Life's full of unexpectancy.
I just came back from my cousin?'s funeral. He's only 27 and he died of cancer.
Not sure what's the exact relation we have, but though he's a distant relative, we still meet once every year.
I was stunned when I heard the news from my mom. I recall him as a person who's full of life, often the center of attraction and a total extrovert. I often hear people praising him, about how he's so caring, understanding and helpful.
He was like the model child that every parent wish to have.
Only today, I found out he's a Christian. I was quite blown away during the wake, as I sat there listening to the stories of how unselfish he was and how he sacrificed his time and energy for the people around him.
Because of what he did, his parents started attending church. Even his grandmother started attending church last year.
With such little time, he produced much fruits.
Isn't this what life is all about? Not just meeting deadlines, rushing from place to place and making ends meet. But it's about the people around us, around you and me, your loved ones.
Being a Christian is not just to attend weekend services and prayer meetings.
People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
Have we been too sheltered? Too comfortable in church, with all our church friends, that we've forgotten about those who are suffering without Jesus.
Or have we become judgemental and critical? Condemning others who are different from us and their lifestyle.
As much as we should do great things for God, we should always remember that Jesus served the community and the people around Him. He is King, yet He washed the feet of the disciples. He's the Son of God, yet He chose to die on the cross for us all.
A Christian-ist pride is still pride. Proud that you're saved and going to Heaven while everyone around you is condemned because of their lifestyle?
Heaven is a happy place because your loved ones are all with you, in eternity, worshipping God. But would it be happy if your loved ones are not with you? And you see them suffering, seperated from the presence of God.
Life's short.
Stop whining and do something great for God. While you're at it, pray for your family members to be saved, loved ones, everyone to be saved. And when you reunite in Heaven, it's a great time of celebration, for eternity.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
I feel old when I tell people that I've just been retrenched by my company.
Retrenchment seemed to only affect older people, without proper certifications. But now I know that retrenchment doesn't necessary affect matured workers.
Even thought I was retrenched, I was quite happy because I was starting to feel sick and tired of working at that place. Everyday was quite a bore and I simply spent the day playing games in facebook and chatting in MSN.
Not quite a good testimony, but I can boldly say that I've played my part and played it well too.
So what kind of jobs am I looking for?
Ideally, I would love to work full time in church. But I'm not very sure if there's any openings. I had this thought of being a missionary too, but I don't think CHC takes in people just like that.
Realistically, I've re-applied to be a relief teacher, just get some income in the mean time. I've also re-applied to be a CCPE in schools. Basically to coordinate CCA and CIP programs for the students.
Considering another post in MOE, but the job will not be open until 24 Jan 2009.
Don't have much time to waste! It's mid January and I've about 8.5 months left before Bernice leaves for UK to study! =( Tho it seems that we spend time together almost everyday. Sometimes it's quite challenging thinking of the things to do. But there will be days when everything will be so spontaneous, and we'll have such a great time together.
Anyway! Things can only be better starting from now!!
Looking forward to greater things in 2009!
Retrenchment seemed to only affect older people, without proper certifications. But now I know that retrenchment doesn't necessary affect matured workers.
Even thought I was retrenched, I was quite happy because I was starting to feel sick and tired of working at that place. Everyday was quite a bore and I simply spent the day playing games in facebook and chatting in MSN.
Not quite a good testimony, but I can boldly say that I've played my part and played it well too.
So what kind of jobs am I looking for?
Ideally, I would love to work full time in church. But I'm not very sure if there's any openings. I had this thought of being a missionary too, but I don't think CHC takes in people just like that.
Realistically, I've re-applied to be a relief teacher, just get some income in the mean time. I've also re-applied to be a CCPE in schools. Basically to coordinate CCA and CIP programs for the students.
Considering another post in MOE, but the job will not be open until 24 Jan 2009.
Don't have much time to waste! It's mid January and I've about 8.5 months left before Bernice leaves for UK to study! =( Tho it seems that we spend time together almost everyday. Sometimes it's quite challenging thinking of the things to do. But there will be days when everything will be so spontaneous, and we'll have such a great time together.
Anyway! Things can only be better starting from now!!
Looking forward to greater things in 2009!
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
"As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008," he said. "The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my number one priority.
"Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause -- a hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis."
"Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause -- a hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis."
-Steve Jobs, Apple CEO
Hmm. I've been losing weight and mass throughout 2008 too!!
Maybe I'm the next Apple CEO, or another company.
How about....
CEO of .... Durian?
Sunday, January 04, 2009
What do I want to achieve in this life?
This question rang in my head as I walked home from Bukit Panjang Plaza.
I felt like I've wasted so much of my time, 24 years, doing nothing significant and ending up running in circles.
