Stepping out onto the balcony of our apartment in Pandan Valley over the past few days, the world looked completely different. Normally, our floor gives us a sweeping view stretching miles across lush greenery and the city skyline. Right now, that expansive view simply vanished into a thick, grey soup (see the photo below from our balcony). Singapore is dealing with the seasonal haze again: a stubborn blanket of smoke from agricultural and forest fires in neighboring countries that drifts over the island. As soon as you step outside, you smell that familiar, pungent burning scent immediately. Out on the streets, you notice a lot more people wearing face masks again, and I have started wearing one myself too. It feels surreal and brought back instant memories of the pandemic. Fortunately, the air conditioners and filters at home do their job well, so indoors you barely notice it.

Inside our apartment, things were especially cozy this past week anyway. While my housemates and I used to eat at different times or quickly grab takeaway from a food court, lately we have been cooking and eating dinner together much more often (see the photo above of our dinner table). Our two Filipino housemates love cooking and are almost always by the stove. My steady role in the kitchen? Food prep: diligently washing, peeling, and chopping vegetables on the counter. The actual delicate seasoning and culinary magic I gladly leave to them! With generous plates of egg fried rice, roast chicken fresh from the oven, and a colorful vase of flowers on the table, we spend whole evenings catching up and laughing together. It truly feels more and more like home.

Sunday began the week with a wonderful day of rest. I attended Redemption Hill Church in Chinatown again. It remains a unique experience to gather for church in a hotel ballroom, but it was once again a very uplifting and encouraging service. Especially in a fast-paced metropolis where life moves so fast and the pressure to perform is felt everywhere, a service like this offers a welcome moment of peace and reflection to be reminded of God's grace.

Monday was all about the future. I spent the full day at the Microsoft AI Tour at the Singapore EXPO (see the photo below of the main hall). That convention center is truly massive. Singapore is a recognized global frontrunner in adopting new technology and artificial intelligence, making it the very first stop on Microsoft's new worldwide tour. It was exciting to see up close what a tech giant is building, particularly around making daily workflows smarter and more efficient. As an IT person, that is obviously fascinating to explore.

Meanwhile, back at the OMF office, our testing phase for the new browser login was running full steam ahead. Last week I wrote that we are working on making remote access simpler through a web browser, so colleagues no longer have to struggle with a separate, slow program on their laptops. Feedback from our initial test group has been very positive; people find it much easier and friendlier to use. Naturally, we encountered a few minor teething issues with some things, but what helped tremendously was that the test group was very alert and responsive. Whenever we asked a question or someone reported a small hitch, they replied right away, allowing us to fix issues directly at the root.

However: while I was walking around the conference on Monday, a glitch had emerged over the weekend in our central finance system. Because I had been away and none of my other colleagues had started looking into it, things became rather tense on Tuesday morning. At OMF, we always start the workday together with a morning prayer meeting. Right after the prayer, an IT colleague was already standing beside my desk asking if I could look into it immediately, as the finance team was at their wit's end and completely unable to work.

That meant rolling up my sleeves first thing and switching gears in a hurry. Fortunately, after about ten minutes of focused troubleshooting, I pinpointed the exact cause and managed to fix it. You should have seen the relief on my colleagues' faces: they were so incredibly happy that everything was running again, and they could get back to work! It is always rewarding to see how ten minutes of targeted detective work can instantly bring back calm and smiles across the office.

In short: an eventful week packed with contrast. Grateful for the encouraging church service, the warm dinners at home, an inspiring conference, and resolving the morning outage so quickly. Please pray along for heavy rain and fresh winds to clear away the nasty haze so our clear views return, and for wisdom as we polish the final details of the new login environment.

If you ask a local what the national sport of Singapore is, don't be surprised if the answer isn't running, badminton, or football. 'Eating!', almost everyone replies with a broad grin. And honestly: after a few weeks in this city, I completely understand why. Where in the Netherlands we casually ask 'How are you doing?', the standard greeting here is: 'Have you eaten?' (or in Malay: 'Sudah makan?'). Food here is so much more than just filling your stomach; it is the primary way people connect and show they care about you.

