dinner at ps jeff's hse

went to ps jeff's hse today to celebrate his belated b-dae and priscilla's b-dae too. got lots of foods... eversince i last officially cooked my notorious mayo chix... guess wat? i plucked up much of my courage and attempt at tis infamour dish of my once again...

the result: most votes go to me!!! victory is mine!!! many commented positively abt it... my hope is back once again!

haha... any way... gotta mention that the veg salad claudia(ps jeff's wife) made was nice-looking and great in taste.

kinda like the design and furnish style of ps jeff's hse, simple yet contemporary. i want my future home to be like his. hates it when my place is filled w tonnes of items... hard to clean up.

shared abt our past... how most came to know God, our past happenings.
remembered that i first came church in crown prince hotel in early 1999.
recalled the many bro and sis we used to work w last time- ray, nicole, mandy etc.
many gd memories... but many lessons to be drawn too.

it'ss gd to reflect back our past at times, but it's even more impt to focus towards the future and stay committed to accomplishing His will.

learnt many spiritual lessons tis few days coming fr various aspects.
one of it is that i really wanna increase my diet for His Word. i wanna b discipline in applying my bible study plan.

there's no Christian who can grow without the Word of God. how true can tis statement be.

also wanna slim.... i'm getting a skipping rope tis wk... hmmm... let's hope it'll work tis time... hehe...

kinda tired to blog today.
in any case, here's our very first ne blog!
http://www.relentlessss-pursuit.blogspot.com

go visit it man! it's the most happening place across the cyberplace!
:)

study tips

for those of you that really wanna excel for ur upcoming exams, here's wat i've found for you. :)

Studying for Exams

Every Day:

• For each of your classes, spend 10 minutes going over the notes you took that day. Fill in gaps, clarify, think about the major concepts.

• Have headings or questions to the left and details on the right of your own notes. When you're ready to study, cover the right side of the notes and quiz yourself.

• Constantly paraphrase as you read. In other words, talk to yourself: "Oh, I see, she's saying ___."

• Stop at the end of a paragraph or section to highlight a phrase or to write a brief note in the margin. (Most students find that using a combined approach provides the most flexibility.)

• Focus on charts, diagrams, and outlines, especially in the sciences.

• If the textbook is very difficult, buy a review book and use that to preview a given chapter in your text. Understanding the simplified version beforehand can really help, and it doesn't increase your study time (you will be able to read the textbook more quickly).

Don't Just Memorize:

• Most school courses require that you do more than simply stuff your head with isolated facts. Be sure to paraphrase ideas and relate one idea to another. For example, don't simply memorize each psychological theory in isolation; look for similarities and differences.

• Study with another student or with a group. Try to explain what you've learned to your study partners or even to your mother. Don't simply recite information, explain the how and why.

• Focus on examples because they can frequently help you understand complex ideas.

• Visualize the information if you can. (Half of your brain works in pictures, so use that half.)

• Talk with your teacher and lectuerers after class and ask them to explain ideas you find confusing. (If you’re nervous about doing this, try reciting the following mantra beforehand: I don't care if she/he thinks I’m an idiot; once this course ends I'll never see her/him again.)
  

Decide What to Learn:

• Narrow your focus. If you try to learn everything that might possibly be tested, you will simply spread yourself too thin and you won't be able to learn anything thoroughly.

• Ask yourself what you would test if you were the teacher.

• Pay close attention to the following: study guides, review sessions, topics mentioned in the class before the exam, material written on the board or overhead.

• Ask other students what they think will be on the exam. Talk to the professor.

Review Tools:

• Write summary sheets, charts, or diagrams. Be brief. You don't want to simply recopy your notes; you are trying to condense and paraphrase.

• Use flashcards sparingly. Some students spend hours making cards but don't allow enough time to actually use them. Cards can be useful for memorizing isolated facts (such as drugs for a pharmacy class) but they aren't helpful for learning ideas. That said, quizzing yourself can be very helpful. One way to avoid the busy work of making cards is by using the Cornell System instead. As you take notes in class, you are creating a method for quizzing yourself later

Memorizing:

• Don't simply stuff your head with facts; think of a method for recalling each idea or fact. Relate the new information to something you already know.

• Write concepts on a blackboard (the large size seems to help).

• Walk around while reciting your notes or quizzing yourself.

• Avoid marathon study sessions and instead, review frequently and in small "doses" with plenty of breaks.

• Use mnemonic devices for large lists or facts that are difficult to recall.

Practice Exams:

• Ask the teacher for a copy of an old exam or at least a few sample questions. Analyze how the teacher words questions and look for patterns of thinking. What does the teacher think is important and how does he/she ask a question?

• Before problem solving exams (math, physics, chemistry, etc.), give yourself 2 to 4 practice exams. If the teacher makes a practice exam available, use that as a model and write your own additional exams. Also use questions at the end of a chapter.

