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(Thursday, May 10, 2007-)
+8:18 AM]*
# The Countdown
Wednesday
Hmmm.. the day started off slow, with me waking up late. Haha. Which meant i reached school late, but it didn't matter cuz i ponned assembly anyway. Haha. And i had no lessons till 11.40, so it really doesn't matter what time reached. But yeah, last few days of my work now. Should endeavour to make the best of my few days here.
Oh, this is also likely the last post in a long time cuz i'll be returning this wonderful laptop that has served me well (well, well enough that i haven't thrown it down a flight of stairs cuz it is so frustratingly laggy!!!). But yes, it has served me well enough to prepare my lame powerpoint slides, to play Gem TD, to MSN, to BLOG!, to visit ur blog (yes i mean you!), to surf the net randomly, and to get my own lovely iGoogle and Google desktop!
Yup, this is the end of an era. So from now on, this will be version 2.0 of my blog, from a different com. Yeah.
Ok, this is so turning out not to be a Wednesday post. I need to know how to do that strikeout html. Anyone know can tag?
Yes, this is not related to wednesday but rather next next weekend. Aurora XI is coming up, and i dun feel like going alone although i want to support shuming (ferena, so sad u're not gonna be there...) so if anyone wants to go for guitarconcert, pls tag me ya? Oh, on that note, anyone knows how to get to ACS Barker for (:hoyer (stolen from Carian) concert? Reflections VIII i think. Yeah, anyone wanna go pls tag or Carian, Shi Yun, Valarie wil have noone (aka me) to support them.
Ok ok, in general, if anyone wants to go with me (haha, i sound so despo now.. ee..) for any of te remaining concerts, pls tag? Sorry saturday concerts are out, i have YA on saturdays.
Oh ryte, back to
Wednesday
Haha, what happened today. Had my officially most unproductive class of my teaching career. Yes, i did NOTHING for 50 minutes (although Zoe, i hope things are ok). Yup, 06 persuaded me to let them do nothing while they take home the compre. Well, its sort of their problem cuz tonight they will realise they haven done it yet, and they will realise 1 and a half hours is freaking a lot of time, yet insufficient to complete the work. But a reminder: please only use 1.5 hours ya. Be fair.
Ok, now comes the best part. After lessons, it was... LUNCH TIME! My last time eating lunch out with JoJo and Eugene, so we went to our favourite Pizza Hut! Yup, yes it was raining, but that didn't stop 3 determined RTs (who had other motivations as well... hehe...) We waited at the bus stop, only for the rain to get heavier so we cabbed to the interchange. Such a waste of money, but oh well, today is special =) When we reached,the taxi stopped by the side of the road, as we were abt to leave, this car came and stopped RIGHT BESIDE US! like... hello?? we need to get out? So aft a while, the car reversed and re rushed out and stepped into pizza hut.
Oh did, i mentioned we brought TWO Rubik's along. The 3 and the 4 one. We were the center of attraction and one lady even asked us about it. Haha, we were rather bored waiting for the pizzas u see. Oh, without us realising, Eugene ordered TWO LARGE pizzas for the 3 of us... Like.. thats crazy man.. and he even ordered some meatballs, which were nice (=
Then i started to seriously time my 3X3 Rubik's solving time, and my record for yesterday was 1 minute 31 seconds! Yay, but my all time best is still 1 minute 14 seconds! Haha, but Eugene's best is 54 seconds.. so pro... My average is abt 2 minutes, plusminus 15 seconds? And JoJo was trying te 4x4 Revenge cube, and it didn't work out. We need to figure that last bit out. Final TWO corners won't match... eeww...
Anyway the pizzas came and we literally stuffed ourselves. JoJo had a record 4 and a half, i had 5 and eugene 6 and a half (although he claims 7 and a half! haha) Eugene's record is apparently 10 pieces, which is highly believable. And we stoned at the Hut for another hour to digest our food. Of course, concurrently, Staff Conference was going on. OOOPPSS? hehe.
After feeling quite well digested, we walked back to TJ. But before that, while we were eating SPRING SINGAPORE gave me a call! Yaynesses!!! They want to schedule an interview for me! Yay!! Haha!! But the lady herself sounded more unprepared than me. Must be some new secretary or something, she called, and asked for my surname. Like, shouldn't i be asking u? Haha. But who cares, its a round 3 callback!! YAY THANK YOU GOD!!
Things got better, in my email, NTU is asking me to send stuff for ASEAN consideration, Nanyang Sch consideration, as well as C N Yang Scholarship! NUS, please wake up before NTU grabs me with open arms and hugs me close! Haha, sounds gay, but NUS, please send me SOMETHING??? Yeah anyway, i wanna go NUS, but they are being irritating..
In school, i gemmed and lost again to Eugene, his towers all so nice lar... But at least i didn't leak and die. Hehe. Only won special crafter once. 14 leh, how to reach... Then talked a bit with JoJo before Eugene had to leave. He helped me book movie tix for Orang Labah Labah Tiga (thats in Malay) and im gonna watch with Heri tmr (which is today lar) So, yeah, its $16.50 for two ppl, but i guess the ppl are worth it!
