Believe in God's promises

newspaper reads

2009-08-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

Was flipping the papers this morning and found 2 articles in which I believe are relevant to how we, as Christ followers, ought to live and lead our lives! (:

Article 1: Be nice to Ma - she's lonely

THE GIST: Discusses about how we as children, need to learn to appreciate our parents.

PONDER-WORTHY EXTRACTS:
1. "Sometimes, I wonder if we are fair to our elderly parents in the way we respond to them.
When our children call us umpteen times while we are at work, do we complain? Most of us are unlikely to do so.
But when our parents demand our attention, we can't be bothered to give them the time of day.
To many of us, our children come first, and our elderly parents, last."

2. "Just like our children, our parents also need a listening ear, and our time."

3. "One day, we will be like them too."

THOUGHTS:
Of course, you're not yet a parent. You have got no kids. But you do have friends, and your parents. So this applies to us as well. Especially shepherds, when our sheep are in need, we would give them our fullest attention, no matter what time it is. This is because as a shepherd, we learnt that we need to be sacrificial and be there for to meet needs of our people (under us). But, where do your parents stand in importance in your life?

Personally I feel that it is a cruel act that most people mistreat or ignore their parents' presence. They deserve much more!

Yes, true, they can be irritating to the core. Calling us every now and then, trying to strike tiny conversations which you think is wasting your time... etc. They may be doing this, maybe, because they really really really lack attention in the family? They love us. Which parent do not want to see their kids at home after work? Sometimes I feel bad also, that for the entire week I reach home after 10-11pm, which causes me to be unable to mingle around with them.

And yes, true, they may not be as hip and cool as your friends, but we cannot neglect them! They are human beings, they are YOUR parents, people who brought you up from a baby till where you are now.

In their eyes, you're probably still a baby that needs protection and lots of care. Even though you are tall, pretty and independent already. Just reflect, on how they shower you with their care and concern, in ways you do not know.

I am of course, not talking about psycho-maniacs who kills their children.

I believe that all parents, love their children. And, I can tell you, not everyone is a pro when handling a family. And, it is NOT EASY to bring up children. You will know the extreme difficulty next time, haha!

They love us, and we ought to love them back.

EA1, we do not only consume our time with friends, classmates, CCA mates, caregroup, church people, but spend deliberate time with your parents.

I'd like to challenge you to:
- Write an encouragement card to them
- Ask them out for a meal (dinner?)
- Don't always run about with friends, especially on days they are at home (Sunday)
- Watch TV with them (let them have control over the programmes)
- Play family games/activities with them (Monopoly, Risk, fishing etc)
- TALK to them (ask them how they are, how's work everything; they just want you to be there)
- Listen with loving patience
- Avoid quarrels
- Buy them gifts (elderly loves food!)

I have just got too many thoughts in my head... Basically, be nice to them.

VERSES:
Exodus 20:12 (NIV)
12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Deuteronomy 5:16 (NIV)
16 "Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Matthew 15:4 (NIV)
4For God said, 'Honor your father and mother'[a] and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'[b]

One day, you'll be like them too. (:

Article 2: He Saw the Light

THE GIST: Mr Mani Maran, once a drug addict, has turned over a new leaf with help of Pastor Richard Martin and Reverend Dr Edward Job from Christian Care Services Singapore.

PONDER-WORTHY EXTRACTS:
1. "My friends and I did drugs. I enjoyed it and didn't think I was doing anything wrong."

2. "I now regret my actions. I feel I've let many people down. I gave young people access to drugs."

3. "Sermons, cell group and prayer meetings strengthened his Christian faith."

4. "He said of the support and counselling he has received: Pastor Martin and Reverend Dr Job really motivated me to turn over a new leaf. Now that I'm here, I value my life. Before that, I couldn't care less. Because of the kindness they've shown me, I can't let them down."

5. "If you think good thoughts, you'll do good and you'll be good."

6. "Now he is determined to recover from his addiction, wants to be a counsellor and to tell youths about the dangers of drug-taking."

7. "Asked if such a moral change can stick, Dr Job said: People change when they accept who they were. We motivate them, guide them and walk the path with them. We change their lives one day at a time."

THOUGHTS:
It's a cycle. It's a planned cycle of struggles, overcoming, victories, and passing of the baton.

Personally am very encouraged when I read such an article on the newspaper. I thought it was very PRO-christianity. Always thought that news with pro-religion messages, though subtle, wouldn't be allowed to go on print. Nevertheless, I am very happy it managed to pull through!

If you had faithfully read through all the points I extracted above, I guess it's pretty obvious that knowing Jesus, doesn't stop there and then when we said the sinner's prayer, but it's got to be more than that!

Just like Mr Maran, we have all been through that stage of loneliness, uncertainty, lack of confidence, lost, insecurity etc.. The things that we do, we don't know why also, and sometimes as we look back, we regret. "I'm such a failure! Why did I do that?"

Or also, we don't realise the severity of our acts, that we keep on doing, not being aware of the future consequences we have to deal with. In Mr Maran's case, not only did he have to face much health issues and to deal with his thoughts about disappointing his loved ones, he also 'gave young people access to drugs', which means being a rather bad influence to society. He pulled many others down with him.. Not forgetting, the pain and struggle he had to go through to get out of the drug addiction! Takes only a minute or so to get addicted, but takes you 'donkey-years' to get out of it..

Thank God, God came into his life. What a timely intervention!

It's not easy, really. Like any addiction, computer games, watching unhealthy things off the internet, TV, smoking etc... there's no overnight solution to it. I'm very sure he was tempted to go back to drugs sometime or another. Do you have an addiction you need to get out of? Every sin, big or small, known or unknown, an act of disobedience. Every act of disobedience to God's Word, will lead to consequences..

"Sermons, cell group and prayer meetings strengthened his Christian faith"
Are we going to service, caregroups, prayer meeting with expectation and desire to know more of Him, to be more like Him? I want to encourage all of us, that every time we attend such activities or events, don't just seek the fun of it! Don't just seek fellowship with friends! Don't just go to fulfil CG roles! That's not enough, but build and establish a deeper fellowship with Jesus! Also, be regular. Frequency is really important! I don't think Mr Maran went once for each, and his faith went up like, till enough for eternity kinda thing.. It's so important, that we ought to be committed and try our very best to be regular in all these, and to be in the presence of God and His people whenever possible.. I'm not promoting attendance, because activities do determine our walk with God, but the essence and bring-home-pointers-and-applications, that's what will bring us forward to be more like Christ.

But of course, your daily prayer devotional time and worship, spiritual habits got to be ongoing as well. (: So, let's have a positive change in our attitude and spirit ok?

"If you think good thoughts, you'll do good and you'll be good"
Are you ready? Watch out! Because Mr S.A.Tan will come knocking on your door, very soon, or even, now! When you have decided to consecrate your life, be set apart for God's Kingdom, our relentless enemy, will try all means and ways to drag us to hell. It will invade your thoughts, probably bring people around you to influence you and tell you things of the world.

"Wow... they are indeed really attractive. Just once, it's okay, right?"

NO, it's a big NO. Reject, say: "Sorry, busy with Jesus right now. Byebye!"

It all starts with a thought. It will eventually lead to behaviour, be it in actions or speech. Keep praying for a pure heart and mind! Remember, what God places in your life, you have the potential to overcome it. Remember, your purpose in life. Remember who you are, a child of God. (:

"Now he is determined to recover from his addiction, wants to be a counsellor and to tell youths about the dangers of drug-taking"
Now that we've experienced God's faithfulness, know of His reality and goodness, tasted so many blessings of abundance... What's next?

Mr Maran is still in the midst of fully recovering - a life of consistent repentence and thanksgiving.

He wants to be a counsellor and to tell youths about dangers of drug-taking - bring the gospel to the end of the world! We got to share the good news, bring light and hope and salvation to the lost. We too, were once lost, but now found in Jesus!

The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)
18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Let's do this together girls!

"Asked if such a moral change can stick, Dr Job said: People change when they accept who they were. We motivate them, guide them and walk the path with them. We change their lives one day at a time"
Whether you're a shepherd or not, you are a living testimony to the people around you - friends and family members. You have the Godly authority to speak into people's lives! You can make a difference to the world. You gotta tell the world that Jesus lives and show them the truth!
Walk with them.

VERSES:
Acts 2:42-47 (The Fellowship of the Believers)
42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Proverbs 11:21
21 Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will go free.

John 11:25-26
25Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

1 Peter 5:8-9
8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

Philippians 4:8
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

1 Peter 2:9-10
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Ephesians 5:8-9
8For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

The world shall see the light!

blessings

2009-08-19T02:21:00.000-07:00

I am not a gift-person, but I am very touched by what my caregroup members did. :) So very blessed to be among loving and generous givers like them!

On Saturday, Jazryll asked me what sushi I like. Before I come to realize the motive behind that question, without giving much thought, I replied, “Raw one. Maybe salmon?” Immediately, she left. ‘Shucks…’ I thought to myself. Only then I figured out what she wanted to do. Indeed! She came back from Cold Storage with a salmon sushi. How sweet of you, Jazryll!

After awhile… I was mingling around other caregroup/unit members, teaching Jiamin basic guitar skills. Until I saw what YenPing was holding in her hand, a sushi-ball-with-mayo-and-crabstick-filling thing. Randomly, I made a comment, “Wah, looks so nice!” And I carried on laughing away with the others. Just before I left Mcdonald’s for Cheng’s MIT6 meeting, YenPing came walking swiftly up to me, and handed over a sushi-ball-with-mayo-and-crabstick-filling thing! Oh my tian! So unexpected! I just said, it looked nice! Thanks YenPing!

Halfway through shepherding Joy, she searched through her bag and took out a box of Meiji milk chocolate coated macadamia nuts and passed it to me. Wow! I have been craving for chocolates, and she met my ‘want’!

Now I know why I’m not losing weight despite the many runs I had! :)

Thanks to all those who blessed me in one way or another, these acts of love makes a lot of difference in my life. Love you!

"prawning!"

2009-08-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

I have always loved adventure and exploring new and exciting things! So many things that I look forward to! Such as bungee jumping, sitting the world's largest roller coaster, mountain climbing, backpacking.. Basically, I want to try everything and anything all around the world at least ONCE. (:

And of course, I wouldn't want to go alone, but likely to go with 1 to 3 good friends, so that the trip won't be so silent. Where people is, fun is! Now, who are the likely trip-buddies? I mean, obviously if you want to do high-risk stuff, you won't ask those who hate it to go along right? They might probably faint from screaming. From past experience to Genting Highlands, one least likely candidate to go on such trips with me would be my dearest shepherd, chengKEE! Not that she is not fun to be with, in fact she is VERY FUN(NY), but thinking of doing bungee jumping, parachuting, hot-air ballooning with her.. is quite a freak show! HAHAHAHA! No offence, you know you're fearful of such things right!

BUTTTTTTTTTTT, guess what? We just had one of my most memorable, exciting and adventurous shepherding ever! I know, can't believe it right, with ChengKEE?! HAHA!

What we did - PRAWNING.

What is prawning? It's like fishing. But instead of fish getting caught on the hook, prawns go up the hook instead! So prawning is fishing for prawns.

The species of tiger prawns we caught:

Quoted from Cheng's blog:
"Can you imagine with me? Walking for half an hour (to somewhere where we don’t even know where we were heading), it was all dark, we have to by-pass a dead pathway that has nothing BUT some insect’s sound in the night. I was scared to the the extent of holding unto blackie’s hands and it was so quiet that i had to whisper to communicate with her. We went from places to places to find that farm, we met stray dogs barking and following us, endless mosquitoes bites. "

It's really coooool to walk in dark alleys, not knowing where you will end up, but just follow seemingly endless road ahead, knowing you won't get lost on this red dot. I may sound perverse, but I love the silence thats occassionally broken by the barks of dogs and chirping of crickets, especially walking side by side with your spiritual 'parent'. I would consider this as uniquely rare quality time. I don't realise how many mosquito bites I got bitten, because I can't differentiate them from my already rashed up limbs. HAHA!

This outing was kind of pre-planned, yet last minute as well. We have always wanted to go prawning since nong-nong-time-ago, but never got the chance! Only that afternoon, realising that both are free, and Cheng really sounds desperate for it (HAHA!), we decided to go ahead with the idea just that fateful night. How impromptu! Exciting!

More quoted from Cheng's blog:
"I think my sheep is smart cos we only spent 26 dollars altogether! Catching prawns are so FUNNNN and our experience over there was like a commotion for the others who are fishing and all. Example(s):

1. Florence tried to “copy” how the Indian man catch the prawn without getting bitten by putting 2 slippers on top of the prawn’s “kiup-er”, but little did we know that in the end, the prawn’s kiup-er caught florence’s slipper. HAHAHAHA. It was really funny!!!!!

2. When blackie caught another prawn, she swing the rod and guess what, the prawn used its kiup-er to hang itself on the lamp post and refused to come down!"

HAHAHA. Thanks Cheng, I know I'm alittle smarter than you. Whee.

Other stupid things are like when the Indian man tried to help us remove the prawn from the hook, it took me awhile to realise the rod I was carrying on was resting on the Indian man's head... so stupid! And we were making the most noise there, like 2 mad women, who never saw prawns in their lives. HAHA! This ChengKee ah, keeppp on apologising whenever the prawns got away. It's not your fault! But poor thing, after awhile we see prawns floating. They died. I believe those are the ones that we managed to hook, but they successfully got away, but still, die in the end. Probably due to loss of "prawn blood".

Here's photos I grabbed from Cheng's Blog.. See how happy we were!

I think overall we did acceptably well. Though it's a mere number of 8 prawns within a time span of 3 whole hours, good job to us! Hey, it's Cheng's first time giving a shot at this! *Clap Clap* Thank God for the boss who drived us out of the deserted place to the nearest bus stop. How sweet and helpful of him to do that.

Cheng, THANKS for the awesome night. I think we rock big time! HAHA!

Prawning, anyone?(:

happy belated national day!

2009-08-10T05:22:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post is gona be rather.. boringly-eventful. I just want to type it down for memory sake. I've got awfully bad memory, you know you know. :)
Oh, not that my day is boring, but this post is!

Yes! I'm a proud Watson's MEMBER now!

VIP VIP VIP:) hehehhee. Do not try to discourage me, I am happy and satisfied as I can be.

hehehehhehehehehe.

HAPPY BELATED NATIONAL DAY!
I love to sing national day songs...
Top favourites: Home, Where I Belong, Moments of Magic and We will Get there :)

AND, HAPPY SPIRITUAL BIRTHDAY JOY TUAZON MENESES! :)
Keep growing in maturity and stature as you spend your days with the Lord!

I had an awesome time with my familyy on Sunday.
Highlights of the day:
- Window Shopping with Carrie
- GOT MY WATSON'S MEMBERSHIP CARD
- KTV at Teo Heng with familyyyy :) Extremely impressed with Ivan's (Carrie's boyfriend)singing! Wow. And first time hearing my mom and dad and sister singing this way.. HAHAHAHA..
- Dinner at Sakura Safra! First time seeing dajie's boyfriend.

Left for birthday celebration dinner for Geck and Chua at Geck's house with the TP group. Watched Singapore Idol together while they had their steamboat dinner. Life would be much quieter without noise-creators such as Denise, it's a good-bad thing! HAHA! If only I had the massage chair at home, it will be an addiction I have to fast from.

Played Monopoly Deck Cards and 3 Kings :) It was really funny! So many stupid things happened.. The sing-talking like da-zui-yu, Cadbury eyebrows, "2 brothers", ignoring of Jacks, sabo-ing of yiqin, denise the first king who had to eat 2 dog biscuits (taste of your own medicine! HAHA), Yiqin the second king who had to eat 2 dog biscuits plus rolled tissue paper. :X

After that, we went down for Devil's Man at the playground.. SUCH A FUNNY GAME! Should play it sooooon, esp with sporting people! Prostitutes, boomer, lizard, washing machines, leaf, pig etc.. We stopped when a man came down to inform us the police will be coming cause of our noise level, so we left to the void deck. Went to 7-Eleven before that for some cool air. :)

I guess it's pretty much an interesting tell-truth session, though abit awkward! Like really. Then headed back to Geck's house. It was already 3 or 4 plus then. I couldn't take it any longer, so I slept, wwhile the rest played Daidee. Woke up after awhile, and played a game of Daidee and the National Day Song Don't Forget the Lyrics Game that Yanyu prepared. So interactive and fun!:)

And at 6am, we went home. YAY! Such a happening day!

Thank God Jes managed to pull herself to bathe before sleeping. Phew.

PRP-phobia

2009-08-10T04:54:00.000-07:00

I am not going back to Pasir Ris Park for the next... many many months. PRP-phobia, that's what I am suffering right now.

I should have known, not to touch the sea water, what more dip my entire thigh/legs into the surfacely-okay-but-poisonous toxicated mass of liquid. Previously, had shepherding with Joy at PRP too, and all I did was to dip my feet into the water. In just a few minutes time, my toes were red-hot, itching with annoying rashes. At once, I suspected it was the water-problem.

Today, I was naive enough to think the polluted water could have been purified (in I-don't-know-how-way), and walked all the way till thigh-length into the poison. Lo' and behold, I had rashes all over after that. My calves, thighs, forearms, arms, face... How stupid!

It was the worst itching incident I ever experienced! "So itchy so itchy!" I chanted.

Thank God, just before I left the house, I chanced upon this tiny bottle of Axe Brand Oil. Initially I didn't want to bring it, though usually I do, but I just dumped it into my already-full-of-things bag.

Axe Brand Oil: My partial-saviour of the day. Yippee! :)

However, there's this other thing that I want to thank God so much for! EAST A, thank you!
You know, throughout the entire itching period, from the beginning till the end, so many of you, came up to me and showed your concern. Some even, so unexpected. Truly a pleasant surprise!

I shan't name out all of you, but I still want to say, THANK YOU! :)
P.S. To those who massaged me randomly, after I made a comment that my back was aching after the violent sock-o-war with Melissa. HAHAHA!

Just a simple, "Florence, are you okay?" can make me so touched to the core, feeling like a toasted marshmallow. Awww..

Praise God, for my rashes have subsided!

Overall, I felt that today's Unit Outing was realllyyyy fun! I love such memorable and quality time spent together - NTUC raiding, quarrelling over Wanwan or Sour Cream and onion potato chips, mangosteen horror, centipede shock, table cover as picnic mat, running into toilet with Yenping to get rid of rashes-causing stuff, finishing a once-full Axe Brand Oil Bottle, extra-violent sock-o-war, ridiculously hilarious Devil's Man, Cally's shakeyshakey and other nonsense, and of course, the Christ warriors of EAST A!

I LOVE YOU ALL! :)

A final reminder... BEWARE THE SILENT WATERS OF PRP! :X It's a hypocrite! Double-standard body of water! AHHHHH!

no, it's not.

2009-08-04T20:39:00.001-07:00

A moment of folly, in exchange for a less fulfilling life till eternity;

Is it worth it?

grow, we need to GROW!

2009-08-03T20:29:00.001-07:00

Received a few really cool testimonies/ sharings, and I can't let them just be shared within the group! Readers out there, be inspired! Hehe.