Have I been aimlessly living my life, even though I've visions and dreams? What's the use of having visions and dreams when there seems to be no work done towards it.
With every step that I take, a question fired out of no where, searching deeper into my heart.
Pretty soon, the topic of Church and God came into my mind.
What have I gained from going to Church and God?
I was speechless for the moment as I searched my mind for standard answers. They were not from my heart and it's simply quotes that are so frequently quoted in Church.
Is this really the life that I'm living? Am I going to be just another passerby on Earth? Without any significant contribution for the kingdom of God?
A desperate cry for God, at a desperate moment.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray , and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Then I shared with God about what happened earlier and He said.
Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Then I complained and quoted this verse
Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
And I got smacked by God.
Nah. Not really.
Somehow, I was reminded of this verse about Jesus weeping. Which reminded me that God is a God of emotions too, that He understands how we feel during times of difficulties.
He's not just a ruler that sits on a throne, nonchalant and harden. But He's a God who has came to Earth, died for our sins and rose again in victory. Nothing is too difficult for our God and no matter what we are going through, He is able to help us with the difficulties.
By human effort, you can achieve an considerable achievement. But together with God, amazing things can happen. I wouldn't want to achieve based on my own physical human strength. But I want to yield to Him and let Him take over.
Contradictions between the Spirit and Flesh is always on-going.
Must overcome the temptations.
This question rang in my head as I walked home from Bukit Panjang Plaza.
I felt like I've wasted so much of my time, 24 years, doing nothing significant and ending up running in circles.
Have I been aimlessly living my life, even though I've visions and dreams? What's the use of having visions and dreams when there seems to be no work done towards it.
With every step that I take, a question fired out of no where, searching deeper into my heart.
Pretty soon, the topic of Church and God came into my mind.
What have I gained from going to Church and God?
I was speechless for the moment as I searched my mind for standard answers. They were not from my heart and it's simply quotes that are so frequently quoted in Church.
Is this really the life that I'm living? Am I going to be just another passerby on Earth? Without any significant contribution for the kingdom of God?
A desperate cry for God, at a desperate moment.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray , and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Then I shared with God about what happened earlier and He said.
Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Then I complained and quoted this verse
Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
And I got smacked by God.
Nah. Not really.
Somehow, I was reminded of this verse about Jesus weeping. Which reminded me that God is a God of emotions too, that He understands how we feel during times of difficulties.
He's not just a ruler that sits on a throne, nonchalant and harden. But He's a God who has came to Earth, died for our sins and rose again in victory. Nothing is too difficult for our God and no matter what we are going through, He is able to help us with the difficulties.
By human effort, you can achieve an considerable achievement. But together with God, amazing things can happen. I wouldn't want to achieve based on my own physical human strength. But I want to yield to Him and let Him take over.
Contradictions between the Spirit and Flesh is always on-going.
Must overcome the temptations.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
31 December has come and gone.
It was a day full of fun, joy and surprises.
With Bernice, we went on a planned trip to P. Ubin. The agenda was to visit Chek Jawa, have a little picnic at one of the beaches and for me to bring her to the highest point in Ubin.
Ubin was packed that day! Loads of people were visiting Ubin too! (people mountain people sea, that sort of feeling) For a fleeting moment I thought our 'getaway' will be diluted. But the moment we got our bicycles and cycled away into the lost lands of Ubin (you think this is jurassic park?), we found ourselves surrounded by nature and God's creation. (if you look hard enough, u can see the tyrannosaurus lurking behind the bush....right.)
Wild boars, butterflies and iguna lizards (iguanas ARE already lizards, dear) made their special appearances. 'Crocodile' Hunter, Bernice Yeo, sneaked up to the creatures and tried to take pretty shots of them, though half of the time, she scares them away.
Finally we made it to Mamaam Beach. Salad was on the menu and we happy chomped our greens down. Though the waves were threatening to devour us, we bravely sat on the edge of the rocks, risking being soaking wet. Well, the not-so-brave 'Crocodile' hunter backed out and opted for a safer option because her socks were about to get wet and she doesn't like wet socks.
Talk about being a wet blanket.
(unless you, joel "braveheart' kuek, enjoys eating heavily-polluted-seawater seasoned salad and seeing our bags and shoes getting washed away by the waves, I'd say what i did was pretty smart. So there.)
ANYWAY, greens were really nice, prepared by Bernice. Probably the only time I'll eat so much greens. (of course la. there were two types of lettuce, ham cubes, fruits and nuts...)
NEXT STOP! Chek Jawa! We cycled our way in and it was a crazily crazy long route. Uphills, downhills and slopes of all sorts, we finally made it to the site. Parked our bikes and walked into the main reception counter.
