the sunset ; in which i will play my guitar

sunseeet

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Went for a session called 'I hate to tell you this, but.." It aims to correct our misconceptions of the faith that christians have. I'm refreshed and challenged again after attending the session. many things to think through.

Ya... And a few days ago, I went for a retreat. Our national director gave us good insights which I can still remember til now. He taught from the example of Timothy.

Timothy was facing difficulties in his service.
Lessons drawn were

1) Be faithful
- Sincere in faith (serving with a correct motive)
- Well-spoken of (by parents, siblings, friends etc)
- Passionate for the gospel (went through the circumcision [alot of pain] so that he can preach the gospel with Paul to the Jews)
- Concern for others (in Philippians, Paul described of his genuine concern for other people)
- Well-taught in truth (from infacy he was well-taught 2Tim3:14,15)

2) Be enduring (2Tim 2:1-7)
- Focus in Purpose (like a soldier - not distracted)
- Obedient in Principle (like an athlete - not taking the easy way out/short-cuts)
- Diligent in Process (like a farmer - not giving up during times of difficulty)

One thing that he quoted from someone which I thought was reali interesting

"Wherever you lead I follow, whatever you give I swallow"

Nice one..

Y'day, played boggle at woc. I'd reali miss boggle. sobs.. haha.. I won one of the rounds because of the plural forms of the words.. hahah. Boggle.. Yeah..

Then went to popular at cwp to get a file and organiser. No time to lose. Gtg.. Band meeting later. Haiz.. Alot of sins to confess. Heez.

Am realli sitting down to think through my goals for the new year and for my dear students. =)

blessed by Father; wHeE

Friday, December 30, 2005

This morning I woke up curious what the 12 days of Christmas are. Always stucked at five. So I decided to check on the web. Guess what I found. The twelve days of Christmas iS actually from Christmas to Epiphany (Jan 6th). It has some catholic meaning. According to the website (which claims that the origin is true), they said 'It is more than just a list of twelve silly gifts. Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829 were prohibited by law to practice their faith either in public or private. It was illegal to be Catholic. [Note: Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England in 1829.]

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England as one of the "catechism songs" to help young Catholics learn the basics of their faith. In short, it was a memory aid. Since the song sounded like rhyming nonsense, young catholics could sing the song without fear of imprisonment. The authorities would not know that it was a religious song. Actually, the catecism to which it referred was rather ecumenical so could probably be claimed to be protestant if cornered.

The song's gifts had hidden meanings to the teachings of the Catholic faith. The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn't refer to an earthly suitor, but it refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. i.e. the church. The partridge in a pear tree is Christ Jesus, the Son of God. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge in memory of the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so..." '

1 Partridge in a pear tree = The One true God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity
4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch" which contain the law condemning us of our sins.
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments of the Catholic faith
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed

To listen to the midi, click on 'stop' (the round red sign with a cross on the top left hand corner) then click play on the media player. =P

blessed by Father; wHeE

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Sorry to ting, if you ever see this. Sorry that I cant be there for you. But I'll keep ya in my prayers.

Holiday is coming to an end. Thankful that I had a fruitful one. To be investing my time, energy and effort in another person's life is indeed wonderful.

Today, I was doing st e.. A met a group of P6 girls and they were reali chirpy and bubbly. It feels so good to talk to them, to relate to them and to share with them certain truths.

Went to office today to do some stuff. Didn't expect to spend the entire aftnn. But time reali flies. And I accomplished marny things. But still got more things to do.

Met Jia Hui for dinner to catch up with her. She's reali gd at organising meetings. She was the one who initiated the previous one as well. Reali sweet girl. I was never in the same class with her. Guess how I got to know her?.. haa.. She's in the next cls where most of my 1st year clsmates in jc went to. And I got to talk to her when we went for a talk in NUS and we went home together. She stays to near me. So stimes aft school, we'd go home together. It's very wonderful to have such a sweet friend. She asked me one lame question. But I felt it was funny.. haha

Watermelon and pineapple went for a race. Guess who won?
Watermelon. Because pineapple lost (huang li su - pineapple tarts).

So funny!! haha..

blessed by Father; wHeE

Monday, December 26, 2005

my dad's painting the house now. yay.. It looks cleaner and newer and brighter.

just finished the chocolate cookies that kai qiu gave. hee.. it's yummilicious..

many things to do.. looking at the modules now. gotta prepare for retreat tml.. i'm presenting for an event because the project i/c's not around. So.. the programme i/c which is me will publicise.. again i left the preparation til now to do.. cant help with the emceeing thing last wk..

to be honest, i wanted to run away from the emceeing on sat.. not because I didn't dare to go on stage. but because of many many problems with many things. the coordination, the communication, etc. mayb i'm getting a bit of a 'C' personality here.. perfectionistic. So i wanted to run away. sillee girl. so i prayed to be responsible and for the courage to face everyth.. haiz..

By God's grace, everything worked out. =)

blessed by Father; wHeE

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Berry Merry Christmas!! Ha.. Someone wished me that via SMS.

