(Tuesday, July 3, 2007-)
+5:33 PM]*
+5:33 PM]*
# Thanks
Thanks God for cheering me up. And the few ppl who helped along. Cell mates, u guys are still awesome as always! Students/more of friends now actually, txs for chatting too. Jayne, txs for the email (= Enjoy Korea and see u in YA soon! So excited!!
Here's a little something in tribute to Jayne. Haha! More photos soon as my mod recovers (=
Here's a little something in tribute to Jayne. Haha! More photos soon as my mod recovers (=
Labels: cass, Emmanuel, Jayne, Pras
the story ends like this;
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
(Sunday, April 15, 2007-)
+2:58 PM]*
+2:58 PM]*
# Lose Myself
That's the title of the new song we sang at YA today, once again by Jeff Deyo. Im gonna start with my saturday post cuz weekends jz rock because of church!!
Saturday
No tuition this morning so no need to wake up early. But i still had to wake up early. Sounds so lame. But oh well, i had to go down to ICA to collect my new SVP. This is itself would get a whole post, but i'll jz summarize. On Friday, I went down to ICA and to the non-Singaporeans (and some blur SG ppl) its Immigration and Checkpoints Authority to apply for an extension of my SVP (Social Visit Pass, i told you SG ppl are crazily in love with ACRONYMS!).
Here's how it went down on Friday, rushed down to ICA.. oh no.. this post is turning to my Friday post... oh well, might as well. Ta daaa
Friday!
Had two lessons in the morning about writing an introduction. Dunno if 06 and 21 really learnt anything cuz they were all, i dunno, sounded quite blur to me. But i hope they did benefit from it, at least a little... a tiny bit...? Oh well, i tried.
Then after that, went down to ICA with Sean and Sam who got his friend Andy to tag along. At ICA, we went to the 4th floor after ignoring the millions of people trying to give out flyers, for i don't know what courses outside ICA. Then we had no idea what to do cuz the MOE papers came with no instructions so we went to the information counter and asked the lady there. She seemed like a noob. But what chance do mere mortals have against the almighty ICA? I mean, check out their logo. Its like, fully equipped with Bars and Chains! I mean, that's not a very nice thing to welcome people with. If you dun believe, go and search for the logo urself. I would have uploaded it here, but i realised they are too insignificant to have a place on my blog.
Anyway, we talked to the noob looking lady who gave us a queue number and a form to fill up. We happily walked along, until we realised, the form was for APPLICATION OF A STUDENT PASS. Like... what the... this noob lady didn't understand what we wanted to do. Or so we thought. So Sam went back to ask, and the lady say fill it up. But it needed a photo, and a local sponsor (which actually meant MOE) so Sean went to ask again, and again she said just fill the STUDENT PASS APPLICATION form to apply for an extension of the SVP. Im like, there couldn't be a less confusing way of doing things ryte?
So we waited patiently for 20 numbers to scroll by while marking AQs (so my students, in case u're wondering why u got not-too-nice-looking markings, haha, u know now) and eventually our turn came and when we went to the counter, all they had to do was collect our MOE letter, PASSPORT, STUDENT PASS and EMBARKATION CARD!!
So now, there we were, 4 foreigners in Singapore with totally NO IDENTIFICATION except a QUEUE TICKET telling us to come back tmr form 9 to 12. And to make matters more interesting, Sam who went to a diff counter had to fill in an Embarkation Card as well, and could only collect a week later than us... Unfair.. Discrimination against Vietnamese i tell u! Haha! =p
Okay, so i thought my day was over so i headed back to school to see the ending of the movie screenings. Met cass on the way and i had to whine abt feeling so insignificant at the moment with only a queue ticket as my identity. Txs for listening and sorry to her friends who were like, stoning there while i was talking though. But had nothing to do aft that and didn't feel like intruding into LT1 so talked with Sam (a female Sam) until i reached Gamma's house party. Met Shujing there too! And Jaren as well, with some guy doing a dance on the table *looks away*
Then walked on to the scope and was a little curious why so many 21-ers were there. Then i saw 06 ppl there as well. What luck, both the classes that i teach were having learning journey on the same day! Saw Ms Tay and Mr Neo there. Apparently Mr Neo said something abt being smart and TJC which the girls weren't too happy abt. Then i met even more interesting girls. The ultimate bimbos of 06. Im not gonna mention names but the four girls who were taking photos at the scope know that its them! The funniest moment was when _ _ _ _ _ _ and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ bumped theirs heads into each other. Classic bimbotic moment lar!! They were totally cam-whoring while waiting for the bus to arrive
The bus was late by 45 minutes apparently. And to make matters even better, it went to AHS instead of TJ. Like.. hello, i know there are lots of AHS ppl here, but there are NO TJCians in AHS... But anyway, i should be thnakful that the bus was late cuz in the end, i decided to follow them on their learning journey.