On behalf of Ng Min Yi, the lazy bum. (:

Exact replica of the following SMSes

SMS1
"Hey Easta1(: i wants to share with u all something,wanted to blog it down, but lazy:) Yeah, today i dreamt of something weird yet cool and something we can apply in our life(: i dreamt that my brother and my mum had a bad quarrel as my mum do not allow to give my brother money. He flared up and dialed his hang to beat up my mum. My mum was so so terrified that she called me and went to find me. So i quickly brought my mum to hide. But my brother's gang caught up with us but we managed to run to the female toilet to hide. I was so scared that i hide my mum behind the 'toilet wall'. I was so so scared that i might lose her,i tried every ways to prevent her from being beat/shoot by them. But in the end, they found my mum and wanted to shoot her but i woke up :x man, its was really super extremely real! Something i learn was we might be scared that we will lose our parents, so we tired to protect them from all dangers, illnesses,etc. But we wont know when is the day they will pass away,everything are so unpredictable! Only God knows,and he is the only one who will give us eternal life(: if we really love our parent, the BEST thing that we can give to our parents were to share to them about JESUS!:) we do not have a relationship with our non-believer friends, but yet we still share to them about God. What's more our parents?! If u are the only christian in ur family, lets do something to this family!(: God place us in this family for a purpose! If u are willing, God will use u:) we only have one life, is either u wanna waste it or use it WELL for God(: seriously, lets be a salt and light wherever u go too:) live out 'God's fullest life for u'! Lets not just keep serving and forget our parents,they also need God. Fulfilling the Great Commission,includes our parents:) im in this with u all,are u?:) Hehehe, hope to hear testimony from u all including myself,im excited for this. Cos i believe God gonna use all of us big big times!(:"

SMS2
"Hey follow uppers and above.share with u all something cool! :) Hehehe, i randomly message all my nbs and sheep. And guess what, the only one who replied me was JOELLE! Man, her 1st message was 'i want go church from now onwards'! :) man, its so cool! I believe joelle's heart was being 'changed' because of our PERSEVERANCES, and God is WORKING in her heart:) Yeah, for those who have difficulties with ur sheep/follow uppee, dont give up! Keep praying for them! :D ask God to use u all, and to have a heart just like God; heart of compassion! :) feel like giving up? Turn to God's promises written in his words, 'our labour will not be in vain'! Jiayou, im trying to help her now(: lets pray and ask God to work in this spiritual realm! :D"

On behalf of Sim Yu Shan, the God-prioritiser. (:

The night before Yushan's Social Studies prelims, she was just telling me like how much she has got to do for her F&N coursework. She planned to do it on Saturday after service, but Dennis wants to meet all the MFLs and CLs for time of worship and teaching, so she went for that in the end. This caused her to be unable to finish quite alot for her coursework. Plus, she didn't have enough time to revise her Social Studies. You know that SS requires alot of memory work, right? So, it was really quite an uptight situation for Yushan. However, I still believe that when you honor God and put His Kingdom first in everything, God will bless you mountainful!

"Hey surprisingly i can do it! Thank God. I did it with God and its joyful even thou i can't do the end part. I'm happy and satisfied in the front part"

Praise God for that! Yushan was faithful, she obeyed, and prioritised God in her life, and she receives her blessing. Whatever the outcome is, her blessing of joyfulness is not something that could be bought, and a life of freedom is much more fulfilling than one of being slaved by homework/school/stress/BGR/achievements/good grades/etc - basically things of the world!

Busy-ness is an excuse; a robber of life to the fullest!

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power"

2009-07-20T02:24:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 6:10-19

'The Armor of God'

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the FULL armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

RIGHT MISTAKES
Just wanna share an interesting conversation between a mom and her daughter, quoted from the movie '13 going on 30' starred by Jennifer Garner. It speaks alot!

Daughter: Do you ever have any regrets in your life?
Mom: No, not really.
Daughter: But haven’t you made mistakes before? Huge mistakes and you wish you could turn back time?
Mom: No, not at all.
Daughter: Why?
Mom: Because… I wouldn’t know how to make things right!

That's true isn't it. If we never make mistakes in life, we'll never learn something new! They are stepping stones to our growth. Whether you're a leader or not, we're all bound to make wrong decisions one way or another, but there is nothing to be ashamed and afraid of! One mistake, learn from it. Commit it again, try again! But of course, we don't take it for granted, but sincerely want to grow out of it. Sense that some of us may be 'trapped' by our past mistakes, but if you've repented, move on. God forgives! But if you haven't done so, what are you waiting for? Live a guilty-free life! :)

ONE LIFE TO GIVE
Something else I wanna share... read the following extracted partial SMSes by Shushan AKA Susan with me:

Me: Why your replies so short one... Later i sensitive and emo arh... Hahaha! Ended school?
Susan: Lols it is because my massage not long that is why my massage is short. You emo arh. That's good lei haha. Yeah ended school already. This one long enough? Hahas
Me: SUSAN! What's wrong with your ENGLISH?! It's not massage, but MESSAGE! ...
Susan: Aiya 1 letter only...

HAHAHA! Good thing she learnt from her mistake already, see, it links to the previous paragraph on 'Right Mistakes'. If she's never corrected, she'll suffer worse if she spells it this way in O'levels! Anyway, the point I want to bring across here is simple, one life means alot.
1. One letter in a word can change the entire meaning of the sentence.
2. One of you can change the eternity of your friend's/family member's life.
3. One of you can change the destiny of your school.
4. One of you can change the youth in Singapore.
5. One of you can change the world!
Do you believe, you can be that 'One'?

'OBSERVATION TEST'
Keep in mind the 'Observation Test' you girls did during your recess time?
The response came back loud and clear: Many are living life aimlessly!
With all the gossipping, loneliness, vulgarities... Definitely not living life to the fullest...

Thanks to your faithfulness, I hope it stirs burden to the lost, and inspire yourself to work hard to claim back these souls for Jesus!

RENDITION IS HEREEEEEEE!!!

Story of Pimples and Spoon

2009-05-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

"HELLO HELLO!:)

THE DANGER OF PROCRASTINATION!

I'm as normal as can be. Like every average teenage girl, I do not like pimples, but I do get them. Maybe because of my oily skin, fringe covering forehead, ladie's special periods, or.. scratching my face with dirty hands.

I am not blessed in the area of skin complexion. So, in order to prevent breeding a pimple farm, I had to have extra protection. I wash my face twice daily, apply basic skin care such as toner and moisturizer. Of course, pimple cream as well!

As usual, as I was putting on all these stuff, and it dawned upon me. Those few times I ignored this routine, I really did have extra pimples growing out from everywhere. I was either too tired to do anything, or being plain lazy, thus skipped it.

Man, once is bad enough. One pimple could multiply to three, imagine the consequence I would face, if I skip the skin care routine for the next 3 days, the next week... You'll say HELLO to a healthy growing pimple farm! "Hooray!" :S

Moral of story: DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!

I am not holy-holy, I admit I am unfaithful at times, I greet my dreams just after skimming through my Bible. Or sometimes, I don't even open it! Laziness..laziness..laziness. I need to overcome. I cannot afford to procrastinate!

Procrastination will multiply if we allow it to grow. We'll end up becoming more lazy, lack of desire of God's Word, and eventually lose our spiritual hunger... I don't want to starve my spritual soul.

If I am so uptight about pimples, all the more I should be consistent with spending time with God and reading the Word of life!

Adding on, I would liken this principle to washing dishes as well. Every time we use a utensil, let's say, a mixer spoon to prepare a nice cup of coffee, we think, "Aiyah, it's just a small spoon, just leave it here. I will come back later to wash it." If everyone in the office/family thinks like this, I can predict the last person present is going to go through hell-washing.

The suffering of clearing up the mess at the end is totally unnecessary.

Girls, let's grow in consistency with our walk with God, together:) Love."

God can, if I can, YOU CAN!

2009-05-17T04:14:00.001-07:00

"I hope the following testimony will encourage those who have problems in going for camp, to really put their trust, faith and hope in God, knowing that He will always always make a way out for us :)

1. THE APPROVAL

In case you still do not know, I'm currently in my 2nd month of poly internship, which will last for 6 months. There are many rules that I have to follow, but one rule, I disliked the most was - 'No leaves allowed'.

"HOW. I can't make it for camp!" How frustrating.

I prayed a simple prayer.
'Dear God, I really want to go for camp. I'm gonna ask my supervisor to allow me to apply for leave. I cannot miss out on this camp! Help me to find the right timing and say the right words. Give me the extra courage that I need. Thank you in advance, in Jesus name, Amen!'

Of course, still with a slight nervousness, I tried to pop the question a few times to my supervisor. One whole day passed, and guess what? I still haven't asked.

That night, Cheng asked me, "Eh, how ah, can you go for camp?"

"No, I haven't asked yet."

"What?! You better ask by this week!" roared Cheng.

Okayyy.. I had to ask, SOON.

I did :)

Once again, I really thank God for technology - MSN. Thank God for that, thank God my office can use MSN everytime, thank God my supervisor was online during work, thank God for giving me courage to ask (though online), and lastly, thank God He made a way!!

Though I cannot apply for leave, and that I have to work OT tp gain back the 16 hours I will be missing from work, it is truly a blessing that I can go for full camp! I don't think there are many other interns who will receive such privileges:)

2. FINANCE, NOT A PROBLEM TOO BIG FOR GOD!

A week left to end of early bird registration. Not only do I have to pay for camp fees myself, I don't have enough cash on hand.

Again, I prayed a simple prayer.
'Dear God, help. What a miracle you did in helping me get approval to go for camp, I pray for another miracle so as to be able to pay for early bird camp fee! Thank you Lord, Amen.'

You know what, just before Saturday (supposedly last day of early bird regsitration), I got part of my salary! Though my supervisor forgot to fill in cheque for my salary, he didn't forget my pay day, and gave me $200 first. Thank God!! I can pay for camp! :D

3. WHEN GOD BLESS, HE WILL DO IT ALL THE WAY!

YES! So excited to pay for camp! Got the approval, money, and last thing to do is to submit the money!:)

I had such a good night's sleep. Wake up early in the morning, all ready to go for singer's. Smiles were plastered all over my face. Only until, I received an sms from Shirlene Loo.

Here it goes something like this: Hey easta1 girls! Today is last day of early bird registration! Please remember to bring $140 and the camp form ok? See you, love you girls! :)

I'm stunned for a moment. SHUCKS. I FORGOT TO BRING MY CASH OUT. IT'S IN MY RED BAG!
I felt totally stupid and frantic. Early in the morning, Jeslin told me that she has to reach somewhere by 10am. At that point of time, it was around 9.55am. I knew I still had to give it a try to call home to check if Jes is still there.

Again, I prayed a simple prayer.
'Dear God, I know you will make a way. In Jesus name, Amen.'

I dialled my home number immediately.

"Hello, is ah en home?" said me.
"Ah en? Wait ah," said Vivi (my maid), "Ah si is not home."
"Eh.. I'm Ah si, is ah en at home?" I asked.
"Oh ah en ah, you wait ah..." Vivi replied.
"Hello, what?" said Jes.

THANK YOU HEAVENLY FATHER! I'm uberly amazed at what You can do. You showed me once and again of your perfect, heavenly timing in all things. Your ways, always higher and better than our ways. I know this happened for a reason.

4. IT DOESN'T END THERE.

If you read closely, I have to work 16 hours OT right? That is actually quite alot, my supervisor even asked me to stay overnight at the work place - even though I don't have to work proper 'work'. I can just, be there. For now, I'm down of 3 hours of OT!

Recently, he offered me something better. For two Saturdays, I can just go for 3 hours of work (9am to 12pm) each, and the hours I work is considered double! Means in total, though I work for only 6 hours, I'm credited working for 12 hours! How cool is cool!

If you're thinking, "Eh, 12PM LEH", read on.

Each time I work on Saturday, I'm entitled to $10 transportation fee from my company. Plus, the distance from my work place to Nexus is so near, that I can walk there within 15-20 minutes! With that free $10, I will take a cab down instead!:) I can go for prayer meet. Yay!

Dear girls, don't panic, don't fret if you still can't make it for camp. Keep desiring, pray by faith, our God is good!

See you in camp, love! :)"

i love my family!

2009-05-17T02:13:00.001-07:00

"Dear Lovely Eastayeone babes!

Remember the recent Mother's Day/ Family sermon Pastor Jeff taught? How is it being followed up? Are our attitudes/ actions different towards our parents?

I just want to remind us, that it is very important to appreciate our family members, and this includes your siblings as well. It is a biblical thing to do!:)

Below are some thoughts that I noted down, hope it triggers some reflection:

1) When we were young, we tend to hold our mom's hands wherever we go. It gives us a sense of security, belonging, protection... Whenever something bad happens, we will run to our parents and cry/ hug. We never want to let go. Remember the times you had to go onto the kindergarten school bus, did you cry when you had to leave your mom or dad? I did.

Something I realised about people these days is that they seldom hold their parents' hands anymore.. Is it something embarassing? Afraid that people will say things like 'Wah, mommy's girl/boy..'? Well, if you think that way, I'm so... I shan't continue my sentence, it's too mean. You get my point.

2) Mother's/ Father's Day is too commercialised! Probably the only reason why florists and jewellers are so happy is because business thrive on these 'special' days. However, what do parents really want? Expensive flowers or gifts? I don't think so. They work, it's not as if they can't buy them themselves! How much quality time or appreciation are we giving them?

Make Mother's Day and Father's Day every Day.

3) Time spent at home: With family VS with computer. What's the ratio?

Sometimes, all we need is to offer our presence. We may not need to talk alot, but we can just take out some time off from the computer and join your dad in watching TV - whether we like the show or not. I'm sure it makes a difference!

4) I'm not excluding the fact that some of us here really do care for our parents, but is it that hard to just ask a simple, 'How are you?' It's the same to our friends, people whom we love and show concern to. When we genuinely want to know how someone is doing, we will ask, right?

5) '$$$' Home is not hotel, neither is it a self-automated bank. Don't take our parents for granted!

6) People needs to be encouraged and appreciated. If we're able to write countless encouragement cards to each other, and we know it DOES encourage and make someone feel loved, I'd strongly suggest we start writing to our parents as well!

They are human beings, they have feelings too :) As much as you need emotional support, they need it too. Be the best daughters/sons we can be!

7) Respect.

I love 'Children's Day'! I remember the school will always give out adorable gifts to us kids, and we'll go 'ooo..yay!' kinda thing. Do you know that our parents work their heart and lungs out, so that we can live everyday like 'Children's Day'? The fact that we don't have bones sticking out of our bodies, we don't leave the house naked, and that we don't sleep on streets at night, that's our unspoken gift from our lovely parents. How sacrifical!

8) It is not a MUST to slog their guts out, it's a choice.

My parents, at such an age, didn't even have the chance to go overseas as much as I do! They face stress all day long, earn money, and willingly give the money to us for us to enjoy; be happy. Imagine the fun/ money/ time they can have for themselves without the kids, but they still chose to love us and provide for us.

9) Sometimes we as children complain about our parents, 'Where are you when I need you? You are always not there for me!'

Well... are we there for them?

10) I love the way how Pastor Jeff relates our parents as the 'Fever Fairy'. True, when I'm sick my mom will make sure I've got my blanket on, check the fan power, remind me to have my medicine etc. How sweet! Of course, so many more incidents, I'm sure you have yours too :)

Thank them. They deserve every bit of it :)

11) Greet our parents. Let them know we know and still acknowledge of their presence.

12) Yes! We love our spiritual family, but don't forget our physical family too! No excuses!

13) "I don't know how to communicate with my child, they seem so far away," said Mom/Dad.

If they don't make the first move, YOU MAKE IT! It's not too hard to give a call or an sms, right?

Girls, if we truly want a revival to happen in the family, we have to have personal revival first! Be the salt and light, the brightest star at home, a living testimony of life transformation, the best child, the obedient one - Be faithful Christ ambassadors!

Your one life count, you're there for a reason!!"

self - entertaining

2009-05-14T23:32:00.001-07:00

Okay, forget it. I shall update here as well.

The power of copy and paste!:) Lovin' it!

"Shirlene, you don't laugh.

People! How do you spell DISCIPLE? D-I-S-C-I-P-L-E right?
Our dear Shirlene Loo spells it as D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E.
Related words, but totally different meaning!

HAHAHAHA, I've got a testimony to share too!

Yesterday, on my way to meet Shirlene for shepherding, I slept on bus 32 for a very very long time.. Suddenly, I felt an indescribable urge to wake up, so I did. I was still in a daze, until I saw two feared people - bus ticket officers. One was checking from the front door, the other from the back. I'm directly in the middle.

"I want to get off the bus. NOW! They can't find out that I'm using Sirui's card!" I thought to myself, but it's impossible to escape because the bus was not only far away from the next stop, it was stopped by the red traffic lights.

I wanted to jump down. But, I prayed, "Dear God, I don't know how, but I really really need some intervension NOW."

Just for your information, in case you don't know the complications you might face if you're found out with a card that doesn't belong to you, you will:
1) Get fined
2) Card most likely will get confiscated
3) Throw your face to Dead Sea

As the two officers drew nearer and nearer, I guess I acted well. I looked the least nervous, still in my dazy-sleepy look, but deep down, I'm screaming my lungs out!

Finally, the time has come, for my card to be checked. I took out my black wallet, unclipped the button, shoved my whole wallet to male ticket officer (keeping in mind I don't want to take out the card myself), and looked out of the window with crossed fingers...

God is AWESOME!!

Not only did the ticket officer NOT take out the card, which usually they require you to do so to check the face-match, he also DIDN'T realise the fee I'm paying is student's price!! :D

Miracle after miracle! Who can deny about His reality?

God is really good. He always work something out, in His perfect plan and perfect timing. He is never late, never early, and I'll trust that my future is safe in His hands! Praise GOD! :)"

eastaye1

2009-05-14T23:25:00.001-07:00

I'll put you on hold: http://branded-inHisname.blogspot.com;

Hello to YOU: http://easyaye1.blogspot.com!

I'll just drop by you to check on tagboard, but posting stuff at eastaye1:)

Thank God for the Internet!

2009-01-05T20:23:00.001-08:00

I'm amazed at how technology is moving so fast! Each and every year, a new invention will just pop out and wow us, but very quickly it's being replaced by new gadgets and creations, especially things like the laptop and mobile phones. In the past, who would have thought that the camera and conventional handphone could be integrated together to form something so awesome? Just visit http://www.time.com/time/2004/inventions/ and you'll be surprised at what kind of things people can come out with.

Despite all these funny funny stuff consistently emerging out of nowhere, I think that the best (okay.. one of the best) inventions/ discoveries around would be the Internet! I can't imagine life without this cool communication tool. How am I to do my research (imagine having to snatch/ being extra kiasu fighting for the book in the library), how am I to keep in touch with people overseas, how am I to entertain myself besides the cable channels. Man! I really admire and pity how students in the past lived. Life probably would be simple and sweet, yet super boring and inconvenient! Haha, that's just my perception, since I am in and was born into this fast-paced era.

Yeah, I am still so so grateful for the Internet. Life's so much easier.. Hm, but come to think about it, it can be of good or disadvantage to us yeah? Either we use it properly, or abuse the power of the Internet. Let's see how much damage it's bringing to the world - porn, politically incorrect stuff splashed everywhere on blogs, false information about God, all sorts of weird things circulated, people using the fact that you can't see the person on the other side to do immoral activities.. It also brings people to be too reliant on it that it's time to really 'Get a life'..