And that is special, because Singapore is a city that never stops moving. Workdays are long, students put in intense hours, and you feel the pressure to achieve everywhere you look. But no matter how busy everyone is, the moment mealtime arrives, the world pauses. People deliberately carve out time to sit down together. No fancy fuss or expensive restaurants, just everyone squeezing onto plastic stools at a neighborhood food court or hawker centre. Everyone picks up a dish from their own favorite stall and joins the table. Business executives in smart shirts sit shoulder to shoulder with construction workers and students, joyfully sharing dishes placed in the center.

By now, I am right in the middle of it all. At lunchtime, colleagues often gather together at the OMF office, and in the evenings I regularly head out with my housemates to a nearby food court. My absolute favorite so far is the sweet and sour chicken rice (see the photo above). Crispy chicken in a delicious sweet-and-sour sauce with onions, served over rice with a fried egg. So many flavors coming together, it really tastes fantastic! On Tuesday afternoon, we also had a teambuilding afternoon with the OMF team. It was great to get to know each other better outside of work and share plenty of laughs. And in true Singaporean fashion, we wrapped up the afternoon with a great meal together.

It also made me reflect on how meaningful those meals are. Throughout the Bible, you constantly see Jesus taking time to sit at table with people. It was the natural place for connection, rest, and genuine conversations. Especially in a fast-paced culture where everyone is rushing from one thing to the next, sharing a meal offers a much-needed breath of fresh air and authentic connection.

Beyond all the good food, there was plenty happening on the IT front as well. Yesterday I went to Tech Week Singapore, a massive technology conference. It was fascinating to see where big enterprise IT is heading. Almost everything centers on artificial intelligence (AI) right now. I attended an interesting session by Google about how a single software developer can use AI to steer an entire team of digital agents to build software much faster (see the photo below). It is intriguing to see how fast these developments are moving, and who knows, we might be able to put such smart techniques to great use within mission work in the future.

Back at the office, it was a productive week as well. The virtual workspace project is temporarily on hold, but I took another great step to make working remotely a lot easier. Previously, whenever colleagues worked away from the office, they had to connect through a separate and sometimes finicky security tool on their computer. That often caused headaches. I have now built a setup where they can simply log in to their familiar work desktop directly through a standard web browser, just like visiting a secure website. No more wrestling with complicated extra software: just safe, direct access to their work files. As of today, this officially enters its testing phase. There is always a bit of suspense over whether it will run flawlessly for everyone right away, but I wrote clear, step-by-step user guides, so it should go smoothly.

And how is our old, stubborn finance computer doing? It is wonderfully quiet! Since the cleanup script has been doing its work, I haven't had a single report of colleagues unable to log in or programs freezing up. It seems to just quietly chug along. And that is a relief: on January 1st we switch over to the new finance system, but this legacy machine needs to stay alive for another full year for official audits and checks. It won't have heavy tasks anymore, but it does need to keep running reliably. As for the security reports for the backup software, I haven't received a reply yet, though I stayed in touch with the vendor. I'll just send him a friendly reminder soon.

In short: plenty of good things to be thankful for. Thankful for our fun teambuilding afternoon and the great conversations around the table, for the quiet stability around the finance computer, and for the simpler way to log in securely. Will you pray along for the testing phase starting today, that everything runs smoothly for colleagues? And for wisdom and a prompt response regarding the backup software?

Anyone who thinks Singapore consists solely of shiny skyscrapers and shopping malls is mistaken. Tucked away between all the concrete are surprisingly lush nature reserves and hiking trails. This past week I headed out for a long hike along one of these forest paths. Before long, I came across an eye-catching sign from the authorities: 'What to do when you encounter wild monkeys'. Singapore is famous for its strict rules and hefty fines, and this trail proved to be no exception. Anyone daring to feed a monkey faces a fine of up to ten thousand dollars (see photo below)! Plastic bags are also forbidden on the trail, because the cheeky monkeys immediately associate them with food and will snatch them right out of your hands. Thankfully, the monkeys kept a safe distance, and my wallet remained intact.

