Updates

Hey, Merry Christmas!
Here's some updates for you to include in your prayers.
25 Dec, 7:30p.m. Chruch Service: I'm dancing!
26th Dec, 8.00a.m.: My first driving practical lesson! Whoo!
31st Dec, 10.30p.m.: Watch Night Service/ Countdown to 2009
4th Jan 2009: First day to Sibu Short-term Mission School

Thanks! Enjoy your hols while it still lasts!

Methodist Youth Convention

I guess this would be the highlight of the year for me. Coming back from Kem Puncak Permai, Bau really gave me tons of new experiences and friends. Within just 4 days, I conquered 5 of my fears. I'm just amazed.

11 Dec 2008

Arrived at church around 8am. Surprised to hear that i am one of the 8 group leaders for the camp. The teams are Bau, Lundu, Kuching, Matang, Serian, Kota Samarahan, and Santubong. Mine is called SINIAWAN aka, Sini Awan.. haha.. a group of 37.



Arrived at the NS camp around 10 something. Strolled around camp for a little while. Lunch at 12. Pleasantly surprised to see the NS toilet. 100 times better than the NS camp in Serian. Can't thank the Lord more for the toilet..



2p.m.: Icebreaker starting. The other leader of my group from Sibu has not yet arrived. She is Rev Tie's daughter. Even before she arrived, i already have feeling of respect for her. The game started. As group leader i was supposed to carry out the games with the group. Games????!!!!!! Anyway, to cut the long story short, i managed to lamely finish the games. Fear number one----- CONQUERED!!



After the games, Jan, Rev Tie's daughter approached me to say hi. I was a little taken aback and don't know what to sat so i just said hi and "See you Around". Felt a bit pai sei, it was her who approached me first and not the other way around. Wwhat kind of guy am i?



The night was the introductory talk and P&W by SIB church.



12 Dec 2008

Had morning devotion with the guys in my dormintory. 19 of us altogether, including advisor Derek which looked quite young. Had mistaken him as one of the participants had he not hinted unintentionally that he is an advisor. Devotion went well. Some only woke up at the last minute though.



Breakfast was satisfactory although not enough to fill my stomach nor the other 200-odd participants. Flies are high in population. Where are the frogs and lizards when you needed them? hmm.. anyway.. i expected that.. thank God no cockroaches. :)



Morning had the first talk, followed by a workshop. I chose the workshop on identifying your spiritual gifts. The analysis showed that i am gifted to compassion, shepherding, serving and encouragement. I saw that some participants were gifted in tongues and interpretation, something i didn't expect.



The afternoon we went to Mt Singai! Had my first test as group leader. 2 went missing even before the trip started. I searched high and low for them. I counted and recounted at least ten times, thinking i miscounted. But I didn't. Alas we left without them. I didn't check by ticking the names because i forgotten thier names and was a little pai sei to ask.

In the evening, i was shocked when i find out the last night would be what they call the Challenge Night. We are required to come out with either a sketch or or song to present on that night. What?! Me? Directing a sketch? During the night my mind was already in slumber mode. I barely could think. I told Jan about it. I prayed to God for help. Miraculously, the group members had ideas and by God's grace i was able to process the ideas and create a whole sketch! Praise The Lord! With further discussions with some of the members, the rough daft is completed. I had to leave the discussions early because I had P&W practice.

13 Dec 2008
PRayed that i'll wake up early. God woke me up at 4:50a.m. Went back to sleep though. Was really tired from the lack of sleep and energy consuming activities during the day.

Did devotion with the Siniawan boys team again. They seem pretty receptive and not many yawned throughout.

Breakfast was not enough again but i still praised God that i can eat. In any other camp, whatever goes in will surely come out. Today, I had a lot on my mind. The sketch details weren't fully finalised, the members are still in the dark on what is going on and there hadn't been any practice yet. Pressure! (For the 1st time in the camp)

After the talk, i joined another workshop. It was on BGR. The workshop is done by Auntie Grace and it was superb. Learnt a lot. One thing i learnt is that if someone said to you, "If you love me, you will have sex with me", just tell him, "Go to hell!"... well... at least that is what the speaker said.
I learnt a few things about girls too. They are:

1. talkative


2. expressive while listening


3. relational-oriented


4. intuitive but not good in spatial (direction) skills


5. multi-tasker


6. better liars


7. stimulated through their ears


8. Girls want relationships, stability and love.

BGR is just such a complex issue.

In the afternoon, right after lunch, I immediately went up with team and started telling them thier roles. Problem was, I lost the paper that has the details!! Like i would always tell people, Jeremy don't lose things, its just that they can't be found at that moment. True enough, I found it 2 days later.. he he.. anyway, luckily some of my members remembered the details so we were off to work. we set the practice time at 430p.m.

Then we had some games. It was divided into 3 parts. The first part for our team was the futsal, ping pong and netball part. SOme of us decided to skip this part to focus on the prep for our sketch. Then, we had the kayaking segment. My favourite! At first when i went into the boat, i felt like the boat was going to overturn. I was soooooo scared. After a while, i got used to it. Then my partner and i started to row freely., nearly bumping into the shores, humans and fellow kayakers. It was fun. I wished it was longer.

