28-29dec

Teens YXY 2007

28dec 12noon-6p.m
mugger@church.com.sg

6.30p.m-7+
fei lou mode together with teens, special meal oO
Fries, egg, veg, chicken wings, rice.
I wonder how the auntie managed to cook up such a feast!

7.30-9.15p.m
sec 4s sharing--can observe that they were all rather impromtu, lol..
with yl acting like a teacher o_o
hcls also just rushed from work so occassionally forgetting what he's gonna say..
But ah well, at least I got to know these teens a little better to welcome them to youths SOON :)

9.15-10+
Teens Bible reading (almost koon, read so long..)
Supper + celebrate b'days of those in dec, if I didn't rmb it was jiemin & zixin..
Bleh I was excluded :( :( :(

Then came the horror of the night....only managed to sleep at 3am +, with hcls, lwls, thls and even jkls putting in a whole lot of effort before the teens managed to get to bed.
Seriously feeling VERY lethargic now...`

29dec

6:30a.m-8.30a.m
Rise and shine...with much difficulty, helped lwls with preparing breakfast while missing out on the worship with teens led by thls, hope it was enjoyable?
Set off for home then tuition

10a.m-12noon
arrived at thomas' house only to realise my tutor also reached not long ago, phew.
Expected her to reach at 9a.m but she was late, lol

12noon-3p.pm
Had a really fantastic lunch whipped up by aunt cai zhu , she's such an excellent cook!!
Had some discussion abt yxh games which I stoned quite a lot as my brain was really...dead
Set off for Xingyi's house for fellowship

4p.m-6.30pm
Time of sharing and reflecting on the year of 2007.
During which thomas shared he was a 'little potato' ?????
When jeff told us to crush up the piece of paper which we wrote our thanksgiving/sharings on and throw it into a plastic bag, we all did so. But when it came to thomas, he threw in an empty packet drink too, DIAO. (just imagine the scene & imagine the diao-ness)

6.30p.pm-10p.m
Pizza time and also enjoyed some 'english rojak' done by the uncles..
orange + cake + flakes + jelly + choc ice cream (melted)
emotions:
o_O
v_v
-_-"
?_?
Had a really fun time playing 'board soccer' (don't know how to call it)
then played some pool,
then home where it was chaos at the back of uncle kenny's car with
tm, me, amos and polo manoeuvering together witht the car,
taupoking each side alternatingly.
Finally reached home at 10.30p.m....time to sleep!

An athlete!

Basically was a whole afternoon of helping wande to count books in the storeroom after which he proudly declared there were 300,000 books in it!!
(Thankfully didn't need to count them all, else it'd be tomorrow, lol..)
Then went for another meeting with the care ministry..
whoa time's really tight to organise a yxh for youths, to all who read: please pray!

Went for yet another fruitful prayer meeting session when pastor huang shared about a christian's life as an athlete!
What's an athlete's life:
1) Continuous
2) With a goal
3) Motivation & drive

To have:
1) Release our burdens & sin which easily entangles
2) Endurance
3) Fix eyes on end


"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." Hebrews 12:1-4

Interesting facts:
Apart from stinking the counselling room with the smeel of jiao zi mian (dumpling noodles)
Dear bro TM burped while praying with me, amos and yi liang.
COINCIDENTALLY, the air con was blowing in MY direction..

"OH WHAT THE....."

Encouragement!

1 Peter 2:19-25

19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.
20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
22 "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

VICTORY in the LORD

For once I must use chans' phrase to express myself.
WOOHOO!
Went for tracting for witnessing day today, managed to sneak into the congregation when they were praying (was 1-2 mins late)
Chionged on bike to church at 8:55am !

Hm, felt that the church really made a good move this year to shift the focus to doing tracting at clementi town, the macedonian call very much resembles this Clementeen call I believe, judging from their receptiveness.
Although on one occassion when ri xuan and yi liang approached one door...
The guy was shouting at the top of his voice and threatened to
call the police if we continued knocking on doors?!
Lol, then yu en was grumbling under his breath..
Unreasonable response to the gospel but I guess it's just the sinful nature of Man to even reject salvation or perhaps he simply had some problems at that point in time. But again, praise be to God because we are worthy of suffering scoldings for Him!
However, together with yu en, we really had MANY good opportunities to speak to the receptive residents, of which I spoke to one for more than 15mins about the whole gospel from the diagnostic questions to
1) Heaven is a free gift, is neither earned nor deserved
2) Man is a sinner and cannot save himself
3) God is just, yet merciful
4) Who Jesus Christ is and what He accomplished for US on the cross
5) What saving faith is
Really glad I went for the basic evangelism course taught by wande and uncle yong kwang, really helped me to take my 1st step in evangelising in a more holistic manner and I managed to apply what I learnt!! :)
Really thank God for always opening doors, be it serving Him in ministries or even an entire 'workplace' for the development and spreading of gospel!
福音的工场
Today has really been a breakthrough for me to have a propect to talk to regarding the whole gospel, thank God!! I'm just feeling so happy now, hope to do follow up work to save this soul and his family!

To all youths reading this entry:
Thanks a lot for celebrating my b'day yesterday, really had a great time interacting with all of you people yesterday! Was truly a manifestation of God's love on us and through us, corresponding to what uncle mong shared (although I begin with the assumption that he was naggy from the start)
Special thanks to all my uncles and da jies like kenny, polo, tom, andrew,jianxin, wenqi, wendy etc..All you older youths have really showered me with love and care, spurring me on to serve God in the fellowship better and to grow along with all of you! Appreciate everything especially our relationship in Christ, blest be the tie!!

