Bruce Tum - Journal of Faith

1 Cor 1:26 Who are you when you accepted God

2011-08-17T09:47:00.002+08:00

1 Cor 1:26 "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth."

I was thinking and remembering who was I or what was I when I accepted God's message and was baptised. I was just 17 and a student. A student who was doing private study and did badly in school. No one will think highly of me or any student like myself. Yet I have more iniquities than I thought of myself at that time. I am awkward in many areas yet I try to hide it by acting and pretending. I don't want people to look down at me. I was very insecure. But God called me when I was so weak. And I'm thankful that I have this chance to know Him and that he accepted my weakness and use it to display his strength. No strength in the world is comparable with Him. Only a fool will think otherwise. Keep me humble, God, and help me to always remember what I was when you call me.

Woman's Defined by God - Book 1 - Part 1 - B

2009-11-04T09:54:00.000+08:00

Part 2 of Chapter 1. By the way, the author Jane Chin is the full-time ministry woman leader in Hong Kong Church of Christ. You can find her on the website http://www.hongkongcoc.org

7. Scriptures on molding the thoughts

Job 42:2

Ps 139:2

Pro 4:23, 21:2, 22:11

Jer 4:14

Isa 11:5

Lk 6:45

Rom 12:3

Eph 4:17

Rev 3:2

8. Scriptures on Controlling Emotions

Pro 16:32

Rom 6:12

Jam 3:2

2Pe 1:5-9

Jer 35:6

Dan 1:8

1 Cor 9:27

9. God Provides Our Needs

Job 38:2-41

Ps 1:3, 23:5, 31:19, 78:20

Pro 6:8

Amos 9

Mal 3:10

Mk 6:25-33, 4:20

Eph 3:20

1King 17:6

2King 4:6

Phi 4:19

10. Strong Foundation Family

Gen 2:24

Deu 4:9

Pro 18:22

SS 8:7

Col 3:19

1Tim 3:4, 5:4

Titus 2:5

Heb 13:4

11. Dedicating Our Children to God

Ex 13:12

Num 3:13

Deu 21:17

1Sam 1:11

Neh 10:36

Lk 2:22

12. Parents' Love and Wisdom

Gen 18:19

Ex 2:3

1Sam 2:19

1Ki 2:1-4, 3:26

Woman's Defined by God - Book 1 - Part 1 - A

2009-11-02T23:21:00.001+08:00

I'm translating a Chinese book written by Jane Chin, titled "Woman's Defined by God". As my wife can't read much Chinese, and this book is really good for Christian women of all life stages. There is a section which is particularly focus on stage of pregnancy which is what my wife is going through now. So this is just half of chapter 1.

Part 1: Scriptures for the Pregnant Sisters

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. - Psalm 139:13-16

1. Regarding God's Love

Deu 7:8

Jer 31:3

John 3:16, 13:1, 15:13, 16:27

Rom 5:8, 8:35

Eph 2:4-5

1John 3:1

2. Regarding Blessings of Children

Gen 33:5, 48:9

Jos 24:3

Ps 113:9, 127:3-5, 128:3

Pro 17:6

3. Regarding God's Doing During Pregnancy

Job 31:15

Ps 119:73, 139:13-16

Ecc 11:5

Isa 42:5, 43:7, 44:2-3, v21, v24, 45:11, 49:5

Zec 12:1

Acts 17:24-28

Col 1:16-17

Rev 4:11

4. Regarding Baby's Health

Deu 7:13-15, 28:1-11

Mal 4:2

5. Example of Confident and Fearless Women

Sarah – Gen 17:15, Heb 11:1, v11

Esther

Hannah – 1 Sam 1-2

6. God is Peace, Strength and Protection

Ps 28:6-8, 33:17-22, 34:18, 91:1-16

Pro 28:18

Isa 26:3, 40:31, 41:8-10, v13

John 10:10, 16:21

Phi 4:19

1 Tim 2:15

Jas 1:17

Your Labor Is Not In Vain – 1 Corinthains 15

2009-09-16T12:36:00.002+08:00

In 1Cor 15 Apostle Paul is trying to reassure the disciples the faith in God. That God truly has resurrected Jesus, not in the form of spirit but in his real physical form. And it is because of this resurrection that we can now be cleansed of our sin. Without Jesus truly raising up, Christianity would be meaningless. Therefore, Paul urged the disciples to always hold on to the truth.

1Cor 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Paul not just want to hold on to the truth but also stand firm, let nothing move us. There are many times when our faith will be tested. People of other faith can come to question you but also, there are times when troubles and worries of all sorts can wear out our faith. I feel that I need to constantly build on my faith. I need to study the bible more and study on how I can use the bible to people's and my own real life situations. Thus I know that no matter what I can trust God using the bible to help me in all situations.

As I study out the bible, I know sharing my faith is really the mission of all real disciples. That's how Jesus' ministry started. And I know I have to do the same thing, go share my faith. If you have done it, you know it's not that easy, giving your hearts out to people. And many times, I have certain perception if people respond positively or not. As I read, the disciples kept reaching out and do not think much about the results. I thought if they have, they would be too negative to evangelise, to share God's love. Yet we know, we have to trust God for things to work out. God just need us to work with Him. Thus we know our labor in the Lord is not vain. I will keep on persevering.

Love is the most important gift - 1 Corinthians 13

2009-09-12T17:06:00.000+08:00

In 1 Cor 12, Paul concludes by saying he will now show us the most excellent way. And the whole of next chapter is dedicate to talking about love. I'm impressed that Apostle Paul, a single man, a church persecutor turned apostle described love in such details and truth. I think this chapter has been quoted so often, we can see it everywhere. Yet, I still think this passage on love is so well written compared to so many other description on love I have read.

I have no doubt that only God could inspire a single man to write this. God wants us to really understand love, His kind of love, the love that goes through in the church, the love that spreads outside the church, the strength, the perseverance, such patience, such kindness, such belief and trust. The faith it provides, the security which everyone wants. Such selflessness and servanthood. Love never fails! And definitely, God is love. It's truth that we have not seen anyone who loves like God except the son of God, Jesus Christ.

