First Sunday of Lent

Dear Diary,

It is the 5th day of Lent and everything seems pretty much in place. I am still faithfully catching up with the bible-in-one-year plan; just completed reading till the book of Joshua, chapter 12. In the days of the Old Testament where the wrath of God is evident in the actions of Israelites, I can’t help feeling that those were the more “brutal” era which we do not see these days. Nevertheless, we are reminded how much God hates sin... especially unrepented deliberate sins. I attended the 9am service with Mum today. Aiming to attend this more charismatic (less traditional) service throughout the period of Lent because I was hoping to unbiasedly reassess the perception of a non-traditional Christian. While Lent is an ancient Church tradition, it is also a time of reflection and self-deprivation. I am depriving myself of the liturgical aspects of the Church services so that I won’t be lulled into a sense of comfort and ritualistic motions.

As we remember the 40-days (Lent) of preparation for Easter Sunday, we have to reassess our priorities in life too. Do we put God sovereign in our lives? Do we hold onto the things eternal or things temporal? There was this boy in our church who had two $1 coins. He went into the lift within the church but in a moment of carelessness, dropped one of the $1 coin into the gap between the lift doors. Apparently, his mother had earlier given him one $1 coin to buy a can of soft drink at the vending machine and the other $1 coin to be dropped into the offertory bag. Anyway, the boy returned back to the pew in the church and later recounted the incident to his mother.
“What did you do with the remaining $1 coin you have?” The mother asked curiously.
The boy nonchalantly replied, “I bought a can of soft drink with it.”
“Why?”
“It was the coin for God that dropped into the lift gap.”
That was just a young boy but aren’t many of us guilty of giving to God as a matter of convenience and second priority? I tithe my money to the church but I need to also constantly remind myself that I should be giving out of love and not duty. There is a big difference.

Yesterday, I went to do community service at the Redhill housing estates. There were just 6 of us and we split ourselves into two groups. We were supposed to befriend the poor elderly and give them cash vouchers for purchase of food and grocery. If there is a chance, evangelism is possible too. I brought along my stethoscope, glucometer and aneroid sphygmomanometer just in case. The first lady we visited was a psychotic patient. I suspected that she is probably having treatment-resistant form of schizophrenia as she is currently on clozapine. I advised her to see a doctor if she had sudden persistent sore throat or fever and not depend on those paracetamol and dequalinium lozenges she showed to me. Thankfully, she does a monthly blood test. At least, the risk of a potential agranulocytosis is lower. I was kinda pleased with myself because after more than ½ a year with no real pharmacy practice, I could still identify drug interactions and remember adverse drug effects! Yay! Much to my surprise indeed. It is no doubt because of my hospital-based pre-registration training aeons ago, hahaha... ;-) Glad to know that her hallucinatory episodes had decreased in frequency. No sicca, xerostomia or tardive dyskinesia. Good, good! Since she is a Christian, we prayed for her before we left her home.

The second person we visited was a lady with hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes mellitus. I identified those medical conditions from the medications and guess what... I could actually identify the generic simvastatin 10mg by just looking at the tablet! Haha... we did such tablet identification during pre-registration training too. ;-) We chatted a little bit and I kinda suspected that she might not be a compliant patient with regards to her glipizide, so I took her random blood glucose level and it was pretty high at 25.6mmol per dL! Cautioned her on medication compliance. No wounds beneath her soles, no icterus, no lethargy, no dark-coloured urine, no muscular aches, blood pressure at 138/80mmHg... hmmm... okay. One of the loudest Korotkoff’s sounds I ever heard was over this lady’s brachial artery on her cubital fossa.

After that, I left the group early to have buffet lunch with my family at the Noble House restaurant in UIC Building. The food was great but except it is in the Lenten period, haha... Then after that sumptuous meal, our parents dropped us at St Andrew’s Cathedral. The Young Adult (YA) Ministry meeting was basically a presentation of missionary works. The new YA members previously from LyNc continue to bring that vibrancy which was so lacking in our ministry previously. One testimony stood out. I could sense her love for the unsaved in Cambodia. She even wept when recounting an incident. She will surely make a good teacher. The YA ministry is trying to make attendance for the Batam Medical Missions in May compulsory... we will see about that, haha.

I really hope that God will change our lives. I am looking forward to new adventures and having an optimistic outlook this year despite the economic gloom permeating our atmosphere. Friday was a little sad because one of my closer colleagues had tendered her resignation. Now our team has little experience to speak of, except for our manager. Yet, the impact didn’t seem big. Maybe I had grown more matured since the days of Watsons when resignations are such a morale-sapper. Okay, hope I get to run in the evening! Have done that for ages. By the way, there is the TV premiere of the movie “Casino Royale” on Channel 5 at 6.30pm if you haven’t caught that in the movies. Take care and have a great week ahead!

God Bless,

Andrew