Gideon's Cosy Canopy

Psalms 145 (New King James Version)

2008-10-16T23:38:00.003+08:00

God knows it best when I need the precise encouragement and empowerment from Him.

Psalm 145
A Praise of David.

I will extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous works.
Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.

The LORD is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The LORD is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.

All Your works shall praise You, O LORD,
And Your saints shall bless You.
They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,
And talk of Your power,
To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,
And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The LORD upholds all who fall,
And raises up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And You give them their food in due season.
You open Your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The LORD is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them.
The LORD preserves all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD,
And all flesh shall bless His holy name
Forever and ever.

Freedom!

2008-10-10T15:07:00.004+08:00

Right click, save as..., share it and invite all your friends down!

Things that You Can't Stand

2008-10-01T23:24:00.002+08:00

I want to be the light that guides the rest into His glory.
I want to be the best disciple-maker that God commissioned me to be.
I want to obey God in every way and in every moment... "because You said so..."

I can't stand it God, people need You don't they? That is why we want to fulfill and see a CG in every single schools in Singapore. That is just such a small part of Your salvation plan for the entire world.

There must be an urgency, in every season including examination periods, for us to take up our banner for the King and march into the battlefield to proclaim Your goodness and truth- because the truth will set all free!

Children of God must obey our Father in heaven.
Servant of God must serve the Lord with all we have.
Shepherds of Jesus must nurture our people in the ways of the Lord.
Leaders appointed by the King of kings, Lord of lords must lead the people well!

Its time for us to say what we mean and mean what we say!

James 2:18
But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

Congrats Sunny, you just wrecked my night by showing me the video! >_<
Check it out---> http://www.boystomen-neb.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday Sunny!~

2008-09-28T10:50:00.004+08:00

I've been serving alongside with Sunny for the past near 5 years since he was in Sec 3. Witnessed how he has grown from a boyish character to a man of God. His passion for God is huge and the way he lives his life commands respect.

God will bless him much in his upcoming As and his soon-to-come army. God shall prosper his ministry over the 3 schools and beyond. God will also use him to shine in his family so that his loved ones will come to know Christ soon.

Gambate Sunny! You are called to reach for the skies! :D

Windows to Gideon's World

2008-09-26T01:20:00.018+08:00

1. The age you’ll be on your next birthday:

2. A place you’d like to travel to:

Pamukkale Pools, Turkey.

3. Your favourite place:

4. Your favourite food:

5. Your favourite pet:

6. Your favourite colour combination:

7. Your favourite piece of clothing:

8. Your all-time favourite song:

9. Your favourite TV show:

11. The town in which you live:

12. Your screen nickname:
Kucing Gemuk/ Elmo (Names given by Prajitna)

13. Your first job:

14. Your dream job:

15. A bad habit you have:

16. Your worst fear:

1st:

2nd:

Living among them.

17. The one thing you’d like to do before you die:

A question I'm adding on to the list: Who's new in terrorizing your life:

Welcome to the world of Jon Tay and Dennis...

Tag on to: Freedy, Sunny, Marcus, Chantel, ShiPeng & Daryl (NEB/NEC)

If I will to change my hairstyle

2008-09-23T22:53:00.004+08:00

My hairstyle now (A)

Option B

Option C

Which option of hairstyle should I consider? Vote in my tagboard please...

So funny!

2008-09-23T02:00:00.002+08:00

With Everything

2008-09-03T23:38:00.002+08:00

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.

I worship You God, WITH EVERYTHING.

VERSE 1:
Open our eyes
To see the things that make Your heart cry
To be the church that You would desire
Your light to be seen

VERSE 2:
Break down our pride
And all the walls we’ve built up inside
Our earthly crowns and all our desires
We lay at Your feet

PRE CHORUS:
Let hope rise
And darkness tremble
In Your holy light
That every eye will see
Jesus our God
Great and mighty to be praised

VERSE 3:
God of all days
Glorious in all of Your ways
Oh the majesty the wonder and grace
[these lyrics are found on http://www.songlyrics.com]
In the light of Your Name

CHORUS:
With everything
With everything
We will shout for Your glory
With everything
With everything
We will shout forth Your praise

CHORUS 2:
Our hearts they cry
Be glorified
Be lifted high above all names
For You our King
With everything
We will shout forth Your praise

I love You so much God.

2008-08-25T22:02:00.002+08:00

I love You so much God. I love because You first loved me.

Complete Lyrics:
================
Here I am, Oh God
I bring this sacrifice--my open heart.
I offer up my life.
I look to You, Lord
Your love that never ends
Restores me again

So I lift my eyes to you, Lord
In Your strength will I break through, Lord
Touch me now, let your love fall down on me
And I will be complete in You.

Here I am, Oh God
I bring this sacrifice--my open heart.
I offer up my life.
I look to You, Lord.
Your love that never ends
Restores me again

So I lift my eyes to you Lord
And by faith, I will walk on, Lord
Then I'll see beyond my calvary one day,
And I will be complete in..

I look to You, Lord
Your love that never ends
Restores me again

So I lift my eyes to you Lord
In your strength will I break through Lord
Touch me now, let your love fall down on me
I know your love dispels all my fears.

Through the storm I will hold on Lord
And I pray I will hold on, Lord
Then I'll see beyond my calvary one day
And I will be complete in
I will be complete in
I will be complete in You

Pioneers' Celebration: Pure heart; Clean hands

2008-08-15T01:02:00.005+08:00

Psa 24: 3-5
Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.

Psa 24: 3-5 (The Message)
Who can climb Mount GOD? Who can scale the holy north-face? Only the clean-handed, only the pure-hearted; Men who won't cheat, women who won't seduce. GOD is at their side; with GOD's help they make it. This, Jacob, is what happens to God-seekers, God-questers.

Many of us may be young, but we need not be spiritual infants. Bible promises us that we may be young, but we can set an example for the rest in our speech, life, love, faith and purity!

Listen up people! We must learn to walk right with God! We must love the Word of God. Loving what God loves, hating what God hates.

Don’t let sin and lack of whole-heartedness towards God destroy your entire destiny in Christ!

We repent and let God change the pattern of our thinking and living before its’ too late.

With all my heart, I believe that the key to complete our schools is this- We need to rise up as a generation of people who fears nothing but God and hates nothing but sin.

Give us the lands, give us the schools, give us Your people, from darkness to light.

Encouraging testimony from FIR

2008-08-04T16:19:00.002+08:00

Familiar with the Chinese Pop Band F.I.R?

They're Christians and here's an interview with them at CHC.

I think its just so cool to be a Christian artist and making a statement for God.

So if you think you can sing, dance, act and stuffs... You may be the next rising star in the media industry where God will use you to shine His Name!

*Wanna be a singer Daryl(NEB)? Hehe...

Eelee's Birthday

2008-07-30T01:51:00.003+08:00

Its Eelee's birthday today!

Happy Birthday to you Eelee! Glad to have sent her an e-greeting card in time.
She's been really a key person whom God used to mold me especially during the years when I was in army. Her life has never failed to inspire me to do more for God.

I will always remember that prophesy that was spoken about her before she left for Chile, that God will do immeasurably more than what she ask or imagine. Jiayou sister!

Have decided to take a day off tomorrow for a time of spiritual reflection. Obama recently mentioned that the greatest gift of a leader is to take time to reflect. In fact, a good leader must never suck themselves into the never-ceasing piles of to-do list. A good leader must take time to dream. For the next portion of my ministry journey, I have committed myself to lead and minister in a God-powered manner, things just have to be different from now on!~

I'm excited for what lies ahead. With the 58 NE converts we have seen in the month of July, I truly believe God is stirring up a great work in NE. God, don't pass us by! Open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that we will not have rooms enough for it!

Songs that truly honor Jesus...

2008-07-27T13:08:00.004+08:00

Started my morning today with these two songs.

The man in the first and second video, his name is Mike Guglielmucci. Was a youth pastor in Hillsong Church, till he was diagnosed with cancer a few years back. On the day when he received the news of himself contracting cancer at the aggressive stage, he went to the studio alone and composed a song out of his free worship. And this song is... Healer. I am.... overwhelmed.

Here's a second song that minister to me this morning. Another lead worshiper, whose baby passed on just before she was supposed to lead a seemingly ironic song- The Desert Song during Hillsong Conference. Personification of faith in Jesus.

Witnessing how people around the world love Jesus with all they have simply edifies my faith so much. How can I keep from singing Your praise. How can I ever say enough, how amazing is Your love.

Ready for round 2 of witnessing God's power? :)

2008-07-24T23:29:00.004+08:00

Some really encouraging news all over NE!

NEA had their MCG today and they saw many visitors who joined them. There's this really outstanding brother who happens to be just a new believers of 3 weeks. However, he has bought his sister and cousin in coming to know God since last Sat. And he also bought a few of his friends to NEA's event today too. Bright future awaits Anderson Sec!

NEB also had their MCG today and once again they saw a blasting number of new friends joining them especially from Montfort and St Gab! Daryl, Donavan, Nigel and Scott, I'm praying hard with you guys for the completion of your pioneering schools! :D

NEC had a wonderful CG today! Viney and Randy painstakingly made many cardboard guns and they had a real-life CS game today after CG under Yolee's void deck. It was really fun to the max, with the CG being split to terrorist and anti-terrorist teams and a mission to plant or disarm the bomb. Sounds so cool right? Many of their newbs from last week came as well. We saw many new faces from ZHSS, Yuying and Holy Innocent!

Met up with the St Nicholas' girls this morning as well before they start school. Though its early in the morning, almost all of them turned up for the morning prayer session. It was heartening to see our newbs from last Sat coming down to pray with us as well. I remember our founder said before that the strength of a group can be seen in their rate of mobilization. I think our St Nic's group is really blessed to have strong and biblical leaders such as Kar Chian, Emily, Sharon and Sining leading them. The future is bright for these girls!

Was talking on msn with Rachel just a moment ago. Glad to hear from her that 3 out of her 4 newbs came to CGthis week. Rachel and Yining have been such a blessing in NE with their exemplary life and they are indeed two very strong pillars in NE. You girls rock!

Guys I am just so glad to be serving with such a wonderful, vision-driven, passionate and fun-filled people like you all! Let's claim our schools for Jesus! They are God's promised lands to us! :D

We are the spiritual Joshua!

2008-07-22T01:17:00.004+08:00

Upload the picture above as your msn display picture! :)

The book of Joshua talks about a story of conquest and fulfillment for the people of God. After many years of slavery in Egypt and 40 years in the desert, the Israelites were finally allowed to enter the land promised to their fathers. Abraham, always a migrant, never possessed the country to which he was sent, but he left to his children the legacy of God’s covenant that promises them to be the owners of the land of Canaan. (Gen 15:13, 16, 18 and 17:8)

Joshua was destined to turn that promise into reality. In fact, earlier on in his life Joshua was called Hoshea which means “salvation”. But later Moses changed his name to Joshua, meaning “The Lord saves” or “The Lord gives victory”.

Joshua 1: 1-9

Today, God wants to remind us that we are the spiritual Joshua, and our 12 schools are our first 12 promised land, where we will enjoy rest and prosperity.

The people during Joshua’s time wanted a land of their own, where they can rear their children, a place of shelter, a place of work and a place of enjoyment.

In the same way, we want to claim our schools for Jesus. We don’t want to be alien in our schools, where its’ always the secular influence that overcomes our biblical stand. No more fighting, flirting, smoking, backstabbing, selfishness, gossip, vulgar. We want to have our own people in the school. Every day we will meet together like what they did in Acts churches. We can find and build true and everlasting friendship with the people of God. Our CG can study together, with the same uniform, doing the same homework given by the same teacher in our own schools. We can knock on any of the classroom, to seek help or just share our sorrows with our church friends any day, any time.

Not everyone in the school may convert, but more and more people will come and know Jesus through us. Our community in school will grow, from a CG to a unit, from a unit to a sub-district, then to a district and so on and so forth. Then the people of God won’t remain as alien in God’s Promised Land, instead it will be those who have yet to come and know God who will be alien in the land of God’s people.

And today the good news is- God is giving the schools to us. He says that all authority on earth and heaven has been given to us. (Joshua 1:6, 9)

Last week, we witnessed the power of God when He moves. We had 34 converts + 1 more from West- 35! But do you think this is it? Is God such a miser God that He only gives 34 souls from our promised schools? Far from it! So what’s next?

A) Giving all honor and glory to God (Acts 12: 21-22)

B) Continue to pray and fast to rely on God

C) Serve with greater expectation and faith
i) Retention
ii) Outreach

We can do it people! God will be doing some incredible work among us this week once again! :D

Because the Lord built the house, His laborers labored in gain!

2008-07-19T23:24:00.003+08:00

The story goes like this, everyone in NE was charged up for this upcoming July ESS.

All of us prayed and fasted. All of us did our best, expecting that God will show us His best.

Many of our leaders set great examples for their people to follow.

Rachel, Donavan, Chantel went down to meet their people early in the morning at 7am to pray and encourage their people.

Kar Chian brought all her girls to Sining's house on Friday's evening to call their contacts and intercede together. They also outreached to this Anderson girl on their way to Sining's house. This girl came today and converted in service!

Marcus and Daryl labor with all they have at Montfort daily. And God blessed them with many converts today.

Rachel's girls- Huixuan, Baoer, Vivian etc served to their best for Hougang Sec, they had 2 converts today, making there now 5 people in the school. 2 more to go!

