Mrs Ivy Wong

Decided to postpone my blog entry about my views on friendship.

Rather today I meet a old mentor, friend and sister in Christ which I've not been in contact for really long while I was with Kaiwen this evening...

Her name is Mrs Ivy Wong, my primary 6 form teacher.
With all my heart I really think it's so divine that God placed her in my life.



Still remember I was in the worst EM2 class in Hong Dao Pri (demolished) then. My P5 form teacher at that time? Simply cannot make it... His name was Philip Tan and we often call him pi li dan, yi li dan or pi dan... Well it doesn't sounds funny here but at our time he was the constant joke among my friends and I.

Well to keep things simple, my P5 teacher injured his leg when I was in P6. Mrs Ivy Wong who had been taking care of the top class came over to be my form teacher. There was a unique bond between both of us. I really enjoyed her lessons and my results soared sky high under her mentorship. I remembered staying back after school daily to help her with her administrative stuffs and to do my homework under her supervision and guidance. As a result I did really well for my PSLE beyond my expectations and ended up in St Andrew's Sec which was where someone outreached to me and thus sparked off this Christian journey in my life.

Later on when I visit her in school (which I did every year that time) when I was Sec 4, I shared to her my conversion and she was truly thrilled by the news. In fact she was so excited that she took some invite cards from me to mass print it in her office and requested for me to head to her class to share Christ and to invite them to our ESS that time! She also bought quite a number of her students to our church at a period of time.

Mrs Wong has always been ever so passionate for Jesus. In fact when I met her today she was trying to share Christ and invite a Malay selling OTAK to church. Even Kaiwen said that her love for God is evident and contagious.

On a more personal level, she is really someone I treasure alot in my life. Remembered the last time we talked was when I just entered army and she called me to ask how I was coping in army. She is also someone I'm really grateful to in life. God has a reason for placing her as my form teacher only in P6 and how I managed to enter SAS because of her.

I shared to her that one of her ex-student i.e. my ex-classmate is currently working at AMK Mac and we're hoping to connect this friend and to share with him the love of God. It was tonight too that she reminded me of a close buddy I had in school last time named Kenneth. I bought him to church once and he converted. When he went back school to share to Mrs Wong she was so excited that she presented a new Bible to Kenneth on the spot! Hmmm I wonder how is Kenneth doing now. Kinda lost contact with him after I changed my phone few years ago... :X

Looking back at my life and those people that God placed in my journey thus far, I can only sing: "For You are great, You do mighty wonders Lord, there is no one else like You, there is no one else like You!"

"Purposely Tired"

Definitions:
(1) Purposely chosing to spend our time wisely upon His Kingdom
(2) Getting tired with a purpose

Ingredients of purposeful tiredness:

1) Seeing the value in what we do and what we yearn to see
2) Having the hope & faith to reap success and growth
3) Seeing our role in accomplishing this vision and mission

God spoke to me through the story of Noah regarding the future of NE.
We are heading towards A NEW BEGINNING.

We will clothe ourselves with the spirit of Noah. Making our stand clear that we are for God. Keeping our foot firm within His Word.

We will learn from our mistakes. Receive from our experiences. Look forward to our vision.

Gen 9: 1-3
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

Action plan:

This week is the last week of school! 10 high contacts before school closes. Don't Regret only when you really want to see friends coming to know Jesus in June yet you have no friends to invite and share the love of Christ with! React and Respond- 2 high contacts per day!

Another thing, if you have yet registered for camp, what are you waiting for? Don't miss out the privilege of being the FIRST FRONTIER of God's kingdom just because you missed the camp. $100+ for a life-changing experience for you- its worth it!

My heart is pumping so fast for what's in stored ahead for me and NE!

Before signing off, here's a anime I've been catching & loving: Hunter x Hunter
(Thanks Livi for lending me the DVDs!)

Characters in Hunter x Hunter:


My fav character- Kurapika!


Upcoming post: My views on friendship

Courage: Life lesson from King David

This was a lesson I taught a few weeks ago. Realised Ps Jeff uploaded his notes in his blog too. Think it'll be such a waste if any of us miss out the essence of this lesson if we are not reader of his blog. This is a lesson that may come timely for many of us especially when changes and challenges are setting in.

