Saturday, April 27, 2019

Alumni Connections

I was surprised by a call this morning. Normally I don’t even answer calls from unknown overseas numbers. But I saw that it was from Auckland and thought it could be my son for a moment. But he just texted me a week ago so I wasn’t expecting something so soon. It turned out to be the alumni society of Auckland University. It was from my alma mater. We chatted for 7 or 8 minutes. I managed to share my life story in those brief moments. How did you end up with doing what you are doing now? She asked, “you did something on biblical studies didn’t you? Did you go on with your career with that? Yes for sure, I answered. I am doing church work serving among the tribal peoples of Borneo.
How did you end up doing that? Well I speak Malay and joined the church as a full time worker as soon as I graduated from Auckland University. What advice do you have for students? Study hard. Work hard. I did not tell her I spent nearly 20 hours a week on Hebrew and Greek. Did you do further study? Yes I did a PhD from Otago University. Was it research based? Yes my doctoral thesis was published by T & T Clark.  Cool awesome, you have to hear a Kiwi say these two words to understand how they sound. It’s cool and awesome! Can you contribute to a scholarship fund? Can you make a one off donation? Well, I wish I could but I am paid a basic allowance in Malaysian ringgit. I told her that 1NZD buys you 2.8MYR. I did not tell her that I am in between jobs, not earning an income. But I appreciated the call. Somewhat I missed New Zealand a great deal. That is the only country I will want to go and serve beside my home state. Yes I managed to tell her how NZ impacted my life, I became a Christian in NZ and if that did not happen I would be doing something entirely different today.

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