Today seemed like just a normal parade to me. But God showed me how much was going on...

After Company fall-in, the Y1s went for their special parade, while the Y2s and Admin proceeded for drill. I was just about to go down to the Admin Room to help out Cpl/3 Shaun Ong, Cpl/3 Darren Chua, Cpl/3 Jeremy Cheong, Lcp/3 Tan Lou Ee and Pte/3 Avery Khoo with the attendance compilation. But then there was someone who was walking around the parade ground and he wasn't in Brigade attire with boots. Well, he turned out to be Pte/1 Benjamin Liau, and he thought that the special parade started at 0830 hrs, and he couldn't find the Y1s. It turned out that no one really knew where the Y1s had gone, so God gave me an opportunity to spend time with Benjamin for a while. Since I didn't want him running around with me while I looked for the Y1s, we agreed that Benjamin stayed in the Admin Room first. During the walk from the parade ground to the Admin Room, God allowed us a chance to talk. Even though I used to call up the Y1s from time to time back in Semester 1, I guess it was difficult for us to strike any conversation at all. It was most probably my fault because I was always scolding or shouting at the Company. Hmm... I really enjoyed the little opportunity to chat with Benjamin, and I thanked God for that. It turned out that WO/4 Wesley was just going up to join the Y1s, so he offered to bring Benjamin back. Thank you WO/4 Wesley, and thank you Benjamin :)

By the time I came back for drill, the Admin were doing WOC. So it was fun just to play with Cpl/3 Lee Yi Wei since he kept wanting to give the cohort dressings to the right. So we tried dressing to right, then dressing to left (without eyes front), and then dressing to the back (while stamping both feet!). Of course, some Admin actually turned 180 degrees around O_o

Leaving the Admin in the capable hands on Cpl/3 Lee Yi Wei (lol), it was time to take the Y2s for drill. For a long time, everyone was struggling with turnings on the march. I remember when I was a Sec2 (not Y2), I had lots of problems with turnings on the march, especially because I was supposed to be the timer, and I kept timing wrongly :( Anyway, it would be encouraging to let the Y2s march in cohort level, and give the Primers a little break (not really right?). So the plan was for the Primers to do one on one tuition with the Y2s who were not so confident with their drill movements, while the rest of us had fun out there in the sun. Well, at first it wasn't so fun. There's nothing really fun about left and right turns on the march. So we left Lcp/2 James Koh sitting on the parade ground as an obstacle to the cohort level marching. Of course the cohort didn't just trample over him (next time we try) and we all started to mark time. At this point of time, most of the Primers and Y2s were already in the cohort. So first we tried turnings while marking time, and of course halt on mark time. Then it was time for the famous Drill 3 movement: change step on quick march. Everyone always likes this ridiculous command because of the way it is said. It always reminds me of the native American chants. At the end of the day, it wasn't how well the Y2s did the drill that was important. It was how God was working through the lives of the Primers and the Y2s. To be honest, the drill wasn't fantastic, but you could see that everyone was trying to work together as one. The Primers were marching alongside the Y2s, and the Y2s were giving a standard of drill that was so improved (: God showed me the love that the Primers had for the Y2s, and God also showed me that these Y2s were fully capable of working together, if they trusted in God. Good job Y2s and Primers!

I was going to join the Y1s for worship to give the Y4s some support and spend some time with the Y1s, but then the Y2s were having cohort worship too. I really enjoyed praising God with Mr Jarett Kan, Ms Esther Guo, Mr Nicholas Chen, the Primers and Y2s, but it was time to go spend time with the Admin. By the time I got to the amphi, the Mr Allan Lee had nearly finished the hike pack inspection already. So I went to the Admin Room to get my hike pack, but after helping Mr Jonas Chow with Cpl/3 Ellius Kwok's small splinter embedded in his hand, I was too late for the hike inspection. Some of the Y3s commented that it was possible to fit someone into the ALICE, so I thought why not? After consulting second and third opinions, we decided to put the plan into action. It was only practical that we started with Lcp/3 Neil Tan, but I wasn't able to do this all alone by myself. So Cpl/3 Darren had to help me place Lcp/3 Neil carefully into the ALICE, and Cpl/3 Darren had to adjust the straps of the pack so that Lcp/3 Neil's head could be covered. But Lcp/3 Neil's hair could not be concealed, and Cpl/3 Darren couldn't do anything about it and went back to join the cohort. Well, it didn't take very long for the cohort to realize that hair sticking out of the hike pack was not usual, and we let the Neil out of the bag (in other words nothing came out???).

At 1115 hrs, it was time for BQ. It was supposed to be BQ Games, as a cover and concealment for Operation Ginza Plaza I. This was quite an elaborate Operation, considering that the time and space was very limited. The main idea was to appreciate the BQ team members for all the time and effort they had sacrificed to come for BQ trainings, which were mostly held on weekday afternoons. We had been eating chicken rice from Dover market for the last two weeks, so having chicken rice again for the third week was actually alright, but really boring. After consulting my father (cause I needed to borrow the car for this Operation), he suggested that we just get McDonalds to deliver the food. But there were three problems that had to avoided: (1) The delivery might take too long (probably needed a few motorcycles or as WO/4 Xunliang said a McDonalds car) (2) The delivery people might just bump into the Company during dismissal or the rest of the Admin cooking in the back field. Either way, it just wasn't nice. (3) Getting a delivery done by others was just not sincere.