It's quite clear to understand that God is talking about love in the whole of chapter 13. Not about tongues of angels, it doesn't mean there's any. After talking about the spiritual gifts in chapter 12, Paul is trying to tell the christians don't focus on comparing the different gifts. We should desire greater gifts. And no matter what happens, love will always be here, even in afterlife, in heaven. I truly believes it's not always easy to love in all situations. Yet this is the challenge God wants us all to carry. To spread his love, to spread his gospels. Still I wonder has everyone in the world heard of God's love. I doubt so. Many times when I wanted to share my faith, I caught myself being distracted about my own problems or focusing on what could bring me more pleasures. And definitely sharing my faith does not come like my second nature. I need to work on this. I hope everyone will soon heard of God's love and share the love around. Everyone deserve to have a personal relationship with God.

Unimpressive Recipes - Anmum Milkshake

2009-09-10T23:44:00.000+08:00

June is already in the 6th month of pregnancy and it's getting really exciting. She consistently needs a higher daily intake of supplement and minerals both for herself and the baby and thus I bought Anmum Materna. From http://www.anmum.com

"Anmum Materna™ is especially formulated for women who are pregnant or who are planning for pregnancy. Anmum Materna™ is high in Folate, which is important to maintain the growth and development of the foetus. Delicious tasting Anmum Materna™ also contains GA, SA, Calcium, Iron & other essential nutrients. It is an ideal supplement that will aid in maintaining the growth and brain development of your unborn baby."

BTW Anmum did not pay me to do this, they don't need to. There's no particular reason why we chose it. Probably because friends recommends it, it has a specific one for pregnant mums, and also it has chocolate flavor which June prefer over the original ones. It takes 5 scoops and half cup of water to make. Initially I used hot water, trying to stir hard for the milk powder to dissolve but no matter how long and how hard I stir, there would be some stubborn milk particles not dissolved. And June does not like those milk residue. At the same time, I realized June is not taking a separate calcium supplement that I bought for her. She don't like the taste.

And then it begins my unimpressive recipe again. I decided to make a Anmum milkshake, using just cold water or ice, with Anmum Materna, a spoon of Milo for better taste and the calcium powder supplement. Blend them with my cheap but poweful blender and wahlah my own Anmum milkshake! I poured it out but filter the foam. It looks rich and chocolate flavor taste great! The best thing is June loves it! And she is taking all the necessary nutrients happily and I'm happy too! You all can give it a try!

The Use of Spiritual GIft - 1Cointhians 12

2009-09-09T12:12:00.000+08:00

To my understanding, the church in Corinth has many disciples who are converted from pagan religions. And some of this pagan religions are attractive because they offer some form of miracles. I believe many of this pagan religion believers would feel good about showing off their miracle powers and probably many believers would even try to imitate to have the same "power". Probably having this miracle power would enable them to have some authority in that pagan sect.

However Apostle Paul is teaching the Corinth church about gifts from God. Different people will have different gifts. As I read through this few chapters, I can see Paul is really taking some effort to explain about "gifts" here. I believe Paul feels that many members of the Corinth church has a misconception about gitfts and thus led to him explaining the basic in details. He says there are many different gifts and everyone will have different gifts. E.g. like having the word of wisdom, teaching the word, healing, speaking in tongues, interpreting the tongues. And all these effects came from the same spirit. I guess if according to what Paul has said, you would see a well balanced of people contributing in different areas in a bible based church.

I'm glad that since I was baptised, I have been learning to take on different roles. First of all, is learning to take care of little children on Sundays, teaching them, discipling them. Then I was taught to take care of new Christian in a one on one way, guiding and helping them. These are teenagers and students. Then took part in choir and christmas caroling. Few years later, I learnt to lead a group of working singles adults, working hand in hand with the women side too. Then learned to go on stage to pray, make annoucements, do short sharing from the Bible. I would never imagine a introvert like myself would take the leap and be transformed by spirit of God. I see all these responsibilities and roles are a manifestation of the Spirit. I don't think that the spirit would only manifest to heal by laying hands and speak in tongues. However, even now a days, many Christians desire these two gifts more than the others. Just like the Corinth church, they have misunderstood the purposes of these gifts.

I'm sure one would understand what Paul is drving at if one would continue to read on to the next few chapters. What are the purpose of these gifts? Is there one gift more important or more powerful than the other? What's the most important gift among all these gifts. I will talk more the next time, going on to the next chapter. As in v31, Paul urges us to earnestly desire the greater gifts and he will show you a still more excellent way in the next chapter.

Win this race for yourself! 1Corinthains 9

2009-09-08T13:20:00.001+08:00

1Cor 9:24-25 Apostle Paul talks about running in a race. He says when you run in a race, run in such a way that you may win. Everyone wants to run a certain race to win a certain thing that they desire. However Paul urges us to win the race that will award us eternity. I think running in any sort of race, takes some if not, a lot of training and as what the Bible says, exercises some form of self-control in all things. And when you are in a race, be focus on what it takes and what are you aiming for. Don't run aimlessly.

I'm thinking of this race that Paul is talking about. The race to eternity, an everlasting place in heaven. Paul is very focus, he makes sure that everything he does, contributes to being able to go to heaven. Does that mean that it takes only works to reach God? I don't think so but he wants to make sure that he don't fall from this precious grace that God has given us through his son Jesus Christ. When we are baptised, we are saved, and it is then that God has prepared us much work to be done. Either to continue to work on our weakness, or preparing others for this race or simply to preach the word, share the good news. It's interesting that Paul at the end v27 says he have to discipline his body and make it his slave in order to really do the works of God. It sounds challenging yet in these days, hardly we heard anyone expecting much from themselves when it comes to serving God and others.