Yesterday, Today, Forever

God has been, is and will be eternally faithful!
Went to visit my grandad together with my sis at about 7pm,
good timing as he was feeling great pain in the stomach area...
(admitted to hospital yesterday)
So after trying 'feng you', it didn't work, so I prayed with him [em, priority and order mixed up..:(]
Just said a simple prayer then, Amen.
However, God simply works in such a simple manner that as long as we held faith to Him,
He listens to our prayer!
Felt really great when our prayer was answered together with that of bros and sis which I sms-ed :)
Hope he'll rest well for the night.

tomorrow shall be tuition, mug, chat & fellowship day!
:D

youth camp '07 My Lord crucified for me & the way of the cross

Camp lasted from 16th to 19th dec.
Must say that the camp was quite a new experience for me this time is my 1st time being a log ic2.
Didn't realise how tired I was until the last day when tian meng and I were back in church
and I fell asleep while tm was unpacking O_O

Camp was great, had much more opportunities to interact with BASICs & know each other on a more spiritual level as well, enjoyed it.
It could have been MUCH better though considering the attendance for the 1st day....
Still thank God for the 40 bros n sis who managed to make it full time though.
Heh, all the uncles (zhuang, kenny etc...) can't stay, blessing in disguise though :p
They can't come ka chiao n bully me :D

Spiritual lessons:
Basically, it was clearly evident that God's immeasurable love worked throughout the whole camp, especially during prayer where several were moved to tears. I really do enjoy the sincere and genuine words shared by bros n sis, really encouraging :)
God's love can be experienced over and over again, it's never 炒冷饭
The problem lies with us that we seldom reflect and remember that scene when Christ
was nailed to the cross to bear our sins and the curses which they carry, to experience death for us, to suffer pain and humiliation.
The main point is not all that, the main point is "Christ", "for us".

Colossians 1:13
"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the
kingdom of the Son he loves."
We no longer live in darkness, but in the light!

Response:
1) Empty myself (0% me, 100% Christ living in me)
2) The world crucified to me, and I crucified to the world
3) Walk the way of the cross, not with my weak self but by God's grace,
with His love leading us upfront!

Interesting incidents:
1st day
Couldn't forget how the lao shis like phls, qllls and hcls were aimed during whacko! LOL
Too bad I had to settle log stuffs halfway through the game and didn't manage to enjoy the 2nd half which I thought was the most fun :( :(
Dinner was really fantastic for the 1st night!!
[the colour grey can be used to express my disappointment in the food ordered for the other meals though...]
It's really nerve wrecking to be a log ic when the mike screeches or the PA system messes up ><

2nd day
Really good time of worship in the morning. Really heavy messages in both the morning and the night I must say. Again I want to emphasize that the focus should not be on ourselves bearing the cross but rather, with God's guidance, support and leadership.
Also watched a movie clip about one Christian in HK about her life, could really see the impact of one's life which can have really far reaching effects if we truly live for God :)
Was pretty dramatic though when the sister n her grandma were separated....
Grandma: AH MIN!!!
Ah min: AH MA!!!
All: LOL

3rd day
Thank God for helping me be able to share about my 生命更新的见证 though somehow I lost my prepared script just before the Bible study session started, phew..Got Jieyu to start 1st and I went on to organise my thoughts, lols..The hymn sharing session was good as well, with the Word of God and hymns, once again all were encouraged to re dedicate our lives to God.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship." Romans 12:1
3rd day part (b)
This part gets really interesting when bro tm and I become technicians
?!
Yep.
At about 11.15pm we started fixing the problem of the air con at 106 [cave!] leaking, by washing & cleaning the filter, followed by room 206 [marine!] finally back to our room 306 [jungle!] about to get ready to rest .... when we discovered the
air con in our room was leaking as well!!
Nevermind...anyways we fixed it then at about 12am we were like playing with hcls' comp having distorted pics of use taken, lol-ing session, super funny..
we: Yu herng, ri xi, xing hui, hcls, tm, me
We even had a pic of hcls similar to that of a cyclops!
Will try to post up some pics if I get hold of them, hahahah
Just remembered that hcls also ate durian and a video was filmed again!
to shifu:
remember to create heyman.blogspot.com !! We are pinning high hopes on you!

4th day
As, usual it's the most sian day for me reason being it's the last day, SIGH.


"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." 1 John 3:16

"Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23

Lord, why?

The sorrow which once enveloped me was removed layer by layer,
yet your love for me overwhelms me time after time,
so frequently that I'm afraid I will forget.

Doulos

I am but a servant.

So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say,
'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' "
Luke 17:10

Very often, I'm simply unworthy of serving you my Lord,
Before I became a child of God, how unworthy I was to receive your free salvation.

"You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor."
Psalm 8:5

I simply find your love too amazing, too unfathomable.

Lord, why send an angel
when I'm but nothing,
to speak to me so tenderly,
with so much wisdom,
bringing so much comfort and encouragement,
sometimes coming with a sword which pierces through my heart,
at other times simply bringing a blanket to shield me from the cold,
saying gently, "let's pray"
caring for me with love so sincere?
Thank you God,
thank you brother.

Neither merely a journey, nor a struggle.

But a war,
with many battles to be fought,
to leave a legacy divine.

