God is More than Enough...

I read Jaeson Ma's blog this afternoon and found this entry that he wrote about 3 weeks ago. It kinda summed up some of the things that I was feeling this past weekend and I was really encouraged by it. I am thankful and amazed at how God has used Jaeson Ma's testimony and articles to inspire me this year. Am sharing this in hope that you guys will be encouraged and inspired too. God bless.

Yinz

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Wrestling Through...

Life isn’t always fair. Seldom does life turn out the way we hope it does. When we are young we have ideals and dreams. We believe anything is possible and the world is our frontier to conquer. As we get older, many of our hopes get dashed, our dreams become forgotten and our expectations are shattered. We can’t predict exactly how life will turn out, not for ourselves or anyone else.

Many people I know are frustrated, discouraged, depressed, hurt or bitter at life. When things in life don’t turn out the way we want them to, it’s easy to get upset and lose trust in ourselves and other people. I’ll be honest, through the years although I’ve had many ups, equally I’ve had just as many downs. I’ve had major disappointments in my relationships, my family, my pursuits and dreams, but what do you make of it all?

This past weekend I decided to take a day out and just “drive”. I have the luxury of being able to live around the most beautiful beaches in the world here in Los Angeles California. I decided I would go and take a Saturday to just drive towards Malibu where there is a 27 mile stretch of gorgeous beaches and coastlands. I wanted to just get a way, get alone with God, pray and spend some time thinking about things I normally don’t get to think about.

Normally, I’m so busy doing projects, meeting with other people, or helping other people that I hardly get any time to think about things that are important to me. We tend to push things that are important to us, or things that are too hurtful to think about, or issues we don’t want to confront deep down into our subconscious. We sort of just keep going and going in life when these issues are just too hard to understand or to deal with.

Well, this weekend I was able to get away and “confront the issues” that have been on my heart. I was going to wrestle with them myself and with God. I ended up finding a random beach café on the coastal highway. I was hoping that somehow God would lead me to a quite destination, some secluded beach where I could walk and talk with God. When I felt this strong leading to make this turn into this small entrance to this beach café, it turned out to be the most beautiful and perfect spot! It was a beach cove, with a secluded and quite beach and I could walk for miles on my own with time to myself.

I ended up spending the day walking the beaches, and pouring out my heart to God. I kept telling him all the different things that I wanted, I desired, things that made me disappointed, personal struggles, people who hurt me, and dreams that were dashed. I also shared with Him my hopes, my plans and my deepest wants that not anyone knows of… it was great to just get it out. We need to do that sometimes, just let go and let God take our burdens, we may not find the answers but just knowing that He hears and that He cares is enough.

When I started my walk on the beach my heart was heavy, burdened and weighed down. I didn’t even really know why, but past issues, pains, and hurts just began to surface. I wept, I laughed, I cried, I screamed, I sang, I was still before God and in the end I knew He heard me.

I came to my own peace with God and myself. If I never saw the desires of my heart fulfilled, if I never got those things in life that I really wanted, if things never did turn out the way I would like to have planned, if my hopes and dreams were never realized, I would be okay. Not because I want to be defeated, but because indeed just knowing God, and having a relationship with Him was more than enough. I only asked God for one thing, “Wash me clean of my sins and keep me faithful to the end!” When I die, I only ask that I die with one thing in my heart and that is… integrity.

God bless,
Jaeson Ma

Adapted from www.jaesonma.com (26 August 2010 entry for East Week Magazine HK)

Random Thoughts on Love

I just got back yesterday after 4 days and 3 nights in KL. I will at some point blog about the trip [at some point :)] but just had a random thought after those 3 nights:

- The greatest commandment is to love God and to love others as ourselves. As we have been shown grace, mercy and love by our God, we should also show grace, mercy and love to others in the likeness of our God.
- Worship is our response to God's love. As we are all different, there will therefore be many different expressions of worship to God. We need to learn to accept one another in our differences and strive for love and unity in diversity rather than merely conformity or uniformity.
- Transformation into God's likeness is from within, not from without. Just because people do not look Christian from the outside does not mean they are not true believers and followers.

Lord, Your love be the ultimate example of how I am to love. I want to love You with all that I am and I want to love others like You do. Fill me with more of Your grace and love that I may be able to love other with Your love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Forwarded Encouragements: You say, GOD says...

