9:55 p.m. - 2007-02-10
Instruments of Peace
I thought this words were really beautiful so I decided to post it...
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Lord, make us instruments of your peace;
where there is hatred let your love increase
Lord make us instruments of Your peace;
Walls of pride and prejudice shall cease.
When we are Your instruments of peace.
Where there is hatred, we will show His love
Where there is injury, we will never judge
Where there is striving, we will speak His peace.
To the people crying for release,
We will be your instruments of peace
Where there is blindness, we will pray for sight
Where there is darkness, we will shine HIs light
Where there is sadness, we will bear their grief.
To the millions crying for release
We will be Your instruments of peace.
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8:05 p.m. - 2007-01-21
Woosh what a blast of a time!
Hey MAANNN *sounding jamaican =p* Eh... I havent been blogging for a mth now and I m so happy I have the time to share my thoughts about the past month again! First of all I would like to pay a tribute to my OGLs, the OGLs of the noble L'ubberduckies group - Daniel Ong and ShinBin!!! YAY Haha also to all my OG mates whom I have failed to spend time with cause I cant wake up early to seat at the OG table or cant converse with online cause of a computer that always hangs within their mighty rapid msn convos.(regardless, I still love everyone of you!) I would like to express my thankfulness for my great class and every single one in it for trudging on as one and braving the icy cold lecture theatres and the icy cold jokes cracked by our 'COOL' lecturers, mentioning no names *er hrm* Anyways, I hope I could spend more time with you gals and guys but I simply am too tired or lazy sometimes HAHA *oops* Anyways, I am going to upload the pictures of my journey through orientation and the countless amount of send-offs I made at the dreaded Changi airport =( later on when I have the time to upload them to the slowpokkk flixster and den u all shall have a heck of an eyefeast... WAHAHA yes saving the best thanksgiving for last... I want to praise God for helping me last through this entire time of change and transition. To forgive me for my past and to let me face the present and future with humility and courage, to just reconcile his relationship with me and assuring me of his presence in my life! AMEN =D
6:11 p.m. - 2007-01-01
New Year! =D
Haha the start of a new year once again! Looking back I just cant imagine that time flies so fast! It just didnt really impress upon me that it was alrdy 200-SEVEN! HAHA... I am sure when I write the date on homeworks etc. I will end up writing 2006 again lor(have been doing this since pri sch days haha)
Ok how did I spend new year's eve. I went to church in the morning, then surprised edlyn at her house with 2 slices of chocolate cake! HAHA FUN;;;;; Then cabbed with oldie ivan, Pope robin and sista to suntec then went off to marina square to meet Amos, jasper, Yan Yan, Min Li, Grace, Joanna, Leslie for lunch outing as promised... However when I reached there they alrdy finished lunch and I ended up eating lunch by myself but I was glad I had Amos's manly company for lunch =D *Thanks alot Amos* Talked to him then joined the girls as they shopped and try clothes (HAHA really expensive ones like those from ZARA and WAREHOUSE lo) Anyways then went home with robin and my sis via MRT where he told me all about his fren initials MMT which was utterly hilarious! HAHA he imitated him and I really had a hell of a time laughing... Went home to have beauty sleep, woke up, ate dinner and set-off for watch nite service at church with my Daddy. HAHA there were 21 songs during worship and it lasted like 2 hours haha but it was a great time as I prayed for the new year and reflected on the previous. Then went off to oddsq's house wif violent jie to play boardgames lol! HAHA had trouble getting a cab but at last we got there... Actually we asked JJ to fetch us but he declined and ended up coming to oddsq's house after we reached there for like half an hour *ROAR wasted cab fares* Anyways I utterly dominated battleships (sunk 5 ships while my pathetic opponent sunk 2 ships only =p) OK then we napped 1 hour and JJ fetched us to airport and we reached 15-30min before raveen mannar arrived. We took pictures, hugged raveen and sent him off with God's blessings then went for macdonald's breakfast! Reached home at 8.10am and slept until 11.45am! Actually I was supposed to wake up at 11 am coz I was supposed to accompany my beloved TEAM V - 'We forget liao' to ben & jerry's to spend our hard-earned vouchers! HAHA great time there eating the variety of wierd flavors (NVR EAT CHERRY GRACIA, tastes like antibiotics) Anyways then I went off and shopped wif my mum and sis then arrived home at the time I wrote this post... God bless 2007! Amen =D
9:48 p.m. - 2006-12-28
Holidays