It's HIGH TIDE!! Gosh. Kinda pointless to visit Chek Jawa when it's the high tide because all you see is the waves and that's about it.
So I brought her to the highest point of Ubin.
Pretty-licious place and it took her breath away. We set up the place, kicked off our shoes, socks and bags. Ready for a blasting great time when the heavens blasted too.
We could see that it was raining cows and donkeys on mainland. I was just joking with her that we can call our friends and tease them. Before I could stop laughing, the skies over Ubin turned dark and raindrops started dropping on our heads.
*irritated*
Did our mini rescue mission, and we nearly wanted to brave the rain and just hold our ground. But the torrential rain didn't stop. Made our way down the hill and the rain stopped.
How wonderful.
But it was quite a refreshing experience. The rain washed away our sweat and it felt like we took a nice shower. Our clothes were not exactly soaking wet because we covered ourselves with my army towel, our shoes and socks were still very dry.
Thank God!! It became like showers of blessings! Which I happily coined it.
Cycled back to the main ubin area and we had really fantastic coconuts. It was so sweet, that would be the taste of heaven's plain water. Totally went crazy drinking the coconut, not knowing that Bernice was setting up for a surprise in main land.
Travelled back home and I realized all the doors at home were closed. Sensing something was wrong, I went to my room and opened the door.
I saw a face, with a mask and a party popper pointed at me.
Slammed the door shut, held onto the door handle and told Bernice that there's someone inside. That very smart girl who played a part in planning this surprise simply laughed away. I could hear laughter in my room too.
After about 2 minutes, I opened the door and saw three partners in crime.
Charmaine, Jodie and Junxiang. They 'broke' into my house, decorated my room, gave my mom a scare and surprised me on my birthday.
Really touched by the efforts they had put in, organising everything and planning everything behind my back.
Just when I thought they're not celebrating my birthday because it's new year's eve. Lol.
Ok. Bernice's taking over now. Anyway, she's the one writing in all the ( )s.
-
Well, joel has left for to go to service and I'm left to tidy up after him- as usual. On the other hand, I get to fill in all the parts that he conveniently missed out - like the look of pure panic on his face (you could practically seeing his knees trembling) as he frantically yanked the door shut. And the way he bewilderedly told me " there are PEOPLE in my room...holding party poppers!" Yeah, like you'd expect to find bank robbers in your room on new year's eve, holding party poppers as their weapon of choice. SO manly, joel kuek si jun.
And even then, he STILL didn't realise who it was inside his room...until like, 5 minutes later. It was AWESOME.
After all the laughter and some birthday bashing (we were using him as target practice for some balloon tossing -if you managed to nail him on the head, you got 50 points, and so on), we made him hunt for his birthday present.
Now, for any of you who'd got him tagged as some supremo expert detective, Sherlock Holmes type of guy, what with him being in the security elites and all - you got it WRONG. He would've scored almost zero for detecting and analytical skills - which was totally adorable, in a Mr Bean-esque way. He'd searched the whole house, including the store room, before even deigning to look under his bed, on the grounds that he thought the area under his bed was too messy for people to hide stuff in it.
To put things in a nutshell, he got a lovely white leather belt with a big metal buckle from River Island. Thanks to Charmaine, Jodie, Liangkai and Junxiang (:
I got him Springfield sneakers, which made him look about 10 years younger, so he wouldn't look so much like apaedophile next to me. Just kidding!
Right, let's fast forward...(as you can tell, I'm not a very enthusiastic blogger and all)...hung out for a while, ordered pizza...blah blah...Liangkai and Jonathan came by...blah...Ardie popped in too, and promptly got kicked out with the rest of the gang to complete the rest of their new year's partying, while we went prawning with joel's family.
Went prawning, only caught 5 miserable prawns, was disappointed. Ended the night/day with a movie marathon, which we fell asleep in the middle of.
The end!
It was a day full of fun, joy and surprises.
With Bernice, we went on a planned trip to P. Ubin. The agenda was to visit Chek Jawa, have a little picnic at one of the beaches and for me to bring her to the highest point in Ubin.
Ubin was packed that day! Loads of people were visiting Ubin too! (people mountain people sea, that sort of feeling) For a fleeting moment I thought our 'getaway' will be diluted. But the moment we got our bicycles and cycled away into the lost lands of Ubin (you think this is jurassic park?), we found ourselves surrounded by nature and God's creation. (if you look hard enough, u can see the tyrannosaurus lurking behind the bush....right.)
Wild boars, butterflies and iguna lizards (iguanas ARE already lizards, dear) made their special appearances. 'Crocodile' Hunter, Bernice Yeo, sneaked up to the creatures and tried to take pretty shots of them, though half of the time, she scares them away.