In any case, want to encourage more people to visit Ps Jeff's blog as he oftens pen down invaluable lessons and personal thoughts that may ignite thoughts and inspirations to many of us. His blog address is http://jeffchong.blogspot.com

Becoming More Courageous

Courage is a very important quality for leadership and for life. Courage is the opposite of fear. Fear can cause us to be angry, insecure, to lack faith, to be negative, to be critical in a bad way.

Courage is a distinct quality that all leaders need to have in their lives. Courage enables us to do what is right, to stay our course, to lead our people to new heights, to persevere, to have growth points in our lives and our ministries.

David versus Goliath (1 Samuel 17) is a story of courage. It is a story of God working through someone who decided to be courageous.

Israel was at war with Philistines. The Philistine champion was Goliath and he was calling for a one-on-one battle with anyone from Israel. Goliath was over 9 feet tall (that’s 2.7m tall!... slightly taller than me...)

The obvious person from Israel to fight one-on-one with Goliath was King Saul (he had both the positional and physical stature to do so). He was the king and he was described “a head taller than any of the others”.

Saul might have the position and he had the external appearance but he did not have courage. And because of his own cowardice, it caused the whole Israelite camp to be fearful (they were taunted by Goliath for 40 days).

Let’s look at the circumstances that cause David to develop courage in his life.

1) Through The Challenges That We Face In Our Everyday Living (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

David could have run away and no one would have known. He could have fabricated a story of how fierce the lions or the bears were (like Joseph’s brothers) but he did not.

David did not say that it was his own strength, his own knowledge that helped him but that it was the Lord who helped him out and would help him out again when facing Goliath.

It was in the everyday moments when nobody was watching that David built his courageous heart.

2) Through The External Criticism & Opposition That We Face (1 Samuel 17:26-29)

Eliab, David’s eldest brother, was burning with anger with David even though David did nothing wrong.

David was sent by their father; the sheep was left with another shepherd (v20). David was just being obedient to his father’s instruction.

Why did Eliab mistreated David in such a way?

It could very well be that Eliab was angry with himself. In David, he saw his own cowardice (when he was with the other people who were also afraid, he did not feel too bad about himself).

Perhaps, he felt ashamed of himself. Perhaps the fear of facing his true self caused him to be negative and angry.

How did David respond? David merely stated his position and then he moved on to do what he had planned to do. He did not go into a verbal war and argument with his negative brother. He did not allow unfair criticism to have much power in his life, he moved on with his mission.

Having said that, criticism is either true or false or a mixture. If it is true, then we fix what needs to be fixed and then move on (don't be a self martyr). If it is false, just dismiss it and move on (don’t allow it to cause you to lose heart).

3) Through Resisting The Pressure To Conform (1 Samuel 17:38-40)

Saul dressed David in his own tunic (Saul was a big guy physically while David was a small young man).

David did a really courageous thing to say no to Saul. Saul was the king and a renown warrior. David was unknown and a shepherd boy. It would have been really easy for David to say “Saul should know more than me. I should think that he must be right, what do I know?”

David knew his own gifts and served God in the way that God has called him.

4) Through Facing The Crisis Moments Of Life (1 Samuel 17:41-50)

David had been trusting God in his every day challenges and it made him even stronger as he gone through the crisis period. David faced Goliath head on and he trusted in God and God delivered him.

The summary of the whole story is really found in verse 45. With God, we can indeed be courageous. We need to face our Goliaths, we cannot run away from them.

At the end of the day, this is not really a story about David’s courage or his skills with the sling or his willingness to take risk, it is really a story about God. It is a story about how God is faithful to help us when we trust in Him.

Pictures and video time!

Real funny spiderman video Steven sent me:



Anyway, tonight was a fruitful one as I met some of my leaders to discuss about the future of NE. Something exciting is happening man!~

Just some pictures took past few weeks:

Tempting pic of Andersen's Family Fordue my team and I tried a few weeks ago :D


What we ate during Siewluan's birthday celebration last Sunday:
(Venue: Japanese Dessert Restaurant opp. Topshop @ Marina Square)

The Prodigal Son

Recently one brother just came back to church.
I have quite a lot to say about this brother.

His departure from the church was a big blow to me during that year.
Can't believe nor accept the fact at that point of time that people can desert God and the destiny He has for them and pursue after other priorities.

