Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007

The last semester was a very good one. I am very thankful for the courses I took because I believe God really addressed many questions that I've had; questions which I thought were too basic for someone who's been a Christian for as long as I have. I would never have thought that I'd be taking courses on subjects as basic as conversion and prayer, at this level. But I'm very grateful I did and to some extent, feel like this is the very reason why God has brought me out here. I am still thinking through many of these issues and they're not exactly resolved, but I believe I have some basis for working through them. I guess it is precisely the basics that we need to 'master', failing which, they can have a lot of implications, and a faulty foundation can definitely affect how we build on it.

This Christmas was a good time of celebrating and remembering the Lord's birth with different families and friends. It's been a real blessing. Except for one, the rest were pretty small group and intimate affairs. Find it a lot more meaningful that way. As much as I enjoy meeting new people, spending an evening with a house full of people and making small talk is not my idea of fun. Maybe not anymore. Perhaps a sign I'm growing old. I guess I just don't find spending time in that manner very meaningful although I'm sure there is a place and time for that. Besides eating (and there was quite a lot of that), this was a time of saying goodbyes to dear friends. Will we meet again? Perhaps, God willing. If not, I know He is with them wherever they are and in their undertaking.

Besides eating, managed to watch quite a number of movies (one of my favourite past times), attended 2 musicals, visited the Vancouver Aquarium (for free!), Festival of Lights at Van Deusen Gardens and also at Warm Beach Camp in Washington (site for Regent retreat). I went for the lights display at Van Deusen Garden with my housemate and thought it was beautiful albeit a little cold. They had lights all over the Garden and even some dancing to the tempo of music being played. There was also a very nice male choir singing there too ... all of them, look like great Santa Claus candidate. Then when I visited the other one in Warm Beach, it was so much bigger and nicer. They even had lights put up looking like the Rockies mountains. Went for a train ride with my friends. It was way nicer and we had complimentary tickets by friends we knew from Regent who were working there, and it was way colder. The best part of my trip to the States was the crossing of the border. The traffic was very heavy and it would have taken us 2-3 hours to get across. So my friend dropped us near the border, and another friend and I walked across the border and then we got picked up from the other side. That meant we cut the whole process to less than 30-45 minutes, including the time at the immigration. Walking from Canada to US - that's probably my biggest feat for 2006!