Hey, I can say that this holiday is by far one of the most meaningful holidays I ever had in my life. Maybe it is because I have left my secondary school life behind me and stepping into the next phase in JC life. The primary school days when I basically stayed home the whole holiday, played computer and went off for a 1 to 2-week vacation overseas with my parents is still so vivid in my mind. If I were to spend my holidays like that now, I will lose my sanity due to boredom. Yet, I surprisingly loved my holidays. To a point I hated the thought of school being just around the corner. This sudden anxiety of school re-opening usually fills me just after Christmas as the hustle and bustle settles and the sudden business is filled with a vacuum. This holiday I spent time with alot of people that I really wanted to spend time with especially my closer group of school friends and my church friends. All the church camps and crazy outings I had was just so fruitful!! Yet, I belive that every single holiday is really a moment of reflection as I would put it... Without being concious to it, I belive that everybody has actually took back something new after each holiday. It is a time when neither our homework turns up at our doors routinely nor the deadly ring of examinations and tests being just around the corner comes. The free space is then spent with people that take up big parts of our lives - friends, family etc. (for me God played a huge part) Hey, reflection might sound a little harsh and some cliche life lesson thingy however, this sudden lack of things to do has at some point thrown us into a somewhat deep thought of what we are going to do with ourselves. Whether it is to change our image to look better *YEH* or to just shake off a certain habit or blah blah... Regardless, we do something to try to bring change to ourselves and that is what holidays do to us! Haha, after a big round-a-bout I tink that this holiday has really sparked me thinking about alot of stuff! SERIOUSLY, I might be someone joking everyday but I belive I am not an empty vessel la =P Haha, I belive God has straighten alot of things in my life and I am also filled with excitement yet worries bout my JC life that is about to overwhelm me in a few days time. I just got a few nudges to ask me about my OG(orientation-groups) and that has really started me on this train of thoughts about the end of holidays. (HAHA even though until this point I havent gotten the call from my OGL!) Anyways, I really hope that this holidays will really have brought about a positive change in me and I will be able to promote to JC with maturity and new-found strength in Christ =D
8:19 p.m. - 2006-12-26
F.R.I.E.N.D.S.H.I.P
So put away all falsehood and "tell your neighbour the truth" because we belong to each other. -Ephesians 4:25
A topic that is close to this was actually discussed at the recent TOUCHE retreat... I summarised it within one line : Authencity in Fellowship.
We were discussing bout the unusual and abnormal coldness in our current social dimension and gradually it developped to a discussion of how people around us have set-up defences around themselves to protect themselves from others. This defences are not literal physical fortresses but usually a barrier of apathy in their heart or just a facade to hide their naked self. I personally learnt through my mission trip that friendships are truly built upon truth and sharing. By just telling your fren a simple secret or just being natural around him or her, you make that person feel you bother to actually let that person know more about yourself or care for that person so much as to want to me honest to him or her. However , I feel that just being truthful to your fren is really really hard. Which is why frenships usually stay at the surface lvl. Just hanging out, studying together, playing can qualify anyone as your fren... The correct term I belive is acquaintance, yet hiding from people is getting so common that just being able to get out of ur comfort zone and talking more to or hanging out wif a person can alrdy be considered frenship! Even if pple do share secrets the furthest they get is usually bout who's hot and who's not or BGRs.
During the discussion I cited the example of Adam and Eve realizing their nakedness after eating the fruit and from then on man has started wearing clothes and this symbolizes how there is always a necessary lvl of defence or facade around ourselves. This just steers man away from strife, argument, criticism and even wars. It is impossible for us to go around naked without any form of protection to veil ourselves and distant ourselves from others. It just makes us vulnerable to attack from others. Imagine if we thought in our mind how irritating a certain person is and we just truthfully told him in the face, your are irritating! Would it hurt him? YES. Which is why there is always a certain amount of defence or facade we nit to girdle ourselves wif! We are all fallen men, imperfect sinful men who are waiting for God to come down to give us perfect bodies again!