The last segment was the obstacle race. The 1st part was balancing on a moving plank. I had some problems but fortunately did not create history by becoming the only one from my group to fall. The we had to climb a wall of my height. No sweat! The next was to walk on top of a narrow wall also somewhere my height. A piece of cake--NOT! There was a hole in the wall. You had to cross from one wall to another wall while balancing yourself on a narrow walkway of around 20cm! My team mates walk across as if it was nothing. The moment i arrived in front of the "hole" I froze. I just couldn't move. The moment i lifted my leg, my whole body became weak. No exagerration. Then, i heard people shouting at me, encouraging me to cross. One even called me "si ai bin"! By God's grace i crossed not just one, but two holes, to the claps of my team members. Phew! My fear of heights is conquered!

Up next is the monkey bars which was easy. The we had the tarzan swing. Using a rope, we had to swing from one end to the other without crashing into the pool underneath. I thought it was easy. I was wrong. I tried 4 times and each time i crashed straight into the pool. It was already almost 5p.m. I retimed the practice to 5. I knew i was running out of time but i didn't want to give up until i conquered the tarzan swing. I finally did. On my fifth try. It was 4:55p.m.

After rushing through my bath, i arrived at the practice place only to find 5 of my members there. The rest was nowhere to be found. Only at 5:45p.m. did we manage to gather everyone there. Even then, we did not have even time to do a run-through. Iwas just so nervous.

During P&W, I was totally exhausted. While people was jumping thier way in worship, i went to the side to catch a shut eye. Alomst immediately, the sound system couldn't work though i doubted if it had anything to do with me. After 10 minutes, it resumed to normal. I only went back towards the end of the worship.

The sketch went on quite well. Praise the Lord!

14 DEC 2008

Was super nervous before my turn to lead worship in my church. The Youth Convention was shifted there on the last day. Throngs of blue t-shirts filled the sanctuary with a touch of youth. Didn't do much jumping though. Wasn't inspired to.. but also nervousness got the better of me. But praise God I wasn't over-nervous.. if you know what i mean... bet you don't..

After church we went to Doulos. Was raining. In the bookstore, it was humidly, superly, agonisingly hot. Was sweating more than i can read. Imagine more than 300 people suddenly in the bookstore the size of a mini mph in spring without fan or air-con! We then went to a small hall to an event called "One-Step". Praise God there's air-con. But after a while all the oxygen got sucked up by 300 people so i became dizzy again. One of my advisors was leaving early so i immediately hopped out with his family. The moment i stepped out of the boat, i felt refreshed. Caution: Bring oxygen tanks into DOulos.. hehe..

Conclusion

I learnt a lot through this camp. Sounds very cliche right? But its through. Didn't regret coming or leading this group. God has worked wonders. My only prayer is that this experience will stick and spur me to be better and better.

My group and i.. not clear but hope you can see me..

Peace?

To be a simple yet wise,
Inasmuch as i want, i tried
Googling every possible answer
Energy diverted, diffracted
Respond not given, peace unfound

Are You sure It those not concern you?

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.What food might this contain?'The mouse wondered he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning:There is a mousetrap in the house!There is a mousetrap in the house!'The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, 'Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.'The mouse turned to the pig and told him,'There is a mousetrap in the house!There is a mousetrap in the house!'The pig sympathized, but said, 'I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.'
The mouse turned to the cow and said,'There is a mousetrap in the house!There is a mousetrap in the house!'
The cow said, 'Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose.' So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap . . . alone.That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.
The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.The snake bit the farmer's wife.
The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.So, the next times you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember When one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
We are all involved in this journey called life.We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.
SEND THIS TO EVERYONE WHOHAS EVER HELPED YOU OUTAND LET THEM KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THEY ARE.
REMEMBER.. . .
EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY; OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON.
One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a FRIEND

Class Dinner Photos

Class Dinner photos: (till we meet again)

Nostalgic moments.. not all went to the class dinner at hartz Chicken on Fri the 28th. 41 only in fact. Out of the 41, i only managed to pose with a few. From what i heard, a few would be joining me in form 6. Sounds like fun. Though simple, i guess the night was worth remembering. Someone notable is missing from the above though. Had God closed all doors? I just have to wait and see..

May the name of the Lord be praised

I longed for a tree, a little green tree
I longed for the sun so yellow, so bright.
I longed for a bee, colors of hope
But will this longing continue be?

It was a choice i had to make,
to let go or will i take.
But yet? Was it ever in my hands?

I searched for a heart, look what i found
I let it go, shall i be down?

The roaring I hear, so loud so beautiful
From the thick jungle, voices of sincerity
I chose not to move, not to enter
Will I regret? Does it matter?

I searched for a heart, look what i found
I let it go, shall i be down.

Smell of the medicine, aid number one
Son of geography, did i truly want?

I can't be sure, shall i complain
To be greedy, unlovely, and selfish can i? Will I?

One thing I know, two i'm sure
That this is love but do i have the mind and heart?

Her smile brings joy to all around me,
She brightens up my day,
I still see no sign of the journey,
One that we will cherish

Yet I say this, yes I loved her
But all this while is just love enough?

Thank you God, thank you Lord
thank you for being in control
Thank you for the good times
Thank you for the bad times
I will praise you for you are worthy to be praised.
I will praise you for hold my life in your grace.

Friends Will I Miss

Ever yellow, ever bright, ever fun, lively light
Looked at you with tender mercy, was it a choice which right
Another person will it be? Another time will you I see
Into your eyes, one last gaze, not even a chance, I am fazed
Neverthless the Lord has given, nonetheless he has taken away
Even as yellow has dimmed, even as light has paled
Life must go on tho' chance has flew, sorrow and sadness, did i blew?
Into Your hands I offer my life, I accept it fuller tho with strife.
Never regret, will never forget, but i will let, stil hoping not a sunset
God is good all the time. Amen, amen, his will is mine.