SO! Hahahaha... I do not know how to continue this.. but,

Be wise and utilise the Internet to our advantage in advancing the KOG! This is another creation of God, so as to help us be even more efficient in doing His work, not meant to be misued in selfish desires. Heheh. Of course, things that you read online, do filter:)

A website I chanced upon today: http://www.awmi.net/extra/article. Simple read-ups like these can really increase our knowledge of the Word, and send lots of reminders into our lives! How I wish I can have a good working printer, unlimited paper and printer ink.

All these aside, something random. Have you ever watched a movie TEN times?! Felicia Low does! What's wrong with her? HAHAHAH! Let's say a movie ticket costs around $7. $7 multiplied by 9 equals $63! That amount of money could be used much more purposefully! Haiyo, I'll never want to watch a movie twice.

Oh, another random thought.. I am so excited for you guys out there to go into NS! It's gonna make you much more manly (looks, and maturity of course), so cool! In CCC lecture, Ramesh mentioned that when men get into NS, despite the cultural differences (ethnic, race, etc) and personality clashes, none of them really matter anymore. The experience of going through thick and thin together will surpass all these, fostering stronger cohesiveness and bonds with each other. Wow, this will surely build up stronger men of God!

JIAYOU! :)

on the train home...

2008-12-11T04:12:00.000-08:00

It's been such a long long day.. my back is aching, my legs are weak, but I'm so refreshed by the CLs prayer meet at America Room. It is so cool how God can make his way through to assure you of what He wants to tell you. Though sometimes you do not understand, or ignore Him, God has His own miraculous ways to make you get it.. :)

I had my first mid-term paper today - Sports Media Marketing! Hm, yeah some laugh at me for my sardine-packed notes and all (and yes, I am still quie bothered about the blank spaces on it! HAHA!), just for this 20% thing of my total grades, but I am so very determined to get a higher GPA this time round! I have to go university! Wheeee :)

Know what, God sure protects and guides His children in every way! I believe most of you have had experiences like.. God helped you answer certain questions and stuff, yeahh... common blessings probably? BUT I DON'T CARE! I will still share of His faithfulness and leading in my exams! HAHAHAH..

In case you didn't know, everyone will be given a 10 minutes reading-of-exam-paper-time before the actual starting of the exams. When I went into the exam room, I looked around. My friends were either so engrossed in their reading of the paper that they totally didn't know of my presence, or were smiling at me, looking so confident.

Rewindddd.. before I went in, I was with Yanyu and Jeslin, and was telling them how nervous I was, having butterflies in my stomach.. But I know deep down, there was this assurance that God will help me through it, though the little preparation as compared to most people (I think? I spent most of my time re-copying the notes..), I don't know how it was going to be, but God will have His way.

Ah hah! Back into the exam hall.. man, when I saw their responses, I do not know how to react and feel.. whether to feel even more nervous that they were confident, or what. Ah anyway, I just smiled and sat down. I started reading the questions. Wow.. Amazingly I could answer all the questions... UNTIL. The last one. It weighs 12marks. I went, "OH MY GOODNESSSS, how?" My mind was blank, I totally couldn't recall of that pre-event evaluation thing. Tsk tsk tsk. I could feel my heart coming out.

TICK! The clock struck 11:00am. I did my MCQ in less than 3 minutes, question 2.1 and 2.2 in 20 minutes or so, and I'm stuck. I racked my brain so much my mind started to wander off.. hahahaha. It was 11:32am. No! I cannot let go and give up on this question. I was crying out to God.. "God, You must help me!!!!!!!"

And, I started writing bits and pieces of stuff down.

"Time's Up! Pens down, stop writing, I will be going around to collect your papers.." The typical invigilator's sentence-of-the-day. I was.. I don't know how to say, but very uncertain about my paper.. I looked into my friends' eyes and shook my head.. "How ah, 12 marks fly away.. What's the answer for the last question?"

Lisa: "Oh! That one! Erhh.. I put the 'identify' thing.."

With that, my eyes lit up. "THE 100 POINT SCALE THING IS IT???"

Felicia: "Yeah yeah, that one."

Oh my goodnesssssss!!! I wrote stuff which I wasn't sure of, and it's the right thing I'm supposed to write down! WAHHH.. thank God man!! :D I have one more paper tomorrow, yay! HAHAHAH..

Some things I saw on the train on my way home:
1) There was this girl (I guess at the age of 16 or younger) with her boyfriend. Yikes, she was wearing this super short denim skirt, and yet she sat so unglamly, if you know what I meant. To all girls: Please do take note of how you sit, self respect know!

2) Overheard a conversation between this young couple. Not that I'm promoting such relationships now, but HOW SWEEEET and creative:)
Girl: "Hey, choose a number between 1 to 4."
Boy: "For what?"
Girl: "Your christmas gift."
Boy: "Wah, so exciting one ah?"
And the guy started choosing and changing his numbers... Okay it's wrong to eavesdrop, but still HOW SWEEEEET! If you think your relationship (friends or family members) is getting stale, you can probably whip up something new to you know, surprise that person. I'm sure it will work :)

3) Personally I avoid sitting at the 'Priority seat', and I notice less people sit there too! Finally, I see Singaporeans becoming more considerate. More and more people are giving up their seats to the elderly and needy, awwww. That's good that's good :)

Yes, that's all! Will post photos the next time! Off to bathe and studyyyy :D

this post is also on east blog :) it shall be a stand-alone post!

2008-12-01T03:57:00.000-08:00

I repeat: BE WARNED! THIS IS A SUPER LONG POST!

Surfed through the TV channels searching for something to watch, and HBO’s movie – ‘Daddy’s Day Camp’ caught my attention.

Here’s a short synopsis of what it is all about:”Dads Charlie Hinton and Phil Ryerson take over running a summer day camp at Driftwoods. Armed with no knowledge of the great outdoors, a dilapidated facility, and a motley group of campers, it doesn’t take long before things get out of control. Up against threats of foreclosure and declining enrolment, Charlie is forced to call on his estranged father, Col Buck Hinton, to help bring the camp together and teach everyone about teamwork, perseverance and the power of forgiveness.”

Sadly, this movie has been horrifyingly badly graded by its viewers. Rated between grades of C- to F by Yahoo movie critics, 70 out of 71 voters voted it a rotten movie at www.rottentomatoes.com, and an average user rating of 2.2 out of 10.

How funny, it still got me all emotional and hooked to it. And definitely, it is not a waste of my 1hour and 29 minutes! Below are just some things I was reminded about:

1. “To win the battle, you first need to believe in the success of the mission” – quoted from Col Buck Hinton.
Isn’t it so true… that in whatever that we are doing, be it winning the schools, shepherding, or fighting our own personal battles with the evil one, we ought to first have faith and believe that it can be won or overcomed! Many times its been repeated that to complete CG08, ‘If you don’t believe that it can be done, you have already lost half the battle’, yet again there are times we get discouraged and start to doubt whether it is possible. Just like any competition, if we don’t believe that we can win, we might as well don’t start anything at all; otherwise everything we’ve worked hard for will go to waste. So, believe, have faith in our God, that whatever promises we claim from His Word, they will come to past! Do not lose hope; do not give up, stand firm. CG08 will be completed!

2. What happened in the show: The kids who went for Driftwoods camp has been constantly attacked and demoralised by the kids from Canola camp. They were humiliated, looked down upon, treated with little respect. However, Col Buck Hinton took this chance to pull the Driftwoods kids together, used it as an opportunity to build teamwork. He encouraged, empowered, directed, and led them to counter-attack Canola.
Turn your discouragements to positive motivation! Leaders, continue to always instil hope and belief in your people! When all fails, you are their last glimpse of hope! Continue to affirm and encourage, because sometimes all they need is a little push:)

3. What happened in the show: Due to the lousy start-up of Driftwoods camp, there were a lot of bills that piled up. It came to a point when the government sent people to go to Charlie Hinton’s house to calculate auction value of his furniture. His wife was angry at first, but ended up giving her full support. Another incident was that a kid in camp was afraid of sleepovers because he had a tendency to wet his bed at night. Instead of laughing, his instructor, Phil Ryerson, comforted him by sharing his own experiences and gave practical advice.
We don’t just work as a team, but a family. Always look out for needs to be met, be open in sharing, learn to understand and empathise with each other’s experiences.

4. “You’ve got the best dad ever. He may be a little more protective over you, but that is because he loves you” – quoted from Col Buck Hinton.
Ahhh… Know that God our Daddy is always looking over us. Follow in step with His ways and plans, though we may not understand, for they are never to short-change us or harm us, but always for the good of us. Obey despite understanding!

5. What happened in the show: In the Campers Olympiad, Canola has been cheating their way through in all of the obstacles, but Driftwoods emerged victorious!
Remember: Victory always belongs to us! No matter how bad the situation is, at the end of the day, the one who remains the loser is – S.A.Tan.

A few days ago, I was talking to a poly classmate, Adam Esoof Piperdy.

Adam is a successful young businessman. His family started out this Emcee/ DJ company called ‘Unearthed Productions’, and it has been clinching many deals since it’s been launched. He is rich. He held a high leadership position back in secondary school days as President of Peer Support Leaders. He always had been achieving good grades – 11 points for L1R5 and current GPA of 3.3+. He is super influential.

Florence: “Hey Adam, what do you plan to do in your future huh?”
Adam: “When I’ve had enough, I’ll just devote my entire life into volunteering work and just die there.”

Adam: “Eh, I heard that the second coming of Jesus is gonna happen soon. Like got all the financial crisis stuff going on, and the disasters…”
Florence: “Yea! You believe that it will happen?”
Adam: “Yeah. I believe that there is a God.”

Adam: “You know what?”
Florence: “What?”
Adam: “I never knew I would be doing all this know. (He is talking about his successful career) I really got to thank Mr Oh (Temasek teacher). Without his belief in me, I wouldn’t be where I am today. It only takes one person to belief in you to make magic.”

Florence: “What are you busy with huh?”
Adam: “Work, and I will go back to Temasek to help out in the school events.”
Florence: “Huh, why?”
Adam: “I want to invest in the youth. I do not like the idea when people say the youth are young and ignorant when they are so full of potential!”

Well.. I don't know how and what you think or feel.. But I think that it certainly is such a waste if people with so much influence, who believe in the potential of the youth, and yet do not use their talents to serve God for a greater eternal cause.. There surely are like many many thousands millions of people like him, who need God in their lives!

What do you think?

Testimony!
All the while, Shirlene’s parents did not support the idea of her becoming a Christian. There were times when she cried and were so afraid that her parents might stop her from coming to church and stuff. There was once when she ‘backslided’ (very long time ago) because her parents objected her from attending any church activities. But! Thank God she is back!

Not only is she super supportive and initiative (she is planning for an EA stayover/ designed an EA1 shirt by herself etc.), I really admire her fervor in bringing people to come to know God! Ever since she decided to commit to the KOG, she has been asking her friends to come and join us for service. She never gave up asking, and finally, week after week, she has brought 4 visitors for service. Of which, 2 of them converted! She is also someone who is ever grateful to God… in her first caregroup, she was already dying to share 3 testimonies to the group! ALSO, she was holy spirit baptized last Thursday! Wow…

On Saturday, she wrote me this short letter:
“Hello florencechenxiaosi!
Know what? My parents never go against me for going to church, they actually encourage me to find out more about it. My dad even said that at this age is good for me to find out more before making the decision. OMGee! My dad encourage me to go! :O He knows that it would help too in my growing life! Really thank God for that! Phew!”

I’m truly inspired and encouraged by her life. So amazed at how much God can do in her and through her. Thank God for you Shirlene!

Love,
FlorenceChenXiaoSiEustacia :)

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

2008-11-21T07:08:00.000-08:00

a) I've got more than 20 mosquito bites on my limbs right now.
b) Denise have ZERO of these deadly bites because of spraying/applying more than 5 layers of insect repellant (of all sorts.. cream and oil). What a typical kiasu/kiasi Singaporean, but smart!
c) Jeslin applied 3 layers, but have 8 mozzie bites.
d) I applied once.
e) I have learnt to be cautious whenever I open the rubbish chute's lid, because the last time I opened it, I was attacked by a flying cockroach! I was smart today!
f) I didn't get to go for caregroup :(((
g) Do you love cats? There is one at the school bus stop every day! It's so adorable that many people stopped by to look at it. No matter how many times some people tried to move it out of the walkway, it just gets back to the same position. How cuteeee. I will touch it some day.
h) I'm so blessed to have awesome friends in school! Different bunch of people :)
i) Psalms 20:7
j) Phillipians 1:4-6
k) The real secret to holy discontentment, you need to have unsurrendered will.
l) Ghost Whisperer is freaky!
m) If you're brave enough, visit www.hotel626.com! It's an online horror game that only functions from 6pm to 6am.
n) I had the urge to brush my tongue while bathing, and I did it! :D
o) I am starving!
p) I am craving for soup. And bananas!
q) I learnt in Cross Cultural Class today that I have to look beyond the skin color/ we are too influenced by western media/ don't judge if you don't want to be judged/ AND MORE! This is very important, especially for Christ followers... Got to re-evaluate our perspective of people of different race and cultures :)
r) My phone's keypad is going haywire very soon.. :( Have difficulties in pressing '5' and star sign.
s) I need to discipline my journalling with God!
t) I think that the library's security guard must be really really really really really bored. I was laughing, at the library's exit, and he actually 'SHHHHed' me. Wow.
u) Vivi is self-learning english! Yayyy.
v) I'm going to write down people's birthdays on a scheduler, soon. I hope it helps me remember special dates better! LOOK, I'm making effort here. :)
w) God just shows himself faithful every single time.. Thank You Daddy!
x) $4.20 for 2 soft-boiled eggs, 2 kaya butter toast and a cup of tea at YaKun's with Yingying this morning. Is it worth it? I doubt so. It's nice, but probably overrated/priced?
y) I think the 9pm Chinese show 'Bu Fan De Ai' is extremely meaningful.
z) I'm going to find food now! BYE!

a post on random things in my day

2008-10-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

It was only 10am in the morning. Who wakes up so early on a Sunday morning!? No, it wasn't the multiple blasting phone calls that woke me up (though they were really irritating!), but it was Yeo Si Rui. How could she?! I was having sweet dreams that I could finally remember.. If you didn't know who Y.S.R is, look at the photo below.

Yeah. That's her.

After much rolling around on the bed, kicking, fighting with each other, it came to an end when I saw a moving thing by the corner of my eye. It was huge! Look at this.

YOU SEE THAT? It's a huge greenish brown ant with large dangerous jaws! I have no idea why it's crawling on my window, alone. It sets me thinking.. is there a nest of these creepy crawlies somewhere near my house? AHHHH!!

I just had my desserts.. literally. :) Ice Kachang lavished with brown sweet sugar sauce topped with a generous portion of sweet corn and durian puree.. awesome!

Have you ever felt cheated such that you buy something and it turns out to be something else? Okay, not that I bought this so-called 'Chilli Cuttlefish' (my dad bought it), but it's a cheat!

Ingredients list: Cuttlefish, Chilli, Sugar, Salt, Sauce Acid.
I think there should be a drastic change to the ingredients list:
New Ingredients list: Cuttlefish, Sugar, Sugar, Sugar, Salt, Sauce Acid.
You see the obvious edit? :S

Yesterday Joy passed me my favourite flower. For a moment I thought she was kidding, but No! It was really meant for me. hehehe. Jes had one too! And was told after that that it's not from Joy, but Ahbe! Thank you Ahbe! :) It's pretty!

I think my new maid is cool! :) Her name is Vivi. Imagine.. You are a new maid, new to Singapore's culture, new to the family, new to almost everything revolving around you. You are cleaning the windows. You saw someone from the opposite block throwing newspapers down. What would you do?

Guess what. She scolded him.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I'm so amazed and amused by what she did.. aren't you?

And lastly, I've got such an adorable and hunky DAD! :D

My parents, I and Vivi went for dinner at the coffeeshop nearby our house just now. You know those aunties wearing beer-promotion-clothings? Yea, one of them came up to our table, stood near my dad, and asked what we wanted. My mum asked for LuoHan drink, Vivi asked for Coke, me none, and my Dad asked for coffee with sugar. That woman got even closer to my dad, said get Kopi Lasi, something like that. I do not understand.. but she kept repeating herself and that my dad should get that. What's she doing.. All of us laughed!

After awhile, she came back with the drinks. At this point of time, my mum isn't around. While removing the drinks from the tray, my dad asked how much was the total cost. She kept quiet. My dad and I stared at her. She stood there for some 10 seconds, not saying anything.

"What is she thinking?!" I thought to myself, disturbed by why-is-she-standing-so-close-to-my-dad-please-go-away.

"This one more expensive, $1.60. Coke is $1.30. Yours is 70cents,"said the woman. And, she stopped there. Hoho. I never knew the customer had to calculate the final price himself. Well, my dad was very nice to calculate everything and pass her the money.

That's not it. She concluded with this, "After drinking this, you tonight don't have to sleep..." Giggles giggles giggles.. oh my. I'm inferring stuff which I never knew someone so bold to say such things in front of a man's kids/wife/whoever. HAHAHA!!

A post on random things in my day :)

MORE photos :) yayyy

2008-10-24T10:44:00.001-07:00

pictures DO talk!

2008-10-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

You're reading a lazy person's blog, so you infer while the pictures do the talking :)

Karaoke @ Teo Heng in Katong Shopping Centre!

19OctWaterBaptismBabies!

Dedicated to Yeo Si Rui :D

Poly grads celebrates me and twin's birthday :) I love these photos!

Awesome people :D

YAYYYYYY! I'M DONE :)))

i'm ready!

2008-10-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

The start of a new school semester is just round the corner.

With much anticipation and excitement, I checked up my timetable as soon as Garene messaged me something not-exactly-very-pleasing to me. After looking at mine, I went to search for every single one of my friend's timetable (whom I knew are taking the same subject selection as me). How should I say it, okay.. One word - depressing.

It all seems like a huge joke being played on me. The odd one out from my entire clique consisting of about 5people, being in the same class as people whom I do not really know much of (in fact, sometimes they can be quite intimidating), and yet finding new people to form groups, and lastly, it was BAD timetable. The worst I've ever gotten.

For that moment, I couldn't take it! No, I did not break down, but I knew I wasn't in a right conscious state of mind. I was disappointed. I stoned. I went on a silent craze with my own thoughts... I know that God is in control and all, yet on the other hand I just couldn't accept the fact that how all these just fall upon me...

But, I've got the most most most loving God/ Father/ Best Friend in the universe! Despite my lousy spirit, having a first response of somewhat a non-believer, God remains faithful.. I love you God!

I really thank God, for placing me at the right place (Cheng's house), right time (shepherding time), with the right person (ChengLee herself). She was there beside me all the while, she knew what I was feeling, she sensed I wasn't right. I knew her plans for shepherding didn't go according as planned, but she did whatever she could to make me feel better and lead me back to God. Thank you so so so much Pretty Shepherd! :) She prayed for me, led me into worship, counselled, 'fed' her sheep with good food. Hahahahaha, truly felt loved, love you Cheng cheng :D

And of course, was greatly ministered by God Himself.

You are the peace that guards my heart,
my help in times of need.
You are the hope that leads me on,
and brings me to my knees.
For there I find you waiting,
and there I find release.
So with all my heart I'll worship,
and unto You I'll sing!!!
-You Alone

Who else, but God alone :D

God, your ways are higher than mine, your plans are always the best, you are never late but always on time. God I want to trust in your mighty plans, I know this is a time of stretching and growing. I will grow in my trust, I will grow in my faith, I will step out of my comfort zone! Big problems and testings will bring big miracles and overcoming opportunities. I want to be an overcomer in Christ, leaving this semester stronger than before! I will learn to rejoice in all circumstances, thank You Lord, for giving me this privilege.