Freedy and his team led his people well too, they had 7 converts today!

Chantel's goal was 60 for ESS1. They calculated at first and to their great dismay they only hit 59... Then Rachel shouted out in her usual 'blurish' voice: "Wait I forgot to count in a girl that came today!". So here you go! 60 for NED!

Ruiyong started off his unit with around 18 people a few months back. Their confirmation last night? 40! Their converts today? 10! And they are going to complete their 4 schools really soon!

Another amazing story too- Sining bought her St Nic's friend today. Not only she responded to God immediately during altar call, she asked Sining to give way to her so that she can come down to the stage to be prayed for. She even dragged Sining and ran down the stairways. If you are reading this, shout "WOW!"

God spoke to me while I was praying on the train that we will see at least 33 converts today. Guess what? We had 34! God did immeasurably more than what we ask or imagine!

What's next? The harvest ain't over! In fact, its far from over! Many more friends have already been confirmed to come for ESS2 next week. Scott from St Gab shared to me last night that many of his juniors from St Gab are coming down. Some of Scott's friends are intending to bring along their own friends to join us for ESS too!

We will not be complacent. We give all the honor and glory to God for what He had done in NE today!

We will continue to pray and fast to rely on God. Not by power nor by might, but by the Spirit of God.

We will stay as focus as laser, to complete each and every 12 schools in NE by end August.

We give our best, and God will show us His best! :D

God is MOVING!~

2008-07-15T18:36:00.002+08:00

Nigel from St Gabriel just shared that he has one convert from St Gab today!~

Will be heading down to St Andrews tomorrow morning at 7am to jiayou with them. Also meeting the St Gabriel's guys in the afternoon to pray with them for a CG to establish in their school, followed by NEA Coreteam Meet to spur the rest in claiming Anderson, Deyi and Bowen.

NEC, you guys r in my prayers! Holy Innocent, Zhonghua, Serangoon Garden and Yuying jiayou!

NED, gambate for Hougang Sec and PLMGS as well! :D

Psa 127:1
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.

*fasting and praying hard!

God's Hands Will Move

2008-07-14T15:27:00.004+08:00

I believe in the power of prayers, because prayers cause God's hands to move.
I also believe in fasting, because fasting cause God's hands to move even more mightily.

Therefore for the next three weeks, I am embarking a fasting and praying journey together with the entire NE. We are seeking for God to move in ways never seen before.

Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us

Let us do our best for the coming few weeks, and God will show us His best.
12 schools for Jesus, for He is truly worthy!

And here's your e-invite video to Clique ESS:

Clique Here Publicity - July 08 ESS from Y-Hope TV on Vimeo.

I'm back guys! :D

2008-07-07T22:02:00.005+08:00

Sorry for the loooooonnnnngggg wait people! My home's internet connection has been playing tricks on me for the past 1 month. Maybe that's just God's way of keeping me away from all my japanese animes to focus solely on Him this holiday.

Anyway all thanks to Mervin who brought him laptop down at my house mac that I'm able to have the luxury of blogging at this moment.

Well I kinda left all my Japan's trip pictures at home so I'll only upload them in my next entry. Wait till you see the splendor of Mt Fuji as the backdrop of my portrait and the magical Disney Tokyo where all your dreams come true! (Well... almost...)

Past few weeks' been flooded with so many birthday's celebrations... Just last week alone I've been to two surprise birthday party for Jon Tay and Debbie. This coming Saturday my CG and I will be celebrating for our beloved sister Chantel's birthday! Oh ya, tml's my younger sister Jessica's birthday too. My poor wallet!

Peter and I!

Eelee and I! (Haa I'll miss her so much after she's back for church planting at Chile!)

Everybody in the house! Oh anyway great news great news! Donavan and Nigel responded to what was shared last Saturday about taking spiritual ownership of their schools. Last Sunday, they saw a St Andrews boy who was on his way to school for MILK Run and they outreach to him. Guess what? He converted! Furthermore, NEA had their MCG at Wild Wild Wet today and had another Anderson Sec 1 convert too! Kudos to their attitude of lifestyle evangelism! Heard that NEB's gonna have their badminton MCG this thursday at Braddell Heights CC. Keep them in prayers! :D

I believe that God is preparing a might harvest that is arriving on the 19th and 26th July. Let us sow in tears and reap in joy! Remember what was shared on our first-ever Pioneers Meet last Saturday. We are the appointed spiritual floodgates for the schools God has placed us over. Walk close with God, serve with all we have, pray like never before, our schools can, will and must be won! *hearing the shouts of "amen!" from you guys!

Till next time folks!

** praying hard for upcoming 19th and 26th July ESS- Clique!

Away for...

2008-06-05T13:47:00.003+08:00

Leaving around 3 hours time to Hope Malaysia Youth Camp. Expecting a great time of fellowship with fellow hope brothers and sisters and pray that I might serve and minister well among them. Looking forward for a great time of spiritual learnings and reflection as well. Will be back on Sunday.

9-12th Jun 2008: Oasis Youth Camp at Downtown East!

Haa I'm so looking forward to it! Higher! Deeper! Wider!

14th- 20th Jun 2008: Family Trip to Japan!

Don't miss me people!~ ;)

Hot News All Around Northeast! Part 2!

2008-06-03T21:31:00.004+08:00

Had a superb + enjoyable + ministering NE Camp last Wed. I'm still waiting for Yeongdeng to upload the video before I blog about it! >_<

NEA:

Sms received from Freedy this afternoon:

"Yea today NEA MCG was a smashing success!! We see 8 visitors joining us for 4 hours of non-stop sports. Lots of bonding and fellowship. Praise God! Lets continue to pray and seek God for more visitors! :)"

NEB:

shipeng™- I want to be close by ur side! says:
u know clement??

(•·÷[GÏÐ€ØÑ]÷·•)'s trusting in Him says:
ya

(•·÷[GÏÐ€ØÑ]÷·•)'s trusting in Him says:
the small boy

shipeng™- I want to be close by ur side! says:
ya haha he at first got some family prob den maybe cant go for camp though he paid already

shipeng™- I want to be close by ur side! says:
den ytd his parent allowed him to go

shipeng™- I want to be close by ur side! says:
den now he super excited for camp!

shipeng™- I want to be close by ur side! says:
felt really good to see him so excited haha

(•·÷[GÏÐ€ØÑ]÷·•)'s trusting in Him says:
hurray!~

NEC:

Brandon, Guowei, Daryl, Youli and ChengYi came to church office this afternoon to listen to sermon tapes. Excellent spirit of learning and hunger for the Word!

By the way they have 4 more believers confirmed coming for camp! Hurray!

NED:

Had a restructure recently to boost their momentum and synergy... Way to go girls!

Rachel fractured her leg during NE Camp, and super-honoring Yuqian and Yining led their girls to visit Rachel at home after last Sat's service. That's the spirit man!

Finally.............................. CAMP IS COMING! *hear some shouts from you guys!
Rule no. 1: NE will be the WINNER for camp games and mega event!
Rule no. 2: Strictly no gaming electronics to camp *your head or PSP- choose 1!
Rule no. 3: Set your camp objectives clearly (leave your head outside Downtown East if you fail to do so)
Rules no. 4: Wear white for games to represent NE!
Rules no. 5: Make the best out of your $120/130 by putting your life to be transformed under the Word of God!

Some of you are confused with what to bring for camp. So here you go!

WHAT TO BRING?! LIST

Clothes/Shoes
2 district colour shirt (for games)
2-3 sets of clothes
Undergarments
Slippers
Sport shoes
Jacket
Toiletries
Towel
Face towel
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Facial foam
Shampoo
Soap
Comb
Spectacles / Contact lens & solution
Others
Bible
Writing materials
Handphone / Handphone charger
Basic / own medications (if any)
Camera (if any)
Cash
Umbrella
Sleeping bag

District colour:

Central – red

NorthEast – white

East – blue

North – brown

West – green

JC – orange

Camp Dates:

9-12 June 2008

Camp Venue:

DOWNTOWN EAST

How to get there?

By Bus

3, 6, 12, 17, 21, 89, 354, 358

By Train (MRT)

Just a 10-minute walk from the Pasir Ris MRT Station

Free shuttle bus service to Downtown East and Costa Sands Resort

Every Fri, Sat, Sun

Every half-hourly, 3pm - 10pm

http://oasiscamp.blogspot.com

David Cook Won!

2008-05-23T00:26:00.002+08:00

Hurray! Been catching up with America Idol for the past few episodes and yea... David Cook rocks!

His vocal is just perfect for his singing genre and his showmanship is superb too!~

One of his best performance:

His finale winning song:

"Dare you to move" by Switchfoot

He is awesome in re-arranging songs, here's an example of what he did with one of my favorite song!

Haa... I wonder how wonderful and powerful praise and worship will be in heaven!

Hot News All Around Northeast!

2008-05-20T23:13:00.003+08:00

NEA is...

Embarking on 3 challenges:
1) Commitment to growth
2) Commitment to Word of God
3) Commitment to Church

Anchoring scripture: Book of Acts

They are expecting great growth coming from Deyi and Ang Mo Kio Secondary School with 3 hunks (Yeongdeng, Alvin and Liehao) spearhearing the growth.
Keep them in prayers, we are certain that God will rain big time in this group!

NEB is...

Embarking of CG completion of GSM (St Gab, St Andrews, Montfort)

Anchoring scripture: Nehemiah Chapter 2- Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem

Watch out for the out-bursting passion and zeal oozing out from our NEB's spiritual spartans!

NEC is...

Growing! Last week their confirmation on Friday's evening was 18 and guess what? They hit 28 on Saturday itself!

Trick to their growth? Excitement and faith among the people. Everyone including the new-believers just gave their best to spread Jesus around like wildfire. By the way, they are completing Holy Innocent Sec soon! If they can do it, so can everyone! :D

NED is...

Bubbling with new dynamics and life!

Something new is coming along the way, watch out for them!

Yining is leading her Deyi girls in a Fast and Furious manner while Kar Chian's girls are all geared up to conquer the remaining girls' schools in NE. With such powerful leadership with leaders like them + Chantel, Rachel and Yuqian, even the devil trembles!!!

Haa I love my CG, thank God for all my passionate and ever-ready ULs. They are God's blessings in my life. Let's all chiong for Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

jshdfioewshdfowkfj!

2008-05-09T22:48:00.017+08:00

Has been catching the news regarding the Myanmar's disaster for the past few days. What an irresponsible and apathetic military regime! So many people are dying and yet we all know that the only reason behind the tremendous death toll is all due to the completely ineffective, incompetent and inhumane military junta. It all boils down to the root- SIN! Corruption, apathy, tyranny, injustice and so many more. It is the carnal sin of man that has caused the world to be what it is today, and it is Jesus who is the ONLY SOLUTION to the problem of all mankind. Come on people! We need to forward Christ to the hearts of people around us!

Anyway, the good news is that the church will be doing love collection for the Myanmar's victims during service next week. We are blessed to be a blessing. Let us stretch our hands to those who need helps as how Jesus would have done. I've already decided in my heart an amount I want to give. Join me if you have the resources to do so too. :)

Ok before things start to sound real depressing, here's some recent ongoings:

Shirls' Birthday Celebration

Someone I truly respect a lot in my life. I have learned so much from her life. Shirley (my shepherd!) is indeed someone who walks her talks. :)

Here's some snaps of preparations for her birthday surprise party:

Exams' Over!

Finally... And thanks to all you NE dudes for going through this 'tedious journey' with me! Don't you guys enjoy studying and helping one another within a biblical community and to spend time with God before we begin our revision? Of course I know I know... The main motivation for you guys to head to AMK library everyday is me!!!! Wahahaha... Who can resist such an awesome opportunity to study with a hunk who's apparently the most popular guy in NUS and Ang Mo Kio? ;)
Malaysia Treat!

Went to Malaysia yesterday's evening with Dennis, Gwen Khoo and Jac to have our hair cute and to enjoy a feast! The clothes and stuffs over there ain't that cheap but the all the food are really sedap sekali (very delicious) and harga bagus (good price)!

NE Got Talent!

Just had our audition for our talent time in NE Camp. I tell you... NE Got Talent! Here's a summary of the various performances:

Joshua and his dancing crew: Shocking! =)
NEB: Shoocckkkkkkkiiinnngggg! (giggling girlishly)
Kar Chian's girls: shocked (gracefully)
Ruijun' and Vivian: sHoCkEd (harmoniously)
Reena: Shocked? (All guys were requested to exit the audition ground)
NEC: SHOCKED and DAZED

Publicity Time!
Here's a great post-exam's treat for you and your friends: (invite your friends!)

http://facing-the-giants-movie.blogspot.com/

Also, here's two camps you will ABSOLUTELY not want to miss out:

NE Camp (28th May) and Oasis (9-12th June)!

Save up, sign up and tone up your spiritual life!

http://www.oasiscamp.blogspot.com/

Interesting :)

2008-05-04T23:16:00.006+08:00

Remember the perfume and cosmetic commercial i did? Haven't got time to upload it yet. But my friend linked me to these videos which were apparently done by other project groups. The first time's quite funny especially at the last part. As for the second one, I thought its really quite good and the person doing the filming is definitely a pro. Enjoy! :)

Random-ness

2008-04-30T00:36:00.006+08:00

I know I need to sleep. I know I have a paper tml. But I am ADD-ing now.
(ADD = Attention Deficit Disorder)

I love my niece! :D
Who is this weirdo?
Just wanted to go for a different look, apparently it failed...
I have no reason to post this pic but here it goes... (risking my life to be slaughtered by Freedy)"Meaningless, meaningless... Everything is meaningless... Says the teacher..."

