Finally the Student Life's annual dinner is here and everyone gets to meet up for one of the last few times before the year ends. It was a semi-formal theme so all the ladies brought out their well preserved lustrous dresses, sparkled and made themselves look glamorous overall while the guys wore their neatly pressed shirts accompanied with equally neatly pressed pants and perhaps applied some hair products, followed by a clean shaven face. Bit boring on the guy's side.
Of course this event wouldn't be called a dinner without food. I decided to invade the kitchen with some quick artistic food photography before getting kicked out by Ken because it was busy and congested.
Mmm...your mouth watering yet?
Yeah, you better wipe that drool off your face before it trickles down onto your keyboard hehe. The night was pretty much chatting to everyone and catching up with each other, talking about each other's summer plans and how much study they've done (or not done). As they say, "Its too late to start studying once the Jacaranda tree has bloomed". There was also a period where people shared in front of everyone what they've seen God done with Student Life this year or how their lives have been influenced by their involvement with Student Life.
There was also a 'graduation' of Student Lifers who have served in this ministry on campus and have come to end of their degrees where they will be pursuing their careers outside of university. Some of them are international students where they're here on exchange and will be going back to their home countries.
During the period where people went up to share with everyone about the year, a girl in a top dress with jeans and boots decided to go up. She called and motioned for a few girls to come up and join her while her voice broke down in a teary voice. She gave her testimony on how she got to know about Student Life during o-week, thinking that this society was all about university partying life and that she'd be able to get drunk and party with the people in Student Life. However, to her dismay, she found out that it was a Christian society on campus that envisions for every student on campus to be connected with someone who truly follows Jesus Christ. The few girls who went up with her maintained contact with her throughout the year and did a Christianity Explained (CE) course with her. Although there was no immediate response that she wanted to follow Jesus, the girls continued to befriend her and show her love. She shared this with us all with her teary voice and said how she was so amazed to see a bunch of students and missionaries loving each other and loving God as a family and that she wanted to be a part of the family. That night, Mel (I think that's her name) decided to join the family of Christ and wanted to be a Christian.
"A new command I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you,
so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples,
if you love one another." - John 13:34-35
Wow, what an amazing night that was! Definitely no one expected for someone to make that decision on a night like that. Boy am I reminded on how God is limitless. As the night approached the end, we all gathered and mingled with one another, taking photos and sipping coffee and tea.
Tom, Daisuke (Japanese on holidays) and myself.
Myself and Joshua (missionary on campus going back to the States to study post grad law).
Andrew (another missionary on campus) and myself (just posing I guess, haha).
Daisuke, myself and Jun (another Japanese student).
Myself, Jun, Andy and Jian.
Some of the guys doing a FHM (For Her Magazine) shot. Yes, we are posers haha.
The girls of Student Life.
The guys of Student Life.
The guys doing a "Moose" pose. If you don't get, don't worry...Beyond Melbourne 05 inside joke.
