U.S. Travelogue (Vancouver, Washington)

Seattle to Vancouver, Washington (16-18 January 2016)
The very first trip I made was to visit my friends (Ryan and Rachel) in Vancouver, where they have relocated for the past year because of work commitments. Amtrak, the affordable intercity train, was my choice to commute and it is as convenient as KTX in Seoul, South Korea. I have found the train to be spacious, comfortable and well furnished. The interior layout of King Street station is similar to those featured in Hollywood movies.

I started off the evening at Vancouver with Rachel's special home-cooked squid ink pasta made with freshly bought Buitoni pasta from Fred Myers. As you might know, Portland in Oregon state is a tax-free shopping haven. So, without much time to waste, we visited Woodburn Factory Outlet, where there were Levi Jeans for under US $10 and much more. Somebody say Wow!

We spent the next few days visiting Tillamook Cheese Factory. But don't be fooled, Tillamook also produces super creamy ice cream as well. We tried the sampler and was pleasantly surprised by how milky it was.

Other places we visited includes Mount Hood, Lincoln City and many more, which I doubt I will have time to categorise the photos by location. But here are some photos for you to see!

One will quickly discover the Food Truck culture here in Vancouver and Portland. And it is no surprise that there is a great variety of food, including American, Thai, Mexican, Korean and Chinese. In that cold weather, I enjoyed this hot beef steak sub toasted Tillamook cheese. It was simply mouth watering!

 Hope you had some fun reading this one. I hope to be able to write more often.

Moving to America

For Singaporeans who are moving to the United States, be it for work or a student exchange programme, will find themselves consider on what should be brought along. After a month and a half in the States, I realised that, had I have a better understanding prior to my departure, I would have left certain things at home and brought along others.

Travel and Visa Matters
For J1 student exchange visa, there will be a need for you to get your DS-2019 form endorsed by the school before you can exit the United States and be allowed to re-enter during your visa period. It can get complicated if you were to enter the United States earlier to travel, and you decide to fly to other countries prior to the start of your academic term - for more information, do contact your universities or the U.S. Border Protection for more detailed information.

Voltage
The first consideration is about voltage - because you need to get your laptops, MacBooks, handphones and devices to be functional. The United States operates on 110v while Singapore is based on 220v. Most chargers by Apple are commercially prepared for international usage and you will notice the 110-240v symbol on your charger head, this means that you'll only require an adapter and not a voltage converter. However, if the device is specifically designed only for use in Singapore 220v, then you'll need a voltage converter, which can be rather tricky. To save yourself the risk of electric shocks and possible complications, I would recommend you to purchase these in the United States. Microwaves are as cheap as US$40, irons as cheap as US$10 and much more.

Asian Food, Everywhere
Okay, I may sound bias because I'm blessed to be based in Seattle, Washington. Close by the University of Washington is the street filled with Asian-operated eateries known as the Avenue (Ave for short). This means that you need not worry about not getting your food security while living thousands of miles away from home. You'll also soon discover that practically, most of the Asian condiments, noodles, rice, paste... are widely available in the local Asian supermarket - and are decently priced. I could get noodles for US$2 and be able to make 6 meals with it - how about that?

Medication and Vitamins
Unless you have very specific medications that are prescribed by your doctors, there isn't really a strong need for "over-prepartion" of medications because drugstores are literally everywhere. In fact, for vitamins, you'll get access to them at ridiculously low prices to keep you healthy and sane.

Amazon Prime Membership
Are you are student on student exchange programme. Shout: Hurray! Amazon is so generous that they are offering you a six months trial on their Amazon Prime membership program - which is simply so very awesome. You get two days free delivery on almost everything that is checked with a Prime symbol, and no surprises, most of the prices are cheaper than in stores.