Alongside nature walks, the shopping mall remains my regular evening retreat. I am gradually getting used to the tropical heat, but after a long workday, air conditioning is still an absolute blessing. I head out almost every evening. What never ceases to amaze me is how vibrant things stay well into the night. Around half past nine in the evening, walking through a mall like JEM, you will still find hundreds of people shopping, catching up, or grabbing a bite at the food courts (see the photo above). It sometimes feels as though half the city only truly comes alive once the sun sets.

Over the past few weeks, the weather was scorching hot and dry across the city. At the office we had even been praying together: 'Lord, please send some rain and relief from the heat.' That prayer was answered quite literally. On Tuesday afternoon, the sky turned pitch black and a massive tropical downpour unleashed. Within minutes, waterfalls were pouring off the roofs. All that heavy rain even caused a brief flood in our basement! Fortunately, we all jumped in to help, and the floor is now nicely dried out. As the rain hammered down, I looked out from the OMF office into the courtyard. Right through the curtain of water, I could see the pavilion featuring the famous motto of our founder Hudson Taylor: 'HAVE FAITH IN GOD' (see the video below). It was a wonderful moment to pause and reflect: God provides, both in nature and in our daily work.

The past couple of Sundays also brought a unique church experience. In addition to Redemption Hill Church, I visited New Creation Church. This megachurch gathers at The Star Performing Arts Centre, a massive commercial theatre complex where thousands of people arrive at once. Walking inside felt like stepping into an airport: there were metal detector gates, bag inspections, and security guards. And sure enough, right as I stepped through the gate, the alarm went off loudly thanks to the heavy set of keys in my pocket! Fortunately, the security team had a good laugh about it. It feels unusual to encounter airport-style security at a church service. But for a congregation drawing tens of thousands in a major metropolis, safety and vigilance are taken very seriously.

Meanwhile, at the OMF office, there was never a dull moment. Two weeks ago I wrote about the stubborn computer handling our bookkeeping, which kept freezing because an unknown background process was opening thousands of digital doors. While the exact culprit remains hidden for now, I built a practical workaround: an automated script that acts like a digital broom, sweeping through the system and tidying up any hanging connections. It works remarkably well! The computer has been running smoothly and stably ever since, and our colleagues are relieved to work without sudden crashes.

Today brought another exciting breakthrough. To better secure our systems from the outside world, I set up a direct connection to the finance system via a modern cloud tunnel. Our finance team can now log in securely and encrypted directly through a protected web page, without leaving open doors exposed to the internet. Hot off the press, and a major leap forward for security. In addition, I have started designing secure virtual workspaces. These will allow colleagues stationed in sensitive or restricted regions to safely access their email and files via an isolated browser, without leaving sensitive traces on their personal devices. It is a meaningful project where IT directly helps protect missionaries serving across the globe.

What has touched me most over these past weeks are the connections being made. Both at home in Pandan Valley with my housemates and at the office with colleagues, genuine bonds are forming. We share plenty of laughs during the workday, but we also dive into deep, honest conversations about faith, doubts, and what God is doing in our lives. It is wonderful to experience how quickly you connect when you share that same devotion, regardless of cultural background.

Plenty of reasons to give thanks and to keep in prayer. Thankful for server stability thanks to the cleanup script, for the new secure login tunnel, and for the refreshing rain (despite having to mop the basement!). Please pray along for our discussions with the backup software vendor, as we expect to receive and review their detailed security reports early next week. And pray for wisdom and discernment as we build the virtual workspaces for colleagues in sensitive regions.

Walking around Singapore, you quickly learn one golden rule: look for the air conditioning! Temperatures here easily reach thirty degrees Celsius or higher every single day, and the tropical humidity makes you sweat after just five steps. For locals, stepping into a shopping mall right after a busy workday is completely second nature. Not necessarily to buy anything, but simply to cool down in the wonderfully chilled air for free. By now, I have happily joined in. As soon as my workday wraps up, I often wander into a cool mall or a covered square packed with food stalls to catch my breath. The food never gets boring either. I eat rice almost every day now, but with so many different cuisines and stalls, dinner is an adventure every evening (see the photo above of the covered food court in Holland Village).