And that after Paul have preached to others, he make sure that he himself will not be disqualified for this race. I thought who has more credibility than any of these great apostles. Yet Paul don't see that preaching to others will automatically let him win this race, a ticket to heaven. He made sure he also don't fall from grace. An example we can see an apostle who has fallen from grace is Judas Iscariot. This is really reminding me that my salvation is just my relationship with God alone. No amount of preaching, evangelising, baptism will draw God closer to me, it is simply my daily quiet time with Him. How much time do I spend each day with God, praying to Him, reading the Bible? How personal am I with God? I hope you understand, on top of our quiet time, we still have to serve God and people, it work hand in hand.

Relate, love and serve selflessly - 1Corinthians 9

2009-09-07T17:15:00.001+08:00

1Cor 9:19-23 Many great leaders, either of a country or a company, has made many great speeches and have won some followers. They potrayed as someone with great power and authority, and everyone looks up to them. However some may feel that these great leaders are not easy to approach. Yet in the eyes of these great leaders, how many people under them are they able to relate to, to reach out to?

Apostle Paul described himself here that in order to relate to people, he becomes like one of them. He's not necessary referring to the physical outlook nor doing the same thing, but rather the experience he's drawing upon, he's trying to empathize with the people. To a slave, he becomes like a slave. To someone weak, he becomes weak. He did his best to relate and empathize with these people. That doesn't mean he joins them in their mistakes or sin. He's always reaching out to people and hopefully he might win some over. Though it seems like a lot of effort but little result but many onlookers and followers are convicted and inspired by his Jesus-like attitude, and would choose to follow and do likewise. Thus many would benefit and would follow the ways of Christ.

However, how many church leaders would actually ask their members to join them, to humble themselves, stood lower, to reach out and serve more people around them. How many people are really inspired by the life of a servant. Even I felt difficult many times and I struggled greatly to love and serve selflessly. May God bear with my weakness yet prosper what I do in my service.

Unimpressive Recipes - Proton Saga Spaghetti

2009-09-06T22:16:00.002+08:00

We had a long night of entertaining friends and of course there's lot's of food and thus some raw ingredients were left uncooked. As today is Sunday, we would love to go out and have a good meal. However I realise that our car is not starting up. It's starts to behave like an old car, coughing up but not starting. Weird, and so we are kind of stuck at home. Then June remembered that there's some left over ingredients where we can cook them for dinner. There's tomato carrot, celery and packet of spaghetti and few chunks of frozen fried chicken. And thus i begin to start up my creative mind. As lazy as I am, I decide to fried everything together. June told me to mix tomato paste with whip cream, this is a great idea. First I begin to chop up garlic, onion, celery and carrot. Next boil water to cook the spaghetti, remember to add olive oil and salt into the pot of boiling water. While the spaghetti is still cooking, heat up the wok, around 3 tablespoon of olive water. Once the oil is hot, throw in the chopped garlic and onion. Once the fragrance is out, throw in the chopped carrot and celery. After a minute, throw in a tablespoon of basil and oregano. The fragrance is getting stronger, after another 2 minutes, throw in half a can of tomato paste. Stir fry a while, then pour in a small cup of whip cream, until the color of the sauce turn orange. Start to add in salt to season until the taste is right. After 10 minutes, throw in the spaghetti and stir fry. Once the sauce is evenly stir fry on the spaghetti, it is ready to be served. I shall name this pasta, "Proton Saga Spaghetti". This umipressive receipe may serve you well when your car broke down. It sure taste delicious to us! Enjoy!

Love and respect the faithless - 1 Corinthians 8

2009-09-04T23:56:00.000+08:00

Here Paul talks about how some Christians converted from other faith, were still struggling in regards of those food being sacrificed to the idols. Of course in those days, God condems any form of idol worship, be it in Old Testament or New Testament. And any new converts will know well not to associate anything with the idols. So if the food was sacrificed to the idols before and seeing the Christians eating them, they are stumbled. Even though according to this chapter, idols are nothing, food sacrificed to idols are just normal food. But the new converts from those religions don't feel comfortable and felt stumbled. The older Christians know that the idols are nothing and the food is fine so they eat them without feeling much. However instead of rebuke the young Christians, Paul actually says the older Christians has wounded the young converts' weak conscience and have sinned against them. Paul says in such a situation when his strong faith has caused his brother to fall into sin, it's better for him to stop eating those meat.
I thought Paul probably wants the Christians to exercise love and caution when there's younger Christians around. We have to understand their weakness, background and put our shoes in them. We need to care and even take initiative to care and respect them, so that they can be open and even be educated of their new found faith. That's when they will learn and grow, their faith will be stronger.
I believe this is not just the case of Christianity but in other religions as well. I see some believers of other religions got stumbled, dumbfolded by other believers in the same religion. Within a same religion, if there's other practice or beliefs embraced by some but not all, seems like there's double standards. I wonder how long will this religion last. Even other than religions, even in the case of medicine, if one does not believe a certain medication works but the others do, that one person will be stumbled. But in the world today, who really cares of such details of another person. I'm amazed by the Bible, by how God cares of such details and make sure that our little faith do not get put out, but make sure that we all grow. This's just amazing!

Expel any sin in you! 1 Corinthians 5

2009-09-04T00:35:00.000+08:00

Apostle Paul was condeming any form of sexual immoral act especially within the church. He was really serious and expects the church to expel the brother. I believe expel means out of the church fellowship and defninitely out of church membership. It's possible that even in the church, someone who's baptised can also be sexual immoral. And probably at that time in the Corinth church, there are quite a few of such people. And this problem is getting a bit out of hand, probably may have affected the Christians in the church. I believed even in this 21st century, sexual immoral sin is still at large today, just that people are not open about it, till the consequences strike. There are husbands going for someone's wives, dating couples have pre-marital sex, homosexual act. Imagine all these can be going on in a church, just because there are hidden sin, people are not open about it. Just as verse 6 "a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough" Yeast is being used by Jesus as a symbol of sin. It shows sin can start really small and insignificant like a human though. Our thoughts can arouse lust and evil thoughts, our hearts are decitful according to the bible. Any secret and unopen thoughts can be snowballed into actions whose consequences cannot be repair or undo. The lack of openness and church discipline and discipling, leads to such consequences. I hope I can urge more churches not to take this lightly. And definitely I have to ensure that I expel any sinful thoughts in me, and bring it to light. I'm glad that I have people who not just can advise me but sincerely care and listen to me, and help me, of course. This is the true church family.

