New Year resolutions

1. Travel to a country that I've not been to before (which can't be too difficult as I've only been to Australia, Singapore and Malaysia)
2. Tell a God story every week
3. Have a more exciting year than 2005 (which is going to be pretty difficult as 2005 have been pretty awesome!!)
4. Keep in touch more often with my friends overseas.

Random stuff

Thank you God for:
- the past Christmas that went VERY well (especially since the run through on Christmas morning was a near disaster) and for the souls that came to know You on that morning
-Christmas pressies (All were really nice but I had an extra nice one :) )
- a great break with family in Camerons
-meeting with Ps Mark and family. Justin is soooo cute... He just talks and talks and talks and talks... but he's one of those precocious kids. :)
-people around me that care and are concerned and give great advice as I prepare for Bible School (note to self - pray for a prayer partner and look out for a lecturer to be a mentor)

Just finished reading:
- Devotion explosion (really good book on how to make your devotions interesting!!! One of the tips is to choose a book of the bible and write it in your own handwriting. The other good tip is to type out your prayer.)

Preparing for:
The new year and Watchnite service!

Christmas ramblings

Christmas is coming!! Thank God for sustaining me. Am quite surprised that my stress levels is not any higher than it is now despite all the hitches in the planning for Christmas.
Have been having a pleasant time catching up with some of my ex-OCF friends. It's been a rare treat to meet up with some of them TWICE last week!!!
Doreen's wedding was also on last Saturday.. Had a good time there - though the dinner went on till quite late (we finished about 11.30pm)!!

Foresee a slight struggle this week - it's Christmas activities vs. Christmas reflections. Am hoping to be able to sit down a little longer with Him than my usual 'pockets of time' (which I suppose is better than NO time at all with Him).

Feel like I'm rambling now. Will stop here.

Meeting up with old and new friends

Had a great time yesterday evening. Had TWO dinner appointments - a first for me.
The first was with the TeenStreet committee. Daniel and I, who are the service team leaders were invited along. It was just really good to meet up with all of them again. They are just a bunch of fantastic people who, though busy, give their time and energy to God and young people. It was great to catch up with Daniel in the car too. Found out that he went to Kuantan with a bunch of friends from youth group for a day trip - how fun!!

My friend CQ from Singapore gave a surprise call on Tuesday evening and he invited me to join him and MT and CT for dinner. It was great catching up with them. Of course, we discussed OCF friends whom we've lost contacts with, who's getting married soon, ministry, work, etc...
It was a great evening. CQ's quite entertaining. He always has heaps of stories about his foot and mouth disease. :)

Dear God,
Thank You for different people whom You bring into my life and make it richer. Am so blessed by You.

Thinking of my friends overseas

Was just talking to Simon Ng, Kevin Chew and Wan Qiu online yesterday... They were all part of OCF Melbourne Uni and it just always is good to catch up with them. Kevin says that he'll be coming over in Feb!! Yay!! Was very sad to miss Wan Qiu last week.. : ( was sick with a really bad flu (had to go to the doc to get medication ) and had to go off to Teen Street. Hope that she'll be able to come over again sometime this round..
This morning when I was on my way to work, I was wondering how my other friends were doing: Adeline, Poh Lyn & Karen (the green house girls and my ex-housemates :) ), Johann, Liz, Francis, Eric, John, Jason Tan, Janice Tan, Charlene, Marcus, David, my ACF Rowville friends etc...


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On another note, my sis is going to start work in January!! She's got a job in KPMG... Praise God for opening doors for her!!!

Post Teen Street

Am back from Teen Street Malaysia.. Am just bursting with stories to tell!! Hahaha - have just been sharing about TeenStreeet to the ppl in the office the whole morning and just looking through photos with them.. One of the commitments I made at camp was to share 'stories' of God's work in my life every week to someone...
Miss the crazy fun stuff that was happening at camp.. Really enjoyed the prayer day, the TNT (Teens Need Teens) wacky race... RM25,000 Was raised up by 150 teens for the Dalits.. It was really awesome.. Enjoyed the worship singing sessions too.. Was quite an experience to worship alongside setting up the cafe (I had to leave the hall early most nites to set up for Jungle Time which was after the Throne room sessions). Miss my room mates - crazy though they were...

Was really blessed to get to know the OM Malaysia staff a bit better- they kept on wanting to bless my service team... Dexter, Foo Seng & Jin Ai, Ken and Val are just such great ppl as well.. Was really blessed by their heart for TeenStreet and their encouragements along the way..

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Miss my service team members..
Jee Lee - my very dependable member of the service team. She's 21 this year and is studying English in NUS, Singapore. She's worshiping in Life Chapel. She was a great help with the ice blended drinks...

