By way of background, I am someone whose National Service has never ended.
Since my enlistment on 18 May 2022, I have signed on with the Republic of Singapore Navy. As a regular, I was undergoing training as a trainee and will go back to school in August as the Singapore Armed Forces wants all regulars to complete their studies ASAP.
As a cadet in the Navy, I had to go through a one-month sea training deployment and for my batch we went to Malaysia and Vietnam. We set sail on the 25th Jan, which was the North-East Monsoon period. On the first day of sailing, we experienced quite a bad sea state and thus was feeling pretty sea sick along with a handful of my peers. This sea state continued on and off for the next 5 days of sailing and I was constantly asking myself if I chose the right career path.
But even after all these setbacks, God never failed to look after my well-being as I quickly adapted to the rough sea state and I always felt his presence when carrying out my tasks and felt safe in his hand.
At the same time, I feel that the people who were always there for me were not there by coincidence. They were placed there so that I could learn from them as well to provide me with a community that looked out for one another. This is how I felt that God is again at work. A verse that came to my mind all the time would be Philippians 4: 13,
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
After this one-month deployment, not only did it strengthen my mental strength and help me learn more skills needed for the job, it also showed me that God does indeed take care of his own and me having the humility to ask for His presence does indeed go a long way.
Minfeng.