The bus ride wasn't too bad, not too long and Shuming tried to use Malay. Not a bad attempt! =) But i think the others were wondering what we were saying. Haha. Too bad. Go learn Malay! Then finally reached the SCDF (acronym once again, go try and figure it out k?) museum and we were already an hour late.
The tour guide guy was nice and friendly, and at times, he suan-ned the old Fire Brigade of SG. Funniest one was the part abt the Fire Truck which things could fall off and firemen had to jump off, pick the stuff up and climb back on. We started making jokes abt how firemen most likely died jumping off the truck than fighting fires itself. But then again, its top speed was only 16km an hour, so the house probably burnt down to ashes before the fire truck actually came. Poor thing...
We continued listening, had the chance to go into one of the fire trucks and took pictures. Then Abishek cracked one of the exhibit's plastic covering. Oh well, he's Abishek anyway. And he was unanimously sabo-ed to wear the fireproof jacket and the Power Rangers looking helmet. Picture of the day man!! Ferena if u have the photos of today, i want ok? Pls! Txs!
Then went on looking at other exhibits, and confirmed that two particular girls were really bimbos when they banged heads... AGAIN! Im like.. *AHH*-the-way-u-know-it
Then we finally left after taking a group photo. Went to Peninsula which is a real musicians hub cuz of the tonnes of guitar stores and what not. Bought 4 picks for $2, not too bad a deal and gave one back to Alvin whose pick i broke some time ago!
Then, since i actually left TJ without anything other than my HP and a cashless Student EZLink card, i got John to pay for my bus trip back. Well, it's fair cuz they persuaded me to come in the first place! But im gonna pay him back. Chills.
Mass dance test was going on in TJ at that time, but before i reached there, i stopped to see the soccer girls practising set pieces. At least that's what it looked like. Had a bet with Shermin that the wall wouldn't dare to jump and head the ball away but according to Shermin, they would. Oh well, didn't have the chance to see them actually head the ball cuz most of the freekicks were off anyway. So i guess the bandung is gonna have to wait ya Shermin.
Saw the ending of the mass dance test. The only part worth mentioning is the fact that it was completely hillarious how the 30th didn't have the gate key and they were actually locked in with the nominees and had to ask the climbing club for a favour. Oh, and they failed the test btw, retest on Monday. Sigh. So pitiful.
Ate dinner with the councillors and then headed home. Slept!
And now, back to saturday at ICA
Reached ICA in the morning, about 9, got my queue number and waited like 1 and a half hours when the estimated time on the board said 10 minutes!!!11!!1! Evil ICA... The place is so freaking crowded they actually have yellow boxes to prevent traffic (human) from blocking access. I was like, even a building needs yellow boxes, and some ppl obviously dun know what yellow boxes are cuz i was queuing, and trying to be a good foreigner, i didn't step into the yellow box and so the queue i was in had a gap. And one guy jz blatantly ignored the 3 metre queue behind me and stepped into the yellow box. Never mind. Im sure one day, u'll get ur reward.
Waited like forever and since the numbers weren't called in sequence, i had to constantly keep a lookout while marking newspaper journals. Sean came too and he had to wait as well cuz they conveniently skipped both our numbers. When it was finally my turn, the sly and cunning ICA played their last evil trump card.
At the counter, i stepped up rejoicing that my wait was finally over. Before i could finally get my identity back, the lady at the counter said i had to pay $40 for my 3 month extension!! Im like, u took my passport, embarkation card and everything without mentioning a single thing abt payment, and when i wanna get it back, they say, please pay $40!! Im like... (i know is sounds bimbo with all the "im like" but seriously) how sneaky can they get??? I mean, if i dun pay, who am i in SG without a single piece of identificatoion (even my queue number was in the lady's hand!! arrghh!!!)
And that's not the best part yet. I gave my bag to Sean to hold while i walked to the counter, so i told the lady my NETS card is in my bag, i'll take it in a few seconds. She said NO. Go and sit down, i'll call ur number agian. It's "FASTER" this way... I was like.... so pissed but didn't let it show. So i walked 1 metre back took my bag and sat down. So lame. The lady then called like 5 numbers which nobody showed up. In the end, she only served one person before calling me again. What a waste of my time. I could have jz grabbed my NETS in 5 seconds, paid in 20 and be gone in 5. That's like 30 seconds. Which she wasted on each number which NOBODY was there.... ICA... I suggest u tear down ur whole building and let me restructure it. ON second thought, the council nominees could even do it. I mean, it shouldn't be that hard to make foreigners life slightly easier?
