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A Year in Review
August '98 -
July '99
Wesley Cheong
I'm studying in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in the United States. I live in Florida Avenue Residences (FAR), facetiously known as the place FAR, FAR away. Some people say that FAR isn't a good place. I disagree. I lived in a study lounge in Illinois Street Residences (ISR) for the first two weeks of my school term, because Housing Division did not have places for us Singapore scholars. After moving to FAR, I found that nothing beats having your own room, not lounge, to stay in. Anyway my room is on the 8th floor of the nearly tallest building in our city, so living in FAR is high class living. OK bad pun.
My roommate, Teo Yi-Wei, is a National Computing Board scholar. It's amazing wisdom on the part of Housing (or God?) for rooming two Singaporeans together. At least we communicate in the same language (Singlish). Anyway, having finished National Service, he is two years older than me. He is a lieutenant in the Singapore Army. He's crazy about martial arts and Bruce Lee. He goes for martial arts training at the Song Martial Arts Academy in "downtown" Champaign, a few (actually a lot of) times a week. He likes practising in the room so I often feed him with Meijer's biscuit crackers and my mum's cookies to prevent myself from being a convenient punching bag. We're great friends and I look up to him as a big brother (also his skills provide convenient protection). I'm always in awe of his academic and physical prowess!
What really makes the dorm life fantastic is having close Christian friends to support you. My Intervarsity Christian Fellowship small group meets just two floors down, and the amount of Christian fellowship is incredible. My small group leaders also pop by my room quite often, and once a week they come to take praises and prayer requests.
There's never a dull moment living in the dorms... err... i take that back, when it comes to food or studying for the exams or doing homework. Having all your closest friends within punchable distance is a great advantage. Celebrating birthdays are carnival-like events. OK maybe not as advanced as in Singapore in the treatment of the victim..er.. birthday boy/girl, but still, there are a lot of creative ways in making an unforgettable surprise. I was totally caught off guard when about 20 friends burst into my room last May to celebrate my birthday, thanks to my roommate's ingenious organising skills. Besides celebrating birthdays, we also do elevator rumbles. No wonder the elevators are starting to behave strangely.
The most irritating thing, however, is having to move out in Summer. It's a hassle especially for us international students, to find people willing to accept our boxes full of stuff. For the first summer term (mid May- mid June) I stayed at my Singaporean friend Chee Peng's house (actually rented from a missionary couple), where I found out I could not complain about missing home, having to do dishes, mow the lawn, take out garbage, feed the dog, etc. I even tried cooking my mum's recipes, and ended messing up the whole kitchen, but nobody got indigestion, the food was actually edible, so that's a great relief. Cooking is for mum, and that's that.
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America is a little bigger than Singapore, and there are many eye-opening places to visit. Because I have a license to drive, my favourite excursions are the occasional driving trips. Last Thanksgiving (October '98) Yiwei, Debbie (a Singaporean friend) and I managed to cover Indianapolis, the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky and St. Louis in Missouri in just four days. It was a 1500 mile journey in our rented '95 Ford Escort, and definitely fun when it's you, not your parents, who are doing the planning for the first time!
Over the spring vacation, we embarked on a 7-day trip to Florida. Everybody told us it was impossible for under-21-year-olds to rent vans, especially with less than a week's notice. Well, God provided one for us, all the way from Indianapolis!! Prayer really works wonders. The GMC Safari redefined my idea of a minivan. It was a luxurious home on wheels for the seven of us! (3 Singaporean girls, 3 fellow small group guys, and me) The 3000-mile trip was a time when we really got to deepen our friendships with one another. Rotating among 5 drivers, it was less stressful on the road as well. We visited Augusta and Atlanta in Georgia, and Jacksonville, Orlando and Miami in Florida. How much did the week-long foray, inclusive of admission to Universal Studios, set us back by? US$250. How did we do it? Ask Serene, the expert in sneaking 7 of us into motel rooms meant for 2!!
Chicago has also become my second home, because most of my closest American friends live there. Having driven there quite a few times, I know the highways pretty well and surprise some of the Chicago-ites by telling them where their suburb is. One of the best things about studying abroad is getting to live at American friends' houses and experiencing their lifestyles. I have been welcomed, well-treated and well-fed by my Chicago friends and fellow small group members, Mark, Matt, Gary, Xin, and Yone.