HAHA, I am not emo or trying to act chim but in conclusion I tink that as Christians we should exude Christ's love by really trying to break down this facades as much as possible and being truthful to pple around. It might put us at disadvantage or vulnerable but yet it is also the real and proper way to build everlasting frenships!
4:33 p.m. - 2006-12-26
Post-Christmas Thoughts
Hrm... The season of giving and loving - Christmas, is always something u look forward to for warmth and love! However when Christmas is just a few days away, you feel like a pressure-cooker with stress starting to build inside. Yes, we all know the significance of Christmas is Jesus's love for us so that he came down, giving up his almighty powers to become a baby to die for our sins! However, to let people around us feel the love of Christ emanating from ourselves, gifts and cards are ever so necessary! Gifts and cards are the best way to actually convey our msg of love or care to someone, to tell them we do bother bout them so much as to pay the effort to look for a gift for them or to stay up through the nite to write heart-stirring msgs to them! (Personally, I feel that a card that is a page-long wif many heartfelt thoughts and recalling of times spent wif the card-recipient is wad is so significant during this festival rather than the gifts!)So I really thank YOU for all the cards, they were GREAT no matter how bad some of ur handwriting were, I could decipher it! HAHAHA anyways most importantly, I really thank God for blessing you all in my life to bless me with such great LOVE =D Anyways I still have some cards that I havent gave out coz I havent seen U! So I shall have to give it to u all even though Christmas is over la... Anyways today I woke up at 1.10pm liddat coz the nite before christmas was one hectic nite trying to churn up all my Christmas cards before I slept. I got home after celebrating Christmas at my aunt's house arnd 12am then started writing and ended up sleeping close to 4.40am! Haha, b-e-a-uty sleep gone! But it is just so rewarding to touch someone with your cards! I am really afraid I miss out some pple in my last-minute effort to write this hoard of CARDS! SO sorry for those I missed out! U all are still impt! Anyways I really thank God for every thing I received and learnt this Christmas! It was truly rewarding! Tribute to Christmas and the joy of receiving GIFTS!!! =D
12:13 p.m. - 2006-12-21
Expecting too much
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. -Romans 3:23-24
When we pray, it is one thing to believe that God will give us an answer. But are we ourselves willing to accept that answer that God gives? The answer that God promises is a truth. His will is the truth. The answer is aligned with God's will and it might conflict with our desires or hopes. So are we ready to accept this answer? Or are we going to deny it and try to reason our ways out of it? Hey, praying is also a practice for us to learn how to accept God's will and only then will we get the most satisfactory answer, because God's answer might not seem as easy a path for us to take but it is actually the best possible path. It carves character and humility! Now, if we do get an answer that aligns with our own desires (eg. I pray for financial breakthrough *this example is usually not for youths =p* and God answers through his word and through everything around us that he will bless us with this abundance of wealth.) we must remember that God chooses the way in which he blesses us. We might not strike the lottery or win 4D and become rich suddenly, neither will some stranger suddenly lay hands on you and you get a miraculous promotion. But God might just work in his own ways that we are oblivious to and bless you through it ---> same result! Along the way, we might be discouraged and see that our prayers are not answered, we might even face set-backs and failures that puts us further away from the blessing we expected from God however this lil things are there for a reason. God placed them there to at the same time mould our character and our faith in him as he blesses us with what he promises. God never does things in a rigid way. For example, he doesnt just bless you with money by directly raining money upon you. He will make use of every oppurtunity to change us to be more and more like Christ! So change your expectation of how God will answer your prayers but NEVER compromise your trust and faith in whether he can answer or bless you wif a certain desire! So,are you Expecting too much???
11:33 p.m. - 2006-12-20
ultimate conmen
OK... ever heard of the gullible is not in the dictionary trick?? At last, I managed to pull it off on a unsuspecting fren on msn!
