10th Year Bible Camper

After 9 years of Bible camping, it seems as if I wanted it to end it by attending my final one to make a 10th one to make it a decade as a Bible camper. What makes it better would be myself being the oldest camper in the entire camp besides the camp commandant which means there's a financial advantage over all the other big brothers. Heh Heh. Hey, financially loaded is a huge advantage in camp if you don't know how Bible camp is like when you're appointed as a big brother for a group. With that, I'm able to treat the whole group ice cream plus some other goodies to greatly motivate the group to win more activities that we took part plus putting extra 'stress' upon the other group leaders. Hehehe..Even their group members felt like switching over to my group. Like Switch. "Have you switch from Windows to Apple yet?", Apple's famous quote. 

Anyway, this camp was the most tiring camp ever in my entire Bible camping experience. No, it's not because I'm getting older but those who have went for that camp can testify with me that this camp is indeed very tiring as most of us doze off even before 12am. I used to be able to have midnight chats with the all the group members talking about ghosts, spiritual life struggles, girls, or arm/leg wrestling inside the dorm from my past years in camp but this one, no one even stayed up for any talks. All slept like a log when the lights went off.

All the activities in camp organized by Burmah Road Gospel Hall was intense enough to make me used up all my skills and capabilities to lead the group to participate in all the activities. Each activity requires much planning and quick workarounds as any surprise element would pop up during the activities. There was the Amazing Race challenge, Survivors Nite challenge, Test of Wills challenge, Fire and Ice challenge, Bible CSI and finally the Runway to summed up all the activities in 2008 Bible camp. As I always liked workshops more than just playing any ball games which would always be the 'same' thing over and over again. I enjoyed all the workshops very much in terms of their creativity and challenging tasks at hand but I would just remark them as too tiring. However, all in all, these workshops are great and I deeply thank BRGH for organizing it. They have indeed pushed the benchmark of Bible camp into another level from all the other years of camps.

Inasmuch as I've enjoyed the camp activities, I enjoyed serving God there in the camp by mixing around with all the campers plus encouraging them and sharing with them in the Word of God. I've seen many different personalities in the past camps and this camp is not exceptional as well. Many of the believers come from different backgrounds which makes it more interesting when sharing with them. Some came from strong Christian family backgrounds, some are newly 1st generation Christians, some came from different denominations, and some are non-believers. Each of these groups potraits a different frequency of need in their spiritual walk with God and for some, yet to start a relationship with God which should be dealt with differently.

I took the oldest group which consists of those aged above 20 years old in my daily devotion group as I felt that I'm beginning to lose touch with the ones that had a decade age gap with me. It was refreshing to be in this group because everyone in that group came from different background which made the morning devotion discussions very interesting in terms of listening to my group members share from their experiences. There is one thing I loved about camps is that there are always opportunity to touch other people's lives with your own or be touched by others.

I used to think that serving in camp should be reserved for the younger generations in order to groom them to be a capable leader and those who are seasoned should not take that place. However, God showed how wrong I can be when the organizers appointed me as a big bro for a group. Well since then, I changed my 'perspective' and started to proclaim to the world that if a person decides not to serve or go for camps like this are labeling themselves to be 'senior people' who should go for seniors fellowship camps. LoL. I guess this statement will change as the years passes by and when I get older. Hahaha..

Just to sum up everything, one thing I've learnt in this camp is that motivation is indeed very important in every believer's life. It is because of motivation I believe that my group won the best group in camp. It is because of motivation I believe that ensures a believer to do their quiet time daily without fail. Most importantly would be that every believer's motivation should come from Christ alone and that without Him, we are nothing but with Him, we can be anything for Him. Amen.

Grace Period

One day as my colleague was installing a software for our new server and he got this prompt up after installation saying 'The product has not been activated and has been operating without activation for a grace period of seven days.The Grace Period has now expired.' He asked me what to do next when faced with this problem so we managed to get hold of the license key from our counterpart in US and managed to get it solved.

The thing that struck me was this: What if the Grace period given to the whole world to find grace in the Lord Jesus Christ is expired? This thought continued to develop in my mind as I thought of the consequences when the dispensation of grace really expires. What is going to happen? To those who have studied about dispensationalism and second coming of Christ would know what will happen next.

The verse below taken from Luke 4:16- 21 states the fulfillment of the acceptable year of the Lord which would usher in the dispensation of Grace to replace the dispensation of Law.

16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,^[j]
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”^[k]

20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The original text for that part of Scripture is from Isaiah 61:1-3

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

Certainly this prophecy has come to passed in part and the other part is still yet to be fulfilled. Yes, the part where "And the day of vengeance of our God..."and the rest of the written text is not being fulfilled yet. However, it will come to pass when the grace period expires and it definitely doesn't sound nice to see the word 'Vengeance of our God' appear after that.

The point that I want to stress on is that time is running out. The grace period of God which is extended to everyone is now available so it's high time for each of us to start spreading the gospel of Christ before it's too late! And as for those who is reading this and knows about the gospel of Christ, linger no more. If you are curious about this, please speak to this blogger about it. It really matters! Plus it's better to be warned than not informed of such grace extended to you by God. Just as the software's trial period is up, we have to start paying for the license to use it. Similarly with God's period of grace when once the period is over, those who are left behind must pay the price of sin which is everlasting death.

Slowly but surely, a time will come where the throne of mercy will be turned into the throne which 'proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices.' (Rev 4:5, Rev 11:19) The description of the judgment of God is described in those verses and it will come!

Penang Bridge Run Revisited

This year I didn't intended to join the run. After 2 broken toe nails, I told myself that I shouldn't participate in any marathons in the future since I've achieved my goal 2 years ago by running the Penang Bridge.In that span of 2 years, I have suffered greatly in my trainings to run that bridge and not only finish it but finish it within 3 hours to qualify for the medal.

Last year, I managed to achieve that goal and I planned to stop running since I was not born to be a runner. (I'm lousy in running because I got caught most of the time during hide and seek when I was young..) This year, the Penang Bridge Run was supposed to be called off due to the budget freeze by the government but Mr Lim miraculously managed to pull some strings and get some sponsors to organize the run without fundings from the government! Thus, the run was on and its starting point was in Queensbay Mall.

This year's run added a few kilometres to each category since it was held in Queensbay (it used to be held in USM..) which makes the whole marathon a big challenge for all the runners especially if I (amateur runner) were to join. So I told myself a big NO even from the start of the registration. Heh.

I managed to persuade some of my friends to join and ridiculed them if they didn't join the run when I, myself is not joining the run. Hehe..I'm so evil..*grin* However, to cut the long story short, I ended up signing in for the run on the eve of the big day itself. Sigh. I don't know why I did it but as I was driving past Queensbay, I saw all the tents, signboards and everything was put into place. As I watched all that, I remembered the time when I tasted the cornflakes after the marathon. It tastes like heaven! I felt as if it was the best thing I ever had eaten in my entire life. Maybe I was exaggerating but it really felt that way ok! So I acted impulsively by taking the registration form and signed myself up for a 10km run. Without any second thoughts, I took out RM10 and paid for the run.

Everything happened so rapidly and the next thing I knew, I was buying my PowerBar for the run! Hahaha. It was so natural. Must be Justin's fault. Anyway, I woke up at 4:30am the next day for the run despite of the lack of sleep I had(I was having a gathering with my primary school mates until 12am..), I rushed off to fetch Justin at 5am so that we could find ourselves a good spot to park and walk to the starting point.