Okay, enough of whining, back to real life, it was time for music prac, and by now, i had forgotten the whole ICA drama. Did my washing of laundry by hand before i came and i was early. So slacked in the youth room a while as Melvin was changing the strings of his baby (a golden e-guitar) and Meredith was there too and i listened to Lose Myself. The "recorded" version. Literally from PC speakers. Haha. And Meredith's Zen is so cool lar. It's 30GB so its no Nano and her house PC owns even more lar. The Hard Disk is 320GB!! That's like infinity -1 songs!
Okay, soon we headed up for prac and it was nice and good! We, at least i felt, we sounded better this week than last and overall it was a fun time practising. The two hours plus jz flew away and soon it was back to the youth room. A few hungry guys decided to go down to SPC and get something to eat. After taking infinity -1 minutes, we bought our stuff and on the way back, the girls from the band were on their way. Haha. so funny cuz when we reached back, we finished our food and called the girls to buy something back for us. Haha. Vanessa bought some cheese puff snack. Too bad Melvin doesn't like cheese. But we te and couldn't finish it. Soon it was pre-service prayer and this time, i was on the guitar.
Haven't played the accoustic in ages but i tried my best. Sorry it didn't turn out too good. But Chellie gave a nice sharing and we had a corporate prayer (looks at Chellie) HAHA! The new Tortex pick i bought was put to good. It already looks worn out after me using it for ONE pre-service prayer. Lolz. At least the bass picks are holding together.
And soon enough, prayer ended and the musicians rushed up and almost chased the YM out as we rushed for our sound check. Did some minor practising and then headed off. Prayed and then it was soon the start of a wonderful praise and worship!! It didn't start off too well with Lose Myself, but yay cuz we're getting new praise songs introduced other than the milked-it-for-all-its-worth-according-to-Rachael older songs.
Worship You Alone by Planet Shakers is a really good song!! And we didn't even have time for our last song God of Miracles but it was still fantastic!!
Aunty Aye Lan did a great job in covering for Ps Mark who's coming back today from Karen's with our amazing missions team!! And after that, we slowly packed up and reluctantly left after preparing... oh wait... can't say now. Haha! *winks* if you wanna know, ask me. TOP SECRET till.. u will know when lar.
The whole cell didn't want to go for dinner so i decided to go to SPC for a quick bite. My dinner was a Cornetto cone. $1. Haha. Then walked back with Winnie who took 38 home which is more convenient for her. Talked abt council. Haha. Don't we always. Oh, i whined abt my SVP to her as well. Lol. I should whine less. =p
Sunday
Now today is still in progress so here is a halftime report.
Day started off well with Mei Yian arriving second, followed by James, FX and BS. No idea when Grace or Matthew arrived. Didn't see Su-E though. Jeremy didn't come either. Sads...
Today, i'll jz skip to the point that really inspired or rather, wow-ed me. The praise and worship today only had TWO musicians. And the drummer half way through the service switched to become the pianist! Cool eh? But Ps Janet explained why. God had told her to give the musicians a 3 month break. Sounds like fun ryte? I mean, i've never seen a church giving 80% of it's music team members such a long break! But here's the coolest part. After that, when they're back from the 3 month break, they will form a core team that will play every week for the next three months!! The commitment!! Plus, they will fast a meal i think everyday and spend loads of time praying more than practising. WOW. They are really serious abt God. And i think the CFC musicians could learn from the adults who are setting such a good example.
Ps Ang preached on Spiritual Potential but the song that really meant a lot to me was this.
Chorus:
Standing here now, with my mind and emotion,
I make a vow, to give all my devotion,
All my desires, i place You above,
You are my God, You are my very first love.
Its an old song, but such a hard song to sing. God takes our vows seriously, and it even says that this is not one of those emo-ish songs where u say stuff u dun really mean, but its a slow song and says that we're praising God with a focused mind, that has thought through the cost to make a vow of devotion. A devotion to place God above all my desires. I took it seriously today. And Holy Spirit, please help me get off my Starting Block.
Shout outs
Phildia-Poly starting soon. All the best and lol abt the knight in shining armour!
Pras and Ahdiah-Congrats on the silver. I mean it (=
Zsa-still praying for ur knee
Tristan-eat well
Yumei-don't give up!