Ok, went for cell today. Let's jz say what we need most is FOCUS. Not to talk abt ppl butt, or how fat we are. Haha, really funny, but yeah, unless u were at cell u won't understand the jokes. And guess what, they ordered pizza. Bringing my grand total of slices of pizzas ate in one day to 7!! My record!!
Ok, after cell, we were still arguing abt which way to walk back, and the guys eventually rleneted and walked the girls to their bus stops although we didn;t know what buses we had. Funniest moment is when FX and MY ran across the road and tried to stop bus 30 when they actually thought it was 33. Haha. Second funniest is FX wanting to wait at a deserted bus stop cuz she didn't see that the road was closed. Haha.
Rubik's on my way home until overshot my bus stop. Haha, good thing nobody with me, not so paiseh. Hehe. Reached home, got a little "nagging" to throw rubbish away and to put the clothes rack back after use. I was giving the im-blur look and said ok. Hosea came back today too! Yay. Ok, went online, chatted and slept!
Shout outs!
Trinity - Congrats!
Cass - Hang in there! God can change hearts!
03,06,21 - I'll miss u guys
C2 - All e best for ur test
Yumei - Be strong =)
RTs - I'll miss you guys
TJC - Bye.....Labels: ASEAN, C N Yang, Carian, Cell Group Meeting, Choir, Ferena, FX, Guitar, MY, NTU, NUS, pizza, Rubik's, Shi Yun, Shuming, SPRING SG, Valarie, Version 2.0, Zoe
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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(Sunday, March 4, 2007-)
+2:54 PM]*
# Heart of Worship
Saturday
Im still ecstatic over my A level results. Hehehe. My cell group also did quite well. Shall not write their results here lest they get angry if people find out, but lets jz say there are two 8D people, one 5D, one 4A, many great results that God blessed!
Yeah! I was really awesome. And today started off well with me waking up relatively on time compared to previous saturdays. Which translates to me being on time for tuition on saturday. So this saturday is different cuz 1 - i was on time 2 - i wasn't a pig!
Gave tuition which was rather easy, just finished Electromagnetism and went through questions. God, thank you for refreshing my memory. Especially the van de Graff machine MCQ. Half way through tuition i found out i wasn't on for today's service so that meant i had the whole afternoon to myself. That's where the A level blog came in.
MRTed from Toa Payoh to Bedok and stopped for KFC there. First KFC meal in quite a while. Sorry Macs, too many McSpicy's already. At least Macs Mayo n Garlic Chilli is still nicer then KFC's chilli that so hard to open. So i settled for tomato sauce instead. Then almost caught 197 but had to settle for 196 instead.
Reached home and blogged. Then did my pre-service prayer and QT as well. In no time it was time for pre service prayer. In rushing I kept on making mistakes lar. And Gabriel told me to get a projector ready. I thought it was an overhead projector so i typed the 9 names into my phone. I reached there on the dot of 6.15 and disappointed Gabriel. But i still got the most of my sharing prepared. And to my embarrassment, the projector was an LCD one and good thing Rayvin already prepared the slides. I was so blur, confused and embarrassed. But nvm. It went well, enough for me at least for my first time.
Shared on Encouragement - The Spoken Word. First scripture came from QT, Psalm 94v18. Oh wow.. i can remember the chapter and verse. Yup. Then prayed with the Musicians and main idea was on the atmosphere of the service of expectancy and response. Which really came true, but more on that later.
The day was far from over when I ended pre-service at abt 6.55. Went to Hall 3B and the musicians were already there. Met Winnie at the pc/soundboard. Talked a bit and Meredith called me. Realised in all the rush, i forgot my sermon book, Bible and watch. Txs for bringing it to Hall 3B for me! Then Gabriel called me to help him out with the lightings. Which i tried to do but didn't know how to unknot the wires so i just resorted to cutting it. Haha.. Not literally, but quite so. Anyway, didn't follow the right procedure for setting up. Sorry Ying Chuan and L.A Team. Then Joel came and helped with the setting up. Found the most retarded scissors in the world and after struggling, managed to set up the 4 lights. Yes, 4 was an accomplishment k? OK fine, Joel did 1. 3 then. Still good! Haha.
In all the rush, I didn't have time for dinner and the quick run down to SPC was jz left behind. Then it was soon 7.30 and i went to get a drink. Saw MY n BS outside. BS was eating char siew rice. He couldn't finish it and was rushing so i ate the other half. Yay, God blessed me anyway with a dinner! Ok, a mini dinner. Waited for BS and met XiuYu who went in first. Then we went in.
Praise was alright, Now That You're Near still felt far. Then moved into All I Want Is You which was goo and Show Me Your Face, a new song which was nice. Took a while to learn it though. Then too soon, worship was over and it was Gabriel with the announcements and Ying Chuan with his A level testimony. From F/O to A/B. wow...
Then it was the awesomely powerful Rachael Guna with part two to Explosive Praise and Extravagant Worship. Here's a brief run through of the superbly powerful sermon/sharing.