Last Saturday was one of those days that will really stick with me. Two of my housemates spend hours in the kitchen every Saturday preparing huge pots of food for Sunday church. I pulled up a chair, and we chatted for hours about anything and everything. And naturally, whoever helps in the kitchen has to taste-test what is simmering, so we did our duty and tasted plenty! Everyday life on this side of the world is truly becoming familiar, though I do miss family and friends at times. Because we are six hours ahead of the Netherlands, you cannot just make a spontaneous phone call whenever you feel like catching up. When people back home wake up, my workday is already nearly over. It really makes you appreciate how precious a quick phone call or a familiar voice from home is.

On Sunday I visited Redemption Hill Church in Chinatown. Because dedicated church buildings are rare and extremely expensive here, this congregation gathers in a hotel ballroom. Right from the opening minutes, I felt remarkably at home. The atmosphere and preaching strongly reminded me of the well-known pastor Tim Keller: grounded, deeply rooted in God's grace, and very practical for everyday life in a bustling metropolis. After the service, I joined a group of young adults for lunch. We immediately got into wonderful, open conversations about how each of us experiences faith in a city where performance often takes first place. It was so encouraging to get to know new people so quickly and feel welcomed into the church family.

Back at the OMF office, things were anything but quiet. We are still hard at work searching for an affordable software solution to create reliable backups of all our central data. The package we considered last week simply turned out to be too expensive for a mission organisation where every donation counts. Thankfully, I came across another promising option today. I contacted the makers right away and hope to hear more tomorrow. I have also been setting up a new central computer to better secure our connections from the outside world. Lately, we have noticed more and more automated attempts from digital intruders trying to guess the password to our digital front door. We want to lock that door completely and replace it with a modern lock system: only those who genuinely need access get a direct, tightly secured line to their specific room, without the whole hallway being left open. That makes it much easier to sleep at night.

And then there is our old friend: the computer running our bookkeeping system. It stubbornly continues to give us headaches. Colleagues randomly get kicked out, cannot access their accounts, and even basic buttons in Windows suddenly stop responding. Today I spent hours digging in to track down the cause, and I finally found an important clue: a background program is secretly opening thousands of digital doors and forgetting to close them. It keeps doing this until the whole computer runs out of memory and completely freezes up. I still have to figure out which exact program is the culprit tomorrow, just as I need to dig further into the old archive files with the help of an external specialist soon.

Amidst all that troubleshooting, there was a wonderful bright spot at the office today. The Dutch colleagues from the administration team who visited Singapore last week for training had left behind a fantastic surprise for me: a supply of genuine Dutch stroopwafels. During our coffee break today, we opened the first pack (see photo below). A sweet and familiar bite of home on the other side of the world, it tasted amazing!

Plenty of work ahead, but also so much to give thanks for. Grateful for the warm welcome at church and the new friendships. Please pray along for wisdom with all the computer puzzles at the office, for a good and affordable solution for our backups, and for close connection with home despite the distance and time difference.

When you step into the MRT (the subway) or walk through a shopping mall in Singapore, one striking detail quickly catches your eye: almost everyone around you wears glasses. At first, I assumed it was a coincidence or simply a local fashion trend. But when I looked up the numbers, they turned out to be staggering. Singapore is globally known as the 'myopia capital of the world'. An astonishing 83 percent of young adults wear glasses or have myopia, and among 12-year-olds it already reaches around 65 percent. By comparison, those percentages are vastly lower in the Netherlands.

Yet something else stands out in that same train that leaves a deep impression. Look around the carriages, and you will see people fast asleep everywhere. Students in particular sit slumped forward over their thick, heavy backpacks, dozing off. At every single station, they jolt awake to check if it is their stop, only to squeeze their eyes shut again immediately. For many of them, that thirty-minute commute on public transit is literally the only moment of the day when they can rest. Honestly, my heart goes out to them.

