2013 Annual Review

Greetings, dear readers!

Well, another year has flown by, and hopefully we've all grown a bit wiser as well as a bit older. This time last year I was out with my brother playing pool in Box Hill, only to discover when we got back home that a kangaroo had landed in our backyard!

It's time to take stock and look back at what has been another eventful year, as well as look forward to what (God-willing!) the next 365 days will have in store.

As usual, it was a packed year for MUCS. Our first engagement in May involved two sublime sacred works, Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna and Johannes Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, a piece of music that is very close to my heart. Then in June we hosted the magnificent Morgan State University Choir, who treated us to a wonderful evening of authentic and uplifting gospel spiritual music. It was such a privilege to sing with them. I also had the wonderful chance to participate in the Lord of the Rings concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO). In October we presented some highlights of Richard Wagner's music in a spectacular concert dedicated to the 200th anniversary of his birth. We have just finished a busier-than-usual Christmas as well, and now look forward to our upcoming European tour.

I also thankfully managed to find casual relief teaching (CRT) at Brentwood Secondary College and McKinnon Secondary College through my connections at the Association of German Teachers of Victoria (AGTV), and am pleased to report that I have more work lined up for next year at Viewbank College.

Alongside the casual relief teaching work, I was also completing my Master of Teaching (Secondary), which somehow I passed with flying colours, even though I handed some of my papers in after the due date.

But without doubt the biggest highlight of the year has been meeting Vanessa, a God-fearing young woman with whom I share much (almost too much!) in common, and have come to love more and more as I get to know her.

So those were the major highlights of my year. Here are some of things I look forward to in 2014:

• Our upcoming European tour. 
• There will be two major family weddings happening this year: The first will be my cousin Vivian in May, and then my sister Elise in September.
• Developing my relationship with Vanessa; and
• Hunting for, and hopefully obtaining, a full-time teaching job (in either German or ESL)!

Now I am off to Vanessa's place to see in the New Year with her before she flies off to New Zealand tomorrow with her parents. I wish everyone all the best for a successful 2014!

For the last time in 2013,
Cheers and God bless!

The End of One Chapter, the Beginning of Another (Part 2)

Greetings, dear readers!

I hope that this second part of my post finds you happy, healthy and not too harassed by the hectic nature of the festive season.

It wouldn't be a complete post from me if at least one of two things weren't included: a sports report or a book review. In this post I will do a bit of both.

As some of you might remember, I finished reading Julie Rose's English translation of Les Misérables in November. There is so much I would love to say about this literary masterpiece, but I will keep things short and simply say that to date, it has been the most intense reading experience of my life. For me, Les Misérables is a work that ranks second only to the Bible, and the difficult passages are worth persisting when you get to the last hundred or so pages. Somehow in those pages the quality and emotional power of the prose rises to greater and greater levels, all the way to the bittersweet ending.

Now for a brief sports report, focusing on the current Ashes series. Who would have thought that at the start of the tour the Australians would be going into the Boxing Day Test having already secured back the urn and - with the withdrawals of English stalwarts Jonathan Trott and Graeme Swann - be looking at a potential 5-0 clean sweep? Certainly not me, and I doubt I am alone. With the exception of the first day of the first Test in Brisbane and England's brief resistance in the last innings of the third Test in Perth, the cricket has gone Australia's way.

As another Christmas comes around, it doesn't hurt to be reminded what is and isn't important at Christmas. Last year I reminded readers that the word Christmas comes from a combination of the words "Christ" and "Mass". In case you aren't aware, a Mass is a church service which involves the Eucharist, also known as The Lord's Supper.

Tonight, in many churches in Australia and around the world, Christians will observe Midnight Mass as part of their Christmas celebrations. I will be taking part again as a chorister for Midnight Mass at St George's Anglican Church in Malvern, and would not be surprised if I am the only one of my peers who goes up to receive the Lord's Supper.

Of course, while not everyone will celebrate Mass, Christ must remain at the very centre of Christmas celebrations. It is a time to reflect on God's coming down to earth in human form in those passages of Holy Scripture:

• the prophecy of Isaiah; 
• Gabriel's visit to Mary;
• Christ's birth;
• the announcement to the shepherds, which for me contains much poignant symbolism since Jesus' legendary descendant King David was a shepherd, and Jesus would call himself the Good Shepherd;
• the journey and worship of the wise men from the east; and
• the cruelty of Herod, often overlooked because of its dreadful nature.    

In the commercialism of the season, with all the shopping for presents and the preparation, cooking and consumption of festive food, it is easy to overlook the role of Jesus Christ and have no room for him in our hearts, just like there was no room in the inn on the night of his birth.

I'm not saying that these things are bad; indeed, one of the indulgences I allow myself at Christmas is Lebkuchen, those delicious German baked goods which resemble gingerbread. I am simply sick of the whole commercial side of Christmas, because I have worked at Big W during the mad Christmas retail rush for the last five years, and hope that this year will be the final time.

This year's annual Carols concerts at St Paul's Cathedral were arguably the best ever, at least in my experience. We had a special surprise for our audience, bringing in members of the City of Melbourne Highland Pipe Band to perform "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Little Drummer Boy" with us. While bagpipes are certainly not everybody's cup of tea, they certainly contributed to the special atmosphere of the concerts.

This Christmas will be an especially memorable one for me, mainly because it will be the first one (hopefully of many) with my girlfriend Vanessa. Although Mum initially said no to letting Vanessa join us at our extended family Christmas lunch tomorrow, this was before she had met Vanessa. But now that she has, she has changed her mind, and that to me says a lot about the impression Vanessa has made on my mum. It was also God's roundabout answer to my prayer that she be able to join us!

