Monday, January 14, 2008

today i had a most unusual experience: sharing Christ with a chinaman! long story la, but basically i was at our bookstall at the SMU fair this afternoon and this chinese guy bought a book. then later that night i was having dinner at the kopitiam and just happened to sit at a table where that guy so coincidentally happened to be sitting directly in front of. yea we recognised each other, so me & my ban mian moved over to his table and then we just chatted. what we r doing etc etc. then i found the opportunity to ask him if China has alot of Christians and he said yes! this guy happens to be a communist and communists don't embrace religion at all. but anyway i went on to share about God + Jesus etc and surprisingly he was interested in the topic! so it became a discussion about the content of the Bible and apologetics.

the most amazing thing about this whole incident is that the whole conversation was in Chinese! although there were a few words such as "devil" and "wisdom" that i had to spell out in English so that he could understand. i'm convinced that God led me thru this experience today. not since me and Guofeng shared Christ with Thai strangers in Nakornsawan have i shared the Gospel with total strangers at all. and this communist guy is easily twice my age. who said that we can only share Christ with our friends & family?

another rarity that happened earlier in the day was my caregroup coming together to cook! we did lunch at harry's place and he must be so glad that the kitchen wasnt as messed up as it would finally be expected to be. pasta was the order of the day, supplemented by garlic bread + mushroom soup + roast chicken + white wine. baked cookies and ice-cream completed the feast. "they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts." we did!

the guys picking choice wine at PS carrefour.

our lunch, still in packaged form.

the chicken that taylen said is better than kfc.

baa baa.

army guys CAN cook!

yumm.

i dunno why matt is in that position. i really dunno.

Posted at 1:15 AM

Sunday, December 02, 2007

those who wear contact lenses should be familiar with this situation: you are in the toilet, in front of the mirror trying to put on your contact lenses, when your slippery hands suddenly and accidentally allow that transparent semi-spherical piece of plastic slip and drop... onto don't know where. you'd think and hope that it's somewhere on the washing basin, but somehow that piece of lens seems to have disappeared. your blurred vision at that point of time also doesn't help one bit. then you slowly put on your specs and suddenly, with that clarity of sight, you manage to see that elusive little piece of lens.

this incident happened to me this morning, and many times before. yes i managed to finally find my temporarily misplaced lens, but more importantly i was reminded by God that the situation when we have lost our lens and can't find it due to our blurred vision is likened to a real-life problem when we try to see and solve the problem with our own perspective and methods. this could be problems regarding relationships with friends/sheep etc, finances & money, work, even those that have to do with courage! (like my sharing testimony with jess during service yesterday. woots! super scary at first.) however when we put on God's lenses (this is metaphoric of course), we see things much more clearly; we see the much bigger picture and realise that the problem was not so bad after all.

jess and i were both really disappointed right after sharing our missions trip testimony at 2nd service yesterday. our 1st service one was good and well received, but at that time we were distraught at how we could have messed the 2nd one up. we rushed though it at the last part cos there was no time, and our nervousness showed up at the end, especially during the prayer. although shuzhen encouraged us alot while backstage, we were still convinced that we had done a bad job. however God slowly brought us back into His presence! i was later reminded by Him that this testimony was about Him, for His people. there was no need for me to feel down or disappointed! the success of a testimony comes when the people catch our spirit about the missions trip and are convicted at what God can do and they are encouraged to go for missions trip in the future. true, the congregation caught our spirit and was convicted! i know cos people told me they caught it. so that means our purpose of the sharing had been achieved! i was very touched when yongsheng told me that he was honoured that his shepherd was on stage sharing testi and led the service in prayer. i was like, I AM honoured that my sheep is saying that!

God opened my spiritual eyes and ears to see the bigger picture of the situation and to hear him. and i'm glad i listened! if not i'd probably still be wallowing about how badly i'd done yesterday. this is the beauty about God. he builds us up and encourages us through his ways, even though we fall ever so often. that's the reason why we believers are able to live powerfully! :D

Posted at 6:21 PM

Monday, November 26, 2007

woots! finally finally. finally i'm able to find a decent amount of time to be online to post about my recent missions trip to Bangkok! more specifically, we were in this province called Nakornsawan. we spent 5 days there, plus 1 night of uber-fun fellowship in the Hope Bangkok ministry house. so that was.. Nov 9th to 13th, plus Nov 14th! vic, guofeng, sinyee, desmond, shuxian, james, jess, ben! this is a young team, but this is a team of world-changers and i'm so honoured to be able to lead them. i'm proud of every one of you!

the news of our missed flight reached the ears of many, and probably shocked a few others. sorry! my apologies if you are one of them :P there was also talk that we are history makers for being the first ones in the church to miss a flight during a missions trip. yep it was indeed an expensive lesson for all of us. yet i'd say this incident really brought the 8 of us together in the face of a mini-crisis, plus it was an opportunity to rely on God and what He can do.

now, please allow me to bring you on a photo journey of this amazing 6 day experience!

Day 1

at the airport. the guys plus the rest who came to send us off. my shep & sheeps came!

everyone who came. thanks for your prayers and encouragements!

the party of 8, good to go!

in bangkok, on the way to the bus terminal

the bangkok bus terminal

taboo over lunch. taboo turned out to be one of our ways of spending free time during this trip.

desmond, aka jasmine!