Honesty Appreciated! :)

2008-04-20T00:34:00.002+08:00

Did something special today in my CLaM. Got all of them write down anonymously regarding my strengths and weaknesses- both character and skills.

Was reading them while on the way home. Some of the comments written were really honest and blunt haha. As much as I'm definitely not a maniac who loves and yearns to receive improvements' remarks upon my life, from the bottom of my heart I am grateful for the honesty shown. Though most of the comments were neither blind spots nor words of revelation to me, such feedbacks will certainly serve as an excellent reminder for me to pay careful attention to my personhood as a Christian and as a leader in especially certain key areas. =)

I will definitely take all these feedbacks to heart and work on them. Do show grace in my life too as I continue my journey of growth. :)

Social Workers' Day Dinner!

2008-04-18T02:30:00.012+08:00

Last Tuesday was International Social Workers' Day. Over here in Singapore, we had our Social Worker's Dinner held at Mandarin Hotel with President Nathan as our guest-of-honor! Oh btw do you know that he was a Social Work graduate and worked a couple of years as a medical social worker before entering into politics! ;)

Here's some pictures we took that day:

Bullying... (is this my life destiny...)
President SR Nathan was on his way out when a bunch of us rushed out to request photo with him! =)
Family photo for social work students:

Today in our Social Work's Gender Class- Our last lecture with Charlyn and Tommy since they are graduating this semester *sob sob
Victory to us! We managed to grab Exams Wellness Package (typical Singaporean)
Clowning Time Again!Haa I am really thankful to God for placing such a great bunch of friends in my life. Charlyn and Tommy I will miss crapping with you guys in class soooooo much! Am glad that God blessed you guys with a job even before your graduation! Jiayou for your new work in NUH and IMH! =)

And lastly.... I missed the farewell for Torchie and Chris! :(
Heard that the farewell was a great time of fellowship and sharing. Man I really think there's so much to learn from those two spiritual giants! Just read about their affirmation mail which Shirls posted on her blog. I am so totally blown away by their life, their sincerity and their passion for God. Way to go brothers! God will bless both Yhope and Ablaze ministry abundantly! Influence the youths of today, building our future tomorrow!

Prophecy for NED

2008-04-12T00:41:00.002+08:00

Matt 9: 16-17
16"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

No more bringing our past baggages with us. The old is to be gone and the new is now to come. A new future has arrived. New wineskin and that's all you girls in NED. :)

The culture will change. The quality will be strengthened. The vision will be clarified. The passion will be renewed. The conviction will be deepened. The wineskin will be expanded. The glory of the Lord will rest upon this entire unit.

Jiayou to Chantel and her spiritual amazon warriors!

Listening: We are the ones song by will.i.am- obama

Marching on to army!

2008-04-11T01:34:00.008+08:00

This week has been real happening... Sent two of my ex-sheep and good friends to army. Time flies so fast! Got to know them when they were secondary 4 and now they are becoming soldiers!

Managed to snap some last pictures of them before they turn bald!
Looking at them reminds me of something- "Seriously, how did I actually went through army myself! Well... I am just so glad it's over for me!"

And how can I miss posting this pic? It's GuoZhang's iphone! Haa... How I wish it's mine! :(

Finally, I bought a skipping rope today at AMK Hub's NTUC! Friday's my free day and so I shall wake up early in the morning to skip at the nearby garden! =)

Introducing- Triumph Anti- Dandruff Shampoo

2008-04-03T01:57:00.003+08:00

Did a group project on re-inventing a new shampoo product. Introducing to you- The Triumph Anti- Dandruff Shampoo! Yes I know... Triumph sounds weird... It sounds like... (ignorance is a bliss at times)

Thanks Layling who helped me in editing the labeling using photoshop! Owe you a big one sister!
Anyway my project mates and I will be doing a short advertisement on our shampoo product haha! Its gonna be hilarious! I'll try to upload it on youtube to share it with you guys the next time!~ ;)

Prophesy for NEB

2008-03-29T00:44:00.004+08:00

Isaiah 40:30-31 (New International Version)

30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

This was a prophesy made upon NEB during their prayer meet today.

God gave both Sunny and I the same vision of an eagle: NEB and its members to be the eagle that will soar high on its wings. The future of NEB is bright. Revival shall arrive. Breakthroughs will manifest in every corners of the group. Believers- young and old will receive a tangible touch from God and many will take up the call to serve the Lord.

God's blessings fall on those whose hearts are for Him, those who are fully committed to God in love and obedience. Let me first lift up my hand and say "Here I am Lord, use me!".

Let God's rain of abundant blessings shower upon everyone in Northeast. All for Jesus! :D

Is Jesus hard to love? Not at all. On the contrary...

2008-03-27T01:27:00.004+08:00

Deu 6:4-6

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.

These coming few weeks are gonna be packed with projects and assignments. Remind me Lord never to become too busy not to pray. Nowadays I have cultivated the habit of beginning the day with God. Every morning I will commit the day to God, praying that I will walk with Him throughout the day. I pray that I will make godly decisions and that through how I do my life during the day I can bear witness to His name.

I am glad that I have took up the One-Day challenge posed by Shirley a few weeks ago. I realized that I have been more sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit nowadays and I have become more aware and mindful of my own motives, thoughts and emotions wherever I am, especially at home since I often take things for granted.

In my Christian walk for the past few years I've seen quite a number of people who either abandon their Christian growth or even their faith as a whole. Frankly speaking as much as I don't want to follow their foot steps, I know better than anyone else how fallible I can be if I don't take good care of my own spiritual life.

One of my greatest fears in life (besides cockroaches and balloons) is that I will lose my fervent and love for God as I grow older (spiritually and physically). Christianity is not a CCA to me and it shall never become one. God knows my heart... The more I know Him, the more I want to love Him. I want to love Him till the last drop of my breath. God is the First Love of my life and He will always remain to be so. In my youth I praise Him with all I have, and in my graying years I shall remain doing so- praising and dancing with immerse joy for all that He has done.

Two elements which I know are keys to my spiritual longevity:
1) Continuous walk and experience with God
2) A heart of thanksgiving and gratefulness

Help me God. This is my pledge to You.

S-Pop Concert!

2008-03-24T01:47:00.005+08:00

Just came back from S-Pop Concert thanks to Gwen who managed to get her hands on 6 tickets for us! The last time when I attended a concert was when I was still studying in Secondary Two and I remember it was Ah-Mei's concert at Singapore Outdoor Stadium. Anyway today was a great time spent with Dennis, Gwen, Debbie, Daniel C. and Sharlene at the event which ended around 11.30pm. The experience was enhanced overall thanks to a binocular brought along by Dennis' mum. =)

Oh and after that Gwen drove us to Geylang for supper. The famous beef kway teow we tried was really yummy! If you dare to eat frog leg you should really try the famous frog leg porridge there too! ;)

And guess what? I found Ah-Mei's signature outside indoor stadium! My day has been made perfect. :D

Easter E-Invite

2008-03-20T02:48:00.003+08:00

Download this- use it as einvite cards OR print it out and invite your friends in school.

Let's help our friends understand the true meaning of Easter this time. Let them know truly what is so good about Good Friday. =)

iTreasure

2008-03-18T01:48:00.005+08:00

Met up with Freedy just hours ago. I was quite amazed at his attempt to interpret my personality cos 1) it sounds quite true 2) it was something I never quite knew about myself! Quite rare for someone to come and tell me something about myself that I'm unaware of, unless this person truly knows me well. :)

Freedy is my sheep for quite some years and he is one person I truly appreciate and treasure in my life. I enjoy moments catching up with him and I have all the desire to see him grow strong in Christ and for him to succeed in all areas of his life.

As a matter of fact, I do love all my sheeps and my people in NE alot. They are gifts from God to me. There are many times I struggled with becoming the best shepherd and leader I can be for them. There are definitely many moments when I feel a lack of wisdom and a sense of inadequacies to perform to what I think I need to be in order to be effective for my people's sake. But I know that I am always giving my best for these people and I strive to continuously strengthen myself so that I can remain to be a vessel of blessing for them. I give my best to what I know how and I trust that God will do the rest.

Besides my people, I do really treasure those friends that God has placed in my life too. I am thankful that many of those I served with the hardest have now become some of my closest friends. I appreciate these friendships and I pledge myself to commit to these relationships, not just the fellowship itself but to the mutual spiritual growth among ourselves. I pray that I can be a friend who brings spiritual substance to friends around me. I also desire for friends who dare to speak into my life and unreservedly guide me in areas I need to grow in.

Finally, I do love my family a lot, especially my mum. There have been so many times that I do not know how to express my care effectively for members of this family. I pray that my elder sis will enjoy a blissful marriage and my mum to enjoy good health. It has always been my dream to witness my younger sis to mature in Christ and to serve alongside with me just like Dennis and Jasmine.

These are the people God has blessed me with. I have no doubt about it. They are my iTreasure. :)

Another Jay Chou's song that I love

2008-03-14T23:34:00.001+08:00

Enjoy!~ :D

More!

2008-03-06T23:12:00.006+08:00

Found these pictures in an email sent by my elder sister. Oh mine... How creative can Singaporeans be. I'm amazed by their sense of humor in the midst of all the tension. :D

Mas Selamat Kastari

2008-03-04T15:00:00.008+08:00

Went home together with Jon Tay last week when he told me about the escaped criminal Mas Selamat Kastari. Being a typical Singaporean, my first instinct was to ask Jon to change his driving direction towards Whitley Road so that I can see the roadblocks etc. :X

Its shocking isn't it? That such incident can actually happen in Singapore. I think many of us are thrown into much apprehension, especially that now we're surrounded by arrest posters of him everywhere... quite a few of us even have the haunting MMS of him sent by the police in our handphone right now.

Some people say its an inside job; others say it could be the doing of black magic. For me, this incident reminded me the fact that as Singaporeans we may have grown to become overly-reliant on our government; built up an unrealistic thinking-frame that our nation's defence will always be invulnerable and invincible. I think the incident has served as a wake-up call for complacent people like me and at the same time reminding our local authority the need for them to constantly evaluate and strengthen their leadership.

On the other hand, I felt really overwhelmed that a seemingly normal and decent-looking guy like Mas Selamat Kastari can actually harbour thoughts of destroying lives and property. Its truly frightening to witness how fearsome human becomes when they are indoctrinated with the wrong values and understanding. It reminds me the importance for me to cultivate balance and biblical values among the youths I serve with.

Anyway I found two extemely funny poster at Shirls blog (which is part of my inspiration for this blog post). Enjoy!

NE Spokeperson

2008-02-29T12:34:00.003+08:00

Want to hear the most unique voice of NE? Here's one video you can't miss.
(Taken from courtesy of Shipeng's blog)

Well done NEB for such an awesome CG!
Been hearing wonderful stories about our new-believers this week. We had a total of 25 new brothers and sisters joining our family for the past 2 weeks. Well done people! Gambate gambate gambate! *gideon gives a pat on your shoulder

Ok time for lunch! Yitadakimuz!

It's a family business

2008-02-22T13:39:00.004+08:00

Too lazy to upload my phone pictures nowadays.
Anyway we had our DL Huddle last night at Pasta Mania in celebration of the last day of CNY.

Feel glad that we are serving in this big family and to see many wonderful examples of people from different ages and backgrounds serving God together. We are all in our family business- the business of serving God and people.

Tomorrow is Hello Love 2- pray hard for the service to be a great time of reconciliation for many who will be coming! Heard that the dance team are practicing like mad and Shirley is giving her best for her sermon too- jiayou people!

By the way- do you know that Singapore had won the entitlement to host the upcoming Youth Olympic! As a Singaporean I ought to be real proud of it but hmmm... Actually if I am one of the participants I'll rather wish for it to be held at Moscow where all the cultural heritage alone will wrap you up in total amazement. Well... :p

All Glory to Him!

2008-02-16T01:05:00.003+08:00

I need to blog on our NE Valentine Party cos its was such a huge success!

But I am just so lazy now (and anxious + expectation for tml's service)
Leaving you guys with this photo and a video- the last 1 min of the video was priceless.
Shall blog abt it more soon and very soon!

P.S. The real success of the party is to see our pre-believing friends coming for service and eventually receiving the greatest Love in life!

Life

2008-02-03T21:46:00.000+08:00

One day alone was enough for me to taste the reality of 2 extremes in life.

In just a few hours ago I was attending a wedding ceremony that celebrates the reunion of two; a proclamation of love and the promises of new life and beginning.

Then hours later I found myself sitting at a wake staying it through the night with 2 close friends of mine (they are brothers) who have just lost their loved one.

God has given us a life that contains so many promising adventures and rewards, provided that we strive to make the best out of our numbered days. Life can be so fragile if we just allow it to slip off our hands carelessly, so let us live our days wisely and not as unwise, making the best out of every single day.

School Reopened! =)

2008-01-29T01:09:00.000+08:00

I know I'm a little different from the rest. I love it when school reopens.