Finally we made it to Mamaam Beach. Salad was on the menu and we happy chomped our greens down. Though the waves were threatening to devour us, we bravely sat on the edge of the rocks, risking being soaking wet. Well, the not-so-brave 'Crocodile' hunter backed out and opted for a safer option because her socks were about to get wet and she doesn't like wet socks.
Talk about being a wet blanket.
(unless you, joel "braveheart' kuek, enjoys eating heavily-polluted-seawater seasoned salad and seeing our bags and shoes getting washed away by the waves, I'd say what i did was pretty smart. So there.)
ANYWAY, greens were really nice, prepared by Bernice. Probably the only time I'll eat so much greens. (of course la. there were two types of lettuce, ham cubes, fruits and nuts...)
NEXT STOP! Chek Jawa! We cycled our way in and it was a crazily crazy long route. Uphills, downhills and slopes of all sorts, we finally made it to the site. Parked our bikes and walked into the main reception counter.
It's HIGH TIDE!! Gosh. Kinda pointless to visit Chek Jawa when it's the high tide because all you see is the waves and that's about it.
So I brought her to the highest point of Ubin.
Pretty-licious place and it took her breath away. We set up the place, kicked off our shoes, socks and bags. Ready for a blasting great time when the heavens blasted too.
We could see that it was raining cows and donkeys on mainland. I was just joking with her that we can call our friends and tease them. Before I could stop laughing, the skies over Ubin turned dark and raindrops started dropping on our heads.
*irritated*
Did our mini rescue mission, and we nearly wanted to brave the rain and just hold our ground. But the torrential rain didn't stop. Made our way down the hill and the rain stopped.
How wonderful.
But it was quite a refreshing experience. The rain washed away our sweat and it felt like we took a nice shower. Our clothes were not exactly soaking wet because we covered ourselves with my army towel, our shoes and socks were still very dry.
Thank God!! It became like showers of blessings! Which I happily coined it.
Cycled back to the main ubin area and we had really fantastic coconuts. It was so sweet, that would be the taste of heaven's plain water. Totally went crazy drinking the coconut, not knowing that Bernice was setting up for a surprise in main land.
Travelled back home and I realized all the doors at home were closed. Sensing something was wrong, I went to my room and opened the door.
I saw a face, with a mask and a party popper pointed at me.
Slammed the door shut, held onto the door handle and told Bernice that there's someone inside. That very smart girl who played a part in planning this surprise simply laughed away. I could hear laughter in my room too.
After about 2 minutes, I opened the door and saw three partners in crime.
Charmaine, Jodie and Junxiang. They 'broke' into my house, decorated my room, gave my mom a scare and surprised me on my birthday.
Really touched by the efforts they had put in, organising everything and planning everything behind my back.
Just when I thought they're not celebrating my birthday because it's new year's eve. Lol.
Ok. Bernice's taking over now. Anyway, she's the one writing in all the ( )s.
-
Well, joel has left for to go to service and I'm left to tidy up after him- as usual. On the other hand, I get to fill in all the parts that he conveniently missed out - like the look of pure panic on his face (you could practically seeing his knees trembling) as he frantically yanked the door shut. And the way he bewilderedly told me " there are PEOPLE in my room...holding party poppers!" Yeah, like you'd expect to find bank robbers in your room on new year's eve, holding party poppers as their weapon of choice. SO manly, joel kuek si jun.
And even then, he STILL didn't realise who it was inside his room...until like, 5 minutes later. It was AWESOME.
After all the laughter and some birthday bashing (we were using him as target practice for some balloon tossing -if you managed to nail him on the head, you got 50 points, and so on), we made him hunt for his birthday present.
Now, for any of you who'd got him tagged as some supremo expert detective, Sherlock Holmes type of guy, what with him being in the security elites and all - you got it WRONG. He would've scored almost zero for detecting and analytical skills - which was totally adorable, in a Mr Bean-esque way. He'd searched the whole house, including the store room, before even deigning to look under his bed, on the grounds that he thought the area under his bed was too messy for people to hide stuff in it.
To put things in a nutshell, he got a lovely white leather belt with a big metal buckle from River Island. Thanks to Charmaine, Jodie, Liangkai and Junxiang (:
I got him Springfield sneakers, which made him look about 10 years younger, so he wouldn't look so much like apaedophile next to me. Just kidding!
Right, let's fast forward...(as you can tell, I'm not a very enthusiastic blogger and all)...hung out for a while, ordered pizza...blah blah...Liangkai and Jonathan came by...blah...Ardie popped in too, and promptly got kicked out with the rest of the gang to complete the rest of their new year's partying, while we went prawning with joel's family.
Went prawning, only caught 5 miserable prawns, was disappointed. Ended the night/day with a movie marathon, which we fell asleep in the middle of.
The end!
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