The Convo went:
† Jesus is Lord † tgnubnub.diaryland.com says:
actually
† Jesus is Lord † tgnubnub.diaryland.com says:
did u know that gullible isnt a word in the dictionary?
nana the aunty says:
is it?
nana the aunty says:
you nonsensing again...
Jesus is Lord † tgnubnub.diaryland.com says:
i tot they were nonsensing like i always do
nana the aunty says:
is it?
nana the aunty says:
im gonna go check...
CLASSIC conmen satisfaction moment man! I love it, I so love it... PEACE and CHILL man NANA!
9:46 p.m. - 19.12.06
Christmas Shopping
BUGIS... At last I arrived at bugis - town centre in some sloppy neighbourhood attire. Gonna shop and chiong home but then as usual jansen ends up at some pool room playing POOL. Sigh, had to run in the rain just to get to that pool room, but it was a cool place, with a huge TV screening ESPN soccer, a bar and two floors of pool tables. Serenity and solitude is the word to describe this pool room. Haha, after a few games of pool, stefan arrived after searching frantically for this ulu pool room. Then we started our shopping proper. We walked around and talk alot of 'serious and worth-talking-about' stuff and sat down at starbucks to talk rubbish again. Oh, almost forgot to mention that stefan declared that he got his paycheck and ended up paying for alot of stuff *HAHA* Missed around 8 trains, keeping stefan company as he waits for his fren(can't belive he talked me into missing 8 trains, but anything for u BRUDDER, HAW HAW) Went to centerpoint to finish some final touches to my shopping bag and returned home in GLORY!
---------------The End---------------
9:33 p.m. - 18.12.06
Cycling Fun
With each day past, we are drawing one more step closer to Christmas. With Christmas drawn one more step closer, it also means stress of cards, gifts blah blah blah. Money and time is definitely the biggest issue but rite now i m having trouble thinking of a icebreaker that can accomodate 150-180 pple for the 'Salvation is here' Christmas event! OK I will just take it one step at a time.
I have decided to set aside the festivities' trouble to go out with my frens for some fun in the 'sun'!
We planned to go to East Coast Park to cycle and enjoy the warm glow of the sun but under my fren's bad leadership we ended up at the wrng bus-stop and caught in the rain! OK, he claimed that bus 31 would bring us directly in front of ECP but then fortunately I stopped them one stop ahead of the bus-stop we should have alighted, or else we would have ended up in Parkway Parade! He walked while kicking the ball and the ball went onto the middle of the road linking bedok and ECP - A HIGHWAY! Without thinking he ran onto the road to retrieve the ball under the never-ending blast from the car horns... Our jaws dropped when we saw him pull that crazy stunt! We cycled for 1.5 hours from 1430hours to 1600hours. We were supposed to cycle together but yh and jason chose a two-men bike that they found impossible to ride and when they finally learnt how to ride, they rode it in the opposite direction as the rest of us who had a 0.5hours headstart, thinking ECP was a loop!!... *DUH DOPEY DOPEY DOPE*
We then played soccer in the underpass waiting for the rain to go away and went to Bedok Interchange to enjoy local hawker food! YUMMY duck rice i tell u =D Another day of sporting fun - Brownie Points to the organizers of the outing!
11:09 p.m. - 2006-12-16
Badminton showdown
Haha... I am rushing two entries in one nite. So here goes - Mark, jacob, jansen and me met for badminton at tamp sports hall today. It was so exciting as the adrenaline courses through your veins! Bleh, let me just describe the last set we played. Me and jansen teamed up against jacob and mark. Mark and Jacob caught up with us and managed to get a deuce with 2 loves up. Me and jansen ended their service and lost our own 4 times before we made the winning shot! We won 17-16, utterly fulfilling... Then we walked around TM like some aimless fools because we were guided by jansen and ended up playing LAN at simei again. We played for 40 min and left for pool again. Strikes a resemblance doesnt it? Nostalgia is incurred as I did the exact same thing yesterday!!! However I enjoyed myself thoroughly except the fact where I learnt that jacob got posted to VJC!!! =( NOOOOO.... Sigh, so I walked to my grandpa's house in tamp region beside st.hilda's sec. and had dinner there, spending some quality time with him.
oh wellll... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO IVAN TAN!