Groceries Shopping
There is a trick to doing this, when you first arrive, or a couple of days before you do... you should go onto walmart.com and begin ordering the things you will need (detergent, sponges, fabric softener, peanut butter, pillow, bed spread, fruit jam, blender, water pitcher, microwave safe ware...). Once you exceed the minimum order of US$50, you'll get free delivery. (Please don't look like a complete idiot rushing everywhere on the first few days and carrying tonnes and tonnes of heavy items back to your home). Also, look out for first time customer coupons too - you might just be lucky to get a US$20 off your first order.

Walgreen, Safeway and QFC all have their own "advantage card", which you can get for free with any purchase. Once you are equipped with that card, you get to enjoy a lot of discounts on most items you buy. I realised that things are much cheaper here, you can have quality food affordably.

Study Related Matters
Check for arbitrage opportunities (google if you don't understand) between the U.S. issued textbook sold second hand in Singapore and the prices you can get for resale in the U.S. You must ensure it is the U.S. edition and you can potentially earn yourself US$100 just for buying the book in Singapore, flying it with you, and reselling in the U.S. Bingo, financial arbitrage - easy money for students!

Make sure you buy foolscap paper in Singapore before coming over, because the paper here is really expensive... especially if you study engineering or math related stuff... imagine the stack of paper you will use. Your wallet will thank you for it.

Contrary to popular beliefs, business school in the United States are also graded on a curve and students are generally competitive and highly participative in class. The quality of education here is definitely high and you will gain a lot of knowledge from the time you are here. Homework assignments tend to be due weekly for most classes.

Bank Accounts Matters
Always advice your banker to open two separate accounts - one is your saving account and one is your operational account. Your checking card (debit card) will be tied to your operational account so that you can keep the balance in this account low, in case of card theft, robbery or misuse. The bank will give you a mobile banking pin which you can use to make transfers between these two accounts.

If you are not carrying all your cash in U.S. over from Singapore and plan to do a wire transfer - be prepared for service fees from the U.S. side of approximately US$25 for receiving the money. This is in addition to the charges imposed by the Singapore bank. Some people said Citibank account can withdraw money in the U.S. for free (please check that this is true, and that you have a Citibank ATM in your state as well).

If you plan to travel to Canada or elsewhere during your trip, change all your currency in Singapore. Travelex and the banks charges US$10 in general for all forms of currency exchange - you wouldn't want to experience that like I did.

Library Card
There is a way to get a library card and sometimes you get privileges that accompanies it. In Seattle, with a Public Library Card, you can make bookings on museums tickets for free. However, do note that you will need to produce a form of proof of residential address at the library when you collect your card. You would normally be paying between US$15-25 for each museum you visit. New slots opens at 9pm everyday one month advance booking - you will have to snatch the tickets fast! They are gone in seconds!

You can also borrow books and other materials from the library for your reading pleasure (this includes travel guides to help you plan your road and air trips).

The Human Brain

The Human Brain - GEM2027 Informative Speech

I.               “The human brain is the most complicated organisation of matter that we know” – Isaac Asimov

a.    The human brain weighs approximately 1300 grams (Hartmann, 1994), is hidden within its bony shell and “washed by protective fluid” (National Institutes of Health, 2015).

b.    Dr. Suzana Herculano-Houzel’s research suggests that the human brain has over 86 billion neurons (Voytek, 2013). These neurons transport messages in the brain by firing up electrical impulses to the relevant receptor organ (Society for Neuroscience, 2012).

Let us begin by examining how the brain alerts us to danger.     

I.               The human brain alerts us to danger by initiating body stress responses.

a.    When our eyes or ears perceive stressful situations, information is sent to the amygdala. The amygdala is an area in our brains that processes emotions. If danger is perceived, distress signals are sent to the hypothalamus (Harvard Mental Health Letter, 2011).

b.    The hypothalamus functions like a command center in the brain and communicates with other parts of our body through the central nervous system (Mora, Segovia, del Arco, de Blas & Garrido, 2012). This increases breathing rates, blood pressure, heartbeat and glucose levels (Harvard Mental Health Letter, 2011).

c.     However, long-term stress responses have detrimental effects on our health.