Of which Paul proclaims:
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me,
but also to all who have longed for his appearing."
1 Timothy 4:7-8

Again, I've learnt some precious lessons during prayer meeting today when Pastor Huang discussed about 2Timothy 2:3-4
"Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer."

Many a time, we take life too easily or we don't really see the picture, our surroundings is not going to have pervasive peace.

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34

The Bible reminds us that we do have a tangible and existent enemy, which is the Devil himself.
God was the one who declared this war and we are the recruits in this spiritual war against the evil one. The battle which we are engaging in now is REAL, we're in the midst of enemy territory and it's extremely important for us to be on guard.

Learning points from the passage above [as a soldier of Christ]:
1) Be willing to endure hardship 吃苦
2) Be a good soldier 精锐
3) Please our commander, God 完全的效忠

Absolute loyalty to my general, God, who leads upfront!

youth camp's coming soon..

Quite a busy Sunday I must say,
my to do list could fill up an entire placard (don't know how to spell..)
Basically cause I'm helping timmy out with da logistics.
Need to do, contact, give out, instruct, plan for quite a lot of stuffs!

Busy-ness aside, I thank God for the sermon today,
it really reminded me of one thing today, that is when we talk about evangelising,
we should not focus on the difficulty or 'cost incurred',
but the focus should really be on the beautiful scene when one accepts and receives salvation,
that inexpressible joy, as if it's a dream come true.
Yeah, I guess what I lack is this foresight to fuel me on..

Uncle Kenny gave me 3 nicknames to choose from: dad, da ge, xiao en

?!

Family Camp '07

After thoughts...(1st draft w/o editing, pardon my faults)

首先，我想感谢神让青少年人包括我在内能够做“小小的利未人” （去年被称为“小蜜蜂”），通过服侍有需要的弟兄姐妹事奉神。虽然表面看起来琐碎，但其实是教会中的肢体在各尽其职，建立基督的身体，一同建造神的殿的表现。对我而言，这营会让我看见了几点，也是在信息当中所强调掉的，就是1）教会的实质 2）我们对神的回应。
我本身听到有关我们拥有圣洁与君尊祭司的身份的道理已经有多次。但身份归身份，职分归职分。作为主的仆人，我们是否忠心的追求与蒙召的恩相称的生命，做一个好门徒，追随主的脚踪，有心志并实际上作一个名副其实尽职，圣洁，君尊的祭司才是关键，是神所看重的。相反的，光有身份的祭司若不圣洁，不尽职，就徒有虚名。就算有圣洁的外表也只不过是金玉其外，败絮其中罢了。神的殿的实质取决于个别建筑材料的尺寸，形状，是否和神心意，连接处是否稳固。因此，每一个肢体的追求，神在他身上的陶造与磨练和整个教会的见证，所发挥的功效是息息相关的。
既然知道我们是活石，是建殿的材料（硬件），又知道我们该做神所喜悦，圣洁与君尊的祭司（软件）在营会里的学习就不该只停留在知识的层面，而是更应该格外殷勤的一同建造神的殿。同时作聪明的工头也作肯被磨的建殿材料（建造与被建造）。所以，我们应该竭尽所能以主的能力敬拜，祷告，事奉好使得教会能快快的被建造成为灵宫。

teens '06

happened to stumble upon photos taken
with da teens last year..
wa suddenly missed being a teen!
But, it's ok not much difference between being a youth and a teen (at least for now)









my group in teens camp with qllls
still rmb we had a really good time for sharings cause group members were frank, heh.
the 3 sitting down seem to be the 'seniors' -.-
ri xuan(top right)...what you looking at?

Kinda weird to see 'different shades of orange' in each picture huh? (wearing the same shirt)
Probably due to the surrounding lighting, I guess.
During teens camp I had a fractured right arm as you can see,
sigh could not join in the taupok on junde :(
Also fell sick on the day when jieyu and jiahui were supposed to share their testimony :(:(

Hm, just looking back on a colourful phase of my life in teens where
brotherhood and strong bonds were forged :D
Certainly look forward to having a similar or even better fellowship in youths!
2nd youth camp I'm attending on 16dec..

anti climatic end to post: I have badminton recre session at 9am tomorrow
I feel blue..

Wednesday

Had an interesting mug day today, learnt indepent learning topic: Ideal gases
for chemistry today. Went on to learn about some thermal physics later on as well..

Had a really fei lou dinner today!
After curry rice, shared carrot cake with lc and cx when lc showed his true imba FLM!!

After dinner, played carrom when I managed to pull off 2 tight wins over lc
with advantage of the red seed :) [heng]
Wa then tonight's prayer meeting turnout was not bad at all, should have over 30 ppl..
Learnt quite a bit from Pastor's sharing too about us being the
light of the word in 2 aspects, [light being 'phos' -> means an emittor]
-individual
-as a church

Purpose?
1) Shine like the light & illuminate the darkness
2) Testify for the Lord

13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Math tuition tomorrow...:(

Just for laughs

I'm back to mugging...
Tend to get lame..
Anyways, those who read this post, please try to go for prayer meeting at 8pm tomorrow!!

Questioning?

To clarify what I meant in my last post, I've decided to blog about what I meant about asking God questions.
Basically questioning can be classified into 2 main types.

1) Inquiry --e.g I asked her a question.
2) Uncertainty about the truth or factuality of existence of something [doubt]
--e.g I questioned his capability seeing how poorly he managed things.