Christine Tiong - she's my ice cream lady and my room mate. She's from Good News church in Kuching, Sarawak and she's just absolutely zany.. She was just so desperate for Maggi Mee Tom Yam one nite and it was absolutely funny to watch her..

Wei Li - Wei Li's my other room mate and she's one cool lady. She's working in PWC as an auditor and was helping out in the jungle.

Daniel Lee - Daniel's another crazy but fun guy from SAGC... He's absolutely dependable and gets the job done..

James - James has the weirdest comments sometimes but it was just great having him in my team. He was very good with the torches and the lamps.. Also a very good salesman though not a businessman - if he keeps on giving free food away just to make ppl happy, our cafe would've been broke... :)

Eu Wei - Quiet guy but gets the job done.. The poor guy was tuckered out most of the time I saw him.. Probably cos he was at the camp site setting up too..

Moi Sia - from Sarawak too... She was my drinks lady.. Am glad to have her on my team as she has a warm heart..

Ekkpan a.k.a 'Boy' & Pattipan a.k.a 'Pai'- From Thailand.. Both was helping Jee Lee out with the ice blendeds. Pai especially is really funny. He went around with the guitar singing 'Come, Now is the time for ice creams.' (to the tune "come, now is the time to worship")kekeke...

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!!!

Happy Birthday to my Beloved Mother. She's an absolutely awesome mum - a little crazy sometimes and does things that just "normal" parents don't do. But I love her anyways... Have especially appreciated her blessing in releasing me into ministry the past year. It's not always been plain sailing but it's great to know that I have a WISE mum who's always there and giving advice and support in my ministry work.

Thank you God for my fun, wacky at times mother who's there when I need her and whom you've used mightily to mould my life... :)

Teens Street Malaysia 2005 doing God Time Kingdom Code

 

TeenStreet Malaysia

Am now here in TeenStreet Malaysia and am having an absolutely fantastic time here! Hip Hop's music going on in the background now for the Hip Hop workshop conducted by Joel Tan for one of the Extreme Base Camp (Workshops). Watching him is like watching poetry in motion.. He's really fluid and really great at the hip hop stuff... He apparently started the Urban Groove here in Malaysia to promote Hip Hop in a clean way and to shine for JC.

The camp has sorta been a blur for me... Have been meeting heaps of new ppl and am working alongside and leading a fantastic service team... Our role as service team members is to basically serve the teams.. We've been having great fun selling ice creams, setting up the cafe and selling snacks and ice blendeds.. We're also in charge of setting up for the TNT(Teens Needs Teens) wacky race and the prayer station... It's been rather a lot of work but we have been greatly blessed by the committee(with TS goodies and dinner!!)...

It's been great watching Dan and Suzy Potter take the Wild Kingdom times.... They just work really well together and I've enjoyed watching the dance and drama as well. It's just been really great just being reminded about Loving God and Loving Ppl by going through the Wild Kingdom Code- God Time, The Walk & Net (Loving God); Serving, Support & Story... (Loving Ppl)...

Have heard this so many times in my Christian walk but it's been brought forward to me in a very refreshing way again. I wish more of the youth from my church came. Sue Zen and Kit's here(praise God!!!). The young ppl here has been really blessed. Will post up my photos shortly. Want to go watch the Hip Hop now!!! - Am thinking that Sue Ann and Hsien Ling will definitely love this.

Happiness

I'm so happy! I have a class in an hour and i haven't even finished my notes (almost done).. Have been stalling because I had a lovely surprise today! I just received my notebook!!! Expected to receive it next week but am getting it earlier than I thought I would!
so it's just absolutely fantastic.. :)
The possibilities are just endless. :)

Thank you God for the notebook.

OM Teen Street

Am going off to OM Teen Street soon! Just can't wait to see how everything's going to be.
OM Teen Street is a camp/conference for youths specifically aged between 13-18 years old.
This year it'll be held in STM Seremban from the 3rd-8th of December. OM Teen Street is organised by OM (my favourite missions organisation - I'm biased) and has been running very successfully for the last couple of years in Europe. It's also been running in different part of Asia and it's the first time we're holding it in Malaysia.

The response here has been awesome... 3 weeks before the closing date was due, all 150 places were taken up!!! Was a bit sad as I wanted to see more teens from my church going. Due to the awesome response, the organisers are planning to enlarge it so that 450 ppl are able to participate in Teen Street next year!!!
TeenStreet is really about the teens. All the programmes are fun, interactive, and geared towards what young people are into today. Will write more about the highlights after camp. :)

So... what is 25 year old me doing at a Teen Camp??? I've had the privilege of being asked to be the Service Team leader. :) The Service Team are basically people who are going to be the hands and feet of TeenStreet. We plan the logistics of the camp, help with the setups for the workshops, sports and prayer stations, the TNT (Teen Needs Teens) run and Jungle Time (The cafe and organised chill out time). Am just so excited and thankful to be a part of the team - and that the church has released me to be a part of it. It's been great to work alongside with other ppl from other churches who are so on fire for Him. I've got a fantastic leader who's just so enthusiastic and has a great servant leader's heart. Working with people like this is a refreshing change. :)

Dear God,
Just want to commit the upcoming TeenStreet to you. Thank You for the privilege of just serving you.