Cass-For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline 2 Timothy 1v7
Jaren-keep up the good work
Kawai-don't give up!
Winnie-txs for e walk!
Saturday
No tuition this morning so no need to wake up early. But i still had to wake up early. Sounds so lame. But oh well, i had to go down to ICA to collect my new SVP. This is itself would get a whole post, but i'll jz summarize. On Friday, I went down to ICA and to the non-Singaporeans (and some blur SG ppl) its Immigration and Checkpoints Authority to apply for an extension of my SVP (Social Visit Pass, i told you SG ppl are crazily in love with ACRONYMS!).
Here's how it went down on Friday, rushed down to ICA.. oh no.. this post is turning to my Friday post... oh well, might as well. Ta daaa
Friday!
Had two lessons in the morning about writing an introduction. Dunno if 06 and 21 really learnt anything cuz they were all, i dunno, sounded quite blur to me. But i hope they did benefit from it, at least a little... a tiny bit...? Oh well, i tried.
Then after that, went down to ICA with Sean and Sam who got his friend Andy to tag along. At ICA, we went to the 4th floor after ignoring the millions of people trying to give out flyers, for i don't know what courses outside ICA. Then we had no idea what to do cuz the MOE papers came with no instructions so we went to the information counter and asked the lady there. She seemed like a noob. But what chance do mere mortals have against the almighty ICA? I mean, check out their logo. Its like, fully equipped with Bars and Chains! I mean, that's not a very nice thing to welcome people with. If you dun believe, go and search for the logo urself. I would have uploaded it here, but i realised they are too insignificant to have a place on my blog.
Anyway, we talked to the noob looking lady who gave us a queue number and a form to fill up. We happily walked along, until we realised, the form was for APPLICATION OF A STUDENT PASS. Like... what the... this noob lady didn't understand what we wanted to do. Or so we thought. So Sam went back to ask, and the lady say fill it up. But it needed a photo, and a local sponsor (which actually meant MOE) so Sean went to ask again, and again she said just fill the STUDENT PASS APPLICATION form to apply for an extension of the SVP. Im like, there couldn't be a less confusing way of doing things ryte?
So we waited patiently for 20 numbers to scroll by while marking AQs (so my students, in case u're wondering why u got not-too-nice-looking markings, haha, u know now) and eventually our turn came and when we went to the counter, all they had to do was collect our MOE letter, PASSPORT, STUDENT PASS and EMBARKATION CARD!!
So now, there we were, 4 foreigners in Singapore with totally NO IDENTIFICATION except a QUEUE TICKET telling us to come back tmr form 9 to 12. And to make matters more interesting, Sam who went to a diff counter had to fill in an Embarkation Card as well, and could only collect a week later than us... Unfair.. Discrimination against Vietnamese i tell u! Haha! =p
Okay, so i thought my day was over so i headed back to school to see the ending of the movie screenings. Met cass on the way and i had to whine abt feeling so insignificant at the moment with only a queue ticket as my identity. Txs for listening and sorry to her friends who were like, stoning there while i was talking though. But had nothing to do aft that and didn't feel like intruding into LT1 so talked with Sam (a female Sam) until i reached Gamma's house party. Met Shujing there too! And Jaren as well, with some guy doing a dance on the table *looks away*
Then walked on to the scope and was a little curious why so many 21-ers were there. Then i saw 06 ppl there as well. What luck, both the classes that i teach were having learning journey on the same day! Saw Ms Tay and Mr Neo there. Apparently Mr Neo said something abt being smart and TJC which the girls weren't too happy abt. Then i met even more interesting girls. The ultimate bimbos of 06. Im not gonna mention names but the four girls who were taking photos at the scope know that its them! The funniest moment was when _ _ _ _ _ _ and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ bumped theirs heads into each other. Classic bimbotic moment lar!! They were totally cam-whoring while waiting for the bus to arrive
The bus was late by 45 minutes apparently. And to make matters even better, it went to AHS instead of TJ. Like.. hello, i know there are lots of AHS ppl here, but there are NO TJCians in AHS... But anyway, i should be thnakful that the bus was late cuz in the end, i decided to follow them on their learning journey.
The bus ride wasn't too bad, not too long and Shuming tried to use Malay. Not a bad attempt! =) But i think the others were wondering what we were saying. Haha. Too bad. Go learn Malay! Then finally reached the SCDF (acronym once again, go try and figure it out k?) museum and we were already an hour late.
