1st day of work, I was overdressed - wore a black suit (jacket & pants) with a collared blouse inside, only to step into the office realising that the rest were a whole lot more casual. My Assignment Leader was dressed simply in a plain coloured collared blouse, untucked, with black pants and comfy-looking slip-in shoes. Should have taken Mum's advice and left the jacket at home. No matter. Looking forward to all the shopping I can do! hehe...

Aside from that minor embarrassment (if it was one at all), everything else went well today. And I really thank God for orchestrating everything so perfectly in line with what's happening with the youth ministry - truly, this is a job that supports the ministry, not the other way round! For instance, the office is conveniently located at Tung Centre, with the busstop just a few metres outside the building and a straight bus (10) to church.

Secondly, my Assignment Leader is a lady who told me straight that they are trying to change the culture of 'staying late out of obligation', and doesn't believe in people having to come back and work on weekends or staying late excessively. In her own words: "If you can finish all your work within 8.30am to 5.30pm, more power to you!" But the emphasis is not on how hard you work, but the results you deliver, which I find to be a good thing - gives me more flexibility with time, and ensures that I WILL be able to make it for Monday comm meetings and the weekend services! Praise God!

Thirdly, the exposure here is excellent. Because it is a relatively small unit, roles are overlapped, so there'll be constant variations of tasks to do, which I love. Not only that, the people themselves are so international. For example, during one of the two meetings I sat in for today (yes, 2 meetings on my first day!), I realised that among the 6 of us, 1 is from the Czech Republic, 1 from New Zealand, 1 from the UK (my Assignment Leader), 1 from India, and the remaining 2 of us from Singapore. Amazing, though part of the steep learning curve I'd have to undertake would be to understand the accents :P

Too bad though, that some websites are blocked and can't be accessed while I'm in GE, i.e. the typical Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, even Blogspot (I tried). No matter, at least the SMU email is still accessible, and I'll be getting my GE email address tomorrow.

A good start, but Lord, I want to finish well too - I need You more than ever, thank You for always being right with me, and truly help me to live each day to, above all, in all I do, please YOU.