Monday, January 15, 2007
Had a fruitful weekend. I started last Saturday by going to Geylang Polyclinic to help my mum get her medicine. The medicine is to sustain her blood pressure at a healthy level.
On my way there on a bus, Alex called me. He stays at Aljunid and we decided to meet up at Aljunid station to go Expo together. While waiting for him at the station, Singyee msg me and in the end we realized that we were in the same train and also the same cabin, haha... When we took the other train towards Expo, we saw Joyce too. All of us then went for usher training together. During the training, we went taught about understanding internal traffic. At first the training were conducted in conference room 3. After that, we were divided into 4 teams and we went to zone Alpha to have hands-on practice. This lesson had equipped me and taught me the importance of working together as a team. When handling the congregration, we should also be wise with the words we speak.
After the training, it was 1.30pm and we gathered to have our briefing. My team was serving Bravo and we were under Youmei. Yeah all of us are in the same section! I was surprised when I was called to be in charge of Bravo arena but at the same time I believe if He has given me the chance, He will give me the wisdom to serve Him in that role. So on that day, Rena, Linda, Huifang, Shamus, Raymond & Benjamin served in arena with me. They did a great job and all the seats were filled. I was sitting at bravo arena 3. It just happened that out of the 3 zones, the walkouts came from BA03, lol. The first time a brother stood up and walked out of his seat. I stood up almost instantly and followed him till BA02 after seeing a security on the other side. After that I noticed his two friends were discussing why he was taking so long. Not long after they also decided to walk out of the hall to find him. I stood up once again and escorted them till BA02 like what I did previously. Besides these two instances everything went out and Pastor Tan was terrific.
Discipleship to me is very important. If one cannot be discipled, he cannot lead. Very often discipleship is going to be painful. It requires humility and perservance. It purifies. A goldsmith throws in a butch of gold into the fire. They come in all shapes and sizes. The heat is on and they are left there to burn. After a period of time, the goldsmith took it out. Some are melted and are pure and without blemish. But some are still as hard as before. At one glance, one can see that they are still coated together with small rocks. Eventually the goldsmith takes them out and throws them away. On the other hand, the purified gold is greatly treasured and it is taken to be made into expensive necklaces, earrings and bracelets.
Well on Sunday, we went to Bugis to have steamboat which we didn't get to eat the other time. We saw many usher leaders eating there as well, haha... It was an enjoyable time as we took turns to take food and drinks for one another. At first there were four of us, Rena, Alex, Deborah (Jasmine Leo) and myself. Erin went and joined us when we were eating. We ended up feeling so full. I can see that Deborah had a great time mixing the sauce. When we were almost finished, Alex dared Deborah to drink up the spoonful of sauce which she was holding to. I knew for sure that she would take up the challenge as I have seen her taking up another challenge before. Well she also dared Alex to finish up the bowl of sauce after she finished the spoonful of it. Alex agreed and true enough Deborah finished up the spoonful of peanut plus jar parlan (anyhow mix) sauce, haha.. As agreed, Alex took up the bowl and finished his as well.. Yum yum huh? Deborah then commented about the soup. Funny huh, if Deborah dared to drink only one spoonful of it, then Alex would have to drink one whole pot of it! We laughed out of our wits (no lah, I just couldn't stop laughing and crying at the same time only).
After that we went to Bugis junction and Deborah bought her blouse and shorts. We then went Bugis street to walk around. Finally we settled at Macdonalds and we had a great time fellowshipping as well. That was a great time.
Gtg, will update in a week's time, lol. sMiLe. Remember what Delirious sang during last service? God is smiling at us. =)