Clearly, it is wrong to use the latter type of questions to question God, because He is all knowing and all powerful. Since he even gave His only Son to us to be sacrificed and die on the cross, which of his fullness and goodness will he keep back from us? None!
Thus, we should never ever be uncertain about God's ability or doubt Him, but like jiaying said we should in stead put our absolute trust in Him.

When saints reach heaven, they'd definitely not need either type of questioning (inquiry / doubt)
because when they see God's complete plan, when they see the very last piece of puzzle fitted into the individual puzzles, when they see the individual puzzles come together as one..

"Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" Revelations 5:13

No wonder even when Paul was still living he said and quoted: [from last night's quiet time]
"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgements,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has knowned the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?
For from him and through him are all things.
To him be glory forever! Amen."
Romans 11:33-36

Back to what I meant when I said you can question God.

I simply meant that we can inquire God about His will in any matter, but the attitude has to be correct. It's like asking, "God, why did you allow this to happen? I am confused and I humbly pray to inquire about your will regarding this..."

When we inquire, we just need to have the correct attitude, that is to inquire to know His will, just like we listen to sermons to act out the Word of God, not as a religious act.

thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly

"For he was looking forward to the city with foundations,
whose architect and builder is God."
Hebrews 11:10

What peihua laoshi (phls) shared with my class on Sunday on this verse regarding Abraham's faith was indeed useful and applicable to all of us.

Corresponding to what pastor huang shared earlier on:
stages of life of butterfly
[caterpillar--cocoon--butterfly]
Our life on earth are but as mere travelers (on the other hand we also possess a roayl identity)
Death is just referred to as 'sleep' in Christ's speeches.
What matters is what our life is like in eternity, to be with all the saints in God's glory or..the most pitiful state of condemnation.

This is where I will be in eternity, when angels welcome me at heaven's gates.
Where will you be?

"But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."
Hebrews 12:22-24
-----------------------------------------
I just had a strange thought when pastor huang was preaching earlier this afternoon.
Will uncle yaoguo meet my dad, grandpa, grandma and maybe chat??
Will they like say hey! Nice to meet you!
Will they discuss about their families on earth?

At that moment I thought God spoke to me in a really simple manner.
He said, "I am with them"
----------------------------------------
When God is with you and you are with God, there's no need for questions.

Peace

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27"

"I have told you these things, so you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Thank God, I've really witnessed and experienced for myself God's peace working amidst everything going on today. --peace-- :)

I guess it's purely the kind of peace which you can enjoy when you truly place everything in the Lord's hands, keeping back nothing acknowledging that He is God Almighty.

comfort

When the teens and youth went to visit wen xue lao shi's family yesterday,
I was greatly encouraged to see that their family stayed really strong.

Praise be to the God of all comfort!
Our many prayers were answered that was my 1st thought when I got home.

Hm, really gotta take off my hat especially to ri xi who led his family in place of his dad, despite his loss, he really had faith in the Lord, bro, you did great :)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 8:28-29

When the puzzle piece we get is the undesired one or one which seems imperfect,
have patience and wait for the next piece,
until the last piece is in place,
when we see the whole puzzle,
we can safely say,
Lord, I have not waited upon you in vain,
nor was my trust placed in the emptiness and vanities of this world,
your way is the best.

Allow some time for the puzzle to piece itself together.

It is never not a struggle.

We can be assured that..
"In my Father's house are many mansions.."
We can proclaim..
"Where, O death is your victory? Where O death, is your sting?"
We know
"..that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him,.."
We can trust that
"..neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

But when we are emotionally trodden and battered,
we can't say for sure that our heart and mind won't be temporarily blinded.
It's hard to overcome our emotions,
especially those produced for our dearest brothers and sisters,
hard to suppress,
impossible to numb.
There is sorrow but NO FEAR.

When we start to doubt God's blueprint..
It's time to learn to accept
It's time to trust God wholly.

Family

Ten Course meal!

Sounds cool huh? My sis and I reached the Yan Palace restaurant slightly before 1130
when the lunch was about to start. However, the lunch only started at sometime before 1230.
Fortunately there was cousins yong han, jonathan, joshua, mark etc to chatand ease the bordom
and the cold..
Oh yes, the purpose of this family gathering cum lunch was cause my relatives from Australia are here in Singapore! They are Uncle Ashley, Esther, Joshua (Josh), Jacinda, Lydia (Lyd), Caleb and Debra (Debbie). Was a filling lunch cause as usual, the table put their hopes on the guys to finish all the food...-.-
During desert a video showing us of our relatives' home in Australia was shown,
was interesting :) They had 7 acres of land and even has an 'arena' where they could ride their horses, utterly cool!! Was even a small pony(super cute!) just for Debbie who's 7 yrs old this year.

West Coast Park (after 3pm)

First up is...DURIANS!! w00t superb taste.
Secondly...watch the kids build sandcastles ?!
Second (b) I met hcls oO yi xin even joined in the fun to build sandcastles.
chatted for quite sometime till 6pm..
When we played ultimate frisbee, totally enjoyed it :D

Had a really great family day, once in a real long time..

Lessons to blog about!

Valuable and worthy to blog about!

1) What is your 'considered best' may not be what God wants

2) Yes, flee from sin!
but when you have to face it, deal with it & not hide from it!

He

He said the one thing I lacked,

was commitment.

if

I denied that I had tried hard,
I'd just be trying to cover up the fact of failure despite my attempt.
What's the lesson behind all these?