• Do at least one timed practice exam. Many math exams can be difficult to finish in time, so you need to practice working under time constraints. (The more practice problems you do, the faster you will get.)

come and make my heart your home

a home for you...
a home for you...
let everything i do
opens up a door for you to come thru
that my heart can be
a place where you want to be

my body is dead tired now
just dragged back myself from sch
on the bus ride home just now
i took time to look at my weaknesses
i took time to count my blessings in life
i took time to pray

fulfil ur dreams thru me oh God.

feel good at times when we're back to our childhood passion!

went to punggol park yesterday to enjoy mid- autumn festival w shirley & co. hmmm... guess e last time i celebrated tis day with friends and lanterns was when i was still in sec 3. it was my first shepherd who brought me to bishan park that year.



played panic and catching yesterday. haha.. can't believe tt i'm still doing such things at my age of 18. everyone went crazy during games last nite, espy ethan! didn't realise he could b so sneaky and violent at times! :)

when i was on my way home last nite, couldn't help but to tke time to stop and ponder all the years in my past. i remembered how when i was young, mum would always ensure tt the whole corridor outside my hse to be filled w candles burning ever brightly.

i remembered how things changed so much in my life thru these yrs since i last celebrated autumn festival. so many recollection of memories, and so many thanksgiving points within me.

my prayer to Him tonite is that i will always have a child like attitude and desire for Him no matter how many years i've come to know Him. let there not b a spirit of complacency in me.

Lord I offer my life to You

Everything I've been through

Use it for Your glory

Lord I offer my life to You

Lifting my praise to You

As a pleasing sacrifice

Lord I offer You my life

* What I did today-

1) Singapore Studies fieldtrip to Changi area

2) Went shopping with Jason at Tampines

3) Tuition Yuhan (xuan man!)

4) Tuition Weilun

5) Ate dinner with Jon Tay & Weilun, helped WL to find b-dae gift for his mum

6) Blogging now....

7) QT then zzzzzz.....

led prayermeet today... oh man... was so so nervous before tt... but thx God everything went smoothly.

aiyoo.... found out tt i pronounced the chinese word for metamorphosis wrongly...
something's seriously wrong w my chinese man...

after ned's udmm i went carrefour to look ard for furniture to furnish up rc in order to increase attractiveness and for it to be more conducive for ppl to study.

think i need to set up a rc loving offering campaign. hmm... thnking of setting a goal of 500bucks... wat says u?

thrilling!

went to watch cinderella man w freedy today. was actually quite skeptical abt the show before the view since i preferred sci-fic etc kind of movies. but guess wat, after watching the movie, i gave 5 thumbs-up for it!!! good plot, fantastic actors, great filming tactics, marvellous director and script writer.

just feel like commenting on how i think that in many times of our life as spiritual mentors, our role is very similar to that of the boxing manager of russell crowe. seeing potential in others and constantly empowering them in achieving wat they can, or even though the outcome seems bleak for them to achieve wat they want, but still to fuel that kind of hope into them, inspiring them and lift them up higher into the skies they've never seen....

oh.. and i think Renee Zellweger is such a great actress.... i'm in awe of her acting.

btw, led pm today... the first part wasn't tt smooth at first... so i remembered wat michael taught me in sdlc... the key to a good pm: DEPEND ON THE HOLY SPIRIT.

i did tt, realising it's not me... it's abt Him... wow... the rest of the pm was amazing... everyone felt ministered by God... i felt ministered myself... haha... when i looked back... i can only acknowledge tt it must b Him working thru the entire pm.

talking abt pm, tml will be my first time leading pm in church lvl... kinda anxious. well, i've prepared all that i can liao... the rest? it's all abt HIM! :)

matthias' coming my hse stay over tml nite. kinda itching to watch some movies nowadays... mayb i'll rent a vcd before heading home or i'll bring matthias for a belated zhong qiu jie lantern walk at bishan park tml... hehe...

posters

came across these 2 posters from eelee's blog (did by one of the church staff steven).. think it's really nice and meaningful.

especially tis one!

getting a bit freakout and information overload these few days. guess it's a transitional pains i have to go thru and learn something out of it. miss my people oftens. desperate for His presence every single moment.

came across tis song by Jaci Velasquez recently. amazed by her vocal...

anyway i like tis song alot. i get on my knees.

There are days when I feel

The best of me is ready to begin

Then there're days when I feel

I'm letting go and soaring on the wind

'Cause I've learned in laughter or in pain

How to survive

I get on my knees, I get on my knees

There I am before the love that changes me

See I don't know how, but there's power

When I'm on my knees

think abt His love

took time to think abt His love today.

that's e reason for my everything. my being and my doings.

how can i be so forgetful, to miss Him out of the picture at times when He's the painter while i'm only the brush?

why am i concerned over who i want to be in Him then who He wants me to be in Him.

sometimes it's gd to tke a stop-check in our spiritual journey.

someone said before, an effective leader must be able to answer 3 questions well.