The tour guide guy was nice and friendly, and at times, he suan-ned the old Fire Brigade of SG. Funniest one was the part abt the Fire Truck which things could fall off and firemen had to jump off, pick the stuff up and climb back on. We started making jokes abt how firemen most likely died jumping off the truck than fighting fires itself. But then again, its top speed was only 16km an hour, so the house probably burnt down to ashes before the fire truck actually came. Poor thing...
We continued listening, had the chance to go into one of the fire trucks and took pictures. Then Abishek cracked one of the exhibit's plastic covering. Oh well, he's Abishek anyway. And he was unanimously sabo-ed to wear the fireproof jacket and the Power Rangers looking helmet. Picture of the day man!! Ferena if u have the photos of today, i want ok? Pls! Txs!
Then went on looking at other exhibits, and confirmed that two particular girls were really bimbos when they banged heads... AGAIN! Im like.. *AHH*-the-way-u-know-it
Then we finally left after taking a group photo. Went to Peninsula which is a real musicians hub cuz of the tonnes of guitar stores and what not. Bought 4 picks for $2, not too bad a deal and gave one back to Alvin whose pick i broke some time ago!
Then, since i actually left TJ without anything other than my HP and a cashless Student EZLink card, i got John to pay for my bus trip back. Well, it's fair cuz they persuaded me to come in the first place! But im gonna pay him back. Chills.
Mass dance test was going on in TJ at that time, but before i reached there, i stopped to see the soccer girls practising set pieces. At least that's what it looked like. Had a bet with Shermin that the wall wouldn't dare to jump and head the ball away but according to Shermin, they would. Oh well, didn't have the chance to see them actually head the ball cuz most of the freekicks were off anyway. So i guess the bandung is gonna have to wait ya Shermin.
Saw the ending of the mass dance test. The only part worth mentioning is the fact that it was completely hillarious how the 30th didn't have the gate key and they were actually locked in with the nominees and had to ask the climbing club for a favour. Oh, and they failed the test btw, retest on Monday. Sigh. So pitiful.
Ate dinner with the councillors and then headed home. Slept!
And now, back to saturday at ICA
Reached ICA in the morning, about 9, got my queue number and waited like 1 and a half hours when the estimated time on the board said 10 minutes!!!11!!1! Evil ICA... The place is so freaking crowded they actually have yellow boxes to prevent traffic (human) from blocking access. I was like, even a building needs yellow boxes, and some ppl obviously dun know what yellow boxes are cuz i was queuing, and trying to be a good foreigner, i didn't step into the yellow box and so the queue i was in had a gap. And one guy jz blatantly ignored the 3 metre queue behind me and stepped into the yellow box. Never mind. Im sure one day, u'll get ur reward.
Waited like forever and since the numbers weren't called in sequence, i had to constantly keep a lookout while marking newspaper journals. Sean came too and he had to wait as well cuz they conveniently skipped both our numbers. When it was finally my turn, the sly and cunning ICA played their last evil trump card.
At the counter, i stepped up rejoicing that my wait was finally over. Before i could finally get my identity back, the lady at the counter said i had to pay $40 for my 3 month extension!! Im like, u took my passport, embarkation card and everything without mentioning a single thing abt payment, and when i wanna get it back, they say, please pay $40!! Im like... (i know is sounds bimbo with all the "im like" but seriously) how sneaky can they get??? I mean, if i dun pay, who am i in SG without a single piece of identificatoion (even my queue number was in the lady's hand!! arrghh!!!)
And that's not the best part yet. I gave my bag to Sean to hold while i walked to the counter, so i told the lady my NETS card is in my bag, i'll take it in a few seconds. She said NO. Go and sit down, i'll call ur number agian. It's "FASTER" this way... I was like.... so pissed but didn't let it show. So i walked 1 metre back took my bag and sat down. So lame. The lady then called like 5 numbers which nobody showed up. In the end, she only served one person before calling me again. What a waste of my time. I could have jz grabbed my NETS in 5 seconds, paid in 20 and be gone in 5. That's like 30 seconds. Which she wasted on each number which NOBODY was there.... ICA... I suggest u tear down ur whole building and let me restructure it. ON second thought, the council nominees could even do it. I mean, it shouldn't be that hard to make foreigners life slightly easier?
Okay, enough of whining, back to real life, it was time for music prac, and by now, i had forgotten the whole ICA drama. Did my washing of laundry by hand before i came and i was early. So slacked in the youth room a while as Melvin was changing the strings of his baby (a golden e-guitar) and Meredith was there too and i listened to Lose Myself. The "recorded" version. Literally from PC speakers. Haha. And Meredith's Zen is so cool lar. It's 30GB so its no Nano and her house PC owns even more lar. The Hard Disk is 320GB!! That's like infinity -1 songs!