Servants of Christ

2009-09-02T14:56:00.000+08:00

I just finished reading the Bible, 1 Corinthians 4, that how Paul urged the Corinthians to imitate him, to be like a servant of Christ. The Corinth church is pretty much divided into groups following different leaders. Probably some are impressed by one's teaching or model attitude. Though the leaders have a good heart but they should not encourage division in church. I thought some of those unspiritual leaders even feel good that group of believers are supporting them! They felt good to be pleased, felt good to have people stand up for them. However, these are not the kind of attitude that any leader should have especially a church leader. Leaders according to the Bible are not here to gather people to please them or stand up for them, but they are here to serve. Paul continued to imitate Jesus to serve the people around him, and urged all of us to serve too. I am reminded once again that I'm here in Seremban not to have people to praise me or encourage me but to serve the people here. I must say it's really not an easy job. But I must continue to trust God for He knows best how things should be done and even in 1 Corinthians 1:25, the foolishness of God is wiser than men, I would not claim to know what's best for myself. Like Paul, I choose to serve, not here to gain any self-glorifying moments. It's tough, may God help us. I am the servant of Christ in Seremban, Malaysia!

The Most Compatible Undead Couple!

2008-11-04T22:37:00.002+08:00

Don't we just look great! I thought we are the most compatible undead couple at the Halloween party. I thought the next most scary couple in place is probably ... hmm there's isn't, haha! It's just great that my wife has many undead sisters that night to accompany her. They have such a blast. While the party is on going, they are simply "floating" at the back to take their "horror" shots. Just attracted too much attention. For once we felt like some undead celebrity. Non-stop photo taking by different people. You guys just look through your facebook lah.

Suffering for Christ

2008-10-23T13:40:00.003+08:00

Now I'm trying for the second time using a gadget on iGoogle to post a blog. Quite cool but just that it may refreshes and clear away what you have written, so better save it in time.

Today I was reading 1 Peter 2, basically talking about suffering is part of Christian living but often many would like to take this out. When I was a young Christian, I did not give much thoughts about suffering for Christ. I thought life would be much better since now I am following a Godly set of "rules and regulations" - the Bible. But the Bible actually will challenges our faith and courage when we seriously put it into practice eg. loving one another. Many times I caught myself thinking, why do I have to disciple this person? I seems like I always get all the baddies in church, haha. A good test on how closely we are following Jesus is how loudly we complain when we are asked to do more or even sacrifice. I should thank God for the tough people in my life. They are the ones to make me stronger and prompt me to be closer to God. Tough people and situations take my spiritual life even higher that is if I go to God more for strength and wisdom.

Of course, I could take it with a lousy attitude, complaining, grumbling. Though it's easier this way but life won't get any better. People tend to stop sacrificing 'cos of pain and selfishness. They think more of themselves before giving to others. I think if no one would to give and sacrifice but rather fighting for our wants then this world is just going to end really soon or your life is just not going to be very "nice". Just what kind of example do you want to show to people around you. I thought of the "sufferings" I have as a Christian is really nothing compare to Jesus. Since Jesus suffered this way for us, we really have no excuses for not accepting any kind of discipling from God. I thought it's better to quickly repent from discipling from people rather than waiting for God's ulitmate discipling. Just pray and trust God for the lessons He's going to bring into your life. I leave us with this verse 1 Peter 2:23.

"When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."

Looking around for a condo in Seremban, Malaysia

2008-09-27T16:22:00.007+08:00

As some of you might know, June and I have decided to do missionary work in Seremban, Malaysia. Probably for at least a year or two. I thought it's really good for us, no matter in our love for people, our spirituality, our family planning or even our current city-life-stress-intake, there's just pros for all (even to avoid the loud noises from our flat lift upgrading). Anyway, we were in Seremban trying to look for a condo to rent. The idea is that it must be safe, convenient, and has great facilities like a BBQ pit, function room, swimming pool and gym, will be really good. But sad to say, since Seremban is a small town, there's not a lot of condo, since it make more sense for them to utilize their big land and build houses. So the condo we saw was not really impressive, I would say it's a super humble condo. There's a security, a small condo office, a swimming pool which actually the size of a children pool. There's no function room, BBQ pit needed to be rent at RM$100, no gym, a table-tennis table that needs to be set up. The condo is not very well maintained both on inside and the outside. The only 2 lifts looked old and slight vandalised. When we saw the apartment that we supposed to rent, it's decent but the owner already have a confirmed tenant coming in unless we give him a better offer than RM$1100 per month. Hmm, I thought let's move on, beside I don't really have a good feel and vision of friends coming here enjoying the fellowship here. We moved on to see more condo but when we went around, we realised there's not a lot of condo for rent, mostly for sale. So with no choice, we went to look for houses. There are many houses there but I'm only impressed with the one in Green Stream Estate. It fulfilled some of the criteria, like it's secure, hourly guard patrol, near to S2 Jusco shopping mall. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 toilets, a small garden, really cool. I can imagine the Singapore Christians coming over to stay, nice. I especially like the small empty field just 5 steps beside the house. I can imagine doing BBQ, funtime on the field, nice. Hopefully the neighbors would not mind the crowd if it gets too excited! Please pray for us that we can get this house!

