University Group Leadership Camp

On Monday evening, I was with our University group as we completed our training of the new batch of care leaders. I was very impressed with the creative and interactive training led by the university group leaders.

The training was leadership intensive that includes lots of situational analysis and role playing. It was fresh, fun and effective.

When I was there, I observed how Joshua debriefed with the trainees on their learning experiences and paralleled them to other arenas of their lives. I learnt a lot too simply by just listening to them.

At the end of the camp, I had the honor of “anointing” the trainees by presenting them with a new tag. They wore it with much pride!

They also took a pledge together on how they should serve God’s people to fulfill His vision in every campuses, in Singapore and all over the world. It was a very meaningful moment for them and for me as well.

Way to go people!

Thank You Indonesian Group!

On Saturday, I had the privilege of spending almost a whole afternoon with our Indonesian group. We were having a special service to celebrate friendship (or relationship in general).

It was a most touching afternoon for many of us. Many took the time to thank and affirm the people that had made a difference in their lives. The parts where they affirmed their siblings and parent were most moving.

Being Indonesians, they certainly did not let the opportunity to sing “I Love This Family of God” slipped passed them. As I could recall, we sang a total of no less than 10 times through the entire song. And all this while, they (note not we) were swinging their arms and holding each other shoulders for prolonged period of time.

One sister even asked the brother who was standing beside me to give me a big hug! The brother did just that before asking me if I was used to this. I said that I had probably used up my quota for the entire year already.

Truth is that I do really appreciate how our Indo group expresses themselves. They are just very bold in expressing their feelings and emotions. In many ways, I have much to learn from them.

As I was early, I took the time to have more prolonged conversations with many of them. I met Hendra who has just arrived in Singapore. He was worshipping in Hope Petaling Jaya for the past 5 months.

We also had the opportunity to pray with Tony (who is still a pre-believer at the point of writing) for his job. He was looking for opening as a Java programmer. He shall treat us to Sanur when he gets his job :)

Sieny and Finie are new to our student group. Vinny crossed the line of faith during that service!

They were also many “old faces” that I took the time to simply just connect with them. It was extremely refreshing to me to meet the new and not so new faces.

I want to really thank Yin San, Jorry, Suryani, Yen Nee, Alex & Ming for their hardwork. I want to thank you for growing the Indo group from 35 people to over 60 people in just under 11 months. Your sacrifice and contribution have certainly not gone un-noticed.

Thanks…

Singapore Did It!

S'pore beats Moscow to host 2010 Youth Olympics games

AFTER seven months of waiting and preparations, Singapore has trumped Moscow to win the bid to host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010.

The International Olympic Committee announced this to the world from its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The two cities had been the only shortlisted contenders for the youth event, from an initial field of 11 bidders.

In Singapore itself, over 5,000 people - including VIP guests like Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - had gathered at the Padang to watch the announcement via satellite over giant LCD screens.

The IOC has earlier said the Youth Games could go to cities with no capacity to stage Olympic Games due to size or financial constraints - an element thought to work in Singapore?s favour.

The Youth Games will have around 3,200 athletes, aged 14 to 18, competing in 26 sports.

Paying tribute to all Singaporeans who had toiled hard to make the bid a success, PM Lee said: 'It was a national effort. But more than that - It was a people's effort.'

Tell Us What God Has Done...

I have just finished praying with all of us. I laid hands on my laptop as I scrolled through all our requests. It was most rewarding to know that God will work on our behalf!

As I prayed, I really felt along with some of your struggles and challenges. I also would like to ask us to talk to people who knows us, loves us and are able to give us good biblical advice on some of the issues.

For example, it would be good to talk to these people on issues like whether we should continue to study or to work, should we change job or whould we continue in our present one etc.

If God has answered your prayers, do let us know in due time.

God is indeed good!

Let Me Pray With You…

As a believer, one of the most satisfying things for me is to pray with others. As I have said before, there is just no way that any human being can completely meet the needs of another human being. Only God can do that!

