Christmas 2006
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
♥ 10:24 PM
22th December 2006
On Friday night, I went to causeway point with Liang Ying to get a shirt for my concert on Saturday. As it was the first event that I was organizing, I had to look good. So I decided to get a dark coloured shirt to go along with my beige pants. We shopped around Causeway and went from john little to metro to various small shops. In the end, I got my shirt from John Little and it cost only $15.30. Oh I got a dark blue shirt. Later we went to 77th street to select some accessories to go along with my shirt. I select a choker with a black cross and Lly got some tribal looking bracelet. After shopping, I went back home and I met Syahid at woodlands MRT station toilet.
23th December 2006
Finally, after all our planning and hard work, the date of the concert has arrived. In the morning we met up at 10am and had some rehearsal and practices before going for lunch together. During lunch, Justin and I treat everyone to drinks. After lunch, Char, Jon, Danny, Justin and I went back to church to thought of something for the gift exchange as well as to fold the brochure for the concert later. After planning the gift exchange, Char went to wrap the presents and the rest helped to fold the brochure. Deborah came later to make the name tags for everyone. Finally, at 16 20 the guest started coming and wow the turn out was great. Oh ya and I managed to get Camille and her friends to come for the concert. Although she had a lot of complains that it is childish, I still think that overall the event is a success. We had almost 100 plus people coming including SFers and friends and I heard that 8 people accepted Christ. Praise the Lord. I thank God that everything went well and people are actually touched by the skit and the songs that we sang. After the concert, we all went down for come dinner and fellowship with our guest. After everything, we had photo taking session where we had loads of fun and laughter.
24th December 2006
Christmas eve today, we had baptism service today at church today and I was late and missed the baptism. After service, Jon, Sam, Gab, Justin and I went to CoCo for lunch. After lunch, I went back to church and later went bowling with Sam, Gracis, Tricia, Benjamin, Jackie, Terrence Lee and Joel. I won the first game with a score of 108 and the 2nd game I lost to Sam See who had like 116. She took a picture of it to remind her of her victory. After bowling, I went to Terrence's house and later Justin before going to Meridian hotel to support Samuel's choir which was caroling there. After watching the performance, we took lots of pictures and later we went to Gabriel’s house for a party and countdown. We had pizza and watched movie. Jon, Gabriel and I had a long chat till about 4am. After which everyone KO till around 8. At 0830, we left.
25th December 2006
Merry Christmas to everyone whom I have missed due to my busy schedule. We had a Christmas event at church and it was good with some testimony and videos to watch. Some of the Sfers, me included helped out in the food serving. My job is to serve the cocktail. Well, dinner was same as the one we ordered on Saturday and it was great, I was introduced to some people during the dinner and we took many photos too. Oh by the way, the whole BS group was dressed in Jon's gift of the polo T-shirt and we went around showcasing our unity. But many did not catch it until we told them, so maybe next time we shall all dress in the same colour. I went home quite early as I have to wake up early the next day.
This Christmas is indeed fun and very fulfilling for me as I have the honor to plan an event for the SF and it was my very first. Although it was tough and tiring, but I am glad that everything turn out fine and smooth and many people have came up to me saying that it was great and that I had done a good job. Thank you for all your help and support but I really need to thank Jacob for his guidance and advice for me during this whole period. I would also like to thank my team and everyone who helped contribute to the success of the concert. But without the SFers and the friends they invited, this whole concert would be meaningless. I thank everyone for inviting their friends. Most importantly, I thank GOD greatly for giving me the strength and wisdom for the planning and concept for the concert and opening our friends' heart to want to come and listen to the greatest gift of GOD. For this Christmas, I had lots of fun too with stay overs and lots and lots of picture taking. However I am sorry that Sam got grounded because of my plans and hope that she can be free soon. Well it is now my 2nd year in church and well I have made more and more friends and grown closer to my BS group hope this stays.
OOC from Rp Course
Thursday, December 21, 2006
♥ 10:26 PM
I just got OOC from my RP course on Wednesday. The course started on Monday and I reported to Mowbray camp which is at Yew Tee camp. The reason for my OOC is cause of my long term excuse of upper limb. The ironic thing is that the course is lesson based with minimal physical activity. So I am like WTH, OOC for a stupid reason in my opinion. The worse thing that can happen is that the next course is a 1.5 month one with more training. But it's more fun actually and we get to learn more. Today RSM asked if I wanted to stay on in Seletar and I opted to stay and go for the next course. I mean seletar is a nice place and I am already starting to grow used to staying there and on top of that it is a stay out vocation and it is near my house. So now I am currently backed at Seletar Camp resuming my duties.