From Seremban 0908

The Beginning of Me

2008-03-07T17:51:00.001+08:00

I think this is the picture of me when I'm around 1 year old. I also think this is the oldest picture I have of myself. It's funny 'cos I always think that I'm not my parents' biological child just because I do not have any baby photo of myself. It's only recently that I manage to find this picture. Once I looked that this picture, some nice memories (and bad memories) started to flow back. I remembered my old flat at Clementi. The texture of my sofa and that yellowish curtain. It's so retro and 'in' then. Of course, it's the 80's! I actually remembered that T-shirt I'm wearing and that striped pyjamas pants. I thought my father always like to buy me anything that has to do with heroes, not some kiddish spunch bob square pants like now. Probably my dad wants me to be some hero. There's actually another picture of me sitting in a bambo chair where I can properly have my meal, 'cos at the same time, I'm tied to the chair. I think I was really active when I'm that small but I thought who isn't!

June's Steamed Crabs

2007-03-19T10:51:00.000+08:00

Man, I can't believe the post that I saved under "Draft' was gone. What the heck! Now I don't feel like writing the whole story again. Well, pictures speak a thousand words, so I'll just put more pictures here. All I have to say about June's crab is, it just get better and better!

A Time to Cook

2007-01-20T23:31:00.000+08:00

I'm quite happy today, partly because Liverpool won Chelsea 2-0, amazing. Anyway, I'm happy because I managed to cook something edible for June, ha! As promised, I managed to cook a pasta dish for her. It's strange 'cos yesterday my friends just made dumplings, both steamed and pan-fried and most important, they are quite nice. Thanks to David's simple recipe. I thought it's gonna be just put some minced pork into the pre-made dumpling skins. Probably too simple for us, David might have taught, so he decide to teach the guys or ShuHong taught the group how to make the skin from the dough and flour. I'm pretty impressed. The group is having fun, as if they are playing with play-dough, ha! Alicia's wallet size dumpling is real funny. Now I really appreciate dumpling to be small. Once all ready, put it to boil or pan fried. I thought the pan fried ones taste better but I guess its personal preference. But sad to say the pan fried process really create a lot of smoke and even make the whole place, floor really oily, that's what I hate. Anyway, most of us would care only the eating process. We had so much last night, too much bee hoon from Raymond. More carbo from Patsy then I bought the greens. So it's a quite balanced meal. So I believed all enjoyed themselves. Today I decided to cook Salmon with spaghetti with pesto sauce. Since reading so much of Dr Young's recipes, I decide to go for some different spaghetti, I bought the spaghetti made from whole meal. The color is much darker, looked like Chinese noodles after cooked. I thought it has a slight sweet taste. Anyway, I bought too much salmon, one big piece each for me and June. I marinated the salmon with lemon juice and garlic with a bit of salt, for 15 minutes. Then tried grill it but there's too much liquid 'cos of the lemon juice, I should dry the salmon before grilling it. So I took a longer time and they don't look grilled in the end but never mind, this lesson is for me to learn. I had fun and enjoyed myself. I'm also happy that I didn't use as much dished today so I don't have a great deal to clean up. I thought I'm much better at cutting garlic today, like a chef, ha! I think I like to cook Italian better than Chinese 'cos it's much simpler. Oh, another thing I did wrong is to take up the spaghetti too early while they are still boiling, think 5 minutes earlier than the instructions. They are still edible, just a bit hard. Still, I'm happy that June like my dish this time. I wonder what's she going to cook next...

Generous Friends

2007-01-04T17:08:00.000+08:00

TingHsin gave me Jay Chou's latest album for my Christmas. It's a bit late but I really appreciate it. Though I must say that I do not have much of a thing for his songs. And the only song of his I tried to sing was his "Fearless' soundtrack which in my opinion, I didn't sing too bad, ha! Anyway, still, I do like some of his songs like the second song "Listen to your mother' on this album, it's quite nice. Funny, he has a few songs all relating to mothers. Anyway, I do appreciate what TingHsin did for me, he's always so generous. I thank God that he put a few generous people in my life, like my dad, TingHsin, Pieter, and Jason. TingHsin always sponsored our meal and drinks, so is Jason. Jason always buy my drinks until some times, I just felt embarassed. He would also initiate to give people a treat as a reward to encourage people to improve in their running. Pieter would easily share whatever he have with people. Of course he share almost everything with Desmond. And he is always happy about it. Of course I benefitted greatly from their generousity but still I learnt that I too have to learn to be generous. You just make the person's day when you did something gernerous for that person. Of course, all men should learn to be generous. The ladies are all looking out for this very important point in a man. Not just about buying gift but also about being thoughtful. Well, Tang please take down notes here.

I wanted to be more generous but everytime when I want to give, I always think about what I have left or do not have. I hate being stingy or calculative. But being thrifty is a different thing. I need to know how to balance between thrifty and generous. But I always must remember to give is always a joy and a pleasure. After giving, seeing the smile on people's faces is also a joy and a pleasure.

Powerful Verses

2007-01-03T23:57:00.000+08:00

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." - Mat 19: 26

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." - Mat 21:22

Powerful Movies to Watch

2006-12-29T15:37:00.000+08:00

I just come up with a list of movies to watch, hopefully it will move and soften your hearts, inspire you and even empower you in year 2007!

Movie to watch:
Schindler's List
The Count of Monte Cristo 2002
Field of dreams
Life is Beautiful
Shine
Forrest Gump
Pay it Forward
Patch Adam
Shawshank Redemption
Its a Wonderful Life
Good Will Hunting
Chariotsof Fire
Remember the Titans
Powder

I believe there are more. You can reply to add to this list!

