Pre-CNY Fellowship "Peng Bak Kwa"

Baw Kaw over the homemade pit

This is one of the pre-CNY activity that I come to appreciate and look forward to since I serve in SFM .... "peng-bak-kwa" fellowship!!!

Young and old .... enjoying Peng Bak Kwa Fellowship

Every year, BY aunty will be the one who will organize the program --- from getting orders to purchasing the raw bak kwa to buy the charcoal, wire netting .... to providing some refreshments and snacks to cleaning up of the place .... She indeed has been a tremendous blessing to us with her unceasing hands and feet serving us in projects like this or intercession --- she is also our prayer warrior!

From as early as 6+, close to 7 ... people start to come to church to start the fire etc ... this year ... we have only one homemade pit since the orders to BBQ them is lesser but cos its only one pit, it took a longer time than our previous years.

End product .... yum .... and fragrant ...

So, young and old came .... we can really feel the warmth of the fellowship and CNY mood ... some came to "peng" (BBQ) ... some came to help "peng" cos they enjoy doing this ... some like me... came to help eat and contribute in fellowship .. hehhe ... the kids will have the most fun cos they will have the entire church hall to play ... run ... and "snack" on those baw kwa that is on cooling off mode on the table. So, it really give one the CNY family mood ... almost like making kuih kak pek (love letters) ...

The 3 angels : Aunty BY, Aunty Lilian and Aunty PC

This year, we are abundantly blessed cos we had a special birthday celebration .... Aunty Lilian's birthday ...  hahaha ... so .... we had ... one choc cake, cheese case (baked by Sis Chun Lan) .... alo-vera drink, ribena ... Korean pan cake, herbal egg and someone even blessed Bro Ding with 3 cans of beer! 

The beer to cool off the heat in our bodies

We all had fun in the warmth of the fellowship while smoke gets into our eyes .... :0

For CNY .... there is also reunion dinner for all those who are in JB and do not go anywhere for CNY .... I have personally not attended this since Pastor has graciously allow me to go back before CNY ... and before the jam starts .... 

The during the first day of CNY ... there is a combined service .... which I have also not attended before ....

So, the peng bak kwa session is the session that I enjoy the most .... in this family ....

  
Looking forward to next session next year ....


 

WaterF U N!!!

I better blog this event before a 3rd outing happens :) .... been wanting to blog on my FUN time with the youths at Gunung Water Fall many many moons ago but didnt ... today, we had the same outing again ... so tot I better blog it down :-0

This sudden trip happened when after our Sunday meeting on the lesson of how to handle stress, Zian An approached me that some of them want to go to the waterfall to "de-stress" ... and soak in water .. since its a public holiday and it had been super hot for the past few days .... so, within just one and a half day, we put the trip together!

By 630am, we left Tmn Uni .... after "sending" the adults off for their normal hiking route and prayer .. we excitedly gathered for a brief prayer and some ground rules .... and head count -- 16 of us!!! "Let's GOOOOO!" We eagerly jumped into the water ... by 740am ....

Just as we got into the water --- there was the 1st water "attack"!!!! Hahhahaha ... belum apa2 must splash2 di ..... then, we had a few rounds of "birthday baptisms" ..... for May babies ...

The journey was not easy .... because we did not really know how long we will take (all we know, we need to be at the parking place by 1130am to meet the adults) and how the route will be like ... the dangers of the rocks and stone cos NONE of us actually completed this route before!

We walked and walked ... we stopped at 2 or 3 pools of water where we played and enjoyed the water .... and we continued to walk on .....none of us really know where we are heading ... all we know that our journey will end at the waterfall mid way of the hill ... how long more it will take ... none of us know .... at one point .. we saw a jungle route that will lead us back to the main route of the hill ... a shorter cut but we didnt want to take it ... because the river route is more "chi-kek"...

But by the time 1030am ... I summoned a "conference" in the middle of the river ... after sending 2 "spies" out to check what's ahead of us .... frankly ... we cannot see what's round the bend ... we cannot see the route ahead ... the rocks are huge and path looks difficult ... so, not knowing how long more the journey will take i had to call for a "conference" cos we need to be back at the car park by 1130 ... and after hiking for almost 3+hrs ... we still have not reach our destination .... so we talked and laid out the options .... some say ... go back the same way ... some say NO WAY ... some say continue going ahead .... since I am the leader ... m suppose to know what to do right and make a decision, right? ... hahhaha .... frankly I really dono what to do and was getting a little desperate cos the team was getting hungry and tired ... thirsty ... even the 6yrs old said .. her tummy is growling .... what to do ... ai ya ... what else ... DOA la .... so, we prayed ... and I make a decision by faith!

