It is already mid-May and my time at Woodlands will soon be drawing to a close. A scenario I could imagine all the time would most likely to be asked one same question again and again,

-‘Have you enjoyed your time working at Woodlands?’

-‘Errrr……’nervously scratching my head, desperate trying to come up with an easy answer.

-Blessed?

-Oh, yeah! Try holding an only weeks’ old new-born baby in your arm ten o’clock in the morning at Acorns, i’d be very surprised if you are not amazed by God’s wonderful creation and wondering the gift of life.

-Routine?

-Not as bad as it always sounds when battling on ‘Scrabble’ with some extremely sharp-minded eighty-year-old has become your unshakable routine on every Tuesday morning at Oaks.

-Challenging?

-Always, as you can imagine how miserably nervous I was to explain a new game to a gang of six-year olds at the ‘Explorers’.

-what have you enjoyed most working at Woodlands?

-The privilege to work with children. I really love them to bits. Trivially, thanks to some moms’ trust, I have developed a new parenting skill, which is also an unexpected bonus of serving as a volunteer in the past few months, babysitting. Reading a bed-time story can often be very easy until I am given a dinosaur book with all the sophisticated dinosaur names, it also cracked me up every time I was corrected by a three-year- old who has obviously heard the story gazillion times.  Usually I can be excused for being a foreigner; changing nappy is another challenge or privilege, I should say, that it really opened my eyes as what parents can do for their children. Though diaper technology has been noticeably advanced over the decades, changing diaper has never been easy.........anyway; babysitting still can be a promising part-time, varying from dead-easy to very handful.

-How have you grown spiritually during this past year serving at Woodlands?

- I am very often amazed by how much God knows me being fuzzy and lack of sense of discipline and accountability that He has used every opportunity to train me to be more organized and reliable. Most importantly, I have learned to solely rely on His strength and wisdom instead of seeking self-sufficiency as I learn to put trust in Him. This has always been hard for me but I believe as He knows my frustration, my doubt and my desire to have a closer relationship with Him. He will lead me through everything and reveal himself through his unfailing faithfulness and abiding love.

Indeed, I have been so blessed in every way in the past few months working at Woodlands, on top of which is being with God’s people. The genuine friendship Woodlands people have offered has meant a lot to me and I will definitely treasure it in my memory, for here at Woodlands, once again I was changed by His love and reminded to live every moment for Him.