Okay, soon we headed up for prac and it was nice and good! We, at least i felt, we sounded better this week than last and overall it was a fun time practising. The two hours plus jz flew away and soon it was back to the youth room. A few hungry guys decided to go down to SPC and get something to eat. After taking infinity -1 minutes, we bought our stuff and on the way back, the girls from the band were on their way. Haha. so funny cuz when we reached back, we finished our food and called the girls to buy something back for us. Haha. Vanessa bought some cheese puff snack. Too bad Melvin doesn't like cheese. But we te and couldn't finish it. Soon it was pre-service prayer and this time, i was on the guitar.
Haven't played the accoustic in ages but i tried my best. Sorry it didn't turn out too good. But Chellie gave a nice sharing and we had a corporate prayer (looks at Chellie) HAHA! The new Tortex pick i bought was put to good. It already looks worn out after me using it for ONE pre-service prayer. Lolz. At least the bass picks are holding together.
And soon enough, prayer ended and the musicians rushed up and almost chased the YM out as we rushed for our sound check. Did some minor practising and then headed off. Prayed and then it was soon the start of a wonderful praise and worship!! It didn't start off too well with Lose Myself, but yay cuz we're getting new praise songs introduced other than the milked-it-for-all-its-worth-according-to-Rachael older songs.
Worship You Alone by Planet Shakers is a really good song!! And we didn't even have time for our last song God of Miracles but it was still fantastic!!
Aunty Aye Lan did a great job in covering for Ps Mark who's coming back today from Karen's with our amazing missions team!! And after that, we slowly packed up and reluctantly left after preparing... oh wait... can't say now. Haha! *winks* if you wanna know, ask me. TOP SECRET till.. u will know when lar.
The whole cell didn't want to go for dinner so i decided to go to SPC for a quick bite. My dinner was a Cornetto cone. $1. Haha. Then walked back with Winnie who took 38 home which is more convenient for her. Talked abt council. Haha. Don't we always. Oh, i whined abt my SVP to her as well. Lol. I should whine less. =p
Sunday
Now today is still in progress so here is a halftime report.
Day started off well with Mei Yian arriving second, followed by James, FX and BS. No idea when Grace or Matthew arrived. Didn't see Su-E though. Jeremy didn't come either. Sads...
Today, i'll jz skip to the point that really inspired or rather, wow-ed me. The praise and worship today only had TWO musicians. And the drummer half way through the service switched to become the pianist! Cool eh? But Ps Janet explained why. God had told her to give the musicians a 3 month break. Sounds like fun ryte? I mean, i've never seen a church giving 80% of it's music team members such a long break! But here's the coolest part. After that, when they're back from the 3 month break, they will form a core team that will play every week for the next three months!! The commitment!! Plus, they will fast a meal i think everyday and spend loads of time praying more than practising. WOW. They are really serious abt God. And i think the CFC musicians could learn from the adults who are setting such a good example.
Ps Ang preached on Spiritual Potential but the song that really meant a lot to me was this.
Chorus:
Standing here now, with my mind and emotion,
I make a vow, to give all my devotion,
All my desires, i place You above,
You are my God, You are my very first love.
Its an old song, but such a hard song to sing. God takes our vows seriously, and it even says that this is not one of those emo-ish songs where u say stuff u dun really mean, but its a slow song and says that we're praising God with a focused mind, that has thought through the cost to make a vow of devotion. A devotion to place God above all my desires. I took it seriously today. And Holy Spirit, please help me get off my Starting Block.
Shout outs
Phildia-Poly starting soon. All the best and lol abt the knight in shining armour!
Pras and Ahdiah-Congrats on the silver. I mean it (=
Zsa-still praying for ur knee
Tristan-eat well
Yumei-don't give up!
Cass-For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline 2 Timothy 1v7
Jaren-keep up the good work
Kawai-don't give up!
Winnie-txs for e walk!
Labels: Abishek, Ahdiah, bimbo, cass, Ferena, ICA, Learning Journey, Picks, Ps Janet, Sam, SCDF, Sean, Shermin, ShuJing, Shuming, Soo Ming, SVP, Vow, Winnie
the story ends like this;
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
(Thursday, April 5, 2007-)
+9:43 PM]*
+9:43 PM]*
# dy/dx<0
Thursday
Today was a rather slow starting day. First up, apologies to Mr Eugene's student and Mr Eugene. Sorry I lost it. It's my fault.