Mum has fallen ill yesterday. I got a call from one of her colleague saying that she is vomiting and giddy. After getting the call I rushed to her workplace to get her to a doctor as well as tell Camille. When we were going up the escalator, we saw Camille and she joined us. I brought mum to a doctor at the MRT station since they usual one that we always visit was closed for the day. After waiting for a long time, we went in and the doctor says that the cause of mum's giddiness and vomiting is due to her sensitive nose which blocked her ears and stuff. But she should be fine after medication. Today when I came back with dinner, mum managed to finish it so I guess she should be fine. Thank God for the healing.
SF Retreat 2006
Sunday, December 17, 2006
♥ 8:10 PM
On the night of the 11th of December, I went to Singapore Bible College (SBC) for our SF annual retreat. As usual retreat is a time for us to really put everything away and just focus on GOD and learn about him and his word. As we are usually very busy during our normal days, this is really a great time for us to really concentrate on GOD alone to learn to worship the Lord better. Retreat is also an opportunity for us to get to know other SFers better and to make more friends as we usually do not have much time on Sundays to really fellowship with each other. It is also through the retreat that I really get to integrate into SF and get to know more people. When I arrived on Monday night, everyone was doing the evaluation of the day and I joined my group just in time for some sharing. We mainly shared about the objectives we have and others share about the message that they had earlier. After the sharing, we went to wash up and sleep. SBC is better compared to the Changi Chalet in a sense that we have mattress and pillows provided for us to sleep and we do not have to sleep on sleeping bags. But the condition of the toilet is not as good as it really smells and the cubicle is really cram and the toilet bowl is so near the door that I have problems coming out. On the first day, I got to know my group members which are Matthias, Roger, TuanFong, Keith, Gervais, Joanna, Trina, Florence and Genevieve. Ivana is also in our group which is called the Light Bulb. I realized that the slides for my worship the next day is not ready yet, so I went with Sebastian and Randy to do the power point. When we went back to the bunk, we were locked out and luckily Zhi Zhen responded to my call and came to open the door for us. On top of that, I really have to thank Gervais and Sebastian for helping me with the worship songs and teaching me how to sing them. As it would be my first worship, I am a little nervous and worried about screwing it up. But luckily the worship went well except that I got out of tune for a while but later managed to sing in the right tune. I am glad that there are people who really encourage me and comment that they enjoyed the worship and it is a good job for a first timer. I am really relief when the worship ended fine and I really thank God for his help and guidance in my worship leading.
The next day, after my worship was quiet time by Albert where we learn about Psalm, mainly the definition, the target audience, the authors, the arrangement and most importantly how to study them. I think the most important thing to note is that the Psalms are to be read as an intimate and private journal by Christians to GOD, and not a historical record or theological letter. For it is only when we have a right frame of mind that we can appreciate it. We did Psalm 84 for QT and I was paired with Lionel, Danny’s cousin who was a non Christian. I took the opportunity to explain to him the need for QT and what QT is really about. But from my conversation with him, I find him to be very close to receiving information and I get this general feeling that he does not really want to come to this camp. But I still try my best to engage him in the best I can and leave the rest to GOD to work in his heart. After QT, we gathered back into our six groups for some sharing before going for lunch. After lunch was a session by Uncle Jit Meng on the topic of accountability. From the session, I learnt that in the world today, no man is an island and that we need some form of accountability for us to grow together and protect each other from falling. Many people understand the term accountable to which means that a person of a lower rank is responsible for answering to a certain leader and that the leader will watch over the person. However, in the SF, we must learn to be accountable for each other. In this system, anyone can be accountable for anyone. A leader is accountable for his/her contact as the leader really wants to take the responsibility and effort to be accountable for the contact and the contact must also respond to be want to account to the leader. In the same, a contact in a bible study group can also be accountable for his/her own leader and point out any wrongdoing for the sake of genuine concern and not going around looking for errors to pounce on people and to find fault with others. Accountability stems from genuine care and concern for the person to take the effort to be responsible. So in this case, should we see any wrongdoing by anyone, we should actually remind the person and advice instead of asking for leaders' help all the time. After the session was games time where there were four games to be played. At first we gathered at some open space and played some game where the groups are supposed to grab some marbles as well as go steal some. I feel a bit out of place playing with the kids so I ended up just standing around and extra a bit here and there. After that were 3 more games. First one that my group played was using a water pistol to shoot through a loop and collect the water in a container. Second was playing captain’s ball using either packets containing food or water bomb. Luckily there was only one food bomb. There was a third game but my group did not manage to play it due to lack of time I guess. But I had lots of fun shooting people with water pistols. Cheap thrill as what Denise commented.