I look forward to introducing her to my Dad and sister, as well as my cousins, trying some of her food for the first time (she's made a pasta salad and fruit cake!), and exchanging presents with her. Of course, I'm not telling here what I got for her. I'll share about that in my next post.

In this season, and indeed the coming year, may those of us who profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ be able to say, according to that great hymn:

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee. 

So I wish you all a safe and blessed Christmas. My next post will be my annual review.
Cheers and God bless!

The End of One Chapter, the Beginning of Another (Part 1)

Greetings, dear readers!

Due to a combination of busyness and "can't be bothered" attitude, it has been a long time between blog postings, so there's a fair bit to catch up on. To make it digestible, I have split this into two posts.
Now you may be wondering about my choice of title, but for me it is a relevant one given what has happened over the last few months, in at least two ways.

First, I have completed the Master of Teaching (Secondary) with flying colours! For my final semester, I studied two subjects which focused on Content and Language Integrated Learning, otherwise known as CLIL: EDUC90481 - Content and Language Integrated Pedagogy, and EDUC90482 - Linguistics and Sociolinguistics of CLIL.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I AM NO LONGER SINGLE! I'll say more about how that happened later.

For those of you who don't know, CLIL is a recently (that is, 1990's) developed bilingual approach to language education which has its roots in European and Canadian bilingual classroom programs. The basic idea of CLIL is that at least one subject in the curriculum, e.g. mathematics, history or science, is taught in a foreign language. The foreign language is usually one of the languages taught at the school.

CLIL has been trialled and implemented in some schools in Victoria; my teacher for both CLIL subjects this semester, Margaret Gearon, and one of my previous lecturers, Russell Cross, coordinated a research report about CLIL in schools for the Victorian Government.

I am pleased to report that I received H1s (First-Class Honors) for both subjects, despite submitting some papers after the due date. I attended the graduation ceremony on Thursday with my parents, and was delighted to finally wear the trencher (square hat).

The ceremony took place at the historic Royal Exhibition Building. The weather was lovely, and it was great to catch up with friends and classmates. There was a minor moment of mayhem when it came to my turn to receive my certificate; when my name was called I was supposed to doff my hat to the chancellor, but I held onto the tip of my hat a slight fraction too long, and the hat came off my head! Fortunately I was able to scramble and catch it before it fell to the floor. I put it back on my hat and went to get my certificate, and then I did a little victory jig after coming off the stage and walking back to my seat.

Now to the news you've been waiting for (unless you know already), and that is that I now have a GIRLFRIEND!! Her name is Vanessa and we've been officially dating since late October. I guess I should start from the beginning about how we even got together, which is a story in itself.

The path to Vanessa began with a status that I posted on Facebook on September 19. One of my old school friends had just tied the knot at the end of a whirlwind, but grounded, romance, and other friends and family members were also marrying or getting engaged, and starting or adding to families. In the midst of all this, I felt the urge to pour out my heart:

As I see my friends and family members pairing off, proposing, marrying, and starting families, the waiting game becomes more and more difficult. Of course, I am thrilled for all of them, and I know I should enjoy being single and "free" at this time in my life. But I hope I don't have to wait too much longer to find my life partner.
So please pray for God to give me MORE patience to be the right guy for the right girl at the right time. Thanks everyone.

A week later, one of my old school friends messaged me privately. He had read my post and told me that knew of a girl who might be just for me. I agreed with him that it couldn't hurt to give things a try and see what happens. So he got in touch with his colleague, who is one of Vanessa's former teachers.

I also asked my friend two questions which were important for me:
1) Is the girl a Christian? and
2) Have you had experience doing this sort of thing before?
To both questions, he answered "Yes".

After two-and-a-bit weeks, I finally got a response from my friend saying that Vanessa was also keen to give it a try. He found me her profile and I sent her a Facebook friend request. Soon after she accepted my friend request, we began chatting via Facebook messenger, and found out that we had a lot in common, besides being Chinese and Christian.

Our first date was set for October 26, and we met up in the evening to go see the romantic comedy About Time. Since then, we have met up several times and done various things together, and our relationship has slowly grown and developed. Just last Friday, I was finally able to introduce her to various members of my family. And yesterday I visited her church with her.

Let me briefly introduce Vanessa: She is Taiwanese Chinese, born in Taipei, but moved to New Zealand when she was young, and did her secondary schooling here in Melbourne. She is bilingual in Mandarin and English, and is trained in hospitality and cooking.

Now, although I think there are prettier girls going around than Vanessa (and I'm sure she won't mind me saying that!), what matters for me is that she has the right heart. God knows best; He does not always give us what we desire, but He will always give us what we need. With regards to outward appearances, there are two verses from the Bible that come to my mind. The first is when God is showing Samuel who to appoint as King Saul's successor:

For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7b, ESV) 

The second verse comes from that famous passage in Proverbs 31 which describes the characteristics of an excellent wife:

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. (Proverbs 31:30, ESV)  

We will undergo our first significant period of separation in January. Although we will see in the New Year together at Vanessa's place, she leaves later in the day with her family for New Zealand. By the time she arrives back in Melbourne, I will have already departed for Europe. And on the day I return from Europe, she flies off again to New Zealand with her family for a friend's wedding!

We have already planned to catch up on Valentine's Day. I hope that nothing comes between us during our time apart, and that God will enable us to somehow grow even closer. After all, don't they say absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Alright, that's more than enough for one post. Stay tuned for the next part!

Cheers and God bless.