Farewell

This post is dedicated to my co-worker whom will be leaving the company at the end of this week for a brighter future in Australia as he and his family will be migrating there.

In this post, I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to him for all that he has contributed alongside with me to the company and the example he left behind for me to imitate. A legacy left behind for an amateur to follow.Before I begin, I would like to look back at those times when Philip first came for the interview which was also my first encounter with him.

In my mind, I thought that I would have difficulties to work with him because he's like 10 years my senior! I was afraid that he would despise me and would pick on every wrong thing I do. So I took precaution and tried to gave my best shot at guiding him through the work which I did. While I was still having those thoughts, he told me to treat him like a newborn baby who needs even the slightest guidance during the training. It was an eye opener to see how humble he is and that calmed me down quite alot as I was not ready to guide anybody seeing myself still fumbling over my work, still trying to grasp the whole big picture of the MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) architecture.

After a few weeks guiding him through, he proved to be a person with great humility and holds a great sense of responsibility as there are some times which he made some mistakes and would honestly admit it. Not everyone has the guts to admit their mistakes to damage their dignity or pride, well at least, for those whom I've met so far. 7/10 people are like that in my sampling field. I'm getting more comfortable working with him and we quickly became good colleagues. It made my life much better after getting to know him better from working with him.

Besides that, the other thing which made me more comfortable with him was that we serve the living Savior together. When he told me that he's a Christian, that made me felt so glad as I'm working alongside with my brother in Christ! I'm filled with joy whenever there's someone who would have the same conviction with me which made so many more things easier. Not that I could abuse him to do something or command him to fix issues, but to bear each others burden as we work alongside.Whenever there's an issue during the weekend, it didn't stopped him from coming back to the plant and tried solving it. He did that countless of times and that alone put me to shame.I really felt that it was God's blessing and a way of teaching me to appreciate every sacrifice he made to have the problems solved without having me to come back into the plant. What made me appreciate more was that he did not boast about it or rub it at my face about it. It was as if God was telling me, "Imitate him in his pattern of humility." I was indeed encouraged by that thought and will give my best to do so.

Then one day, he told me that he was leaving soon for Australia. I was taken aside for a while and I began to be filled with grief. I was not sad because I couldn't rely on him during inconvenient times anymore, no, but sad to lose this humble and responsible brother. However, we know that this is not the end of all things. I wish you, Philip, all the best and God willing that we will meet someday again in Down Under or in the air with the Lord. :)

A small note of departure for you:

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

Psalm 23

May the peace and grace of God be with you always. :)

The International

I had a priviledge of watching this movie twice in the cinema and still finds it interesting and mind boggling when it comes to conspiracies theories. Although this type of movies will put you to sleep if you don't listen to every word they say, I still love such movies as it requires me to exercise my analytical mind rather than just laugh through a mindless movie like Disaster Movie and the like.


I hope everyone who reads this post would have already watched this movie or have no interest in such movie because there might be some spoilers later in this post. If you're the type that are very 'pantang' about movie spoilers, then click X on the top right of your browser. If you're the type that 'bo chap', then read on, brother..


This movie is about an international bank trying to scheme a conspiracy in a weapon arms dealing with an international defense corporation in order to monopolize the debts generated in a conflict. Anyway, in a much more simple term, the bank is trying to earn money in a shady manner by gaining control over the collection of the debts which will be generated in the war. Then there was this pair of investigators which had been tracking the bank down in order to retrieve enough evidence to stop the deal, arrest the criminals and uphold justice that they firmly holds.


However, whenever they gets any closer to a certain key person, the person will always gets assassinated by a hired hitman from the international bank. So the movie was filled with many investigation scenes, a little action here and there, some philosophical arguments, and finally ends with an inconvinient truth in reality. I'm not going to go into the details of this movie but I will only highlight the point that made a gentle reminder for me.


In this movie, the main actor, Lou Salinger is the agent who believes that all evil deeds are nothing complicated but are purely simple. "There is nothing complicated in murdering someone, it's just a plain cold blooded act of murder" (something like that...). As a matter of fact, I agree on that statement because it is obvious. Black and White. No gray lines. No compromise.
Regardless of what circumstances it may seemed to be, taking one's life is still a no-no.

Nevertheless, the main message which caught my attention from this movie was that regardless of how you would like justice to prevail and hopes that the wicked shall be punished for what they have done. Sadly, in reality this isn't the case. Even if the wicked is caught or being dealt with, the system of the world would just raise another candidate which will just take over his place to continue the bidding of the evil one. It dawned upon me that everyone is protecting their share to make sure that every under table transactions can be executed smoothly within the gray lines of law.

It tells me that all the secret organizations which are related in secret investigation seemed to be controlled by most of the 'wicked' organizations. When Lou gets closer and closer to the truth, every key person would be murdered before he gets to him. The best part was even the law enforcers also played a part in the cover up of the crime. Who can we trust then!? The thought which came to my mind was that there can never be real peace on earth if humans govern them. Even though a man could be having every good characteristics to be leader, he can still be corrupted by many ways as long as he's given the power to rule over things. I shudder to think that when we thought that we have peace and security over our families and belongings when we trust our lives to the government and law enforcers when this movie made me realized that they could just take all that they want from us if we are their targets. I maybe thinking too much but come to think of it, why not? Look at our political stage in Malaysia would suffice already. Whenever there's a tendency to get votes from the rakyat, the politicians somehow managed to video and get hold of other politician's private life and doings. Everything can be disclosed about a person when there's a will to overthrow that person regardless of what methods are being used.

However, I took comfort when I think that this world could never offer real peace to our souls and it has been spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27

Later it was confirmed by Paul in Philippians as he tasted the peace of God.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and minds through Christ Jesus." Phil 4:6-7

Let us hold fast upon the blessed hope of Christ in which He is coming soon as He utters these words in Revelations.

"And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." Rev 22:12-13

Amen.