Misadventure

2006-12-13T10:36:00.000+08:00

I thought I could do better by writing more frequently but I must say I was really tired everyday plus the super tight and acitivity packed weekend, I'm so drainned this few days. Plus working in this mashmallow man company, I couldn't use the internet much, totally not effective in communicating with people. Anyway, went to Seremban over the weekend for mission, it was awesome to be able to get away. I will try to have another page for this. Today is just to talk about the misadvaneture I had when we came back from Seremban. On the way back, we thought of having a different place for dinner instead of the usual City Square in JB. So then during the toilet break, the drivers (my beautiful wife, Jason, Justin, Victor) decided to go Batu Pahat, somewhere in Johor, even though none of us have been there before or heard what;s in there. Since I always hear people mentioning this name, so I thought it's going to be fun. But when we took the Yong Peng, Sagamat, Batu Pahat exit coming from North, it seems like we started a never-ending journey to no-where! After going into the exit, think we took at least 30 mintues before we can see a town-like area. Then we are lost, we don't know where to go, what to eat, ask some not very useful directions, in the end we gave up and settle with a open eating area that serves some "Singaporean food". I know Wandy, Millie and Victor had a super tiny kebah(turkish burger, wrong spelling), got conned, really pathetic. After that we drove in the rain and Victor's car went running out of battery, we were so afraid that his car will break down anytime on the highway and in the rain! Thank God that it wasn't in His plan. So we went so far, nothing much to see in this big town, and nothing much to eat, so poor thing. Well, it's not really true, it's just that we made a miscalculation and so a misadventure. I'm sure there are things to see and eat there, just that before that we need to do some homework. Amazingly I'm able to find some info on this place on the internet! So I won't tell people not to go there, I would just tell them to do their homework first before going anyway!

New changes

2006-12-05T23:40:00.000+08:00

I'm so encouraged to receive Yudai's email today, that really boost up my joy. After he left, I just met with different decision that I need to make. Now I'm attached to a customer's place for a month, just say that I'm working for this company who uses the big marshmallow man as their mascot. The atmosphere is quite strict, no msn as usual, have to surf discreetly. So much rules, I miss those days working in Sema and SLB, I have too much freedom, ha! Still I remember why I quited working for corporate because I don't like to march to work with a bunch of zombies in the morning, like you are being stuck in the rat race and not able to get out. Still I hope what I'm doing now will generate more result or more $$$ else I will consider going back. Anyway, just don't like working as a sub-contractor for the contractor under the main customer. It's like I have to be super careful what I do there, anyway working in so many different environment, I already master the art of adapting to new environment, ha, like the monitor lizard. Still have to pray that I don't have to come back here. Went home and realized that I need to do something radical about my finances in coming new year, need to provide more for my mum but main thing need to save up more if I'm planning to have a kid ...soon(2007-8). Anyway, good that I can reduce expenses and leverage on my savings. Make my money work for me. My wife and I decided to cut away the cable TV (inspired by Yudai) and reduce my internet. Man, it sounds really painful, no sports channel, no animal planet, discover, NG, Starworld, AXN, aiyoh! But I believed I can get over it. I know that I have better things to do, recently I wanted to do more things but realized I don't have much time a day. I'm glad I finally come out with a daily accountability list, not just include my prayer and bible reading, but also other areas. I'm glad I can start monitoring my improvement. Next I'm going to get my brothers to be on top of me. I need to prepare myself for 2007. It has to be much much better than 2006. And my marriage in 2007 has to be more loving than those days when we are dating, that's my convictions. Now I would advised the young single, when you are dating, don't put in too much effort else you have to do much more when you are married, ha! And ladies, don't easily fall for those who sweet talk all the way during your dating time, he may not do the same or more when you guys are married, be wise! Of course, I love my wife a lot, and I will make sure she is always happy. So even when there's changes in life, with her around, it's not that difficult! Guys, treasure those whom you love! Gambatte kudasai!

A Young Japanese in Singapore

2006-11-30T12:46:00.000+08:00

I had a great time just getting to know Yudai from the Tokyo church. It's amazing to see a young brother serving full time in the ministry. He is just one year my junior and he is going to be a father few months later. I'm even more amazed by his convictions to want to serve God's people in Japan. You know how hard it is there. People simply are distorted morally and spiritually there, thanks to the world and the weird culture, of course it's happening everywhere including Singapore, just read my previous post. Anyway, it's great that the

Singapore

church can do something to encourage them, I just did my part by just hosting him. It's like a student exchange program, ha! As what I shared the other time, that I would not bring a foreign friend to nice restaurant, serving international dishes. When you are in Singapore, the host should bring you to eat what the locals eat, experience the real thing. I think he really love the local dishes; fried carrot cake, fried kuay tiao, horlicks(ha!), tea agelia, ju kuay, peng kuay, assam stingray, fried chili sotong, Bedok bak chor mee, otak, aboling (dumpling soup), beef hor fun, fried rice, frog leg, venison(deer meat), baby kailan, ya kun kaya toast with butter. I thought he had alot of fun experiencing or experimenting so much different things. Yudai, if you are reading this, you probably can't associate these food name with the food you have eaten here, you have eaten so much, ha! One thing I have learnt is never bring a foreign friend to eat their local food out of their country. Yudai went to eat at Sake Sushi, (I did not bring him there) and he was humble not to strongly disgrace that restaurant, ha! Anyway he totally dislike the food there, can't even fight with the worst in Japan. Of course, Japanese food in

Japan

has one most important factor, it's super fresh, and the Japanese can taste the difference. I would love to eat fresh seafood everyday also but even though Singapore is surrounded by water, we don't have a lot of good seafood, just lots of jellyfish! The more he shared about Japan, the more I feel like going and even Alex told me flying to and fro Japan just $600 plus, wow! Now I just need to save up. It's like going to my childhood wonderland, the manga world! Of course, I did not stop thinking and praying for the people to be receptive to the word of God. I'm wondering how interesting it would be for me to evangelise there. Anyway, I hope he had a great time here in

Singapore

, he also played paintball here with the staff. I believed much unity have been forged within the Korean churches and great things are going to happen there. Of course, the

Japan

church is going to keep growing under Takeshi's leadership, keep praying. The last night in

Singapore

, we brought Yudai to eat the all time famous Bedok bak chor mee, the hawker centre at Bedok North Ave 4. He also tried all other BBQ seafood, hot and spicey, delicious! Few hours later, brought him to the airport to check in at 530am, so tired but hey, this is the family, it's pleasure to serve. Anyway, we had a good talk before he went in. I think we have build a great friendship 'cos of more similarities. We are both around the same age, wives same age and we are young! We both can do so much to help others, that's just remind me to keep my faith up, and do my very best. Brother, I will keep praying for you and your wife, all the best and God bless!