Promos are over :)

Can say that promos are as 'fierce' as the O's...
Glad that it's over though, just that I really got to work on long term memory instead of only unintentional short term memorizing, anyone got tips?
In case you're wondering I have the problem of forgetting what I revised for a subject e.g chem when I go on to revise another subject e.g economics after that.
Meaning: I have to re-study every time!

Anyway, promos provided me with yet another chance for me to learn to rely on God,
still learning & a long way to go. Was improvement though.

Proverbs3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and shun evil.

Immeasurable is your wisdom with which you laid the foundations of the Earth and
infinite is your understanding with which you set the heavens in place.

Maybe..

It is good to have the mindset that the end of something difficult..
Is the start of something tougher.

Onward with heavy artillery!

A simple discovery

The slope always seems gentler from the top after you've climbed it.
hm..

Quote of the day

Diamond is the result/product of applying pressure to coal.

No linkness!

One part of my specs simply broke off while I was cleaning it with tissue! (the side)
ah...
But phew, managed to get another pair that day, feels good to see clearly :)

Perspective?

I believe how one goes about life reflects his/her perspective of life.
Do we view our burdens as burdensome?
Or a glorious cross to bear?

Pass It On

I'll tell the world that I'm a Christian
I'm not ashamed His name to bear;
I'll tell the world that I'm a Christian
I'll take Him with me anywhere.
I'll tell the world how Jesus saved me,
And how He gave me a life brand-new;
And I know that if you trust Him
That all He gave me He'll give to you.
I'll tell the world that He's my Saviour,
No other one could love me so;
My life, my all is His forever,
And where He leads me I will go.

Baynard L Fox, echoed by John.

The ceteris paribus assumption has always been an imaginary and illusionary utopia.
(Under the ceteris paribus assumption, all other factors remain constant.)

I'd say the only constant,
where ceteris paribus assumption is applicable,
Is God's existence & His boundless love for us.

Onto the next

As pillars of my strength and support fall,
one by one,
impacting me with all that it can possibly weighs,
revelations unfold.

As pillars of my strength and support crumble,
with not a block left on top of another,
totoally disintegrated,
one by one,
my sight has been shifted from around me to the central of me.

As fallen pillars of my strength and support fade into oblivion,
the blurred image of the central pillar became vivid.
I focused my gaze.

It then dawned on me that,
all along, the central pillar of my life had never been shakened,
it had neither deteriorated nor changed one bit.
The only change which took place was my realisation and discovery of it.
I came to recognize the fact that,
I had so often held my central pillar in disregard,
Taking the surrounding pillars to be my "central 'pillars'."

My eternal pillar, fortress and refuge sustained me through all times.
If I were to weather all storms of the maelstrom of life,
I'd have emerged with my sails torn and tattered, or perhaps not at all.

The LORD is my shepherd, saviour, king, master, friend, everything.

When I came to realize how much the eternal central pillar of my life helped me through all trials and temptations, I can only praise Thee for how wonderful Thou art.

Soon, new surrounding pillars were constructed in the midst of the deterioration and destruction of others.

Once again I realise that when the 2 sets of footsteps converged into 1,
you carried me through the journey,
and I give Thee all praise and thanks from my heart.

我才力虽微小不足称道，只求尽心，尽性，尽力，爱主。
越望越切，越信越独。

Children's camp

During wed-fri, I helped out with children's camp 2007 in fcf.
Initially, I was assigned to help out by 'sleeping with the kids' only, hahaha..
But, lol. Was assigned to help out in games shortly after I arrived at 12 noon on wed.
So basically the whole of wed was used up for games till the night.
Goes without saying, was already out of so called 'stamina' to study efficiently in the night..

Then came thurs, hm that's when I seriously had time to study well starting from the good morning :) rixi sad case still needa help out, so chans, amos and I chiong 1st.
come to think of it, I remember a joke.
I mentioned about going to Hans this sat, which I pronounced as hands.
Hey we're gonna eat at hands(hans) right? not chans ah!"
In the end, I got owned by my own joke...sigh too ignorant of me

Friday came along, which we basically worked all day long to help out in games and later to clean up the place, marks left behind by tape :(
After the games I had some after thoughts though, mainly one.

I compared the 'sheep' which we made out of newspaper to the 'sheep' printed on the piece of paper given to 'satan' to redeem a caught kid.

As a contrast the sheep in the picture was meant to be a sacrifice, (deduced) with its legs bound while the sheep which we 'made' was meant to be as a means to victory.

The sheep in the picture did not seem to have any signs of struggle, remaining obedient.
yet the sheep we 'made' was only constructed with much trouble, difficulty, and perhaps disputes.

The sheep in the picture seemed so blameless, without blemish, while the sheep which we 'made' was constructed in such a bo-chap manner 敷衍, with so many defective areas, having a messy appearance and would probably have difficulties standing.

Somehow this reminded me of Christ vs our own adopted image of Christ.
Why can't we live out a pure and holy life like that of Christ but instead lead life of sin and failure?
Why is it that we always fall so far below God's expectations of us, just like how the Isrealites faired negatively of God's expectations time and time again?

I believe one of the main reasons is that we do not know who God really is.
God isn't a fantasy character who can be drawn, or show up in comics,
He isn't what you imagine. He is who He is.

Sports meet

haha yesterday was JJ's sports meet,
enjoyed the runs and the tugs but basically away for the rest of the events, lol..
But, Bikila ROCKS!
hah, the house I'm in, bikila came in 1st :D

Was playing badminton for most of the time, lol.
But ah was quite a fun time esp when many ex-JJ-cians came back like yinghao, christine n eunice.