4 crazy guys, but crazy for God!

the very nice, very powerful woman of God, pastor Pornpana!

smileys! :D

the guys' ministry house. in our very comfy chalet-like room. why chalet-like? although we had 5 guys packed in one room, there was enough sleeping area, blankets and comforters, aircon, TV with EPL, a fridge packed with goodies, toilet with water heater, hi-fi set. enough said.

stay tuned for the rest of the pics! paiseh this national serviceman needs to book in to camp now. was at home today only cos i was on MC. hehes.

Posted at 8:25 PM

Sunday, November 04, 2007

why do we worship god? the straightforward answer would be that we love him because He first loved us and we wanna give him the glory and praise that He deserves! worship is a time of coming face to face with God (spiritually), in other words our spirit touching God's, or as matt put it, a glance into eternity. worship is not just singing songs to Him, but trusting Him and living & speaking in a way that is glorifying to Him!

i was at the sound box behind the controls (aka sound duty) today during service, and during worship i saw the whole congregation give thanks to God in a way i thought was simply awesome and amazing, although they didnt do anything big or outstanding. as everyone sang and worshipped God through the song "i'm forever yours", i could feel greatly in my heart the simple reason why we all even worship Him in the first place. it's quite indescribable, really, but i almost teared when i saw my fellow brothers in the NS group raise their spirits in total surrender and dependence to God. i mean, i know what they go through and how hard they are working for God. jie hui was almost like a kid when he hopped with such child-like faith & joy when worshipping today. guofeng was praying so fervently and he's so faithful; if only his sheep could decide to commit and be faithful as well. matt, well i'm sure God will use & bless him ever so greatly as he combines his reliance on God with his knowledge of the gospel & his communication skills.

jiehui, guofeng and matt had one thing in common as they live their lives, or in this context, worship God during service, and that thing is FAITH, which is trusting that God will work. one's my sub-district leader, one's my good buddy and one's my first shepherd, and i really respect them alot for their reliance and dependence on God. faith is something that i know i needa grow in. i'm the kind who needs to know that the thing WILL happen before i trust that it will happen. but God doesn't work like that all the time. if he did, then we wouldn't need to rely on God anymore right?

and as i travel with the team to thailand this friday, i pray that i grow in my faith and strengthen my burden to outreach to people! i'm already seeing God working and flowing through my team already, as we bond and prep for the trip. i really thank God for giving me an opportunity to lead this group of talented and excited bros and sisters. this team shall go to Hope Nakornsawan to bless and be blessed, to be a glorifying worship to God! :D

whenever we're not in control, God is!

Posted at 1:08 AM

Sunday, October 28, 2007

as most J1 students (and that includes my bro) prepare to take the AO Level Chinese paper tomorrow, i'm reminded of my own experience some 3 years ago. it was probably a combination of heck-caredness and not knowing what to study that i decided not to even study for the paper. hehs. i think i only just read up abit on the format for the compo letter writing la. by the way i eventually got B4 for that which i think was not too bad, although it was a deprovement from my o'level's A1.

this brings me to feel kinda sorry for the JC chinese teachers out there. simply because the students are simply not interested in the subject! hahas. it's natural la, since chinese is not compulsory and doesnt contribute much to our final grades anyway. i vividly recall the days when my friends and i would plan escape routes just to avoid our chinese teacher vincent chong just before he arrived. lol. there was once when we zao-ed to go play soccer down at the school street soccer court and vincent chong came to find us! and his punishment for us was to stay for detention to move tables. 1 table. for the 4 of us. LOL. those were the days la. pon school and all.

but not forgetting those taking the chinese exam tomorrow, ALL THE BEST to u guys, whether u decided to study or did not. haha! :P

Posted at 9:01 PM

Friday, October 05, 2007

Friends and fans who watch the champions league! do register and play the fantasy football at uefa.com if you haven't done so! it doesn't really test your management skills like it claims, but it's pure fun and makes watching the matches much more exciting. for example, i would be rooting for Cech to keep clean sheets in his chelsea games and for Kanoute to score and assist in his matches for Sevilla. anyway here's my team, which got me 66points (quite high) for this week's matches.

_____________________________________________________________________
Cech(GK)

Toure Carragher

QuaresmaSneijderGattusoFabregasMalouda

Mancini V.Nistelrooy(C) Kanoute

_____________________________________________________________________

And just for the record, here's my very own dream team (not necessarily playing in the champs league):

_____________________________________________________________________
Cech(GK)

Terry Cannavaro(C) Toure

D.Alves Essien Pirlo Ronaldinho

Kaka

Henry V.Nistelrooy

Subs: Buffon, Nesta, Vieira, Messi, Drogba

_____________________________________________________________________

okay as you can see, i'm not showing any favouritism here, as shown by my omission of Liverpool players (yes, even Gerrard and Torres are not in the team), nor any biasness against Man Utd (just not impressed by a certain C. Ronaldo). a 3-5-2 line-up with Kaka playmaking does it for me.

Posted at 10:03 PM