --> wrong desires --> wrong actions --> wrong results --> affect him & others.
The biblical heart --> biblical desires --> biblical actions --> biblical results --> blessings for him & others.
However, it is not easy to lead and having to work in a ‘9-to-5’ job at the same time. I understand how DK feels. Each day after work, I have only enough time for 1 shepherding – from 7pm – 10pm. By the time I reach home, on the laptop, type some stuff, it’s 12pm le… so need to sleep and then… the next day.
Really salute the adult ministry, Filipino ministry, mandarin ministry and especially family ministry, having to serve God, serve family & serve babies… haha… For now, working as a temp, it’s still ok… as you can see… I can still blog entries. It’s easy when you are a full-time pastoral staff – anyway your job would be to do pastoral ministry; with flexibility of time also. However as an employee in a secular company, you have to IC your work from ‘9-to-5’ and whatever time you are left with, to IC your pastoral groups – 2 different things.
So leh, I really thank God for my leaders :)
That’s about all for now… *Feeling sleepy* at 10:35am.
