Back from camp!

I just got back from a 3 days 2 nights camp for the P6 student leaders. I enjoyed myself thoroughly because I didn't have to do much. The leaders planned and managed their own camp. I was just a facilitator. I could even watch my favorite 7pm and 9pm show while the kids had their activities. I taught them how to play the "Woo La La" game and it was hilarious! It's so much easier to lead the kids in games than to lead the adults in games.

Anyway, I had the opportunity to mingle around with the kids and talk to them casually. We had fun chatting and laughing together. It's amazing to know how fast time flies. There were lots of students that I had taught before and some that had never crossed my path at all. My greatest surprise was discovering that one of my TAF kids, during my first few years of teaching, had transformed into a beautiful, slim and fit girl. I was shocked and amazed. She told me she took about 1 year to shed off those fats. I was and still am, impressed by her determination and will power when she shared her secrets to success with me.

Here's her secret:
1. Eat very little for breakfast and have something simple for lunch.
2. Sometimes she skips dinner. (Not recommended)
3. Avoid all the fried and oily food but she rewards herself once a week.
4. Avoid all cold drinks because cold drinks slows down our metabolic rate.
5. Run on the treadmill for 38 minutes EVERYDAY. (Increase the duration week by week)

What is it that motivates her to be so determined?
1. Shame of being fat. (Ops! That's a negative motivator. I'm still thinking of ways to scrap away TAF Club entirely.)
2. Her mum wants her to exercise.
3. She had a crush on a boy who is slim and she wanted to be compatible to the boy. (Love does have a great impact on someone's life.)

So now that she had lost so much weight, what is it that kept her going on?
1. She felt good about herself. (I believe her new image has given her more confidence in herself.)

She told me that for the 1st and 2nd months after doing all these, she didn't feel much difference. However, slowly but surely, she realised that her stomach got smaller and she became lighter and slimmer as well. So she'll keep on with what she's doing.

As much as I don't quite agree with her eating patterns, I will try to drink lesser cold drinks, eat less oily and fried food and try to exercise more regularly to shed off my excess and non-essential fats. I will also drink lesser alcoholic drinks (especially beer) because they'll give me unnecessary fats and carbohydrates too. I AM MOTIVATED to live more healthily from now onwards! All thanks to this girl. She has shown with her life what it means by "all things are possible." And I am glad that she's a child of God because I know she'll always be in the good hands of our Father.

Although I was tired after the camp, I was glad that I went. A little sad that they won't be in our school again. I'll miss them.

Aftermath of Asia Conference

I guess everyone's tired like I am after Asia Conference. The heat of queueing for hours outside the hall and then the ultimate coldness inside the halls caused me to be down with flu now. I've been sleeping long hours since yesterday and today and I still feel quite sick. It's also the first time I stayed in air-conditioned place and clapped so much and so hard that my palm actually split and bled. Thank God it wasn't very serious. I controlled my clapping during the Finale.

I pray for healing as I'm going for a camp tomorrow till Fri. I hope I can still enjoy myself with the kids.

Anyway, I finally finished reading "My Story" by Dave Pelzer. I'm truly amazed by his "never give up" attitude towards life and giving his all in everything. Although I find the writings a little too long winded, I am blessed by his testimony. So, feeling great that I've finished reading such a thick book, I went into Tecman to get myself a new book to read (knowing fully well that I have many "new" books at home). Hahaha! One of my hobbies is to buy books. And I usually read half of the book only. =P

Reading is a good hobby. May I continue to cultivate such endurance to finish all the books that I buy!

Finale!

Asia Conference came to an end last night with resounding success! I was so tired in the morning that I was tempted not to go for the morning service. Thank God Eunice encouraged me and came round my house to pick me up to expo. I was glad that I went. =D

After service, I rushed off to attend a colleague's wedding. Twisted my ankle while running for the cab. Thank God it wasn't a serious twist. Immediately after giving him the ang bao and picture taking with all my colleagues, I quickly rushed back to expo to queue for the Finale night session. Thank God one of my colleagues was on the way to Changi.. So I shared a cab with her (Cut down my cab expenses). This entire week, I overspent on my budget. Spent a lot on cab and was challenged every session to give a good offering. So, the next few days I hope I don't have to spend a lot. I'm cutting down on my social gatherings. I'm sorry if I can't go out with you.

JJ Lin came for the Finale night. I managed to video-ed him.. and was WARNED by a security not to take videos. =P Thank God by the time he stopped me, he had finished performing the song.



The session was 5 hours long and I queued outside on my own for about 1 hour or more before entering the hall. I'll blog more about my feelings in another entry. Still too exhausted to think and reflect. So now, photos first!