The next day was as usual with me conducting the sweat it out with Randy. Oh Randy and I were tasked to be in charge of the sweat it out for the whole retreat which is from Tuesday to Thursday. For all 3 days, I was only in charge of conducting the warm up and Randy come up with the games. First day we played Virus which is some catching game where the catchers are stringed together and attack as a row. Second day, on Wednesday, we played a game called Human Chain which was conducted by Roger. The last day, we played Dog and Bone.
The third day, we had TAG which is Time Alone with God conducted by Aunty Deborah. We did John 14 and I did it with Lionel again. It was usual and we managed to do Psalm 1 and 100 too when we finished with John 14. John 14 was a record of John’s gospel which took place near the end of Jesus’ life on earth where He would subsequently be tortured and crucified. Here, Jesus was with His Disciples in a private discourse. He told and taught them many things about the Father, Himself and the Holy Spirit whom would be sent to live with them after His physical departure. After lunch time, we were dropped with a bombshell. We are to plan an outreach event tomorrow and invite our friends to it. I was like what the toot when I heard the mission. But still, the IC and 2 ICs managed to gathered and come up with a game program following the story of Paul. I was the medic for the program and also helped with the making of a gift for friends and all Sfers which is a star. It is great to see young Sfers taking the lead to conduct the event, especially Marcus who is literally in charge of the whole thing. Although only 4 friends turn up for the event, we are glad too. It is better to have 4 people to turn up and really want to learn more about Christ then have 200 people arrive and all leave without any interest. After the whole event, we had a evaluation and I took the opportunity to promote the Christmas event to everyone and to remind them to attend since everyone had the heart to invite their friends to an outreach event at the moment. On Thursday night, I left as I have duty on Saturday and I need to rest.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
♥ 11:59 PM
I realised that I have been getting lazy and not updating my blog. Hmm I have a lot to say in this entry. First of all would be the rover that was on fire. For the security platoon, we have a rover that we use for our mobile patrol and other stuff. Then one day (forgot which day liao) the top right corner of the canvas caught fire. I was totally panic and could not think straight when I saw the fire so I run around looking for a fire extinguisher. After which the fire was put out by Qhairil and well luckily nothing serious happen except that the rover became white from the day powder and look a bit Christmas. Lolz.
Next event was Justin’s commissioning parade on the 9th December at SAFTI MI. In the morning after my duty, I went to church to attend the band practice and thereafter went along with Jonathan to his house to wait for time to pass and then go to the parade. On the way, we picked up Samuel and Danny and went to SAFTI MI. Although we do not have the ticket, but we managed to enter anyway with the car pass and it really does not matter whether one have the ticket or not as all guest would get to sit at the grandstand anyway. And my, there were really a lot of people attending the parade and the president was there too. I am really glad to have a chance to attend the commissioning parade as myself do not have a chance to be there but at least I can go and share the joy with Justin as he sees his 9 months of training pay off. I think he must be the happiest person on that day. We took some pictures with Justin and later I went to find Lucas and took a photo with him. After the parade ended, Jon gave me a lift to Dave’s house for the class gathering.
The class gathering was great as most people turn up and we had dinner and just chatted with each other. When I arrived, it was quite late and we took a group photo before Mj and Hui Ling left. It was great catching up with each other as we have not seen each other for a long time due to our busy schedule. At around 10 plus, we left for home.
Oh ya and some update about the christmas event, the band is ok now as they have learn the five songs and just need some touching up. The skit is about done too with only some scenes that need to be perfected and others to get people to try them. But generally I think everything is on track and I thank GOD for all the help and strength that he has given me eventhough everything is in a rush.
