im drunk

Finally extracted my wisdoom teeth on my left. The whole experience felt like a kidnap LOL. All that I remember of sedation (rather than local anaesthetic, cause the wound would be BIG) was that this dude was chatting with me, gave me 2 jabs to the veins of my right hand, inserting the tube then -blackout-.

Woke up, then they said they've arranged a mercedes cab for me downstairs already and they even arranged for one of their dental assistants to accompany me down. They asked where I lived and I told them queenstown. They were like chatting and saying that she stays at that area too and can take the cab too, but she did not in the end haha. Was very embarassing cause from the point that I woke up I was seriously like a drunkard, blur and jelly-ish. Thank God I managed to have the op today! Otherwise who knows what hell will await me again tonight :/

Still feeling 'drunk'. Sill bleeding quite a lot and er its weird to swallow pills with my lower lip numb lol. The dentist was one professional dude, he didn't mind answering my mum's call to consult him on post-op treatment and medication :)

Alright, I will go back to my slumber now..

Family, are people who, no matter what, will stick by your side.

The LORD, alone, is my rock

22 Feb began as a very very dark day.

The day in camp started on a very low note, with myself having to give a scolding to the men in an attempt to dissipate the fury of my superior. It was again about 5 cents worth of stuff, not worth mentioning, much less scolding, but well, the fault still lies with the errant servicemen who slacked off and did not learn from past mistakes.

While at work, I received an sms from zheng rui (~9-10am), stating that Christchurch had been hit by an earthquake and he urged me and the others to pray for jiaying's family over there. That piece of news hit me hard and caused big time turbulence inside of me. Questions rang within my head, was this really ... goodbye?

What I am about to share is to testify to the LORD's faithfulness in answering my prayers.

Knowing that I was powerless to do anything at all. What I need most now was to depend utterly on the LORD. I found myself a secluded spot and knelt to pray for God's protection and for His watchful eye to be over jiaying's family. Praise be to God! I received an sms from jiaying via cjls' phone indicating that her family was safe :)))

Having no internet access in camp is reall bothersome because I could not keep updated with the latest situation in NZ. I forwarded chai's sms to xmls, ktls & chans. I was overjoyed and really thankful for the LORD's protection and for watching over them :D that really solved a big part of the mental and emotional torture brewing within. (hahaha I think my boss also saw my expression of overjoy by chance :$)

That being said, there was something else bugging me. Yep, they managed to escape disaster and survive, but amenities and supplies are disrupted, thus survival could also become a problem should aid be inaccessible. xmls and I tried contacting cjls but to no avail, once again, questions penetrated my mind and disrupted the previously established peace within me.

There was again, nothing I could do, but pray. Night had fallen and I was on the verge of 'bargaining' with God (Abraham style), wanting to make a deal of sorts. The hope which I held within me started to fluctuate but thank God, the Holy Spirit stopped me in time before I made the impulsive prayer. The Counselor helped me to fix my faith and hope on El Shaddai, God Almighty and submit to His sovereignty. Surely, He knows better and surely, He does better than what I can.

This time I prayed for the LORD's providence and sustenance. Praise be to God! Haha dear sister chai somehow managed to connect to the internet on the morning of 23 Feb and gave us the update on her having accommodation etc. (I managed to get on the net once I dismounted) I felt really relieved and ecstatic at the same time upon reading the news on fb. This time, the inner turmoil which pervaded throughout me for the whole of yesterday finally died down. Right then, one question rang throughout the stillness of my soul - 'Why is it that the LORD listens to my prayer?"

Pondering about this question objectively, it is really a crazy fact that God actually listens to my prayer! It is indeed infinite grace and abundant mercy on God's part that He finds time to hear a child's first prayer and that saint & sinner call will always find Him there. Strength of the weak and light to the lost, how great is my LORD!

Re-pondering, He heard my prayer because it was not really mine, for every motive and every word was enable and caused by the Holy Spirit. It was by His grace that I prayed according to His will and not my own..

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything

by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving

let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension,

will guard your heats and your minds in Christ Jesus

(Philipians 4:6-7) NASB

I was taught, comforted and strengthened with the very verse which I shared with jiaying, personally - by the LORD.

The LORD, alone, is my rock!

Praise the LORD!

Life is beautiful

Life is beautiful because there is God.

God caused and there was. Things that were, things that are, things that will be...they are all in the sovereign God's hands. It is great comfort and assurance for me to know that God holds tomorrow.

Life is beautiful because there is hope.

However dark it may be, however fierce may the tempest is which arises, the key was never to look within but above.

Life is beautiful because it can only be lived once.

Like a flower, it dies after exuding its beauty for a short while.

The beauty of life lies in its exhaustible and irreversible nature.

Every action, every thought, every speech, every emotion - they carry weight.

This brings meaning to everything. This brings truth into reality.

God causes all things, I rest in that fact.

CNY :)

I haven't eaten ANY ba kwa yet!!!

I did not really spam the goodies this year but nevertheless CNY has been awesome so far :) Had reunion dinner at uncle kim hua's house (3rd uncle, maternal side) and it was a spread...no, it was a feast! There was salmon, veg with scallops, prawns, shark's fin soup, choc enclare, cream puffs, mango pudding as dessert..totally wow-ed. Other than the good food, it the night was spent watching red cliff and talking with my other cousins. Good to know that my cousin-in-law is a bball coach in northlight! (I used to work there as a finance assistant) and he mentioned that he was into doing ministry through sports and he's passionate about it.

CNY day 1, we were supposed to leave our first destination (eldest uncle's house) at 1330hrs and... 90% of the family reached only at 1315hrs LOL. Think it was a tactic cause last year we stoned there big time for a long time! Was fun playing around with my cousin joshua, who is 5 yrs old, he didnt wear his spierman suit this year but was wearing spiderman socks and a ... chinese costume, cool! Then we headed to er, im poh's house, more chatting with uncle kim on's family bout studies, army, iphones. Then it was another house, where we looked for the rabbit to play with it..

The last destination for the day was at Ang Mo Kio, for dinner. So it was only like 4pm, some went visiting at other places, some others went home. I went to su yin & malcom's house with 2 babies, several other kids and a few young teenagers, haha we were like the 'baby sitters'. They played pictureika while I just watched TV and dozed off towards the end. Oh and I discovered this super cool cark track which is battery operated that can keep the toy car running round the whole track continuously with a 'booster' at the start point - the genius of engineering! :)

By 7pm we headed over to our last destination, it was super crammed lol, almost 40 ppl cramming into a 3 room lol. Apart from watching red cliff 2, we also played this thing called the 'amazing arrow helicopter', man.. I should've played this kinda stuff when I was much younger, not now when I am feeling really old when I mix among my cousins!! Its basically this thing which can be catapulted into the air (it can fly pretty high, like 10 stories max - my best try) and then it'll slowly descend - another genius of simple engineering! :)

2nd game of the night was bingo and I won on the second rounding, hence also receiving the bounty of a $28 hongbao lol! :) 3rd game was wits & wager, I teamed up with uncle kim on, aunty jacqueline, rachel, jonathan and joshua :) it was really funny, just citing one example - question: how high is bt timah hill? our response: hmmm..~800m? EPIC FAIL.

Had a nice day! Although our family dont get together that frequently but it sure is nice to come together on occasions like that cause we still feel the family love for each other :)