This is taken by a supposedly expert.. hmm.. Xin and YY seemed to be the mains and the rest of us like calefares..


Jas and I.


So we ended off with singing "谢谢有你们" and "That's What Friends Are For" with lots of poppers and balloons. Wonderful ending! Hallelujah!

The God I Know

This is a song that touches me deeply and ministered to me this season of my life. I feel that I have a great responsibility to be God's light in the world. Tears seemed to always flow out of my eyes whenever we worship God with this song.

THE GOD I KNOW
CITY HARVEST CHURCH

WHEN THE STAGE IS BARE TONIGHT
THERE'S NO ONE ELSE
JUST YOU AND ME
WHEN THE CURTAINS CLOSE BEHIND
THERE'S NO PRETENSE
I'M ON MY KNEES

I WILL LAY DOWN MY LIFE
FOR THE LOVE SACRIFICE
YOU GAVE TO ME
IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF YOU
ALL BECAUSE OF YOU

THE GOD I KNOW
RIGHTEOUS AND HOLY
THE GOD I KNOW
FAITHFUL AND TRUE
THE GOD I KNOW
MY TOWER OF REFUGE
HEARTS ARE HEALED
CHRIST REVEALED

THE GOD I KNOW
LIGHT OF THE CITY
THE GOD I KNOW
STRENGTHENS THE WEAK
THE GOD I KNOW
YOUR HEART BEATS WITHIN ME
AS YOU ARE
SO ARE WE (To verse)
SO ARE WE(To Bridge)

THIS IS MY CRY
MY ONE DESIRE
MORE OF YOU
MORE OF YOU

THE CHURCH HE KNOWS
RIGHTEOUS AND HOLY
THE CHURCH HE KNOWS
IS FAITHFUL AND TRUE
THE CHURCH HE KNOWS
A TOWER OF REFUGE
HEARTS ARE HEALED
CHRIST REVEALED

THE CHURCH HE KNOWS
LIGHT OF THIS CITY
THE CHURCH HE KNOWS
STRENGTHENS THE WEAK
THE CHURCH HE KNOWS
IS STRONG AND MIGHTY
AS HE IS, SO ARE WE




Words and Music by KC Gan
© 2008 City Harvest Church

Asia Conference

Asia Conference started on Wednesday.. and I must say that I am very impress and proud of what my church is doing and glad that we are under the leadership of Pastor Kong, who has such foresight and passion for the lost. It's been a long time since I was so excited about a conference. I told myself that I will avail myself for whichever sessions that I can attend.

The opening night was a night of inspiration and assurance of what I'm gonna pursue in the next few years. Pastor talked about most Christians staying in the 1st space where we are only comfortable with communicating with Christians in the church. Christians whom non-Christians would "classify" as weird and fake in the real world. Christians who are critical and judgemental about non-Christians and even their own fellow bros & sis-in-Christ. He challenged all those with such mentalities to move to the 2nd space-The Marketplace. More than just staying in the Marketplace, we should excel in it and be invited to the 3rd space, where the governors and people of high authorities are. It confirmed my goal of switching from the teaching track to leadership track. It's not that I want recognition and prestige, but rather I strongly believe it is only when I have reached the 3rd space, that my voice will be heard and I can do more for God and the kids. I want to be like Paul in the Bible (Acts 17:16-34).

Yesterday I went for my elective-Effective Counselling. And I am blessed by what Pastor Mike Connell had shared. He told us that everyone of us need to learn to take responsibility of our own actions, feelings and consequences. A lot of times, we like to blame others for things that had happened. We tend to say things like, "He doesn't like me, that's why he's always not happy with my performance." "It's useless to talk to him because he will always insist that he is right." We fail to realised that although we can't change the other party, we could have done something to change ourselves (mentality and actions etc) to change the situations. I can't change others, but I can change myself for my own good. I'm living my life, not other's life. Other's life is not within my control. But my life is in my hands and I can feel empowered when I am in control. People who refused to change themselves will always live in misery because they'll always feel that others are against them. They will always feel victimised by others. I must take responsibility and stop shifting the blame to others if I truly want myself to be happy.

Pastor Mike explained his point by giving us an example of Adam. When God asked Adam whether he had eaten the fruit of the tree, Adam refused to take responsibility of his actions and he shifted the blame to Eve and God by saying, "The WOMAN whom YOU gave me, gave me the fruit to eat." From that moment on, God stopped talking to Adam and the whole of mankind starts to experience the consequence of that irresponsibility. Wow! I didn't realise that God actually stopped talking to us when we refused to take responsibility. At that instant, I immediately told God that I was sorry for what I had done previously. I am responsible for what I've become. I really pray that God will give me another chance to do His will.

