Sunday, September 2, 2007

44th BSLC

Hey guys!

Well, it seems like things have been rather stagnant here lately so I shall attempt to inject a little lifeblood in..

For a little update on myself, I'm about 5 months into my NS and have just completed my first course after BMT, that's the Basic Section Leaders' Course (44th batch BSLC) at SISPEC (that's the School of Infantry Specialists), which Joseph went through some years back. I was there from 25th June up till last thursday morning, 30th August.

A very, very brief oveview of what I learnt there in the 10 weeks was stuff like basic leadership principles, weapons handling, basic navigation, communications, unconventional warfare (CBRE), basic first aid including CPR, and knowledge for the operation of small groups of soldiers, besides physical training and conditioning.

As a few of you may know, I've been keeping a journal tracking my days in NS; and reading through it now, I recall beginning the course with feelings of consternation, as SISPEC was not where I had wanted, or expected, to be sent to. Hence, and despite that, I started the 10 weeks with the verses from Romans 5:1-5, which go:

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope.
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

How true is that? How has God used the grueling fast marches that gave endless blisters and even a broken toenail, a hand-foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that gave me 10 days of MC, an almost totally non-Christian environment with a general culture of company that I'm not really used to, strict standards seemingly only demanded by my company's instructors, a 12km run at the Army Half Marathon, and an overnight graduation march that played mind games, to mould me? Exactly how I'm not sure, but I believe I can say I've somehow emerged with a more resilient character, after all, tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope.

Ah, hope... What is hope? Harvard Business Review gives it as 'Something more than wishful thinking but short of expectation. A rejection of cynicism and dispiritedness.' Which makes much sense and is certainly a very apt definition of the secular 'hope'. Biblical principles, though, give the Christian's 'hope' as simply, 'a confident expectation of good'.

The presence of Christ elevates something short of expectation, to a confident expectation. I've not given this much thought as yet, but I think I will. Anyone care to join me?

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Through misty glasses I watched the buildings of SISPEC creep into sight where there had previously been nothing but dense foilage under faint moonlight. At last. 28km. Ever since BMT, I've had difficulty with route marches, and had been well known for having thin skin; now, my socks in my boots squelched with pus from burst blisters every step I took. I had quietly hummed to the tune of 'God will make a way' in the times of silence during the endless stretches of knolls along the route. At moments I thought I might not have made it, having missed some amounts of physical training during my 10 days of MC, but as the camp gates, and soon parade square arches, passed over my head, I knew that indeed God had made the way... In the graduation ceremony that followed, having the corporal chevrons confered to me by my platoon commander, I knew that the 28km covered paled in comparison to what those in OCS and the specialised vocations go through. Nevertheless, it was a victory, an euphoric victory. Vene, vedi, vici! But who's really the 'I' in that? =P

'It may have been cold night with shrill winds as I stood at that parade square, but dawn was only hours away, and the heavens have littered the abyss of darkness with glittering guardian angels, and the warmth that burns from the glowing candle of love gives me strength. I am blessed.'

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Charles

i posted this at 1:05 AM

and i have received 4 comments.

This comment has been removed by the author.

By ♥ Lady Wen ♥, at September 2, 2007 at 10:34 PM

"... cold night with shrill winds as I stood at that parade square, but dawn was only hours away, and the heavens have littered the abyss of darkness with glittering guardian angels, and the warmth that burns from the glowing candle of love gives me strength. I am blessed." --> Oh gosh, I love this paragraph! Poetic, vivid and beautifully penned!!

HELLO CHARLES, THIS IS NOT RAMBLING! *Hits u on the head for saying that it is*

Haha.=D

Praise God for being there with you in that what must have been nothing-short-of-treacherous 28 km!

And thanks Charles for depending not on yr own strength and talents but on God. U go bro!!

WOO HOO! Commander Charles. CC. ;)

By ♥ Lady Wen ♥, at September 2, 2007 at 10:36 PM

sigh, it is la.... notice the inverted commas; its adapted.

By Anonymous, at September 3, 2007 at 12:12 AM