I'm ready for more! :)

I love you Lord.

chicken chicken chicken

2008-10-08T06:13:00.000-07:00

A BIG BIG THANK YOU TO MELISSA, my lovely sheep! :D
She went through all the trouble finding out which place to bring me to for a lunch treat for my birthday (in advance), by asking more than 10 people to comment and rate the food at this particular cafe in Bugis. Surfing the Internet, she also found out what dishes are served that that cafe. Awww..

Alas, our first time setting foot on V8 CAFE!

Yeah, that's the place we've been searching for for more than 10 minutes. Tsk tsk tsk. Despite asking for directions from her friends, she still doesn't know her way there.. hahaha, making us walk round and round the shopping mall.

Does that look appetizing? Whatever your answer may be, that's what we ate! It's claimed as V8 CAFE'S SIGNATURE DISH :) If you want to have affordable and somewhat higher class than pasta mania, think this is a good place to chill out. For your information, their sirloin steak, lamb chop, signature dish are all priced equally - $11.80. I think that's super value for money, because it comes with soup/garlic bread and a drink :) Everything else are priced below $10 if I'm not wrong. Heheh.

Yay, thanks MEL!

Oh, I mopped the floor! Usually all I do was to wash my dishes (sometimes), pack my cupboard, and tidy up my bed, but today I MOPPED THE ENTIRE HOUSE FLOOR :D Clapclapclap! Good achievement, but I wonder when will be the next time I do the same thing.. hahahaha.

"His leg so big, and the scooter so small, that's why he fall down right? Ohoh! He fast fast the scooter that's why he fall right? And now he is dirty and the scooter must put outside (the house)!"
-Quote from Jelynn, witnessing a primary school boy falling off his scooter.

just got to post this

2008-10-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

WOW. One more thing to post for today:)

I have less than 20bucks to my name before 10pm today, and I'm 100bucks richer to my name after 10pm!

thank God so so much, who proves Himself faithful and as MY PROVIDER everytime I'm in need! Last Saturday, I had very little money left, but still, went ahead with tithing, really having faith that God will do something to my financial needs.

Lo' and behold! Just as I needed the extra cash for renewal of concession on 9th Oct, my dad gave us 100bucks to me and Jeslin each just now. I'm so very blessed :)

Thank you Father!
All the more I want to praise your name! :) I will boast in the Lord my God!

AMAZED!!

2008-10-07T01:57:00.000-07:00

WOWWOWWOWWOW!!
Number ONE: God is super cooooool!!
Number TWO: Prayer is Powerful!!
Number THREE: Read Number ONE and TWO above!

SHOUT of the King is among us!:)

I am extremely, conspicuously, exceedingly amazed at how God works and blesses his people in ways and times we could never expect. Just within a day, I've experienced/ heard of two blessings/ miracles God has done amongst His people!

How Great is our God, sing with me how Great is our God, and all will sing how Great, how Great is our God!

ChengLee's awesome CLs were so privileged to be able to savour her splendid cooking yesterday at Turkey's (DeniseLeong) house. We finally had our long awaited dish, Creamy Carbonara Ribbon Pasta with freshly baked tender bacon slices topped with lush spread of melted mozarella cheese, superbly prepared for each and everyone of us. YUMMY!

While all looks good and almost-perfect, something in between all these occurred, which left Turkey kinda 'flustered'... *CHING!* The bacon slices are ready to be removed from the oven! K, rewind abit. This oven costs Turkey's sister over a 100bucks, is being used the second time, without permission. Ah yes, the bacon slices are ready to be removed from the oven! *CHI-CHIK* "Chenglee! The oven couldn't be opened!"I shouted. Okay, moment of horror, the oven REALLY couldn't be fully opened, it was stuck! After a long time of inspection, Turkey and Cheng tried to 'pry open' and 'repair' the faulty screw but to no avail.. Man.. All these while, we prayed for God's miracle to happen somehow sometime soon. Till the night, it was still stuck.

So we carried on with whatever else that we wanted to do. OH!! Only at twelve did we watch our first and last movie, that is, The Pursuit of Happyness! Well, it's not even one of the 4movies that we rented.. HAHA! By the time we realised that we could watch VCDs on the computer, it was late.. How stupid.. Thank God, the movie was good:) It tells us how persistent we got to be, and there was this background song about 'Jesus loves you' kinda thing, plus a scene of people praising and worshipping God. I believe it's somewhat a Christian-based movie.. :)

Back to oven-story. Yeah, so the problem wasn't solved throughout the entire night. In the morning, I literally forgot about the whole matter till I walked across the kitchen floor. Suddenly, the oven caught my eye. I walked towards it, stretched out my hands, and prayed, "God! Please open the oven, Amen!" TAAADAAA!! IT SWUNG DOWN AS SMOOTH AS ...SILK? Wow!! Immediately I shouted out for Denise, asking if she repaired the oven door, and she didn't. It must be God. God healed the oven! Hahaahha :D Denise was also going gagagaga over this whole miraculous blessing.. She's been praying all night, and true enough, God works in the midst of faith! Hallelujah!

Just about 30 minutes ago, I received a bad-news call from Ball(YEOSirui).
Ball: Eh Florence, did you take a plastic bag home ah? Inside got clothes one.
Prettyme: No why?
Ball: Did Joy take it?
Prettyme: No she didn't also. Take for what, why?
Ball: Huh... I think I lost jeslin's thing. Inside got your sister's blazer, she say it costs 100plus.. how?
Prettyme: Huh? Where did you last put it... (etc)
Ball: I very scared, jeslin looks angry..
Prettyme: I think you all should gather and PRAY, then go all the info counters.. tell me again when you're done.
*KIAP*

And I prayed.

My goodness, can you imagine the tension.. Again, the blazer wasn't taken by permission, and the cost was about 100bucks as well! So coincidental..

15 minutes later, I've got a call from Ball again.
Prettyme: Hello?
Ball: Hello, Florence! I very happy!
Prettyme: You found the blazer?!
Ball: HAHAHAHAH.. I wanted to leave already, then in the lift I was praying to God to help me find the blazer, then I went to ask the info counters, and they ask me to go to a 'coldroom' (??).. I walk walk walk still cannot find, then some people told me its at the basement carpark there.
Prettyme: Uhuh?
Ball: Then the security guard asked me what I lost, then he ask if its a blazer. Then I say yeah. Then he smile and took it out! Somemore its in a nice plastic bag, got ribbon somemore!

WHOAWHOA! Don't you think God is SO cool and faithful?!

Lord I'm amazed by You, Lord I'm amazed by You,Lord I'm amazed by You, and how You love me!

I was reminded of a song by Casting Crowns, What If His People Prayed :)

What if the armies of the Lord
Picked up and dusted off their swords
Vowed to set the captive free
And not let satan have one more

What if the Church, for heaven's sake
Finally stepped up to the plate
Took a stand upon God's promise
And stormed hell's rusty gates

Chorus I:
What if His people prayed
And those who bear His name
Would humbly seek His faith, yeah
And turn from their old ways

And what would happen if we prayed
For those raised up to lead the way
Then maybe kids in school could pray
And unborn children see light of day

What if the life that we pursue
Came from a hunger for the truth
What if the family turned to Jesus
Stopped asking Oprah what to do

Chorus I:
What if His people prayed
And those who bear His name
Would humbly seek His face yeah
And turn from their own way
Chorus II:
He said that He would hear
His promise has been made
He'll answer loud and clear, yeah
If only we would pray

Bridge:
If My people call by My name
If they'll humble themselves and pray
If My people call by My name
If they'll humble themselves and pray

John 14:13-14
"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it"

1 John 5:14-15
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him"

Philippians 4:6-7
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"

CLAPCLAPCLAP to you JESUS! :)

nonsense

2008-10-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking these days.. about nonsense.

In just a couple of days' time, I will be able to enter once-forbidden M18 movies, officially approved in applying for a driving license, and never again hiding my real age in pubs anymore. I should be feeling super duperly excited, but surprisingly I'm not feeling it that much, because there is one person whom I'm really starting to miss so much :(

I miss you, xiaoyingcarriechen!!

Just in case you don't know who is the weirdly-named woman above, she's my lovely eccentric elder sister. WHY am I missing her so much?! That's because she has always been the one reminding my family about her dearest twin sisters' birthdays, organising family dinners, always getting GOOD gifts on time, and taking our photos.. Man, it's different without her presence..

Okay, putting these stuff aside, I'm at Denise house right now!! :) We're going on a movie marathon/spreeeeee/madness tonight! However, out of the 4 movies we got, I believe we won't complete them.. It's either of us falling asleep. Hahahaha. But still, gonna enjoy myself, teehee! Anyway, there are 2 movies I want to catch BADLY.. they are namely: Mamma Mia and House Bunny! Ah, so if you want a movie partner for these movies, can ask me. hehehehe.

signing off,
florencechenxiaosieustacia the pretty :D

three firsts

2008-10-01T07:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday night was my first time running alone at night. It was 9plus by the time I reached home after meeting Yingying, and I thought to myself, "Aiyah, it's so late already, maybe I shouldn't go running, the sky's weird, it may rain anytime, don't go anywhere la." Yet, there was another voice persuading me, "You said so many times you want to run, just go la. You need to keep fit!" I hesitated for 10 minutes before deciding to just go ahead with the run. It felt so weird, without my sister beside, it was more tiring than I thought (partly because I pushed myself to run at a faster speed than normal cos it started to drizzle).. but the main reason I believed was due to lack of companionship.. Suddenly, I was reminded of the people in church and God Himself, whoa, thank God that God gave us each other to encourage and push one another forward in this marathon.. It's never going to be easy running it alone :)

I spent my first time at the Botanic Gardens with Melissa and Jelynn :) Really thank God for Melissa, otherwise I wouldn't be able to handle Jelynn all by myself, especially when I had to carry a netball on one hand. Hahaha.. Melissa was sharing to me that she was actually praying to God whether or not she should go with me this morning, and she was prompted to just come for it despite her tiredness.. OOO! God is cool, He sent my sis to fetch me and Mel there, and back too!

jelynn calls these "disgusting".. weird right? hahah.

she finally opened up to Mel! :D

Today was the first EA1A caregroup too!:) Supposedly, we're to go to Pasir Ris Park, but YingYing messaged me suggesting they we go her house instead. Wow, think it's really a great blessing.. cos we were kept safe from the unpredictable weather. Another blessing is that Evelyn could make it in the end cos her computer suddenly died, so she can't do her artwork at home :)

writing e-cards! (encouragement cards)

evelyn working hard on her artwork :)

the two 'zilians' in the cg! tsk, they took their photos in my phone while i was sleeping. hahaha.. what more, minyi drew a big red mole on my left arm. how sweet is she?!

hehehe. Word-centred and loving community, that's what we're going to be, GOGOGO EA1A! :D

Jelly and sheep!

2008-09-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

"I love you in the morning, I love you in the night, I love you in the noon. Noon is afternoon!" (repeat) -- Artiste of the day, Jelynn Lee Ying.

Hahahaha, I know if I don't post tonight, I will be too lazy to post any other time..

Last Wednesday was my last caregroup together with the Springfield girls. Will miss you all, but I'm excited for each other's growth! Jiayou ChengCheng! Jiayou EnEn! Jiayou Rabbit! Jiayou pretty me! :)

My mom came over at TP to pass Jelly (Jelynn) to me. She was noisy and all bubbly at first until she saw him:

Look at that face, which kid wouldn't freak out?!

Hahahaha.. in the end, only Yanyu managed to babysit Jelly with me and Jes. We headed towards Ikea, and the fun begins..

Waiting for Jes n Yuyu to be back from buying food :)

Up-close on Jelly!

Silly actress.. acting sad, hehe.

Aww.. so patriotic!

she's selfish.. only allowed me to take 1 photo with her until jes n yuyu comes back :(

that's not a fullsuit sweater, its my jacket. that's not just any bag, it's a guitar bag!

seriously, i have no idea what she's thinking/doing.. pretending to be Jesus?

i guess a few more months down the road, she'll not be able to squeeze in the push cart anymore..

that's jes aka bell :)

can u spot jelynn?

that's obviously the lovable rabbit, yuyu (yanyu)!

doesn't she look sweet with those beautiful flowers? :D

and lastly, a monkey face!!

after going to ikea, we left for giant. man, probably i was too tired that day, i literally fell asleep on a camping chair for quite some time.. ewww, so dumb. thank God for my parents, who came down to fetch us home. YAY!

Okay next! My mass shepherding with my lovely sheep - Joy, Yingying and Melissa!

Yes! We went to Pasir Ris Park :)

Melissa, Yingying and Joy respectively.. so pretty, just like me. hehhehe.

started off with mel and ying on the duo-bike-thing..

horse charming!

me and horse charming :D

what a load of dung..

so cute right joyjoy :)

but can be irritating somehow, scaring ying with big red ants.. ewwwww!

look at how they aspire to be like me. hahahah!

we cycled all the way to the fish farm nearby, oooo so fun! by the time we reached there, mel looks like she's dying. hahahaha.

i bet the fish weighs heavier than a ton. it's REALLY HUGE! if its edible, it can last u for months. muahahaha.

silly sheep :)

dearest melissa, how stupid do we look!

that's me! the azuki red bean ice cream.. i'm sure its much better than what the other 2 are holding.. cheaper too!

more ice cream cones..

amazing she didn't bite off her fingers too..

bravo!! (but the dog is harmless in the first place.. hahahahaha)

yingying looking out n avoiding the dog..

run yingying run! haha!! a dog was following melissa and going towards her direction..

vroom vroom!! she's got the power!

that 'uphill' was a killer. we all nearly died-ed-ed..

its the 3 of them again.. hehehe.

one more time :)

i love... the sky. HAHA. k, and yingying :)

teeeheee!

why does she look good even in candid photos, unfair..

yay, the happy and blessed..

home sweet home! :D

:)

2008-09-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

Eastspring can be completed! How is it that with a BIG God backing us up, we can't do it? Ahhh!
God is moving, God is moving, can you hear the sound of revival!?

I consider today a fruitful day! :)

Firstly, I want to become more of a spiritual father to my people. Cheng has always been telling me about the two kind of love God shows:
1) I-don't-know-how-to-express-it love (those 'awwww' kind)
2) Tough love
I've got to work on the latter, HAHA!

Thank God for Ball, who went with me to both SOW sessions. Hehe, we felt that today's SOW was good, just that the first group were quite scary.. Never knew there were truly such RICH people around, but it seems like their lives just revolves around money.. money is the root of all evil, so.. all the more! they need God in their lives!! Yay!! The second one says she'll be coming on the 11th Oct, so looking forward to it :)

Never ever compromise on the Word of God; you and I hold our lives accountable to our BIG Boss!

Geckting, thanks for the awesome night! heehehehehe.

Trust in the Lord

2008-09-21T01:58:00.000-07:00

You are amazing, God!

It is just so great to be in God's presence. It is where we're able to find peace, gain comfort, draw strength, be refreshed and renewed once again:)

On Saturday, Yanyu announced to EA1 that there will be certain changes to the group. Yeah, I do know about it, somehow. It has been discussed quite some time ago, which I didn't foresee it to be so soon. Maybe I have been dwelling too much on the current situation rather than being forward-looking. I should have seen it coming! Haha, i'm laughing at myself..

I admit, I do have certain fears and negative thoughts that run wild in my head..

I know that it is not my first time in this, I know that everything happens according to God's plans, I know that I shouldn't be feeling and thinking this way, but I just couldn't seem to stop worrying...

so, i chose to seek the Lord in worship.

Pardon me, but I just got to repeat this!:
You are amazing, God!

It is just so great to be in God's presence. It is where we're able to find peace, gain comfort, draw strength, be refreshed and renewed once again:)

Yes, I met God! Thank you God for your assurance, thank you God for your unconditional love, thank you God for your amazing grace! I must trust and rely on God's power, lead in God's leading, Amen!

Phillipians 4:13
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
This verse is so simple, yet it holds so much truth in it, that as long as we are willing, knowing who is in control, rely on Him we are more than able to fulfil great things for Him! It's such a privilege to be able to serve the Almighty God!

Hehe, there are some people I want to thank God for as well:
Thank you Daixuan, for your hospitality once again! Okay, though it seemed to you like I'm serving myself, well that's because I feel comfortable, and you made me feel so. Also, your determination and initiative to plan for your singers team growth plan. So cool! So thanks, hee-queen! Looking forward to meeting you again! Make sure we'll run the next time, hehehehehe.

Thank you Melissa, for always showing love and care to me. Everytime I'm sick, you'll be one of the first few to come to me/sms/etc. So sweet of you! Love you sheep!

Thank you ChengLee, pretty shepherd! You've been an awesome leader and shepherd. You're always thinking about the people and the group, implenting ways for every individual growth. Know that sometimes you're abit scared scared, but your full reliance on God and how you lead according to God's Word truly inspires me! Will follow you as you follow God! Love you shepherd!

Thank you Joy, hehehehehe. You ah, sometimes make me go crazy, but i want to thank God for your armour-bearing spirit and love for me. Thanks for all the Lakerol boxes, but ah, start saving up for camp instead! :) (EVERYONE! START SAVING FOR OUR YOUTH CAMP "HEROES" NOW! YAY!)

Thank you Winstar, for being a 'Dajie', HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Thank God for blessing me with these lovely people :)

mommydog!

2008-07-14T05:16:00.000-07:00

jelynn's up to something once again! she calls herself 'baby dog'. she does whatever a dog does, from licking jeslin's feet, crawling on fours, 'woofing' non-stop. awww.. who wouldn't want to join her? so, the accommodating me volunteered to be her mommy dog! I follow whatever she does, except, the licking of jeslin's feet part. we have our very own dog house, which is none other than the dining table. watch us squeezeeeee. okay. it's just me, i bet you too. just got to be careful with your head, i hit it against the roof of the table a few times. OUCH. you wanna be some relative of us? :) hm, don't worry, we're not b*tches, we're just having fun. HAHA!

Last saturday was my first time support singing on stage! I got to mark the date - 12th July 2008. It's such a privilege to be able to minister to people through singing, which is an opportunity that not everybody has. At first I thought it would be really scary, but once the cheering of my unit started, I had smiles all over my face and the fear subsided. It wasn't that bad after all, except the part whereby I was struggling with my facial expressions. I thought I got to be really smiley, so I tried smiling all the way during praise, but i found out it was quite a torturous thing to do so! My face nearly cramped up. Qianjin told me I was quite reserved during praise.. hmm. yeah, probably cos wasn't very comfortable with my face muscles. haha! but jeslin still told me to smile more, oh man. I'll try!
Oh! By the way, I really thank God for healing my throat so that I could go on stage on Saturday. I guess most people knew that I couldn't sing on Friday at all. My voice was croaky, super i tell you. I sounded like a man, NOT sexy at all. hahaha.. Many people prayed for me, and I really tried all means and ways to get my voice back the previous days. Besides praying, I ate PeiPakao twice every single day, bought herbal tea, drank some powder medicine thing, bought nin joim herbal candies, vicksvapourdrops, drank warm water etc. On Saturday morning I set my alarm clock at 7.45am, but by 7am I jolted up from my sleep. I was very excited to know whether my throat was healed. i rolled about the bed and at 7.30am sharp, i sat up straight on the bed, and started singing. HAHAHAHA!! amazing! I COULD sing! it was really a healing miracle know. i don't think with such a bad throat the night before, with just a few hours of sleep, i could be fine the next morning. it must be God!
There are so many people I've got to thank for praying for me, for supporting me, for everything! Some of these people are namely: Daixuan, Xiao En, Jade Ho, Winstar, Pretty Cheng, Melissa, SiRui, Denise Leong, LiQing, Joan, Louis and Mummy! You people rock!