Monday, January 15, 2007

Sunday, January 07, 2007
I've enjoyed Friday's outing with my section and team ppl!
I left work at Wheelock to meet up with Singyee at 6plus. We went to Far East Plaza to walk around. Met up Cassandra shortly. While walking around touring for Cass' shoes, we saw Alex with his friend. We talked for a while then we headed to Wisma to look for the restuarant called Ichiban Boshi at level 3. We were the first to reach there. We waited and not long after Youmei met us, followed by Jing Teng, Emily, Lin Keong. We reserved a total of 9 seats together. While waiting, some went to toilet, some settled at Starbucks and others went to shop. When we returned back to that restuarant we were still called to wait. Pengboon and Paul have also reached by then. Most of us were starving already but we were still persistent to wait for our turn to come. When we first reached that place it was 7.21pm and when we finally managed to get in it was already 8.30pm. Wow we waited for 1hour plus. Nevermind, ushers are patient people, haha..
When we finally settled at our dinning tables, we ordered many types of food. We chatted a lot during then. The food was quite good. When most of us had nearly finished, praise God Esley came and she took a chair and joined us. We noticed there were some food such as beancurd and fried chicken that remained, so we suggested to play number game 'Zong ji mi ma'. We were so used to that game already because we played that during our section bbq outing too. A few of us got forfeits and so in the end all the food were finished, including the two slices of orange. Thank you Youmei for your treat. It was awesome. =) While waiting, I finally get to pass the gift to Pengboon, which I had bought 1 week ago. He has been my great leader, always patient, understanding, motivating and lends me a listening ear. He is someone I always look up to and he is a great example for his followers. Thank you for your excellent leadership!
We had at first won the battle, haha.. to go to Starbucks for a drink which was at Wisma level 3 as well. However, when we reached there the tables and seats were all taken, so we decided to go to the one at Wheelock. The same thing happened when we reached Wheelock Starbucks and so finally I suggested to go to the Coffee bean behind Borders where there are many sofa seats. Jingteng left us shortly as she caught a flu, while Cass went to her workplace at Paragon to take something but came back to us after that. Pengboon treated us for the drinks and we had a great chat. Haha, we were talking most of the things under the sun, lol. Finally it was turning rather late so Paul drove Youmei and Esley back, while Singyee took a ride from Jeremy. Emily and Ling Keong took a train back. Cass took bus 65 while Pengboon and I waited for bus 7 to arrive.
While waiting we chatted for around half an hour. We noticed the last bus could have left some time back so we waited for a slight while for NR7. When it came we then noticed that that bus wouldn't go to Bugis or Lavender. So we chose to take a cab eventually. Pengboon alighted at Bugis as he was going to meet up his friends, while I alighted at Lavender.
So that was all that happened on Friday. I slept really late and on Sat I was quite tired. I reached at 10.17am on Sat for support. Met up Rena, followed by Alvin, Alex and the rest when we reached. We also had an enjoyed time doing the bulletins. Sister Katherine, Alvin and I were in one group filling up the bulletins, while Rena and Singyee in another. We finished at 1plus and we decided not to go Tampines for lunch. We settled at Expo Hall 4 (I suppose?) to eat Ramen. Esley, Erin, Jingteng and her member also joined us. After that meal, Singyee went to find her member, we walked around for a while at Attributes (saw Biondi there, shhh.. don't tell him I am looking for a bible) and ended up sitting at Foyer 3. Esley and I chose to queue up outside Hall 8 in the end and not long after the doors were opened and we queued up outside Door 1.
I soon found my cg member when i entered the hall. After putting my bag down at one of the seats, I called Esley to ask her for her member's Attributes membership card. I saw Alex first so I asked him for his instead and I went to Attributes to buy a bible and notebook. I passed to Biondi before service starts so that he could use it during sermon time. Service started soon after and after service, Jiaying shared some messages and we celebrated Benjamin's birthday. I went to Logistics but went back to hall again to meet Keeliang. He passed me my policy documents and I went off to logistics and said bye to them. Didn't join them for dinner as we usually did after recycling. I headed home hoping to sleep earlier. Haha.. in the end I still slept quite late at 3plus.
Today is Sunday, now at home. Going to join the rest (Joshua, Deborah, Yvette, Erin, Rena, uncle Vincent and probably Esley after her work) to meet up at Bugis station later at 6pm. Yeah we are going for steamboat and it's going to be fun. We'll be celebrating Joshua's birthday too.
Oh I got to go off now or I'll meet them late. Haha.. will try to update soon. =)

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Monday, January 01, 2007
It's 2007!
To rewind a bit to 3 days back: Last Friday I had injured my eye and as a result, I couldn't go to church to serve or attend service on Saturday. What an accident, I was wearing my hard lens as usual when a paper bag came and hit directly onto my right eye. For a moment, I thought I was going to be blind. All this happened when I was at Partyworld with my colleagues for the year end thanksgiving.
The pain persisted but my eye still looked normal. It was until the next morning (Saturday). I had a great shock when I saw that my right eye was surrounded by red veins. I could hardly open my eyes for at least 5 seconds! Tears kept flowing down from that injured party until I couldn't take it any longer. I informed my SL/TL that I would miss support duty and I went straight to the nearest clinic to do a check up.
I was the only patient at that time and the doctor was also shocked when he saw my injured eye, lol. He asked me to look at various directions while he used the torch to look at my eye. He had detected many scratches surrounding that eye. He ended up giving me a referral letter to SGH A & E to see an eye specialist.
The pain persisted even when I reached SGH A & E. When I finally got to the eye specialist, she placed an eye drop that miraclously stopped the pain. I could finally keep my right eye open for at least a minute. However accordingly to her the sad thing is, this eye drop will only take effect for a short while. True indeed, even before I stepped out of the hospital, the pain started again. Ouch ouch...
When I reached home on that day, it was already 7plus. So for the whole of Sat and Sun I was at home. Although I wanted very much to go out to join the rest for countdown, I had a fruitful time at home as well. I did what I wanted to do. I look forward to come out today, hee.
As I reflected back to the things that had happened on 2006, there were many things to cry about, to smile about and to thank about.
I thank God that I have grown stronger than before. I have learnt to live out of the box. Life to me right now is more than carrying the opinion of others. I have learnt to be more decisive than before, no longer bounded by fears or intimidations, but more of faith and expectancy for a better future.
My resolution for 2007:
(1) My family's salvation.
(2) Know the Holy Spirit more as a Person.
(3) Excel in my workplace.
(4) Pass my ACCA examinations.
(5) Plan my finances to start my dream cafe.
(6) Go for mission trip in August.
(7) Impact more lives with the love of Christ.
(8) Grow the house of God together.
(9) Etc...
For those who are waiting for a dream to come true, what are you waiting for!!!? Faith without works is dead. If there is no action to your dream, it will always remain as a dream. You are how big you think you are. Pastor says to conquer giants you must be a bigger giant yourself. When the world gives you a lemon, you don't stare at it my friend, but you squeeze it into lemonade!
3 things that will stop you from having peace:
(1) Regrets over yesterday's mistakes.
(2) Anxiety over tomorrow's problems.
(3) Ingratitude over today's blessings.
You don't get drowned by falling into water, you get drowned by choosing to stay in the water.
You are blessed! So am I! Let's live 2007 the best that we can!

Monday, January 01, 2007