How does an entire nation end up with such widespread vision problems and exhaustion? The root cause is not genetic, but a direct consequence of societal culture. Scientists have discovered that developing eyes require natural daylight to grow properly. Sunlight triggers dopamine release in the retina, which prevents the eyeball from elongating excessively. Yet children in Singapore barely spend any time outdoors. From a young age, they remain indoors from early morning until late at night: first in school, then straight to tuition centres (intensive private tutoring classes), followed by hours of studying at a desk inside an air-conditioned apartment.

Behind these demanding schedules lies a deeply rooted performance culture. Society here is strongly hierarchical: parents raise you through immense hard work and personal sacrifices, creating a heavy sense of obligation to live up to their lofty expectations. Add the famous concept of kiasu (the fear of falling behind), and scoring straight A's feels like the only viable path. I recently discussed this with one of my housemates who is originally from Singapore. He shared that even during his early years as a missionary, he still felt that pressure: 'I felt I had to perform to bring people to God.' Until he realized: 'I cannot save anyone on my own strength. I don't need to turn this into a human performance metric.' That discovery brought him profound peace in life.

Yet you notice how easily that same drive to perform permeates church life as well. Because everyone works overtime on weekdays and Saturdays are booked solid with tuition, the entire Sunday gets packed with activities. Last Sunday I experienced this firsthand. First a morning service, followed by joining a youth group for an Alpha session, a quick shared lunch, and straight on to an afternoon service. When I was invited to yet another Bible study afterwards, I politely declined. My head simply could not process any more input. That evening I collapsed onto my bed, grateful for all the meaningful encounters, but physically just as exhausted as after a long workday.

It also made me reflect on church life back home in the Netherlands. Because honestly: aren't we secretly quite similar? In our own home churches, almost every weekday evening is filled with meetings, committees, task forces, and activities. Sometimes a church begins to resemble a corporation where everything must be organized, structured, and managed down to the finest detail. Don't get me wrong: dedication and good organization are admirable. But amidst all that busyness, do we not sometimes lose sight of what truly matters? How much do we genuinely leave in God's hands, rather than trying to control every outcome through our own rigid structures and action points?

It holds up a personal mirror to me as well. That current of constant productivity easily pulls you in. I notice that in the evenings, sitting on my bed, I am easily tempted to open my laptop anyway: 'Just quickly researching this for tomorrow's server tasks.' That is why I now deliberately choose to explore a cultural spot in the city right after work and grab dinner nearby. It keeps me from sliding into work mode and forces me to genuinely unwind.

In the Bible, the Sabbath is intended as a sacred gift. A deliberate moment to stop running and realize that our worth is not measured by what we produce, achieve, or organize, but by who we are in God's eyes. Whether it involves school grades, server infrastructure, or a packed church schedule: we are invited to let go, trust Him, and simply rest in His grace.

This past week was packed with variety, technical troubleshooting, and meaningful encounters. On Friday afternoon, we said goodbye to the finance colleagues who had travelled to Singapore from various regional field offices for training week. While everyone worked diligently, the new platform proved quite complex to adopt all at once. Consequently, we made the decision to postpone the full production rollout until January 1st. This grants everyone the breathing room needed to master the workflows thoroughly.

That does mean our legacy finance server needs to hold the fort for a few more months. Right on cue, that machine started acting up again this week with mysterious error messages. After running extensive system diagnostics, we identified and repaired several corrupted system files. We are praying and trusting that it will run reliably through at least January 1st.

Alongside that, I am exploring a robust backup strategy for several core systems. Over the past week, I met with multiple commercial enterprise vendors for software demonstrations. It quickly became apparent that these corporate suites carry exorbitant licensing costs, simply far too expensive for a mission organization where every donated euro counts. Together with our CTO, we decided against these costly packages to focus on smarter, cost-effective alternatives. That will be a major focus for me in the coming week.

Between Thursday and Friday, we also faced a minor network emergency when office Wi-Fi suddenly dropped out. The culprit was a failed media converter (the small transceiver unit that converts incoming fiber-optic signals to Ethernet). Fortunately, our setup is designed with full redundancy, featuring two independent fiber links and dual converters. We quickly switched over to the backup link. We are temporarily operating on a single line, so ordering a replacement converter is on the agenda for next week to restore full redundancy.