Me and my darling babydog just went fishing in our 'pond'. We caught lots of fishes. Our doggyhouse is super well facilitated. There are stuff like 'tv', 'two bedrooms', 'aircon', 'fan', 'soap/shampoo', etc. Look, they are all imaginary. haha!

Went SOWing with Sirui and Stephanie today. Man, what's the world turning into.. Teens are confused with their sexual identities, vulgarities are becoming common daily language, loving lie-telling.. All the more these people need Jesus!!

Caught a movie 'It's a BoyGirl Thing' with Sab! It's hilariously dirty - full of butt-revealing, vulgarities, 90%naked black man.. I don't know if it's a high rated NC16 movie, but it's quite refreshing to me at least. Sabrina is mad, bimbotic, full of nonsense. She wants to star in her own nonsense show that's called Pilipaleipululushu.. actually I made that up. HAHA!

quick recovery

2008-07-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

The past two days were crappy! First it was Carrie, and then Jelynn, next is my Dad, Mom and Paulynn, followed by Jeslin and finally, I caught the fever. I should have seen it coming, but it all happened too fast. I was fine on Saturday morning when I woke up and made my way to choir practice, all the way till Dennis's meeting with the Pioneering leaders. I guess I caught this contagious disease from Jeslin, but it's weird how I can get it from her when my only contact point with her was less than 5 minutes that whole day. Well, maybe it wasn't her. Anyway, no wonder I had a loss of appetite for food. This is so rare! I just felt abit queasy and couldn't finish up some expensive food that I ordered from some HongKongRestaurant in VivoCity.

Okay, sidetrack abit. I went to Vivo to have a secondary school gathering with my girl clique. I really do miss them alot! Everytime we meet up, our plan never seemed to move away from having dinner and enjoying a long deep chats with each other. Hm, I complained about this, suggested if we could do something else next time, but thinking back, it's not such a bad thing afterall! I guess it's not very common to be able to talk with such ease and openness to each other despite the lack of communication for such a long time. So sad, Jewel wasn't able to make it :( Hm, never mind. Oh! The car ride to Bedok interchange was hilarious! We proved women just couldn't keep our mouths shut... somehow. Anyway, do hope to meet them out very soon :) Cheryl, you're next to plan our outing! Do a good job yo!

Okay, back to being-ill-story. On saturday night, Meng asked me if she could come over to my house so that I could teach her some work. I agreed, and Yingjie tagged along. At that point of time I didn't know I was sick, till I got home. Wa, I tell you, I feel terrible. After bathing, I tried to stay up later to help Meng with her stuff, but I just couldn't! She's so nice she asked me to go to bed. I vividly remembered it was around 3plus in the morning then. I felt so bad, yet can't-help-it feeling. I guess both Meng and Yingjie made a wasted trip. Next thing I know was my mum opened the door and said," oi. quickly go out and help one of your friends to cover up with her blanket. she's sleeping in a very unglam manner. i don't want pa to see it." Gosh! I quickly stood up and went out. It was 7plus in the morning. Guess who's the unglam woman? Meng? Or Yingjie? HAHA! It's Yingjie! Not only did she sleep with her mouth wide open, her hands... are placed... weirdly. Won't describe any further. Haha! And Meng, quite freaky. I stood beside her for less than 5 seconds and she opened her eyes suddenly and gave herself a shock. You should have seen her facial expression man! haha! I went back to sleep there and then, and woke up at 9plus finding both of them missing already.. oops.

up next in the schedule was going to WingTai's Nike Factory Outlet Sale with Jeslin and my eldest sister, Paulynn. Thank God! Just before we wanted to leave the house, my mum called to want to pass us the car for our use. How cool? God knew Jeslin and I wouldn't have the strength to travel to and forth by bus. Didn't get anything for ourselves, but sure am motivated to exercise! I need to keep fit! Singers are going to run every Friday know, whoa. Guess what? I went running with my eldest sister Paulynn today! I feel so good man. Besides knowing that i'm alittle healthier than before, besides knowing i can lose weight in the long run, i really want to take this opportunity to spend more time with my sister. she's always busy at work and in front of her laptop. HAHA! and i'm also busy with my own stuff. so it's quite rare that we're able to do things together, just the two of us. looking forward to our next run paulynn! (w/o jelynn this time! this is what happened.. jelynn tagged along at first. she was bubbly and all, till halfway nearing sirui's hse, she complained she got stomach ache and couldn't carry on. i knew that jeslin was at sirui's hse, so we wanted to look for jeslin to pass jelynn to her. wow.. just at tt point of time, we saw an 'angel', jeslin was walking towards our direction! such great timing! thank God! cos actually, i can't remember which floor sirui lives on. so we passed the cutie pie over to jeslin :))

I've got adorable sheep :) One got me a bottle of cooling water, a card, an apple, a packet of vitamin C sweets and a hotdog bun. One was the first to show concern and gave me instructions of my water intake. One ganged up with BALL and successfully gave me a mild heart attack. If I were 60 years old, i would have died there and then. HAHA! k not so bad la. One gave me a bottle of pomengranate juice drink, 1 box of cassis lakerol and 1 box of strawberry ricola :) Thanks to all those who showed love and concern as well - My dearest pretty shepherd Cheng, Jeslin Chen XiaoEn, EA1, BALL and Denise Leong :)

Monday - Youth day! It's so unfair, that poly students cannot participate in 'youth day'. I still had to go to school know. I could have taken MC but didn't cos of the nice disciplined pretty me! HAHA! just talking crap la. It was just 2 hrs of school, and i think taking MC would take up more than 2 hrs. such a waste of time. after school, i zoomed off to Downtown East E-hub's Superdog (Melissa termed it as SuperTalk, Gosh!) to find the rest. Next, we headed to Escape Themepark. The truth is, I never reall liked Escape because as compared to overseas themeparks, it's not really good I suppose. Right? Okay in any case, we didn't get to play many many rides due to bad weather conditions/ under irritating maintenance/ feeling nauseatic. Despite all these unforeseen negative circumstances, I still enjoyed the fellowship alot! See, it's never about the activities, but it's really about the people! With fun, lame, cute, gorgeous people from EA1, who can resist?! no one. HAHAHAHAHA. You should have seen all the funny faces like Melissa's lah.. or those who ran out from the haunted house..

K, that's a whole load of stuff up there.

lastly,

"To Springmans:
You girls ROCK to the CORE! i see that you girls really want to win these 2 schools! God will bless us lots! Remember: HOPE, FAITH, PATIENCE! Jiayouyououyou.. Let's see converts and break our goals!

Isaiah 60:22 - The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the LORD; in its time I will do this swiftly.

Lots of love,
Florence :D"

OASIS!

2008-06-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

HAHA! OASIS is one life tranforming camp! I remember the previous camps weren't exactly you know.. experience God as much kinda thing. But OASIS is different! I guess it's because this time most of us went to camp with a ready heart to receive God's word for us! Woah. God is indeeeeeeed faithful! He assured, re-assured, encouraged, corrected my way of doing things etc etc. Not only did He touch my life, He did so too in my people's lives! it's just so cool to be able to see your own and your people's lives tranformed! That joy, is irreplaceable!

Just before the camp my mind was clouded with the 'mime' or should I call it the 'silent drama', like what I'm supposed to do, how will I look on that day and so on. For your info, I HATE mimes. I can't stand the white paint and all, it reminds me of horrifying clowns. I never understand why such a thing exists! But anyways, I'll still have to do it. HHAHA! Besides the paint, finding of clothes, I really enjoyed the presence with the other camp opening drama people. They are friendly, supportive and everything nice! These awesome people are Xanthe, Meng Hong, Yi Ning, Grace, Timothy, Quan Sheng and Jian Hao! A round of appluase for all of you! Great job!

Okay, God already spoke on the first day of camp! I was reminded to do things in His strength, not on my own, otherwise I may fall anytime.. Responded :) Thank you God!

Second night was mind blowing. Other than God speaking to me through Cheng's interceding prayer, God spoke to one of my sheep (Sabrina) BIG BIG TIME. Through just one Word, her life is totally changed. Seriously, one Word from God can change your life! Will take this chance to encourage you Sab, remember the song, "Unafraid unashamed Lord we know who we are, we are your people and we won't be silent!" Other than sharing the gospel, share your life testimonies! I'm very sure people will be so encouraged by it know. You got to grow grow grow! Don't let your fire for God die down, keep it strong! Continue to overcome areas in your life! Have breakthroughs! I'm sure God can use you so much more!

I was abit groggy on the third day of camp. Super tired! Until Pastor Shirley mentioned about the end times.. Foo! My eyes suddenly lit up and I became super attentive. The end times are here! It is here! In our lifetime! This generation! Man, with all the disasters coming, prophecies upon prophecies.. There is no time to lose! Disciple! Outreach! Disciple! Outreach!

OH! A SHOUT TO SIRUI, MINYI, STEPHANIE AND WAIMAN! FELLOW SPRINGMANS! BY FAITH, WE WILL COMPLETE DUNMAN SEC AND EASTSPRING! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :)

And then, the camp.. is... OVER. After Yanyu's meeting right, the caregroup went mad! If I'm not wrong DTE was only left with 2 caregroups and a few brothers :) EA1 and EA2. The following will be some random shots that we took during the camp and AFTER! :

Yi Ning, Grace and Me!

That's Sabrina! =D

'Pretty Shepherd' That's what she calls herself :)

My lovely twin, Jeslin.

Spot Adrelia!

We're EAST! AHAHAHA! We're EAST! AHAHAHAH! We're E..A..Er.. We're EAST! AHAHAHAH! :)

EastA: Rooted to the Word yeah?

FLY EA1 FLY! P.S: Look at the front 2 people.. Don't you wanna laugh?!

I see a few bird-wannabes.. Do you?

Ah, that's better!

The Most Disgusting Award TP Student goes to... (?) Your vote! Haha!

EA1 COOLNESS! Let's dance Yo!

LOOK! I'm surrounded by spastic people!

Even Elmo wants to be part of us, no one can resist being with hotties!

Oops! Fail to capture our jump movement! Anyway, Shih Ching's landing butt-down! So funny! Look at Sabrina's face. Hop Hop Hop!

CG08 Here we come!! :) Look at every single individual! Don't you think some look really amusing!? HAHA!

smelly man!

2008-06-07T08:24:00.000-07:00

HAHAHA! Just want to share about a man I met on the bus. I'll name him "smelly man"!

Jeslin and I decided to drop off at Kovan and catch bus 81 to get home because it would take us home 15 minutes earlier! I guess... Anyway, yeah, the bus came just as we reached the bus stop. WHOA! Cool right. Hahah, but the sad thing is, it was a single deckered bus, with over 25people rushing in. I was telling Cheng Lee on the phone that "there is a stampede going on here, confirm no seats"... and it's true!

Not being racist or what, but I calculated that the bus consisted of about 60% Indians, 30% Chinese and the rest either Malays or something.. just mentioning some statistics. And then, I smelt that horrible stench from the guy beside me. You must be thinking "smelly man" is an Indian, HAHA! He is actually a Chinese man! He is tall, not bad looking and decently dressed, but his smell... Oh my goodness! I thought it smelt like shit, was wondering if he didn't clean his butt after pooing because unfortunately there wasn't tissue paper for him! HAHA! Maybe I'm thinking too much, but seriously.. FPHEWW..

Today we celebrated our lion's birthday! Cheng, you are so cute! It went like this:

Cheng is to find 6 people with 6 clues to finish her 'game'.(Jing, Ying, Jasmin, Waiman, Ida, Susan) They are all hidden in various shops in Centrepoint and she has to search for these clue-givers. We THOUGHT she was smart enough, but she proved herself otherwise. We gave her a sufficent time of 30 minutes to complete it, because the clues are seriously easy peasy! Why don't you try them?

1. Climb two yellow hills and you’ll get there!
2. Find God’s Anointed Prophet
3. Zap zap zap! Go green!
4. Don’t store any hot food in the freezer.
5. Spill those brown beans
6. Shiny metals always shine into women’s hearts

Answers:

1. Macdonalds
2. GAP
3. Evergreen Stationary
4. Cold Storage
5. Coffeebean/ Starbucks
6. Goldheart

HAHA! Aren't they quite simple? Just for your information, Cheng obviously overshot! She took 40 minutes to figure out the FIRST question. So, in the end, we had to cut down to Question 4, and asked clueman 5 and 6 (ida and susan - so poor thing) to come back to Asia Room! HAHA!

Next, we punked Cheng by having a fake worship.. Once again, she's not very smart.. She was so very engrossed in praying and fell for it. HEHE. EA is full of acting talents!

After popping party poppers and laughing our heads off at our adorable leader, Jeslin and Melody affirmed her. Melody is funny! She made up a song that goes like this:

P is for Poh,
CL is Cheng Lee,
J is for Jas-mine.
P.CL.J,
Poh Cheng Lee Jasmine,
Cheng Lee is so pretty,
PRETTY! (thumbs up!)

Let's give a thunderous clap to Melody's wonderful last minute creation! Hurray!
Lastly, we had our beloved YUYU to pray for PRETTY.

Also, want to thank God for Jade! Denise only informed her the previous night that she had to do a birthday card for Cheng, and she did it in 30 minutes! Amazing right?! It's pretty as well.. Fwah! Jade also took the trouble to bring the guitar for prayer meet... wow. It's so inconvenient to drag/carry/lug a guitar bag as big as herself from home to service to le meridien and back home again. Thank God for you Jade!

Hm, i want to talk alittle bit more about my sheep Melissa. Haha.. Don't be afraid melissa! It's not something bad, but it's an affirmation! Like I mentioned in the earlier posts about her being pastorial, she sure lived it out! While moving from place to place, I had to climb some higher platforms and jump off them again. Okay.. honestly it's because I was lazy, and that was shortcut.. HAHA! And through that, I somewhat injured my knee, not an external bruise, but internal. I guess I pulled a vein or something, and it feels like having a blue-black kinda thing. Not easy to walk I tell you! Haha.. Melissa got to know it when we were stoning in the hot and stuffy Asia Room while WAITING FOR LION to complete her quest. In the later part of the day, Melissa smsed me:

"hey is ur leg feeling better? haha promise me when u reach home, use ice 2 'fu' on ur leg k? :) wanted 2 buy 4 u ice pack but cant pass 2 u. So rmbr 2 do it k? :)"

Awww... so sweet right? =)

Wa. So soon OASIS CAMP IS HERE! Got your hearts readied yet? hheehehe.. better start lorh if you haven't :) Don't miss out what God has in store for you!

Random: I just got bitten by a mosquito. I killed it! And my stomach hurts, OUCH! Flying off to the toilet... wheeee! Oh! It's Cheng's birthday today! Remember to sms/call/email/pinch/poke her! =)

throwin' all sorts of things into this post

2008-06-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

A MUST for all who is reading this post: Try Cheng's cooking! Her culinary skills are amazing! If there is a spiritual gift of cooking/ experimenting with various ingredients, she definitely got it! For the previous shepherding, she whipped up two cool dishes - lady's finger with sambal chilli (i love 99% of existing known vegetables), and curry fish head. For those who knows me alittle better, you will know I am not too good with spicy food (it can give me the runs). I guess that didn't cross her mind, since Meng and her loves spicy food so much.. BUT! Being the loving shepherd, seeing my tongue turning red to redder, she secretly prepared another special dish to suit my tastebuds - egg omelette topped with a thick layer of cheese! I tell you, it's awesome!

K, moving on.

Last Friday: After hours of grueling the night before, I managed to complete my individual Basic Media Research literature review. I wouldn't be able to complete it within just 1 to 2 days, so really need to thank God for this! This assignment has to be handed up in the later part of the day. Thinking that the earlier part of the day would be a relaxing one since I've completed the terrorizing assignment? No no no.. I had a Audio Production Assignment to be done in class within 1hour20minutes. Just 30-45 minutes before, I realised that I didn't buy the CD-Rom and A4-sized envelope needed to be handed in together as a package. I was still on the bus on my way to school. How smart right? Without these things, I can forget passing this assignment, because in the first place, I wouldn't have any medium to store my stuff! BUT! God blessed me with two great friends, Christabelle and Jovita, who offered to buy them for me even when I didn't ask them to. God-sent angels.. *beam of light*

That's not all! Accomplishing Audio Production Assignment is no easy task. I had tons of problems just starting it up, for instance, wasting my time waiting for the untimely lag to unlag when in the end I was forced to restart the whole computer. My hands started to shiver alittle as time was running out. In my heart, I was actually literally screaming out loud for help! Then, God, once again made a way for me. Jovita came into the room, sat down beside me, and directed me of what to do, just like a professional! She gave me all the help I needed at that point of time. Amazed? Hear out another cool testimony. Okay, this Audio Assignment thing had to be in a time frame of maximum 3 minutes, no longer than that. After doing the whole packaging, it dawned upon me that I didn't check my time frame. Even if it exceeds, I'll no longer have the time to have any drastic changes to it! Guess what? After a tiny edit here and there, the time frame ended at a miraculous 2:59! WHOA!

Heaving a sigh of relief, I had my first and last Sociology/Psychology mid-term test today! Okay, maybe it's not too early to relax, because there are many more projects that I need to do during the 'holidays'. Note: 'holidays'. However, looking forward to OASIS camp! I believe it will be a life changing camp for me, my group and my people! Just the right time for physical and spiritual rejuvenation! Besides this, also can't wait to meet up with my secondary school and ex-class's girl clique mates! Maybe these positive look-aheads are enough to overpower those negative 'holiday' experiences :)

Oh yes, went Kbox with all my sheep this afternoon! It's so amusing to hear them (plus myself) go off tune! I wonder if that was on purpose, or the real singing voice.. HMMM, HAHA! Anyway, it actually seems like there were only 3 people making full use of the microphones. Melissa didn't sing! Alamak, I feel the pain of paying $11.50 for the aircon, physical space and semi-comfortable sofa! She says she's tired.. hehe. In any case, I'm happy to be with these 3 dumb bells. :)

Random: I cannot stand crowded places. I like peace and serenity. Maybe that is why I'm not exactly into shopping, because the women in Singapore can be somewhat aggressive in their shopping, especially during the sales period! Haha!

God's good!

2008-05-23T07:37:00.000-07:00

Today, my eldest sister was and had a blessing.

It is such a rare opportunity that my eldest sister, 10 years older, and I were able to leave to school/work together. She was late, missed her usual Bus 53, so she had to take Bus 359 together to catch the train. We waited for around 10 minutes, and finally the bus arrived. Suddenly, I felt something's amiss. I reached out into my pocket, no, it is not there. I searched frantically into my HUGE black bag, nope, it is not there either. You could have guessed what was it I'm looking for... I shrieked,"Oh shucks, I forgot to bring my EZ-link card!" Momentarily, I thought that she would probably scream at me, show me a face blacker than black, or what else. BUT! To my delightful surprise, she did none of the mentioned, instead, she took out a dollar and said, "Use this first." I kept saying 'but's, but she just persuaded me to board the bus. Okay, fine... That's not it.

