I guess you could say 1995 was a kind of blackhole in my life. Stuck in NS, nothing significant happened. (Which is not a bad thing, of course. "Significant" in NS is when your life is filled with tekan sessions or when an accident happens).
I consider myself fortunate to be in the vocation that I’m in (recce). The nature of our training is such that we usually have our nights free. Though we are not allowed to book out of camp, this has given me time to do reading - general stuff, the Bible, Christian literature - at least my intellectual and spiritual life isn’t stagnating. I’m also kind of in the favour of my bosses. Because I’m a perfectionist when it comes to putting things down on paper, they rely on me before, during and after field exercises to draw up their operations charts (eg. maps, briefing charts, etc.). This is kind of tiring because you don’t get much rest in the field, having to shuttle between my section deployment site and the platoon HQ, but then I also have an excuse not to dig trenches. Between digging a trench and getting some sleep after that, and going without sleep to draw maps and charts, I’d choose the latter anytime (though I know a few platoon mates who’d choose the former !).
Because of the general predictablity of my training schedule, I’m able to go to church on most weekends and get involved in ministry, including co-leading a cell group. I even joined my church mates on a mission trip to Indonesia at the end of this year.