Another memorable time in Chicago was when I went there with my Singaporean friend Chee Peng last April to volunteer at the Hope For The City Church, close by 55th Street Chicago. There, on early Sunday morning, I got to jog by the famous Robert Taylor Homes (which look a bit like HDB flats, except they are slum dwellings). In the past each block was controlled by a different gang which dealt with drugs, etc. Gang members of a block were shot at by people in other blocks when they stepped out. Not a pretty sight. The government is either tearing the blocks down or redeveloping them. Hope For The City Church helped in building a ministry of evangelism and reconciliation, and providing hope to the people who lived there through outreach.
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This past year God's been telling me to "train up" for the work he's preparing me to do. That's why I attend discipleship class and took up drum lessons. I'm involved in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and also in my church's new college group ministry, Excel. I try to invite my friends or dorm-mates to church too, whether for service or for special concerts. Church is just so good that I feel ashamed to keep it to myself! I'm also involved in the Singaporean Christians group, where I lead worship sometimes and try to support the leader in small ways, such as driving the members to the meeting. And definitely, updating this web site has been a part of my work for God too.
In Singapore, I continue to be involved in the ministry of the Boys' Brigade, 12th Singapore Company. For me, the days of wearing the smart dark blue uniform are gone. I am an unofficial helper, and in the Officers' Bible Study, I am a member and also lead worship sometimes. At the recent 45th Anniversary Dinner, I was tremendously moved to see the young Boys that my peers and I had trained since 1995, return in their smart uniforms as staff sergeants and warrant officers to train a new batch of Boys.
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I'm back in Singapore to attend the 21-day Outward Bound School course, from Aug 3-23. (The government gave me a free air ticket to return to attend it). Before that, I served a 4-week long attachment, part of the 2-month Mid-Term Attachment requested of all Public Service Commission overseas scholars. My first two weeks were spent at Woodlands Secondary School, just 15 minutes' walk from my house. I shadowed my mentor, Mrs. Lim Li-Li (HOD-PCCG), in her Physics/Science lessons, and besides helping or leading in the discussions, I also got to teach 6 class periods on "Center of Gravity/Equilibrum", using Powerpoint slides and other materials I designed myself. It was really eye-opening because I got to experience firsthand, as well as through interviewing other colleagues, the challenges of being a teacher today. More changes have occurred in education in the last three years than in all of Singapore's past history!
By the way, if you have no idea what changes are taking place in Singapore schools today, you're missing out a lot!!! The government is pumping $9 billion into the schools to upgrade them to meet the challenges of the future, including giving every classroom a LAN connection to the internet. Although some of what I found out has not yet been released, whatever is already public should be enough to make you stand agape. It is an exciting time in our country's future.
The next two weeks I spent at the Ministry of Education, Curriculum Planning and Development Division (Sciences Branch). Patiently guided by my boss, SCSSC1 Mr. Lee Siew Lin, I wrote, rewrote, and revised countless times the report I was to prepare for the Deputy Director. At the same time I obtained a very good overview of the workings of the Sciences branch, and more fantastic information about the future development of Singapore's education system. All I need to say to the teachers out there is, have no fear, the science curricula are in good hands. MOE does listen to your complaints!
Sciences Branch is headed by Deputy Director DDSCS Mrs. Chua-Lim. I was thoroughly impressed by her. She was a strong Christian and walks her talk. She was full of ideas, humble, caring and inspiring. Despite having been quickly promoted through the ranks, she wasn't proud. "You know, as Christians, we know that whatever we achieve is not through our own strength, but it is God's. Everything we have belongs to God... Wherever we are placed, we must always do our best for God. Our talents are God's gift to us; how we use them is our gift to God. When I wake up every day, I always think, nothing is going to happen today that both God and me cannot handle together." That last day of my attachment, I came into her office to ask her advice for young trainees like me. As I listened to her speak those words and tell me her experiences, I felt a deep convicting in my spirit, to want to also learn to be a servant for God and do my best wherever I was placed, to learn how to be humble and glorify God in whatever I do.
As I close with these words, what Mrs. Chua said, and many other things God showed to me this past year, still ring in my mind. I am so moved by the grace of God in allowing me to catch a glimpse of His work in all these fantastic experiences. I cannot imagine that there are people who take up scholarships with the aim of furthering themselves, not the country which first believed in their potential.
There's God, who has made me His child, who died for me. There's my country behind me, willing to spend $370,000 on me in the hope that I would come back one day and serve my land. There are my parents, totally selfless in their sacrifice for me. My teachers who nurtured me, my friends who stood by me. I can never finish counting my blessings. It is a tremendous trust that has been placed in me. I pray for strength from God, that I will always live up to that.
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© Copyright Wesley Cheong 1999