Had dinner after that.
To have a special dinner we decided to have instant noodles at the playground!
But, ya plan was cancelled, lol.
In the end, we landed up in KFC yay

Went home, do gpp.
Tired like ... even dots can decribe
ZzZz

And after this post, life during the wekend shall start! :)

Sunday, when God always speaks to me in such a close manner.

Jesus my Lord will love me forever,
From Him no power of evil can sever,
He gave His life to ransom my soul,
now I belong to Him,

Once I was lost in sin's degradation,
Jesus came down to bring me salvation,
Lifted me up from sorrow and shame,
now I belong to Him,

Joy floods my soul for Jesus has saved me,
Freed me from sin that long had enslaved me,
His precious blood He gave to redeem,
now i belong to Him,


Now I belong to Jesus,
Jesus belongs to me,
Not for the years of time alone,
But for eternity.

This blessed bond, for eternity.

Silent.

I now realise,
I am nudged out of oblivion,

I am humbled,
I'm disciplined, reprimanded, woken up from my partial slumber,

controversial as it may sound,

I am well aware of my own limitations.

But I know the other and only possibility for sucess.
It's only the beginning,
therefore,
I'm silent and,
I'll wait.

Check up

Initially I was supposed to have my check up on my wrist on the 25th of may,
but NAPHA was coming so it was pushed forward to today,
the day of my NAPHA, phew.
Good news for me then :)
Wrist is fully healed, all clear da play sports :D
NAPHA is postphoned by 3 mths, wahahaha

On the other hand, what's not to be rejoiced about is that tomorrow is econs test...

Fit!

:O !!
I went formy first PC today finally after like...2 mths? lol...

2 rounds x400 for warm-up, wa no kick, can run fast.
but butt cramp -_-
next, 6 rounds x 400..hmm
3rd round stitch...gg

was a 'fun' day with less than 45 mins break for the day, lols.

PC is fun, yay!

Perfect.

2 days ago, I was scheduled to take my math test.
"TRIGO FORMULA TEST"
when I got into class, teacher said,
hi class, let's get started with our "trigo test".
Class: "I thought it was TRIGO FORMULA TEST?"
Teacher: "Oh, its a trigo class test"
John "what....!?#$%*"
Teacher:
"With the trigo formulas you can do the questions."
"I've looked through your assignments, I have faith that you can do the questions."

"I have faith in you guys"
John: "Teacher is this test counted? (as part of exams)"
Teahcer: "Yes"
-John flashes teacher a "You know I love you" look to teacher.
-_- -_-" -.- -.-"
thanks, there goes my first math test..

Who else?

In the beginning, He created the heavens and the Earth,
He's not bounded by time, neither by events nor anything else.
He is the creator of the entire universe.
He existed before time began.
If the human body was of such complexity, with emotions to add on to it,
who could create something like that?
If human technology could only explore a minor part of the entire universe, with many more galaxies beyond our reach, who can understand such wisdom with which this universe was created with?
Who else could be the Creator other than God Himself?

Man were the guilty party when Adam & Eve fell to the temptation of the serpent and sinnned in the garden of Eden, henceforth sin entered the world.
Whose fault was it?
MAN! Would we have made a difference if we were Adam? keep dreaming.
How else could we be reconciled to God except through Christ by God's abundant love and mercy?
All have sinned, all have gone astray.
There is not one who has fallen short of the glory of God.
We were all destined to suffer the eternal fire of hell, condemned.
Who else was to provide salvation for us other than Christ?

God loved the world to such an extent that he send His only begotten Son to die for us on the cross, to bear our sins, humiliation; who resurrected 3 days after his death to accomplish salvation for us.
Christ was willing to pay the price, to take the image of a slave, humbling Himself from the status of GOD.
To hang on the cross, a symbol of suffering, punishment, shame and humiliation, to give up his life willingly.
He bore our sins though He was guiltless, being led to the slaughter as a lamb, silent before His shearers.
Who else can, who else is willing to pay such a price, to love a wretched sinner like me?

A potter defines the purpose of his creation, his pottery.
So is the purpose of a human life defined by his/her creator.
Who else do we follow but the Almighty God, above all and in all?
Who else do we follow but the Messiah who loved us with only the word agape can describe?
Who else do we offer the throne of our life to other than the one who knows the very purpose of our life?

Who else?

Not for show

Studying's not about showing it or flaunting it to others
School life is finally getting back to normal where you can see ppl studying :)
Although, some irritating and inconsiderate ppl might pop into the library and speak at such a volume as if it's a market occasionally.
Getting more tired by the day,
however, its now the weekend!!
This is when I 'regenerate' :)

Red bull or coffee?

School

Heh, school started,
not bad, life's starting to gear up in JJ!!
Finally have hw!! (math -mr simon leow)
The pace is still comfortable for me so far, still mass lecturing week though..
Hope less time can be wasted..
Waiting for tutorials to kick in & rock n roll

Just a short post. Hope to remind myself to gear up further n bia ahh!!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow, we reminisce,
all the times we spent together,
the joy and the laughter that we shared.
Tomorrow I won't get to see you,
neither will I get to hear you,
Tomorrow, it might seem as if,
you disappeared without a trace.

Somehow, tomorrow seems to mark the farewell date to those leaving JJ,
og27 of O1 seems to have become part of history,
I know this friendship will remain, but how long can it last?
I'll miss you guys loads..

You turned around,
you walked away,
and tears flow down my cheeks..
as moments turn into memories,
to memories,
we'll relive.