Thank God for Eelee's wisdom and advice at that time, to help me understand that sometimes people are like the prodigal son in the Bible where they will choose to leave God to seek experience in the world. But soon this people will taste the other not-so-pleasing side of worldly living and reconsider the goodness of God and make their way back to God through the church.

Guess the brother that I'm mentioning falls under such category.

It's not that I am encouraging people to follow the pathway of the prodigal son. Why trade Christ with anything else? What's the logic behind forsaking the original plan that God already has in stored for us? Why go through mistakes and failures when there's no such need in the first place? How foolish it is to turn our back against God and allow our pride to lead us in living life our way. Furthermore, some of these people never return to God. Someone once said, "If it's our pride that caused us to drift away from God, it will be shame that will keep us from returning back to His arms."

Final analysis? Do not trade God for anything else in this world. Remain faithful and loyal to Him. Place God as the first priorities in our life. Sometimes decisions aren't that hard to make anyway, when we've already decided in our heart that God and His Word will be the sovereign authority in our life.

However for those who have made a faulty decision in their lives. God's grace is still available, and God is still in control. No point simply lamenting over our wrongs for the rest of our life. What matters most is our sincere repentance to "turn from our evil ways" and to pursue the kind of righteous life God intends for us.

As a Christian and a servant, I see my role in Christ to be a vessel and point of contact for these people to Christ. I strive my best to make myself available and connectable to those who have lost their way for the time being, so that at the appropriate time I may serve as a back-door for their return. Perhaps all that these people need are just Christian who will stay on by their side and offer a sincere friendship that can shine light and constant guidance for those who are lost.

I'm glad that this brother has returned home to where he belongs. I'm hoping and praying hard for the day when another 'he' will return back to God too.

What kind of hearts do we have?

Matt 13:3-8
3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

A hardened heart
A shallow heart
A divided heart
A responsive heart

Which heart do you have?

A whole-hearted heart takes time to acquire.
A sinless heart only Jesus has it.
A guilt-filled heart leads to many sorrows.
A heck-care heart brings turmoil to lives

I don't know about you, but I want to have a responsive heart.

Amen.

my first week in placement

3 'Es' to sum up my first week in placement:

Encouraging!

Very encouraged by the staffs there who are all Christian. Heard many stories from them about how God changed their life and why they're in this helping profession as God led them to do.

Wednesday started off great as all the staffs had to gather in Care Corner Woodlands Branch to spend corporate devotion in the morning. There was a time of thanksgiving from each agencies and also after that all of us broke into smaller groups to pray for each other and for God to continue in using our life to influence many more out there.

It was truly a great encouragement to me to know that the staffs and overall atmosphere in my workplace is conducive for my spiritual growth and outreach. Just this morning our centre manager met all of us to spend time reading the Bible and he wants us to begin our day right with God.

It was also cool to know that my supervisor and her husband are God-loving/fearing people. Both of them have a burning desire to do missions in a couple of years time. Talking about world-wide vision, wow!

Experiencing!

New experiences for the past few days.
Day 1: Made a home visit to a one room flat
Day 3: Helped out in a roadshow for police officers in Tanglin Police HQ and was served in their VIP lounge which was really grand. Met up with people from various agencies such as Singapore Children Society, Touch and Beyond Social Services and I was especially impressed by Touch who came up with a new program to help out offenders who are intellectually challenged.
Day 5: Received my first phone intake for counseling!

Exciting!

I am taking this placement real seriously. A time for grow in my interest area. I've requested for a video cam to film down my counseling sessions so that I can do evaluation with my supervisor after that. Also requested to join in counseling session of my supervisor so that I can learn from her.

Currently I am taking time in office to read up on a model in helping distressed family, at the same time familiarising myself with all the financial schemes and legal affairs pertaining to youths and families.

I'm looking forward for the next batch of youths enrolling into Guidance Program next wednesday and also the parents and youths bonding session that's gonna b held soon. :D

On the other page of story, have been really spending some time thinkin and praying through for my ministry recently. Really believe a time is coming where revival, rejuvenation and regeneration will begin for NE. I'm so excited for it!

Passion drives us on.
Vision leads us on.

my first day in work!

Today was my first day at placement in Care Corner FSC (Queenstown).

Had quite a hard time finding the place. Was glad tt I did not wander alone in the foreign land since I met another coursemate who was posted to the same agency as me!

