Journey mercies

I'm still slightly amazed how well 2009 has kicked off. It feels as if I've been waking up to joy everyday this year. Well, once I get pass the initial 15 min of moaning and groaning about how I've not had enough of sleep and stumble out of bed.

I remember how I used to wake up to dread every Monday morning when I was in Malaysia for the longest time. And how I could feel it slowly spreading to Tuesday... Wednesday... and when it spread to Thursday, that was when I knew with absolute certainty I had to get out of the company.

So to wake up to joy Monday right through to Sunday is amazing to me!

There's also a certain deep-seated sense of peace that last year never gave. I would not hesitate to trade in the whole of last year for this one month of peace in heart and mind.

And quite unexpectedly, one of the source of joy has also recently come from two girls, 11 yo Naomi L and 9 yo Hannah L. We spent a year feeling a bit awkward around each other, not knowing what to say to each other. But in the last 2 months, something just clicked between Naomi and I and the friendship with her and her family (her parents has also been incredibly supportive of me). The friendship I would say, has a taste of destiny.

In the recent weeks, during the youth work in church, I've slowly become the 'bad cop', or 'Iron fisted hand' for being the one implementing punishments and warnings for rowdy kids. Today, I quite literally ran away from the younger, rowdier group, which I've been watching over for a few weeks in a row to join the older group.

When I went back to the hall where the younger group was, I was surprised to find the most laid back leader, who frustrated me a little last week for not being more strict with some rowdy kids, telling some of the kids they were not having sweets this week and one of the girls went home crying. Apparently the younger kids were extremely rowdy this week and he had no choice but to punish most of them.

Hehe... I couldn't help but smirk inside. I was so happy to take a break from those kids and let the rest manage them! Oh yes, and this is also one of the reasons why I feel so peaceful tonight! No headache from screaming every 5 minutes at the kids to listen and be quiet. I'm sure on average, I will scream out 2 names more than 20 times in a night.

But I'll still say though, they are all still a bundle of joy!