Loves og27!!!
Ying hao, Timothy, Zheng hui, Sebastian, Bing He, Christine, Cai Yun, Eunice, Eunica

Return

OGL camp over..
was rather fun to know lots more people especially within family 2 :)

Orientation camp 2 over..
was a blast indeed,
was a 75% of the time chiongster being a gamer!
sun burnt, 'foot burnt', dehydrated, hungry, absolutely hardcore!
But the best part was, we could get wet anytime :)
Really enjoyed the times being a gamer n will really cherish those memoriable times :D
It was not too late for me to know all of campers of og8 though :p
They were a very nice bunch of people who were really cooperative n as ogls, it was truly a pleasure n honour to lead em & have fun with em!!
Many special thanks to fellow ogls: Elwin, kee seng, xian liang, mai, sharon & ruth!
It'll probably be one of my most unforgettable times spent in JJ..

Teens camp was also over yesterday, I'm sure it was an unforgettable n life changing one not only for me but also for most of the teens.
Topic was "The life changing salvation"
Ephesians 2:6-10
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Sincerely wanna thank the teens for their helpfulness & initiative, you people have really grown n changed, praise God!
Hope all will continue to have the joy in serving Jesus & be a living testimony shining brighter each day for Christ!


I pray, O Lord that every bridge will be burned behind me,
that I will boast in nothing but the precious blood You shed for us on the cross,
that I can prevail and be victorious over my old self & sinful nature,
not with my own ability, of which I had none to begin with,
but by handing over the full control of my life to You,
to place You on the throne of my life,
henceforth pursuing a life of sanctification for your use,
with the centre of my life revolving around, Youself,
My God, my heavenly Father, my creator, saviour, master, friend, my everything.

Sigh..

one hand blogger is back to update..

finally got to change bacslab into cast after 2 weeks,
point is to let it stay immobile n allow my wrist to heal..
4 more weeks to go..
endure!

Orientation camp 2 is coming,
Teens camp is coming,
but ogl camp is only tomorrow!!

Been in a very foul mood today,
probably in one my lowest spirits ever.
arg.

FYI PLS TAKE NOTE THAT MY CBOX IS AVAILABLE FOR TAGING AT THE BOTTOM

ouch.

Yesterday was another first time for me when my wrist bone cracked..
Noobed out when saving a goal while I was playing penalty shootout for fun with my frens and I was the goal keeper..
My right palm took the full impact and hence my fractured wrist.
tim, silver n bing he were very nice to accompany me to see a chi doc arnd jurong,
but sadly when it was my turn he told me to go to a hospital cause he was certain my wrist bone has cracked.
tim n silver went back for ogl meeting 1st where i heard they danced, cheered and stuffs.
Bing He was a very caring senior n accompanied me back to sch to gt my bag 1st.
Also tied a triangular bandage to support my right arm temporarily.
Hailed a cab and set off for alexandra hospital..
The whole process of consultation, takin x-ray and bandaging took arnd 2hrs!!
(of which 0.75 of the time was spent on waiting..)
aunt foon yong dropped by to visit me as well, zheng hui came too
Many thanks to these caring friends of mine n my aunt :)
Finally went homee at arnd 8 after having dinner with bh n zh.

2 weeks on bacslab then another 4 weeks on cast.
6 weeks MIA sigh..
currently training left hand, lol

Yesterday...

~LoVe FiEsTa~...totally ROCKED!
102 games, food & entrepreneural stalls
including uncle ringo funfair rides
dunking of mr leow, handsome ng & steven koh!
centre stage for performances
dances
pythons!
3v3 pro bball *_*
even had a 'JJ aquarium' oO
flying fox as well!?
uncle satay :D
in a nutshell, the variety is simply overwhelming :)

People who went:
grp 1: Tian /he lao shi and family
grp 2a: sec sch frens-ws,kk,kelvin,kian wee, bryan etc
2b: weiting n co.,des, wai sing, edwin
grp 3: pri sch frens: carey + kejia etc
grp 4: 07S31 classmates
grp 5: OG 27 mates

So..for the entire day I was just going from one group to another & I survied w/o a hp, whoa

After the event me, timtimtim, tintintin & eunice still went for dinner at JP, cause it was like alr 7pm, reaching 8pm..
Had a stomachache after eating but tintintin kept laughing -_- at apparently nothing
In the end reached home at like 9+

That aside, I had a great day!

Update!

heh, sorry for not updating, but I'm back, hahaha


Himself
Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling, now it is His Word;
Once His gift I wanted, now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.

Once 'twas painful trying, now 'tis perfect trust;
Once a half salvation, now the uttermost!
Once 'twas ceaseless holding, now He holds me fast;
Once 'twas constant drifting, now my anchor cast.

Once 'twas busy planning, now 'tis trustful prayer;
Once 'twas anxious caring, now He has the care;
Once 'twas what I wanted, now what Jesus says;
Once 'twas constant asking, now 'tis ceaseless praise.

Once it was my working, His it hence shall be;
Once I tried to use him, now He uses me;
Once the power I wanted, now the Mighty One;
Once for self I laboured, now for him alone.

Once I hoped in Jesus, now I know He's mine;
Once my lamps were dying, now they brightly shine;
Once for death I waited, now His coming hail;
And my hopes are anchored safe within the veil.

All in all forever, Jesus will I sing; everything in Jesus, and Jesus everything.