The whole Sungai Nibong was packed with cars and I couldn't find any parking near Queensbay so I parked at Jeff's house which was quite a distance away from Queensbay. Then we walked to Jerejak Jetty (dunno what that place is called..) because our starting point is there. It was a good 2km walk to the jetty and the whole place was packed with people! There was easily 8000 people there at that time and most of them are wearing the orange Penang Bridge Run T-shirt when both of us is wearing out sleeve-less singlet to show off our biceps to the 'adik-beradiks ' in the run.

As we hanged around in the starting point waiting for the run to start, we tried to spot any familiar faces who would be joining the run but sadly couldn't find any..All the runners are young at age while both of us feels so old and leftout in the group.And then we ate our PowerBars and drink our Red Bulls as we warm ourselves up for the run.My adrenaline was already pumping as I waits for the run to start.I must admit that I haven't felt so charged up ever since my last run till this very moment.Hehe

As the gun fired into the air which marks the commencement of our run, we immediately ran off to be among the front liners so that we would not be blocked by the 'slow-runners'. Hehe. Our goal was a common one: Finish the race before 2 hours and get to church in time for Lord Supper!

It was quite a distance from Jerejak Jetty to the bridge but we were progressing quite well as we paced our speed fairly in order for us to finish the race in our timing.I was quite happy actually for the fact that I did not koyak that fast even though I didn't trained at all for this run. As we reached the foot of the bridge, we noticed that it was a graveyard spot because we spotted alot of PowerGel packets on the floor. I guess that the half marathon runners had already dehydrated at that point? Still a mystery to me since the distance from Queensbay to the foot of the bridge isn't that far for them to use the gels yet. Anyway, we continued running without stop uphill towards the bridge hoping to reach the U-turn as soon as possible.

Once we reached the middle span and did the U-turn, we stopped running and started walking back. We made short term goals by setting short destinations where we should run to instead of walking the whole way back to Queensbay which could have probably caused us to miss the Lord Supper in church.The short term goals we made did work as we tried to push ourselves off our limits and we made it to the finishing line before 2 hours was up! 

We managed to finish the run in 1 hour 32 minutes! I bet we could have finished it in 1 hour if we had been faithfully training. hehe 

Oh yeah, just 300 metres away from the finishing line, Justin and myself decided to go all out for it. We started to sprint all the way until the end. It was fun at the moment when we managed to cross the finishing line but was painful when we had to walked back all the way to Jeff's house to get our car! 

And oh yes, I get to eat my cornflakes! Target sighted. Target achieved. Target consumed. Yummy! Nothing beats the cornflakes after a marathon. Muahhahaha..

Who's your boss?

Last Monday I had the privilege of being rewarded at work.

It goes like this: I went to work as usual when suddenly my boss grabbed me into a room. At first I thought I must have done something wrong or I must have forgotten to do something for him.My boss is a very detailed person and would like everything to be done according to the standard procedure. I've been scolded by him before some time ago when I did things to improve the results but wasn't following the standard procedure which he ended up removing all those improvements.However, my boss, despite being an idealist, he's actually a very good boss that knows how to take care of my needs and understanding.No, he doesn't know that I write blogs and I'm certain that he won't read this here. Heh Heh

So here am I, in a room with him, feeling a little nervous of what's going to happen next.Holding in his hand was 3 envelopes.There can only be 3 possibilities.One is that I've done something so wrong that I would only redeem myself if I'll be forfeited of my job. Two, I'll get a raise for no reason.Lalala. And three, it's my monthly pay slip.

Without wasting more time, my boss, being a direct person as he is, told me that the first envelope is my monthly pay slip. The second one is my raise! (I was told that I was actually being underpaid for the level of job grade which I hold and was given a raise to meet the minimum expectation for that level of job grade.There was only 57 people in the whole company who was given this raise!) Instead of feeling "bo tart" for working for the company for almost a year getting paid below par, I actually felt that it was indeed a real blessing to receive this raise! I wouldn't mind if I was being paid lesser than I ought to because if the company did not intend to give me that raise, I wouldn't even realized that I was underpaid! It was purely out of their good conscience or God's will to bless? I would believe the latter.

People may think that the company is suppressing me by underpaying me and advised me that I should get a back payment for the mistake that they have done.Unfortunately, I would like to think otherwise.By receiving this raise now, I felt that my hard work actually paid off and God blessed me with this earthly blessing.Besides, if I was given the right amount from the beginning, I would not feel the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment because I don't really know much or did much in the beginning.

As I was feeling ecstatic when I received that second envelope, a third envelope came in. It was a token of appreciation (RM100 voucher angpow from Carrefour) from my boss for all the support that I've done during midnights plus weekends.By that time, I was already 'high' with so much blessings in one day.He told me that he was sorry because he didn't gave it me earlier so that I could enjoy my weekend but whatever it is, I don't really care when he gives it to me anyway. As long as he gives me, I'm overjoyed. Heh Heh

I thanked him with my smile that's so wide that my eyes turned into Mashi Maro's eyes.I walked out that room and immediately uttered a thanksgiving prayer unto the Lord for His goodness for I believe all good things comes from Him and Him alone. I believe that God is the true boss even though He appoints many bosses to govern us in our lives in order for us to submit unto them. And finally, even though I may change my job to elsewhere, my earthly bosses will change accordingly but my true boss never changes and in this I delight unto the Lord.

"Oh Lord, thank You for blessing me so much even though I have not acquire them from You. Indeed You will perform every good will according to your time and your ways which I have no clue about it for Your ways are not my ways, and Your thoughts are not my thoughts. For this, I will keep on clinging on You regardless of what the future may hold because my life is in You, Lord.

In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ' name I pray,
Amen."

The Ax Head Floats!!

Last Saturday I was extremely demoralized.First, I heard that most of the YP's won't be following the bus to GLO for the GLO reunion service.At first I had quite a number of them who gave their response to attend that event. However, as the day draws nearer, one by one drop off. I heard some of them had themselves grounded by their parents, some of them have placed their exams to be their ultimate focus in life and some of them just couldn't be interested or bothered.



Well, I don't blame any of them actually because why should I be discouraged by the surroundings when I should have the conviction that comes from within?Nevertheless, being human is always frail. I was telling Justin on how demoralized I was when the numbers of youth dwindles for that event. He knew I was lamenting about it because I did it when he came to pick me up to church.However, I thought to myself that if I don't go then I will open myself to more temptations by staying at home alone. So I told myself that there should be a blessing in disguise if I go one, so I went with some confidence in my heart.



As we traveled to Taiping, I noticed that Uncle Kha Kooi was somewhat disappointed with the youth attendance seeing so many empty seats that was in the bus. I guess he was really hoping that the youth would had come to show support to GLO since GLO was suspended for this year. He would wished that the youth should come as an encouragement to GLO.Well, sometimes we see all our hopes would lead to a dead end even though the motives are right.I begin to see the light of life through the reality that shows around us when we thought that God would certainly bless us when we ask for the right things but that is just a mere expectation which we created in our minds. Where in the Scripture do we see righteous wishes would always end up with fruitful results? If that's always true then the theme of 2 Corinthians would not be dwelling on the attribute of God where He is the God of all comfort for those who clings on Him in times of trials.



Our response should always fall back on Him because in the end, it is only Him who knows what is beyond that rainbow. It is only God who has control of everything so it's best to always depend on Him whether in good times or bad times.



When I was in the church hall listening to various people sharing on the pulpit about GLO, I was thinking to myself whether should I quit my job and enroll myself to be a full time student at GLO. Hahaha..I wished I can do that but I wished I knew about GLO earlier in my life. If I knew about GLO when I am in the age of 17, I would certainly go for full time rather than wasting my time in RBS..Seriously, I can't recall anything I learnt from RBS..It's so blank now even when I think of it.I could remember bible camps sermons even more than what I can think of when I was in RBS! Sien..it's really sien when you find yourself wasting one month in Camerons and learnt nothing significant in life but get yourself full of rashes after that camp. The water there is extremely toxic..I can justify that! Argh..the Sieness..anyway, out of topic..



