Christmas Day

What do one do on a Christmas Day? I spent my whole morning trying to update my next year's schedule and getting my appointment diary in shape. Got this yesterday. I spent almost 2 hours searching for this. Its the best among all that I have seen.
Why spend 2 hours on searching? My rationale is that since I am going to use it for 1 whole year, I better make sure I love it!
I guess I am rather particular when it comes to certain choices that I make. There are many many things I am very qing chai about- anything also can. So I make very fasy decisions cos they dont really matters alot. But if it is going to affects me for a long time, I will invest time in researching and choosing. I made a new discovery of myself just from choosing a diary =) I guess this is why I decided to back out from the marriage.. I still needed time...
Ok, so what else do one day on a Christmas Day. Its to upload some overdue pictures!!

Yeah, Serene passed me her wedding pics.. (Hers the only wedding I got the full set of wedding pics. Thanks for sharing=) )So I am going to share some of my favorites here. =)
Will not show so much of her here cos I have not gotten her permission..


The preparations...





The posed...







The Church...




The Night...





Ok, what do one do for the rest of Christmas? I am going for a jog.. =)

N just received an sms.. On Christmas Day, someone had accept the Lord into her life.. The joy is immense.. Praise God.. He made all things possible.. Love you my Lord..

Reflection on a game

Angel and mortal game taught me 2 things.

Firstly, it’s more blessed to give than to receive. When you give, your reward is not in the person giving you thanks directly. The joy comes from seeing the smile on your mortal’s face. When no one applauds you, you know your reward is in heaven.

Secondly, it taught me to receive with gladness and grace. It’s a demonstration of grace when I have done nothing to deserve the gift. The other time it happened in our lives is when Christ gave His life for us.

Usual Life, but not back to Normal

As i went to walk this morning, I had a sense that my day is going to be different. Perhaps its the afterglow of the camp. It was wonderful in terms of how I encounter God. I did not learn much through the messages as I really didnt attend manu of them, but the encounter with God was brilliant.

N in the afternoon at work, as I was busy with things, I decided that I should just sit with 2 girls and spend time with them. This girl was wearing a shirt that says "Agape". Naturally I went on to talk about unconditional love. Then after awhile, I had my bible with me. And I showed them the passage on love and they read. They went on to read Genesis. I remembered I just got a children's devotional bible tat morning, so I took it to them and we all read together. It was amazing. I didnt have to push for it to happen and I am glad that God orchestrated it all to happen, how i had my bible, my children's devotional bible etc etc =)

Life is back to the routine of work, but it is definitely not back to normal already. I am so glad God gave me this priviledge of reading bible with 2 malay girls. I believe the Word will take root in their hearts and bear fruits. Pray for them if you read this.

May God bless you...

Local Missionary!

I am a missionary, but different from the others, I work in Singapore! haha!!

i work in a cross-cultural context in a local setting, I feel as if I am becoming less and less like a Chinese already! But thankfully, my love for the Chinese culture is strong enough to keep me rooted and not confused.

Everyday, I face non-Chinese at work almost 90% of the time. My awareness stop at the factual level initially. However, more and more, I find that emotionally and spiritually, I am beginning to respond to this fact. I need to be reflecting to myself what it may mean to me. Its just different working in a cross-cultutal context...

2 Peter 1:3-5

Went to Sentosa today with the youths. J's brother, N, was also there. As I was feeling tired, and he was feeling shy to join the group, so we happen to sit together and had a nice chat. It was a nice chat we have but I forgot to tell him.

He is 19 years old and going to the army. Just 3months ago, he told me he was going to be married with his girlfriend in 2009. But found out today that they just broke up. His girlfriend cant accept him for who he is, he said.

Given his golden dyed hair, tattoo-ed body, and some other behaviors different from mine, it seems a little strange that he is talking to me about acceptance. He even said that he does not want his girlfriend to be a gang member, does not want her to smoke and drink, and go to pub. Perhaps everyone really desire to be normal and accepted.

He's a rather nice chap, tends to like to boast about his past misdeeds that all. But given the background and the people whom he mixes with, what else can he boast about other than his misdeeds? How else can he command the respect of others if not for the fact that he belongs to the presumably largest and therefore most powerful secret society in Singapore.

As I reflect about this, my heart aches for the young people. For survival, they have to cling on to anything they can find. If it means to be in a gang, then so be it.