No doubt there are stress and fatigue and stuffs, but I simply just enjoy the process of learning new and interesting knowledge from all my lectures and tutorials, especially when these knowledges are able to serve me well in practical usage!

Education can be less of a struggle when you can comprehend the purpose it serves you in the long-run and especially when you are able to choose what you love and enjoys!

Modules I am taking this semester:
1) Chinese Traditions
2) Gender Issues in Social Work
3) Principles of Marketing
4) Introduction to Psychology
5) Perfumes and Cosmetics (Haha!)

Btw, God really spoke to me last Saturday about faith. This is what I wrote to my leaders in my email today:

Guys, God reminded me on last Saturday that we need to serve with faith. When we challenge our people, have faith that they will grow. Sometimes growth doesn't come immediately. That's when the Bible says that faith is hoping for what we can't see as yet, believing that it will come to past.

Without faith in our serving, we will get frustrated and discouraged easily. With faith, we can have joy in serving God. Faith pleases God and God will bless our labour filled with love and faith.

Jiayou this week people! Let's clothe ourselves on with divine faith and serve differently!

Oh and yes yes! Yesterday I had a ex-HS D reunion at Andrea's new house! It was a reunion of my shepherds Ray (2nd shepherd), Andrea (3rd shepherd) and Daniel (4th shepherd)! These are some of the key people God has used to impact my life tremendously! To who I am today I owed it so much to them! :)

Of course, not forgetting Weiling (my ex-CG mate) and Daniel Cheah (my buddy since Sec 2)! It was a great time of fellowship and showing appreciation to Andrea for what she had done in our life. It was also a good opportunity for us to know more about Andrea's husband David in a personal way.

Photos are on its way so I shall blog more about it when I receive the pictures! :)

Times truly flies man... This coming Saturday I'll be attending Christine's wedding ceremony with some other dudes! When is my turn man?!?!?! (Joking joking... :p)

*** Gosh I just think I shotted myself!

Why (By Nicole Nordeman)

2008-01-10T11:18:00.000+08:00

This was an animation done last year during our Easter production. Bravo to Steven and the rest for this splendid piece of art!

For those who have never hear this song before, this song contains the voices of the young little girl, Jesus and God the Father in the backdrop of Jesus' death on the Cross and His reason for doing so.

What a good way for myself to be reminded by the last statement of the song that I was the reason why Jesus died. There are many out there whom He died for too. I want to bring them back to God's sheep pen.

Yesterday was a blessed day where I had an opportunity to eat lunch with this schoolmate of mine. He has a really unique personality and a strong set of beliefs which he holds on firmly to. During our conversation I can't help but to ask him- "It's really surprising for me to know that you are not a Christian, given your sense of pursue for righteousness and truth". I am glad that this friend of my adopts an open-minded attitude towards Christianity. I'll be taking a similar module with him next semester and he turns out to be Dennis' friend too. I pray that God will add greater substance to our friendship and that I may be used as a vessel in revealing Christ's love to him.

As you take some moments to appreciate the following video, do take time to thank God for God. Spread this video to those around you too, especially those who have yet come to know Christ. :)

A Mei!

2008-01-04T01:42:00.001+08:00

Another amazing performance by A Mei. She was my favorite singer when I was in my secondary years. Her vocal is truly amazing! I was so crazy over her that I went to her concert in Singapore Outdoor Stadium in 1998 thanks to my friend who managed to get two free tickets haha!

A well deserved rest!

2007-12-23T15:26:00.000+08:00

Finally the Christmas Party is over!!!

Haven't got a serious rest for a long long time. Spent my earlier 3-months school vacation in my work attachment, thereafter was the reopening of school term. Straight after exams was camp/anniversary and following after that was preparation for the Christmas party.

Last night was my last major event to manage for year 2007! I can now officially take lighter steps all the way till the end of this year! Hurray!

Some photos from last night's event! (Courtesy of Jerel's facebook collections)

Our very own band performing through the night!

Crazy people scrambling for the grand prize of the day- IPOD NANO!

Stage deco put up by Bingliang and his team.

Our very own in-house DJ Jason!

A big thanks for all who participated in this event to make it a success! It was through this entire party that I was reminded once again how wonderful it is to serve together in God's household. I love this family of God!

Most importantly, my prayer is that last night's party managed to connect all our newly found brothers and sisters to the new community they have found with us YHOPE.

Heartbeat at this moment: Retention of every new believers in NE!

Letter from Ps Jeff

2007-12-18T13:17:00.001+08:00

Just a note: Join us for our ever-first Y-Hope Christmas Party on the 25th Dec, 7-10pm at Palawan Beach!

Make your own masquerade too! Visit our website at www.yhopechristmasparty.blogspot.com for more information!

Hi leaders,

Greetings to you!

First and foremost, I just want to thank all of you for another year of commitment and selfless contribution to Jesus and His people. It had made a definite difference to the Kingdom. I am really thankful to God for the opportunity to serve Him with you.

On that note, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage us to give it our best shot for this coming Christmas weekend. Do lock arms with me in the following ways…

1) Pray for a bountiful harvest

Only the Holy Spirit can move the hearts of men. While we do all that is humanly possible, we need God to move the hearts of men. Pray that the pre-believers and backsliders will have a very special moment with God during the coming weeks’ small group meetings and this weekend services.

2) Invite pre-believers and backsliders

Let’s be God’s messengers in sending His invitations out to His banquet. This is a good time to invite our friends, school mates, colleagues, our family members and relatives. Christmas is the time where people’s hearts are strangely open to attending church and knowing more about Jesus!

3) Participate during the services

The gospel is preached through every one of us during the services. Do participate and give our full support to the events that are taking place on the stage. Together, we will make the gospel come alive in all its beauty.

Have a most joy-filled Christmas.

See you at The Rock!

The Amazing Randy aka Jeremiah

2007-11-27T00:18:00.001+08:00

Trustfall at Hope Centre's Arise! Event:

See how the NEC dudes do it with their hero of the day!

Why!?!?! Its exams time again! :(

2007-11-25T18:46:00.000+08:00

Uni life can be so fast and hectic... Its exams time again!
From now till the end of my examinations, I shall limit myself to only one blog post per week.

Firstly so that I won't abandon my blog and allow it to rot on its own and secondly so that blogging won't become a burden into part of my life.

Embracing myself and face my fears- malay and sociology *faints

By the way, I managed to take snaps on samples for my malay oral test.
Not sure if they remind you on memories of your primary school years, at least they did for me!

My Care Group

2007-11-16T22:42:00.000+08:00

Kapo-ed some pictures from Shirls' blog taken during Ziying's farewell to Adults Group. Man we went really crazy that day. Notice the picture that I took off my specs... I laughed till I weep at all the stupid jokes the rest made! What an emotional roller coaster ride for me!

To lazy to type much but summary: I LOVE MY CARE GROUP!

Invite your friends to PLAYLIST!

2007-11-14T02:37:00.000+08:00

Here's the e-invite! Pass it all around!

We must not lose the spirit of outreach and of serving God.
Remember, it wasn't David's stone which killed the Goliath; it was David's spirit.

Won't You Break Free!

2007-11-07T15:23:00.000+08:00

I'm singing "Won't you break free, won't you break free, 1 more assignment to go and I can be free.... Before the arrival of exams that is..."

Shirls tagged me to write six weird things about myself. Well I got a pretty long list for that so I shan't do it for this blog entry since I'm in no mood for that currently.

Anyway recently after my sharing of Lesson 6 for Word-centered church series, thought what I shared towards the end of it was something really close to my heart. Here you go, my speech of the day!

To sum up my vision- a vision to see a growing generation of youths loving God’s Word, doing God’s Word, transformed by God’s Word and in turn bless others through God’s Word.

Because of this purpose, everything that we have said before make sense. They are the manifestation of the vision that we have. Finishing the schools in NE, growing ourselves, doing the best in our life in various aspects, having a NE camp and service etc.

I am disappointed when I see that people are laid-back. When people are not taking the initiative, when groups are not matching up to their potential. When people not longer love Jesus as much as they did. When people don’t grow despite being in the church for so long!

On the other hand, I feel comforted that people sacrificed for pioneering, people rising up as shepherds, people taking the initiative and go beyond what they are required or instructed, people over-coming struggles or short-comings in their life, people coming to know God, excited CGs, attractive community, passionate evangelism, attendance that indicates commitment--> all these are what kept me on because I’ve seen it and I believe that one day this will stretch to the entire NE. But I know that to start this dream I need the support of my workers, my wineskin, those closest to me, those who know me well to catch my spirit and heart and not to misinterpret me.

I need you guys to make our dream a success. I need you to stretch yourself and serve as a model for the rest of NE. I’m asking you to make my dream your dream. I inviting you to serve with me and not come against me.

Catch the dream, flow in the direction, take lead and take ownership, count the cost, pay the price. This can be a journey you may embark which you will never regret. Suffer yes, sacrifice yes, struggles yes, but regrets- never!

Caught the message? If yes, let us show our faith and deeds on the upcoming 17th and 24th November- PLAYLIST ESS!

Finally, leaving you guys with pictures to summarise recent happenings in my life:

21st Birthday of my schoolmate:

Scandalous! (Shirls was the one who manipulated me to take this photo :p)
Caught sleeping! (Haha my teacher always say: You can do anythin you want, just don't get caught!)
Belate birthday treat for Pastor Jeff- yummy food at the Jap restaurant located at Starhub Building:
Listening to:

A very much busy season

2007-10-30T13:35:00.000+08:00

Haven't been updating my blog recently. Reason being this is a period when all the due dates of my school projects are nearing and I'm near to suffocation by all these workload!

Been living a rather hectic lifestyle for the past 2 weeks and have been quite a joke myself during my Malay essay and oral test. :X

But well God is still faithful to me and I want to be faithful to Him too!

Oh and the reason why I have the time now to blog is because I actually came to school for a tutorial and realised no one's in the class. Apparently there wasn't any tutorial homework uploaded in my school's intranet too so I'm speculating either the class' cancelled or my previous lesson two weeks ago was actually the last one. Well in any case just spent some time planning in my precious organiser and praying (grumbling) to God.

Ok my next class is at 4pm. Malay tutorial again! Man I promise I will never dare to take up another language class in my NUS' life again!~

*Praying for all my Os and As peeps! Jiayou people- Yeongdeng, Pete, Mervin, Rachel, Syekit, Donavan, Matthias, Shawn, Kaiwen, Yihui and Siewluan! :D

I don't want to miss a thing

2007-10-18T22:33:00.000+08:00

Came home a little early today and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Channel 5 was showing the movie Armageddon. Man this was one of the movies I got really crazy about in my secondary school years. Oh and the MTV rocks! Really!

Anyway speaking about "don't want to miss a thing", I'm asking myself what is something that I wouldn't want to miss out in my life. For those in NE, let me think through about this and share with you guys this coming Saturday straight after service at America Room.

Meanwhile, won't you take some time to think through for yourself too? What are the things you wouldn't want to miss? Think about it. :)

My two good friends

2007-10-17T00:52:00.000+08:00

Let me introduce you to two of my very 'good friends' during my mugging in the night:

1) Jay Chou

Those who know me well will know that I'm a huge fan of him. Really admire his musical talent. Listening to his songs at night just really help me to remain awake and alert while studying... like now.

2) Radio.Blog.Club

It's an online 'radio' where you can register as a member and source out all the songs you want to put into your very own playlist. It's a great online music substitute for people like me who can't really afford to buy Jay Chou's album... Neither do I want to be caught for downloading music illegally too haha...

Now listening: Jay Chou- White Windmill

Enjoying Him like a Jacuzzi

2007-10-13T01:06:00.000+08:00

Walking with God is like spending time in jacuzzi every moment. It's refreshing and a great way for rejuvenation. I enjoy my time walking with God, possessing a child-like attitude by grazing at the goodness of God with great amazement through all the little things that I am able to be thankful for.

Are you enjoying your life with Jesus today? :)

Jesus is my Love and He is a great Buddy who I want to spend my entire life with. Jesus also brought in a band of brothers (and sisters) to inject ultimate fun and laughter into my life. My visits to some of the groups this week were especially rewarding. When ever I see how dedicated my leaders are, I just feel so proud and touched at the time. They are not just my comrades but my very precious friends.

It brings me great joy too when I see new believers like Shaun who testified about God's goodness and realness, and when I see people growing and nurturing under the biblical leadership of their leaders and shepherds.

Haa... I really enjoy my life in Jesus! :D

Ruiyong's treat to Sakae Sushi for his first pay at Life Bookshop!

I began to exhibit signs of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) after eating for awhile...

Failed attempt at capturing the NEB guys' jumping stance into the pool...

Boys going through puberty are monsters during meals! :X

The boys went crazy in Carrefour... Warriors wannabe

One of my social work friend who took Malay with me. We were supposed to present on Malay "kueh" using simple Malay and she shocked me when she dressed up like a Malay for class!

Went back to my attachment agency on Wed for my school project. Man I really miss the staffs there especially my supervisor! Oh and this is the famously acclaimed Chicken Wing found in Commonwealth. According to the owner this is THE nicest Chicken Wing in the entire island. Yummy!

Mervin told me that I wasn't allowed in Mos Burger as he points to the sign---> >_<

What have I done?!?! >_<

2007-10-07T23:06:00.000+08:00

Got this from Marcus' email tonight:

He wrote:

hi gideon. this photo is dedicated to you. enjoy! :D

from NEB guys.