                                              i.     A research by the University of California, Los Angeles proved that cortisol, a stress hormone released into the body, weakens the immune system (Choi, Fauce, Effros, 2008). As a result, it is easier to fall sick (The Franklin Institute, 2004).

 Apart from alerting us to danger, our brain works wonders when we interact with others.               

   

II.             The human brain plays an important role in establishing rapport during social interactions.

a.    Mirror neurons in our brain facilitate how we interact with others.

                                              i.     According to Dr. Iacoboni (2009), a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, she discovered that mirror neurons are activated both when an action is performed and when we watch others performing “that same action”.

b.    Mirror neurons allow us to build rapport with people subconsciously.

                                              i.     A social experiment conducted by Chartrand and Bargh in 1999 proved that imitation of human behaviours occurs subconsciously (as cited in Dijksterhuis, 2005, p. 210).

1.     In each room, a researcher worked with a participant on a task. The researchers pretended to be another participant in the same experiment.

2.     Some of the researchers engaged in nose rubbing while the others engaged in foot shaking.

3.     Participants in rooms with researchers deliberately rubbing their nose were found to rub their nose more often.

Now that we have seen how our brain alerts us to danger and facilitates interaction, let us move on to find out what our brains does while we are asleep.

             

III.           The human brain undergoes incredibly complex processes during sleep.

a.    John Peever, director of the System Neurobiology Laboratory at the University of Toronto, said: “The function of sleep has mystified scientists for thousands of years, but modern research is providing new clues about what it does for the mind” (Scientific America, 2015).

b.    The brain creates and strengthens memories during sleep (National Institutes of Health, 2013).

                                              i.     The hippocampus is the part of the brain associated with long-term memory (Kryukov, 2008).

                                            ii.     An experiment conducted by neurobiologist Jan Bord, and neuroscientist, Ullrich Wagner found that our brain “replays, processes, learns and extracts meaning” as we sleep
(Konnikova, 2015).

1.     A relatively challenging math task was taught to a group of participants. The simpler way to solve the problem was not disclosed to them. In the process, a few participants solved it on their first attempt.

2.     The participants were retested after eight hours. Sixty per cent of the group who slept during the eight hours discovered the alternative solution while less than twenty five per cent of the sleepless group did.

Indeed, the human brain is part and parcel of life. From processing perceived danger and initiating body stress responses, to the facilitation of daily social interactions, and most importantly, the consolidation of memories while we are asleep

I.               In conclusion, now that we have a better understanding of how involved our brains are in everyday life, I hope that you are inspired to find out more about the inner workings of your mind.

II.             Like what Isaac Asimov once said: “The human brain is the most complicated organisation of matter that we know”.

a.    Your journey of discovery awaits!

Choi, J., Fauce, S. R., & Effros, R. B. (2008). Reduced telomerase activity in human T lymphocytes exposed to cortisol. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 22(4), 600-605.

Dijksterhuis, A. (2005). Why we are social animals: The high road to imitation as social glue. Perspectives on imitation: From neuroscience to social science, 2, 207-220.

Hartmann, P. (1994, June 15). Normal weight of the brain in adults in relation to age, sex, body height and weight. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8072950

Harvard Mental Health Letter. (2011, March 1). Understanding the stress response. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from Harvard Medical School: http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response

Iacoboni, M. (2009). Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. Annual review of psychology, 60, 653-670.

Konnikova, M. (2015, July 8). The Work We Do While We Sleep. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/why-we-sleep

Kryukov, V. I. (2008). The role of the hippocampus in long-term memory: is it memory store or comparator?. Journal of integrative neuroscience, 7(01), 117-184.

Mora, F., Segovia, G., del Arco, A., de Blas, M., & Garrido, P. (2012). Stress, neurotransmitters, corticosterone and body–brain integration. Brain research, 1476, 71-85.