I am quite a calculative person, for those who knows me will agree to it. As I sat there counting the amount of money (coins) I needed, thinking how dumb to forget such a thing, my eldest sister passed me HER EZ-link card. Aww.. so sweet right. She herself didn't have an extra card, and had to pay with coins for the first time in decades! So self-sacrificial! She loves me! And I love her!

Moments after we parted, both of us started sms-ing each other. She was 'laughing' at me because of the super-duper long Bus 15 queue that I was lined in, and I was 'fighting' back by saying it's healthy and all that crap. HAHA! How childish right, especially at HER age. hahahaha. o yes, this is when her blessings came. She sms-ed me saying, "While buyin the card i found a dollar haha :)", followed by, "I found another ten cents when i redeem my card haha today's trip only forty cents"!! If only she knew, these are not called coincidences, but are truly God's blessings in anonimity. How great would that be?

Not long ago, my elder sister (6 years older) called to ask if i wanted to watch 'indianna jones' with a friend/sister for free because she and her boyfriend weren't able to make it last minute. I guess it is because I got back to her alittle too late, so Xiaoen and Joey got the tickets to the movie. Seriously, I am not sad/angry/frustrated++, I didn't mind because it could be quite troublesome and tiring! however, my elder sister didn't get how i felt and thoughts. she felt really bad and all.. and she and her boyfriend says they owe me one - probably taking me for another movie/ eat ice cream... wow. how cool is cool! i mean, i do not even see a need for her to feel bad, because it weren't my tickets in the first place! The point is, I really really love this family alot. Thank God for placing me here! I do feel VERY blessed to have such wonderful caring loving sisters!

Treasure your family, honor your parents, that's what pleases God :)

jeslin

2008-05-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

JESLIN CHEN XIAO'EN GRACE. The one who sleeps beside me almost every night, the one who gave me a cut on the eye once (your bad), the one whom i slapped so hard when we were in primary school (my bad), the one who sometimes bathes with me, the one who always wakes me up in the middle of the night to go toilet, the one who bought me Frey's white chocolate, the one who makes me pat her to sleep, the one whom i grew up with ever since we were formulated in mummy's womb.

My ever first friend. Yes, she is my darling twin sister.
Similarities: good-looks (HAHA!!), intelligence in EQ and IQ, crazy!
Differences: one is better than the other. (HAHAHA!) okay, and our thinking.

Sometimes she get really annoying and a pain in the neck, especially when she wakes me up in the middle of the 'night', when i'm sound asleep. Can be stubborn and strongheaded also, always wanting to have the final say in arguments. Tsk tsk. Very dumb and retarded, it's obvious just by the name of her blog right. haha. there is one part of her body which i really can't stand, but i'm not gonna say it out. hehe. can be quite laidback/lazy/slow poke. okay this part of the post is not to make her sound real bad, cos the good stuff are next!

Despite her highly irritant level, i do admire her alot as well. she is a very wise person in terms of dealing with people. no wonder all her sheep love her so much! haha. also, she has fairly good relational/communication skills! not only loving her sisters in Christ, she also loves her family, though she don't really express it out. haha. she will sometimes buy me gifts, want to spend time talking to me, doing small things such as making milo for me. aww. en en is also a lovable/cheerful/outgoing person whom i believe most people enjoy hanging out with. she can be both sensitive and insensitive to people's feelings, but i know deep in her heart she will always want the best for others. i don't have to elaborate on her qualities of being a strong coreteam right? very supportive of her leaders, initiative, courageous, spiritual.

En En! I do treasure you alot as a twin. Thank God He placed you in my life! it's such a rare and unusual experience for someone to have an adorable and gorgeous twin to share their life stories, feelings and thoughts with, especially when serving in the same ministry together! you hve always been an encouraging sister and close friend whom i trust and go mad with! thanks for building me up with your kind words whenever i needed them. thanks for watching over my life. thanks for you!

You rock! :)

dedicated to my dearest sheep

2008-05-20T09:10:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't be blogging right now, have Basic Media Research stuff I gotta rush! Ah.. never mind. anyway, this post is specially/uniquely/solely dedicated to my 3 dearest sheep! :) All 3 of you are truely precious and mean alot to me..

1) Melissa Tan:

Haha! Still remember the past?? Gosh, your thinking is so childish right. So reluctant, so stubborn, so.. i don't know! But you know what, you are now someone whom i can confidently say become a super-duper supportive and encouraging sheep that any shepherd would be blessed with! Seriously. Thanks for always keeping a look out to meet my needs. Some incidents which i will never forget: carry heavy things for me, such as the amplifier/ buy water for me when i said i'm thirsty/ the list goes on.. i believe that everyone will agree that you are a very pastorial sister! though sometimes abit timid/shy, but because of your obedience, you will still do it. obedience brings blessings! i'm sure you will continue to grow in quality and quantity! also, you're very faithful in confirming attendance. wow! a willing and submissive sheep/friend. also, keep up your spirit of never giving up! continue to spur one another in this race. those who bless will themselves be blessed! thank you for making that bunch of roses for me till your finger got pricked! ouch! these acts of love touches me alot. love you mel :)

2) Teo YingYing:

KEKEKEKE! The famous evil twin laughter. Nah, actually no, you and JingJing are somewhat different. You are less vain, look more mature, have browner hair, mole different position, do not walk as chor-lor(rough), gentler, the rest is for the rest to find out the rest. OKAY stop the crap! YY, you know what, i agree with jeslin that you are sexy! HAHA! but maybe it would be better if you grew taller :P just kidding, i love you the way you are. anyway, you too, you have grown and changed alot as well! throughout our shepherd-n-sheep/friendship journey, i have always thought that it was really easy to connect with you. always so comfortable to be with, though you talk abit soft. but your gentle and humble spirit always inspires me! you too harbour a heart that desires to grow and learn many many more things about the WOG! not only this, you have become more initiative and courageous. a faithful sister who does things to her best as well. remember the time when i went to genting with cheng/meng/pq. i made you do some statistic work right? it was very well done! thanks for never failing to cheer me up! :) oh yes yes! thanks for singing that cute lovey-dovey song even though mel backed out! HAHA!

3) Sabrina Cheng:

LOL. you're the most talkative sheep i ever had. if i ever have a recorder that can record you and i together right, its quite confirmed that 90% of the time you'll be the one talking! also, the crappiest one too! inside jokes: tart-too/ 98FM.7/ hor hor huh huh ah ah/ i want it on my BODY la - like duh.. AHA! okay. seriously, you give me the most headache, but every single time you change/grow, it makes me go on high, like taking drugs. hahah! being the sheep which i had the longest, you also attended the most camps with me. do u remember? every single camp, whenever there is a shepherd appreciation/talk, it will always be a teary one. gosh. anyway, you r also a very sweet sheep, making that multiple-paged scrapbook thingie for me. i'm not really surprised by the LENGTH of the words you wrote (cos its as much as you can talk) but i really appreciate your time and effort placed into this. It's beautiful! just like me. sab, you must quickly get a sheep! no time already.. c'mon! also, thanks for the many times you opened up your life to me, such as your family/school/friendship matters. continue to keep your life accountable! :) in any case, i know that if i really needed help, you will be there for me. thank you sheep!

Awww.. love you girls :)

thanking God

2008-05-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

There are so many impolite people out there who takes people for granted. I do not deny that I myself am not one of them sometimes, but these incidents really make me reflect upon our gratefulness on God's grace to us. By the way, the following incidents are just examples, it doesn't generalize Singaporean behaviour:

1) I've seen old folks not thanking those who offer their bus/train seats to them - I see a need to respect people of all ages.
2) Out of 5, probably only 1 will thank the person who press the 'Door open' lift button so that they won't get stuck - saving them from embarassment.
3) What about those nice peers who help to open the door for others? That's worse, out of 15, maybe only 2 will thank him/her. If this is not taking others for granted, or simply being impolite, what is it?

I predict some of you reading this post could identify with 1 or 2 of the above.

Well, take time to think. Do you think this is how we treat God sometimes? All the time, he is there, opening new doors for our lives, offering a seat of comfort when we are down and protecting us always. He did His part. Not only do we not remember to thank God for the wonderful things He has done in our lives, we ignore His presence..

I want to grow more in my thanksgiving and sensitivity towards God, what about you? :)

hunger pangs

2008-04-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

"The African children are starving.." The favourite phrase Garene would say whenever Felicia wastes more than half the amount of her food.

Alittle background about these 2 adorable TP friends:
1) Garene Tay - An independent woman. She works exceptionally alot, but claims to be broke because she spends most of them on good food. She is also a very straight forward person, who speaks her mind like nobody's business - but that's something which I admire, because not many would dare to do so. Our timekeeper, the choleric one among us.

2) Felicia Low - A crazy, fun-loving, enthusiastic and crazy vice-captain of TP Blazers (cheerleaders). Extremely rich, which allows her to 'throw' money away. Excuse to not finish her food: Lose weight to be a cheerleader. However, she is always the one who will organise 'outings', like dinners and stuff. She is noisy and dramatic most of the times, but it's good company!

Till now, you should be able to understand Garene's reaction to Felicia's food wastage? Whose side would you be on? I would definitely be on Garene's side.

Choir rehearsals ended 10pluspm today, got a call from Jeslin saying that there is dinner, so dragged my hungry tummy all the way from Somerset to Pasir Ris. The journey seemed extraordinarily long after Joyce and the rest left me all alone on the train towards Pasir Ris. The Forest Berries Lakerol sweets just wasn't able to satisfy the terrible hunger pangs. At that point of time, all I thought of were the African children, who didn't have enough money or food to fill their stomachs. I was also reminded of this picture shown in Media and Society lecture, presenting a vulture waiting by the side of a near-to-skeleton little boy who was finding food in the desert. How sad is that? I was just hungry for that short period of time, but those poor kids had to starve for days! Some to the extent of death.. man, yet we're wasting food which could be their one day's meal!

I understand that sometimes we just cannot finish the entire bowl of noodles or something, because I don't always finish all my food, but I do make effort to try gobbling them all up. Next time when you know you can't finish your food, ask for less rice/noodles, or share the food with someone else.

Once again, don't waste food, because "The African children are starving.."

SP3_01

2008-04-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

In case you're wondering what is SP3_01, let me tell you. It is one of the many Internet-accessed computers in TP library.

Well, I guess I will be blogging more often here, especially on a Thursday afternoon. I have 3 hours of break before another long slot of psychology lessons. So PLEASE! If you are doing nothing within these 3 dreadful hours, do book me for lunch or something :)

It's the fourth day of school. Slack, yet the horror awaits me.. survey for a whole load of 300plus/minus people, handful of individual projects.. I feel intimidated by the 'smarties' in my class, achieving GPAs of above 3.8! Thought it was kind of freaky to be able to get that seem-impossible-yet-achievable kind of results, but it's actually happening to a few of my current classmates. Okayu never mind, it can add on to my motivation to study even harder, if not, I can say bye-bye to my university admission. Oh by the way, I want to go to SMU.. anyone else interested? Hehe.

Hey! Guess the number of notebooks I have in my bag!
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..???

Answer is: FIVE!

No, I am not crazy, neither do I loveee notebooks that much. It just makes life more organised, doesn't it? Handy tool that everyone else should own. Let's see how I make use of each of them..

1) Tiny yellow notebook - For jotting down any blessings that comes my way.. Thank you God!
2) Red palm-sized notebook - Just started using it not long ago, it's purpose is for any learnings/ insights/ whatever that I get from reading the Bible :) It's still quite empty though!
3) Blue A5 notebook - Sermons, shepherdings, teachings?
4) Artbox planner notebook - planner?
5) 30cents Orange notebook - random stuff, if I couldn't find any other blank paper to scribble stuff down.

You know what! It's time for you to get more notebooks as well.. hehehe. K, maybe thats alittle too many notebooks in 1 bag. (No wonder my bag seems heavier now..)

Hm, time passes so quickly, that I still feel like a freshman, rather than a junior. Or am I just maturing at a slower speed than others? Seriously, it's like a mind block or something. As I look at my secondary school friends, and compare them to what they are now, it seemed as if there was a leap of growth to their maturity (which shows in their dressing, mindset, the way they relate to people and so on), but i'm like the one stuck back in time. hahahaha.. yet again, maybe they are just trying to 'fit' into the crowd, being succumbed to the ways of this materialistic world..

From where I'm sitting, on my left, there is a guy who is so engrossed in playing his black PSP as if he's in the real-life version of the 'war' game. Is PSP that great? Hm, probably the functions.. like can listen to music, storing pictures and all. But till now, I've not really seen anyone using it for other purposes other than gaming. I agree that it is a perfect way of spending spare time, but is that the most fruitful/ productive way? I think it's a waste of money, waste of resources, waste of braincells.. Hm, probably I'm saying all these because I don't have the cash to get it. HAHA! Well, it has always given me the impression that usually only rich people owns one.. Hehe, but on my part, really, I wouldn't spend that lump sum of cash on a PSP. Either I save it up in my nearly-broke bank account, or stuff myself to good food. I'm gonna learn more in my elective - SocioPsych.

Do you know that the short form of Psychology is just Psych? I've always taught it was Psycho..

Alright, think I've posted quite a LOT. 13 minutes left before I gotta log out and drag myself to psych tutorial and lecture. I'm tired! But it's okay, cos I can do everything through Him who gives me strength!

Florence :)

schooling..

2008-04-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

The start of Term 1 Year 2 is just a few hours away, how am I feeling now?

A mix of grouchiness yet excited for what God has in store for me. I know it is going to be tough, due to the semi-horrendous timetable, juggling of ministry and school work, family time, and the upcoming piles of projects and assignments for various well-known killer subjects. However, I want to grow in God even more, being extra reliant on His strength, and keeping the focus right.

Also, I want to manage my time even better now. Want to make sure that I will set aside time to study, get proper rest and not be stuck to the computer doing meaningless rubbish, and most importantly, having a closer relationship with God. I need to grow so so so so much more!!!

So, for whoever is reading this, please keep watch over my life. yay! thank God for you!

In response to her poem..

2008-04-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

PeiQing's poem to me (quoted from her blog post on 15 March 2008):

Once again I thank the Lord for a bimbo like you,
knowing deep within my heart you'll be a bimbo so true.
i never have to wonder if you'll be there when i need you,
cos i know all i have to ask and you're here.
it may not be in person that you share my burden,
for i know in spirit, you share m burden too.
a bimbo i can rely on,
a bimbo who will not quit,
a bimbo who's ever faithful.
so i take this time to thank you,
from the bottom of my heart,
for this friendship that's faithful,
from it's very start.
i know this is a friendship,
that truly will never end,
because it's meant to be,
before it even began!

Aww.. how sweet is sweet.. So in response, I'm gona write you a poem to you as well.

So, this is for you, PeiQing:

As I look back,
I can't even remember when did THIS even start.
All I knew, was that you were just a phone call away,
you were the one who didn't mind my fart.
Okay, maybe not.
THIS is rare, God blessed.
You were patient enough to hear my rantings,
Your words never fail to make my day.
Though we go our separate paths, for now,
I know THIS will not end this way.
Though we aren't talking as much,
I know THIS will still carry on.
A big big thank you to you,
for your simple yet precious touch in my life.
THIS is - our friendship.

Quoted from "My God Why" by Rev.Leo Douma

2008-04-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

This post is for those who are feeling 'abandoned', 'lost' and 'lonely'...

Here goes..

One of the biggest fears of any human being is being abandoned by those we love, being left alone. In our crowded cities of millions, loneliness is what many struggle with. Many look so successful but feel lost inside.

An English doctor once conducted an experiment to study the effects of isolation on people. He built a sound proof room 3x3 meters and suspended it by nylon ropes. Each participant wore padded fur gloves and heavy woollen socks to eliminate the sensations of touch. Special translucent glasses limited their vision. After just 1 hour of isolation, some people found it impossible to concentrate. This was followed by feelings of anxiety and panic. Many just could not stay in that room for more that five hours.

We human beings are social creatures, just like God who is a social being, three in one. We were never meant to be alone. We do not cope with being abandoned, being isolated. That’s why solitary confinement is so tough for prisoners. It’s why children are petrified if they feel lost or abandoned by their parents. It’s why we find divorce, death, migration, all forms of separation, so tough. We need people to share our stuff with. But however we feel about being left alone, no one, but no one has felt the loneliness that Jesus did on the cross, especially when he cried out “My God, my God why have you forsaken me.”

This is the language of complaint, desperate grievance, protest; objection. This is not like the previous words of Jesus on the cross. This time it’s not a prayer of forgiveness or kind words to a thief or his mother.

This time it’s a scream. It is a cry of anguish. It is a complaint, a demand directed at God. This complaint came at the end of a long dark silence. We might think that the crucifixion lasted about an hour- but it took a large part of the day. Jesus’ hands and feet were nailed and tied to the cross at about 9am. At midday everything went black. It was completely dark and silent for three hours. All those hurling abuse were scared into silence. You couldn’t see anything and no one said anything. In the utter silence all you could hear was the struggled breathing of the three crucified men as they slowly suffocated to death. And then at the ninth hour, at 3pm, the silence is broken by a horrible sound as Jesus screams out, almost
roars! It is a deep cry of anguish. It’s a bitter complaint directed at God. There was violence in Jesus’ voice. He exerted himself to raise his voice.

We may have had those very difficult times when we felt forsaken by God, abandoned by God and left in the lurch. There have been times when some of us may have raised
the fist in the air and yelled “God, why”. But we cannot compare those experiences with that of Jesus. Although we may have appeared to have been forsaken by God, in reality he never let go.

“Footprints in the sand”
We look back and see two sets of prints in the sand. But during our most difficult time we see one pair of foot prints instead of two and assume God left us for a while, that he abandoned us when we needed him most. And we ask ‘why God, why leave us when it was tough?’ But in fact during the hard time God was carrying us. God in
his love may put us through hard times for our good, for our spiritual growth, to bring us closer to him. It may not feel that way in the middle of our suffering- but later we see and feel God’s grace as we cling to him. God needs to do this to us from time to time. For the reality is that often we forsake him!

Far too often we abandon God and forget him. Sometimes in our actions and thoughts we outright deny him! And God says ‘My child, why have you forsaken me? Why have you left me out of your life? Why do you forget me so often or push me out?’ Then God has used that harsh experience to bring us back to his loving arms.

But this was not the case with Jesus. Christ did not just feel rejected. He was rejected. Jesus was not going through a psychological experience; he was utterly abandoned. Let’s get it clear. Jesus was completely and totally rejected by God. God had turned his back on his son and abandoned him. God was not just teaching Jesus a lesson; ‘this is for your own good’.

Christ was bearing the full brunt, the entire force of God’s anger and justice. There were no loving arms for Jesus to reach out to. Jesus had never known a time, even before the universe was created that as God’s Son he was not his Father’s delight. Their fellowship had never been broken. The unity of the trinity is an
intimacy beyond human understanding. So often in his earthly ministry Jesus would be in prayer, speaking for long times with his father. But now, this is not the act of fatherly love, but of anger and hatred. Yes hatred! For God hates sin and evil. He loathes it. For sin opposes and rebels against everything God stands for. And Jesus
had become that sin. He had identified himself with the human race, its sin and its evil. He stood in our place.

