First Race of the Year! (PSDC Charity Run)

Last Sunday (26th of July 2009), 3 miracle miler including myself took part in a small marathon organized by PSDC in conjunction with their 20th Anniversary in Penang. The route was fairly short, only 6.5km and it seems like goodie bags are our reward or motivation factor to make us run the race instead of having a cool morning walk around the factory trade zone.I know this marathon would seemed like kacang puteh to most of the runners out there but I'm would think otherwise. Regardless of what others may think, I still think that this is a race to achieve my miracle mile (although it's just 6.5km..) in a good time. :)

So I woke up at 6am (I wouldn't say I'd had any sleep at all..seems like I could not sleep at all before the race...maybe I was too excited or too anxious..mixed feelings perhaps..) and went to fetch Justin as the organizers encouraged carpooling. We got there at 7am and mingled around the registration booth while waiting for Syarizan, our new miracle miler member! Our first bumiputera member! hehe..

At about 7:15am, Syarizan arrived and 3 of us started warming up before the race. I took no breakfast, only drank milk + water which means not much energy for me. Last time worse, just had curry mee for my dinner and the next day I ran my first half marathon at Penang Bridge. :) The race started at 7:30am sharp when I started my ipod nike + to keep track of my race and my Street Fighter 4 soundtracks started jamming in my ears for the extra motivation boost!

The race started off relatively fast for me because my goal was to finish the race within 30 minutes so Justin and myself could make it to church for Lord Supper at 9am thus we have a mission at hand! Justin was following behind me for the first 1 km but soon dropped off following his own pace later on. Lost Syarizan at the starting point. I guess I'm all alone and it's all about speed. No strategies needed. Just run as fast as you can.

I paced myself at 5 mins 20 secs per km for the first 3km and after that I find myself slowing down a little to catch some air as I was running under the influenza influence...Thank God, it's not H1N1..:P I ran with a group of indians and with some hardcore running aunties + uncles. No matter how fast I sprint or do a fartlek, these aunties and uncles always seemed to be faster than me.Pai seh..(When I told my friend that I lost to aunties and uncles, they wanted to 'un-friend' me straight away)

There are 3 runners band to collect throughout the race although it's only a short distance but however, I guess there are many short cuts in that area. That's why they need you to have 3 gelang tangan if you want to claim their goodie bag. At the 4th km, I was given the 3rd gelang and I started sprinting because my Ipod tells me that I'm 1km away from achieving my new 5k record. (I set 5K as my distance in my ipod so I can gauge my time for my 5k run) After hearing Tiger Woods congratulating me, it dawned on me that I still have 1.5km to go for the real race. A reality check on myself, I found myself stopping and slowing down after that sprint and some of the runners started overtaking me.

Inspired by the spirit of Pia, I decided to give it all and run! Picked up some pace and overtook some of the indian runners. As I approach the finishing line, I decided to sprint all the way and I managed to clock a 36"37 for my 6.5km run. Insignificant to most of you but to me, it was mindblowing because I never ran a marathon to record any time as I usually run just to complete marathons.

After crossing the finishing line, grabbed my goodie bag and sat down resting and waiting for Justin to arrive. He made it at 45 mins and we just went off after he grabbed his goodie bag. Nope, we was not gentleman enough to wait for our final miracle miler because we have a communion with our Lord. However, she smsed me that she did it in 55 mins later in the night. It was a good run and all of us did it under 90mins! (That 90mins mark was set by the organizers in order to motivate all the runners to run below that timestamp if they wish to get the goodie bag..)

Next stop: Adidas King of the Road!

"Forgetting what lies behind, straining our hearts on the prize. Always keeping our eyes on our Lord Jesus and we're running the race to win. All the way to the end.."

May this song be true to both my spiritual race and my physical race. Amen!

*Note: Forgot to mention that the route was nice and flat.*

Back on Track

3 years ago my colleague (now,he's my ex-colleague) asked me if I ever ran on the Penang Bridge before and I said never. He then told me about his past runs and how he strived to earn his medal upon achieving the 3 hour mark for his half marathon run. He tried 3 times and the last time, he finally made it through and earned his medal. Those days the officials were very strict in giving of medals to the participants due to the high standards they preserved through the years. However, as of now, any participant can earn that medal even though they passed that 3 hour mark in their half marathons and by doing this greatly pulls the standard of PBR down. Even newbies like myself can earn a medal by running an overdue 3 hours run. Hehe..