National Institutes of Health. (2015, April 17). Know your Brain. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/know_your_brain.htm

National Institutes of Health. (2013, April 1). Sleep On It. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from National Institutes of Health: https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/apr2013/feature2

Scientific America. (2015, August 13). What Happens in the Brain During Sleep? Retrieved September 26, 2015, from Scientific America: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-happens-in-the-brain-during-sleep/

Society for Neuroscience. (2012, April 1). The Neuron. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from Brain Facts: http://www.brainfacts.org/brain-basics/neuroanatomy/articles/2012/the-neuron/

The Franklin Institute. (2004, February 4). The Human Brain. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from The Franklin Institute: http://learn.fi.edu/learn/brain/stress.html

Voytek, B. (2013, May 20). Are There Really as Many Neurons in the Human Brain as Stars in the Milky Way? Retrieved September 25, 2015, from Nature: http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/brain-metrics/are_there_really_as_many

My First Module Review

Faster than I thought, I am almost arriving at the end of my second year in University. It has been an exciting journey filled with challenges and personal growth. Since the United States of America is pretty well known for finance education, I believe that my upcoming semester with the Foster School of Business, University of Washington, will be an extraordinary one! I am looking forward to my semester abroad, where I can learn more about the culture, people and places. Hurray!

Now, let me get back on topic to share about the modules taken in Semester 1, Academic Year 2015/16 with NUS Business School. As I have lesser modules to be taken locally due to my study abroad plans, I was enrolled in four modules: GEM2027 Public Speaking and Critical Reasoning, FIN2004 Finance, DSC2008 Business Analytics - Data and Decisions, and MNO2007 Leadership and Ethics.

GEM2027 Public Speaking and Critical Reasoning

For a business student, this module strongly complemented all the positive skills I've learnt from ES2002 Business Communication. It demanded of me a substantial amount of research work, proper referencing and speech delivery (I think I wanna post my speech on the human brain here). I have to say that scoring an A for Business Communication does not guarantee an A for this module. This module helps you realise that the ability to speak well does not depends solely on your delivery skills, but on your reasoning skills as well. We have seen toastmaster speakers screwing this module up too. My advice is for any potential students to know what you are signing up for. This is a demanding module, but I promise you, your life can potentially change for the better!

FIN2004 Finance

Seek to understand rather than calculate - that is the key advice I can give. I noticed students with the ability to calculate answers and they scored awesome marks during mid-terms, but when it comes to the fundamental understanding, it was shockingly lacking. For our semester, we were given the hardest paper in the history of NUS Business School - it was a paper designed not to be completed. I have to applaud the Professor because the paper tested more than just knowledge and understanding, but each student's ability to be decisive, quick and accurate. There was practically no way to effectively prepare for the exam because it was our first time attempting questions of that level of complexity. Despite the challenges of this module, we discovered much more about finance, and of course, with my Professor injecting his personal experiences into lessons.

DSC2008 Business Analytics - Data and Decisions

One of the darkest moments every business student will have to go through - even the professors said so! Taking this module with higher level accounting or heavy workload modules is calling for disaster, so be careful on that. For a minority of scholars, it was a piece of cake. The module is highly practical for the finance and analytics career paths, so please do put in effort. Surprisingly, the open book exam was super easy and I was surprised that I did relatively well. Haha, I spent a lot of my semester pursuing other stuff, so I didn't study as hard for this one. Life isn't all about studying!

MNO2007 Leadership and Ethics

The majority of business school students will see this module as a challenge because of the level of class discussions and assignments. For me, I really love management modules. It is not fluff because you need to back your claims up. There was a paired project, group presentation, weekly one-pager submission and a 30% essay quiz at the end. The quiz is known to be the differentiator for grades and there is high convergence of marks for all other components. The quiz consisted of writing 2-page essays for each of the questions, choose 3 out of 4 questions, within a time limit of 1.5 hours.

It was a wonderful semester, considering my time was more freed-up to do things I enjoy - singing, teaching, mentoring and thinking about life. Life isn't all about grades - honestly - it's about living life to the fullest, doing what you love and enjoy

My Freshman Year in NUS

Freshman Year in the National University of Singapore was a major transition for my life. Back in August 2014, I felt as if I was liberated after living a regimental lifestyle for two years during National Service. I no longer had to wake up at 0530 in the morning, nor have to let others decide what I do each day. But this newfound freedom translated to a pressing need for me to scrutinise my daily activities, to see if they are aligned with my  goals.

Dr. AR Bernard once said: "Don't confuse movement with progress. Don't confuse talent with purpose." These were the key guidelines I adopted throughout my first year of university life, and even today. I have to admit that there were countless thoughts that went through my mind each day because I felt that every decision I make can have a long-term impact on my academic journey and my future career path. You know what? Contrary to what other often perceived of me, first semester in university was a period of change for me. In fact, the entire freshman year was spent ensuring that my foundation for the remaining years were set right and firm. I did not want to live in regret.

NUS Business School's career services shared about what we need to focus on during our academic journey, in order to be on the right career path. They shared during our scheduled seminar that employers are looking out for a couple of things: (1) Academic performance, (2) Leadership experiences, (3) Co-curricular activities, (4) Overseas experiences and (5) Internship exposure. When I first heard that in week one, it was overwhelming to me! Thoughts went through my mind: "Where should I start? What should I do?" On hindsight, it was a blessing that they presented things upfront with openness so that we can decide on our three or four years plan. That is the reason why I shared all these upfront to business school freshman during Tembusu College's orientation week this year.

As a highly introverted person, I very much need quietness and solitude in order to embark on my creative thinking process. There were people who felt that I should be involved in more social activities and events that requires lots of interaction with others. To be honest, I felt pressured as I was convinced that I have an obligation to involve myself with the same activities as these people were participating in. However, in College, I came to the realisation that everyone is unique. All of us have different priorities and there isn't a need for anyone to conform to the accepted social norms. I learnt to liberate myself from the opinions of others. I learnt to walk the walk I believe in, the walk I should be taking.

In freshman year, I established my priorities. The decisions I made were constantly checked to ensure that they are bringing me closer to my goals. Seriously, I still do not know how I survived year one, but it just happened. Surprisingly, these were most of the things I did apart from academic work:

• Technical Analyst with NUS Investment Society
• NUS Investment Banking Club Weekly Training
• Attain London College of Music Popular Vocals Certification
• Taught Piano Lessons
• Volunteered regularly with SgCares
• Served in Church choir and backup vocals
• Conducted Student's Tea at Tembusu College (Coach Joshua Luke)
• Participated in Tembusu Negotiation Workshop
• Participated in UTown Debates Workshop
• Participated in Fellow's Tea
• NUS UTown Ambassador
• NUS Business Case Championships 2015 Committee
• Attended Imperial College London Summer School
• Attended Asia Pacific Student Leaders Forum 2015

Despite my busy schedule, there was one thing that I constantly held on to - and that was serving God. I know that when we put God first, God will bless and reward us. I do not usually reveal my personal prophecies from God, but here was what I heard from God during one morning back in School of Theology on 14 March, 2012: "You will get a place in NUS and you will graduate. See yourself receiving that scholarship letter. You will receive your scholarship. Don't look too far ahead, take this first step in faith. God is for you, who can be against you?"

Today, I want to give thanks to God for:

• Imperial College Scholarship
• Li & Fung Scholarship
• NUS Business School Study Award (which I gave up due to personal reasons)
• University of Washington Student Exchange

God said: "You will receive your scholarship. Don't look too far ahead, take this first step in faith." I realised that He wanted me to rely on Him every step of the way. He did not want me to get it all at once. He was testing my faith in Him.

Year two is a brand new journey, and I am halfway through it. I have uncertainties ahead. But what can I say? My trust is in God. He is the author and finisher of our faith. My whole purpose of living is to pursue Christ. I do not desire to be the best, but to be the best that I can. No matter where that leads me to, I will obey, I will be satisfied.

Prosperity Gospel: Are We Buying It?

The term "Prosperity Gospel" is widely used and propagated by believers in the States because of tele-evangelists who had unfortunately taken the true Gospel of Christ to an extreme. This is commonly known as the "naming and claiming theology" - that if we positively confess what we want, God will have no choice but to answer it. I think this theology is totally flawed and is not a theology that we believe in. We must be clear that a balanced and full understanding of the word of God is what we must have.

It is saddening that fellow believers hastily generalise the theology that is adopted based on one or two messages that they have heard delivered from the pulpit. The truth is that a theology that is adopted by a Church can only be captured by a comprehensive array of messages delivered over time, and not just one or two messages. That can be piecemeal in nature.

First and foremost, let me make my stand clear, that I do not believe in the prosperity gospel, but a balanced Gospel of Christ that is biblical. In this blogpost, we will explore different schools of thought and examine them carefully.

Let us consider some verses to begin with.

Deuteronomy 8:13,18

When your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and ALL that you have multiplied...And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth...

Genesis 26:12-14

Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possession of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.

Matthew 19:23-24

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Matthew 6:24

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Now, is the bible conflicted? Are scriptures contradicting themselves? One one hand, we see faithful servants of God prospering in wealth and possessions, and on the other, we notice that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

1st School of Thought: Poverty equates to Spirituality

As mentioned in the previous post, Plato's dualism has strong influences on the majority of our belief system even up till today, and most believers just accept it as true teachings, because it passed down the chain of command within the denomination or leadership. This relates to lower levels of the POW misery comfort scale. Believers who subscribes to this belief lack the fullness of God's word because of their myopic focus on verses like Matt 19:23-24 and Matt 6:24. They believe that prosperity is not from God and are fearful that having more wealth means storing up treasures on earth. They believe that having more money equates to serving mammon. This is a theology that is skewed to one extreme and is clearly of error - it is influenced by pagan teachings from Greek origins.

2nd School of Thought: The Prosperity Gospel

The Prosperity Gospel believes that God will prosper me, bless me, make me rich because God have to, as long as we follow the sowing and reaping patterns, as long as we have the faith to believe. This form of theology is self-serving, self-centred and lack spirituality. It is naming and claiming the promises of God. This school of thought takes verses such as Deut 8:13,18 and Gen 6:12-14 to an extreme, and it is in itself also a theology of error.

3rd School of Thought: The Primary Reason for Prosperity is to serve the Purposes of God

This is the balance view that takes into account the fullness of the word of God. It is not skewed towards one or the other extreme, but accounts for a thoughtful comprehension of God's truths. This is the belief that I subscribe to, and I believe my Church subscribes to. God is not against us having money, but money having us. We observe that the rich young ruler in Matt 19 was unable to let go of his possessions because of his love for money, and because of that, it was impossible for him to enter the kingdom of God. It does not matter how much money we have, we know this from Isaac, Abraham, Job and other biblical characters - they were rich. But, it does matter where our heart is. We cannot serve God and mammon, but we can channel our money to serve the purpose of God.

Becoming rich should never be our objective (this is totally wrong) but the desire to serve God's purposes is. We know God calls people to become financial supporters, because in today's age, we have to agree that we cannot effectively serve the purposes of God to bring the Gospel to all the world without sufficient resources. Let us recognise that God has a greater purpose than what our minds can comprehend. We mustn't let our narrow-mindedness blind us to what God is doing among his people. We are living in the last days, our hearts must be right before God.

The primary reason for prosperity is to serve the purposes of God!

The Pagan Teaching of Sacred Secular Divide

I grew up in an Anglican church, and was brought up with the mindset that everything of the world is worldly and that Christians should have no part in it. I believed in the mindset that serving God full-time is the highest calling one can obtain, and that having a job in the marketplace was considered second-class. But, as I began to study the word of God, I realised that Paul was both a tent maker and an effective preacher. The more I read, the more convinced I became. I think the important thing here is to note that many believers are still holding on to this wrong mindset for the longest time, and they refuses to adopt a biblical worldview that calls us to be relevant to society. This is a mindset influenced by pagan philosophers! It is dangerous to subscribe to such beliefs without a clear and balanced interpretation of the word of God.

"As the church grew and extended its borders outside Jerusalem believers became influenced by a wide array of philosophies. The purity and power of the message were affected by the dominant culture, which became the Greek culture. The time following the two major Jewish revolts of AD 70 and AD 135 saw a Greek, man-centered view of the world reshape the church. Early Greek scholars like Plato introduced dualism, which says that life is divided into two compartments: the spiritual or eternal, and the temporal realm of the physical. Plato's dualism entered the church through many of the church fathers that were Greek philosophers who had converted to Christianity. They attempted to reconcile Greek thought with Christianity."
Quoted from http://www.intheworkplace.com/apps/articles/?articleid=13265&columnid=1935

I will reflect based on lessons learnt from the Cultural Mandate while in School of Theology. The Scriptures instructs us that we are "in the world" but not "of the world". This means that we are to remain in this social order of this world, but warns us to not adopt the values of this world - the evilness, the pagan mindset and products of human nature. There are distinct differences in the use of the word "world" in all these verses when we study the original Greek words, which are often neglected by the religious believers. However, I will not take time to go into that. Let us see what Jesus prayed in John 17:15-18 (NKJV): I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 

Jesus did not pray that believers should be removed from the world (social order), but rather He sent us into the world - to change it, to transform it, and to redeem it. When we make a decision not to engage the world, we are walking in direct defiance to God. This is also where I wish to introduce the flawed argument that God calls a Church only to either fruitfulness or faithfulness, and not both. The logic is really simple. When we are truly faithful to God, we will decide to become fruitful. This fruitfulness is more than just having the fruits of the Spirit, but is to become fishers of men. Jesus did not stay in the temple all day to pray, but was out there in the marketplace, where the hurtful and broken were. He was living out God's heart.

I also learnt that work is not a product of sin. Adam was given work to do in the Garden of Eden. Work is something that is sacred. It is a demonstration of our service towards God. There is a difference between a job and ministry. A job is a means to earn money. But a ministry is a place where God leads you to and you bring the presence of God into. When we take the anointing of God into our job, it becomes a ministry.

Let me now introduce the Misery Comfort Scale of Prisoners of War:
Level 1: Resignation - Give up and die with dignity
Level 2: Survival - Even though the war may not be won, they can improve their living condition on their own
Level 3: Limited Change - Longer exercise time, larger quantity of bread and water
Level 4: Fortification - Quiet secure weapon and secret training, believing they can overtake the camp and prevent the enemies from coming back.
Level 5: Liberate Others - Liberate their own POW camp and other camps, with the objective to free every camp into victory.

Let us now draw it into context with the current churches:
Level 1: There is no hope for change in the world. Church against the world, and the world against the Church.
Level 2: Let me earn sufficient money to survive with my family
Level 3: There will be limited change happening in the world, do the best I can.
Level 4: Decide to take over demonic stronghold. Members stay away from the world and don't engage it, for fear of contamination. The Church builds four walls around it and become critical, judgemental and gatekeepers of the Kingdom.
Level 5: Disciple all members and equip them with the word of God. Set prisoners free with the Gospel of Christ. Recognise that the harvest field is the marketplace. Allow the Gospel to be preached in to all the world (all the social orders).

We must not buy in to the sacred secular divide. This is the time for harvest. We mustn't be passive, but active. We cannot hold back now, we have to stand strong. We have to influence and change our world for Jesus Christ.