All the sin of humanity was gathered in a pile, so to speak, and heaped on Jesus. Jesus had never forsaken God as we do. He had never sinned as we always do. He had always been completely obedient and loving to his father. Yet Christ is regarded
as ‘the sinner’.

We were the cause of his complaint. It was our sin that caused him to scream out those words, ours, and that of the rest of the world. We should have been the ones to suffer, not he.

And yet, yet, at the same time grace! There are in these awful words of Jesus cause for hope and praise. Did you notice them? These words of Jesus do not only make clear the extent of our sin and the punishment we deserve. The words also show us God’s answer for our salvation. Listen to them again, carefully: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Christ was completely forsaken by God his father. But Jesus never forsook his God and Father- not even in hell itself. Even from the pit, in the midst of total evil, rejected by God, Jesus still reached up and called for God! My God! The suffering his father caused him is almost beyond him. But Jesus does not rebel or curse or turn against God. He still calls out “My God, my God…” In the midst of complete evil and total rebellion Jesus is still obedient!

Never will he abandon us. Now it will not always feel that way. In fact even in our own congregation there are too many who feel alone, lonely, battling on their own. In faith they know Jesus loves them and will never let go. But we need to know that truth from the body of Christ as well in our daily lives.

Remember, we the church are the voice of Jesus to express his love, we are his hands to provide his care. If we don’t speak and act in Jesus’ name, as substitutes for the substitute, then there will be those who do not hear Jesus.

It is time to go back to God..

How can i keep from singing

2008-04-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

How can i keep from singing

There is an endless song
Echoes in my soul
I hear the music ring

And though the storms may come
I am holding on
To the rock I cling

How can I keep from singing Your praise
How can I ever say enough
How amazing is Your love
How can I keep from shouting Your name
I know I am loved by the King
And it makes my heart want to sing

I will lift my eyes
In the darkest night
For I know my Savior lives

And I will walk with You
Knowing You'll see me through
And sing the songs You give

I can sing in the troubled times
Sing when I win
I can sing when I lose my step
And fall down again
I can sing 'cause You pick me up
Sing 'cause You're there
I can sing 'cause You hear me, Lord
When I call to You in prayer
I can sing with my last breath
Sing for I know
That I'll sing with the angels
And the saints around the throne

Lord, thank you :)

i love this family of god!!

2007-03-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

Oh man, too emotional.

Yeah, everyone will have to go through certain transitions in their lives, no one will ever escape from them, neither do we.
Got to learn to let go of the past!

Learnt alot from Dennis's sharing/teaching today.
More challenges, more growth. New problems, new growth! I'm also getting excited to see how each of the grads are going to grow so much either after moving or staying on!
We got to always get back our focus right and stand firm in His Word.. Ahh, poly.. surely face alot of new temptations and stuff from the Devil, but all the more I'm excited to overcome them! Yeah!

I will miss all you East GRADS! =")

Ah anyway, you guys must go try the 'Fried Mars Bars' at Far East B1, just beside Shihlin that shop! You will never regret, or even crave for moreeeee.. Also, go to level 1, and find a TURKISH RESTAURANT starting with "Ana.....", and try their vanilla, chocolate or pistachio ice cream. FUN and nice! =)

hallelujah!

2007-03-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

Praise God that this post is successfully uploaded! I'm quite tired of re-posting my blog posts.. AHH!!

Last Wednesday..

"What is mass shepherding without a shepherd called?" -- Denise
"Sheepmating." -- Her sheeps
Look at it again. Sheepmating.. sheep-mating.. SHEEP MATING! HAHAHAH.. I'm laughing, are you??! You must!

WARNING WARNING! Never get the 'Pizza' that costs 2 bucks from Q-Bread if you're not hungry. Cos of the seemingly satisfying look of that pizza, Ahbe and I were captivated by it and BOUGHT it. I wasn't that hungry, just greedy.. but I realised it's so huge.. both of us only managed to finish half of it. Being so kind-hearted, we angels decided to give the delicious pizza to Serene. [1/2 + 1/2 = ?? ONE!] So she gets a full sized pizza, how great isn't it? SADLY, she rejected it. How could she?? It costs us 2 bucks!

Next we ended up at Marina Bay MRT Station. Oh my. I pity the people working there,it's just super boring looking at each other for at least 90% of their time! Hardly anyone goes there on a weekday, only people like us and some couples. These couples are sad case, I guess they are there for a stroll or something, but it was raining, those that went up the escalator never fail to come back down. HAHA!
While waiting for Meiyi, we sat at the side of the station, and that's when i forced myself to gulp down that remaining 'pizza'.. ewww. It's so funny when we looked across to the other side of the station to see a cleaner sitting the exact same position as us. It seems like.. hmm, i guess you know what i'm talking about, and it applies only to Denise. HAhaha!
And we moved on to sitting beside the control station, because there was FREE aircon and lightings. I guess everyone was tired, or probably like 'sian' out by the pouring rain, so I did some lame stuff like hosting talent show.. and they bribe me to keep quiet for 5 mins and I'll get a sweet. Eh, cheater bugs, everyone got a sweet when they didnt have to shut their mouths for a period of time.. grrh.

It's been such a long time since I went there.. all looks pretty similar, the grassy field.. old dirty buildings, arcade and many many steamboat restaurants. Oh, there was something I can't stand about the buildings. Ever seen the dead centipede stuck in the glass walls outside Nexus? There is this glass wall just outside the toilet that is stuck with crickets, cockroaches, millipedes, and flies.. one with its head detached and left dangling. It's like super GROSS!

Other than Serene who got the 6 bucks kite, the rest of us got the cheapo 2.50 kite, but it's good enough. Oh yes, thank GOD for stopping the rain and not making the field soggy and wet, it was just fine. However, there wasn't any wind.. which left us drained in our own perspiration. What a funny sight to see everyone running like mad cows on grass, trying to get that red kite fly high in the sky, but no one did it! Denise said perseverance, but I just couldnt take it anymore.. I want my previous stamina BACK! It's good in a way that we can bond and laugh at one another, enjoy each other's presence, but it's bad in a way we only get our wind when we are leaving! I don't think I want to go kite-flying anytime soon.. heh.

Also, I want to comment that, Singapore should have more Clean and Green Weeks. It's very polluted, full of rubbish. Denise even found a Goong poster..

Yeah, we are waiting till 7pm for our steamboat, so we went to search for a pool place. How unlucky. The pool place will charge us too ex, so it's out of the question. PLUS, it totally stinks in there, as claimed by Ahbe. And the 2 pool tables outside the arcade are both out of order.. how can that be?! Forget it. Geckting, Denise and I bowled instead.. woah. A sport I've not touched since don't know when, but it went rather smoothly.. yayyy! Thanks Meiyi and Ahbe, for supporting me! Hahaha.. And to Serene, thanks huh.. for distracting everyone! You watch out.. heh.

Hohohoho. There is still time left before 7pm.. so we went to the arcade. IT WAS SO FUN, yet so embarassing.. haiyo Denise.. hahaha no larh. Denise and I paired up to shoot down monsters in HOUSE OF THE DEAD. Screaming time!! I thought that they looked really freaky larh, plus sound effects. Hey, I spent 3 bucks while Denise spent 2 bucks to get to level 3, but as compared to Geckting and Ahbe, I think we are a better pair.. HAHA! Yea yea, I can laugh at them all I want, but they.. could laugh at us even more, with their secret video shoot of us playing. Nonsense!

I thought it was pretty interesting that they give us live crabs and prawns, for us to chop them up ourselves. A round of applause to Serene, who did all the cruel acts for us! Something funny happened.. The prawns actually look dead, which I believe some of them are.. but how misfortunate for Denise's first prawn-cooking-try-out to turn out this way. She placed her first prawn on the BBQ plate.. waited awhile.. and it JUMPED OUT! Haahaha, can just picture how dumb her reaction could be!! Also, even before we start our real cooking, the aluminium foil is somewhat burnt out, got to change so soon. Heh. There were alot of bald men that night, and there was this group of China bald men just sitting behind us. They had this actress who came to us halfway to ask for scallops, but what is she doing there with 10 bald men and 1 old man? Hmm..

I love this steamboat mass shepherding.. I believe we have grown more connected to one another as we made effort to bond with each other. Come to think of it, being caregroup members, or sheepmates, we seldom spend quality time together. woah. love it!

We made a pact to stay till the restaurant itself is gonna close down, and we did, we left at 11pm. POWER right! Then we went to Tampines Mac's for awhile and again leave for Geckting's house for a stayover. All I knew was I was extremely exhausted and sticky and disgusted, so I was the first to bathe, which was around 3 plus in the morning the next day. BUT, I'm super happy, because I'm allowed to watch Hanakimi's 13 to 14 Episode till around 5 plus 6, then all of us knocked off..
At 11am, we woke up.. and I continued the final episode of Hanakimi, HURRAY! However, I expected a sweeter happier ending.. Geckting's mum is a great cook. Haha, so random.

After walking around TM with Ahbe and Geckting, all of us went our separate ways. First time I wanted to visit the library, in case you don't know, I hate reading. Actually I wanted to look for girlie books, or cookery, or learning better english.. but I stopped by at the Religious Area and that's when I saw books on Christianity.. They are interesting, but too wordy, which I can't take it, so I chose the book "Just like Jesus" by Max Lucado. I hope I'm able to read finish this book, not stopping halfway like the rest. I need to read, learn and to be equipped more! Then I went home. Hahaa.

YHOPE SHEPHERD'S APPRECIATION

2007-03-08T08:43:00.000-08:00

Lets start with a short little story about her....

[Once upon a time, there's a small little 'turkey' who gobbles everyday and got herself into BIG BIG trouble. She needs to handle a 'deformed pigcow', 'spastic blackie', 'violent minnie mouse', 'loud speaker aloe vera' and 'something but dunno-what-thing'.

We found out that this 'turkey' is not like any other turkeys found on christmas(she's more hairy and with countless freckles),because she always put others before self.

When the 'deformed pigcow' and 'violent minnie mouse' feels down and upset, this 'turkey' is willing to spend time with them, shower concern and give encouragements despite of her own problems. How sweet..

There was once when the 'spastic blackie' was injured, this 'turkey' even went to the extent of borrowing money from others to buy plaster and yet,it's the wrong type. But it's okie, it is the heart that matters, right?

As for the 'something that dunno-what-thing', 'turkey' always rain care and concern to her when she needs it as she is quite a sickly 'thing'. She sends messages to her that make her feel loved, which never fail all the time..

Ring ring!! "I'm sick, help me buy medicine ok?", 'loudspeaker Aloe vera called'. Immediately, the 'turkey' with an XXS brain went to the nearest mamashop to get 10 panadol pills at $1.80, when one panadol is sold at 10cents each. Er..

How unfortunate yet fortunate to have this CUTE little turkey in our lives! And they live happily ever after...]

-THE END-

Credits:

'Turkey'----------------------------- Denise, our shepherd =D
'Deformed pigcow'------------------- Ah be, sheep 1 =]
'Spastic blackie'--------------------- Florence, sheep 2 =)
'Violent minnie mouse'--------------- Meiyi, sheep 3 =)
'Loudspeaker aloe vera'-------------- Serene, sheep 4 =P
'Something but dunno what thing'----- Geckting, sheep 5 ;)

Dear dear Denise,
Thanks for all the time you have spent on us, it has really touched our hearts in numerous ways. All your efforts have not been wasted, instead it has engraved a special meaning in us. The time we spent together was truly enjoyable and hilarious. Once again, thanks for loving us so so much! YOUR REWARDS ARE IN HEAVEN!!!

WE LOVE YOU DENISE!!!
PS: Everyone please applaud her! Rabbit & prawn, do not laugh at her. Jealous? Their sheeps, you know what to do. =D

With love, your darling sheeps

where's the old side of you?

2007-03-02T06:26:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling sad for a friend. He seems different, kind of cold, not the same peson I knew last time. Talking much lesser and stuff. I don't know how to tell him, he would probably ignore, give a heck care about it. Somehow it seems like this friendship will end very very soon.

I prefer the old side of him.
Ah, the depressing matter..

Joyce Tan is really very hospitable, taking care of our every need, making sure we feel comfortable in her house. It's funny to see how she can be super super gentle, abit opposite from her appearance.. hahahaha! Still, thankful for her insistent "I'm the HOST!" attitude!
Overnight was really fun! Many of us made stupid blunders in our words.. or some plain retarded actions.. I was forced to do this 'spiderman pose', thank God that Joyce was so encouraging.. =)

Must be the lack of sleep, or that the fans are not turned on, it's getting really hot in here!

I forgot to mention that Joyce and Ahbe cooked spaghetti for us.. super yummy!

black sheep?!

2007-02-28T07:59:00.000-08:00

Ruilin triggered a past bad memory of mine. I'll call it the 'black sheep'.

On the first day of Secondary school, I can remember vividly this incident happened during Art Class. From what I knew about art classes, they are always fun and cheery, nice and interesting teachers, lots of joy and colours. However, this was different.
An old wrinkly man, with a skull-shaped head entered the classroom. The class was a still silence, probably due to shock.. nah. His name is Mr Chin. He was extreme slow in speaking, too much of a show-off, many many things. AIYERRRR!

K whatever. There was group discussion, but obviously who would bother doing things so seriously on the first? So you should have guessed, being girls, we started chit chatting, laughing out loud and stuff. After a few minutes, Chin told us to stop and listen to him. Yeah yeah, we had to stop our nonsense.. but this girl friend of mine did not. She was sitting opposite of me, back faced from Chin, which means I'm facing that man. She started disturbing me with funny words, so all I did was laugh.. laughter cannot be resisted right!?

The next moment, I'm sitting on the floor.

".......until this black sheep disrupted the class....." I WENT FUMING MAD. HOW COULD HE CALL ME A BLACK SHEEP?! Such a low class 'teacher'.

Hahahaha.

prioritize, man!

2007-02-27T09:48:00.000-08:00

Latest East event was the cool cool East Reunion Dinner! Hahaha, actually was expecting all of us to 'lau' real yusheng, at least can buy our own vege and shred them.. hmm, but replaced with FRENCH FRIES! So cute right.

The most memorable of that night was when everyone started singing some song.. I don't know the title, but aiyarh, hope east people should know! Yeah, it was super duper hilarious just listening to the brothers singing the song repeatedly. However, they repeated the song too many times, after some time I cannot take it.

Hahaha, suddenly thought of the 2 hosts of the night, I really thought they looked like real pigs with that fake piggy nose. Eh, it's tough okay, because you would not know how it stink.. A round of applause for their hard work!
Not forgetting the candle ceremony. Although the room was getting quite stuffy and hard-to-stay-in, I thought that it was quite meaningful in a way to remind us of the care and support we have for each other in this unique family of God. Yeah, plus the dripping of scorching temporial stings of the hot wax.. ouch..

Lastly, alot of photo taking took place. Oh gosh, I admit I was dead tired again. I can't seem to smile in the photos, and I have eye bags and pale lips. Look like ghost sia! That's why I keep fidgitting in the photos, can't keep still. I just wanted to sleeeeeeeeeep!! The photos must be terrible.. aiyah. *nigel must be thinking, "xiaohei so dark already, no one will notice.." or something like that I guess.. grrh.*

Oh YES! I'm so proud of the deco team that made all those hongbao stuff possible. I'm so glad to be in this East Reunion dinner team, because I wanna shout out loud they are really a bunch of fun-loving and helpful people!! Hahahaha. Clap clap. Thank God for all of you! On the night before the reunion dinner, some of us stayed up till quite late at night so we decided to go for late night dinner/supper. I remember Gabriel(ruilin) seemed so hungry.. quite funny.. cos he gobbled up his food like super fast. Who's the pig!? G-A-B-R-I-E-L. Hahahaha.. just kidding.
Ahhh, I thought what Nigel did was really touching. I ordered Chaichee Fish Porridge, but I didn't tell the table number, just pointed to the many tables outside the Bedok 85 Coffeeshop and left. It took a very long time for my order to come, so Gabriel asked me to go to the uncle again and tell him our table number. I didn't stand up, because I just didn't want to. I waited and waited again, and it still didn't come. So I complained once more.. then Nigel immediately stood up and volunteered to help me tell the uncle. Woah! That's very nice, I thought.. Thanks k =) I also want to thank Ahbe for her lovey-dovey sms, Kinder Beuno and all-out-attitude to serve God and others. Jiayou! Don't give up okay?? Hohoho! Great night out.

Yesterday I took a cab down to Prime supermarket to meet ahbe. I never seen such a cab driver in my life!! Ridiculous. My destination is Blk 829, however on the way, there was this man who waved for this cab I was on. The cab driver turned around and said,"Let me fetch him too (in chinese), ok?" I didn't even need to reply and he stopped for the man. I was like.. confused. There is such thing? I looked out of the window, and decided to drop off there and then, since it was Blk 823. Huh, never mind.
As soon as I got out of the cab, I was 'warmly' greeted by a LOUD burp. It was really loud because it sounded clear even though I stood around 10 metres away from the gangster. Woah, the whole coffeeshop was drained in the gangsters's laughters.. funny but, very inconsiderate. Eh, why do gangsters like to get so much attention by being loud huh. It's not cool at all..

This afternoon while on a bus, a what-i-call 'failure ahbeng' boarded the bus. His complexion was as fair as most girls, shirt unbuttoned to the belly button, bagpack was hung highly as if there was no breathing space for his underarms, unkempt hair, sluggish attitude.. What is he doing??? Maybe he is not aware of how he present himself, but it's really not a very nice sight to see I guess. One day.. yes one day he'll know..

I pray that our hearts will be guarded, not influenced by the worldly things, remembering our focus, purpose and priorities.. Never let go of God.

SO HAPPY

2007-02-22T08:36:00.000-08:00

I CAN FINALLY HEAR SOUNDS, from the computer!

For the past few many many weeks, I was so irritated with the speakers, because they were wasting space in the house, for they can't produce sounds for me to hear. But it's different now! Thanks to Yinying!

She suggested that I try plugging in the earpiece into the CPU directly, and TADAA!! I can hear, I can finally hear!
I must be the happiest woman in town! Hhahahaha. This means I can watch youtube or any other videos now. Yay.

Maybe this may seem dumb, but I really didnt think of such a solution. Did you??? CONFESS!
Anyway, thank you Yinying! =)

I'm going CRAZY!

this grp of friends go house visiting!

2007-02-22T07:26:00.000-08:00

It felt awkward and weird, inviting classmates over to my house. As i was getting ready for them to come over, somehow some negative thoughts flooded my mind. Example, how they would think and so on, how can I be a good host to them, what if they see the wrong stuff.. oh gosh! However, I pushed those dumb thoughts away and waited for them to make their way here for their first time. PLUS, although I kind of organised this thing, I didn't prepare anything for us to engage in during the 'at-least-1-hr' period before we move on to the next house.. oops.

Very soon, Nigel and Lakshman came, followed by Weiqiang. I was like super nervous, didn't know what to do, so I just paced up and down my house looking for something I can do, just to not bother about them for these few minutes. I was desperately wishing for Yinying to make her way down QUICK! Because I did not take my breakfast, my mum and I sat down at the dining table and had our break-lunch. So much food wasted, because the food were meant for them to eat as lunch, but they had theirs already.. it's still lying in the kitchen. Gonna be my breakfast and probably lunch again tomorrow.. =S Hahaha. Yay, Yinying finally reached.