Then came Mr Ung preaching on a strong message taken from 2 King 6:1-7 which speaks of the floating ax head. I wondered what can he speak on from such that verse. When he started to expound and relate the activities of GLO with the pool of ministries in the world, then it started to make a whole lot of sense.



Firstly, he relate the sons of the prophets cutting down trees with the assembly working through GLO to offer solid discipleship from the Word. And then, it seems as if the sons of the prophets was working together to cut down beams but after a while each of them seems to be disoriented and worked individually without having the similar focus as before. This symbolizes that there was once upon a time where the assemblies had the similar focus together to build up GLO school together to build up disciples for God, rooted in the Word of God and equiped with good works. But as time passes by, GLO school was becoming more and more like the other institutes. The unique identidy of GLO was soon slowly fading away.

Then as it went on, one of them had their ax head fell into the pool of water. That symbolizes
that GLO school identity was becoming like the rest of the other organizations which are available in the pool of bible institutes. It was then GLO tried to emulate what the rest of the bible schools were capable of.It has lost its cutting edge where GLO normally could provide.


He was emphasizing that GLO should offer something that others could not offer. According to him, bible seminaries were inter denominational, RBS are practical but lack of depth and BSF are devotional where fellowship of Christians from all denominations could come together but never touched the doctrines of the Church. It is at this point of time when GLO came to realize that they should come back in one accord and work together to provide something that no other institutes can provide which is the firm teaching of the Word with assembly church practice distinctives.

It was stated that now as GLO picks up its ax head which floats from the pool, and fixes it back into the handle. The handle represents the title/name and the ax head represents the Word of God. The iron is hard so as the teaching of God is hard to swallow and receive but as the story pointed out despite of its hardness of iron, the ax head floats! This is something that needs to pay more attention at.Even though the teaching of the Word is hard to receive but it is presented in a way that it is gentle enough for the students to accept it. It is now time for GLO to take up the ax head and fixes it on its handle where the name should reconcile with its cutting edge.

I was truly blessed with so much spiritual truths in one evening. Thank you Lord for encouraging me in GLO despite of me being discouraged by the surroundings.

The faithfulness of God

Something happened yesterday that made my heart rejoice with thanksgiving and filled with joy.
Something that the youth commitees have been praying fervently for.
Something that I thought would never come true due to so many obstacles that stands in the way.

But God in His sovereignity proved me wrong. Not only wrong, but faithless. I have always had a little more doubt than faith concerning that prayer which I made to God. I did not fully place my trust in God even though I knew it in the head that I should have faith. Sometimes I think I know more when I ought to simply believe it.

Most of the times, God had answered my prayers in alot of ways according to my plea when I put faith in it.I always thanked God for answering my prayers when I realized that it was His doing because I was expecting that kind of response from God.

Today, I realized another important trait about God through experience. This verse appeared in my mind immediately when I was still praising God today:

If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.

2 Timothy 2:13

God remains to be faithful even though I was faithless towards Him. His character is truly unchangable and His attributes endures forever. In this, I rejoice even more greatly when in my weakness, God used it for His opportunity to show how mighty He is in my life. Thank you God for such an experience.

Next year's bible camp speaker will be George Dawson. God willing that he will be able to make it that time. Amen

Account 13th September 2008

It's 12:25 AM now and I just got back from a whole day of activities. Usually I'm already asleep at this time cause I have a strict schedule which I had to wake up at 6am everyday to get to work.However, tonight wasn't that usual night.Tonight I decided to pen down some of my thoughts and experience which I had today.(Although I know I should go to bed now since 7 hours later will be the Lord's Supper in church!)

It was an eventful day for me today as I begin the day by hanging out with Justin to the movies to watch "Money No Enough 2" which I had watched it 2 weeks ago with my mum.Well, although I have watched it already, I decided to watch it again with Justin just to have some laughs and spend some fellowship time together.It was a good comedy with a solemn ending at the end which touched most people's heart and makes them consider themselves.(I'm not going to spoil the movie for those who haven't watch it yet..)I gotta admit that this movie is a timely reminder for most people in this era and it serves as a good community show.

After the movie, we went for lunch in Nandos and met Jonathan Low with family there.We had a good time of fellowship there as well since I haven't really chatted with his family for quite some time.As for Jon Low, he's always teasing me with a girl which I have no interest on and most of the time, the conversation revolves around teasing here and there. Sigh. Gotta find a partner soon to stop his crap and tease.LOL

After that lunch, Justin and myself headed to church to 'anticipate' who would join the tracting in Youth Park which lo and behold, only 9 youths turned up including myself. It was a small group indeed but nevertheless that didn't disappointed me since I didn't really put high expectations on them.However, it striked me that some of them really had the zeal and passion for evangelism even though most of them had no idea what to say or what to do.It's really the heart that matters.Boldness and speech can be trained up or given by God but conviction only comes from within which matters the most.This shows that there are serious Christians afterall in our youth group and I rejoice to God for that!

When we got to Youth Park, we split ourselves into 2 groups. One led by Kok Wei and the other led by myself as we go separate ways to 'hunt'.I didn't had the boldness to approach anyone as I haven't done this for quite a long time so my fears overshadowed me.As I continue to walked along with the rest of them (Jeff,Mark,Sarah and Zara), I went to reach out by myself as I felt it harder to lead a group because it was quite awkward to have a bunch of people crowding around someone to be witnessed to.That person sure takut wan if kena mobbed by us.Heh

I went on to give chinese tracts to many chinese speaking people, mostly old ones since I had language barrier to reach out in Mandarin or Hokkien.However, I managed to bump into one auntie that could speak English when she indicated to me that she doesn't know how to read the chinese tract which I gave to her.I gathered my courage and tried to share to her in one on one basis by going into a spiritual conversation with her.As I was talking, the sky started to rain and suprisingly, the auntie seems like interested in the topic so we went and look for a shelter to continue our discussion.

She made some points stating that we cannot really define what is good and what is wrong as each of us have our own standards on what is good and bad which lies on every individual's interpretation.Well, I just simply agree with her to a certain extent but told her that there is a common set of right and wrongs where everyone else have in common which is the conscience.It is the conscience that bears witness against us when we do wrong or when we do right.I told her that no one in their right mind would think that murdering someone is a right thing or a lawful thing to do.Even if there's somebody with such mindset, the law will certainly take action on that person by the authorities.

Next, she made the comment on no one really knows that there's a God or not.I answered her back by showing her the nature around here.With such complicated design of nature itself, there's got to be a master designer behind the scenes working at them.Things are too great to happen by chance and if chances can takes it place so easily, then why wouldn't things get 'created' every once a while?Yet she still wasn't convinced at that point until I told her that there is someone who admited himself to be God and proved to everyone that He is God by being resurrected from the dead after the 3rd day of His death.He proclaimed it and proved it to mankind.

Then, she questions the validity of that statement and says that history is written by men and it could be a bias thought.I agreed with her to a certain point but chose to proclaim to her that history is just men writing down what happens.It states clearly what really happened at that time and it is used for the future references.If we were to disregard the historical events of Jesus then we could even question the fact that World War 2 was just a fiction of imagination, or man landed on the moon could be a hoax?(Actually, I still believe that man never really landed on the moon itself! hehe..I believe it was a stage thingy because human beings just can't go near that zone as the pressure will vaporize them already..off topic..will discuss later)

Whatever it was, she finally came to a point of openess where I managed to share to her the gospel of Christ and that's really a blessing from God.It really took alot of faith to be focused on preaching the gospel than to end up with an intellectual argument with her.And in that meantime, I managed to gave a few tracts to those who was sitting in that same booth.