I was clearing out my draft blogs and found this. I don't remember the source but I hope it will inspire you anyways. ;)

You say: "It ' s impossible" God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)
You say: "I ' m too tired" God says: I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)
You say: "Nobody really loves me" God says: I love you (John 3:16 & John 3:34 )
You say: "I can't go on" God says: My grace is sufficient (II Corinthians 12:9 & Psalm 91:15)
You say: "I can't figure things out" God says: I will direct your steps (Proverbs 3:5-6)
You say: "I can't do it" God says: You can do all things (Philippians 4:13)
You say: "I ' m not able" God says: I am able (II Corinthians 9:8)
You say: "It's not worth it" God says: It will be worth it (Roman 8:28 )
You say: "I can't forgive myself" God says: I Forgive you (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)
You say: "I can't manage" God says: I will supply all your needs (Philippians 4:19)
You say: "I'm afraid" God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear (II Timothy 1:7)
You say: "I'm always worried and frustrated" God says: Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)
You say: "I'm not smart enough" God says: I give you wisdom (I Corinthians 1:30)
You say: "I feel all alone" God says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)

1 Corinthians 7: To Be Married, to Be Single...

I decided to blog about this touchy subject after encountering the following scenarios within the past 20 days:

1. At my cousin's wedding, my aunt asked me when will she get to attend my wedding dinner.. Okay..
2. While chatting to a homeless lady, she asked how old I was and said I should get married before I get along in years... that was pretty random...
3. While fetching one of the teenagers home after Youth Meeting, he asked how old I was and why I am not getting married yet... *sweat*

Three occasions within less than a month... I guess it is the perfect time to write on this subject matter.

I am obviously still single at this point and frankly and seriously, it ain't all that bad. I have to admit that for most part of my young adulthood, I idolized the whole idea of marriage. I had my personal grand plans about marriage: I wanted to be swept off my feet by the man of my dreams and be in a relationship and get married, latest by 28 and have my first child before I turn 30. Well, I have obviously by-passed my personal 'optimum' age for marriage and will also reach the big three zero in less than 4 months so yeah, my so-called grand plans have been shelved, or I guess been thrown out of the window. ;)

But as always, God has His wonderful plans and thanks be to Him for His amazing and abundant grace unto our lives. For a long time, I have always wondered why I am not 'wanted', but in the past couple of months, I am beginning to see more and more from another perspective, that it is really okay to be single. After years of struggle, I have finally experienced a breakthrough, all by His grace. I am thankful to God for GoodTV's interview of Pastor Jaeson Ma. I kinda 'accidentally' watched the interview, thinking that it was about Vanness Wu but I believe it was the best 'mistake' I have ever made in my life. The interview wasn't about Vanness Wu but on Jaeson Ma's testimony and I believe God used that interview to speak into my life. I was heavily impacted and encouraged through that message to commit to give my best to God all the days of my life and to trust Him as the real Author and Perfector of my faith and my life. A few days after that interview, I went for church camp and there, I was also touched by the Lord. Within less than a month, I received a long-awaited breakthrough, having failed for years trying by my own strength, and it was all due to His grace and strength.

I know and acknowledge that life is not a bed of roses and there will be days in which I would feel the 'pinch' of wanting a relationship but I do know that I want to desire more of God and I want to depend on His love to satisfy me more than anything else in this world. While I do still wonder whether I am meant for marriage, I do also know that all things are in His plans and whatever His plans may be, the blessed assurance that I have is that His plans are always perfect because He knows best and whether single or married, I will always have His love. As aptly stated by Eugene Peterson in his Message translation of 1 Corinthians 7:17:

...don't be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God's place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life.

In a nutshell, I am very open to the idea of marriage and I want to give my best to my future husband and our children but one thing's for sure: I do not want to idolize marriage anymore. I want to desire more of Jesus than a life partner. Whether or not I get married, God's will is for each of us to be prepared as the bride of Christ for the coming of the Bridegroom. Rather than to spend the time worrying about when I will meet the guy, I know I should spend more time and effort in preparing myself and the church for Jesus' coming again. So my conviction is that right here, right now, there is a purpose for me to be single in this season. My life is not defined by my marital status. However long God wants me to serve and honor Him as a single, by His grace, I will serve Him with all I am and as best as I can in every way. And I know that His grace is sufficient for all of us. ;)

P/s: Btw, if you are interested to know, I told the homeless lady that it is okay if I get married or don't get married and I told the teenager that it's okay cos I am in God's will and purpose. But I guess my favourite was my reply to my aunt (and honestly, without any malice intended): "You wait lah."