EXTRAVAGANT WORSHIP
Things I didn't know
- God commands us to praise Him when times are good or bad. But He seeks out true worshippers. When we worship in spirit and in truth, God will come and find us, search for us, look upon us.
- Worship comes from the Greek word proskuneo which implies reverence and bowing down
Things that were POW!!
- Worship is intimate. 1 on 1, unlike praise which can be as a group
- It's God focused. So even when we don't "feel" anything from worship, it doesn't matter. Cuz you're supposed to be giving to God. Rachael : "So you mean you have been receiving all this years in your worship?" HAHA... Don't take it wrongly, God blesses and touches us, but its not how we feel after worship that matters, but how God feels
- Between worship and service, God would choose a true worshipper. Cuz all God wants is us, not what we can do for Him. Luke 10v38-42
- We worship first then are we forgiven. So no matter how "unclean" or unworthy we feel, we should still worship Him, then the forgiveness and healing will come. Luke 7v36-50
- God can respond to worship by revealing things to us. This goes out specially to Claire. When the world seems to see the wicked prospering, the evil not being cast away, when things go wrong, we can only start to understand when we worship. Read this RHEMA verse people!!! Psalm 73v16-17
- And finally, not forgetting that God loves us in return when we worship Him. The all powerful Mighty to Save verse is here. I found it out suring QT and remembered it when Zephaniah 3v17 was flashed on the screen. But focus on the ending!
Things that Im still blur about
- What does it really mean when people say God is no man's debtor? Please respond anyone who knows? Either comment or shout/talk please?
- How did Abraham know it was God speaking to Him to sacrifice Isaac? When people teach us to listen to the voice of God, they say check what u heard "from God" agianst what is said in the Bible. The Bible obviously bans us from sacrificing humans, much more our own children. How did this father of faith know God's voice so well?
Please do explain to me if you know in the addition section at the end of this post. Thanks!
Then we went into extravagant worship after the sermon. I have NEVER (I am purposely using an absolute word here) experienced such worship before. It was really, wow. Revived my soul, my inmost being. More than just rejoicing over A levels, im rejoicing on the inside as well.
Church rocks!!! YA rocks!!!
Then we quickly packed up and wanted to continue or surprise for FangXian. This is now Cell Surprise no. 3. We tried to quickly pack up but everyone was everywhere. Quite frustrating and we were late already. Tried to reach airport by 11 but by 10.50 we we still just outside church. The surprise crew consisted of me, BS, MY and Winnie.
We got into a cab finally and reached the airport slightly after 11 but BS had called to make sure FX was still around. Found her shop but no sign of FX, so we walked nearer. Still no sign until suddenly we saw FX come out to close the shop. BS n MY ran to hide beside the shop while Winnie and I dashed under a railing to join BS n MY. Then we stood right beside the shop, leaning against the wall and suddenly, FX came out of the shop to close a door or pull down a shutter. She was like, 30cm away from us and DIDN'T NOTICE US!!! The four of us turned around and walked away thinking what idiots we were standing so close to the shop and got noticed. We were giggling and feeling stupid, but little did we know that FX was more blur.
Waited quite a while above C.E.D.S and saw FX come in and out quite a few times. She had no idea we were above her. MY also tricked me a few times. Darn. Tried the poking thing but not as fun as when I do it on 21-ers. Finally FX came out and BS, then MY and Winnie, then I surprised her. Then we decided to go and eat at Popeye's. Long story cut short, the top 5 blur people of YA, in decreasing order of merit are
1. Wu Fangxian
2. Lim MeiYian
3. Roland Tan
4. Gabriel Gay
5. Unclaimed as of yet, but Winnie apparently has a one day lag time (improved from one week!)
Then we had a long talk on how to get home and after a long long long long deliberation, we decided to cab back at 1 plus am. Not the wisest of choices due to surcharge and airport pick-up, we cabbed 3-2 back to our homes. Decided that one day we will crash FX's house.
Reached home and went online and sms-ed a bit. Replied tags and shouts on my blog. Chatted and then fell asleep. Sorry Winnie.
Sunday
Missed Jayne cuz she was late. Sorry its the last day already. Went to church and sat in the 2nd row for the first time I think. Service was great, but still YA was better. Songs were VERY nicely put together. This Is The Day to Everyday With You Lord. Nice. Then I Could Sing of Your Love Forever. Very nicely done. The sunday worship team is so pro at medley-ing lar... Then had cell talk and Grace from simply joining for the talk was dragged to lunch. Haha. Jean was there too. Yay. Talked and then did our weekly grocery/chocolate shopping.
On my checklist was still the strawberry milk. Hee... and on the choc list was Kinder Bueno. Other chocs n drinks bought were 1.5L coke, 1.25L Kickapoo, Kit Kat Chunky and Black Forest Cadbury.
Then we split our separate ways. Stopped at FX's bus stop a while. Coral, Maddy and Mishuel (obvious spelling error, sorry) joined in a while then i reached home and did this post. Yay. Sunday rocks. Laundry next. Shifting at night I think. Bye room.Labels: BS, C.E.D.S, cab, FX, Gabriel, Jean, MY, Roland, Winnie, Worship
the story ends like this;
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