Praise the Lord!!! The decision was right .... in less than 10minutes .... just round the huge rocks and bend ..... we reached our destination!!! YEAH!!!!! God is good!!!! :0 :) :0 ....

Almost all of us ... were "injured" one way or another .... I had a cut below my knees and I dont even remember when and how I got it .... many of our feet ache like mad ... cos we walked on rocks and stones .... its like 4hours of free reflexology!!! But all of us said the same thing at the end : "its worth it!! we want to go again though pain all over!!!!"

We marveled at God's creation ... the water was cool .. and COLD .... clear and clean ... and the trees surrounds us and the sun ray slowly comes up ... wow ... God really LOVE us very much .. it rained but not too heavy the night before (if its too heavy we may cancel the trip as it may be too dangerous at the water fall) .... the weather was perfect ... it was a cloudy morning, the sun only came up later in our trip. By the time we got home, it poured cats and dogs!!! WOW!! Our Father held back the rain till we safely reach home in one piece.

It was touching to see how the siblings care for one another .... how the group helped one another out .... waited for one another ... we had 2 "slipper man" ... helping us to carry our slippers so that our hands are free to hike up the waterfall! I am sure our friendship and bonding with one another is closer now ... :0...

The moral of the story at the end of the day : the 4hours hike we journeyed is like our life journey ... we know where we want to be at the end of our life journey ... to be where God want us to be ... and ultimately with God forever ... but we really do not know how the journey is like ... how long it will take (after all, we dont know when we will die right) ....

Our journey on earth is also difficult and tough like our 4hrs hike .. we will get injured in our journey ... by people ... different encounters .. we will get tired and even sense lost ..(yup .. at certain point of the hike ... I felt that we are LOST ... aaaahhh ... how ... I cannot panic cos m their leader!!! ... so ... keep smiling and encouraging the team... hehehhe ... looks is deceiving!!)

But .... we will ALL reach our final2 destination ---- by God grace and grace alone ... He will give us the strength .. and protect us .... and only when we turned to Him and ask Him to lead us ... guide us .... and trust Him ... we need to turn to God and keep our eyes fixed on Him and Him alone! We prayed few times in this hike right?

Our journey was made easier and fun with the people God place in our life ... God will always put people around to us encourage us, help us ... and even journey with us ... just like how we had one another through out the trip ... :0

Lastly, in our journey ... there will be times where we want to give up ... we want to take short cuts out ... especially when we are tired or the journey gets too difficult ... but the important lesson we learned from this trip is ---- breakthrough will surely come .... we will truly reach our final destination when we press in our journey .. but just before we reach ... that part of the journey is the toughest! We just need to press in with God and trust that He will safely bring us to where He wants us to be at the end!

To God be the Glory!!!

SPM Result

Though I do not have many youth who got their SPM results today .. the few of them getting their results is already enough to make my heart beat double this morning as I wait for them to SMS me their results ... like any other parent who do not know what is WAIT ... I sms/started calling them by 930am ... when I did not get any news .. :0....

My heart rejoices with those who did very well ... Praise the Lord ... I believe that God blessed your hard work, the consistent study times, the late nights when you needed to catch up or finish your revisions ... yes .. may you continue to work hard and study smart .... and honor the Lord with your studies ... give Him the glory and praise because He held you with His righteous right hand and carried you through your stress and challenging moments when you had to face the exam giant...

For those who did not do so well .... my heart cries with you as well ... dears, still give thanks ... for you know that God was also with you ... He also was there with you when you did your revisions, as you struggle to write the answers in your exams .... or when you started to panic last minute because you did not discipline yourself enough to organize your revision and prepare for your exams .... deep down in your heart, you knew the effort that you did put into your studies ... you know where your heart and mind fly when you stared at your notes and books ....

I can pen this down ... because I was like those who did not do so well in SPM ... I did not work hard enough ... though I did study ... I did not take my studies serious enough to want to work hard .... I hated exams ... I hated the subjects that I took .... my mind is always here there .. though my notes or books may be in front of me. My mind either dreaming of the fun times I can have, where I can go .. what I can play .. or day dreaming of the boys I am interested in ... :0 ... a la ... biasa-la ... teens what .... puppy love .... SPM result was a wake up call for me ... for me not to be lazy ... not to take things and studies for granted ... and not to be arrogant ... it was a wake up call to think and seriously pray over what is God's will for my life .... what God want me to do and be after I finish my studies ...