Romans 12

As I struggled with some unhappy thoughts tonight, I was reminded of Paul's sharing in Romans 12 which I had just read a couple of days ago. It brought a lot of comfort and peace to my heart and I hope you will also find hope and rest in God, just as I did. ;) Enjoy!

Romans 12 (The Message)

Place Your Life Before God
1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

3I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

4-6In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

6-8If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

17-19Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."

20-21Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Something To Be Thankful About Everyday... ;)

Lord, thank you for the food in my fridges. Many times, I know I take these small little things for granted. Thank you for your provision and for reminding me to practice the lifestyle of a true worshipper through living in gratefulness daily. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen!

My Idea of Home-Cooked Lunch

This was lunch for today.

I have decided to turn over a new leaf and lead a healthier lifestyle; hence I've been trying to eat healthy for the past 24 hours. Fine, it isn't long but hey, at least I'm still on it! By eating healthy, I do not mean I am doing the whole no carb. regime. I still take carbs but just less; mostly at breakfast, a bit at lunch and minimal at dinner. I was in the mood to whip up my own lunch today and since there were ingredients available (the benefit of having family members who cook daily, unlike slackers like me), I threw a few things together: Romaine lettuce (I THINK they are Romaine), tomatoes, cucumber and 2 eggs and voila, I have a salad! Took me about 45 minutes to finish preparing the salad because I had a last-minute inspiration to throw in some steamed chicken and prawns. It was nice and very filling. Would be perfect if I had some cherry tomatoes, plain yogurt and some nuts in the salad but I guess whatever I had was also good enough. So contrary to what we usually think or believe (that "Salad chiak beh pa leh!"), they can be very filling and satisfying to your tummy. What are you waiting for? Go make a salad today! ;)

Unconditional Love

God,

You amaze me with Your love, how You love each of us despite our unfaithfulness, despite people not loving You back. I am finding it so hard to love and care for people who don't love us or care for us in return. In fact, I feel like it is almost a betrayal. But I guess that's what unconditional love and giving is about - we cannot give love and expect the people to return the love and we cannot give and expect to receive something back. Struggling to accept the fact and am finding it hard to be like Jesus. ;(

But thank You for reminding me about 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails.

The more I read through the verses, the more clearly I see that I haven't truly mastered and understood Your true meaning love. I am a direct opposite of what the verses say. But Your Word is not to condemn but to lead us in Your perfect ways. Lord, help me embrace Your Word and emulate Christ in all that I do daily. Even when things get tough, help me to cling on to Your grace and peace instead of allowing myself to wallow in the mud of anger. I am in need of Your love and grace each day. I love You, Lord and I place my trust and hope in You alone.

Psalm 42: 11
11Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.

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.

Say HELLO to LOVE...

Need I say more... ;)

I cannot describe the huge grin my face when I received a call from Baptist Book Store just before I left the house to go to church this afternoon, that it has FINALLY arrived... I have enquired about the album long before it was even released in early September and I've been hunting for it ever since it was released so that tells you how much I wanted this album and how long I've waited for it. =0) Will blog my review of it soon. Only listened to just a little more than half of it right now but I like it already.

Yasumi!!!

It's FINALLY OVER... my Japanese language evaluation test, that is.

It's been about 4 months since I started taking up Japanese lessons and it's a known fact that as we approach the end of the course, there will be an evaluation of our primary understanding (or the lack thereof...) of the language. Being the busy procrastinator (cheem... I think I just created a new term) that I am, I naturally dragged my feet at keeping up with my revisions. I have also been a bit busy my work and other activities and they all kinda add up towards the lack of study time. But God, being the Faithful Father that He always is, extended grace to me whereby He actually made it possible for me to at least spend some time in doing my revision in two ways. First and foremost, our Sensei decided to announce a study week for us ie. she gave us an extra week to study for the test... Praise God, He bought me time! Secondly, we were then told that since it is just a simple evaluation, it would be an open book test, meaning, we can refer to our text books for reference if we need to... DOUBLE YAY! If only all exams were like this... ;)

