My FALL has just ended ...
The past four months has been one of the most mentally rigorous and physically straineous moments of my life. Yet, I enjoyed the FALL ... The truth was, I had a very fruitful and rewarding FALL semester at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS)!
A lot of people all over the world have never experienced four seasons. Here in the US, the FALL Season officially kicked off 21st of September. As for DTS, the Fall semester started earlier, to be exact, on the 24th of August. In retrospect, this is my family’s first FALL in the US and we did experienced a lot of FALLS ...
Time FALLS back ...
Starting the 1st of November, we subtracted an hour from our clocks as the daylight saving time officially ended. This means, if during summer, the sun sets at about 8:30pm, this time, it started to get darker outside by 5:45pm.
On November 1st, I was scheduled to pick an uncle in the airport. Thank God I browsed the net before leaving the house, saw the change in US time mode and got confirmation from American friends about the time shift. This was something new for us which we have never experienced back home.
Teaching FALLS back ...
From November 14th to 29th, we had two weeks of school break. The first week of the break was intended as Reading Week. However, since I was not able to spend much time with my family during school days, I decided to bring them to Florida. We celebrated Aileen’s birthday (Nov 17) in Disney World and she got free entrance in Magic Kingdom with Disney’s birthday promo! Hannah also got in for free cause she was less than three years old. Believe it or not, I drove a total of about 2,500 miles (about 4,000 km) with stop overs in Mississipi and Atlanta on the way to Florida and New Orleans on the way back to Dallas! The second week of school break was Thanksgiving Break. We had fun eating our first turkey on Thanksgiving Day (Nov 26).
Temperature FALLS back ...
The temperature during summer in Dallas went up to a high of 110 Fahrenheit (43 C). During this season, it dropped to as low as 0 Celcius. Last 2nd of December, snow started to drizzle down Dallas! We went out during the break time of our morning class and felt snow FALLING down on us! However, as much as we wanted for snow to stay all day, it stopped dropping after only about 1 hour. Some say that it snows in Dallas once in every two years. We were delighted that we saw a glimpse of the snow!
Tests FALL one by one ...
The last three weeks of class from 30th of November up to 18th of December were the toughest in my schedule as I had to finish reading requirements, research papers, book reviews and other major requirements. I had three final exams on separate days that ended on December 17.
The only thing that never FELL ...
As a family, our first FALL in the US has been a very memorable experience! Perhaps, the best news we got during the FALL was the ultrasound result of Aileen that Hannah will be having a baby brother!
Through it all, we were constantly reminded that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8). Indeed, as all else are FALLING, only Jesus Christ never FAILS. His faithfulness is always new every morning (Lamentations 3:23). His love is always deep, wide and high (Ephesians 3:18). He never ceases praying for each one of us non-stop daily (Hebrews 7:25). Truly, Jesus never fails!
As we run the race of the Christian life, let us daily take heed to hear God’s call, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t FALL!” (1Corinthians 10:12). Perhaps, this is a great season for us to reflect on our relationship with the Christ of Christmas. May we all face a new seaon with a revived intimacy with the Christ of Christmas and a rejuvinated walk with God in the new year 2010!