Outside work hours, everyday life in Singapore is becoming more familiar. I explored local markets with my Filipino housemates, and the CTO took me to a local hawker centre. For those unfamiliar with the term: a hawker centre is a bustling open-air complex packed with dozens of independent stalls where locals dine daily. For just a few dollars you can enjoy incredible fresh dishes, and I now eat at a food court or hawker centre almost every evening. From our living room in Pandan Valley, we also enjoy a fantastic view across the lush neighborhood (see photo above).

Today, Saturday, brought a wonderful highlight to the week: International Day at the Anglican church. Around 25 different nationalities gathered together. Everyone brought traditional dishes from their home countries, accompanied by a vibrant program of worship, children's choirs, and traditional dance (see the video below). It was moving to witness people from so many backgrounds and languages worshipping God side by side.

I look back on these past days with deep gratitude for God's provision. Please pray along for stability on our legacy finance server until January 1st, and for wisdom and creativity as I design an affordable backup architecture in the coming week.

These past few days were a great mix of new impressions, familiar encounters, and plenty of troubleshooting in the server room.

On Sunday morning, I attended an Anglican church here in Singapore. They happened to have a baptism service. It was special to experience, yet very different from what I am used to in the Netherlands. The liturgy, the style, and the entire structure felt completely new, but it was encouraging to see how faith is lived out here.

In the evening, I went to the First Evangelical Reformed Church. That felt remarkably familiar and was almost identical to my home church. The interesting part: they use the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dort, translated into English. Hearing those familiar texts on the other side of the world was quite an experience. After the service, I even met a few fellow Dutch people to chat with.

Monday was all about servers again. In my previous post, I mentioned that we might power on the retired physical servers. Today we made a decision: we are keeping those ten old machines turned off for now. Instead, we are setting up one powerful, modern server to restore all those backups onto. That way, the original systems remain untouched, we verify our backups right away, and we save a lot of electricity. Running three or four virtual systems inside a single server uses far less power than ten old machines humming away in the tropical heat.

Meanwhile, our current finance server also demanded attention today. For an organization like OMF, financial administration is critical to support missionaries worldwide. The central finance administration has already transitioned to the new system, but several regional offices are currently still operating through the old server, with both systems synchronizing in the background. This entire week, finance staff from all over the world are gathered in Singapore for training and hands-on experience with the new package. The goal is for everyone to work independently with the new system after this week, so the old server can be retired in a few weeks. But right on cue today, that old server started acting up, resulting in a striking Windows critical error (see photo).

Please pray along for all the finance workers being trained in Singapore this week, and for stability on the servers during this transition period. It is exciting to see everything coming together and to feel the work gaining momentum.

Last week I found myself doing something quite unexpected: digital archaeology. For years, OMF used an older system to manage staff records, projects, and correspondence. Everyone has moved to modern software now, but just before the old system was shut down, a full backup was saved to an external hard drive. Think of it as a massive digital filing cabinet filled with thousands of folders from finished projects and former colleagues.

That drive is important because past records are still needed from time to time, for things like official paperwork or retirement questions. When that happens, nobody should have to spend days searching blindly. Last week I started organizing this mountain of files to build a clear index of where everything lives.

Since the drive contains sensitive personal data, uploading anything to an online cloud service was out of the question. Instead, I used an AI tool running entirely offline on my own laptop. It helps categorize folders by their names, after which I review everything manually. The original developers loved cryptic abbreviations like 'Z' and 'CPO', so piecing together what everything means has been quite a puzzle.

The work does not stop with the backup drive. If we find that some critical information is missing from the files, we have to go a step further. The old physical servers are still sitting in the rack, turned off for about six months now. Next week we will see if we can power them back up and get access to them.

The catch is that almost all the personnel who knew these systems left over the last six months. We have to figure everything out on our own, without a manual or colleagues to ask for help. I will be leading this project. It feels a bit daunting, but with God's help we will get it done.