1) where am i now?
2) where do i wanna go?
3) how to reach there?

in the same way, i wanna answer these 3 questions well in my life as a child of God.

1) how's my relationship with Him now?
2) wat kind of intimacy should my walk b with Him?
3) wat to do it?

Think abt His love, think abt His goodness, think abt His grace, that brought us thru.....

exciting & challenging- i like!

EXCITING- went to cozy canopy movie cafe yesterday. challenged the potential cls & above abt cg dynamic etc. the place is cool... had a room to watch movie, we chose meet e parents. also a place to chill out and play some boardgames or read comics. here's the pics tken fr their website. went to daniel's hse after all the meetings together w the rest of the sdls. his dog super cute. i must admit tt she(yoyo) is much cuter than thaddeus's sassy... had meeting until 4am. y so late? becos of priscilla's constant interruption! she will lie on the bed and halfway thru meeting pt to the pics in daniel's room and say some funnie things, or tke up a guitar to sing some super weird songs with her twisted face... anyway, we bidded farewell for ethan too. yesterday was his last meeting w us as he's going over the bless ywam grp. thx God for u brother, being the many lessons i've drawn from ur life! :)

trying to persuade priscilla to organise a outing for us on autumn's festival.... let's go play lanterns..... (deprived childhood ^_^)

challenging yet exciting:
1) gonna to co lead prayermeet with eelee next wk... cool... i wanna stretch my leadership skills and capacity.
2) NE hit an all time low attendance yesterday. but guess wat, big prob comes big miracle. i wanna see it as a stepping stone. i wanna maintain a spirit of never say die, striving for the victory God is gonna give me and my ppl. exams will be a period for care. tis is e time for connect all the newbs and unconnected believers back. time for growth too. y must we depend on tools such as mcg or ess to draw ppl to Christ? let there be such a strong passion for God and ppl tt engulfs us... ppl will be drawn to us by looking at e way we stay clam during exams and the intense attention we give to our studies yet not neglecting the welfare of those around us. it shall be done! amen! :)

surprise!

reached home just now and found a discount card, lvlone card. with my name on it. went to their website and logged in as members. found that they had all my details. and also found out tt must spend more than 50bucks to get the card. hmm... i din sign up for any cards recently. and definitely never spend more than 50bucks.... strange....

tummy bu zhen qi

had tummyache for the past two days... feel very weak now...
went to metamorphosis just now, cool to see how of the newbs who i didn't see for quite some time. glad to know tt the jc gal grp had one convert during concert. thx God for them! oh... desmond's grp had one convert during the week too. congrats!~

went to eat lunch w zhen quan today before my chi lecture. after tt went with him to perk point(inside central library) to slack since only 30mins left. while chatting sucddenly he asked me why i chose to be a christian!! saw the spark of interest in his eyes.... so happy... i tried to share a fair bit but then soon he had to rush to his tutorial and i need to go for lecture. hai!~
nevermind... still have many chance. being able to outreach is such a joy... it's truly not an obligation or task... but indeed evangelism is a lifestyle! it flows out of u when u're touched by Him. :)

oh... found out yesterday that shaman king's been replaced by scrapped princess!!! oh my goodness... tis was e one anime i ever watched.... really nice!!! every wed to fri, 11.30pm, arts central.

3 monsters in my room now

no lar... they're martin, ruiyong and donavan.
got them to come my hse stay over tonite to do packaging for the newbs gifts.
thx God for their help!~

seldom got time to spend w my ppl nowadays eversince school starts. but that doesn't give me an excuse to shrink away fr wat i should do and wat i want to do with passion.

ok... plan to spend qt together with them. hope tt tonite will be a fruitful nite.

ne blog

wanna set up a NE blog... any suggestions for the name of the blog? left ur ideas at my tagboard?

metamorphosis is coming in 2 days time! whoohhoo!!!

for those of u who are still unsure of the event's details. the camp will start will 10.30am. concert will starts at 7pm to 9pm. collection of newbs' gifts at 9.30am nexus reception. pls keep the gifts as a surprise for ur newbs cos u will only pass it to them half-way thru the concert. however for those who needs to leave earlier u may pass the gifts to them just before they leave.

jia you everyone! :)

donavan's brother

was chatting with donavan last fri in msn. then saw his display pic... the baby boy is so cute!!!!
found out it's actually donavan's younger brother. his name is jeremy, 4 years old. tried persuading donavan to bring his brother to rc for us to see... but think he's still too young...
presenting to you jeremy! --->

it's time for war!