Hmm, funny thing was that, no one brought oranges to my mum. Aiyoh.. forget it. Okay, not all of them, Weiqiang claimed to have oranges in his bag but didnt pass them to my mum. Forgetful boy. Out of nowhere Russell wants to find us too, at least he brought oranges.

Silei's house was our next and last destination. Supposed to go to Nigel's place, but there wasn't enough time. Sad case.. Had a fab dinner specially cooked for us (includes Shuli), mahjong on the floor, and TV all the way from seven to ten! Got to watch the 'hua yang shao nian shao nu' and the 9pm channel eight show ok!?

Ahhh.. it's the end of the day. I agree that nothing much was done, but I just liked the company of friends hanging around together, be it caregroup or classmates, always warm and comfortable. Although I insist that Nigel should go home and not need to send me to the bus stop, (his house is just a few blocks away from Silei's) he still waited for the bus with me. So touching.. of course, only as a friend larh. At least he cares for the safety of his friends, thanks k =)

somewhere of chinese new year

2007-02-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

HI PEOPLE! HOW'S YOUR CHINESE NEW YEAR??

It's the 5th day of CNY.. so soon. Probably similar to everyone else's, going from house to house.. giving and receiving red packets, gobble up relative's food, exchanging oranges, you know, that sort of thing. Heard from the news that most people nowadays aren't really into celebrating CNY, going to Chinatown without the heart of getting anything. Pooor things hogging their lungs out.. Sometimes I wonder how long this festive season can last, I guess another 10 years down the road Chinatown will not exist anymore.. How sad for the singles, does this mean its the end of receiving 'hongbaos'?! Yikes!

I really enjoyed the times spent with the family. It's so rare we could all gather together, sit down and have a proper reunion dinner, play cards, catch up with each other, especially my parents. They can be quite lonely come to think about it, working is their lifestyle, and for us kids, 'out-ing' is our lifestyle. Sometimes we neglect their feelings and existance, agree?? So yeah, it's definitely a heart warming thing to hang out together. Yay! You readers out there, don't only blame your parents for their constant nagging, or thinking they don't understand you due to age gap or whatever it is.. for they love you. Hah.. I should tell myself these words as well.. Oops.

Just want to remind Y-hope people, remember that this CNY is gonna be different, never forget God for he never forgets you. So keep your spiritual walk with God strong okay?? JIAYOU! And also, don't forget to do your quiet time, read your Bible.

God bless. Goodnight! =)

NAILS

2007-02-13T11:59:00.000-08:00

I broke my nail.. AGAIN!
This is super frustrating. I was just complaining to Lakshman about my pathetic nail, here it goes:

AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
i keep on breaking my nail
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
thats damn irritating
.el-man \m/ says:
got such things as nail hardener right
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
its not that its weak or smth
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
i mean brittle
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
its just that
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
the way i zip my pants
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
just
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
isnt that right
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
break my nail
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
arghhh
.el-man \m/ says:
u break ur nail like that?
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
yes
AMEN! All glory and praise belongs to GOD alone! =))) says:
like that

O MAN. YES!! How dumb right, not the first time yet it's been repeating ever since.. don't know when. I'm going to change to use my other finger to zip my pants from now on, YAY. Wish me luck.

Ah.. I've just submitted my JAE choices through Ruilin. Thanks brother! Hahaha.. He was abit 'unstable' I guess, don't know what got into him before he went offline, but still.. grateful that he helped my sister and I out for the JAE form.

Now it's all up to God.

such a relieve!

2007-02-12T04:43:00.000-08:00

Yay! The tensed days are finally over! No more weird dreams of getting poor results, no more sighing with friends, no more worries! Yeah, a few days ago was the day Olevel results were released. The hall was super silent, and it was probably the first time everyone listened so attentively to the Principal. Haahaha. Very soon it was my turn to go up to Mr Eng for my results.. heart thumped real hard. Somehow I was not confident of the outcome.. and just threw it over to Silei.. Little did I expect that I would do not bad for it! OMgosh! K, all praise goes to God, who breezed me through this exams.. =)

The thing now is.. what would my choices be? More to poly-side i guess.

Service was great too, Maurise the meat-loving mother, Nicholas the no-brainer nerd.. and many others. Sermon was on sincere friendship with friends around us, and this is really applicable in our lives, that we should build deep and real friendship and treasure them. Hmm, I should do something about it.. Heh. Now i know who are the people going to Perth missions trip with me now, so excited!!

On Sunday, my family and I went to City Plaza to shop because the clothes there are cheaper and a wider range, especially for girls. I don't see much guys stuff there.. so sad for them. Haha! Bought tops and a dress, however I realise that I lack of PANTS! So yeah.. going shopping again tomorrow. Yay.

Today I had a tiny class gathering with a few of 4E's excellencies. Basketball was tiring yet fulfilling.. Imagine the amount of calories burnt! Plus plus plus the tyco 3-pointer shots.. hmm, maybe it's pro-ness? Hahaha!! Nah.. Headed to Nigel's house for a short rest, lunch and changed into his clean shirt. After that, we left for Downtown East.

Till now, I still can't decide on where to go.. ARGHHH..

3 days

2007-02-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

On the 5th of feb..

Huijuan and I made our way to Plaza Singapura to meet up with the rest. Qianjin, Joleen, Gwen and many others were already there, and this made me and Huijuan very guilty because we were both late.. Again? However, there were people later than us.. like Jonathan. Hahaha. Ok.. this is our very own CHOIR RETREAT! After 'stealing' lots of fries from Huijuan, and gulping down Mcflurry, we left Mcdonald's for Qianjin's house.
Wow, his condo is really beautiful! Even the function room is comfy and cool.. Icebreakers, WORSHIP[this is super cool because most people were blending, sounds great!], visions and photo-taking. His house is definitely welcoming and warm, got countryside cosiness and feel. Mag loves his room's wallpaper. Gosh, he looks very different when he was younger..

The bus ride home was terrible. We took 67 towards Eunos, however it passed by Little India. The first stop there was a long long one, whereby loads of Indians boarded the bus. The first thought that came across my mind was that somehow I pity them, because probably being discriminated or looked down upon by some people, but yet there are many cases of rape and such that happened.. I didn't want to have any bias view on them, don't want to be racist, but I really didn't like them STARING at you as if we knew them. It's kind of scary..

On the 6th of Feb..

After evaxing in Tampines, I had to rush my way to RC to prepare my teaching for Sally. Thank God for Meiyi for giving me her Chemistry Book when I wanted it. After buying refreshments for Sally, because she claims to be tired, brisked all the way to RC along with many books to give the juniors. The day was freaking hot hot hot, perspire so much yet I don't know how to turn on the fan! Lucky Sally came soon, phew, she turned the fan on. Or was it someone else? Don't know.. Teaching is torture, i'll never want to be a teacher in the future. And I can't teach for goodness sake.. they can just die of boredom. Hahahahaha!

Guess where I went after that?? F-I-S-H-I-N-G!! So funny right. Why out of a sudden go fishing? There was a night I gave a suggestion to my Dad to go fishing instead of watching soccer.. and he really went fishing! Although we didn't get a catch for a super long time, we finally did, and it was huge i tell you. 3.5kg! It's freezing in my refrigerator now. Previously I was telling you guys about not-really-nice Indian men, however this time it's about this really nice Indian man who is tending a stall at the Pasir ris town park. He is one of the most generous man I've seen.. I don't know why, probably thinks my dad very friendly or whatever he is thinking, he gave us a free fish which he caught earlier in the afternoon. WOW right. We don't even know him. He also welcomed us back and stuff.. Wish there were more of such people.

TODAY..

CRASH MJC! I was running alittle late, although it was just 5-10 mins walk away from my home. Ran and ran, until I met up with Yinying and Silei. Registered first at the General Office.. and we were called to go to the hall or something. When we stopped for just like a few seconds, this man came to us, probably a teacher, and said," What are you girls waiting for?" Should be, I can't remember. What.. I know it's about discipline and all, but it seems like.. ah forget it. Followed through the classes, first was Maths, then recess, literature, chemistry and lastly chinese. My favourite was Maths.. because the teacher was humorous and welcomed me and Yinying extremely nicely.. so touched. Alright, going crazeeeeee over JOVI and ADE. Miss them like so much larh. Their class is like the best so far, I agree. Hahaha. Met many people.. Shuli, Cheeching, Naqiah, Wanting... many. Oh plus Darren, good host.
I like fitness club. It could sound abit eewww at first, but just attend one of their training and woahlah! Very attractive to me, because they hang out alot at the gym, or somewhere else working out. Girls who want their bodies to be toned, and guys who wants to build muscles, join this!

After everything, Yinying came over to my house. She's the fourth classmate to come over. Spent a whole load of time chatting to each other about everything under the sun, for about 2 hours, in case she didn't realise. Hahaha.. It's really great to just have a sincere talk to anyone you want to build deeper friendship with. Try it.

inconsiderate

2007-02-01T19:18:00.000-08:00

Gotta rush this post. Don't know what happened to blogger last night.

Yesterday after evaxing at Tampines, Huijuan, Jeslin and I went to Bugis to shop. As we walked past the MRT gates, I was reminded of a sight I saw a few days ago.

Waiting for my sister to turn up, a train dropped off a whole crowd of people.. The seemed to be rushing home or what, squeezing their way through just to get out of the small gates. However, some were also coming out from the disabled-people gates. Suddenly, a woman on a wheelchair came to sight. She was wanting to get in the station, however, was unable because people are coming out from the disabled people gate. She was just waiting there for a very long time, but such inconsiderate people are just flowing through.. as if they didn't see her. BLIND... She could only make her way in after the crowd has simmered down. tsk.

Definitely there are other inconsiderate actions that is happening just in the MRT station. For example, people pushing others to get into the train without waiting for others to alight, walking super slowly at the escalator causing trouble for the rest behind, and MANY others.

Luckily, there is still hope. Like people giving up their seats for the elderly or children.. can't think of others.

wasted

2007-01-31T19:14:00.000-08:00

What a waste of money, time, energy, breath..

A bunch of us went for a commissioned-based job, selling laptop protection covers at Ngee Ann Poly. Each sold at promotion price $22, claims to be waterproof, prevent scratches, easily removed... and a total of over 90 designs. However, there were obviously so much less designs on display and they are ugly! Tried our best by throwing our faces away, approaching people older than us, introducing them to this ugy thing.. oh my gosh. As we have known, sold nothing at all after 2 hours.

What a cheat! Supposedly, one of us should be paid basic pay of 5 bucks an hour, thus we came with a mindset that at least we get paid at the end of the day.. but that's not the case. Before we left for that poly, we called the person-in-charge and he said, "There are already quite afew people interested in our product, and some have already bought them!" This raised our hope that today's job wouldn't be too difficult. However, when we reach the school, it was kinda empty, and those we approached are rushing to their classes. Some told us this was their last week in school.. When I asked the person-in-charge how many people have bought the product, he said 1. Man! We then decided to quit that stupid job..

We were told to wait for the boss while we go for lunch. Although cheaper than the hawker centres outside school, the fish and chips weren't at all satisfying to those who bought it. At least the chicken chop was much more edible.. phew. Soon, boss came. He told us some sales strategies.. repeating our young age.. and some other stuff.. I believe.. Wasn't really paying attention to him, because his voice kinda drained in the canteen. I thought they were crap, because he kept saying design wasn't important, which I think is VERY important. Who wants to put an ugly picture on their laptops, which was supposed to attract attention or envy from others? Probably unwanted attention..

Left the school, headed back to Tampines empty-handed. 4 bucks for going back and forth for nothing! K never mind. Started evaxing.. but was turned down due to SYF preparations. When Ahbe's contacts came, Serene, Denise and I went along to sow on them. Was quite depressed and reluctant, especially going to one of my disliked fastfood centre, Long John's. I don't like the food there! What's so great about the fries.. hahahahha. Thanks Denise, who treated me to a 'drink'. Heh. Thanks ah.

After their food, we went to the Open Plaza. Actually I didn't like the place, because there will always be this group of smokers smoking at the entrance. Not very welcoming in fact. Do you know about the spinning thing at the playground? I thought that was a ridiculous invention, not fun at all, makes people dizzy by just spinning around, unhealthy thing..

Good thing that things finally turned for the better! Saw these 2 little adorable adorable girls, ageing around 3-5? Denise and I were totally going googoogaga over them and started playing with them. At first the elder one was ignorant but opened up to us very soon, but the younger one was afraid of us. Oh man!! This really makes me want to have kids no matter what. They may be irritating at times, but will definitely add colours into our lives!

When all left, I had to wait for my twin to make her way to the MRT station for around 15 minutes, so Denise, Serene and I went for a walk around TM. As we walked past the arcade, Denise wanted to play House of the Dead 2, but one of the guns was gone.. so we played Lost World instead. I'm super excited.. because I never gone past level 1 in my life! Hahahahaha.. Guess what.. after screaming and shouting and erm, going MAD in that 2-seater box, we past 3rd LEVEL! woohoo!!

Haha, not too bad a day after all.

rude rude people..

2007-01-28T06:49:00.000-08:00

Hey peeps!

As usual, I went to the gym with Silei and Yinying early in the morning. I was feeling extremely sluggish due to little sleep the night before, as I spent the late night talking to my twin on the bed. Hmm, it's been a long time since I had deep talks with her, it was worth my sleep I guess.

Back to.. the gym. Was groggy and all, but I told myself I got to feel satisfied at the end of the day. Amazingly, there weren't as many people as before, so I was able to use the treadmill without waiting for other users! TREADMILL IS MY FAVE.. Hahaha, Denise's face suddenly appeared in my mind.. "I hate running.." That's what she will say.
Soon, I headed for the foot press machine. Oh gosh, this is like so embarassing!! If you don't understand the following, then forget it, hahahaha. Because there is the 'chair' to sit on and the 'press' for your legs to push. I guess the previous user was a guy, because the 'chair' and the 'press' were quite far away from each other, but however I tried, I don't know how to move it closer, so I carried on using the machine. From my side view, I see some guys starring at my direction, but I didn't bother. Suddenly Silei giggled, turned to me and said," Erh florence can you move your thing closer..". This time I just turned to the guys beside, and they were laughing their hearts out. Shucks!! I must have looked terribly dumb and stupid.. Ahh.. never mind. But luckily they tried to help to move the thing forward by giving me instructions, however I just don't understand, so Silei came to help instead. Yayy.

After gym, we went for lunch at Century Square's foodcourt. Talk talk talk..

Today, I met lots of rude Singaporeans, must be Singaporeans. Yinying and I were standing in front of the chocolate display at 'Chocolate World' in Tampines Mall when this rude rude woman somewhat made her way through us and gave us a loud TSK. She pulled her boyfriend along with her thus Yinying and I had no choice but to make way for them. Sometimes I just don't understand why Singaporeans have to disgrace themselves in such a way... If i'm not wrong, we heard 3 TSKs just in less than 2 hours.
The government should spend money not only on educating the youngsters' manners, but the adults' as well. Make Singapore a better place to live in!! Hahahaha..

MISSION'S TRIP! I'm still debating with myself to go for Perth, Australia.. OR Thailand!! HELP..

fresh, fresh blog!

2007-01-26T19:13:00.000-08:00

Hahaha.. For those who don't know why and what is this new blog about, I'll explain it.

I went to check out how my old blog was, as I told my shepherd, Denise, that I will be going in to blog after many many months of neglection. However, it is M.I.A. Don't know where it went, searched for solutions to obtain it back, wasted my time.. and I still don't get it, thus decided to start a fresh blog.
Branded, usually associated with being materialistic? Nonono.. What I meant was being precious in God's eyes.

I'm SUPER excited for EX-cube service later on, and the following week and the week after.. Joleen is going to represent as the guitarist in East band! Isn't it so coool to see a girl in a rock band?? Yes, what's even better is that Samantha and Jeanette are coming down too! Don't know how it will turn out at altar call, whatever it is, God will surely stir up something in their hearts.. Can't wait..

In my first entry, I would also want to thank God for the people he placed around me. Family, friends.. so glad to have them in my life.
As for my family, through thick and thin, we still hold on tight to one another. Many times quarrels and disappointments set in, but we are still the one big happy TAN family! Love you guys!

I love my caregroup as well! Haha.. definitely EC1 too..
Denise, thanks for your showers of care and concern whenever I needed you. Gonna repeat the blessing once more.. On our first day of door-to-door surveyor job, I had two huge blisters at my ankle. Then 'superwoman' came to the rescue!! She bought plasters for me, although it wasn't her money.. and she bought the wrong type of plaster! So funny! Silly shepherd, but really thank God for her.

Geckting, thanks for your ever ever ever support and encouragements. Always positive-minded, being cool in diffcult situations, been inspiring to the rest. Love your presence always, sheepmate.

Serene Soon!! HAHAHAHAHA. You're like one of the noisiest person I've met in my life!! However, so much as your voice level, you've got a big BIG heart for the people around you. Thanks for sending me home late at night on your 'scary' bike. Going the extra mile for me and skipping your TV show has touched me. eeew. =)

Meiyi the pretty girl.. Thank God for such a patient sister like you to be able to wait with me for my handphone. K to be exact, we waited for nearly an hour just to get my turn to send my spoilt phone under repair at Nokia services. I think they should speed up their services.. maybe hire more workers.. hahaha. And finally my turn came. YES YES!! We quickly got off our seats and sped off towards the woman at the counter. She started writing some stuff down on my warranty card, but told me straight in the face, "Sorry, but physical damage is not under the warranty.." WHAT?! All the time we've been waiting, you expect me to go home empty handed? Yeah, at that time I was furious.. Meiyi has been there comforting me all the time. Aww.. But I was still fuming at the woman, at the company.. everything. Then *tink tink*, a sudden prompting to ask about the price I had to pay if I wanted to repair the phone, and so she went in almost immediately. God is GOOD. She came out with the phone in her hands and said, "This will be your last warning.. don't know what warranty.." Know what that means?! My hp is under warranty!! So happy.. Back to the point, thank God for you,Meiyi.

Ahbe ahh.. This sister here is always so enthusiastic in whatever she does, in DECO ministry work, and leading the people.. Super excited, that you can see her bounce here and there all the time.. HAHA. No hidden meaning.. BUT IT'S TRUE. Keep up your wonderful spirit in serving God!

Chiamin! Haha, want to apologise for always shunning you away when I have a quarrel with Jeslin. Didn't mean to, just frustrated.. erh you get what I mean. Heh. Thank you for trying to comfort me whenever I look angry or sad, see your efforts after I got home, was temporarily blinded for that moment. Hahaha. And, don't talk in TWIT languages!!

Qinninggg, although I never see you around that much, but you'll always be remembered as the super lame girl.. Looks are deceiving, innocent on the outside, stupidly lame in the inside! Hahaha.. You're like an elder sister to me, obviously older than us, but that you're also mature-headed than some of us here. Heh, thank God for you.

And for the rest, life wouldn't be the same without you all.

CHINESE NEW YEAR IS COMING!! HONG BAO HONG BAO!!
New clothes, new this new that.. wow..

Jovita, Jiemin, Adeline, Katherine, Cheryl and Jewel! I still miss you girls alot alot! We'll surely be friends till we.. hmm. Get not too young. hahaha. See you soon =) bedok 85!!
Also, 4E people of year 2006, never forgotten. Miss that crazy group of people, standing outside the bus-stop thinking of where to go next, while the guys never make proper decisions. Yes, guys are more indecisive.. at times. Haha.

Is this long or WHAT?!