P.O.P Goes The Whistle

I realised i've not written in here for like more than a month.. close to a month and
half now.. and haha, well, dun blame me cos i dun have much time. But thank God for the
long weekend, i've got a lot more time to write something in here heh~

So i entered a whole new phase of life back 2 months ago on the 29th Sep as a recruit
in the Singapore Armed Forces and yeah ever since then, it's changed me. It's changed
my eating habits, my sleeping habits, so on and so forth.. and even the jargon and lingo
i use has changed.. the way i speak seems very different from before.. it's like you
get a speech transplant or sumthin.. all my speech is peppered with NS jargon dat i
sometimes wonder whether i irritate the people around me.. i walk a whole lot faster
now, eat much faster now, drink more water now, go to the toilet more regularly, GAINED WEIGHT hallelujah! yeah, i gained muscle mass WOOHOO! yeah and my physical fitness
has improved like tremendously since before.

Like before army rite, i ran 2.4km in like 12mins 25secs and dat was like borderline pass..
rite now i can run 10 plus mins, without batting an eyelid ;) So the army has changed
me and as every Singaporean male (well at least most) can attest to, it either makes
you or breaks you. You either grow up to be a better person, or you basically stray.
For those of you who havent been thru army life yet or dun need to, well the army is
a really tough environment to grow in as a christian. There's not a day where you
dun hear vulgarities at all; sometimes new ones emerge from nowhere. I can tell you
dat many of you will blush hearing such words come out.. People talk about worldly
things freely and all, and there's a lot of temptation to go against your christian
principles.

I can totally understand why some christians fall away after they assimilate into
the army, cos i've had my fair share of close shaves as well and i know dat more
will come my way throughout my 2 years of service. However, praise God who can take
me out from every single temptation because He provides the way! It's really a blessing
to have a bunk mate in my section who's also from CHC and the bible says dat 2 are
better than one because if one falls, the other can pick him up. But woe is he who is
alone when he falls because he has no one to pick him up.

Now this is extremely important for ALL of us brothers and sisters in Christ to
understand. We soldiers NEED your care and concern and your encouragement! 5 or 6
days a week, we are away from human civilisation and sometimes we really crave dat
SMS or phonecall of encouragement from you guys~ Dun be mistaken dat we cannot use
our handphones at all in the army, no. We can use them every night! So call us and
encourage us, strengthen us with words of wisdom, pray for us! We need constant
reassuring dat no matter wat happens, we got you guys behind us all the way! :)

i can attest to the fact dat being away from a spiritual environment for 5 days out
of 7, can really do some harm to ur spiritual life. Training is tough and sometimes,
it's really long till night. And then, there's all the rules and regulations and lights
out timings. Sometimes, there's no time to even have a quiet moment with God or read
the bible. Plus there's so much distraction everywhere, it's really hard to keep
focus after you've been so worned out physically and mentally from all the training.

All the more, we need u :) i've known of so many former christians who have fallen away,
got lots in my platoon. We gotta understand why christians fall away once they enter
into NS. I believe it's attributable to many causes: environment, time, regiment,
peer pressure etc etc. As soldiers, we are trained to battle in times of war. As a
christian soldier however, we fight war everyday in our lives. Yes, the spiritual kind.
Many of us stand alone in our section, our platoon.. We cant fight this war alone by
ourselves. If you have a brother in ur CG who's currently in the army or about to
serve, well, you have to continually encourage him and be accountable to him. NS is
a time in a guy's life which is really a totally different kind of life. He goes on
to a new phase of his life which can either make or break him. And dat crucial
difference can be made by you! So i just wanna say to all CHC sisters and brothers
who have gone thru NS; if you have a brother in the army now, he needs all the
encouragement he can get :) And he needs you all~ :)

Some last words, eh.. well just continue to keep me in prayer :D i'l be passing out
of Basic Military School in Dec 4th next month~ so thank God for dat! I dunno wat
will happen next.. I have a choice of going to OCS or SISPEC to become a commander,
but i dun think i wanna become a commander cos i really wanna get into the army band.

Dun wanna waste 2 years doing something other than music which i know i will strive in. So please pray dat i will get into the music vocation :D I'm doing my best to
get in :D I'm praying dat God will really open the way for me to use the next 2 years
to hone my saxophone skills, dat i may use them for the glory of His kingdom!