Swing to Destruction!

2006-11-28T21:27:00.000+08:00

I'm so tired tonight as I had 5 hours of over time plus I need to sent off Yudai this morning, learnt so much from him. I was just talking to him about the porno culture in Japan and it's really a challenge to be a Christian there and also to protect the younger generation. I was just talking to him about how Singapore government banned all porno magazines and heavily sensors and age-limits the movies. But I was shocked that a few hours later people was discussing on the radio regarding an article by Reuters.

It says that Singapore started to have a club where people meet, get to know each other and then have sex but some even come as husband and wife! The Chinese translation is "换妻具乐部" which literally means "change wife club"! I thought that people in Singapore are starting to get really corrupted morally. I thought people will do anything to please their pleasures, sounded as if we are some brain-less wild animals. Some of these members even have a family! Much are living a double standard life. I hope I don't sound self-righteous but I seriously think this is not right. The news just reported that is an increasing number of AIDS victims here, more than a thousand have died, more to come. Of course, not forgetting, a climbing divorce rate. I thought how important we need to emphasis on moral education, but as a Christians, I would suggest you find a good church to teach your whole family the Bible and see what the Bible says. Even then, I also need to guard myself against much temptations arising everywhere now. Lately I'm thinking how can I be on the offensive side rather be on the defensive side, I mean spiritually. Not as if I'm going to start a movement to stop all these clubs.

Well, I definitely do hope that the government can do something since the Police so far can't find complaints to take actions against these clubs. But I think there are much work to be done here, not just to do "fire fighting". We need to educate the younger generations correctly and of course keep emphasis on family life education. I'm so glad that HOPE WORLDWIDE has something here to help families, and of course not forgetting the Movie Therapy. I really do hope that something can be done, for now I'll keep praying and talking to the brothers about such temptations. All these also reminded me to be so appreciative of my wife, and spending more time with her. Don't take your marriage for granted, it's God's blessings! If you really love your wife and people around you, have some indignation against such devilish conducts and thoughts!

Ten Healed of Leprosy - Being Grateful

2006-11-27T10:28:00.001+08:00

11Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy^[a]met him. They stood at a distance 13and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

14When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.

15One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

17Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." Luke 17:11-19

The service yesterday was mind-blowing, hearing from the Koreans, Japanese leaders’ convictions and gratitude really moves and convicts my heart. It’s always refreshing to hear from foreign speakers but yesterday was a very special time for the leaders there. It’s a time to celebrate your relationship with God and the friendship they had, and of course the unity between the different churches. I felt it’s really amazing to have brothers and sisters from different countries to have the same convictions and love for God and people in their countries. I thought how timely it’s for Takeshi to preach about the ten people healed of leprosy.

Sometimes I really took for granted the things that I have, especially the most basic things, like my hands to touch, to do work, my functioning brain, my almost perfect eyesight, my hearing, my limbs. And different relationships that I can enjoy, my wife, my mum, my friends, I thought the older I got, the more I felt these things are really important, but many times because of pride and forgetfulness, I often took these for granted and even cause much hurt to myself and others. I often need reminders from different things, or people or even God’s lesson to remind myself to really appreciate these things and people in my life. Ultimately, it comes down to praising the Creator, the one who allow all these to happens, gave these to me. I think as human we must always learn to be grateful for any small little things that happen in our life. It will make us feel more happy and positive about life, also more appreciative. Don’t wait till it’s too late to appreciate people you love, else whatever you do after that, it’s simply meaningless. I just thanked my wife and praise her for being serving last night when Yudai and Alex were at my house. She felt great and I also feel happy so isn’t it beautiful. So do something today. And if you want to thank someone that you are alive today, thanks God!

Weiwen and Jovan

2006-11-24T13:28:00.000+08:00

We celebrated Weiwen's belated birthday yesterday. So good to have dinner with bunch of old friends. Now that Weiwen already a father of 2 kids and Jovan is already 2, amazing. We had fun at Fish & Company. I thought we also had fun with Jovan, I believed he also had fun, just look at his face, you don't think so, well at least we tried to make him have fun or are we the one having fun after all, ha!

Wealth Wisdom - Me and June on TV!

2006-11-22T08:20:00.000+08:00

Remember that day when me and June went for the finance seminar, "Wealth Wisdom for Everyone" organized by ChannelNewsAsia. I thought it was a good seminar. Though the seminar is more like an entry level to finance, but the panel of speakers gave a very good picture of financial planning in the different stages of life. The speakers are experts of their fields in finance, includes Karin & Mark Daniell (Directors), Sarah Mavrinac(University Professor), Ivan Ossa (Investment Analyst), Roger Yeh(Insurance), Frances Ho(Financial Consultant), Juliana Ng(Estate Plaining), Wendy Wong(Lawyer) and Suzanne Jung was the Emcee. Topics of the seminar includes Budgeting, Savings and Investment, Insurance, Retirement Planning, Wills and Estate Planning. Survey shows that majority of the Singaporeans want to retire early but has no idea how to, not much money for retirement. It's amazing we can't rely on the government to help us to retire. Same time, there won't be much money in our CPF after we have used it to pay back our mortgage loan. Also there are much restrictions in the way we collect back our money for retirement when the time has come, we can't take our CPF money out in whole or part at any time we want. So we better do our own planning earnestly.
On that day, June and I were also been interviewed and now we appeared on ChannelNewsAsia for this commercial. I managed to captured the clip and it's shown below. As for what I commented in the interview, my definition of "soon" means one year later, so don't expect surprises. Ha!