But it turned out to be a bit too much for us to handle. By the time the entire BQ had gathered, it was already 1135 hrs. And by the time we had sneakily obtained each members' orders, it was already 1145 hrs. While Mr Eugene Khoo was processing the orders, I tried calling the Ginza Plaza McDonalds to place the order, but they were just too busy to pick up the phone. I really believe it was by God's grace that everything went as planned, although we were half an hour late. When we called them again, the manager picked up, and the biggest order we had ever placed was made. Between us, we made fourteen trips up and down to get all the food packed and transported. We watched as the manager frantically tried to get the thirteen large cokes, eight sprite, three ice lemon tea, one iced milo (Cpl/3 Bryan's) and the mysterious mountain dew (who ordered that?). By then we had already lost count of the various burgers ordered, and we could only double check the total number of burgers. Since the drinks were only going to get a little less colder, and the burgers were still quite warm, the fries were prepared last. As I told Lcp/2 Brian, we watched the McDonalds people pour four trays of fries over a period of fifteen minutes just to get us the twenty four packets of large fries. Then we raided the counter for all the sauces we could get our hands on, including the tartar sauce for WO/4 Fabriz. All in all, it was a really meaningful time for us. I thank God for allowing us that opportunity to spend time together, all the while serving the God by serving the BQ team in the process. We kinda of took the wrong turn on the way there because we missed Clementi Ave 2, but I was glad to have the guidance and companionship. On the way back we couldn't make sharp turns, for fear that some of the drinks would overturn (one did I remember, explaining the coke on some fries). God granted us a safe journey there and back, and provided Ssg/4 Asher whose extra pair of hands really helped us greatly!

Nonetheless, we thanked God for helping us through a seemingly normal parade. And I thanked God for providing people who helped and joined in serving God alongside :) I feel that no amount of words can express the appreciation I have for, who supported and encouraged me on [davin]. As for the appreciation for the BQ team, we'll write an entry when the competition is over, God-willing.

The two books of the Bible we've been doing for BQ - Job and Daniel. It's interesting how every year we do BQ, God has been teaching me so many lessons.

In the book of Job, God in His wisdom allowed Job to be afflicted with disease. Earlier this month, after two sessions of A&E treatment and a medical appointment at NUH, Clinic C, doctors suspected that I might be suffering from intestinal/colon cancer. I've been having this sharp pain under my ribcage for the last two months, and internal bleeding... and family history.

So yesterday and today were one of the worst days of my life. After eating pure porridge for lunch (I couldn't even finish one cup properly), it was time to start the fasting. And the fast was to last one day. It was a really long day. From 1600 hrs to 2100 hrs, it was time to consume four litres of digusting liquid. Well this liquid was going to purge the entire intestinal system, and it didn't taste too good. In fact, at first it tasted like seaweed, then mutated seaweed, then I really couldn't stand it. That was the time when I really started to pray. I knew I couldn't finish the stuff unless God helped me. By the time I took the third litre of the liquid, I was really going to throw up. Oh, and did I mention that the liquid makes you go to the washroom almost every other minute? To cut the whole story short, at the end of the fourth litre, I was really very relived. I remember thanking God for helping me through the ordeal. :) Really

It was the night that really killed me... there's this sneaky feeling that the liquid was not totally out of my system, so I couldn't go and lie down. So I stayed up to about 0200 plus. Then when I decided that it was time to sleep, I couldn't. First it was the immense hunger. Nothing in Army could beat this hunger... mainly because I could not eat or drink, and my system was devoid of any molecule of food. Second, it was the pain... the pain was always there I guess. And there was this fear, the fear that I couldn't really explain. I remember telling someone that I was really scared, it's just that I didn't really know what I was fearing... but I feared. Perhaps God was calling me to depend entirely on Him. The immense hunger made me realize that I was fully dependent on God. I had never ever felt that hungry in my life! I realize that only God could meet that need, even if I had been taking it for granted all the while. Well, the pain reminded me that I was still alive, and I thanked God for that. That night I had a nightmare, which turned out to be the best dream actually [davin]

But unlike Job, who had friends who only served to discourage him and put him down, Daniel had three friends who stood loyal with him. Like Daniel, his friends chose to stand by Daniel in their faith in God. If you haven't read the post by WO/4 Timothy on 'best friends', you should. I really thank God for all the people that stood by me. I was really encouraged by the NIE professors who called me up to ask me how I was. Maybe God was still encouraging me on to be a teacher through the love and care I saw in them.

Best of all, God blessed me with a best friend that stood by me... he was the only person that actually remembered when the endoscopy operation was. I almost cried when I heard that he had remembered, becasue I was so sure no one would. I remember that he always told me that he would be praying for me. I also remember that he was the first one to call me up to ask me how the scope went. I believe that God had blessed me with a friendship that I will always treasure. And thanks Ssg/4 Alex for all your encouragement today :)