Went for Liyan's baptism. Too bad couldn't stay to congratulate her cos gotta rush off for church's youth camp evaluation. But the list of ppl to be baptised was... LONG!! for my church is like a few only. For her church, must read what vow, then congregation also. But witnessed a difference in the way baptism was carried out. Rather interesting.

Almost forgot PEM was supposed to go out today leh.. so i msged sy that I may want to stay home to rethink my commitments and stuff like that.. bidding's on tues.. hee. got a couple of modules in mind.. yahay..

but i met up with them and we went to town taking bus 190.. On the way, i kept persuading them to go raffles city's cafe cartel.. haah.. They didn't want to.. Guess what happened, on the way, someone came up the bus and reported that the stretch of orchard road was closed so the bus will skip orchard road and head city hall straight. wahahah. I got my wish. I missed that place cos i rmbd staying there from 5pm til 11pm to work on a project for kids just this yr. And I miss Kai Jin. She's one of those whom i was working with.

So... We alighted at chijmes and walked to raffles city.. Ha.. on the way we walked past this plc (tho we pass this plc many times), we discovered this 'NO LOITERING AROUND' sign. It was hilarious la.. So we took photos and pretended to be loitering around. haha.. Then when we left, we saw a guard walking to the place where we attempted to take photos. ha.. he must have seen us 'loitering' there through the camera. I burst out laughing when i saw the guard..

We went to the toilet first. And I saw this maid washing a boy's butt at the sink and the cleaner was reali upset with her. The cleaner almost 'drove' her out to the nursing room cause there's supposed to be a plc where the maid could clean the boy's butt. So weird.. Imagine you just finish your big business and you have to walk a distance before cleaning your butt. mayb the boy's supposed to have his business there..

At cafe cartel, we were discussing what song to sing for the next round. Talking abt the auditions, you can reali see the inefficiency of .. hmm.. well.. nvm.. nvtheless, we went to both auditions singing the same song. And the judge was the same.. haha.. And the best part was he recognised us.. And we started to say hi to him.. hahah.. and he said 'no biaseness lor'.. haha.. I didn't realise what it could mean til sy was telling me, we could have a high chance of getting in for talent quest which is our first audition. yahay.. before we leave, he said ' not bad'..
oh ya, he also asked 'you all never join solo?' hahaha.. i told sy she shld go join solo and split the money between pem.. haha..

yepzz. then sam sam came ta join us tellin us she got the chicken little vcd.. a bit struggling here. it's pirated leh.. i think i shldnt be watching.. sounds abit sillee but God's watching.. I betta not. we walked from raffles city to orchard rd.. did some silleee poses when we passed by SMU... hhaah. and that sillee sam talked abt tao huay again for like the zillion times.. she serious never fails to say 'let's go eat tao huay' everytime we meet.. we reached tcc before sy and i left. i went home while sy that 'zhong se qing you' ah meng went to look for her cute lil nephew matthew.. hee..

Meerrryy Merry Christmas.

blessed by Father; wHeE

Saturday, December 24, 2005

how thankful can I be! I just saw my results. God gave me an average of B for most of my subjects. I'm so thankful so thankful so thankful. I definitely don't think i deserved it. Considering that I smoke thru most of the exams that's in the midst of that busy period. I'm so thankful!

Today's Christmas Eve and liu se cai hong concert and so.. I'm emceeing today! Scardy.. The rehearsal was horrible y'day. Horrible. Singing was awfully coordinated when we used the mics. The emcees were horrible. The coordination with band for feliz navidad was stil alright. (despite without prior practice b/w singers and band) Whatever happens, God is still in control. Yeah. I'll just do my best. ya hay..

Many Many things happened this holidays. I'm very thankful n privileged to be in a ministry to reali be with young people. I mean I'm young too. But the privilege to observe other people's lives, to be a part in their life is not something everyone has. Y'day I went with one of my students to her new secondary school to help her carry the books cos her mum's fingers got cut by the machine and four of them was broken. I talked to her. And she felt reali helpless. Me too. What can I say? Her boss wasn't willing to pay her medical fees of over 5000 bucks. She won't be able to work in the next half year. She said the moment she closes her eyes, she's fearful of the machine that.. urgg.. How can I help bt to pray for her. If only she knew God who made the whole universe and is in control of everything. There's helplessness because there's no one who is totally trustworthy for her to fall back on.

I'm so thankful that there's much joy when i serve. I corrected some of my students attitude. It angers me. But it pains me to discipline them. Now I reali appreciate people who disciplines me, who corrects me of my wrong attitude. It's reali not easy. First you have to think about how to make the person see what is wrong. Next you need to think abt using the right words carefully so that the person gets the point and not come back hating you not learning anyth. Struggle man.. I must have been a trial to many ppl.. Soorry.

It's Christmas time.. It's Christmas time.. It's Christmas time.. -Adapted from 'someone's' song (ppl from office will know what I mean) haaa.

blessed by Father; wHeE