After that, we headed back to church and had a nice meal with Kok Wei and Jeff. We shared our experiences and it was refreshing plus encouraging at the same time to have godly chatter over a meal together. I really longed for moments such as these because most of the time, fellowshipping over a meal always ends up with crap and nonsense.Sad but true indeed.

Then after that, Jeff and myself managed to catch movie together in Queensbay..this time, we watched 21 which I already watched also a month ago.I decided to watch it with Jeff since he didn't had the chance to watch it yet so I would just accompany him that night.That movie was well scripted and gave a few good lessons to learn from it.A person can really change because of money and ultimately, it always starts with something small..something like a small desire and if fanned properly, it will certainly grow and eats its way into you.Ultimately, this is a great reminder to me..

"What profits a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his own soul" and with this I would end my entry tonight. God Bless. =)

Make It Simple

Something for you guys/girls to think about.. :)
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Think Simple to Solve Complex Problems.


1. When NASA began launching astronauts into
space, they found out that the astronauts' pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink wouldn't flow down to the writing surface). It took them one decade and $12 million to solve this problem. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on practically any surface including crystal, and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
And what did the Russians do? The Russians used a pencil.

2. One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management techniques was the case of the empty soap box, which occurred in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line, to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent whoopee amount of time and money to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the
same problem, he did not get into the complications of X-rays, etc but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

3. A 50 feet long trailer having 48" wheels got stuck while entering a midtown tunnel in New York because it was approximately 2.5 feet taller than the height of the tunnel. The fire department and the state department of transportation spent the whole day searching for a solution, to no avail.

Then a child, aged about 9 years, asked his father, "Why can't they take out the air from the tyre tubes? The height will automatically come down."

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ________

Moral: Always look for simple solutions. And learn to focus on solutions, not on problems.

If you look at what you do not have in life, you don't have anything. If you look at what you have in life, you have everything.

P/S: If you have God, you have everything and lack nothing.

He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Jim Elliot

Eros or Sore?

In case any of you don't know what is Eros, it's affection love in Greek. Like those guy like girl kind of love in a simple term.So today's post is all either about Eros~ or Sore~..sore as in tired of being in a relationship or being rejected too often or reject too often either way works..as long as it soress...lame..I know.Trying to sound poetic but end up weird, I know.


However, I would like to express my thoughts here about relationships that most single guys would long for when their hormones start to kick up during the teens. I remember those times when I was in my teens, being attached with a girl is a very common thing and sought after thing.Forget about study first la,think of girls later.When you're at that age, it's really hard to not want to be involve in a relationship especially your peers are having theirs and it will definitely influence you quite a bit.I guess most of us have our own personal experiences in relationships regardless of a good one or a bad one or long to have one.


I remember once when I was in form 5, I tried out with a close girl friend of mine and ended up in shambles as we weren't matured enough which left broken heart that took me 2 years to recover.It was a painful experience as I have never been so depressed before in my entire life even up till now.It took me 2 long years to let go and move on with life.I thank God for that trial eventually because when I look back, I'm glad I didn't stayed on the ground but He enabled me to stand up and walk again with a different perspective of life.


I consider myself blessed enough to go through that experience because the experience totally changed my perspective in relationships and courtship.Now if I face any rejection from a girl I like, I can get over it within a day or two.Its quite simple to convince myself to let it go now after that one time experience.Sometimes I think I can just be so logical instead of being emotional over such things although I know logics shouldn't be the main factor in a relationship (too much programming influence..sigh). So all along my years, I have some other crushes and being crushed at the same time but everything ended up in "sore' ness" (dunno whether got such word bo..but nvm la..Even the Rock can create his own word..Jabroni!) when the ones I'm interested in, rejected me and those who are interested in me, them I have rejected. Sigh* Is it so difficult to find someone who fit into my criteria meh?


Before you start concluding me to be a fussy person, let me tell you what I look in a partner of life. Firstly, of course a boleh-tahan and lookable person..People keep bombarding others by saying looks not important wan..it's the heart that matters..porah..my logic is very simple..if the person can't even attract you, you where got time to go and 'know' that person.So that's the difference between an idealist and a realist.Let's be realistic.


Secondly, the belief and state of a believer.I'm not into just merely a 'Christian'.No I don't want a super well taught girl in the Word as well.What I'm looking for is the love for God in that person's heart and manifested through her actions.That's all.Only this 2 criterias. Oh ya, lastly of course having the same stands and a teachable heart if different stand.This one is just an added bonus.

So far it's all about "sore'ness" only, haven't even touch the "eros'ness" part also..Haha. However, I know God has plans for me and all I need to do is just to wait upon His direction before I 'strike'! Muahhahaha.

As a conclusion, I only wish for a God centered relationship with my other partner having the same love, being one accord, of one mind towards God.Hey that sounds familiar..

" 1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others"

Phillipians 2:1-4

God Bless.. :)

End of July Post...

Exodus

"To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven"..Ecclesiastes 3:1

I will never forget the exodus that took place in this year, 2008. The exodus of 12 young people to another place where God has placed each of everyone of them where their destiny lies.

To be honest, I still do not know what to feel about the exodus. Whether to feel sad or to be filled with joy (obviously not!) or to feel discouraged when I'm faced with such situation. Yes, the youth group numbers will definitely be dwindling from now on but that's not what I'm thinking about. I believe that this is a challenge that God is putting me through as youth leader to face and I firmly believe that God is trying to make a point here with this current exodus. The One who is able to put down His life and is able to pick it back up is trying to prove a point to me.

It is as if God is trying to tell me that He is rebuilding His work and asked me to trust in Him. I always remind myself that the Lord's work belongs the the Lord and we who are given the charge to nurture it is responsible to keep it and work it out. It is never for us to take His glory upon ourselves on the work that flourishes. Yes, we may take pride in the work when it begins to bloom but we should always remember that it is the Lord that gave the growth. We planted but God is the one who gave the harvest. Sometimes we overlooked that it is the Lord that provides the fruit and we start to get cocky about it. Then as time passed by, we lazed in our comfort zone not doing anymore because we think that we have done 'enough'.

Well, the fact of the matter is this: If God chooses to take away, who are we to stop Him from doing so? And if God chooses to bless us, who are we to defy the Almighty God?The situation now is like a scene in the film 'Facing The Giants ', when the coach teaches his players to honor God whether they win or lose but what matters the most is that they give their best in the field. I wanna be like that too.I wanna give my best in this ministry that God has entrusted to me because at the end of the day, it is not men that I serve but God! Have to keep reminding myself that.

As closing, I'll just recommend you readers this great movie that have encouraged me alot in my walk of life.

Too bad it's just a picture..For more details, visit www.facingthegiants.com to buy. :)

If I Had To Die For Someone

As I was surfing the net, I've thought of searching for some old Petra songs since most of the albums I bought when I was young was still in cassette format!To make things worse, all my cassettes are in bad shape and my cassette players are all malfunction as well.So since I miss their melodies so much, I resorted to YouTube as my source of Petratainment. Hehe

One of the songs I missed most was this one,"If I Had To Die For Someone" which sounds almost identical with Matchbox 20's "Push" (only the intro part).This song plays a catchy tune,simply contains meaningful lyrics (no misleading phrases or complicated sentences),and finally a good voice to back it up! John Schlitt!! Fuah, that guy's vocals still going strong despite of his age. Check out his other songs in YouTube if you have time.

