WEEK 21: God is faithful and amazing!

(I would just like to add that God is always faithful and amazing, but this week I truly saw the overflowing of His grace.)

The first week of February has been CRAZY.

First up, I have two presentations and an essay (formative, but still) due this coming week, so I was busy writing my essay and preparing for my presentations. Ugh, the amount of reading that I have to do......

It was also the ECU events week and there were talks every afternoon and night for one whole week, covering interesting topics such as the existence of God, biblical truths, the relevance of Jesus in today's world, and so many more. I wanted to go to every event but because of the amount of work that I had to do, I couldn't. The most exciting talk of all was probably on Monday night, whereby an ex-mafia came to share about his past in the mafia, and how he came to know Jesus and how that changed his life. That is seriously such an incredible testimony but unfortunately I was working that night and my shift ended at 8, and it would be half 8 by the time I get to Belmont meaning that I would miss half his story so... I decided to just go home instead. There was a repeat on Tuesday afternoon but sigh I had a seminar at that time D:

But anyway, I have been to almost every lunch bar with Alison on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Hearing what I believe in - my whole life - broken down into tiny bits and being explained from a scientific and cultural point of view was just so cool and awesome.

Saw this video from Katya.....

......it snowed on Monday morning around 8 AND I MISSED IT. The frustrating thing was I set my alarm at 7 but went back to sleep AND I ONLY WOKE UP AT 10 SOMETHING! ARGHH I WAS SO ANGRY AT MYSELF.

Still can't believe it actually snowed in Exeter. But I heard from Aunty Fen Yee that there wasn't any snow on the other side of the river aka near where I live. I guess because it's not as high up compared to St Germans - where Katya is staying - which is located on campus at the top of the hill.

Sigh, I kinda got over the impossibility of seeing snow. Well sometimes I would see a pile of (what looks like) snow lying here and there on the grass on campus but ahh, can't be bothered to get excited over such pathetic amount of snow. Also what would people think of me if they saw me playing with a tiny pile of snow? Haha oh well, it isn't like I won't have the chance to ever see snow anyway... so for now I'll just wait as patiently as I can!

Hui Ying's birthday fell on Monday, coincidentally the day that I don't have classes, so I was able to Skype with my jiemeis as they gave her a surprise celebration! It was the first time Skyping with all of them since I came here, except for Kat who is in Australia (crazy time zones argh). So glad to be able to participate, albeit virtually, in her 22nd birthday celebration! Even though it felt a bit strange that I wasn't there physically. Miss all of them so much :')

Photos by Mean Shan.

After my shift on Monday night, I was so hungry but so lazy to cook dinner so I bought kebab from the St Davids kebab van. First time trying it and mmm hmm it was so good! Haha too bad you can't see the glorious chicken meat that is hidden under all that veggies and chips.

I came across this recipe online that claimed to make the best hot chocolate ever with Nutella and milk. Since Aaron gave me one huge bottle of Nutella (which I thought I wouldn't be able to finish before I leave, but I was so wrong because it's almost finished now lol), I decided to try this simple recipe out: heat one cup of milk in a pan, stir in two tablespoons of Nutella and ta-da!!

I think you can imagine how thick this hot chocolate is just by looking at the picture :P Basically it just feels like you're drinking Nutella.... so much calories omg. I love Nutella but I don't think I would make this again, as I still prefer the original hot chocolate taste.

Seems like the weather app cheated my feelings again - for the umpteenth time! I've learnt not to get excited when I see the snowflake symbol because as the night drags on, the symbol will somehow get pushed further back hour by hour until it freaking disappears -_______- The Case of the Disappearing Snowflake Symbol, for you Sherlock Holmes.

The plan on Tuesday was to watch Big Hero 6 but Chris was ill so we decided to postponed the movie to Saturday. But the dinner plan with June was still on, and I thought it was only the three of us but in the end Yee Chin, Aaron, Bobbie, and Alex turned up too! 

Chris said the ramen in Wagamama is nice so we went there, even though June said the food is horrible. I personally am just okay with ramen - honestly I don't know what's so nice about the noodles, which always taste plain to me. I ordered the Wagamama ramen that has everything (chicken, fish, prawn, and vegetables) in it lol. It was just average, nothing to shout about - and for the price I paid, I could get a steak or something which I feel is more worth it. I probably won't be going into any Asian restaurant here anymore, unless I hear the food is extremely good.

The following pictures were taken by Chris because my phone died. He's so bad at taking food pictures :P This is Aaron's chilli beef ramen which looks so good! Probably because of the chilli...

Chris' chicken katsu curry. The curry is not spicy at all, but seeing that I haven't tried authentic Japanese curry, I can't really comment on it. Apparently this is the most popular dish in Wagamama.