... God is a God of grace ... God is a God of second chance ... I cried very hard when I received my SPM results because it was not good .. it was boarder line case ... God was gracious enough to give me such a result to allow me entry into form 6 ... and in form 6, I made the choice to really work hard, study smart and I leave my results to God .... I wanted to give God the glory through my studies ... I wanted to shine for Jesus in my studies ... and also because I trusted that my Father had a plan for my life .... a plan that will give me a hope and a future ... I trusted my Father will show me His will and plans for my life -- which will be the best ... but in order for me to reap this, I had to play my part of working hard ... studying smart .. walk closely with my Father ... in my Quiet Time and personal worship .... seeking Him for His plans and will in my life ... and I guess that was why I received my calling to serve Him full time right after I finish my STPM exams ..... God was a God of second chance because He gave me another chance to sit for public exam (STPM) ... indeed He blessed the hard labor of my hands and opened the door to USM ....

Looking back ... indeed I can echo the lyrics of the song :

All the way my Savior leads me
Who have I to ask beside
How could I doubt His tender mercy
Who through life has been my guide

To those who do well and those who did not do so well .... your Savior will lead you all the way .... in your life journey .... as you trust and obey Him .... honor Him .... and He will honor you ... He will lift you up in due time ... seek Him ... and indeed He shall be found by you ... and He will lead you to His will and plans for you ... He will set your foot firmly in His path .... isn't life exciting? You really do not know what is around the bend that is in front of you ... but He knows ... if you place your hands in His hands and walk with Him ... He will indeed help you to journey and lead you beside still waters .... green pastures ....

Seek Him .... seek His plans and purposes for your life ... and He will open a way for you in the wilderness .... rivers in the desert ... He will open up doors that you will never ever think it will be open to you ... and when He opens the door... the door will be wide open .. no man can shut the door .... may Psalms 25 : 1-7 be the cry of your soul ...

In You, LORD my God, I put my trust.

I trust in You; do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.

No one who hopes in You will ever be put to shame,
but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause.

Show me Your ways, LORD, teach me Your paths.

Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior,
and my hope is in You all day long.

Remember, LORD, Your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.

Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways;
according to Your love remember me, for You, LORD, are good.

... Love is a Choice ....

Dealing with youths struggling with the reality of love and relationship past week reminds me of one of my life philosophy that I hold on to ... love is indeed a choice ...

We decide of we want to enter into a relationship ... if we want to accept the love that is offered by the other party or to reject it .... it is a decision that one makes ... and stay by it because when the feeling of love is thin or gone ... the choice and decision to love have to take over ... that will make the love last and remain ... and sometimes ... cause love to to fall in love all over again ....

So ... my statement in my FB today just remind me of what love is ... it a choice that we make daily to live out 1 Cor 13 .....

"Love is a choice that one makes on a daily basis ... a choice to b patient, kind, not envy or jealous or boastful,not proud. It is a choice not to b rude or self seeking.. & a choice not to keep record of wrongs. It is a choice not to be happy when we see evil but to rejoice in the truth. It is a choice to protect, trust, hope & persevere (1 Cor 13:4-7) .. what is the love choice that you need to make today?"

My 1st Youth Camp

The idea of organizing a camp to set the hearts of the youth church came when I saw how God moved among the youth when Pastor and I ministered in Medan few months back. Guess, God used this to impress in my heart to organize the camp.

So, I started to challenge HH and LC .. the brothers have been real supportive of the idea ... immediately they say yes and volunteered to help up in the various sections of camp planning. M so thankful that God gave me a great team to work with ... together we prayed and seek the Lord ... so, set .. we agreed on the theme, objectives and the estimated participants ... LC immediately called up the bus to book it .. he is super fast in his work ... :0 ... HH gave lots of input and suggestions to the program of the camp ... both HH and I belong to the same generation. We recall how blessed we were by the various MYF, FES camps that we had attended and have the same passion to impart this to the youth .. it was the camps of our teens and varsity days that impacted and formed our lives.

Along the path of planning, we had to overcome lots of challenges ... first was the date for the camp ... it was a long ding-dong process cos we needed to set for a date after SPM and its SPM ended late this year .... settling the date was core cos without the date we cannot book the venue or start publicity .... then, from quite a positive response from the youth coming for the camp, suddenly there was only 2 who wants to come ... all say cos this this person not coming, I dont want to come ... etc ... CL and HH thinks that I am crazy to book a whole bus, 44seaters ...