The song simply speaks of our willingness to die for someone who is much likely to be like ourselves.A sinner like myself to die for another sinner.Sometimes when I think about it, if I had to die for someone, can I do it?Of course if taking my life to save my parents, I would willingly do it because they are the ones that raised me up and loved me for who I am.However, in reality it is really not that easy to take the plunge even when you think you would do it.Well at least for me, there's still some fear preventing me from dying for someone.

How about dying for someone who hates you?Or dying for your enemies?It would be ridiculous and absurd because I might die in vain and I wouldn't know if dying for him/her did any good at all.He/she might even laugh or ridicule me for my stupidity.I will not be able to see the end result of my 'sacrifice' and will certainly regret doing so.

However,this wasn't the case for Jesus.He came into this world as a man so that He might taste death for everyone in this whole world.His enemies ridiculed and mocked Him as they crucified Him.They made fun of Him but yet He spake not a single word.He gave His life willingly for all his enemies and He was raised from the dead in the third day after his burial.He didn't took any revenge at those who crucified Him but yet He gave eternal life to those who believed in Him.Cool and sporting guy don't you think God is?He lived to see His end results.

He gave up His life for our sake so that by His death, we might live the life He wants us to live in.He is the only one who is able to gave up His life and take it up once again.

Time to adapt, time to change..

Our recent petrol price hike threw most of the people into frenzy when the price of petrol increased 78 cents causing our usual cost of 1.92 cents/litre to 2.70 cents/litre! Initially when the announcement was made, it didn't trigger me that much since I know there's nothing much I can do about it but to get hit by it.

So I just lengang lengang and drove back to Penang from Kulim after work and then suddenly it came to me.

The sight of a huge overcrowded traffic was right in front of me and caused a standstill for almost an hour. The usual ride from Bukit Jambul to Queensbay that took only 15 minutes had taken me an hour to reach Queensbay that day.

I wonder what caused that traffic and behold, I saw: 2-3 stretches of cars tailing out from a petrol station a few metres away queueing to pump petrol! The queue was like 50 - 100 metres away from the station! And if you are familiar with the roundabout located in Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah (I hope I got the name right...), there are about 4 petrol stations located at the vicinity! The whole roundabout was at a complete standstill due to the overwhelming traffic that was going to pump petrol.

After a few days, I started to receive forward emails that propagate the falsehood of the government, some research about oil-producing countries against the petrol pricing, how we can boycott from Petronas to pump their petrol, how to maximize the total petrol you paid for and etc.For once, I think that this petrol price hike did served its purpose. Why?

1) There are basically too many cars on the road and most of them only holds 1 passenger.I guess we are too pampered in a situation where most families are able to own more than 1 car these days.Some of them basically needs the car for the means to work.That's totally a credible reason in buying a car.

However, most families are so blessed (I won't use the word pampered since I want to be gracious..:p) that every members owns his/her own vehicle or even shared among siblings. This is for convinience sake they say.Sayang your kids mah.Now you see lo what happens.Too many cars but too few people occupying in them.

I believe this price hike will wake some of the people up to start car pooling or actually start to make use of public transports.

2) People will start to consider on the other alternative plan: NGV (Natural Gas Vehicle)

Installing this would be a one time deal and the cost of having a full tank gas is way much lower than a full tank of gasoline.I won't go into the details on how much in comparison but it's very low lah..It's like comparing Ding Dang(50sen) with JOJO(RM2) [Those in my era surely knows these brands..hehe]..

The only con I can see from installing NGV is that most of the petrol stations in Penang Island do not have natural gas. The only petrol station that has it is in Butterworth on the way to Kulim Highway.Well..even though this may stop Penangites to consider this alternative but it doesn't mean its the same elsewhere.

Maybe one day, everyone will turn to renewable energy....be more environmental friendly..going towards solar...buy First Solar panels....hehe*

3) Makes people thinks twice before they go anywhere.

This cost hike may just cause people to change their lifestyle and to adapt with the cost incurred by cutting down their lepak frequency.Once there's a cut down on outings like that, surely they could save more money when they stay at home and read some books..or exercise..(highly not possible but it could happen!)

For what's worth, I'm not saying that this petrol increase is good which makes me very unpopular among people around me.What I'm trying to address here is simply we can't do much about it but to accept the change.Be worried or not, its not the point because the price will increase eventually in time.What I'm trying to emphasize here is that DiGi is right about its slogan, Time to Change.

Regardless of what the government promises, we should take it as pinch of salt and never put our full trust on them.Nope, not because they are corrupted or bad but plainly because there are too many factors around the world that are uncontrollable. I guess people love to blame someone else when bad things happen and never look on the positive side of life.

Lets take some time off and start to appreciate our life that God gave us. To be contented in life is one of the toughest thing to do but it's the best thing to do in order to appreciate our short span of life on earth.

The third heavens...

I took a day off from work today.

Hooray!FINALLY I got a day off to rest just to recover from work fatigue that was accumulated since last 2 weeks.Took my US counterpart out for sight seeing and food hunting on the last weekend.He(US counterpart) was so excited about Penang and durian could not stop bugging me for more authentic Penang food even during weekdays.Had to entertain him throughout his stay here and that took a toll on me since most of the time I had to drive.

So since I took a day off, I went for a movie at Queensbay with my church friends. All together 5 of us went and watched Kungfu Panda. As I was loitering around the gaming section, I met another group of my church youth group that came for the movie as well. I went to catch up with them a little and they was shocked to see their YP Chairman there when he was 'supposed' to be working!I told them that I took leave to watch movie with friends and one of them was shocked till her eyes was opened wide as if I was 'pontenging' work.

After the movie, I saw I had 2 missed calls so I called them back (Both of them are my church mates) and I found out that one of them is in the arcade zone when the other one is on the way to Queensbay to watch Indiana Jones.I thought to myself for a moment whether why is everybody coming to Queensbay today!Then as I walked around the arcade zone to greet my church mate, I met another 2 church members playing the drum game.Walau eh, got so many church members around Queensbay one!Luckily didn't bring any date with me that day or else..rumors will spread like wild fire...

I met at least 15 church members today and I got really excited about that because its like everywhere I go,I'd know someone.Felt famous for a little while.Hehe.As I enjoyed this thought, my mind soon caught focus on the thought of eternity.One day I will be amongst and together with all my brothers and sisters in Christ spending eternity together with God forever.The more I thought about it,the more excited I become.I am certain that we'll all one day meet in the third heavens whether God takes our lives first or He cames back again.


14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.[b]
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

1 Thes 4:14-18


I am comforted and looking forward to that day when I can be with my brothers and sisters in Christ forever.

Team Hoyt - Redeemer

I'm always motivated when I watch this short video clip of Team Hoyt competing in an Iron man Triathlon.It never fails to inspire me whenever I lacked motivation and confidence in facing my challenges.I would always remind myself that wherever I go, I have someone like Rick Hoyt (the father in the clip)that guides me and runs along with me each and everyday of my life.This 'someone' is my Heavenly Father that watches over me and never fails to be there for me when I need Him and even in times when I don't feel that He's there for me although the truth is He's still there for me.

Sometimes I felt that I'm just like the handicap son, Rick that needed his father to push me around to where I'm supposed to be heading.This video clip showed me best on what total dependence should be like when I have problem committing myself to God.Sometimes I think that I just have to let go and let God take charge of my life while I place my trust on Him and enjoys the view wherever He plans to take me to although most of the time, I couldn't let that happen.