So that first marathon started my running 'career' and I stopped running after my 2nd PBR marathon after achieving a 3hours mark for the half marathon. I stopped running entirely after that because I found out that both of my toe nails from each side of my feet broke due to the run. So I had to wait 1 whole year for my toe nails to grow fully or else my feet would look like I'm having leprosy with all those exposed skins..Eee..


Another factor that stopped me from running would be my feet hurts alot after running for quite a long time. This really breaks me down as I still remembered in those days when I had to walk instead of running even though I had much energy and stamina left for the race. So I quit running despite having my friend from church encouraging me to run. We used to train together for runs and now I left him to run by himself...Sounds like Mark deserting Paul and Barnabas in the first missionary journey in the book of Acts..hehe

Then suddenly I decided to trust Alan's advice on getting the right running shoe for my legs since I always find myself suffering from foot ache and blisters after every runs. So I managed to save up some cash to get myself a good running shoes. Went to Lee Hoe with Joshua since he offered to give some counsultation. Tried and ran on Asics Kayano 15, Cumulus 11 and Nimbus 11. (For more information, please go to here). I had a hard time choosing which pair would fit me well since Joshua said that it's not the price of the shoes that determines your performance but it's the compartibility. All of them gave me a 'flying' effect if you know what I mean but I went for Cumulus since it is able to grip my legs tightly when I ran around with it. Kayano and Nimbus was quite loose around the my ankle so I didn't quite like it although both of these pairs are supposedly the best running shoes for year 2008.

To cut the long story short, I'm totally convinced now that a good running shoe really saves a whole lot of trouble and with this new pair of shoes, I'm running consistently now. Now with my new Nike + device plus Ipod to aid my runs, I'm runninggggggggggggggggggg......
(I'm sorry for some of the crap I wrote in this post as I'm feeling dizzy and sick but determined to finish this post..so excuse my nonsense..hehe)

27

Last 10 days I marked my 27th year of walking this earth.Time has indeed flew by and God hath been good plus gracious to me all these years of my life.It also marked the 11th year of walking with God.My 4th year as a working adult.I wonder what most of my peers did or have accomplished at this age. Hmm..let's see, most of them got married! Alan was married around that age, Adrian too, Kit Soon a little later, Aaron this weekend, and the best part is I have no one. Hahaha.. Anyway, I'm not trying to whine here but just trying to spice things up. Heh Heh..


On the bright side, I have a bunch of caring brothers and sisters in Christ to share my life and birthday with.I had 4 celebrations and I would not forget all the effort and love that each of them poured into my life.In this post, I would like to convey my deepest thanks and appreciation to Jonathan Low for driving all the way from Ipoh to Penang in order to bring my bible to me and coax with Justin and Ker Shin to have a surprise celebration for me.Although predictable but I thank you all for making the effort to celebrate my birthday and I really had a great time there.Your presence meant alot to me and I cherish each moment together with you guys..and girl..:)


Then the next day, I had another celebration with another group of brothers and sisters in Christ at the Times Square. This time, I would like to thank Samuel for organizing it and those who attended it, Jeff,Nicholas and Su Ting AKA Susan..We had our dinner buffet at Haven's Delight which offers similar delicacies as Tao offers but a little cheaper in price. Just a little cheaper but loses out in taste.We kept on comparing every dish we ordered with Tao since every dish is an exact replica from Tao. I guess the owner of this restaurant wants to compete with Tao so bad that he had to serve what Tao serves but failed big time though. Will be my first and last time there and yeah, don't be deceived about Times Square though. Even though the restaurant is already operational, it's only one of the 10% of the shops that are operational so when you go there, it feels like you're in one of L4D scene when zombies can hop on you at anytime.



Jeff and Nicholas gave me a present that made me laugh so much until I had to excuse myself to the loo because the sight of the present makes me burst into laughter and had stomach aches after that.Here's a picture of that gift and you'll know why..




Aneh gai..





Laugh until almost cried and peed..






Continue laughing..