That is why I am thankful for every opportunity that I get to pray with others. I believe in prayer because I believe in the One that I am praying to.

During the worship services, it is difficult to have the time to pray for many of you. So what I want to do in this entry is to ask you to let me have your prayer requests and needs. I will set aside time on Wednesday (20 February) at around noon to pray with you.

If you are comfortable about it, you can make your prayer points as specific as possible and even leave me your actual name. If not, just leave your initials (real or otherwise in a not so obvious way).

Either you are from Singapore or anywhere in the universe, I will pray along with you.

Please do not enter request that will be awkward for others in any other ways (e.g. pray that John Tan will quit his lying habit or that Mary Lim will marry me). They will be moderated and probably not made it to the comments posting.

Then after Wednesday’s prayer, I will write another entry on this blog for you to share your answered prayers so that all of us would be encouraged (especially me!)

God will answer our prayers in His right time and if it is good for us.

Matthew 16:19
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

To Every Body... Happy VD!

An Unpleasant Hair Affair

On Claudia’s birthday, I bought her a package at a popular hair saloon for 10 hair cuts. As she keeps her hair longer and visits the saloon less often than me, she lets me use her package.

I remembered during one of the times when I visited this chain of hair saloon, they were very keen to tell me about my scalp problem and were rather pushy in getting me to sign up for treatment package. I was totally resistant to such scare-marketing tactics. It is unethical and completely dishonest.

Then today, when I visited another chain, the hairstylist once again told me about my scalp problem. I kindly told him that I was not interested then and may probably consider it during future visits. He was rather kind and respected my choice and went on to cut my hair.

After cutting my hair, the shampoo girl rinsed my hair and the hairstylist told me that the shampoo girl would be applying some stuff on my hair. That was that and the shampoo girl did the rinsing.

Thereafter, she applied some stuff on my head. I asked her what it was and she said that it was some ginseng essence. Then the hairstylist came back and then passed me a small bottle of special herbal shampoo and told me how I should use it.

Honest to God, all this while, I was impressed with the good service that the hairstylist had been giving to me. I thought to myself that this is one hairstylist that is genuinely concern about my alleged scalp problem and he had gone the extra mile to give me some sample treatment.

I was thinking that I would ask him after the whole hair cut on the cost of this scalp treatment that he was recommending to me. If the price is reasonable, I may considered giving it a try. I was impressed with his service.

Then to my utter horror, at the end of the session, he gave me a receipt of $48 for the treatment that he had given to me! This $48 was on top of the wash and cut that I had earlier paid in the package.

I told him that I did not ask for the treatment and recollected the whole series of events to him. He tried to shift the responsibility to the shampoo girl saying that she would have explained it to me. I told him to not do that and repeated that I would not have agreed to the treatment without having first asked what the treatment was all about and the price.

And I also told the hairstylist that when he said that he would put the whatever stuff on my head, it wasn’t a question but a statement that he was making to me.

I am usually an easy-going guy when it comes to prices in buying stuff. I am not the type that would walk from Plaza Singapura to Lucky Plaza for a $10 discount. To be honest, I am really quite "con-able"!

But this time, it was my sense of injustice that drove me to make a firm stand. In fact, I was so pastoral that I even told him that I sincerely felt bad that he might have to lose some money for the essence that he had used on my head. But I told him that it was wrong for him to use such unethical means to get business. It was just wrong and I will not pay for his own wrong-doing (sin would be a better word but it wasn’t church setting)

He relented as I continued to stand firm…

Later, Claudia told me that this is a common technique that some shops use. This is certainly new to me and I feel really frustrated that these people are trying to take me for a ride.

Perhaps, I should just go back to those $10 hair cut shops from here on. Things are much simpler there.

Injustice does indeed cause a sense of anger within people. I wonder how God feel when He sees all the injustice that is taking place in His beloved world.

I also wonder to myself of what Jesus would have done if he were in my shoes…

A Tragedy Within A Tragedy

After completing my rounds of preaching in the Filipino Service and having dinner with some old friends, I was so looking forward to catching the Manchester derby.