I'm actually here: Singapore. And the journey over could hardly have gone better. First leg, Amsterdam to Bangkok: an entire row to myself. Anyone who has ever spent twelve hours in an airplane seat knows what that's worth. Stretching your legs, even lying down fully, without paying a cent for it.

The best part was the night. Cabin lights off, and outside just darkness with the occasional patch of light from a city far below. A night from twelve kilometres up is more beautiful than any photo of it, but I gave it a try anyway (see above).

After the stopover in Bangkok I arrived in Singapore rested. And with perfect timing: I walked into the OMF headquarters just as lunch was being served. Within five minutes I was at the table with everyone. That's the way to arrive.

I'm not staying in OMF's guest house on the headquarters campus. With so many activities coming up in the next months, it's fully booked time and time again. So I'm renting a room in a gated community about seven kilometres away, a well-secured complex with a few tall apartment towers. I share the house with four other OMF staff. From my balcony I look out over the neighbourhood.

The work has started too. Today I was in the server room, moving the security cameras over to a new server. Laptop out, hunting for cables, working away between the racks. This desk isn't my regular spot; I'll share a photo of that later. A first job like this in a new environment, it makes me happy.

The balance after a few days: great flight, good house, servers running. Singapore, we're going to make something beautiful of this.

Tomorrow I board the plane. Bags are by the door, passport is ready, and really, everything is sorted. But tonight feels different than I expected.

These past weeks were one big to-do list. Insurance, flight, appointments, getting things in order. It kept me busy, and that was a good thing. Now the list is empty, and I'm left with the feeling that I'm actually ready.

There is a quote from Hudson Taylor that has stayed with me recently. He wrote: "God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on Him." Taylor was the founder of OMF, the organisation I'm leaving for tomorrow. He set out for China in the nineteenth century, without many certainties, with a trust that was sober and deep.

Those words resonate, because honestly: I don't feel particularly heroic. I'm going to do IT, something I know and am good at. But the step itself, letting go of what is familiar, trusting that things will be fine on the other side of the world, that's not something I can do on my own. I'm allowed to lean.

I know it's right that I'm going. That's something I've come to see more and more over the past months. But right doesn't mean easy. I'm leaving a lot behind: family, friends, the church I love so much. People who are following along and praying.

Still, I'm looking forward to it so much. Singapore, a new environment, colleagues I haven't met yet, work that matters. The adventure I've been looking forward to is about to begin.

Tonight I'll be still. Pray, give thanks, trust. And tomorrow, when it's time, simply take that step. Weak enough to lean.

The countdown has really started. In exactly three weeks, I'll be on a Thai Airways flight heading to Singapore. My mission? Spending the next six months working as an IT volunteer for OMF International.

These past few weeks have been all about wrapping things up. After four great years, I said goodbye to my colleagues at Solvinity. I've worked there as a DevOps Engineer since 2022, diving deep into cloud security and complex IT systems. It was an incredibly instructive time, but I felt an itch to broaden my horizons.

That's exactly what I'll be doing at OMF, an international mission organization. From their office in Singapore, I'll be helping to modernize their IT infrastructure. It's the exact same kind of work I know and love, but in a completely different culture and with a beautiful, entirely different purpose.

On top of that, I finally received my bachelor's degree in ICT. Four and a half years of balancing studies with a full-time job... it was a tough ride, but I'm so glad to be done. It's a surreal feeling: closing one massive chapter just as the next one is about to begin.

As for the practical preparations, I'm pretty much on track. Travel insurance is sorted, and the packing list is ready. Being a true IT guy, I couldn't resist writing a small script that automatically monitors flight prices for my return trip. Why check manually when code can do it for you, right?

People sometimes ask me why I'm taking this step. To me, it makes a lot of sense: I believe God wants to use the talents we've been given. My passion and strength lie in IT. The fact that I can use these skills in a place where they can genuinely make a difference feels like a unique opportunity. It's not some mystical calling from above, but simply offering what I have.

I plan to share some updates on this blog every now and then. Don't expect perfectly styled travel journals, just honest stories about how things are going. See you soon!