On the eve of my birthday, Alan took me out for a midnight movie+ Starbucks treat even though he had to work the next day and I had holiday (Birthday holiday :P). We managed to spend some quality sharing time together and was converted into a Star Trek fan after our Star Trek movie that night.That movie was superb and was very well done especially for a first timer like me to enjoy a Star Trek movie. You know, if you're not familiar with the characters of the series, you wouldn't enjoy it as much as a Trekkie fan but this movie is very much different from all the Star Trek movies ever made.You gotta watch it if you haven't watch it before. ;) And he gave me this:

Yes.To be honest, this was one of the most prized gift I've ever received in my life from a buddy! Thanks Alan for this great gift and I will surely keep on running as long as God allows me to.:) (Now no excuse not to run! haha)

Then at night I had another celebration by Samuel, Su Ting and Ling Ee in a form of a karaoke session. I had some cake-smashing fun when Susan started putting cake on my face. Anyway, I had fun although I didn't smash any cake on anybody. I was so tempted to put the cream on the lense of Samuel's camera..hehe..Here are some photos taken that night:

Besides that, I had a blog post dedicated for me on my birthday! Thanks Stephen if you're reading this..:) Also alot of Facebook wishes from all my Facebooker friends..:)

Finally, the verse for my 27th birthday would be:

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

2 Cor 4:17-18

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.

Big purchases after working life

Do you keep track of any big purchases that made somewhat huge significance in your life? Well as for myself, I have a couple of things which I started purchasing once I started working. The first purchase I ever did for myself was my first ever Sony Ericssons phone K750i after I received my first paycheck. I was so happy that I spent it all on a cell phone which cost me RM1700 (after discount) and had to depended on my mum for I've spent most of my salary on a phone.





Ain't it a beauty? My first ever 2Mega Pixel cellphone and it was the top in the market during those days. I was proud of my purchase because I was one of the few in my circle of friends that own it.It's kinda nice to have something that everyone else don't have and yearn for it.Gives you a boost in your social status among your friends.Haha..


However, as time went by, approximately after 1 year, the joystick no longer seems to be 'joyful' anymore and broke down causing my phone to be limited to certain functions. I sent it to the Sony service center and got it repaired after 2 weeks+ just to find out that it broke on me again after 6 months. So I had to change my phone which will be my next big purchase again later.

My 2nd big purchase was a brand new desktop computer that was customized solely for my gaming purposes.Well only for one game specifically though : World of Warcraft.

This is just a brief picture of how my computer looks like although it was not purchased from HP. I just took its photo and paste it here for the sake of showing off although I don't have a HP. :P I'm not going to put the specifications here (compared to the present specifications, it's so ancient..) but I'll just show the pricing of this purchase which hooked most of my bonus. RM3500 not including LCD screen. I was still using my CRT monitor back then since it's so tahan lasak.

This piece of machine made me spent most of my time hoarding wealth in WoW, leveling up a virtual character, experiencing raids with 40 people around the world and Pvping on battlegrounds. It was an exciting experience which I ought to admit and an addictive one too. No wonder over 6 million people around the world are hooked with this game now.

However, it only took 2 years to see my big purchase expire due time. Now my LCD monitor broke down on me and I don't even bother to buy a new one or fix it since I'm using my company's laptop most of the time.

Next, my 3rd big purchase in life was another Sony Ericsson cellphone with no joysticks (I believe if joysticks was not installed in my K750i, I won't be changing my phone still.)

Ahh..this time no more joystick to break.Only buttons.Buttons are much more reliable than joysticks but this cellphone cost a bomb. It took RM2000 out from my pocket. Lubang besar after purchasing this phone.Now everyone gets the impression that I'm a frequent phone changer which I don't plan to be one. It's just that I don't like repairing stuff. Never had any good experience with repaired devices in the past so I cannot tahan.

This phone continue to serve me until now which is already 2 years plus but I'm not using this phone anymore because my company is kind enough to provide me a phone so I gave this unit to my mum. The only working big purchase I've bought till now. The rest of them are white elephants. Not the K750i though cause I managed to sell it to my ex colleague. :)

My next purchase was a car. Honda City 1.6 vTec. RM 82,000. Large sum of money but most of them are nullified when my mum trade in her Kenari for RM26,000 and she pumped RM24,000 into that purchase making it RM32,000 left to be paid.I'm faithfully paying an installment of RM1000 every month for 3 years in order to complete the purchase. It's a need since it provides me legs to everywhere I go and comfort to both my mum and myself since both of us longed to pamper ourselves with something nice in life.