So anyways, 10 days, at least, before the evaluation, I practically had my head buried into my Japanese text book every day.. what to do, I am kiasu... I didn't want to do badly even if it is just an evaluation. And worse of all is that I had to say no to my social activities and dinners because of this... I was suppose to have steamboat dinner with some friends!!! Haih... Anyways, when the evaluation day came, I felt God's peace and rest in my heart and in many ways, on that day, I kinda got tired of cramming information into my brain and I just really wanted to get it over and done with so that I can move on with my life. Praise the Lord, the paper was actually quite straight forward. In the first part, I tried to work on the paper without referring to my book because I wanted to see how much I really understand the subject. It was up to a certain point that I gave up and referred to my book because I couldn't understand what some words meant. Confusion had began to set in but thank God, I managed to figure most things out. I got my results the week after the test. By His grace, I got near perfect score. ;)

Honestly, if I were to make a list of things that irk me, examinations will definitely make it to the list without much issue. I hate exams. I hate the fact that I spend WEEKS and MONTHS attending classes and studying to understand the stuff and they make me write out whatever I think I know within a 2 to 3-hour time frame to prove that I know my stuff. I know exams are to evaluate our understanding of the subject but I can't tell you how much I abhor the process of churning out the information onto paper within a certain time frame. And worse of all, we get so caught up in the "How-Many-A's-Did-You-Score" rat race, we forget that the ability to memorize facts does not equate to the ability to apply the knowledge into pratical use. Basically, although I may understand Japanese on paper, I still cannot speak the language decently. Sigh... but I am looking at the positive side. At least, I have my social life back now... ;) Steamboat anyone?

Simple Pleasures

They say necessity is the mother of invention... I found it to be very true. I've been bring food from home for lunch this week because I'm on an austerity drive after purchasing my 'new' gadget: I got myself a 10-month old HTC Touch phone. Although it is a used item, it is still in good condition and I guess I wanted to give myself something for my upcoming birthday... no, wait... that's just an excuse. I got it because I couldn't afford the iPhone. Sigh...

But I digress.

So buying the phone has set me back by quite a bit this month so I have resorted to keeping my expenses and expenditure low for at least the next few weeks. One of the ways in which I am cutting my expenses is by bringing my own lunch from home. So far, it has been pretty interesting. My aunt made chicken porridge with dried scallops for me on Monday and that was delightful meal... I LOVE porridge. On Tuesday, I decided to make egg sandwich for lunch. I made some scrambled eggs and put them in a separate container from my bread because I didn't want my bread to be soggy by lunch time. I threw in some raw onion rings too, put the meal together at lunch time and it was absolutely satisfying. :)

The best had yet to come. On Wednesday, I had no clue on what to make. I came back from the market quite late and I have no idea what I wanted to eat. I thought of making a salad sandwich but there wasn't enough bread. I looked through the fridge and vegetable basket and decided to throw a few things together, namely a large tomato, some cabbage and 3/4 of an onion. It suddenly occurred to me that I should add some hard-boiled eggs to enhance the taste. The salad looked so colourful and I surprised myself by being so excited about a salad! And praise God, the egg and vegetable salad did taste fantastic.

Looking at the satisfaction of having the egg sandwich and the joy of putting my egg and vegetable salad together, I found that there is so much to be happy and thankful about daily. I have found cooking to be rather therapeutic for me. I don't have to be a posh restaurant (although I am not against the idea of dining at a posh restaurant) or pay a fortune to truly have a delightful meal. The joy is found when I truly enjoy what I have and when I am thankful for being able to have food available before me daily. And I am thankful that He has and will always provide for all my needs.

Young Adults' Home Group BBQ Dinner (01 February 2008)

It's time for retro rewind again... Today, I am highlight the pictures taken from the Young Adults Home Group BBQ dinner at Vincent's apartment in February, just a week before Chinese New Year.

Sharon, Ashley and Daniel. Ashley looks absolutely cute in this picture! ;)

The Happy Chefs!

Derek, Raymond, Daniel and Victor.

Jessica, Alicia, Ashley and me. Girl power!

