Dear friends,
We've made it to the end of the semester!! Going into this semester one of the questions at the back of my mind was how things would feel different and how I would do things differently after last year's experience.
The biggest change was growth in terms of G360 Bible handling training. My first year definitely felt rough, always wondering whether the way I was reading the Bible and the observations I contributed were genuinely from the passage or things that I imported from what I had heard about the passage or the "things that sound correct" bag. I was quite relieved that when it came to studying Galatians this semester, I was able to make more concrete observations that could be backed up from the passage. I was even happier when the end of the semester review came around and the way I had understood Galatians as a whole was closer to the ballpark of things.
The whole experience was a rather humbling journey of essentially 'not jumping to conclusions by scanning keywords or reading the most famous sentence' which was a heuristic for reading the Bible that I had developed. Galatians in particular, being the foundation for lots of doctrinal positions, had lots of verses that I had seen which tilted my understanding of the book. For example, I had heard countless times the fruit of the Spirit being used as a metric to measure Christian life, but it was fascinating to see that in context it came with a polemical edge against false teachers who claimed that law-keeping was essential but did not display the fruit of the Spirit.
One of the practical benefits has the influence in the way I read with my 121s, where each time I work through the book I'm re-examining my understanding of how the book as a whole works, and how each part works to convince the readers of the big idea in the book. Colossians, which I've been doing with Amos, Jotham and Shin Ron (as well as Jacques from church) has been quite a fun exercise in this. I shifted from seeing Colossians 1.15-23 as the qualification of Jesus as creator to be our reconciler to seeing it as the qualification of Jesus as creator to bridge us from this creation into the new creation, which seems to work quite well with the broader idea of Paul wanting the Colossians to recognize who and where they are in Christ so that they continue steadfastly in faith. Colossians has also been a great book in how dynamic it is in dealing with different issues. The 1.24-2.5 section has been excellent for Amos to consider what ministry grounded in the word is, the 1.1-14 section has helped Jotham rest more in the sufficiency of the gospel to produce faith, love and hope in him, the 2.18-3.4 section helping Shin Ron to approach his Christian life with a renewed joy as someone raised with Christ.
As an aside, Colossians has spoken quite lucidly into my grappling with John Mark Comer's Practicing the Way, both critically against Comer's idea that growth and maturity as a Christian is a 'next step' after belief in the gospel (cf. Col 2:6-8) and positively showing how encouragement towards maturity doesn't come so much from establishing rules but rather positive motivation from what the grace of God has already accomplished (Col 3.1-17).
I'm also grateful for our GGs in John's gospel this semester. Doing John this semester has struck me afresh with the beauty of Christ's crucifixion, in the life that he seeks to give to his sheep. The texture of John's narrative of Christ is rather cinematic, no coincidence that his material often feature heavily in screen portrayals of Jesus' life. But the unique tone and texture means that we have had the privilege of sitting with John's careful, slow, unfolding of Christ's life, often in slow conversations and rare signs.
Moving on from my more personal reflections, here are some pictures from our end of semester wrap!
My own GG having our last dinner!
2nd GG led by Qing Aun and Clarice, probably a record for how big this GG was at the end of the semester.
A bunch of sweaty sardines at our end of sem TT game ... yuck
And from earlier in the semester, our week 8 tradition of a staff (plus +1s) day trip to JB is still going strong: 
I was unfortunately away from work for two weeks for reservice this week, but one of the cool things that happened was that one of my section mates who had been attending New Creation Church couldn't shake from his head the passage that we read in Mark's gospel during one of the earlier reservices and he had eventually concluded that he wasn't being taught the gospel from the Bible and changed church. The other cool thing that happened was that I was called to a group of guys over lunch to talk to share about Christianity's perspective while a Muslim was talking about Islam, and we had a dialogue where the rest of the guys asked us questions and I had the opportunity to share the gospel. That was super unexpected but a pleasant surprise that God gave that might have made the whole reservice worth it.
(besides discovering the carbonara buldak with canned cajun chicken might be the best outfield meal)
Coming up, Larkhill starts on 5th Dec and I'm hoping to survive doing two camps this year! We're expecting the largest ever turnout and not a few non-Christians, so we would covet your prayers.
SSBC Jan 2026 (trying out a rebrand, not calling it SSBC winter anymore) is also ramping up and we're excited to talk about the doctrine of Union with Christ this year.
And our next semester in SMU will continue with John's gospel in GGs (and MBR), while we do 1 Timothy in STs. We're ramping up for our big push for mission week and I'll be giving one of the talks (Worthless but Wanted - Luke 15.1-10) as well as the easter weekend evangelistic talk.
A major update for me is that I've decided that I'll apply for seminary next year at Evangelical Theological College of Asia. My church leaders and I are in the midst of exploring how they can partner me financially, but I'm thankful to God that they are willing to support me in this next phase. Personally, I'm super excited to go to seminary and have the chance to think through a lot more of the thornier issues that I've started to encounter underpin some of the trickier issues in Christianity - towards a confidence about the Christian faith and certainty in the gospel! I'm also looking forward to learning Greek and Hebrew in the spirit of Ad Fontes — to the sources — being able to deepen my exegesis through looking at the original language. Most of all, I'm stoked to dive deep into the Bible and grow my understanding of the gospel underpinned by a more rigorous understanding of the different books of the Bible! All of this because I've personally experienced the riches of the treasures of Christ and I long to proclaim Christ well to the people that I serve, wherever God will place me!
Here's how you can keep in prayer!
- Thank God for sustaining me through this semester, particularly my faith in Christ and my love for the students.
- Thank God also for helping me to grow in my wonder at the cross through Galatians and John's Gospel.
- Pray for me to rest well over December and to be productive in writing the talks for next semester!
- Pray for wisdom as my church and I figure out how we can be partnering each other in this next phase and beyond!
For the CF, please also pray for these things:
- Thank God that one student is keen to do the MAP. There's still time for the rest to make a decision, so pray that God will provide sufficient MAs in his wisdom and kindness.
- Pray for this current exco to be sustained for their last two events: SSBC and mission week
- Thank God that we have formed the new exco! Pray for wisdom in figuring their roles and that they would be excited to serve!
- Pray for God to help our students be excited for mission week and to be inviting lots of their non-Christian friends!
I still need to raise a balance of $1,180 for my salary this year as part of training for fundraising, and as a way for more people to share in the work of the gospel here in SMU! SMUCF does graciously underwrite this amount, so I will be paid regardless of whether I raise this amount, and so I genuinely can say that I'm not in need of this amount, but I ask so that the fruit of the gospel might also increase to your credit! If you would be willing to partner me financially, the details can be found here!