What did I do? (wahahaha!)

1 Thessalonians 5:18

2007-10-03T00:12:00.000+08:00

1 Thessalonians 5:18
give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (THE MSG)
Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (Amplified Bible)
Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (Contemporary English Version)
Whatever happens, keep thanking God because of Jesus Christ. This is what God wants you to do.

It's about perception- looking at things from God's viewpoint. Things become clearer. Hope springs out when we fix our eyes on Jesus. Circumstances around us make complete sense the moment we put on the lens of Christ.

Remain hopeful. Remain grateful. In times when your surroundings turned grey and when you feel real helpless and disheartened, won't you allow this verse to bring you back in focus with God? :)

Time of Bonding. Mugging. Crapping.

2007-09-30T20:26:00.001+08:00

My CG Outing at Vivo City:
Good food at this restaurant that offers good mussels' dishes!!!

Found this boxing game at Vivo's Addidas' outlet which allows you to fight your opponent and then calculate the amount of calories you spent during the game :D

We also attempted to bring our fashion sharpness to another level!
(Look at Ruiyong! Latest hunk in town haha! Btw he rebonded and dyed his hair recently to relate better with his youths! Woo Hoo!)

Technology is amazing nowadays! Came across this with Freedy during our shepherding. The image casted on the ground can be played as games like the one shown. Note how Freedy attempts to stop the racing cars from moving using his legs.

Did this out of pure boredom while mugging with the rest:

See! Life can be so enjoyable when you surround yourself with people you cares and with those who care for you. And this is precisely how EVERY CAREGROUP SHOULD BE. We are here to enjoy each other's company. Be there for one another in thick and thin. Mug together. Outreach together. Sharing all the good and not so pleasant moments.

CAREGROUP is a gift that God has given us through the church. Don't you agree that sometimes serving God can be a rather tedious journey with lots of ups and downs? But I guess towards the end of the day people are seriously not concerned with working hard but fearful of working aimlessly and with no one serving in partnership with them. With a wonderful CG, serving Jesus can be such a breeze with twists of pleasant surprises at every corner!

Let us treasure our Caregroup- our CLs, our sheeps, our shepherds and our CG mates. A loving and united CG is and will be a growing CG! :D

Sealing off my entry with my favourite niece and wishing SUNNY LEOW A BIG 18th HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Till next time folks!~

SGP! Save Gideon Project!

2007-09-20T21:06:00.000+08:00

Here comes the season yet again for essays' chionging! :(
When will my misery ends?

Sharing in my pain: Freedy Prajitna
(Apparently he has 2 assignments each with 2k words to write...)

My progress thus far: 0 out of 10 pages to write

Someone help me!!!!!!!!!!

*Low reception low reception... We're losing signals from Gideon-san...

(dead silence followed...)

Need You More!

2007-09-17T19:44:00.001+08:00

Honestly speaking my school term thus far hasn't been a smooth one. All my lessons are stacked up and so I seldom have the chance to eat a decent meal in school nor spending time to catch up with my school friends. Worst still I took up two modules which I have NO IDEA what's going on.

Just took my Malay test and straight after that I smsed Shirls and Freedy for help! Saya tidak faham!

But well I know deep in my heart that things just can't go so bad with Jesus to the rescue! I'm glad that I'm a Christian living in a real world yet having a big and loving God assuring me in every step of my life journey. I shall pledge myself to give my best to my study and leave the rest to God. Dudes in NE you guys hear me? Let's all give our best to study hard for Jesus and trust the rest into His hands! :D

Ok pictures' time!

Compare the following 2 pictures- which one looks better- with or without glasses??

Photos proving that NE people are diligent students (most of them I mean...)

Signs of ADD (attention deficit disorder) after studying too long:

Went IKEA with Chantel last friday and 2 room displays that caught my attention:
(Oh how I wish I can have a room like that!)

Saw this sign outside IKEA, thought its so funny! At least to me lah... Move on!

The Men in Black! during Church Anniversary on Sat
(Apparently Alvin just lost all his hair after his enlistment to army this morning :X)

I am lame...

That's all for today. Till next time! :D

So blessed!

2007-09-12T13:49:00.000+08:00

Hey guys so sorry it's been ages since I last blogged. Really busy ever since school reopened.

Anyway, I got this new phone recently- Nokia 6120 Classic. It's so cool with its 2 megapixel camera! Now I can take all the pictures I want and upload it to my PC!

Ok I need to feed my sheep Ruiyong soon so I shall just leave a few pics I took from my phone to SHOW OFF! (Wahahaha!)

Man I need to pack my room soon...

It's cold out there!

2007-08-28T15:29:00.000+08:00

What a cold day it is today!
Tutorials thus far have been a freezing one for me.

Just had one of my most traumatising tutorial a couple of minutes ago. Obviously I had zero idea of what was going on in the Malay class. Worst still the tutor kept picking on me in the class and directed 6 out of 10 questions she asked to me. Give me a break man! Now I know linguistic learning is definitely not one of my forte...

I think it must be the cold weather that is affecting me. Feel so helpless this semester- it's like I am totally clueless of what's going on around me in school. Thank God for placing in friends around me to offer help. 3 of my social work friends initiated to study Malay with me from next week onwards! *sigh of relief

I'm glad I have found myself now a cosy corner in the library when I can share to God how inadequate I feel. God I need You to be in my life man if not I'm doomed!

Meet me God, let me receive the heavenly mana from You. Only You can satisfy my soul.

I'm ready to go on! :)

Thank You My Friends!

2007-08-27T02:05:00.001+08:00

There's actually 2 events which I wanted to blog about- CL Retreat and My Birthday. But right now at this moment I just feel so appreciative and thankful for my four co-workers, sheeps, team mates and friends:

Freedy. Sunny. Ruiyong. Chantel.

Thank You for each of your life. Thanks for sweating it all out for Jesus.
I'm so grateful for all the tough times we went through in serving and all the rubbing of one another's shoulders. Thanks for showing me that you care, like the financial gift just yesterday.

There are much more in stored for the 5 of us ahead- not just in our ministry but also in our friendship. Its not gonna be easy to be in this team and be history maker among the schools in NE but I believe God has authenticated each one of us in our leadership and calling and He who is faithful will surely bring the destiny He has in stored for us to completion.

Let's continue our good work in pioneering NE- creating a God-honoring NE group never seen in history!

1 more day to our CL Retreat!

2007-08-17T22:33:00.000+08:00

So excited for it man...

Wanna say a BIG THANK YOU to my team for doing their best in making the retreat a memorable. Freedy thanks for your invaluable comments last night about the retreat and for coordinating the night's event. Sunny- thanks for making the trip all the way down to the restaurant and stuffs. Ruiyong for helping me out in preparing the materials and for settling the breakfast etc. Chantel for leading worship and organising activities during the dinner.

I feel so blessed to be in this partnership with you all!

Oh btw I just wanna say QianJin is very nice! Met him in school today and he taught me some basic techniques behind singing. I think he is a really patient and effective teacher, considering he was able to instill some learnings in me despite of my below average singing talent...

Finally, came upon this theme song of the movie that is causing uproar in Singapore nowadays- 881. Haven't watch the movie myself but I heard its a really good show. Anyway I think the song is nice. Take a look!

New Season. New Expectation.

2007-08-16T17:22:00.000+08:00

New Season

School has finally begun after a long period of placement. I'm taking up new and interesting modules this semester, including basic malay and understanding new media and politics. Foresee that the coming semester is gonna be a rather intense one even for me to strive hard to push my CAP score above 4 to go for my second upper class honors.

As for my ministry frontline, IF ESS has been a great blast and now is really to focus much on the retention on all our July spiritual babies. Building community among the youths will always be one of the top priorities while outreach shall remain as an integrated lifestyle found within the blood of every Yhope.

By the way NE really did exceptionally well in the area of pioneering. Within the short span of 2 months plus after camp, we have pioneered 4 more schools! *waves and cheers

New Expectation

2005 was the year that I took over the baton of NE from Eelee. It was a year that I had to grasp with many unknowns and confusion in the midst of adjusting to my new role. It was a year filled with mistakes that brought about many lessons in my life too.

Then came 2006 when the process of settling down was pervalent in my life and in my ministry. Consoilidation of learnings from past failures and enquiring of new awareness and understanding. It was a year of construction underway.

2007 started off with certain ups and downs. Confusion started to sink in till the arrival of June camp and the key message of THE NEW BEGINNING. Momentum has been building up since then. Looking back, I have to recognise that God was planning behind it all- a time of molding for me in preparation of greater task.

So now is the month of August. 5 more months to the mark of this year.
What are my expectations? They are the continual build-up and strengthening of the community spirit and system among the people and the completion of all our targeted pioneering schools for 2007.

How can all of us play a part?

P- Pray and rely on God
P- Prepare yourself by walking close to Him and getting ready to nurture others
P- Participate by getting your hands dirty in winning your schools for Jesus!

Watch out too for the upcoming Word-centered Series. It's gonna be earth-shaking and life-changing!

Secret

2007-08-10T19:36:00.000+08:00

For those who know me well, I'm a big fan of Jay Chou's songs.

Watched his latest movie Secret with Freedy on Monday and man I love the new song so much!

So here you go!

My birthday wishlist!

2007-08-02T14:00:00.000+08:00

So fast and it's already the month of August! *hint hint

Ok this year I'm gonna b a little more "thick-skin" by declaring my birthday wish list out loud based on the assumption that there might be someone out there who actually appreciates me as a human, a child of God and mostly an entertainer in their life! :X

What I really want?

Esprit Shopping Voucher! (I've just got converted to Espritism few months ago)

What I have in mind?

A black or greyish stylish cardigan
An EDC vertical stripes' shirt with hooks at the sides
A black and all-season jacket

What I would love having too: (Just my dreams lah haha!)

Crumpler bag
Converse shoes
A pair of havainas from NUM
Accessories from http://www.zipia.net/
Strawberries

Oh no! Not these for my birthday gifts!

Zinc bags
Cups (I got at least 3 of them from my past birthdays... I don't drink so much!)
Chocolates (You think my size now not big enough?!?!?!)
Durians *disgusting!
Big cartoon balloons (I still got nightmare from the elmo balloon last year)
Slimming pills...

Last but not least, what I will really appreciates...

Words from the heart
Quality time

It's not the physical gifts that mean the most but the little things in life between one and other that matters so much to me. Oh and I've already got the best gift anyway- Jesus!

But ok lah... I would still want gifts for my birthday k? Don't give me excuses like "it's the heart that matters". I want gifts! Lots of them! Give me or else... (gideon has to stop blogging now or else his craps will continue...)

Till next time! :p

Create your very own Simpsons Avatar!

2007-07-30T17:05:00.001+08:00

Chanced upon this while surfing the Simpsons website and here's my avatar!

So cool right? Try it!

What a day!

2007-07-28T23:16:00.000+08:00

Was kinda surprise when I reached home before 10pm tonight- a Saturday's night.

My day started off with much anxiety, expectation, anticipation and excitement this morning towards the turn-up for I.F. and the conversion. So stirred up within me that I woke up pretty early to head for Nexus to pray.

Thank you Jesus! Shirley preached with her heart and lots received Jesus today! The sermon was definitely not easy for Shirls given what she gotta go through since yesterday. Couldn't contain my tears (out of admiration and respect) when I went to her to affirm her labour...

NE Sports Day went great too! The different units had a great time of trashing out each other in the different sports i.e. soccer, basketball and captain's ball. After that was time great dinner among the people and prize presentation!

Winners are:
Soccer: NEB
Basketball: NEA
Captain's Ball: NED (The girls dominated this game since all guys knew they won't stand a chance: "hand-off" policy ouch!)

Though NEC didn't win in the end (they were just so close in winning for basketball), I gotta truly applaud them for their teamwork and determination! All in all, everyone is a winner! Ok this sounds kinda chessy but well...

Oh I took time to pamper myself upon reaching home... (Talk about self-care!)

Introducing:

St. Ives Apricot Scrub!

Description: Over the centuries, the Swiss have developed and perfected their secrets for naturally beautiful skin. Gently exfoliates for a deep clean, removing dull skin cells to instantly reveal noticeably smooth, radiant skin.

Ahhh....

(Can anyone send me photos on NE Sports Day? I'll be truly grateful! :D)

How to be an encourager!

2007-07-27T02:17:00.000+08:00

This was a impromptu short sharing that I shared with the NE CLs last Saturday through a leading by the Holy Spirit I guess... Thought it can be useful for some of us so here it goes!

Introduction:

Serving in the Kingdom is one of the most exciting and rewarding experience you can have in life, however sometimes challenges may come on its way and attempt to bring down the morale and determination of the Kingdom workers. As leaders, shepherds and Christians, we ought to learn in how to become effective encourager. God can use us to shine light upon others' life when they are walking through their darkest valley.

1) Start with yourself (especially if you are a co-partner affected by the challenges faced)

- Many people whine and grumble at the face of challenging situations but not many people will choose to attempt in understanding God's intention in the persisting circumstance- take time to think and try to understand why would God allow such situations in your life. How?

- Bible says that we can give thanks to God in all circumstance: Ask yourself- What can I give thanks to God for in this situation? If you are able to answer this, perhaps you can see clearly God's intention for your life. (E.g. for really bad situations- at least I learnt something new today which I can apply the next time when such similar situations arise again)

- Claim God's promises. My full conviction is that God's Word will stand true and fulfills itself and all God's promises are 'Yes' and 'Amen'. The disappointing results you see right now do not justify God's Word and all that is to come.