Lord, your divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of you who called us by your own glory and goodness. (So give these youths and children a sense of your personal calling and a glimpse of your glory and goodness. There really can be more to life than this). Through them, you have given us your very great and precious promises, so that through them, we may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desire. (Each of them need your help to escape the corruption in the world. Deliver them Lord...) 2 Peter 1:3-5

A box of ice-cream

Met this 16 years old at my corridor while I was on my way home. He was pushing a cool box and as I walked by him, he asked me if I wanted to buy a box of ice-cream from him. He said he is saving up for his polytechnic education. He claimed that a box of ice-cream was $12 and he is selling at $14.90 because he wants to earn a little.

Well, a side of me wanted to belive him, but the other side of me was a little skeptical. I needa little time to think so I showed him where I stayed and said perhaps he should go and ask my mother if she wanted the ice-cream. But as I stepped into the house, he didnt even have to say anything, I begin to dig out money from my wallet. I guess I decided that I want to risk believing in him.

I donno if I might have been cheated. Maybe he might be laughing at me and say what a fool I am.. But it does not matter. Wisdom and foolishness really depends on which side you stand on. Widsom to the world is foolishness to Christ, and the reverse is true.

For the sake of Christ, I am willing to be a fool.

Counseling..

While waiting for my appointment with Santi, I realised that I donno what to do. I could have prepared for camp, prepare for work, read etc etc.. But I dont have the materials I need at home. I wanted to go tJ but there is not enough time. So anyways, here I am typing my blog.

My sup asked me what counseling model I think I wanna go into more details and learn it. Different models suit different people. I wonder if I can go into christian counselling. Other than this kinda of counseling, I am not sure if I can make sense of wat the other counseling models are talking about. Or rather, I am nt sure if I can be convinced of wat the rest of the models tries to convince people.

I want to base my work upon the word of God. I need to check with her if it is possible to go into christian counseling in our centre. Anyway, if not, I really needa know what i can learn and apply already.

Learning and applying a particular model can really change a person's outlook and perspective. Its like a lens that you view the world from. If what I learn is not going to be sound biblically, I worry that what I say to people would nt be truth. But of course, saying this, even if some claimed to be christian counseling, i still need to evaluate it based on the word of God.

Love you so much, Jesus, Love you so much... How my soul longs for you, longs to worship you forever.. For you are my strength and shield...

Smoothie Smoothie!

I want to give thanks to God for the program yesterday. Because D is on leave, so I am prety concerned that I will not be able to cope with the program! (You never know how emo the children can be sometimes!) anyway, so I thought I better have an engaging program that they will enjoy and that I dont need to deal with them running around becuase of boredom.

So we made Smoothie! heehee.. Well, perhaps personally I like to cook so I guess that makes things easier =) And before we made the smoothie, we had a Treasure Hunt where the kids have to find all their materials =) I am pretty excited as I combined these ideas from a book and it actually works! To see theory translating into reality is exciting =)

If you wonder how does making smoothie and treasure hunt benefit the children, let me tell you! haha! Other than having fun, it helps them to be willing to read. They may be unwilling to read in a textbook context, but giving them a recipe and treasure hunt clues certaintly motivates them to read =)

Anyway, though they were excited about making smoothie, they didnt actually like to drink it. I guess its a little sour with all the fruits together...They love the ice-cream that top the smoothie rather than their smoothie. But its ok, they dont have to like what I love =)

Thank God, Thank God, Thank God! Thank You Lord!

简单

生活可以很简单，可是不要做个头脑简单的人．我发觉在简单的生活中, 只要你用心去看一个人，往往会认识一些不平凡的人。

我慢慢知道为什么辽阔的天空让我感到害怕。。。因为天空太辽阔，人就变得太渺小。我害怕变得渺小。。可是真正伟大的人并不是因为世界小所以他伟大。这样一来的话，我可以生活在蚂蚁群中。真正伟大的人是因为他超越了自己在辽阔世界中的极限， 伟大的人使再大的世界也变得渺小。。

我不要害怕辽阔的天。辽阔的天有我无限可能的发挥。我并没有想要超越天，可是我要超越一种人生的无奈。我的生命是丰盛的，因为我认识我主。

我要简单的过我的生活。不代表我的头脑简单。

天空

来到了更辽阔的天空，才知道世界可以更小．　有一点担心自己会不会习惯这样大的天空．．原来世界的大小并不是用空间的大小来衡量．