It is touted as a big game as Manchester United will be remembered the heroes who died in the Munich air clash in 1958. It was legendary of how Manchester came out of the tragedy and grew even stronger. Much were also written and publicized in most major soccer website.

And when I turned on the tele, the game had already started. It wasn’t hard to see the United players wearing the jerseys that the 1958 team wore. It was totally retro!

The game plan was not only to beat Man City (you have no idea of the animosity between the teams if you are new to this) but to beat them playing beautiful soccer.

But to my utter dismay and unbelief, we lost the game 1-2! The last time Man City beats us at Old Trafford was back in 1974 and we have to let them win us again on this very memorial day. City has completed a league double over United this season.

The players played really badly. We miss Rooney badly. Saha did what he did best, stayed injured! My guess is that he would not be playing for Man U very much next season.

Without much potency in attack, Vidic had to play the last part of the game as centre-forward with Scholes.

Perhaps we were overwhelmed by the emotions on the 50th Anniversary of the Munich Disater. Whatever the case, there is no excuse as we really played badly and full credit to City for staying focus on their game plan.

I really pity Bobby Charlton (see his grim face in pic below). I wonder which is more painful for him; the present or the past?

It is indeed a tragedy within a tragedy. Perhaps 50 years later, we will remember this tragedy of losing to Man City as we were remembering a tragedy that took place 50 years earlier.

Anyhow, United is still my team. Since we have really hit rock bottom (Newcastle and Liverpool fans may disagree with me this with the present predicament of their clubs), the only way is up!

March on United!

Ouch!

On Sunday evening, I accidentally knocked my little pinkie toe onto my solid glass table. It was painful!!

It was so bad that I had to wear slippers to work on Monday. It was so bad that it was hard to sleep at night.

I had to "tahan" the pain and kept rubbing it in hope that the swell will subside quickly.

What the bible says is absolutely true: "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it" (1 Corinthians 12:26)

40+ Photo

This is a great photo of my JC buddies. From the canteen in Mount Sinai until today, we have taken off in many different directions since.

Two of my buddies are high-fliers (literally in the Air Force). One is a Commanding Officer of a Squadron while another is a fighter pilot poised to be a General in due days. I tried to get their promise to protect me if foreign forces were to attack Singapore.

Another one works in a foreign bank while another is CEO. One more works as a GM in CIBA Vision and he offers to get us contact lens at cost! I am not so sure of what the rest of the gang are doing...

For this year, plans are being made to have a mass birthday celebration in June. June is in the middle of the calendar year. My friends reckon that it is a good way to rid ourselves of possible mid-life crisis : )

Time really flies! The memory back in school is still so vivid and now it some 20 plus years later already.

And as I look back, I must say that the best decision that I have made since (or can ever make) is the decision to know and love Jesus. And as I have said, I really pray that I will still be playing soccer with my friends for all of eternity as they come to know this Jesus that I love too.

Smokinn Frogz Kitchen

This is one of the happiest food discoveries near my place.

Once again, I must admit that it is not easy to find. But once you found it, I am quite sure that you will enjoy it. For those of you that drive, this place is a free-parking zone!

This is a great place to just hang out and talk. The ambience is relaxing and the food (& drinks) are reasonably priced and good.

I highly recommend that you check out the Home Made Beef Burger. The beef patty is both moist and quite sizable. And the serving of tasty fries is so very generous.

The Fish and Chips and Pasta are rather nice too.

If you want something more exotic, you should also check out the escargots. This cheesy version is quite nice.

Claudia and I have brought some of my overseas friends there and it is a wonderful setting for long talk and discussion.

If you go at the right time, you can even caught EPL there. The first time I was there, I saw two gentlemen wearing Liverpool jerseys and I asked the waitress if this is a Liverpool fans hang out place. She assured me that it was just coincidence.

Check out the map below to get there!







Home Made Beef Burger






Cheesy Esacrgot