However, this video also reflects how the gospel of Christ can be shown clearly here.We don't earn God's favor by our own efforts but rather rely on Christ's finished work on the cross to save us.There's nothing we can do to earn God's favor when everything we do is tainted with sin.The only way is to accept what God has done for us and repent of our sinful ways to follow Him.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

P/S: If Penang Bridge run is still on this year, I might be joining it again after watching this video but too bad it's canceled..aiya..although I broke my toe nails each time, I finished the race..ish..

The Memory Remains

"Fortune, fame
Mirror vain
Gone insane
But the memory remains"

Err..Not really insane yet but this song still rings in my head. Hehe.. No, this post is not about Metallica. I just took that song title since I was singing in my head when I was writing this.

Today's topic is about :

I don't know whether you are able to spot the topic or not but whatever it is, that was a characteristic test based on my birthday although I find it hard to let an Excel program to determine my character and behavior. However, I was attracted to the mathematical calculations that the program did to count my age in years, months, days, hours, minutes and even in seconds! Now I can tell people my age in days when people ask of my age. Heh

My birthday has just passed and it marks my 26th year of existence on this earth. Many friends of mine remembered my birthday and wished me on that day but some of them took special effort to throw a special celebration for me. It was really great to have such good friends that took effort to make me feel so special in their midst despite of their busy schedules. I felt grateful towards them and I thank God especially for them since He blessed me with such good friends. They made my life meaningful and I couldn’t ask for more because so much has already been done for my sake.

On the 15th of May, Samuel and Su Ting with a bunch of friends threw a birthday celebration for me at Red Box. Since they knew I love singing, they purposed to bring me to Red Box for the celebration although it was costly during the night rates. We took the birthday package which also serves a birthday cake despite of the regular buffet dinner that comes with it. We had a great time singing ‘emo’ Mandarin songs, English pop songs with lousy background videos, and a few Malay songs. Semangat muhibah is shown although Mandarin songs seem to be the prominent one amongst them all. They like ‘emo’ songs ma. Haha

Here are some photos to make this post less wordy…

*Su Ting, Ming Sheng, myself, Sam

*Su Ting ran away..*sad*

*Marker pen!!*

*All the lengchais*

Lastly, I would like to reiterate my thanks and gratitude to my friends that made my day so special. I love you guys/girls. :)

8 Random stuffs about me~

An interesting chain tag.I was tagged by Jon's blog and decided to play along since it's quite fun.

Anyway, here it is.

The rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post this rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight (8) people at the end of this post and list their names.
4. Let them know that they've been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blog.

Eight random facts about myself:

1. Had a stupid nick name '2CM' in high school because of a stupid question I asked.One day in my science class, I asked Mr Khoo (my Science teacher, now working as a guard in TARC Penang..wonder if he's still there) something about human reproductive system and this nick name sticked with me for years.I'm not gonna reveal what question I asked since it's a public blog here so if you wanna know, ask me personally. :P
   
2. I have a weird stomach structure which makes me different from others.People thinks that I have a belly but in truth, I don't have a beer belly.It must have been an alien residing inside my stomach that makes me so sexy.
   
3. I hate Cameron Highlands.The water supply generates a strong reaction to my skin and gives me rashes.This rashes can last for 1-2 years and there's no 100% cure for it.So never ever ask me to travel with you to Camerons.
   
4. I like digging my ears. The sensation of digging my ears are inexpressible.
   
5. I like pigs...i mean I like to eat pork..Tau Ew Bak, Bak Kut Teh, Sam Chan Bak! All my favorites. Yummyz...
   
6. The best gaming part of my life was when Wern Sern and I fought against Singaporeans in a Malaysia vs Singapore Battle Net game in Starcraft when we were 16 years old.
   
7. I used to declare Thursday as Starcraft day when I was in my high school. On Thursdays, I don't go to school but play Starcraft the whole day and I'm not alone...Most of my peers celebrated that day too..
   
8. I lost my gaming desires all of a sudden. Seems that I have taken up reading as my new hobby now.Good bye old Bing, Welcome the new Bingie..
   

Ok, now to tag the eight people that I believe would take the initiative to actually do this tag:

1. Justin (bo ko leng)
   
2. Jeff
3. Joshua
4. May Hsin
   
5. Sou Shuang
6. - (anyone who reads my blog)
   
7. - (anyone who reads my blog)
8. - (anyone who reads my blog)

Well, that's all. Hope you know a little more about me now. Adios~

If I had a time machine....

As I was driving home one day after work, my mind wandered off and suddenly I came across this strange question: What if I found a time machine and it can only be used once only, what would I do with it?



They actually sell this in eBay...




Awesome~


I want one..:P

Here I was given an opportunity to change something in my life and I asked myself what would that be.How about you?If you were given the same time machine like me, what would you change in your life?To make it more specific, this time machine is only able to travel time as long as you exist in this world which means you cannot go back to 10,000 BC (if there was such a thing..) and witness the primal life back then.So we can only travel back to a certain point of time when we exist, which point of time would you want to go back? Would you want to change something in your life that would make a difference in your life afterwards? Would you plan to save your relationship with your first love?Or would you try to save your parents that has been killed in an accident?Or would you buy 4D to win a whole load of cash?


Would you try to win a game of basketball championship when you knew you can make a difference in the scores?Would you turn back time to score for your major examinations?10A's anyone for SPM?=) Or would you go back to the time when you are about to make a huge decision in life?Be it marrying your girlfriend, furthering your studies, which course should you be taking, which job would you end up in, and etc.


I gave some thought about it and wonder which point of time do I want myself to travel to. It came upon me that I could not think of any point of time which interests me to travel to.The best time I would probably travel back would be the time I was watching Linkin Park live in concert at Stadium Merdeka 3 years ago! Haha.. That was one of the best time in my life!


Seriously, as I gave myself another chance to change something significant in my life, which part of life should I travel back to do so.I ponder and ponder and ponder and finally came to a conclusion.I don't plan to use that time machine even if I am given one.I wouldn't want to change anything in the past because every event of my life have taught me the grace of God.As I looked back, I have never regretted making good/bad decisions in the past as I can reflect back and see what I have grown out of the decision I've made. In fact, it is my past that made me who I am today and I'm glad of who I am today because I know all things works for good for those who love God. (ref. Rom 8:28).What I've done whether it was the right or wrong, I delight in all of them because God put them there for me to mould me into the shape He wanted as I am the clay and He is the potter.

Good Friday 2008

Easter is back again and I looked forward for this huge event of the year because I get to meet up with all the “chabohs” from other churches..err no, I mean I get to eat Easter eggs and mutilate bunnies..err not really, I mean I get to celebrate Christ death and resurrection on Easter. Anyway, for those who know me better will know that I’m not serious with the first 2 reasons right...(maybe the first reason would be a secondary attraction..not the main one..hehe).

What is Easter all about anyway? Or Good Friday? To cut things short, Good Friday (Easter) is not about Easter eggs or Easter bunnies. That’s all got to do with sales marketing. They made a mascot out of that day which is the bunny, get some tangible products to attract kiddies by coloring chicken eggs, and create some story to convince customers that Good Friday is all about their products. Thus, we get an over-publicized Easter season in the western countries.

There isn’t such a big hoo haa in Malaysia though since it’s considered an Islamic country and we don’t get public holiday for Easter (Sad huh). Or maybe the Islamic do not recognize this occasion as a public holiday because they do not believe that Jesus died on the cross at Calvary and rose on the third day. They believed that it was Judas who was hanged on that cross instead of Jesus and somehow that’s why they don’t recognize Easter as a universal event even though it’s in the calendar.