Generally not feeling well and wanna get better in time for Monday's big firefly round two "interview" Still have to prepare my think big slides. Yupz. But generally day started off not too bad. I kind of enjoyed the 21 lesson, although i did most of the talking. Almost got everyone to speak. And covered the whole of introductin to discrimination.
But the only reason class sucked was cuz i was feeling like crap... Super lethargic but tried to teach to my best. Hope the lesson wasn't too bad ok. And to those new to 21, welcome to the lameness of my slideshows. =p. No apologies needed. And Sarah brought up a very good point i didn't think of while planning lessons. Kudos!
So i was feeling so lethargic and jz stoned in the sc room after dinner.. i mean lunch.. lol, im so tired. Then Jonathan called and asked me to go and collect some essays from CR523 cuz Ms Thangam is away. So I nicely went all the way up and saw about 7 people in the class. I thought, not bad, small class.
To my horror, they had no idea what work was to be done and so most of the class jz walked off. Haha, sorry Thangam, looks like no essay for u to mark. Of course i was pissed off i walked up 5 levels for nothing, but remained very very calm (yes i did ok...) and called Jonathan. Then he didn't pick up, so i was like.. ok.. come back to staffroom and explained e whole thing. Thangam, enjoy ur shock when u get back.
Then went to lesson with 03. 03 please i beg you, don't remind me of the 04 attitude problem. Please dun become like them. Please come early for lessons k?? Even 5 minutes late will be acceptable.. not 12.. really... dun push it..
Lesson with them was not too bad. Assigned the Genocide case studies. And then went through the elderly passage. I know this lesson didn't seemed well planned... cuz it wasn't. Arrghh.. was jz so lethargic by then. Let them off to finish their discussions and talked a bit with Carian and the ppl there. Carian insisted on getting my blog add so i hope u arrived here safely. Talked a bit abt what iplan to do in uni with them before the bell rang.
Once they left, i made sure they knew that GAMMA ROCKS!! Haha.. and Xuewen and someone who's voice i couldn't recognise cuz i didn't turn back when on chanting Doo-ga-ga-ga-ga...
Went to the staffroom after a LONG talk with Aaron, which i proceded to call Nelson, confirmed tuition was cancelled and then talked a lot in sc room. Finally got cass her letter and too bad "Mr Moi" wasn't ard. Funny thing i didn't tell u was Mr Moi is the name of my physics tuition teacher that made me love physics!! Went to lvl 3 staffroom to find out if he was there but ended up talking to Mr Terrence Ong and Mr Varella who got me to help him look for a worker.
Went to sc room after finding out that "Mr Moi" wasn't ard and cass went off with her juniors. I slacked in sc room a lot till Ni Ying came! Yay! Walked with her to the sports com after she was let down by the lack of an S! Haha, sounds wrong! But anyway, went off to sports com and Ni Ying didn't hear her friend calling her like 6 times. Haha.
Reached sports com and didn't notice Shu Li was there. Sorry hor. I offered her the job and apparently to her, Mr Varella is a funny name. And i apparently vetted her sms before she sent it. Yup, it was in proper english 9= Hope u get the job. Talked quite a lot. Watched the basketball guys and girls play. Sorry Ni Ying but i think the junior girls gave u seniors a really clean "trashing" but the guys, the seniors were like overpowering the juniors lar, although there's this one guy who's super good at blocking shots. He blocks like.... the height of 1 and a half ME! IMBA-tall and can jump so high summore.. Scary!
Then walked off and met cass who was still ard. Lol. Thought she left. And a basketball hit her. Haha. Oops, sorry i know u're reading this, but it was quite funny lar how it bounced and rolled and exactly knocked into ur leg. Hehe. Then she acted dao and didn't want to give e ball back. Haha. quite nonsensicle! (dunno how to spell it)
Then went back to sc room.. slacked... dinnered.. slacked.. came home.. blogged.. chatted... slept... haha. i hven slept yet lar, but yeah... slept!
Shout outs
Li Sze-welcome
Carian n co-welcome
Louisa and Cheryl-take care of those knees
31st nominees who were my students-all the best!
Zsa-haven told me the funny "panic attack yet"
30th council-be wise in grooming
Sek-get well
Yazid-see ut posters soon
Cass-lol at ur junior's rumour
Today was a rather slow starting day. First up, apologies to Mr Eugene's student and Mr Eugene. Sorry I lost it. It's my fault.
