August and September Happenings and the Flu Bug.. *sniff*..

I'm writing again after a long period of silence. Thought I'd blog a bit before the spiders come and spin cobwebs here (Do they even call it 'spin'?).

August and September has been great. In August, I was informed of my promotion at work. Praise God for His goodness and favour. All glory to Him alone. :) Went to Singapore for the 2009 IDMC at the end of August. It was so good that we signed up for next year's conference there and then! I'm looking forward to it. In September, Erika was back for a weekend visit which was really awesome! I attended the Plan 09 which is a youth missions conference and man, I had a really awesome time. I'm thankful to God for the opportunity to attend the conference because I believe He has really deposited something in my heart and mind that has changed my thought pattern since then. It's AWESOME! No, wait, it's more of 'God is AWESOME!' Will be blogging on it soon. Check it out when it is up. ;)

The girls and I have finally found time to go and have fun in the Genting Highlands on the first week of October and it is actually my first real holiday/ break since May so that was good. I've been a bit under the weather though. My cough started just before my weekend getaway to Genting and come to think of it, it's been more than 10 days. Shucks. And my flu has also worsened. I hope I don't have to make a second visit to the doctors. I hate medicine.

Got to go and clear my nose now. Sigh...

Bowling, sweetened green tea (yuck!), rat (double yuck!!) and the likes...

As the headlines of this blog post sums it, the past 3 weeks have been pretty eventful... maybe not.

Rolling Stone
Those who know me know that I am pretty bad at games and sports. I do try but more often than not, I will run out of steam before we reach half time. That's how realiable and valuable a team member I am. Anyways, I went bowling about 3 Sundays ago when Pastor Anthony was in town. Now, bowling is yet another game/ sport that baffles me. On hindsight, it looks pretty easy and straight forward. Just aim, swing and release the ball and make sure it goes straight... or something to that extent. Well, if it baffles me, it OBVIOUSLY wouldn't be as simple as that...DUH, me! Safe to say that my entire bowling experience thus far has been pretty.. uhm, humbling. As far as my memory serves me right, I've never gone beyond the 100-point mark yet. I've had days when nearly every ball I throw inevitably finds it way into the gutter. Half of those times, I played either because I had Bowling Competitions at work that I had to participate in them or because I had to practice in order not to embarass myself at those competitions. I've often been very discouraged from even trying to bowl because of my terrible bowling skills but thank God, I didn't shirk from it. And surprise, surprise, I have slowly improved. On that day, I scored 71 for the first game and 84 on the second. Best thing was, I got to hog the whole lane to myself! ;) Cool! Bowled again just last week at the Youth Group Bowling Night. Didn't do too well this time. Only managed 76 in the first game and 60 in the second. ;( Oh well, at least I tried!!!
Who Moved My Cheese.. i Mean, Tea?
Dear Boh Tea producers: It would be really great if you guys could tag your kocha and ocha teabags DIFFERENTLY so that people will not put sugar into their ocha, thinking that it is actually kocha because they all have the same tags!!!

I had a drink-malfuction incident at the office a couple of weeks ago. They had taken the jar of BOH tea bags from the pantry to the meeting room and so I didn't have any tea supply. There was this single tea bag in a plastic container at the pantry and my colleague said I could take that. I hesitated because honestly, I have NO IDEA how long that tea bag has sat in that container. Out of desperation for red tea, I relented but made sure I took extra steps of precaution. I put the tea bag into my cup and poured a bit of hot water into it to wash away any "dust" / residue on the tea bag, just in case. I was surprised at the fact that there wasn't much of a change in the colour of my tea after pouring in the hot water (usually, the kocha will already "permeate" into the water at this stage). I poured out the water from the cup and filled it again with hot water, this time to really make my drink and added the sugar. I had poured all the water in and took a deep breath to smell the tea and then realised the big mistake: The tea bags in the plastic container were ochas! I tasted the tea and it was horrible! I couldn't tell the difference between the 2 flavours because there was no clear marking or indication on the teabag tag that it was of another flavour! Being in the pantry without the lights on in this afternoon also added to my 'blindness'. I obviously didn't like my sugar-infused green tea but it did teach me a good lesson learnt today: I need to appreciate and fully utilise all my God-given senses everyday and that would obviously include common sense.

Flattened Mickey... Not Quite, Unfortunately

On the same day I spike my Green Tea with sugar, an interesting incident happened. I actually stepped on a rat that was running across my path. Surprisingly and unfortunately, the rat didn't die under my weight. I suppose that is also because I didn't really, fully step on the fella. I walked, it ran across my path, I stepped (without seeing it), it squeaked, I squealled and and jumped (which explains the "I didn't really, fully step on the fella" part), it ran away. Sigh... But i guess it would have been pretty disgusting if I had really stepped on it and killed it... Bleh...

