What does STMS stand for? The immediate reaction I would get from people was usually: “HUH?!! What’s that? What does it mean?”

STMS stands for Short Term Mission School. It is a 3 month course and can be divided into 4 types – Chinese, English, BM & Iban and music STMS.

As for me, I joined the English STMS. To be honest, I wasn’t planning to join STMS at all. The thought of joining never crossed my mind. Tons of seniors encouraged my peers and I to join. To me it was just a waste of time. Imagine how much drama I could’ve watched and how much fun I would’ve had. I also could go to college earlier. But what I never knew was the fun I had and what I’ve learned during those 3 months surpassed all my expectations.

I admit now I joined for only 2 reasons:
one, to get to know as many people as I could and two, to see if the life changing really “worked” on me. And as I expected, the first day was just pure horror. As a sanguine person, freedom and having fun are the two elements I cannot possible live without. And guess what, a book filled with a tremendous amount of rule was handed out on orientation day — from dorm rules to dress code. Oh what a blast, welcome to the army, so I thought.

Things escalated quickly from then on. Ironically, there were only 7 who joined the English STMS (5 boys 2 girls), all whom I already knew before-hand. Days went by quickly as I figured out it wasn’t that bad. Class was always fun and full of laughter as half of us are extroverts and total “crack heads”. The teachers were so very nice and they always seemed to find ways to deal with our overflowing energy. We got to know each other well as there were only 7 of us. From going out for a meal (for deep talks) to studying together for exams, we were always together. Our presence always seemed to attract people as not many STMS students were like us – joking around in English and laughing out heads off.

One of the things I adored about English STMS 2019 was that we got to enjoy more time together and we legit had one course less than the rest of the STMS students. Yay!!!! I was literally in cloud nine every day.

The face that people made whenever I spoke Chinese always seemed to amuse me. We really had a strong bond which led to us creating a name for ourselves. The name “Jade Tea” was created by combining the first letter of our names. I would never forget what the teachers had so patiently taught that had carved ever so deeply into the stubborn heart of mine. Big shout-out to all my teachers and classmates, you guys havecertainly made class much more bearable and I had gained much more through you all’s testimonies.
#JADETEAGANG

Thinking back now, it was indeed an army, an army camp to train soldiers of the Lord. I was extremely grateful that I went to STMS as it has really taught me a lot, not just spiritually but also mentally and physically. Glory to God, Amen!

By Esther Lau
currently studying in KL