Easter is all about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What does resurrection means? It means that a dead being is brought back to life and never to die again! Totally awesome! Kawa Banga! A resurrection or should I say the resurrection! What’s so special about the resurrection of Jesus Christ? What does it got to do with me and why should we care about it anyway? It’s not a holiday anyway so that makes it an any ordinary working or schooling day in Malaysia. But I beg to differ, the resurrection of Christ is what makes Christianity different from all other religions. Oh that statement makes me a religious bias or religious racist since I’m putting Christianity on top of all other religions. Before you shut me off, I would like to ask you a question: did any of the other religious pengasas raised from the dead to prove that they are special or different? The prophet Muhammad didn’t raised from the dead; Gautama didn’t raised from the Dead and all the rest of the pengasas is still in the tomb till today except Jesus Christ! Jesus’ tomb lies empty until this day simply because He is not dead. He is alive! No believe? Well, He did appear in front of 500 over eye witnesses after His resurrection. To say that He didn’t die at the first place? Well, historically the Roman soldier pierced his spear on Jesus’ side to make sure that He’s dead on the cross before taking Him down, wrapped and placed in the tomb that is being shut by a huge boulder to ensure no one can go in and steal His body, and as if that’s not enough, the Roman guards placed 2 guard post over His tomb to make sure that no one can go near that tomb. Why so kin cheong over a dead person anyway? Do you see any logic behind all the security measures that has been taken by the Roman soldiers?

The simple reason is this: Jesus told His disciples that He will rise from the dead after the third day of His death. Tada! That’s why the Jews (the people who put Jesus to death) were afraid that it would happen because that would jeopardize their religion at that time. They had to make sure that Jesus will be dead and stay dead in the tomb just like anybody else in order to make Jesus a liar for saying that He is able to raise from the dead after three days. Alas, that was not the case because Jesus indeed rose from the dead! The huge boulder that shut the entrance of the tomb was rolled away exposing the tomb and the body of Christ was not found in that tomb. He appeared to all his disciples and other eye witnesses to prove his Resurrection. In rising from the dead, He claims to be who He is: the Son of God and being that He is able to save you and me because He has broken the power of sin and conquered death!

What’s this thing about saving you and me? Do we need to be saved? Saved from what? The simple answer would be: the wrath of God; to save us from the wrath of God. Why is God angry with us? Is God supposed to be loving and caring? Why is there wrath since God “should” be loving? First of all, God is loving but He is also holy. All of us are sinful people and the meaning of sin simply means that anything that goes against God. If we just lied just once whether it be a white lie or a black lie, in God's eyes that makes us a liar even though we lied once only. Even if we just hate a person in our heart, in God's eyes we are considered as murderers because once we hate that person in our hearts, we have already 'murdered' him in our heart even though it is not acted out. If this is God's standard, how then can we face Him at all? Our sin makes us enmity to God and God being a holy and just God, He will punish us for our sins by sending us to hell. Eternal condemnation to hell. However, God knew that we could not possibly come to God with our own works thus God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to earth in order to redeem us from condemnation by living a perfect life on earth and die for us as a substitute. Which means that we will no longer be punished for our sins but be saved by the work of Christ when we trust on Him to take our sins away.

That's why it is called Good Friday! Even though it is the to commemorate the death of Christ, (why would anyone say good when a person dies??! I would whack that fella if anyone says that it is good when my parents die.) it is a day to celebrate because Christ didn't just die, He rose from the dead on the third day! He is alive today and forever more!

Friends, if you are reading this, I want to let you know that Jesus loves you that He have died in your place to redeem you from your sins so that you might have eternal life upon trusting in Him.This is the gift of Easter.It is a free gift of God and even though it is free, it is not cheap because it demands the life of Jesus Christ.

"For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"
Romans 6:23

Memoirs of ASE Part 2~

In my previous post, some of my ex-colleagues got back to me and complained why aren’t they mentioned back there in that post thus I will blog about the rest of them here in this post. However, I’ve got some feedbacks from my friends on how I’ve written about them and I find their response to it quite interesting when they commented about it in MSN. So I will continue to express what I feel about the rest of them in this post in words without much filtering of the ‘truth’.



Okay, first up we have our hilarious Infrastructure section (CH Tan) head whom possess a voice that’s so manly and when he speaks, you would be able to feel his shockwave (not much, but can be felt through the air) even though you may be sitting a few meters from him. He’s our MIS department’s defense manager since he’s the only one that is able to fend off all the users/customers attacks and accuses when issues happens. He is able to think of many realistic examples to reply back to the customers or users and most of them would be silenced by his replies and his manly voice. The best part was whenever he talks on the phone, his voice is projected throughout the whole office and practically everyone hears him speaking on the phone and the content of it. I had such wonderful times laughing in my cubicle at most of the replies he made in the phone calls to the users and that really made my day during those times. That was how I learnt to answer the users with such courage and use all the tactical replies to defend myself. There was once that he dyed his hair gold or light brown during Chinese New Year and I can still picture him in that hairdo even until today. It’s really fun working with him in those days when I was in ASE.




Next, this monkey (Fong Chin Fe)over here loves to pose a lot whenever he takes photographs. He’s one active guy that loves to be involved in almost every activity but of course he’ll surely calculate all the possible costs to involve himself in any of them. Hehe, for me to know and for you to find out (well, it’s easy to find out what that means if you’re from ASE..:P) . However, he’s a good friend and he’s able to give realistic advises to those who seek them from him. Besides that, he’s so friendly that almost the whole plant knows who he is. He can be ASE Idol if there’s such a contest. I will vote for him if there’s such a contest and I will ask Tze How to upload his photos to ASEM INFO so that all the operators can know who he is. His popularity is second to none; in fact, he may even be more popular than the GM himself. There was once, a girl from Production Control resigned from the company and she sends out a good bye mail to everyone. He replied to her something ‘naughty’ as it was his nature of doing so but this time, he has forgotten that the mail was addressed to everyone in the company and he replied to all! Man, if I were him, I would dig a hole and bury myself in there. So humiliating. What’s worse was that her boyfriend was in the same company too! He received that reply as well. Thank God that he knew that this was just a joke or else we wouldn’t see Fong in existence today. (I will be the first to curi all his dragon ball collection figures)




The next person I would like to talk about is our ever young man (TJ Tan) that never seemed to age. Although he may be the eldest among our group (second only to CH), he still fits in easily as he is a very fun person to be mixing with. He seems to be a pro-learner in almost every single thing he does. This can be proven because he excels very fast in any game he plays or anything he does. Last time, he doesn’t play DotA at all but he would love to watch people playing them. Then after a few convictions from us, he tried to play this game versus AI at first. After a few months of intensive training, he managed to play DotA and own like a pro! Not everyone can do that because I still meet lousy players even though they have been playing for years. Some people just wouldn’t learn and will never improve from their current performance but this is not true for TJ! He learns well and excels to be a better player than most of us in our department. He’s always in the top rankings in Facebook games as well. Furthermore, he’s very determined to learn all the game mechanics and is always updated with the latest version plus he likes to ban people in blueserver! That’s one thing I am always lazy to do because it involves a lot of procedures and hard work but that didn’t stop TJ from banning all those leavers!! (I couldn’t find any photo of him so I took it from his Friendster, he’s the second one from the bottom.)