When both of us reached the workplace, realised another coursemate was posted to the same agency too. That makes 3 of us doing attachment in this place. Not bad afterall! At least I won't have to go through the traumas of adjusting to a new environment myself. :p

The people over there were wonderfully nice! Bought puffs and cakes to welcome us in the morning.

My workstation turns out to be a little disappointing though... A foldable table and a plastic chair (those u use in school classroom). But well from tomorrow onwards I will have my own laptop borrowed from the agency so guess I'll have to be grateful for what I have man...

My supervisor turns up to be a real nice person. And think she is really dedicated too in mentoring me. The most wonderful thing is that she is a fervent Christian and she started off her introduction by sharing to me that she truly believes her identity is first a Christian, then a social worker. Sounds familiar ya?

The highlight of the day was when my supervisor bought me out to make a home visit to one of her client's house. Was glad that she did a great debrief with me after the session. Another thing to thank God for was that she got her husband to drive me to town after work since it was on their way... :)

Think my agency's super cool too. Since it's a Christian organisation, all the staffs over there are rather dedicated Christians. Found many Bibles on the desk of most of the staffs there. The most amazing thing is that every Wednesday morning the staffs will gather to spend devotional time together like worship and reading the Bible. So cool right?

And the coolest thing is... I got the permission to go for june camp! Woohoo!

Life in Jesus is just so assured. Nothing can go wrong when Christ is in control. =)

Youth Subculture- Emokids

Recently I came across from my friends that there is a new breed of youth subculture rising in society. Thought will be good for me to post some information about these youths. A good-to-know thing espy for anyone working with youths. (Content taken from Wikipedia)

Emo is a somewhat ambiguous, controversial slang term most frequently used to describe a fashion or subculture which is usually defined to have its roots in punk fashion and subculture, as well as some attributes of gothic fashion and subculture

Music

The term emo originated in the 1980s to describe a genre of music stemming from the hardcore punk music scene in Washington, D.C. Early bands labeled emo (or sometimes emocore) in this scene included Rites of Spring, Embrace, and Fugazi. The term emo as a music genre has become broader and broader with time, and now is loosely understood to mean "rock music with emotionally-based lyrics or effect," which could be used to describe a broadly and poorly defined group of nearly every popular (or unpopular) rock band. The term is so loosely defined because its definition is still the subject of debate. Emo now often refers to a person's fashion, personality, or both, as well as the music genre.

Fashion

Emo fashion is usually defined to have roots in punk fashion as well as gothic fashion. By almost all current definitions, emo clothing is characterized by tight jeans on males and females alike, long fringe (bangs) often brushed to one side of the face, dyed black, straightened hair, tight t-shirts which often bear the names of rock bands, studded belts, belt buckles, Chuck Taylor All-Stars, skate shoes, or other black shoes—often old and beaten up—and thick, black-rimmed glasses. Emo fashion has changed with time; early trends included haircuts similar to those worn by the Romulans and Vulcans in Star Trek, tightly fitting sweaters, button-down shirts, and work jackets (often called gas station jackets). This has fallen out of fashion nowadays.

Personality

When referring to a person's personality and attitude, most definitions of emo hold that an "emo person" is candid about their emotions, sensitive, shy, introverted, broken-hearted, glum, stupid, worthless, suicidal and often quiet. Emo personality is also often connected with writing poetry, which addresses confusion, depression, loneliness, and anger, all resulting from the world's inability to understand the author. Emo poetry uses a combination of any of: a highly emotional tone, stream of consciousness writing, a simple (ABAB) or nonexistent rhyme scheme, references to the flesh, especially the heart, heavy use of dark or depressing adjectives, concern over the mutability of time and/or love, and disregard for punctuation, grammar, and/or spelling. Themes such as life is pain are common.

Some definitions of emo hold that typical "emo persons" are likely to inflict self-injury, most often by means of cutting, burning, or otherwise mutilating themselves. Some assert that it is cool within the emo subculture to pretend to be suicidal and self-harm, or that participants self-harm purely for personal enjoyment.

Emos are also stereotyped to use depressing Internet screen names that sometimes contain straight edge X's, often using ironic sloganry, a poetic sense or cliché (eg. xmourningafterx).