- Have a vision of preferred future- what you think God can do in your life, in others' lives and in your surrounding situations- Have that hope and belief that will lift your spirit up!

- Lastly, make the DECISION to trust and believe for greater things ahead in God

2) Spread it to others

- Now that you are encouraged yourself, you are already to spread this hope for the future in others' lives too!

- Never start off by preaching- take time to listen and understand what they are or have been going through- their feelings, thoughts and desires; their disappointment, concerns and struggles. Empathize. Reflect their inner happenings.

- Discouraged people are normally pessimistic and have the "Chicken Little" syndrome- The World is Falling!!! As a by-stander you can see things in a more objective manner- point out to them what you see differently- magnify the hopes in the current situations and affirm the strengths you see in this individual that you are trying to encourage

- This can be a great asset and bonus of your attempt to encourage others: indicate that you understand them, that you went through something similar to their current experience and how you resolve and overcome the earlier challenges or simply the lessons which you learned from what you went through

- If you don't have such similar experience, you can honestly share about it and admit that you may not understand exactly what they are going through but certainly you are here to understand what's going on and that you are really to give any form of support for this person to the best of your ability and according to the needs (not wants) of this person

- Show them the possibility and hopes behind the situations and affirm their strengths

- Help them to claim promises from the Word- an anchor verse or something. Offer an prayer on the spot for them. Pray for them constantly in your personal time too.

- Action plan! Come up with an initial contract with this person. Some decisions they have to make such as deciding to trust God, to believe in seeing the ideal results in His appointed timing and to continue in obedience towards God. Make such action plans as concrete as possible.

- Lastly, follow-up with this person. Assure them that we are all in this together in the change/growth/moulding process. Meet/ call them up few days later to find out how they are doing and see if there's any improvements. What works? Continue that. What didn't work? How can things be done differently to see desired changes.

Conclusion:

We must impart godly faith and belief to those around or under us.
3 seconds rule- be discourage for 3 seconds and MOVE ON!
Discouragement is one of the greatest weapon the devil use to distract us- do be foolish and fall into his trap- Be wise and follow God in TRUST and OBEDIENCE!

Listening: Dennis nagging at me to pass his laptop back to him!

Eelee's NE Mighty Men

2007-07-23T23:41:00.000+08:00

Stumbled across this pic through someone's blog...

Oh man those were the days when we were the coreteam under Eelee!

Where are they now?

Eelee- Church planting in Chile, South America

Jessie- Serving in Tertiary ministry

Wynnie- Serving in Adults ministry

Junhuang- Serving in Adults ministry

Daniel Leow- Leading YWAM

Debbie- Leading NE JC group

Peter- CL in Army group

Freedy- UL in Youth Northeast (part-time), Chairperson of BGT Movement aka Bully Gideon's Time (full-time)

Me- Leading Northeast currently but moving over soon to SPCA due to cruelty received for the past few years...

It's such a good thing to know all everyone of us are still loving Jesus and serving Him faithfully, being able to see how we serve from young till older and oldest...

Wanna have such experience too? Here's your best chance!

How?
Step 1: Invite your friends and schoolmates to I.F. part 2!
Step 2: Pray and share Jesus with them
Step 3: They receive Jesus!
Step 4: They commit to the church and start to grow
Step 5: They begin to serve God fervently together with you!
Step 6: Enjoy the moment and start counting down till down of you meet Jesus face to face! ;)

Freaky!

2007-07-20T20:57:00.000+08:00

Matthias just sent me this photo that freaked me out! God knows how this pic fell into his hands... I wonder how many more people actually have some of my ugliest past photos in their hands?!?!?!

Ya ppl... that's me when I was in Secondary 4... :X
The guy in white next to me is Leow Guo An aka Daniel Leow (Daniel don't kill me!)
The next one is Tay Yu Xiang aka Jon Tay and besides him is Jeremy Choo (church's keyboardist)!

See what age does to you, especially when you don't excerise regularly... :(

Ok anyway I'm trying to run nowadays lah so ppl stop bugging me!

Listening: My heart pumping with anxiety and excitement for I.F. confirmation...
(Let us be spiritual desperado! Let there be lots and lots of spiritual Jacobs in NE!)

A Moment Like This

2007-07-18T22:49:00.000+08:00

Guess what people, I'm wearing my sporting attire. Wearing my sports shoe later.

In just about 5 minutes time I will be out of my house jogging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dennis just sent me an email on someone who slimmed down completely... Man you should see the difference...

So here I go people... A moment like this!

Listening: My heart telling me "no" and my mind telling me "yes"

Invite your friends- 21st and 28th July!

2007-07-16T17:30:00.001+08:00

A Y-Hope's Production- I.F.
http://www.yhope-if.blogspot.com/

Coming to an end of my placement!

2007-07-12T19:20:00.000+08:00

For those of you who don't know, I have been spending my summer holiday doing my attachment as a social work intern since May. My placement will officially ends this coming Saturday 14th July though I'll still be going back to my agency to finish the required 10 pages essay and to complete the program that I was involved in. :X

Ok for those of you who are curious, here's some background for my attachment:

Where did I worked at?

Care Corner Family Service Centre (Queenstown)

What are some of the things I did there?

1) Helping those in financial needs

2) Counselling

3) Working with youth offenders through Guidance Program

What do I like about this my attachment?

1) Food! (Love the Yong Tau Foo at the hawker centre here)

2) The staffs (They're real nice people)

3) My supervisor (She's a serving Christian too- taught and invested in me lots both as a Christian and as a social worker)

4) Expansion of my worldview (Grown so much even as I was exposed to working with different people coming from the various strata of society)

5) Clearer vision and stronger conviction of what God wants to do through me

6) Personal growth as a person through exploring my strengths and weaknesses

Photos time!

My fellow social work intern- Amanda (grey) and Cheryl (green)- Thanks for the friendship and all the support during our few months working together! =)

Oh btw the graph behind us are basically what our supervisors drew for us in terms of our growth during these few months. See the graph behind me! I've grown haha...

Photo with our supervisors- Each supervisor sat infront of their intern

Photo with all the staffs!

2007-07-10T12:19:00.000+08:00

Great way to outreach to our friends.

Making free bookmarks for them and invite them for the upcoming ESS!

Can do it for your beloved sheeps or shepherds too! ;)

Here's how:

WHAT DO I GET?

One 300dpi 50x120mm (2"x4.7") personalised FRIENDMARK design with unique PROJECT FRIENDMARK number that you can print or send for printing.
One downsized version for use on personal website or email.
Your FRIENDMARK will be featured on this website as part of the growing collection.

WHAT CAN I DO WITH THE FRIENDMARK DESIGN?

Print it out on your preferred type of paper yourself, write a note on the back, cut it out and have it laminated before passing to your friend.
Send it to a printer / photolab to have it processed for better quality.
In fact, you are encouraged to use it in as many creative ways as you can - print it on a shirt, etc!

HOW DO I ORDER?

You are required to have a working email address in order for the order to be processed (for the FRIENDMARK to be sent to you). Send an email to order@projectfriendmarked.com with the following details:

- The name that is to appear in the "From" portion
- The name of your friend that is to appear on the FriendMark
- A note written to your friend that will appear on the FriendMark (approximately 50 words)
- An attachment of a high resolution photo of your friend (usually those taken with digital cameras will do) - this is important so that the finished product will appear sharp and not pixelated... if the photo consists of more than one face - do identify which is/are the friend/s you're making the FriendMark for!
- You will receive a confirmation email within 2 days of your email submission.

Click here:

Holy Discontent

2007-07-07T01:47:00.000+08:00

Preparing my lesson for tomorrow's NE DCTM right now.

Gonna talk about Holy Discontent.

So many things in my mind now... So many convictions and yearnings!

All Christians will come to an end of our life one day no matter how
(unless Jesus comes back in which we still have to account for our life)

Only 2 kind of Christians remain at the end of the day:
1) Christians who wasted their entire life walking in spiritual circle-
uncommitted, lack of vision, emotional roller coaster, unstable, unwise, insensible

2) Christians who lived a purposeful living for in Him:
committed, visionary, stable, convicted, obedient, Holy Discontented

Who do you want to be? For me, I've chose to be the 2nd kind of Christian.
Only 1 life it soon will pass, only what's done for Christ will last.

Let the joy of the Lord be your strength- ENJOY!

2007-06-24T22:55:00.001+08:00

For the past few weeks in NE we have been talking about Having a New Beginning in God.

New Beginning has already begun. NE we have been breaking 100 for the past 2 weeks!~
New Future now awaits our reach!

God spoke to me through Neh 8:10
Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

God wants to clothe NE with a new spirit and a new culture- Enjoy!

We want to enjoy in NE.

Enjoy each other.
Enjoy serving and loving Jesus.
Enjoy seeing people receiving Jesus.
Enjoy being a shepherd and a leader.
Enjoy winning our schools for the Lord.
Enjoy going through valley of darkness with one another.
Enjoy the process of anticipation for growth and breakthroughs.
Enjoy stepping on each others' toes and yet choosing to forgive and accept.

Enjoy living life in Christ. We simply enjoy. :D

Let's build a strong and biblical community in each of our units and CGs.
Let's see a strong and biblical community being formed in each of our schools.

Even as schools are reopening, we will be searching for people who need Jesus in their life.
We will ask for R.A.I.N.

No... Not this rain....

It's this R.A.I.N.!

R esponsive
A vailable
I nfluential
N on-graduating

Pray pray pray... Grow grow grow...

Listening: The Scientist by Coldplay

First Frontier Camp!

2007-06-16T23:44:00.000+08:00

The camp was indeed was special one for me and for the rest of NE. Think we all agree on that. We all felt that indeed it was a time of new beginning for many of us. Many hearts were touched in the camp. Vision and passion were poured like an opened floodgate throughout the camp.

People like Wenxiong and Liehao responded to start on their search for their own CG in Holy Innocent and Deyi, while sisters like Lijia declared their faith and determination to see their schools being won by Jesus!

Just a conversation that went go btw Sunny and me:
sunny./ says:
gi!
sunny./ says:
huaxiang and the monfort camp..seriously live changed by the camp
sunny./ says:
they're undertaking alot of initatives to grow their grp.
sunny./ says:
last night
sunny./ says:
after pm
sunny./ says:
huaxiang and bingliang took out their 50 contact list
sunny./ says:
call EVERYONE
sunny./ says:
until they get at least 2 persons
sunny./ says:
they nv eat dinner
sunny./ says:
never buy any drink
(•·÷[GÏÐ€ØÑ]÷·•) says:
so good!
sunny./ says:
keep calling and calling
(•·÷[GÏÐ€ØÑ]÷·•) says:
wow!!

We are growing NE! Our confirmation broke 100 on friday's night- we hit 114!
Quite sure we broke the 100 mark today too looking at the numbers of people in service today!

Personally for me God spoke in a real personal manner to me in this camp. One of it is about how I should really see it as such as great privilege to serve along with the youths. Where else can you find such a bunch of people who are totally crazy for God, energetic, passionate, available and mouldable? Only the youths! What's the point of investing our youth solely on things such as CCA etc.? No one will boost over their CCA achievements at the age of 75... Only what's done for the Kingdom will last.

When we serve God and enjoy the process, we can look back and say that those were the days we toiled hard and had so many memorable times together with one another in NE. When we grow old, we can still talk about our days in Yhope and how we are still fervently loving Jesus perhaps at the age of 70+! Let's do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures' time!

Yeongdeng and Marcus- the two hilarious dudes and stars for our NE Presentation:
Taupok Time!
The NED's girls...

All the Deyi students and ex-students:
(Don't you want to see this happens in your school too? P.S: 2 of them are now ULs and 2 more CLs)
Final March: Let's win all the 30 schools in NE!!!
The 3 kinds of seeds: Yeongdeng(durian) was so funny! "See what see, I poke you then you know!"
Preparing for GAP- Emerging Winner!~
St Nicholas' Girls!
The NEA's boys- Let's conquer AMK schools together!
The NED Grads' Girls..
(Warning: Don't let their smiles deceive you! When they scream glass will break!)
Scene of the people in NE taking initiative to help Chantel in finishing up the newspaper skirts just before the performance- so touching!~
The NEB guys practising their 'Hakka Dance'
(Think Chee Hwee should be awarded the most enthu award... Haha...)

Family Photos!!!

We won!!!!

Excerpt from Jiancong's blog:
Northeast did wonderfully good on GAP. It just seems like northeast has always been winning on such 'mega' events. The key to them winning was their involvement of the whole district and the sound effects.

Unity I say! Amen!~

Finally... The most gorgeous hunk in NE...

Do visit Eelee's blog to receive update on her progress in Chile!

2007-06-06T00:43:00.000+08:00

Check it out!

http://eltan.wordpress.com/

All In You

2007-06-02T01:55:00.000+08:00

From the past, You have come to my heart

Shown Your Grace, filled me more than enough

Like the rain, falling on my life in every part

[Nowadays], You are still the same

[In Your Name], there is unfailing love

[Overflow from heaven above]

[Can’t stop praising You]

For such a great love

(x2)

Chorus:

You’re the Lover of my heart

The Author of my life

The Power of my soul

Jesus You’re my all

You never let me fall

You hold me in Your hands

You’re the Lover of my heart

The Author of my life

The Power of my soul

Jesus You’re my king

In You I have everything

Yes forever everyday

All in You

Phi 3:7-9

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

Mrs Ivy Wong

2007-05-25T00:31:00.000+08:00

Decided to postpone my blog entry about my views on friendship.

