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.