Criticism

In the years since emo music's rise in popularity, both emo music and emo subculture have attracted sometimes severe criticism. The term emo itself is sometimes used pejoratively, to suggest that the target is "overly emotional." Emo in general has been characterised as a fad which will be discarded and forgotten in the near future. Emo music has also been compared to the teen pop of 1990s boy bands. Critics cast the music as lacking any artistic merit, the fashion as "embarrassing" and members of the subculture as imagining or pretending that they lead harsh, painful lives when they actually live in comfortable, upper- to middle class homes. Members of the emo subculture are portrayed by critics as melodramatic, self-pitying teenagers who pour their efforts into writing bad poetry and spending a great amount of time on MySpace. The current emo subculture has been called a "sad caricature" of what it once was. Critics have gone so far as to contend that the emo subculture or emo music are likely to cause youth to commit suicide. The backlash against emo music and subculture has become so prevalent that it may itself have become a cliché: one commentator notes that "hating emo kids these days is as hackneyed as emo itself."

Grammatical usage

The word emo can be used as either a noun or adjective.

Adjective (1): All my friends are emo.
Adjective (2): I feel emo today.
Noun: That person is such an emo.

Typical haircut of emokids:


Typical dressing of emokids:

movie review for spiderman 3

Watched Spiderman 3 with Freedy yet again today.

Here's my review for it:

1) Graphics and fighting scenes (****)

Many new characters were introduced in this movie. Sandman, Venom and Green Goblin 2.
Graphics were refined and clear. Like especially the sand effects for Sandman and the Spiderman's suit.

Fighting scenes were cool. Was quite sure that I held my breath a couple of times during the intense moments of the show.

2) Acting (**)

Tobey Maguire's acting remained wooden in this show. I mean I understand Peter Parker's supposed to be a nerd, but both Freedy and I was expecting a more matured version of Peter Parker in handling areas of his life given all the trials he went through in the earlier movies.

Kirsten Dunst's performance was rather disappointing too. Didn't portray an intense-enough acting especially when she witnessed the gruesome attacks Peter Parker suffered from Sandman. And come on! Considering the numbers of 'thrill rides' she already experienced in past 2 movies, can she not act so surprised and shocked as if its her first time going through all these traumas!?!?!

On the other hand, James Franco who acted Peter Parker's best friend Harry did an commendable job this time round. Witnessed his efforts in handling the shift of Harry's character over to the not-so-good side in Spiderman3.

3) Plot (***)

Think Sam Raimi who directed all Spiderman series attempted too much in this film. Too many characters introduced in one go, too many aspects to cover (romance, fights, friendship, moral integrity) and too little time = lack of depth in the movie. But well, at least we can comment him for his efforts and bold try! =)

4) Biblicality (***)

Well I do think that throughout the movie some biblical themes were brought up. Subjects such as handling our ego and pride, attitudes towards relationship and marriage and a call to make the right decision irregardless of circumstances are noteworthy stuffs to be observed in this film.

Overall comment: Watch it if you can! Not bad after all! ;)

Oh, leaving you guys with a scene from the movie. I was totally mesmerised by it: (you gotta see the entire footage of the show before you can truly appreciate this pic)

exams over...

Exams' finally over! But guess life's not gonna slow down her pace.

Starting my placement at Care Corner Family Service Centre at Queenstown next Monday.
Next Monday?!?! Yes next Monday!!! *faint

My job scope:
Guidance Programme and Casework and Counselling

Just the thought of working at Queenstown simply dampens my eagerness towards this placement. Bible says we should thank God in all circumstances. Well I thank God that at least my placement still involves working with delinquent youths and youths-at-risk. :D

In any case, went to Crystal Jade @ TPY to celebrate Pete's birthday today. Finally tried the infamous xiao long bao. Technique to eat it: bite a small hole at the edge of the bao and suck out the soup within the bao. Yummy!

But that was not the key highlight of the day. While walking towards the bus-stop, Pete and I saw a bunch of 'pri 3-4 thereabout boys' smoking outside Toa Payoh Entertainment Centre. This is so ridiculous! And the worst is that the security guard over there turns out to be the father of one of the kids! Gosh I felt so burdened at the moment. Wanted to approach them and find a chance to work on them but it was kinda hard since the dad was around... :X

"Father I pray that You will give me one more chance to meet those boys and make a way for me to know and work on them. Help them find their way back to You God. People need the Lord."