That They May Know: Daniel: God is My Judge

The first part of this post is a reflection upon what the Lord has placed upon my heart; the second part's a more light-hearted photoblog. :)

I've decided: I will let God use me and I will serve the Lord right here in Oxford, for the Word spoken tonight at iFocus @ St. Ebbes cut deep down to my heart; we read from Daniel 1, the starting of a bible study series, and here was what Rob (this really interesting English & Literature student) said:

"You know, at Oxford, everyone's a genius. Everyone's smart. Those who get here have usually been at the top of their classes ever since they were young, and they're used to it. But when they get here and see how smart their new friends and coursemates are, they will now think, 'How do I get up there from down here?' and it's exacerbated when they get to meet their supervisors in person and see how much smarter they are."

Indeed, the Oxford Dream has been edging its way into my heart even before I knew it, and it took the Word from Daniel 1 to speak to me. When King Nebuchadnezzar ordered for the exiles of Judah to be taken to his palace, he changed their diet, education and language, thereby changing their identity, culture and their perception of who they obtain their daily bread from. It is by God we have success, it is through God we define success, it is God who gives success. And indeed, Daniel made a stand together with his 3 brothers, because they stood up and refused to be treated as the Babylonians did - they intentionally went on a vegetarian diet to remind themselves of the fact that they were Jewish exiles, and not Babylonians.

There is great pressure just being at Oxford - to know that the world's best academics are here, to hear the Professor say "There is nothing you can't do here in Oxford", to see the brightest minds conglomerate here, to feel the pressure to succeed even before the course has started and to understand the sheer amount of knowledge that you'll be acquiring in the next few months. But the Lord knows.

I've been asking God, "So God, how now can I succeed? I'm weak and I'm ignorant!" But last night's call was different, and it went "But you don't have to succeed according to human terms, for success is given by me." And that was enough. Really. To know that I don't have to be the best here at Oxford even though everyone is scrambling to be first.

You might say, "You mean you wanted to get ahead of everyone?" Truth be told, actually no! I never had that thought, but I didn't know I was getting sucked into the whole academia package. And it took like-minded Christians to remind me.

Amazing, isn't it? For a person to be in the knowledge of God, but yet be drawn away by the world. I am weak, and I'm only strong in Christ - there is no other explanation for it.

And now I finally have the faith to pray to God:

Lord, I cry out to You, do not leave or forsake me, for You never left or forsook your people. Give me St. Ebbes to settle in, and give me a niche area in Oxford, that I may partake in Your ministry here. Give me strength and time to serve You and the body of Christ - from there, extend the dimensions of my stewardship and let me bless the other non-Christians in Oxford as well.

I mustn't forsake the Lord when He has never left me. :) I must trust in the Lord to give me strength to pray to Him in the way He wants me to.

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On a lighter note, I went to clean up the kitchen at St. Ebbes after the bible study session because I thought it'd be a good way to serve the church (small start!) and get to know more people - we had a really awesome dinner at St. Ebbes! The church community cooked up this lasagne that was really meaty and cheesy, and it went with this salad side and garlic bread.

I didn't take any pictures but haha, well, it sure did taste like the most awesome thing the whole of yesterday - the portions were huge! And it all ended with some nice tea-cakes, haha!

Now, I did take some pictures of the church kitchen where I was, so I guess I could show them to you here and now:

The Kitchen Autoclave - Rich in Operation

This handsome young lad you see is Rich, and he's operating the Kitchen autoclave - it's just this big machine that sprays hot water with dish washing liquid all around in that big metal box to clean all the cups, utensils and plates, and there you have it, clean um, things:

Squeaky Clean

And I met two ACS(I) juniors, and both of their names are called Sam! And here's the 1989 Sam scrubbing the lasagne pan:

1989 Sam at Work

The other Sam really reminds me of back home in ACS(I) because of the things he says; he's shown here with this girl called Wong Bi Min (who has an Indian name, Devi, apparently!), and they were really nice to me on my first day at St. Ebbes:

The Dynamic Duo: Bi Min and Sam

Dynamic Duo Prowess

Ah yes, that's the 1989 Sam (the other Sam above with Bi Min was born in 1988), and he has a really charming English accent (probably acquired it during his English Language course in Oxford after a year):

1989 Sam at Work

Bi Min's from VJC, and here's a shot of her trying to get something out of the way:

Bi Min Struggling

And this young man here is Ali, he's real swell, and he's doing something for the international students today (an afternoon cream tea!) - the lady in green is Lottie, who seems to be the head of the kitchen: