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(Saturday, July 14, 2007-)
+11:49 PM]*
# Cell Presentation
Today was the day we celebrated our first anniversary as YA. Not the actual date, but it was an actual party. Went down to church early for decor work. Things i found out
-im weak
-Rayvin can go mad when cutting paper
-climbing ladders is fine for me
-Livia is very creative
-the BASC has not too nice chairs
-cookies can smell really nice (=
-i owe Winnie $1.35
It was really nice with colours all over. For hte first time, the YA decor matched the BASC Hall, which is like super kiddish. I mean, they have colours, teddy bears, fished, and everything else kiddish all over the place. And YOUNG ADULTS's decor matched it. Lolz... So much for being grown up eh? But it was a cheery kind of colourful.
So a quick run through of events before we actually start the main highlight. It started with Aiken and Sam emcee-ing, then it flowed on to Michelle for the events of the day. Ps Mark gave a great sharing about our history as Champions for Christ. Why we exist, and that we are NOT a social club. We exist for such a greater purpose than that.
Ok while my other browser window opens up, i'll move along. Oh wait, we had spongebob wetpants game too. Quite funny, and XiuYu is so not violent. Haha, good thing Hui Koon didn't get the ice cold sponge first. But the guys were really violent, and Alex got the worst of it. Hehe.. Sam was mad lar.. threw ice cold water over him when he got the sponge, and we were stil in the hall mind you.. Out came the mops as we hurried to dry up "Fantasy Island" as Michelle called it.
Ah, here it is, after much searching, the awesome Isaiah 19
20It will become a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and He will send them a (AF)Savior and a (AG)Champion, and He will deliver them.
Yup, we are called to be the Champions for Christ (CFC) in our Egypts, in the places we are in, meeting the needs of our generation which cries out for a saviour! So that's who we are!
Fun part of the night was that everyone there got notebooks!! Freee!!!! or was it included in the price.. hmm.. dun think so. But quite fun ryte? YA's birthday and we all get presents. Quite a nice concept (=
Other cool stuff that happened that night, was Alex "the new preacher"'s testimony. Very nice!! *claps n shouts!* haha. The cells were all geared up that night for the main highlight, okay, the newcomers were the main highlight, but this stile ur thunder.... CELL PRESENTATIONS!!
Okay, we had like.. more than a month to do it... but us being us, we stalled and procrastinated and gave excused and lazed our way till this very deadline arrived, and i think i can safely say ALL the cells did theirs this week. Super obvious one was Alvin's cell (not cuz theirs was lousy, but cuz they stayed at Sennett all Friday to complete it)...so here it is... the CELL PRESENTATIONS
Let me start with my very own cell. Ours was the ONLY dual screen presentation using ONE laptop! Haha!! Others (like Bert's) also had dual screen, but they had TWO laptops, i had the privilege of setting up two screen's on my laptop. Ok, TJ's laptop. And the fact is this laptop sucks.. not powerful enough to run a powerpoint and a video without lagging... So sad, and the video is also super small lar.. 7 minutes and only 25mb leh.. Ok, apart from the whining, let's continue to how ours looked like. At first it looked like it was gonna look super business like, black table cloth, black PC, black 2nd LCD screen. Then came along FX the saviour with the colourful decor, which included her darling turtle on a chair, multiple pictures of food and other items (like e-guitars, flutes, food, soccer, food, popiah, food) did i say food? But anyway, it was very highlighting for our exhibition as it was all black other than that! And i also used one as a mouse pad.. hehe.. But anyway, it was really really one of the best exhibits there! Plus James put his Liverpool jersey as part of the tablecloth for our exhibit so it didn't look too black. If i get the photo then i'll upload here lar k? It's on Roland's cam though...
Ok, other exhibits, let's see, right beside ours was the uber loud, sub-woofer blasting, jai-breaking (literally mind you), attention catching, ART INSTALLATION of Rachael's cell. Come on, would you expect anything less from their uber loud cell? They literally made a prison CELL (see the pun) out of scaffolding, and then taped warning notices all over about how this cell helps you to BREAK FREE!! They also played Break Free (from SAVIOUR KING which is not out in SG yet on the blasting Creative Sub Woofer system they installed together with their installation) to go along with the theme. They had before and after photos which were very cool, with captions like
Before : wife-basher (Aiken i think)
After : Demon-basher
Before : prostitute (Rachael)
After : Preacher!!
So funny! And had their cell vision and all that. Not too far away was KINGs INC with their cokie store which was selling cookies for the building fund, along with tjeir blog exhibition. Maybe i should try to get the link so u guys can see. They has pictures of their blog, one big artpiece on their blog and many cookies on sale with a nice green/yellow crepe paper bow (=
Also near us was I dunno who's cell with the super cool "board game" detailing how their cell grew, together with a MacBook "built into the game's 3D board". Quite cool cuz its like there is a hole that has a curtain, and behind is a screen with their cell's movie.
Then Vanessa's cell, which is the biggest cell with 10 people had this really huge board with the cityscape in black. Then they punctured holes and fit lightbulbs into the buildings with their cell members names on it. So cool ryte? Being literally the light of the world!! Then they even had free lightsticks at their booth. Also close by was Livia's cell, which had free Hershey's Kisses and a nice photo slideshow, photo banner, and two sheets on their cell with info on their goals, profile and such.
Other interesting ones.. wait.. they were all interesting.. REALLY! were Bert's cell which had this whole flash thing going on, where they had this whole story about how their cell is like this group which is being hunted down but got saved by God. Cool with all the special Flash effects in their video. Nicely done! Also had Alvin's cell which had the video of themselves, together with many items on sale. Quite ridiculous ones, all from the youth room. Even had broken drum crash cymbal on sale. Haha!
Then there was also Chellie's cell which had this huge board divided into 20 parts, and every member took one, together with their cell goals and all, with 3 empty spaces for growth! And Meredith or Meredicks as she is called, was giving a lecture on their presentation with a thin stick. Quite funny! And also Jayne pointed out her S.H.E picture in her box, together with her favourite "SALE" picture.
I think that is all the cell presentations, but i think if i can get the pictures only willl you guys know how awesome cool every cell's presentation was!!
I think my cell did quite well. IT was quite well done, if i don't literally say so myself, Decor had a touch of colour, while the double screen made it stand out. Oh, we had a lamp installed in as well to give light to the display as it was a night party.
Other cool stuff, Jayne's back from Korea, Chellie and I think this should be our Emerge! conference, where the cell exhibition will be the main highlight as we set to display our cells in all its glory and creative awesomeness!!
Haha, what else can i say about YA. We are just a bunch of awesome people, serving the most awesome God!!!
Nitez people, hope u enjoyed the party! (= Cheers!Labels: Aiken, Alvin, Bertrand, Cell Presentation, Jayne, Livia, Meredith, Michelle, Ps Mark, Rayvin, Roland, Sam, YA 1st Birthday
the story ends like this;
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(Sunday, April 1, 2007-)
+6:35 PM]*
# Unfailing Love
Saturday
It was a busy day for me. At least I enjoyed what I did. Although a certain hollowness was still apparent. But i still loved the way it played out. Smiles.
Started of with chem tuition which was ok until a certain ACJC Prelim question had to leave me looking like a noob. What on earth is a relative concentration cell. ACJC ppl already so rich wanna use all this kind of weird weird cells meh... Anyway, at least i still can remember my chem quite well. Txs God!
Then I MRTed back to Bedok, had Macs for lunch, which was my last significant meal of the day and then bought my stamps, envelopes and some chocolates. Hehe. Then headed home. Bumped into Ying Xiu outside TJ too (=
Took a quick shower and was abt to leave when i checked my phone and i forgot to email Ms N some stuff. So sorry Rachael. That's why i was late for abt 15 mins for music prac. Oh, ryte. Then it was music prac. YAYNESSES!! I was finally able to play bass for YA!
The music prac was really nice, cuz the music sort of came together, it was not too clashy or anything, jz that the style wasn't ryte. And we took like close to two hours on Jesus I Surrender. Come to think of it,i also dunno why. Haha! But the practise was nice. Yay.
Then soon it was time for YM so we had to leave and went to 2-02 to continue our little discussions on the technicalities like who plays what at when and how. Shall make this very quick since Windows crashed on me jz now.
Pre-service prayer was great with Melvin sharing on what do we really want to pray for. Service was also good with One Way being the praise song. Sorry i didn't get the bridge rhythm ryte. Txs to Alvin for showing me the power chords fingering when i turned back although he was like halfway doing a solo.
Then Ps Mark taught us the Tenets of Faith of the Assemblies of God Churches. Funny joke-dogs won't be in heaven. Really?? Read Revelation 22v15. Haha.
Then had news that BS was in NUH. Rushed down with EIGHT Kit Kat Chunky White for him and talked a while before cabbing back home. Walked a lot. Siglap Center to Sennett.
Palm Sunday
Day started off early as i was the runner boy for the SPKC to give them the mikes and the signal. The announcement that was really good was the Royal Rangers one where Isaac was dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow and stole quite a few stuff before making off with the Royal Rangers flag was so funny and nicely done!
Ps Jonathan's msg was really GOOD!! Abt the crowds who shouted "Hossana in the highest. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the LORD" and by the end of the week, it became CRUCIFY HIM!
Search our hearts. Are we really like that when God "fails" us? We praise Him when things are good, but when things are bad, we "crucify him" in our hearts.
"If Jesus is not Lord of all, He's not Lord at all"
And txs to Sarah too. And hope ur day turned out well Cass. BS, pray that u'll still be OCS. Tristan - keep on smiling. Zsa - dun be too hard on urself. dIA - continue shining for Him. Su-E - nice to see u on sunday. Dianthaaaaa n e rest, all the best for council!Labels: Alvin, BS, cass, Kit Kat, Melvin, palm sunday, Ps Jonathan, Ps Mark, sarah, SPKC, tenets of faith
the story ends like this;
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(Sunday, March 25, 2007-)
+7:19 PM]*
# The Freedom We Know
Weekends are like battery chargers. They charge batteries! Duh... haha. Yeah, and of course the batteries im referring to are our lives. Yup, but more accurately, its not really weekends but church (cuz YA and Sunday service are obviously on weekends) that recharges my life! Its jz so great to have this "mini-revival" in my soul everytime i step into YA and Sunday is jz like the icing on the cake! So here we go
Saturday
Woke up on time and got ready for tuition. By almost 9am, i was ready to leave the house when Vincent smsed me that he had competition. I was, like, all the best for ur competition. I surprised myself that I wasn't pissed that i woke up early for nothing and jz wanted him to do his best for his comp. Yup. That was significant yet i didn't know it till much later in the day.
Basically used the morning to blog and tried to do QT. Jz read the book and didn't really work out. The rest of the time was jz wasted... Walked towards the 14 bus stop to go to Beer Garden for lunch. Then as I reached Upper East Coast Road i realised i am now staying nearer to TJ and opposite TJ is so much nearer... So I walked back the other way. Haha, so stupid of me...
Had Jap food for lunch and cincau/soya beans. Came back and wasted my afternoon until i had to do laundry. By hand! I washed like 8 t-shirts and many other articles of clothing by hand since the washing machine is spoilt... And it took me close to 2 hours to do it all. Was tired but realised it was time for YA already so took a quick shower and headed to church for the best part of any week! YA Service!!
Reached church roughly about 6.15 and was in time for pre-service prayer although i thought i was late cuz the musicians were alredy praying. But there was a whole bunch of other ppl there waiting so i was in time. The board was ready with the prayer items and today was a significant day as many new ppl were coming. Nelsie was one of the 10 targets for YA who was coming!
Joel lead pre-service prayer for the first time, sort of like how i did it 3 weeks ago. And it was a really good sharing on perseverance. Shared from the story of Pentecost where only 120 received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the upper room when there were originally 500. So we in the "engine room" were like the 120 who have stayed on and we prayed till roughly 7. We also had some sharing by Maddy and we were all ready to get the newcomers feel welcomed.
YM service stretched so we entered first and soon we were setting up the place. Then i met Dickson after a "detour" by Chellie. Haha. Significant nonetheless. Dickson's from MJ. JC with best uniform! And he's from Triton too! So Yi Ning, do u know him? I asked and he doens't know u or the rest from o6 that went there. Oh well, he plans to join canoeing. There were two other girls from MJ but i didn't catch their names.
Other than the fact tehre were many new ppl, James came for the first time (in a long time i think) for YA! And Jeremy came too! Yay. So my cell had a grand total of... 4 people. Sighs. But nevermind, we'll keep on trying to get the rest in. No idea why BS wasn't ard, MY was not well, Su-E and Grace the usual MIA, Matthew, coming soon! Really! and Gabriel at Batam.. looking for a wife according to Bertrand. But actually he's on mission trip there. Yupz.
Service was good with Mich worship leading and the songs were Evermore, Jesus I Surrender and To The Ends of the Earth. Yup. And this was really impactful cuz i felt God speaking to me abt what happened at the start of the day. When Vincent sms-ed me that he coulnd't make it for tuition, it taught me how the Father Heart of God is like.
God is so overflowing with love and when we do something wrong and come back to Him, He so readily forgives us. Loves covers such a multitude of sin that its jz so wrong for us not to come back to Him who is so ready and waiting with open arms to accept us. Especially meaingful to me on how God doesn't "take time to get over our sins" but forgives AND forgets the moment we ask in repentance!! =D!!
And then it was offering and YA fund collection. And then it was sharing by Livia, Aiken and Isaac on the impact that Ignite and Synerg!z conferences had on their lives. And the ever-awesome Pastor Mark shared a concluding msg from abt 15 sermons throughout the whole two day conferences.
Ones that really impacted me were from Ps Matthew Barnett who has this really awesomely amazing Dream Center in LA and hence my nickname - Catching Dreams (check out their purpose and history). Seriously, what are we living for every single day. Do we have a bigger purpose than jz finishing school or eating enough to survive? Do we just, honestly, go through the motions of school and work and waiting for uni or NS. Or are we a people of purpose and a destiny. Such that, in retrospect, 2007 would have been a fulfilling year, one full of growth and dreams fulfilled. For the larger dreams, first steps taken?
And also from Ps Glen, Don't let the frogs stay for one more night. Like.... what??? Okay okay, its abt the ten plagues in Egypt when Pharaoh didn't wanna let the Israelites go, God sent a plague of frogs to punish the Egyptians. And when Moses spoke to Pharaoh to negotiate, Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go. So Moses gave Pharaoh the honor of choosing when the frogs were to be removed and Pharaoh answered... Tomorrow
I mean, how stupid is he?? Imagine ur room right now crawling with cockroaches and the exterminator is at your door and he asks you when u want to get rid of the pests and u think about it for a while.. and you tell him, come back tomorrow morning and you land back on ur bed with cockroaches crawling all over you.
Seems ridiculous that anyone would answer tomorrow right? But how often do we do the exact same thing to God who wants to remove all the stains, dirt and sin in our lives. How often we keep bad habits for one more night. This was so significant for me and it is decided that 24th March will be a turning point in my life! I believe in the altar call and the work has been done!
Yup, really really feel refreshed after the service! Time to dream big once again! Im free to accomplish what God has in store for me! And to make things even better, dinner for that night was on the house! Wow.. how rare is that! Free Pizza and Drinks! Yay! So i ate quite a lot and still there were 2 leftover pizzas. No idea what happened to it. Talked a lot and 12-ed back with Winnie.
MSN-ed as well with a few ppl. BS was online too. Had a nice chat with cass too (= then slept
Sunday
Did NOT wake up on time. Crap. Actually i did, jz that my alarm didn't ring after i snoozed it. No excuse, i was late for church. I got out of bed at 10.45 and reached church by 11.00
I ran more than half the way there... From Sennett to Emmanuel within 15 minutes of waking up. Was sweating quite a bit and so sad that i reached at the end of the praise and worship which must have been awesome.
Briefly sat at the empty row behind FX and then moved to my cell when the announcements were starting. And today it was 4 baby dedications as well. Too bad they were all girls, even the one in blue, and so BS was wrong. Haha. Mathematical Induction failed. Hehe
Ps Ang gave a simple yet strong message on The Cost of Being a Disciple. Things i really learnt from this
-we are not Christians because of our religion, but by our actions, as seen by outsiders. Are you a Christ-ian?
-it really costs something. not $ but our entire life. our priorities. is family more important than Him? is studies? is that special someone?
-it is a call to being doers of the word, WITH A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Him. even if we cast out demons in His name and not have a walk with him, we will not get into heaven.
But the underlying truth is still simple and encouraging. God is ever willing to empower you to achieve your full potential in him. He has the plan and purpose for our life, so committing it to Him, although it may seem to cost us a lot, actually gains is so much more. A really nice quote to sum it up
"He is not unwise who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose"
Think about it. Is IT really worth hanging on to or can God give u something so much better?
Then after the service, had an altar call and i was brought back to think how i haven't been significant at all for Him so far. And its time to change. And that I have really awesome people in church who care so much for me. Who really bother to try and find out how im relaly feeling on the inside and how my life is coming along. Had a good cell time with stand-in cell leader Sarah. Then had great prayer for our cell as well as Matthew who is gonna tell Dr Lee that he won't be a flutist for TPJCSB.
Then we walked to opposite TJ for lunch cuz we missed the bus and joined the newcomers although we were really late. Wwalked here and there quite a lot before settling on where to buy our "groceries" (read:chocolates and snacks) Txs to FX for the Milo Bar and MY for the Doaraemon magnet from 7E! One of it is now on Roland's car! Hehe!
Then had a Bible "picnic" in the haven with our snacks. Matthew, FX and MY with me sat in there and discussed the sermon of the day and the costs that we all pay as well as catch up on each other. In no time it was time to leave and FX took the bus with MY whil Matthew and I walked back. Met Alvin and Mich and talked a lot more. Really encouraging people who care so much! This is where Roalnd's car had the newest addition. Haha!
Then bought my dinner and came back to blog! Hehe. Its really good to live life with You God! The inner peace is just priceless (=Labels: Alvin, bible picnic, BS, cass, dream center, frogs, FX, Matthew, Mich, MY, newcomers, pizza, ps glen, ps matthew, sarah
the story ends like this;
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