Generally not feeling well and wanna get better in time for Monday's big firefly round two "interview" Still have to prepare my think big slides. Yupz. But generally day started off not too bad. I kind of enjoyed the 21 lesson, although i did most of the talking. Almost got everyone to speak. And covered the whole of introductin to discrimination.
But the only reason class sucked was cuz i was feeling like crap... Super lethargic but tried to teach to my best. Hope the lesson wasn't too bad ok. And to those new to 21, welcome to the lameness of my slideshows. =p. No apologies needed. And Sarah brought up a very good point i didn't think of while planning lessons. Kudos!
So i was feeling so lethargic and jz stoned in the sc room after dinner.. i mean lunch.. lol, im so tired. Then Jonathan called and asked me to go and collect some essays from CR523 cuz Ms Thangam is away. So I nicely went all the way up and saw about 7 people in the class. I thought, not bad, small class.
To my horror, they had no idea what work was to be done and so most of the class jz walked off. Haha, sorry Thangam, looks like no essay for u to mark. Of course i was pissed off i walked up 5 levels for nothing, but remained very very calm (yes i did ok...) and called Jonathan. Then he didn't pick up, so i was like.. ok.. come back to staffroom and explained e whole thing. Thangam, enjoy ur shock when u get back.
Then went to lesson with 03. 03 please i beg you, don't remind me of the 04 attitude problem. Please dun become like them. Please come early for lessons k?? Even 5 minutes late will be acceptable.. not 12.. really... dun push it..
Lesson with them was not too bad. Assigned the Genocide case studies. And then went through the elderly passage. I know this lesson didn't seemed well planned... cuz it wasn't. Arrghh.. was jz so lethargic by then. Let them off to finish their discussions and talked a bit with Carian and the ppl there. Carian insisted on getting my blog add so i hope u arrived here safely. Talked a bit abt what iplan to do in uni with them before the bell rang.
Once they left, i made sure they knew that GAMMA ROCKS!! Haha.. and Xuewen and someone who's voice i couldn't recognise cuz i didn't turn back when on chanting Doo-ga-ga-ga-ga...
Went to the staffroom after a LONG talk with Aaron, which i proceded to call Nelson, confirmed tuition was cancelled and then talked a lot in sc room. Finally got cass her letter and too bad "Mr Moi" wasn't ard. Funny thing i didn't tell u was Mr Moi is the name of my physics tuition teacher that made me love physics!! Went to lvl 3 staffroom to find out if he was there but ended up talking to Mr Terrence Ong and Mr Varella who got me to help him look for a worker.
Went to sc room after finding out that "Mr Moi" wasn't ard and cass went off with her juniors. I slacked in sc room a lot till Ni Ying came! Yay! Walked with her to the sports com after she was let down by the lack of an S! Haha, sounds wrong! But anyway, went off to sports com and Ni Ying didn't hear her friend calling her like 6 times. Haha.
Reached sports com and didn't notice Shu Li was there. Sorry hor. I offered her the job and apparently to her, Mr Varella is a funny name. And i apparently vetted her sms before she sent it. Yup, it was in proper english 9= Hope u get the job. Talked quite a lot. Watched the basketball guys and girls play. Sorry Ni Ying but i think the junior girls gave u seniors a really clean "trashing" but the guys, the seniors were like overpowering the juniors lar, although there's this one guy who's super good at blocking shots. He blocks like.... the height of 1 and a half ME! IMBA-tall and can jump so high summore.. Scary!
Then walked off and met cass who was still ard. Lol. Thought she left. And a basketball hit her. Haha. Oops, sorry i know u're reading this, but it was quite funny lar how it bounced and rolled and exactly knocked into ur leg. Hehe. Then she acted dao and didn't want to give e ball back. Haha. quite nonsensicle! (dunno how to spell it)
Then went back to sc room.. slacked... dinnered.. slacked.. came home.. blogged.. chatted... slept... haha. i hven slept yet lar, but yeah... slept!
Shout outs
Li Sze-welcome
Carian n co-welcome
Louisa and Cheryl-take care of those knees
31st nominees who were my students-all the best!
Zsa-haven told me the funny "panic attack yet"
30th council-be wise in grooming
Sek-get well
Yazid-see ut posters soon
Cass-lol at ur junior's rumour
Labels: Aaron, Carian, cass, Cheryl, discrimination, genocide, Li Sze, Lousia, Mr Moi, sarah, scroom, Thangam, Xuewen, Yazid
the story ends like this;
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
(Sunday, April 1, 2007-)
+6:35 PM]*
+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!
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;
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
(Sunday, March 25, 2007-)
+7:19 PM]*
+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 (=
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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