10:50 p.m. - 2006-12-16
Supposed Christmas Shopping
Yesterday was an all-guy's outing with lionel, mark and jansen. I met up with the "Yeo. Brothers" at orchard mrt at 1.40pm. In actual fact, I planned the outing to start at 1pm but when I msged lionel at 12.40 as I was leaving home, they told me they were at tamp mrt! I was utterly DEVASTATED... So i walked back home and waited until 1.20 before leaving home again. Ok, the purpose of our outing was to christmas shop but of course equipped with such poor shopping skills we ended up with nothing at the end of the day. We started off from outside orchard mrt. Lionel, Mark and me walked past wisma atria turned left across the road, entered then exit Paragon, walked past lucky plaza, turned left and ended up back at Wisma Atria! We turned a whole round just to end up eating at Food Republic... So, we walked to Heerens, centerpoint blah blah blah and ended eating dessert at Orchard Emerald Foodcourt(the one beside centerpoint and right oppo. somerset mrt)After finishing, jansen came into the scene. We set-off to play LAN. We played a game of D.O.T.A and then Counter-Strike and left after 2 hours of intense gaming. Again, christmas-shopping was brushed aside and we ended up playing pool! As expected, me and mark lost every single game against jansen and lionel. (All but one of the games where I was ON FIRE! =p)Then we had dinner across cuppage plaza and went home! What a fulfilling day =D
11:57 a.m. - 15.12.06
'We forget liao' Outing
Oh man... The time of the year is here again! Where all your money will just disappear in a flash =( This holiday alrdy burnt a huge hole in my pocket and now with christmas just around the corner I am sure my piggybank will surely be involved! I am starting to feel the anxiety... I havent done any gifts and I have not even completed the christmas list yet! Sigh... Anyways I found this great shop at centrepoint when I went out with 'We forget liao - SYC team 5' yesterday afternoon! It sells all this cool stuff that I tot will be great as christmas gifts!
Oh about my SYC group outing yesterday! I tink I have to start relating the entire 'pre-play' and 'post-play' of the story starting from the stormy night of 13th dec.
It was a dark and stormy night, and a gale that garnered enough power to take down an atap house was gathering around the AMK region. I was stuck at home on msn when lynette one of our SYC team's priceless member brilliantly suggested an outing! I agreed as team 5 were always the leaders and winners of every single field. By being the first ones to organize a post-SYC group outing we would surely be hailed the best of the best group! Mwahahah =p so we took around 1 hour just planning where to go and finally we settled upon a junior member outing as the older youths were all busy or working. We settled upon orchard...
It was a scorching and blisteringly hot day with showers over random areas of S'pore on the 14th Dec. This is the day we have decided upon for our 'We forget liao' outing. As the team leader, I spearheaded the entire operation single-handedly! Haha, actually I did nothing. =p But anyways, louis, jeremy, lynette, may anne, joanna were the people that turned up. Under my great guidance we settled upon pepper lunch - takashimaya outlet. Then we ate and set off to monster cue where we played pool. Then we trudged on as one to centerpoint where louis bought some of his christmas gift and where I was enlightened about such a great shop! Oh I also met henry at centrepoint. Oh I miss my sch frens alrdy... I asked him about his biceps but he was too shy to answer, he also said he will be going to Taiwan! So good! =D
- Kudos to 'we forget liao' group -
11:18 a.m. - 14.12.06
Finally...
Haha at last I completed my blog and updated my archives also! How happy =D I really hope that I will be able to consistently update this blog and keep it running! I hope you all support it through tagging words of encouragement too! I will be posting some verses from my QT that I feel will be encouraging constantly so look OUT!
Signing Off, Touche Patriot is off to Orchard!
3:58 p.m. - 13.12.06
Finishing Touches
HAHA I have finally finished a blog that I am satisfied enough to use! I will try my very best to constantly update and keep it going with pictures and posts! Sigh, why havent I listened in computer lessons before... I truly regret all the time spent playing games, sleeping and laughing at the funny accent my teacher has during the IT lessons, NOW I AM A TECHNO-RETARD! Anyways really happy with the template but the layout is a little screwed...