went to play paintball today... interesting.
the impacts was great. many ppl kana hit by the paintballs. very interesting scene too.
priscilla was hit, then she went like "ouch...... ouch....." then slowly went to the 'hospital' to again to replay opportunity. shirls, dennis, abinum, freedy, ethan and daniel cheah were super 'karan'. debbie went to hide in the hospital for 2mins after she was hit. eelee went to the tower to shoot and bought many down. i played only once... once was enough for me! supposed to shoot and aim at the target before we can snatch our ammo box. but both ziying and me couldn't hit the target despite our desperate attempts. thx God i wasn't hit. hehe. :)

u may not believe it, but we spent around 1k just playing this game!!! everyone's costed around 45 bucks. thx God for the church which sponsored 500 bucks for this retreat.

ok, time of enjoyment's over. now's the time to really strive hard in nurturing our group.

metamorphosis is coming this thurs! starts at 1030am.

the gifts are great and the programs? even better!

the concert starting at 7pm ain't something u would want to miss. 2 hours of praise and worship... isn't it wonderful??? the teachings and trainings will be something wise leaders will not want their people to miss too. so wat are u waiting for? time to shake nexus with our people!

repentance.

been using my new study bible to aid me in my bible reading.
then God speaks to me abt the word REPENTANCE.

is repentance just merely confessing our sins after we sinned either small or big time?
is it something we need to do everyday before we sleep just for the sake of it?

sometimes as shepherds of God's flock, we tend to do alot of 'right' things because we want our group to prosper and that we want ourselves to be a living stream of blessings. nothing wrong with that, but shouldn't we be more concern abt our personal relationship with God and how our wilful ways hurts our Abba Father who cares so much for us?

at the end of the day, stripping away all our other ids, we are presented plainly as individual child of God before Him. we are responsible for our own relationship with Him.

repentance produces fruits. we all learnt this in our 18 lessons or live life to the fullest.
but if we really understand and abide in tis truth- that godly sorrow leads to repentance and true repentance produces fruits, how much more would we be transformed into His image and how much stronger will be the relationship btw us and God. be concerned over our hearts, a heart of sincerity, then just mere words of confession coming out from our mouths.

just a thought to ponder upon, if we truly take it to heart all the teachings and sharings which we've gone thru till now in our Christian journey, how would many things to be different in us and around us today? it's hard to apply everything. but i want to give my best shot in it. to hunger for Him and His Word, to be alert and active in applying the truth.

i want to be a child who loves God intimately.

in everything i do, i want to do it for Him to the best that i can becos i SIMPLY love Him.

a day of many happenings!

reached sch at 1030am to discuss abt a presentation we're suppose to give nt wk. the team ldr didn't know wat to do. so we were like sitting there smiling aimelssly at one another. then i say, y not we split the work load. one will take the social causes, another economic, political, religious and cultural perspectives. we'll do our research then email to him to consolidate. ok... settled, let's go eat breakfast... haha

then went to singapore studies tutorial. dennis was late. so i was telling myself.. ok, gotta overcome my 'girl shyness'. espy this bunch of gals, been hearing news abt how they view newcomers...
i went to dennis' friends, and said: "hi, u guys r dennis' friends right? can i sit over here?'
very flat reply: "har, u sit here, then dennis sit where?' then they turned back to carried on chatting...
there were obviously two seats left...
i was like thinking... gosh... never expected such response.
dun know y, i felt kinda irritated at tt moment. i got tis feeling tt tis bunch of gals tend to judge others too quickly as well as being cynical... well, as i told dennis later on, the friendship chemistry was obviously missing. but well, since i've walked over there that time, so i still sit down.... at least till dennis arrived.
the remaining 10mins was super awkward. dennis was still late...
the gals were chatting among themselves. i was trying to pretend i'm msging someone. fine, i was msging jon tay abt our shepherding venue, which i've already confirmed with him yesterday.

then came the time to split us into smaller grps. ok, i chose another group. dennis persuaded me to join his grp with e gals, but i was like.. it's ok, i feel much more comfortable with my current one.

sometimes i prefer entering into a situation where every body dun know every body. everything starts at zero. when certain social circles haf already been formed, it's usually a case where u r vewied more like an invader. as least tt's how i find abt e social formations in the secular world.

after my chinese studies lecture i grabbed two of my new lecturemates to central library and viewed a chinese literary video: hong fen for our upcoming assignment. managed to loan out the only copy of the original book too.
studied in library till 10pm, when the library closes. dragging my tired body to the bus- stop, when i took 151, 132, 76 back home.

home sweet home! ok, at least till now i'm rather in line with my revisions tis week. been planning to devote the next 3 days more into my minstry areas.

ending off here, my body's really aching....