Hymns sharing session one sat was of a utopian nature, simply enjoyed it, to the uttermost!
'Bold-ed' sentences emphasizes on Himself, God alone.

Till now

In the end, if it really is,
I've realised that,
badminton,
still is,
and will be my passion.

Today, I sleep

Pc -physical conditioning for 1st lesson!
ran 3 rounds around the track (should be 400m / round)
did stretching
10 push ups and free games!
which is just some very light badminton, haha.

Had GP lecture straight after that, whoa its a really huge and broad subject...
2 hrs of break, slacked had a 'picnic' with peter rofl,
he bought some really nice food and even bought chips!!! lol-ing

Then it was time for Chinese lecture, which I did not have to take actually,
but had to since 'O' level results aren't out yet, if fail then can jump liao..
Was half-asleep..

Physics lecture last, waha my favourtie subject :)
But all lectures today were 99% introductory so yeah..

My comp is fixed and now my comp has...760MB of RAM yay!!!
No more lagging for signing into msn for 1 minute!!! :D

Orientation camp day 2: Fit

slept at 1:15am or later and woke up at like 6+am, eyes felt rather painful when i woke up..
morning PT: good job mr simon.
He called up a german, korean and vietnamese to count to ten for each language as we did push ups and sit ups etc.
Then it was breakfast,
After breakfast, it was TELEMATCH!
Face was smeared with flour, it dried while we were cheering though -_- at the same time i was simply trying to scrape off the flour, thanks.
My pants (behind) also got wet with erm, 'flour water'
Somehow it didn't manage to dry and I had to endure through the whole lunch while sitting on the floor at my family spot ... not fun
Before i knew it, it was time for kinetic warfare!
It was the last ever game I will be playing during the camp. whoa it was really exciting too, kept getting wet, just chiong around lols, super fun :)
Then it was jj nite, quite cool but quite a sad nite also...

On day 3, we had this cool E-web thing where we'd share about the camp, then afterwards we proceeded to the hall to sing some 'parting songs'
so saddd :'(
Nevertheless..

YI BAH UNDENEH
YI BAH HOR LE GA
APPLE APPLE
ORANGE HOR LE GA
YUAN DE BU NENG BIAN DE NAH
BIAN DE BU NENG YUAN DE NAH
YUAN DE NAH
BIAN DE NAH
YUAN DE BIAN TE TONG TONG NAH!!

Sensational F6! F6 boleh! OG27 boleh!

Orientation day itself was already fierce enough with the hyped up ogls cheering like siao.
Before that were a series of 'cool' talks which drained the blood outta my right leg to numb it several times, going through the painful cycle several times is NOT fun -.-
And Mr Simon Liao was seriously a 'sick' pro joker..
Dismissed at close to seven and reached home at close to eight..hiong!

Orientation camp day 1
cheer until peng!!
leader & teacher wants us to keep cheering at the HDB blocks to receive echoes, I pity the residents -_-
play games on the synthetic field with the first sign of me getting wet thanks yo yinghao for bombing my pants.
Till then friendly fire was on as all of us either sabotaged or suicided into each other with water bombs. Stations? who cares? BOMBS AWAY!

comes the -not funny- part.

After the afternoon games, it started raining cats and dogs~~~
Thats perfectly alright, until...
I could not find my bag of 'bathing items'.
Alright so most of the people already ran back to the blocks for shelter n to bathe while i was the only OG member of my group left with some OGLs at the shelter near the field, wa sian.
Could not leave cause of the lighning..lowwwwww..!!
Ok, then finally have umbrealla to shelter me back while I serched all 1st level toilets for my OG to no avail, then I returned to hall, and found Ying Yee(OGL) fortunately, phew
Oh yea, she's one of those ultra friendly OGLs who'd drop by to say hi, ask about what subject combi you're taking, or chat with you during meals and of course take good care of the group while always wearing a sweet smile like this :)
Thanks to her I finally found a toilet, or rather cubicle in one to bathe in (others were packed)

Night games was perhaps one of the toughest, most intelligently planned, brilliantly executed large-scale game which I've ever played..3 cheers for OGLs & councillors!
Run till heh heh chuan

After bathing the boys propaganda-ed by zheng hui somehow came up with a joke about me being in the toilet which is totally LINKLESS. arg.

Song singing session was kinda great too..
Tonight we remember the times that we spent here..

w00t we had classroom 312 to sleep in after much crapping by zhenghui lolll
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for brightening up that short period of time during camp, campers.
Thanks for leading me along, familiarising me with jj as if im held by the hand, OGLs.
Thanks for all efforts in making orientation camp '07 The alchemy of life, an excellent success.

wow

As I pondered upon what is it that distinguishes between true love and infatuation
amidst the light drizzle..
I raised my head to look at the sky, behold it was a rainbow!!!
Oh my, the semicircle-shaped rainbow..its...amazingly beautiful
Its been like seriously ages since I've seen a rainbow..how dazzling..*_*
[Anti-climax]I proceeded to Fairprice to buy kitchen towels as requested by my mum.
When I exited Fairprice, I still could not take my eyes off the amazingly beautiful rainbow despite carrying 2 huge plastic bags containing the kitchen towels.
Gave out a soft sigh as I realised the rainbow was already slowly disappearing..
Beauty fades as quickly as..maybe the lifespan of a blade of a leaf
So does infatuation with its 'false love'
Might be just my realisation,
Or, was that perhaps what God wanted to tell me?
----------------------------------------------------
ambiguity could arise, please do not jump to conclusions & clarify when in doubt.