Rather today I meet a old mentor, friend and sister in Christ which I've not been in contact for really long while I was with Kaiwen this evening...

Her name is Mrs Ivy Wong, my primary 6 form teacher.
With all my heart I really think it's so divine that God placed her in my life.

Still remember I was in the worst EM2 class in Hong Dao Pri (demolished) then. My P5 form teacher at that time? Simply cannot make it... His name was Philip Tan and we often call him pi li dan, yi li dan or pi dan... Well it doesn't sounds funny here but at our time he was the constant joke among my friends and I.

Well to keep things simple, my P5 teacher injured his leg when I was in P6. Mrs Ivy Wong who had been taking care of the top class came over to be my form teacher. There was a unique bond between both of us. I really enjoyed her lessons and my results soared sky high under her mentorship. I remembered staying back after school daily to help her with her administrative stuffs and to do my homework under her supervision and guidance. As a result I did really well for my PSLE beyond my expectations and ended up in St Andrew's Sec which was where someone outreached to me and thus sparked off this Christian journey in my life.

Later on when I visit her in school (which I did every year that time) when I was Sec 4, I shared to her my conversion and she was truly thrilled by the news. In fact she was so excited that she took some invite cards from me to mass print it in her office and requested for me to head to her class to share Christ and to invite them to our ESS that time! She also bought quite a number of her students to our church at a period of time.

Mrs Wong has always been ever so passionate for Jesus. In fact when I met her today she was trying to share Christ and invite a Malay selling OTAK to church. Even Kaiwen said that her love for God is evident and contagious.

On a more personal level, she is really someone I treasure alot in my life. Remembered the last time we talked was when I just entered army and she called me to ask how I was coping in army. She is also someone I'm really grateful to in life. God has a reason for placing her as my form teacher only in P6 and how I managed to enter SAS because of her.

I shared to her that one of her ex-student i.e. my ex-classmate is currently working at AMK Mac and we're hoping to connect this friend and to share with him the love of God. It was tonight too that she reminded me of a close buddy I had in school last time named Kenneth. I bought him to church once and he converted. When he went back school to share to Mrs Wong she was so excited that she presented a new Bible to Kenneth on the spot! Hmmm I wonder how is Kenneth doing now. Kinda lost contact with him after I changed my phone few years ago... :X

Looking back at my life and those people that God placed in my journey thus far, I can only sing: "For You are great, You do mighty wonders Lord, there is no one else like You, there is no one else like You!"

"Purposely Tired"

2007-05-21T00:54:00.000+08:00

Definitions:
(1) Purposely chosing to spend our time wisely upon His Kingdom
(2) Getting tired with a purpose

Ingredients of purposeful tiredness:

1) Seeing the value in what we do and what we yearn to see
2) Having the hope & faith to reap success and growth
3) Seeing our role in accomplishing this vision and mission

God spoke to me through the story of Noah regarding the future of NE.
We are heading towards A NEW BEGINNING.

We will clothe ourselves with the spirit of Noah. Making our stand clear that we are for God. Keeping our foot firm within His Word.

We will learn from our mistakes. Receive from our experiences. Look forward to our vision.

Gen 9: 1-3
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

Action plan:

This week is the last week of school! 10 high contacts before school closes. Don't Regret only when you really want to see friends coming to know Jesus in June yet you have no friends to invite and share the love of Christ with! React and Respond- 2 high contacts per day!

Another thing, if you have yet registered for camp, what are you waiting for? Don't miss out the privilege of being the FIRST FRONTIER of God's kingdom just because you missed the camp. $100+ for a life-changing experience for you- its worth it!

My heart is pumping so fast for what's in stored ahead for me and NE!

Before signing off, here's a anime I've been catching & loving: Hunter x Hunter
(Thanks Livi for lending me the DVDs!)

Characters in Hunter x Hunter:

My fav character- Kurapika!

Upcoming post: My views on friendship

Courage: Life lesson from King David

2007-05-18T00:47:00.000+08:00

This was a lesson I taught a few weeks ago. Realised Ps Jeff uploaded his notes in his blog too. Think it'll be such a waste if any of us miss out the essence of this lesson if we are not reader of his blog. This is a lesson that may come timely for many of us especially when changes and challenges are setting in.

In any case, want to encourage more people to visit Ps Jeff's blog as he oftens pen down invaluable lessons and personal thoughts that may ignite thoughts and inspirations to many of us. His blog address is http://jeffchong.blogspot.com

Becoming More Courageous

Courage is a very important quality for leadership and for life. Courage is the opposite of fear. Fear can cause us to be angry, insecure, to lack faith, to be negative, to be critical in a bad way.

Courage is a distinct quality that all leaders need to have in their lives. Courage enables us to do what is right, to stay our course, to lead our people to new heights, to persevere, to have growth points in our lives and our ministries.

David versus Goliath (1 Samuel 17) is a story of courage. It is a story of God working through someone who decided to be courageous.

Israel was at war with Philistines. The Philistine champion was Goliath and he was calling for a one-on-one battle with anyone from Israel. Goliath was over 9 feet tall (that’s 2.7m tall!... slightly taller than me...)

The obvious person from Israel to fight one-on-one with Goliath was King Saul (he had both the positional and physical stature to do so). He was the king and he was described “a head taller than any of the others”.

Saul might have the position and he had the external appearance but he did not have courage. And because of his own cowardice, it caused the whole Israelite camp to be fearful (they were taunted by Goliath for 40 days).

Let’s look at the circumstances that cause David to develop courage in his life.

1) Through The Challenges That We Face In Our Everyday Living (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

David could have run away and no one would have known. He could have fabricated a story of how fierce the lions or the bears were (like Joseph’s brothers) but he did not.

David did not say that it was his own strength, his own knowledge that helped him but that it was the Lord who helped him out and would help him out again when facing Goliath.

It was in the everyday moments when nobody was watching that David built his courageous heart.

2) Through The External Criticism & Opposition That We Face (1 Samuel 17:26-29)

Eliab, David’s eldest brother, was burning with anger with David even though David did nothing wrong.

David was sent by their father; the sheep was left with another shepherd (v20). David was just being obedient to his father’s instruction.

Why did Eliab mistreated David in such a way?

It could very well be that Eliab was angry with himself. In David, he saw his own cowardice (when he was with the other people who were also afraid, he did not feel too bad about himself).

Perhaps, he felt ashamed of himself. Perhaps the fear of facing his true self caused him to be negative and angry.

How did David respond? David merely stated his position and then he moved on to do what he had planned to do. He did not go into a verbal war and argument with his negative brother. He did not allow unfair criticism to have much power in his life, he moved on with his mission.

Having said that, criticism is either true or false or a mixture. If it is true, then we fix what needs to be fixed and then move on (don't be a self martyr). If it is false, just dismiss it and move on (don’t allow it to cause you to lose heart).

3) Through Resisting The Pressure To Conform (1 Samuel 17:38-40)

Saul dressed David in his own tunic (Saul was a big guy physically while David was a small young man).

David did a really courageous thing to say no to Saul. Saul was the king and a renown warrior. David was unknown and a shepherd boy. It would have been really easy for David to say “Saul should know more than me. I should think that he must be right, what do I know?”

David knew his own gifts and served God in the way that God has called him.

4) Through Facing The Crisis Moments Of Life (1 Samuel 17:41-50)

David had been trusting God in his every day challenges and it made him even stronger as he gone through the crisis period. David faced Goliath head on and he trusted in God and God delivered him.

The summary of the whole story is really found in verse 45. With God, we can indeed be courageous. We need to face our Goliaths, we cannot run away from them.

At the end of the day, this is not really a story about David’s courage or his skills with the sling or his willingness to take risk, it is really a story about God. It is a story about how God is faithful to help us when we trust in Him.

Pictures and video time!

2007-05-16T00:33:00.001+08:00

Real funny spiderman video Steven sent me:

Anyway, tonight was a fruitful one as I met some of my leaders to discuss about the future of NE. Something exciting is happening man!~

Just some pictures took past few weeks:

Tempting pic of Andersen's Family Fordue my team and I tried a few weeks ago :D

What we ate during Siewluan's birthday celebration last Sunday:
(Venue: Japanese Dessert Restaurant opp. Topshop @ Marina Square)

The Prodigal Son

2007-05-14T01:21:00.000+08:00

Recently one brother just came back to church.
I have quite a lot to say about this brother.

His departure from the church was a big blow to me during that year.
Can't believe nor accept the fact at that point of time that people can desert God and the destiny He has for them and pursue after other priorities.

Thank God for Eelee's wisdom and advice at that time, to help me understand that sometimes people are like the prodigal son in the Bible where they will choose to leave God to seek experience in the world. But soon this people will taste the other not-so-pleasing side of worldly living and reconsider the goodness of God and make their way back to God through the church.

Guess the brother that I'm mentioning falls under such category.

It's not that I am encouraging people to follow the pathway of the prodigal son. Why trade Christ with anything else? What's the logic behind forsaking the original plan that God already has in stored for us? Why go through mistakes and failures when there's no such need in the first place? How foolish it is to turn our back against God and allow our pride to lead us in living life our way. Furthermore, some of these people never return to God. Someone once said, "If it's our pride that caused us to drift away from God, it will be shame that will keep us from returning back to His arms."

Final analysis? Do not trade God for anything else in this world. Remain faithful and loyal to Him. Place God as the first priorities in our life. Sometimes decisions aren't that hard to make anyway, when we've already decided in our heart that God and His Word will be the sovereign authority in our life.

However for those who have made a faulty decision in their lives. God's grace is still available, and God is still in control. No point simply lamenting over our wrongs for the rest of our life. What matters most is our sincere repentance to "turn from our evil ways" and to pursue the kind of righteous life God intends for us.

As a Christian and a servant, I see my role in Christ to be a vessel and point of contact for these people to Christ. I strive my best to make myself available and connectable to those who have lost their way for the time being, so that at the appropriate time I may serve as a back-door for their return. Perhaps all that these people need are just Christian who will stay on by their side and offer a sincere friendship that can shine light and constant guidance for those who are lost.

I'm glad that this brother has returned home to where he belongs. I'm hoping and praying hard for the day when another 'he' will return back to God too.

What kind of hearts do we have?

2007-05-13T00:36:00.000+08:00

Matt 13:3-8
3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

A hardened heart
A shallow heart
A divided heart
A responsive heart

Which heart do you have?

A whole-hearted heart takes time to acquire.
A sinless heart only Jesus has it.
A guilt-filled heart leads to many sorrows.
A heck-care heart brings turmoil to lives

I don't know about you, but I want to have a responsive heart.

Amen.

my first week in placement

2007-05-11T23:32:00.000+08:00

3 'Es' to sum up my first week in placement:

Encouraging!

Very encouraged by the staffs there who are all Christian. Heard many stories from them about how God changed their life and why they're in this helping profession as God led them to do.

Wednesday started off great as all the staffs had to gather in Care Corner Woodlands Branch to spend corporate devotion in the morning. There was a time of thanksgiving from each agencies and also after that all of us broke into smaller groups to pray for each other and for God to continue in using our life to influence many more out there.

It was truly a great encouragement to me to know that the staffs and overall atmosphere in my workplace is conducive for my spiritual growth and outreach. Just this morning our centre manager met all of us to spend time reading the Bible and he wants us to begin our day right with God.

It was also cool to know that my supervisor and her husband are God-loving/fearing people. Both of them have a burning desire to do missions in a couple of years time. Talking about world-wide vision, wow!

Experiencing!

New experiences for the past few days.
Day 1: Made a home visit to a one room flat
Day 3: Helped out in a roadshow for police officers in Tanglin Police HQ and was served in their VIP lounge which was really grand. Met up with people from various agencies such as Singapore Children Society, Touch and Beyond Social Services and I was especially impressed by Touch who came up with a new program to help out offenders who are intellectually challenged.
Day 5: Received my first phone intake for counseling!

Exciting!

I am taking this placement real seriously. A time for grow in my interest area. I've requested for a video cam to film down my counseling sessions so that I can do evaluation with my supervisor after that. Also requested to join in counseling session of my supervisor so that I can learn from her.

Currently I am taking time in office to read up on a model in helping distressed family, at the same time familiarising myself with all the financial schemes and legal affairs pertaining to youths and families.

I'm looking forward for the next batch of youths enrolling into Guidance Program next wednesday and also the parents and youths bonding session that's gonna b held soon. :D

On the other page of story, have been really spending some time thinkin and praying through for my ministry recently. Really believe a time is coming where revival, rejuvenation and regeneration will begin for NE. I'm so excited for it!

Passion drives us on.
Vision leads us on.

my first day in work!

2007-05-08T00:40:00.000+08:00

Today was my first day at placement in Care Corner FSC (Queenstown).

Had quite a hard time finding the place. Was glad tt I did not wander alone in the foreign land since I met another coursemate who was posted to the same agency as me!

When both of us reached the workplace, realised another coursemate was posted to the same agency too. That makes 3 of us doing attachment in this place. Not bad afterall! At least I won't have to go through the traumas of adjusting to a new environment myself. :p

The people over there were wonderfully nice! Bought puffs and cakes to welcome us in the morning.