Group Picture 1

Group Picture 2

Andrew and Barbara's Wedding (22 December 2007)

Time to update my blog with pictures and happenings from the years yonder... okay, so I am exaggerating. Today, I am highlighting pictures from Andrew and Barbara's wedding on 22 December 2007. :) I didn't take any pictures of the church service in the morning (I cannot remember why I didn't take any) but I did however capture some shots at the wedding dinner. Enjoy!

Me and some of my ex-schoolmates

Me and more ex-schoolmates

My Dee Dee, me and Joey

Ashley ;)

The Fellowship of the Youths...

Our signature post... look to the ceiling and act cool... *swt*

Some of the guys...

Some of the ladies...

Gary and Khai Ven

Kevin and Sharon...

Champagne Pouring Ceremony

YUMMMMMMMMM SEEEEEEENGGGGG!!!!!!!!

We then became the "Yum Seng cheerleaders" for Andrew and Barbara... it was fun... ;)

I cannot believe that we were all so into it!! hahaha...

Post-Party Pictures at the lobby.

Me, my Buddy and the Christmas Tree... hey, it rhymes!

Jessica, Aunty Jackie, Roffina and Anthony (and not forgetting the Christmas Tree)

Jessica, Barbara and Roffina

Group Picture (You can still see Christmas Tree!)

Benkyoshinasai!

One hour to class... well, less than one hour by the time I finish this... and I am so not ready to go for it... sigh.. anyways, I did some revision on greetings and numbers yesterday (which is only like what... 1 percent of what I am suppose to study?.. *sweat*) and I fell asleep after reading half a page on how to tell time in Japanese... *more sweat*... That's what happens when you study on your bed. But I am looking at the positive side. I fell asleep on my book at about 10:00pm and I got up around 4:45 - 5:00am-ish when my alarm rang for the umpteenth time (it automatically snoozes on its own after ringing for around 1 minute... I am not sure if that is a smart or stupid function) . I knew I was suppose to wake up to work on my assignment or continue my revision but decided to forget about it and go back to sleep. And I am glad I did. Woke up at around 7:30am and in total, I got around 9 1/2 hours of sleep, the longest I've had this week and maybe this month... I felt absolutely fresh when I went to work. And by God's grace, I'm about 60% done with the assignment that is due on Friday and I think I should actually be able to get it done by tomorrow, God willing. Looking forward to a work-free weekend! Woohoo...

I have to say thanks to my buddy, Jess though for sitting through my language revision with me for about half hour. She now knows a tiny bit of Japanese because I made her learn (because I learn best when I teach others) and she, being the creative word-master that she is, made a parody out of a few songs by replacing them with her newly-learnt Japanese words... *shudder*... Mo-ichido would never be the same again...

Got to go. Ja ne!

Stressed and Uninspired...

Sigh and more sighes... I am so uninspired to write these days. I don't know what is wrong. Tired? Maybe. Busy? A bit. Sigh... was just thinking about my Japanese class this Wednesday... Oh wait, did I tell you guys that I am currently taking Japanese language for beginners? I lost track of how long already. But anyways, I digress. I got myself into an unnecessary stress frenzy because my thoughts were on the amount of work that I have to finish before I can spend time to revise through my Japanese book. I have a couple of work deadlines that are due this Friday. I am teaching this Friday at Youth homegroup and the lesson is barely in gestation. I also have to work on the September Youth Bulletin and write this month's article... and it's 8 days late already *faint* Sigh............ Actually, I didn't feel so bad about not revising until 2 days ago, when we were at Kevin and Sharon's wedding dinner and Joey wanted to know how we say "67" in Japanese. If he had asked me the same question 3 weeks ago, I would have been able to answer that in split second. But unfortunately, after enjoying 3 weeks of break from class, I realised that I couldn't remember what it was... my thoughts froze! What IS 67 in Japanese?????!!" I struggled to come up with Roku and i said Ji and then Shichi. Duh!! It wasnt' JI! It was suppose to be JU. JI is for time! ARGGGGHHHH... YinZ, that's BASIC Japanese!!! Sigh... so yeah, anyways, the conclusion is that I seriously need to study my Japanese book. Got to go. Time to carry my computer home to work again... *sweat*... Bye.

P/s: 67 is "roku ju nana" in Japanese by the way, in case anyone is interested to know.