For dessert, we had coconut, toasted sesame, and raspberry mochi ice-cream with chocolate sauce. It's quite nice actually; something different for a change. But don't be fooled by the zoomed in picture of the plate - the mochis are actually just bite-size. June and I ordered a banana katsu to share, which is banana in breadcrumbs with a scoop of salted caramel ice-cream. It's basically pisang goreng!!! I felt cheated...

My mom sent me this picture and at first I didn't believe that she made them - since she's not into making cookies and what's more it looks like a lot of effort is needed. Hahaha I'm super impressed :P They're too cute to be eaten though!

Alison and I missed the lunchbar on Wednesday, so we went to La Touche, the Business School Café, and got the lunch deal (two pastas or pizzas and two side dishes for £10). It's not too bad, but I've had better carbonara.

After lunch, I went to the library to work on my essay for a while, and then went to Leonie's place in Birks Grange at half 4 to do some baking together with Maxine for the ECU evening talk on Thursday. I just love the landscape on campus - it's like walking through a park :)

Walking down the infamous Cardiac Hill. It got its name for a reason... It doesn't look that steep from the top but it's another story when you're at the bottom. You lift your head up and you'll see this mountainous hill just looming over you and you'll be like *gulp* *take deep breaths* before taking the first step of the difficult journey but it's not until a few seconds later that you start panting for breath. I would rather climb all the other hills in Exeter than this killer hill - so thankful that I'm not living at the bottom of Cardiac Hill!

Cinnamon rolls and brownie in the making! Yum yum.

After that, we walked to Cornwall House where we blew balloons and wrote a 'Welcome Back' banner for our beloved Pastor Bob and his wife Jeannie! We carried all these to church, which is just a mere few minutes' walk away, and gave them a surprise! Oh it was so good to see them after two months, as they went home to America to see their children and the rest of their family.

There were some problems with their visa, but God has been so faithful, hearing all our prayers and bringing them safely home without any problems at the immigration!!! No questions about their visa, nothing! Praise God :D :D :D Also, the captain of their flight was one of our church members, a close friend of Pastor Bob and Jeannie - HOW AWESOMELY COOL IS THAT!?

Pastor Bob had a special message for us students that night. He talked about how it's okay to feel lost, not knowing where to go and what to do after graduation, because God will be with us every step of the way and we just need to put our full trust in Him. I felt that his message was so relatable, and I believe every student (and the rest) there felt the same way too. I was reassured that night :')

On Thursday, our church Calvary Chapel was in charged of serving pudding (it means dessert in British terms, unlike the American term that is the custard pudding - initially I thought it was that lol) for the evening talk in Belmont, titled 'What is True Love'. We arrived one and a half hour before the event started, but were stranded outside in the cold because no one had the key...

After waiting for what seemed like forever, someone finally opened the door for us and we managed to prepare everything in time, distributing the cakes and cookies onto individual plates. It was truly a miracle that we produced more than 100 plates! We were afraid that we wouldn't have enough because it didn't look like much if we were to cater to 100 people - my group had the cinnamon rolls and brownies, Katya's group made carrot cake, cheese cake, and chocolate croissants, and Molly's group made peanut butter cookies and chocolate digestives. Each plate had different combinations of three or more sweets, and ahhh it's still hard to believe that everyone managed to get a plate and there were leftovers!!! It reminded me of the story of how God multiplied the five loaves of bread and two fishes that the small boy brought and fed 5000 people - AND had leftovers! I'm definitely awestruck by my powerful God :')

Leonie drizzling icing on her cinnamon rolls :D

Haha, so asian :P

I just couldn't stop taking photos of this long table of yummies!

Nice photo by Franzi!

Team Calvary!



Franzi and Sophie posing by the huge poster.

Is this it?????? The theme of events week :P

Inside the main hall where the talk was held. I absolutely love the cosy setting and the lighting!

People enjoying our homemade goodies :D

Photo taken from the ECU Facebook page.

The next day, Aunty Fen Yee brought over some peanut cookies that she made! Ahhhh such melt-in-your-mouth goodness :D :D :D Feeling so at home munching these (minus the Chinese New Year songs).

One thing I love most about working in Holland Hall (the university's poshest accommodation lol) is the view. That's probably why it's so posh! Since I started working there at the end of November, I've seen countless of breathless sunsets. Once, the whole sky was (almost) covered in bright pinkish-purplish tinges - I didn't manage to take a picture of it D: I hope that magical sight will be preserved in my memory for a long, long time. This was taken at 4:42pm.

After work, I went to Solomon's Porch! This was Richard gliding down the slope on Daniel's skateboard after Solomon's Porch.

It's too dark to see much, really. Of course we do not condone this sort of dangerous behaviour. My heart almost stopped beating when he went down with increasing speed and seemingly unable to stop!