My workstation turns out to be a little disappointing though... A foldable table and a plastic chair (those u use in school classroom). But well from tomorrow onwards I will have my own laptop borrowed from the agency so guess I'll have to be grateful for what I have man...

My supervisor turns up to be a real nice person. And think she is really dedicated too in mentoring me. The most wonderful thing is that she is a fervent Christian and she started off her introduction by sharing to me that she truly believes her identity is first a Christian, then a social worker. Sounds familiar ya?

The highlight of the day was when my supervisor bought me out to make a home visit to one of her client's house. Was glad that she did a great debrief with me after the session. Another thing to thank God for was that she got her husband to drive me to town after work since it was on their way... :)

Think my agency's super cool too. Since it's a Christian organisation, all the staffs over there are rather dedicated Christians. Found many Bibles on the desk of most of the staffs there. The most amazing thing is that every Wednesday morning the staffs will gather to spend devotional time together like worship and reading the Bible. So cool right?

And the coolest thing is... I got the permission to go for june camp! Woohoo!

Life in Jesus is just so assured. Nothing can go wrong when Christ is in control. =)

Youth Subculture- Emokids

2007-05-05T00:22:00.000+08:00

Recently I came across from my friends that there is a new breed of youth subculture rising in society. Thought will be good for me to post some information about these youths. A good-to-know thing espy for anyone working with youths. (Content taken from Wikipedia)

Emo is a somewhat ambiguous, controversial slang term most frequently used to describe a fashion or subculture which is usually defined to have its roots in punk fashion and subculture, as well as some attributes of gothic fashion and subculture

Music

The term emo originated in the 1980s to describe a genre of music stemming from the hardcore punk music scene in Washington, D.C. Early bands labeled emo (or sometimes emocore) in this scene included Rites of Spring, Embrace, and Fugazi. The term emo as a music genre has become broader and broader with time, and now is loosely understood to mean "rock music with emotionally-based lyrics or effect," which could be used to describe a broadly and poorly defined group of nearly every popular (or unpopular) rock band. The term is so loosely defined because its definition is still the subject of debate. Emo now often refers to a person's fashion, personality, or both, as well as the music genre.

Fashion

Emo fashion is usually defined to have roots in punk fashion as well as gothic fashion. By almost all current definitions, emo clothing is characterized by tight jeans on males and females alike, long fringe (bangs) often brushed to one side of the face, dyed black, straightened hair, tight t-shirts which often bear the names of rock bands, studded belts, belt buckles, Chuck Taylor All-Stars, skate shoes, or other black shoes—often old and beaten up—and thick, black-rimmed glasses. Emo fashion has changed with time; early trends included haircuts similar to those worn by the Romulans and Vulcans in Star Trek, tightly fitting sweaters, button-down shirts, and work jackets (often called gas station jackets). This has fallen out of fashion nowadays.

Personality

When referring to a person's personality and attitude, most definitions of emo hold that an "emo person" is candid about their emotions, sensitive, shy, introverted, broken-hearted, glum, stupid, worthless, suicidal and often quiet. Emo personality is also often connected with writing poetry, which addresses confusion, depression, loneliness, and anger, all resulting from the world's inability to understand the author. Emo poetry uses a combination of any of: a highly emotional tone, stream of consciousness writing, a simple (ABAB) or nonexistent rhyme scheme, references to the flesh, especially the heart, heavy use of dark or depressing adjectives, concern over the mutability of time and/or love, and disregard for punctuation, grammar, and/or spelling. Themes such as life is pain are common.

Some definitions of emo hold that typical "emo persons" are likely to inflict self-injury, most often by means of cutting, burning, or otherwise mutilating themselves. Some assert that it is cool within the emo subculture to pretend to be suicidal and self-harm, or that participants self-harm purely for personal enjoyment.

Emos are also stereotyped to use depressing Internet screen names that sometimes contain straight edge X's, often using ironic sloganry, a poetic sense or cliché (eg. xmourningafterx).

Criticism

In the years since emo music's rise in popularity, both emo music and emo subculture have attracted sometimes severe criticism. The term emo itself is sometimes used pejoratively, to suggest that the target is "overly emotional." Emo in general has been characterised as a fad which will be discarded and forgotten in the near future. Emo music has also been compared to the teen pop of 1990s boy bands. Critics cast the music as lacking any artistic merit, the fashion as "embarrassing" and members of the subculture as imagining or pretending that they lead harsh, painful lives when they actually live in comfortable, upper- to middle class homes. Members of the emo subculture are portrayed by critics as melodramatic, self-pitying teenagers who pour their efforts into writing bad poetry and spending a great amount of time on MySpace. The current emo subculture has been called a "sad caricature" of what it once was. Critics have gone so far as to contend that the emo subculture or emo music are likely to cause youth to commit suicide. The backlash against emo music and subculture has become so prevalent that it may itself have become a cliché: one commentator notes that "hating emo kids these days is as hackneyed as emo itself."

Grammatical usage

The word emo can be used as either a noun or adjective.

Adjective (1): All my friends are emo.
Adjective (2): I feel emo today.
Noun: That person is such an emo.

Typical haircut of emokids:

Typical dressing of emokids:

movie review for spiderman 3

2007-05-04T01:35:00.000+08:00

Watched Spiderman 3 with Freedy yet again today.

Here's my review for it:

1) Graphics and fighting scenes (****)

Many new characters were introduced in this movie. Sandman, Venom and Green Goblin 2.
Graphics were refined and clear. Like especially the sand effects for Sandman and the Spiderman's suit.

Fighting scenes were cool. Was quite sure that I held my breath a couple of times during the intense moments of the show.

2) Acting (**)

Tobey Maguire's acting remained wooden in this show. I mean I understand Peter Parker's supposed to be a nerd, but both Freedy and I was expecting a more matured version of Peter Parker in handling areas of his life given all the trials he went through in the earlier movies.

Kirsten Dunst's performance was rather disappointing too. Didn't portray an intense-enough acting especially when she witnessed the gruesome attacks Peter Parker suffered from Sandman. And come on! Considering the numbers of 'thrill rides' she already experienced in past 2 movies, can she not act so surprised and shocked as if its her first time going through all these traumas!?!?!

On the other hand, James Franco who acted Peter Parker's best friend Harry did an commendable job this time round. Witnessed his efforts in handling the shift of Harry's character over to the not-so-good side in Spiderman3.

3) Plot (***)

Think Sam Raimi who directed all Spiderman series attempted too much in this film. Too many characters introduced in one go, too many aspects to cover (romance, fights, friendship, moral integrity) and too little time = lack of depth in the movie. But well, at least we can comment him for his efforts and bold try! =)

4) Biblicality (***)

Well I do think that throughout the movie some biblical themes were brought up. Subjects such as handling our ego and pride, attitudes towards relationship and marriage and a call to make the right decision irregardless of circumstances are noteworthy stuffs to be observed in this film.

Overall comment: Watch it if you can! Not bad after all! ;)

Oh, leaving you guys with a scene from the movie. I was totally mesmerised by it: (you gotta see the entire footage of the show before you can truly appreciate this pic)

exams over...

2007-05-03T02:19:00.000+08:00

Exams' finally over! But guess life's not gonna slow down her pace.

Starting my placement at Care Corner Family Service Centre at Queenstown next Monday.
Next Monday?!?! Yes next Monday!!! *faint

My job scope:
Guidance Programme and Casework and Counselling

Just the thought of working at Queenstown simply dampens my eagerness towards this placement. Bible says we should thank God in all circumstances. Well I thank God that at least my placement still involves working with delinquent youths and youths-at-risk. :D

In any case, went to Crystal Jade @ TPY to celebrate Pete's birthday today. Finally tried the infamous xiao long bao. Technique to eat it: bite a small hole at the edge of the bao and suck out the soup within the bao. Yummy!

But that was not the key highlight of the day. While walking towards the bus-stop, Pete and I saw a bunch of 'pri 3-4 thereabout boys' smoking outside Toa Payoh Entertainment Centre. This is so ridiculous! And the worst is that the security guard over there turns out to be the father of one of the kids! Gosh I felt so burdened at the moment. Wanted to approach them and find a chance to work on them but it was kinda hard since the dad was around... :X

"Father I pray that You will give me one more chance to meet those boys and make a way for me to know and work on them. Help them find their way back to You God. People need the Lord."

my movie partner- freedy prajitna

2007-04-30T21:34:00.000+08:00

Was studying with Freedy at Starbuck Cathy today when Freedy got tempted to see what movies were on.

This was the dialogue between us when he came back from the ticket counter.

F: "I think Facture is a good movie"
F: "Its $7.50"
G: "Well, I don't feel like spending money today but if you really want I may just consider watching it"
(Pause for 10 seconds as we seemingly resumed back to our revision)
F: Took out 2 tickets from his pocket "Actually I bought the tickets le :D"

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

But the movie went well. Anthony Hopkins' acting was superb! Gave me the chills everytime he smiles in the movie.

In any case, just wanna take time to introduce Freedy as a great movie partner you can find.

Some of the movies I can recall watching with him:

National Treasure
Cinderella Man
Constantine
Passion of Christ
Mr & Mrs Smith
Batman: The Beginning
Kingdom of Heaven
The Lakehouse
The Covenant
The Departed
Death Note 1 & 2
Fracture

Next movie which is a must watch: Spiderman 3
Also can't miss: Harry Potter and the Phoenix's Order

Why some movies attract me:

Some of them are due to the plot:
SAW, DeathNote, LOTR

Some of them due to the enchanting actors and actresses:
Cinderalla Man- Russell Crowe & Renee Zellweger, The Departed- Leonardo DeCaprio & Jack Nicholson, The Lakehouse: Keanu Reeves & Sandra Bullock, Fracture- Anthony Hopkins

Some because of their societal/cultural implications:
Paradise Now, The Soong Sisters

Some due to the familiarity of their plot:
Spiderman1 &2, Harry Potter Series, Xmen1, 2 & 3

Others, due to simply a spur of the moment:
The Covenant

my shepherd- shirley melinda

2007-04-29T21:16:00.000+08:00

Celebrated my shepherd's "18th" birthday last night.

Here's something about her:

To me, she is not just a youth pastor, a powerful worship leader or a great teacher of the Word.
Shirls has been a real wonderful God-given person in my life.

As shared during dinner last night, Shirls is someone who I will approach to share my joy and burdens with. Sometimes I feel like she's my "verbal vomit trashbin"...

She is a really good listener, and everytime when I confide in her, I simply felt UNDERSTOOD.
I think she is someone who knows how exactly how to handle her sheeps. Even Eelee agrees with that. She is empathetic and extremely sensitive to those around her, yet not doing it in an overboard manner. She is loving yet firm in nurturing her flock and strives to instill strong biblical foundations upon the life of those around her.

Thanks Shirls for trusting me so much in my leadership even though many times even I myself have doubts in my capabilities. Thanks for the aids in days when I was really poor. Thanks for all the teachable moments with you. :)

Thanks for being so real and sincere to those around you. Indeed you're irrevocably shirls!~

my hair cut on tuesday

2007-04-29T01:04:00.000+08:00

Was pretty tensed up during the exam period. So the kind sisterhood of Eevoon, Debbie and Gwen brought me to a hair-cut in an attempt to de-stress... >_<

Had a great time catching up with Jon Tay and Matthias. Treasure the two of them so much in my life.

Listening to a song in my heart since last night:

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich"
Because of what the Lord has done for us
Give thanks

numbers to sum up events for my day

2007-04-27T03:08:00.000+08:00

1- mosquito i killed
2- times i journal down my learnings and thoughts today
3- bites i received from mosquito few mins ago
4- main themes for my history paper- imperialism, colonialism, nationalism and decolonisation & globalisation
5- people i mug with today: rachel, michelle, yihui, kaiwen, freedy
6- money i spent on food the whole day
7- pm when Freedy psycho-ed me to go mug with him in town
8- chapters of Bible I read
9- pages of my self-made history notes
10- time i woke up last morning
11- times(appro) that i visited AMKHUB's NTUC since it's opening
12- hours before my next paper

detoxication

2007-04-26T00:50:00.000+08:00

detoxicating my mind...

clear: faithlessness
replace with: faith and trust

clear: insecurities
replace with: security in the One and Only

clear: doubts
replace with: truth

clear: anxiety
replace with: peace

This song is ringing so deeply in my soul now:
(Try meditating on the lyrics... they make so much sense...)

How could I live without You
How could I survive without Your love
Without Your touch
You're the One who heals me
And cleanses my heart
And set me free

Now I come right before You
With my hands lifted up
And my heart humbly bow at Your work on the Cross
As You hung there and die You were paying the price for my life
For my life

For Your love
Is higher than the mountains
Is deeper than the seas
All I want is You in my life
No one else
Can satisfy my soul
Can make me feel this way
Only You Lord
Only You

thanks guys...

2007-04-23T18:11:00.000+08:00

Just finished my urban youth work exam.
Think I should at least be able to get a B ba... Will be good if it turns up to be A though >_<

Thanks guys for all the smses and exam blessings...
Kaiwen, Debbie, Chantel, Freedy, Shawn, Michelle and Steven.

Yup I will study hard. 3 more to go.

Feeling a little burdened for past 1 week. But yeap people I'm ok! Jesus is still awesome in my life! ;)

Northeast 150!