All these initial challenges brought us desperate on our knees to pray for the camp, for God to lead us and sort it out for us .... we realise that God was in charge .. we just need to out our trust in Him and discern what He wants us to to

God really send angels to help me all the way for the camp ... I cannot sing or lead worship in Mandarin ... He provided me worship leaders, I cannot play any musical instruments ... He provided musicians .. He send LQin to be the extra hands and feet during the camp and helped me run the entire games and orientation session. When I needed translators .. He sent me few angels who was willing to output in a short time frame ... the camp was smacked between NChia's visit ... I was all over Msia ... and God knew that I could not handle the sessions ... He provided the camp speaker for us ... :0 :0 ... miracle after miracle .... He knows our needs and will provide them .. The word that sum up the entire process : His grace that make all things possible.

At the end, when we were all set to go .. God gave us 23 camps, out of which, 8 were pre-believers!

In the camp ... wohooooo!!! The youths had great fun, they were so sporting ... and supportive in participating every session ... they also had bonded well during them camp and I hope that the friendship made will carry them a long way in their journey ... we had great sessions .. from my tiny talks among them - many was challenged ... the campfire night turned out well cos the Holy Spirit showed up ministering, challenging and touching the youth ... in the 6 prayer stations (something that I have enjoyed during DOP in TTC ... and preparing it reminded me of the days when we prepared for DOP in TTC .. working with Jeng who has wild crazy ideas --- bringing a coffin and setting up as one of the prayer station!!!) ... and most of all ... God gave us the best weather ... totally no rain ... it rained every day in JB when we were away ... :0 .. isn't God amazing!

During the camp ... there were still challenges for me ... I was in charged of the campfire night and when I set up the stations, I discovered that my things went missing ... my majong paper was used by the team to the magical stick for the angel they try to dress up ... thank God that HH was willing to be creative in making our own majong paper ... by taping perhaps 16pcs of A4 paper together at the back, my tea candles went M.I.A. too ... but thank God I found them in the front of the hall ... :0 ... God was in charge ....

All I can say is : To God be the glory ... from nothing to something ... I am humbled to know that I am only His vessel, His instrument .... as I avail myself to do what the Father wants me to do ... He will do the rest! Without God, the entire plan and trip is meaningless and empty ... Holy Spirit is the person whom we must bring along with us ...

The greatest joke of the camp : I bought salt instead of sugar to boil barley and green pea. O man!!! That was how "excited" I was before and during the camp!

It's Movie Time!!! ... The Chronicls of Narnia ...

Today, I went for movies with the youth .. this is not my 1st time actually .... its the second time .. the 1st was about a month ago ... but today is the 1st time I take bus with them ...


It was quite fun to ride on the public transport .... super convenient .. the Mutiara gals (hehhehe ... since we live in Mutiara Rini ma ...) met in JingA's house 10am ... we walked about 10mins to some bawah pokok (under the tree) to wait for the bus. The bus came before we reached the "bus stop" ... the driver actually waited for us ... hahaha ... this is JB ... bit kampung style ... it was pretty cool when we got on the bus and sms Jk to tell him that we are "picking" him up ... :0 .... get on the same bus as us ....


We met 3 sweeties from Tun Aminah in CT Sq ... they also took bus ... Ping2 was the unofficial group leader there ... hehehehe ... then there was the 2 pretties from Kulai ... hahaha .... also first time for Sarai take public bus ....


It was very encouraging to see KT rushed all the way ... to met us ... kinda sweet la ... cos he want to keep JK company ... initially he was the only male in our group ... so i thought that was so nice of KT to come along ... thanks ... :0 ....


After the movie, we had lunch ... hehehe ... the guys decided to eat else where .... but came back to look for us after they finish .... I left Ct Sq after movies ... the youth hanged out .... but all of them got home safely ... I asked KT to help "watch out" for the gals ... m sure he will ... haha ... so I can go back in peace ... :0 ..


The movie ... it was so good ... have always LOVE Narnia series ... since young .... good to see it big screen .... comforting to know that "Aslan" is always watching over us and helping us ... his voice is soooo comforting ... gentle and assuring .... loving ... that's our Savior .... His grace is ever there for us .. when we do things that we are not suppose to, He will gently ask us "My child, what have you done?" just as how He asked Lucy .. and guide us back to the right path.


He loves us and is always watching over us ... loving us ... waiting for us to talk with Him .... and in our world ... He is known as someone else ... not Aslan .. we need to know who He is ... do you know and recognize Him in your world?