These two lovebirds (Weng Keat & Yvonne) are inseparable as you can see in the photo above and even in real life, both of them shares everything together. Even now, when I think of what to write about them, my hair is already standing due to all the geliness that they like to engage themselves into. The girl is super yuk mar, the guy is super good towards her and both of them are really for each other. (110% compatibility) This girl is called 4P. (Pui Pui Pong Pong) PATENTED, and certified by ASE MIS department. This name came about because she admitted it herself! Of course, I came up with that nick name but I didn’t say that it was her but she claim that title upon herself so now she’s officially the 4P. Hehehe..She’s very jimat one similar to her ‘hubby’. Breakfast time won’t go down canteen with us to eat one but will come down to Weng Keat’s cubicle and ber-romantik there while everyone else is gone. So the ‘yuk mar’, anyway I better stop describing them here if not every single strand of my hair will stand up due to my imagination. The two of them had already bought a home together at Sunny ville and hopefully by the time they move in, Weng Keat know what to do lah.. hehehe.. (Better marry her liao, she already drooling for that sentence to be said by you.). Here are some photographs of the apartment they bought that Yvonne shared with me.


*Behold the isle of DAP~


*next year we go to their house and pai chia~


*titanic pose area


*ber-romantic sessions area


*where 4P keeps her deposits..

Last but not least, I wish all of them the best in their future and undertakings as we have now journeying in a different road now. Adios, and all the best! Hope to see you guys again if there are any gatherings.

Memoirs of ASE~

As I looked back on my previous job in ASE, I really missed all my colleagues back there when I was working there with them. You know why?Have you ever worked in a company where all your colleagues are of the same age group as yourself?Have you ever had a bunch of friends marching out together to have your breakfast and lunch together everyday in a large group?Have you ever ran out of common topics to talk to your colleagues?Well, not with this bunch.Most of them plays DotA and even a production section head stops by at our place for gaming discussion.The discussion can last for hours and most of us will be sitting down giving our inputs about our gaming experiences and tactics.

Below are my friends whom I've met and known in my working life in ASE.It is a great honor and privilege in meeting this bunch of friends while working here.They had given me a lot of fun time working together and I really enjoyed working together with them. Besides working, we do organize a lot of makan gatherings together and we explored quite a number of places to look for good food together when Friday lunch kicks by.

This fella's name is Chau Fun and he's the youngest among all of us to get married! Sorry, but I had to announce that you are married so that most single girls should putus harapan on you so that we single ones would only have chance if not he will sapu all the single ladies that comes in his way.So now everyone knows that he's married already, no more hope lah for him. hehe. He's a nice guy who will always speaks his heart out regarding any matter without going around the bushes. He's a very direct man and has a loud voice. Whenever he gets excited while talking to the users, the whole office will be filled with his voice and everyone would get to hear what he's talking about without eavesdropping.



This lady(Hazlina) here works side by side with me and we support each other's systems whenever she or myself is not around. She's particularly very hardworking and always stays back quite late to finish up her work making us look bad because all of us likes to go home on time! Haha, just kidding. She's a great person to poke around with as in making fun with because she will not just sit there while you poke her but she'll retaliate and poke you back. Don't siao siao with her, she can bring her gang and gang poke you when she's under powered.




This jelly man(Wong Siew Ik) is my partner ever since I started working in ASE. We were assigned to help each other in supporting the eSIP system, a system-in-package system that generally takes care of the camera module process. We used to come on saturdays every month to do inventory count for them, just the two of us. He's a sarawakian thus he doesn't understand hokkien so our only way of communication is through Cantonese! haha. He's been a very supportive friend that is always willing to help me in my troubles during troubleshooting problems that I faced on the system.Not only that, he's a very analytical person and able to come up solutions for any problems quickly.No wonder he can spend so much time reading html.help. Hehe only those in MIS ASE would understand that term.



This guy(Timothy) has been my good gaming buddy as most of the time, we talked about games all the time.Most of the time, we can talk about DotA (our favorite game) whenever we go for breakfast, lunch and sometimes even working half way. We will ping each other when there's a new version update on the web.We have worked together in a project together and stayed late nights together trying to finish our project despite of our busy working schedules but in the end the whole system was not used because the users gave the wrong set of requirements.It was a sad case as well as disappointing one but working together with him has been a real pleasure and experience as both of us learn ASP.net together without any proper training given to us. We had to korek the Internet and then developed a system from scratch.I will never forget those times we used to slog our ways to complete that wretched project.It has been fun.



This cute girl(Jing Yen) is our Astro channel in our office. She can do that because she possess two sharp ears that can hear gossips from miles away and then spreads to us during our lunch breaks.She's our informant and also possess a cute voice not forgetting she has a very kwai giat face as we can see there.She can be quite lazy sometimes as she will skip breakfast when that happens and will rather sleep on her desk.We like to call each other's name twice like Yen Yen!! Bing Bing!! (must have that exclamation mark there cuz we will be shouting at each other!) Alas, she did join me for Jay's concert that day and she was such a hardcore fan of Jay's that she brought all the huan yin pin yin lyrics on Jay's song to sing along when Jay sings!She asked me where to get the big hand so that she can wave at Jay and also wants to collect Jay's bags that they sold there.Such a huge fan, much more gila than myself.Next concert, I will ask her to go again. hehehe



This blur girl(Viviance Lim) is Wong's girlfriend and she plays DotA as well!! Bad Wong.. He influenced and brought her to the dark side by teaching her DotA. Now she's got addicted to it and calls people to play together with her! Can you imagine that?Have any of you ever tried to convince your partner in playing games as most girls don't like to play games at all.Wong did a great job and now she can own people in most public games!She's quite quiet at first when I get to know her but when I really get to know her, she can really talk a lot and knows a lot just like Jing Yen. She is a very chatty person so if you know her quite well, you can really have a good time chatting with her.




This girl (Karen) is our latest hire in MIS before I left and at the first glance, she looked really familiar as if I've met her somewhere else. Mana tau, she is from TAR College, same year as me but different course. I was in Computer Science and she was in Information System Engineering but we saw each other before, just that we didn't know each other then.Maybe she too hao lian.Haha, just kidding.She has a very kwai giat personality (matches her face) and she can really mix around anyone because of her bubbly personality. In just a few weeks at work, we have already become good friends. We can tease around and joke with one another non stop.Too bad I had to leave so soon.Hehe Or maybe was it a good thing to leave so soon before she starts to get over my head. kekeke



As for this girl (Joyce), I just got to know her because there was not much communication among us ever since she joined in. She was very quiet at first and we were all afraid to approach her and talk.We thought that she was a very serious type of girl and would not tolerate nonsense from our side.After I leave ASE, I started to talk to her in MSN and found out that she's quite responsive over the net.Haha, she can really talk and able to relate quite somethings with me as she knows some of my friends in Friendster too.Well, it was nice to meet her so hopefully I will be able to mix around more with her in a near future.



Last but not least, this is my successor (Sharizan) of my left behind and leftover work which I let go on the day I left ASE.He's a very proactive person that is very into exploring new stuff in the programming world.He created and maintain a private website by himself due to his interest in programming.He's a very sporty person too as he is into sepak takraw and jogging.He's my training partner for Penang Bridge Run last year and last 2 years ago and he can really run! He finished the race in 2hours plus when I finished mine 3 hours plus.Last year, he got so bored,he tried to run barefooted on the Penang Bridge.Well that was not a good idea.He barely got back in time as his legs was almost all swollen and then it pains for him to keep on running that way.Lastly I wish him all the best in taking care of two major MES systems lah.Hope no problems or issues too big that he can't solve.




Finally, this was what Jing Yen drew for me while Karen added those words in there.It was really sad to leave you all but it is a must.I had to get out there because of the workload and not because of you guys.I really missed you guys and girls.Hopefully we will be able to meet once again in the near future! Miss you guys! Thanks for the friendship! :)