A SLICE OF DAVINA’S LIFE (July 2008)

Top: With some of my Greek 1 students
Bottom: With Sharon (left) and Mi Youn (right) who are now serving in Korea CCC

THANKSGIVING: COMING FULL CIRCLE

When Casey and I went to the Philippines in 1986, we thought we would just do a one-year master’s degree. My eyes were set on an MA in Christian Education. However, God changed our plans and we returned to Singapore 3¼ years later with a Master of Divinity in Biblical Studies and a Master of Theology in New Testament (in progress). Twenty over years have passed and both of us are now working on a PhD in Christian education. My education path has come full circle. I have returned to my “first love.” Learning more about education now, after eighteen years of teaching, has given me a new perspective of my calling as a teacher and helped me to improve my teaching-learning skills.

This quarter, I am journeying through Greek 1 with fifteen students who come from Singapore, the Philippines, Korea, East Asia, and Nigeria. It is tough for them to grasp nouns with grammatical genders since such a concept does not exist in their languages. If “heart” (kardia) is a feminine noun, does it mean it is a female heart? Come to think of it, I could have been less sympathetic towards my students’ struggles in the past as I was using the male “mind” (nous; a masculine noun). Just kidding! I can only say that my present studies has caused me to become more aware of my learners’ struggles and needs. I thank God for this opportunity to grow as a teacher.

PRAYER REQUESTS

 To raise an additional $1,500 per month as soon as possible
 To teach Greek 1 in a way that my students can understand
 To maximize learning and be in good health when I attend my AGST-MST module (Education for Spiritual Formation) in Penang, Malaysia, in August
 For Casey to complete an initial thesis proposal by November

AN URGENT APPEAL

Some financial policies in Singapore Campus Crusade for Christ were revised and implemented in July 2008. With this revision and my existing monthly deficit, I need to raise another $1,500 per month. I thank all of you for believing in my calling and participating in my ministry. Please let me know if you have friends or anyone who would be interested to be my partner-in-ministry. Thank you for your continual encouragement through prayers and giving. Without you, I would not be able to fulfill my teaching ministry at EAST.

MY CONTACT:

Davina Soh Hui Leng
Blk 322 Tampines Street 33, #09-152, Singapore 520322
E-mail address: davina@east.edu.sg

Learning the New Testament can be fun!

Top-Bottom: From "Beauty Pageant" to "B-drama" (B = biblical) to "Star-War Simulation" to "Game show" to "Talking Point"! Who says learning is only stress leh?

Those good old days . . .

Here was one of our last adventure:

Found an incredible article

Casey has just come across this incredible article by an anonymous writer. Perhaps, someone cares to comment on it:

"I knew about laminin. Here is how wikipedia describes them: Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue.' You see...laminins are what hold us together ... literally. They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart. And I knew all this already. But what I didn't know is what laminin looks like..

Here is what the structure of laminin looks like... and this is not a 'Christian portrayal' of it....if you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see--(Google diagram of laminin).
Now tell me that our God is not the coolest!
Amazing: The glue that holds us together...all of us...is in the shape of the cross.

Immediately Colossians 1:15-17 comes to mind.

'He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created, things in heaven and things on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.' Col 1:15-17

Call me crazy. I just think that is very, very, very cool.
Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words. And now we see that from a very literal standpoint, we are held together...one cell to another...by the cross.

You would never in a quadrillion years convince me that is anything other than the mark of a Creator who knew exactly what laminin 'glue' would look like long before Adam even breathed his first breath!"

AGBC Retreat 08

Casey just came back from AGBC Retreat at Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. The cool mountain and beautiful floral added to the majesty of God. The speaker, Rev Dr Peter Ong (from Kuala Lumpur), reminded every believer of the importance of the "being," "becoming," and "doing" of "spiritual fathering." Yes, not forgetting the "omnirelevance" of God! And everyone returned with a sense of this awesome responsibility entrusted by the Lord.

Of course, Casey enjoyed renewing fellowship with old-time friend, Peter. Casey would also not forget the enroute stop-over at good-ole Ipoh. Wah . . . the crunchy "ngar choy kai"(or "Bean sprout Chicken") & original smooth "Ipoh Hor Fun," Funny Mountain's soya milk, Sun Yoke Moon's dim sum, etc. Yummilicious! Plus, the endless shopping of more food . . . like Overseas' Mooncakes, Gunung Rapat's "Heong Peang", Fisherman's Menglembu groundnuts, Bidor's "Sakima," etc. Oh . . . how Casey's going to miss them for some moons.

Take a shark break!

Here is an interesting shark break--just point your cursor at the shark & move. You can also change the type of fish by clicking at the fish side-bar:

Click here to get more mini-SharkBreak widgets - www.SharkBreak.com