Walking along the never-ending stretch of Prince of Wales Road alone after we parted ways at the university roundabout. There's something about the stillness of the night which never fail to make me contemplate about life. Or you can say that it's a private moment between me and God. The full moon was shining so brightly that night.

"And you were just like the moon, so lonely, so full of imperfections, but just like the moon, you shined in times of darkness."

Aunty Fen Yee brought over more cookies this time! YES MORE PEANUT COOKIES, with kuih bangkit and that sheep-shaped butter cookies that she learned from my mom hahaha.

Watched Big Hero 6 on Saturday night with June, Chris, Yee Chin, and Cindy. The movie was okay I guess; it didn't leave me with a strong impression when I left the cinema. It is those kind of movies that you watch for recreation purposes and that's that - well, what else can you expect from animations? That said, even with its cliché and unexpected ending, it was a satisfactory film sprinkled with heartwarming and exciting scenes. 

Chris went home after the movie, so it was just us girls. We wanted to go to Jamie's Italian for dinner but it was fully booked - apparently it was the first Saturday since its grand opening - so we went to Byron to have burgers instead. I've always wanted to go there since Yee Chin said the burgers are really good. I ordered the Smoky, which consists of smoked cheddar, streaky bacon, crispy fried onions, iceberg lettuce, and smoked chilli BBQ sauce. The beef patty was served medium-rare, unless you specifically tell the waiter your preference. It was thick and juicy, complemented really well with the bacon strips and fried onions. It's a little bit pricey at £9.95 though, with only a pathetic piece of pickle as the side.

Mi Sedap, my comfort food on a Sunday afternoon. The crunchy fried onions is what makes ALL the difference.

After lunch, I started panicking.

Okay first of all here's some background to the story. On Thursday night when I was serving in Belmont for the ECU event, Jenny came up to me and asked me to help Paul with organising the groups for making some dumplings for Globe on Monday, since we'd be having a Chinese New Year event. So we had to prepare 400 - four freaking hundred - dumplings within four days. Impossible? VERY.

Given such short notice, and amidst writing an essay and preparing for two presentations for next week, I was seriously at a loss. It's like my mind couldn't decide on a clear plan to follow accordingly because there was so much to think about: I didn't know what's the budget, how many people are making it, and if we could ever achieve this humongous amount. By Saturday, I have found an easy recipe, gave myself a pep talk to gain some confidence in doing something that I've never done before, got the budget, and have (kind of) gathered a few friends to help on Sunday - although nothing was completely confirmed yet.

There was still so much ambiguity about the "plan" because I don't know who else is making the dumplings, so I had no idea how many does my group need to make. I'm the type of person who needs to have an organised plan ahead of time before doing something - I guess it acts as an assurance that things will not go wrong. But my friends were taking such a long time to reply (I'm not blaming them because I know they're busy too), and if they did, it was either that they never fully answered my questions or that their answers didn't help (again, I'm not blaming anyone; just trying to paint a picture of an urgent situation lol).

So those are some of the things that I couldn't control. But throughout the weekend I somehow felt calm, even though I know I should probably panic. I was constantly praying and asking God for help - and somehow felt that He is in control of the whole situation, although of course I still had my doubts. But I told myself that if things really go wrong in the end, I will leave Sunday to panic. Sunday came and I couldn't contact my friends who previously said they could help, then I started freaking out a little bit. With me clinging on to a small sliver of hope that one of them will reply, I walked to town to buy the ingredients. I was thinking if the worst comes to the worst, I could just go home and make the dumplings myself. While I was walking, I was fervently asking God to send help too, like REALLY begging Him.

And then all of a sudden, I received a call from Katya! I started to ramble on about the situation, how I currently don't have anyone to help me etc. She was so understanding (like she always is, oh such an angel), she helped me work out the situation and also advised me on the amount of ingredients to buy. I suddenly had a lightbulb moment and asked her if I could go to her place to make the dumplings, and she said yes! Hallelujah praise God!!! I felt such a huge wave of relief overcome me at that moment :')

The amazing thing was, she later told me that she felt something (or someone, as I believe it's God) nudging her heart to call me. Whaaaaat I just couldn't believe my ears! I know it must have been God telling her to call me - He actually answered my prayers in such a mind-blowing way! AHHHHHHHHHHH (I'm still feeling the excitement as I'm typing this) :D :D :D In the end, God sent three more lovely people - Alex, Molly, and Franzi - to help out! How is all these possible without Him?!!!?!? I still can't believe how awesome my God is. Thank You, thank You, thank You, for sending help when I desperately need it and for making sure everything turned out all right in the end. Once again, You never cease to amaze me :')

Hehehe I really like this collage!

After making the filling (I actually feel quite proud of myself), I had to rush off for work. Katya told me afterwards that they managed to make about 120 dumplings - although it's far from 400, the number is still something! WOW GOD, WOW.