My 5th big purchase just happened a few weeks ago which I bought myself a new pair of Asics running shoes and an ipod Nano to complete my running set.This two purchase cost me a bomb but considering that both of this product would last me quite some time so I consider them worth it. I bought the Asics Cumulus 10 after trying out so many other shoes and concluded that this shoe fits me best.I ran with it a few days ago and the more I ran, the more excited I become because my feet no longer hurts. Nike and Adidas will never be an option for me in buying shoes now since I've tasted the wonders of Asics.Haha..

My ipod seems to be sitting down there idling for weeks now because I have no time exploring it yet. No, you cannot have it and if you want it, you should get yourself one too. Don't ask me to give/loan it to you since I left it idling. :P It's my preciousss..although I don't use it yet.

Well, after listing down all the big purchases I've got myself in my entire working life you might say that I'm a rich brat that doesn't know his limits in spending. I guess you must be shaking your head now in disapproval of my spendthrift lifestyle. Heh. Who wouldn't? Tell you a secret. If you are unattached to any girl, you will find yourself to be able to do this as well.:P Who says being single is a lose out in the world? Haha

However, this is not what I wanted to share. I was brought back to a particular verse in the bible that goes something like this:

"18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. " 1 Peter 1:18-19

I was reminded that I was bought by the eternal God with the price of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.Unlike all the big purchases I've got myself with, I knew that it's only temporal. It only serves me up to a certain time and then wear off. It is a cumulative upkeep that one would have to live with if he/she still lives in this world. This purchase whom God purchased me is not with corruptible things such as silver or gold but with the blood of Christ. It is not temporal. It is forever.Am I living my life as a service back to God as a gratitude for His great purchase of me?Is He complaining how I break down all the time or go out of fashion in due time just like how I complain about the purchases I had for myself? Is He getting back what He paid for? Am I able to satisfy the Master who owns me?

This is one thing I strive to do to serve His purpose on earth just as how Paul exclaimed.

Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.

For being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice for God is priceless and is noted for all God's pleasure.Yes Lord, may my life be like that for Thee. Amen

Resolution for 2009

I guess it's been quite a while since I've visited my own blog or update anything over here. This is my first post for this year and it's been almost 2 months after the new year celebration already! I've been really busy with my work and some youth work recently, not forgetting my holiday to Langkawi as well. Heh Heh..I guess I work hard, serve hard and also holiday hard which I'm beginning to see a pattern here for this new year 2009.

The year 2009 has just started and it doesn't seem to be a good year for everybody because of the global economy downturn that put so many people out of their jobs.Retrenchment, pay cuts, shutdowns (for factory workers), and forced leaves are the common topics among the working adults these days. My mom told me that almost everyone who came to her shop will eventually discuss about this topic and most of them lost their jobs.I felt sorry for them but it's really lousy if that's all I could do for them. I tried to recommend some jobs over at my place to them and Lord willing, if they are accepted then this would really be a blessing for them. However, it seems that my company is starting to be choosy and fussy since there's a huge pool of expertise in the job market these days. They would take months to interview even for one position in the company.Choosey somemore lah, later end up choosing bad 'geng geng' (If you know Hokkien, you would know what I mean by that..:p)Besides, this year's zodiac is the Ox or Cow which made that phrase 'Work like a cow' to be common in everyone's lips.

As for myself, I thank God for His divine providence of a secured job for me which made me trust in the Lord all the more because He led me to this path last year. If I were to stay in my previous company, I would be having pay cuts and forced leaves now which would disable me to attend bible conferences and camps this year. God has indeed blessed me abundantly and to Him alone, I give my life to.

This year, I've purposed in my heart to finish the bible throughtout the whole year following the Emmaus Guide through the Bible because I've never really finished reading my bible in the NKJV version before. Thus, I told myself that I would strictly discipline myself to follow the guide that Emmaus graciously planned out for me. How kind..:) I hope to finish the bible this year and Lord willing, I will be able to see God throughout my studies through his Word.

"How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your Word." Psalms 119:9

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.. :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.