Singles at the CrossRoads

Have been reading 'Singles at the CrossRoads' and I must say that it's one of the better books I've read about relationships..

Really recommend this book to anyone who's Christian and single(or dating as well!).

Some of the issues addressed
Gift of singleness (It totally has a different perspective from mine about this topic)
Romantic love (I was surprised of certain things that I learnt)
Is there a specific person God has created for me?

After many years of listening to BGR forum.. Reading books on relationship, this book has pretty refreshing and freeing perpectives to offer.

Will blog some things that struck me if I ever find the time and effort to do so.. :)

Overwhelmed

It's been rather overwhelming at times. Agree with Ps Elisha when he sent the SMS the other day - am just having too many commitments and too many meetings. Some days, I feel like am drowning. Have been sick too - so that's perhaps added to this sense of being overwhelmed.

Surprisingly, when I was talking to John online today, I could honestly tell him that I'm doing great -sick and all(I didn't tell him i was sick).. Funnily, he asked me why I was doing great(ppl just normally leave it at that -but trust John to do something different. :P )... After thinking about it - I answered - I'm doing great because I AM surviving despite everything. :) Because of Him who loves me and holds me in the palm of His Hand, who speaks in His still small voice when I just need to hear from Him, who I know is with me and seeing me through this time...

Thank You God for just being who You are and that You are walking alongside me always - just as you've promised.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE ANN!!

A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY To my dear Friend Sue Ann!
Thank You for your friendship and your input into my life. Thank You for encouraging me to be more like Jesus in your own special way. :)

Stages of my life

This seems to be a common pattern of my life.
I go through the following stages:

1. The super busy stage(Easter period and end of the year especially) - wake up, plan work for the day (otherwise not effecient enough and things just don't get done as much), bury myself in work until it's lunch time, grab food for meals, work some more, meetings every nite and lots of stress, and just go home to collapse and sleep. And throughout all this, pray hard that I don't get sick (am just prone to get sick in this period - little wonder why :P)

2. Busy stage(Most of the year) - wake up, work, go home, on nites when don't have meeting, just do a bit of reading (as I'll be too tired to go out to hang out with friends) and sleep.

3. Ok stage(Once a month if I'm fortunate enough) - wake up, work go home, no meetings for a 3 nites in a row, just spend times in the evenings to catch up on sleep or relaxing or reading or watch the occasional DVD..

4. Relaxed stage (Rare event) - Hang out with friends, get enough sleep, enough rest, satisfied with the amount of material that I get to read.

Am in the super busy stage now (did i mention that it happens at the end of the year?? :P). *sigh*... Am beginning to crave going back to the busy stage ... When I'm in super busy stage and busy stage- I don't have much time to hang out with friends though I long to do so, then when I get to the Ok stage - I just need 'me' time...

Hmmm.. I wonder how different it'll be next year now that I'll be going to STM??

Dear Lord,
Need lots of help now.. Need your strength to just make it through today. Thank you for being with me always and that you've promised to be my help in time of need.

Am going to STM!!!

It's official! Will be going to STM on 8th January! Just had my letter of acceptance from the Bible School yesterday - seems a bit surreal.. :)

Ok... back to work- have Worship ministry, christmas planning, OM Teen Street, PJEFC songbook, Cross Gen stuff to plan out..

Dear God,
Thank you for this opportunity!!

Happy Birthday Little Brother!!

Just want to wish a very Happy Birthday to my brother Sam!!

November's pretty much a birthday celebration month for my family.. :)

Alpha Fever

I'm continually amazed at the things that has been happening in our church this year. What with Reuben Morgan, Footstool Player, Peter Tsukahira, NECF conference and just yesterday Asia Pacific Alpha Conference with Nicky Gumbel and team!
Was helping out with the PA in the chinese chapel and it was just really great to hear Nicky Gumbel speak.. He's a really great communicator..
Now that it's over, people in our church is really fired up about Alpha - especially those that attended the conference..
Okies... that's it for today... have heaps to do - worship leading preparations and JY workshop too!!

Paintballing outing

Went paintballing last Saturday with a group of crazy ppl.. It was really fun!!! Really enjoyed the running around and shooting people.. hehehe..

Thank you God for that great outing.. :) 

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY to my little sister Esther!!!