The Tee-Off

I had my first golf experience yesterday. It was quite nice eventhough we didn't really get to go to the putting green. It was just the driving range (For 3 bucks per person, no complaints). We learned and practiced how to swing and hit the ball. To sum it up: It was harder than it looked. There was at least a few times in which I missed the ball while trying to hit it. Trust me that it does look silly hitting the air but I guess at the end of the day, it's all about enjoying ourselves in the game, so all is good. ;) Will upload the pictures soon.

That's all for now. God bless!

It's June already!

Wow... It's been 4 months since I last blogged. I have so many thoughts that I would like to blog/ write about but could not seem to find time to pen them down or in this case, type them out. It also doesn't help when the creative juices do not seem to flow as consistently and frequently as I would like them to. I guess this is a good time to start blogging/ writing again to keep myself from getting rusty.

Time sure flies. It's coming on to the second half of the year. The past 6 months have been pretty challenging. Been tired, exhausted, stressed-out, hit the wall countless times, just to name a few things. Having said that, I have picked up some valuable lessons and experiences (both positive and negative ones) along the way, which I am thankful to God for and will try to remember them as long as my memory allows me to. Will blog more on those soon enough.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more. Thanks for reading. ;)

De-Stresser - The Most Effective Way to Reduce Cost

A colleague forwarded this comic strip to me while I was having an absolutely stressful day. I thought it was pretty hilarious. I hope it will help you to de-stress and may it brighten up your day just as it did for me. ;)

Source: Unknown (Please inform me if you know the source so that I can properly quote and credit the person)

Blessed 2009

Blessed New Year to everyone! It's amazing how each of the 366 days in 2008 have sailed by so quickly... well, most days anyways. Looking back, there were good days and there were also challenging days but most of all, I am thankful that no matter what kind of days they were, God was there with me. He is still here with me today and I know that He will always be with me in every single day, from now to eternity. I thank God for the many successes and the failures throughout the year, for He has taught me much through them. I am still struggling in certain areas of my life but I know that He has helped me come this far and I will continue to lean on Him and look to Him for His strength and complete healing. He is the Author and Perfector of my life and He is the One who will bring to completion, the works that He has begun in me.

I would also like to thank everyone who has been encouraging, supporting and praying for me. Thank you for being my family in Christ and thank you for your wonderful support. I am deeply blessed by your love and kinship in Christ.

Although the world is facing deep economic concerns, it is truly my belief that we as children of God live in His economy and in His supernatural world and we will lack no good thing because our Father withholds nothing good from us. Therefore, I know we can look forward to greater things in 2009, for our personal lives, our families, our jobs, the Church and God's ministries, the State, the Country, etc., as we continue to trust in Him.

Every new year beckons a new beginning for all things and for 2009, I want to begin afresh. I have made a few statements of faith for myself for the New Year:

1. It is not about me. It's all about Him and His business.
2. I don't have to be the smartest, the prettiest, the riches, the best, whatever to be loved by Him. He loves me just as I am, despite all my faults and failures because the blood of my precious Redeemer, Jesus Christ has redeemed me from my sins. There is nothing I can do to earn His redemption and love. It had been done and it is finished.
3. I will trust God and I know that He is bigger than I can ever imagine Him to be. He is Jehovah, He is the Almighty.
4. I don't have the earn the approval or praises of man to feel worthy. I am always precious in my Father's sight.
5. I will trust Him to provide for every single need that I have.

New resolutions are a norm for everyone during the new year and it is no different for me but I have decided not to call it "resolutions" but instead, commitments. By His grace, I want to really carry out what I have committed towards. Here are some of my commitments for 2009:

1. I will read the Bible and pray daily.
2. I will try to bless at least one person a day.
3. I will set more time aside for my family.
4. I will learn to build disciples rather than just run programs.
5. I will learn to prioritise and learn to delegate.
6. I will do my best to let go and let God.
7. I will try not to get discouraged easily but to always look to Him in all things.
8. I will not procrastinate with my work.
9. I will exercise at least once a week.
10. I will try to be on time for my appointments.

Father, I commit myself to You for Your works in 2009 and beyond. Mould me and shape me to be more like your Son, Jesus each day and use me in whatever areas that You desire to glorify Your Name and to bless others. I am Yours forevermore and may my life daily reflect the beauty of Your majesty, that people will see You in me. In Jesus Name, Amen.