I still have many other thoughts in my head.. But I should be preparing for tonight's session. It's gonna be another impactful and blessed night for all of us! Praise the Lord for what He is doing!

It's a test of patience..

What an adventurous day!! When I finished my meeting yesterday, I went to Kimage to have my haircut. I stood outside the shop and hesitated to go in because there's only one teacher inside and he's the one who cut my hair previously and I HATED that hairstyle. After a while, I realised I really need to get a haircut, so I went in in faith. To my surprise, the other teacher was in! And the person cutting my hair went to get him to help me.. I was really elated.. but for 10 minutes, then reality sets in.. He told the other not so good teacher to take over because he's going for dinner. SADZ!

In the end, I took 1hr 30min to cut my hair... The longest so far! They are supposed to compensate me with a free haircut.. I dyed my hair too.. So in total, I took 5 hours just to cut and dye my hair. It was really a test of patience.

Then I went to KFC to pack my dinner. Only 2 counters were opened. So I went to the shorter queue. The woman was moving like a snail!!! I was so frustrated. The queue next to mine was moving so fast that after serving 3 customers, mine only moved once. So I jumped over to the next queue in disgust.

I really had a super long day!

Now, a lot of friends told me my left side is too LONG and they strongly encouraged me to go for a trim!!! So I'm getting down to Kimage NOW to trim.

Back from JB.

I'm back! I kinda enjoyed the trip.. Although I feel very tired physically. I think I really need to thank God for blessing me with nice children to take care of. On the bus, I took care of 10 girls and they were really very cooperative. Very easy to take care of them. In my villa, I only have another group of 5 girls to take care of and two of them are closer to me. I thank God for them because I brought them out for competition before and so we all knew that we are Children of God. So we can talk openly with one another. I played BIG 2 with the 2 gals till 12 midnight before going to bed. Even when I had to take over one of the group to bring them around for activities on day 2, I feel that the children were not as bad as what my colleague had made them to be. It must be the grace of God that I did not experience the frustrations that some of my colleagues experienced. But then again, maybe we had different mentalities towards different situations because our situations might be the same but our responses could be different. Thank God also for journey mercy. We had a very safe trip.

This is the BIG villa that I stayed in with Elaine and 5 other kids.


Check out the big living room with it's dining room.




I didn't take pictures of the kitchen because it's too normal and unnecessary. And the master bedroom was occupied by the kids.. Poor Elaine and I had to stay in the "maid's room" downstairs. See how small our room is..


The golf resort that we stayed in was SO BIG that we need to walk 10 minutes or take a bus/MPV to our gathering place every now and then. The scenery is beautiful.


I played golf and rode on a horse for the 1st time in my life. Cool! Golf is really not an easy game as most people think. I can't hit a golf ball well at all. It's definitely not my cup of tea. Haha. I don't mind learning how to ride a horse though.


It's a waste.. to be staying in such a big place for only one night. It'll be great if I'm there for hols rather than taking care of kids.. BUT, I still can't stand the lizard shit!!!

Random

Have not been blogging much lately. I've lost the joy of chatting with people on MSN. Maybe I've already been talking a lot in school. When I reached home, I'm just too lazy and tired to communicate with others.

I spent everyday of last week watching 命中注定我爱你. It's such a nice show. So ridiculous and funny in the beginning, heart-breakingly sad in the middle, and ended off with a happy note. The drama caught my entire being so much that I'm feeling lost now that I've finished watching it. And I love all the soundtracks in the show. The one that's running in my blog now is one of the songs that kept playing during the sad moments of the drama. The songs are my blog song, ringtone and sms tone. Hee!

Anyway, I went for a YOG briefing yesterday at Republic Poly. I am very impressed by their library but not their carparks. There's a cafe in the library... and the best thing is, they have 3 pool tables and one LCD TV with Wii there! So instead of a quiet library, one can hear lots of laughter at this relaxing part of the library. And I think they loan out games as well. So I think it's a pretty cool thing to have such a corner in school. Their cafe sells CHEAP COFFEE & ICE BLENDED drinks. The need to improve part is their multi-storey carpark. We got stuck when we reached.. drove all the way up to 5th floor takes about 10 minutes. We got stuck again when we were off from the meeting. This time we were stuck for about 20 minutes before we got out of the carpark. Inefficient man!!!

After that I went to Botak Jones with Jem. It's been a long time since we last spend time to chat about ourselves and our mindset. We shared a pint of Hoegarden and I fell in love with it. So I bought 4 bottles back today for my own pleasure! I'm an alcoholic! Haha!