Con-job Surveyors

2006-11-20T23:15:00.000+08:00

I was just walking home from the MRT after finishing an unexpected OT when I saw a group of "surveyors". Come on, give me a break, I felt like I'm trying to beat through a few thick walls. The bunch of young men and ladies looked totally harmless, well dressed, big smiles but I really hate it 'cos I know their "evil" agenda, to get your number. They pretend to do a simple survey, asked some questions and in the end ask for your number. Some of the questions could be those of financial and insurance planning. So once they got your numbers, either they will follow on you to promote any insurance products or they got their sales counterparts to do the calling. Some may even sell your numbers to other marketing companies or banks that really want to sell you any form of insurance or investment instruments. I hate it when they keep calling you, now you know how those sales people got your number and keep calling you. Jason was really funny when he was stopped by one of these people. He asked the girl if he can do the survey without giving his number, ha! Guess what's the response. So next time you can either fool these people or try playing with them. But I just show them my palm or my cool look. One even asked me, "你是不是Malaysian?", what's that for?!

Congrats to WeeChung and Serene!

2006-11-19T00:54:00.000+08:00

Attended WeeChung and Serene’s wedding yesterday or actually few hours back. Finally both are married, thinking both are my seniors, they definitely have me and my wife’s blessings. I think this is the first time I attended a church wedding in the evening. I must say it’s quite refreshing. WeeChung booked the Straits Hall which is the bigger hall in the building, so as to “contain” his students, ha! WeeKeong ministered his brother’s wedding and Chiping is the translator in Mandarin. There were also a few contemporary performances, really classic, really jazzy, and not bad, I quite like it. I’m happy to see Dylan and Miki there. Hope they have been doing fine. Wish they would be happy to join the church more often. Anyway, wish all the best to WeeChung and Serene’s marriage and welcome to another stage of life, welcome to the club, the real thing, your journey has just started! Cheers!

Game of Mafia

2006-11-15T17:04:00.000+08:00

Finally, I got some time to upload the video I took at my friends playing "Mafia". Well, to describe a bit about this game, it's a game to find out who's the Mafia or simply the murderer. I think this game came from the campus, 'cos it can be really time consuming at times. Basically, form a group of players. Depending on the size of the group, there needs to be at least one gamemaster, one Mafia, one doctor and one spy, the rest are simply civilians. These roles are determined by normal poker cards that will be given out and 3 cards to represent the 3 playable roles, Mafia, doctor and spy. At the begining of each round, the gamemaster will ask all to close their eyes and "go to sleep", he will call up the Mafia(s) to wake up and point out who to kill, next they go back to sleep, then call up the spy who to spy on, to see if that person is the mafia, then next the doctor to choose who to heal, then all close their eyes, then all open eyes and the gamemaster will announced if it's a peaceful night or terrible night where someone died. Then the game continue and open up for arguing and defending who's the Mafia, the majority can vote to kill the assumed Mafia, that person will die regardless if he's the mafia or not. The round will repeat again where all go to sleep and the mafia choose who to kill and so on.
Anyway, I don't like this game, too long winded, people will always argue their guts out, can bring out alot of bad attitudes! I will always volunteered to be killed but no one always suggest me to be killed, ha! So here is the game we played few weeks back, where we played for 2-3 hours, I almost died watching them play, this group got so much to argue about, haiz. These people can't guess who's the real mafia, end up killing all the innocent, then they realise the two who looked the most innocent are actually the mafia! One is my wife and the other is Celine, amazing! I must say my wife is really good at acting. I actually have more exciting clips but I will surely be killed by Yvette if I post them up, so here's the more friendly video, ha!

Raphael and Irene leaving the ministry

2006-11-14T16:51:00.000+08:00

Raphael and Irene have decided to leave the Ministry. After much thinking and asking of advices, they made this decision themselves and hope the rest of us will respect their decision. The reason for them to leave the ministry is ‘cos of “family dynamics”. Initially, I couldn’t take it very well but after much praying and talking to people, I’m more resolved. It’s really sad to see them go. I could still remember 5 years back when they first came to lead the East. It was really a revolution. I think a lot of people really benefited from their leadership. I respected them a lot. I appreciated Raphael a lot, ‘cos he was there to understand me when my dad passed away and did my wedding, and help my wife and I to serve in the Seremban mission. There are just so much memories. And definitely I learnt much more from them. It’s really not easy to lead the East, a bunch of “Old and Wise” people. But they continue to persevere to love and lead us. Raphael and Irene broke the news last night and both cried and the rest of us also cry. It just shows how much friendship and love was there. All of us hope it would not end this way but who knows; it may be a great start for them in another direction. I hope they will continue to serve people in other places because they are just so hardworking and sacrificial. Their love and talent should continue to put into good use. I believe much more people elsewhere could benefit from their leadership. I hope we can all encourage them in our own ways of expressing gratitude.

We need desires to survive

2006-11-13T17:07:00.000+08:00

"We need desires to survive - Phua Hee"

Phua Hee preached a great lesson yesterday. You can get it here. Basically lesson is about we need to have a spiritual desire. Many people are very distracted and bothered by their material desires, forgeting about their spiritual desires. Even then, I thought now a days many people are simply dreaming of being rich but simply no clue on how to get rich. So they work day and night and miss out precious things and people in their lives. Sadly, there's another group, where they simply have no desires for any thing, just live their life, to eat, sleep, work. They are like zombies or animals. Since the year is coming to an end, why not think about what you would like to achieve in the coming 3 months, 6 months, 1 year! Draft out a rough plan, then expand to a more detail one. When you have a plan and goals, you are bound to succeed. Still I would like to encourage you to think of your spiritual needs also.

Friends from Hong Kong

2006-11-12T16:05:00.001+08:00

Michelle and Jean were in town last week, but they took five days to rest in Lagawi. Still we managed to bring them out to experience Singapore. XinLai suggested to bring them to Muthu's Curry. I have not tried the Indian food there. When I was there, I was quite surprised to see a beautifully designed restaurant, nothing like an authentic Indian restaurant. Anyway, it's really not an authentic Indian restaurant, no wonder I don't see alot of locals there. I then realise it's not a very good idea to bring Hong Kong people to eat Indian curry especially to a place where the food is simply HOT but no fragrance. No wonder both of them were so quiet. The food is not that fantastic, and definitely I don't think I would bring my foreign friends there. Just because I like them to try the authentic and local way, the true experience. I would suggest you to do the same also when you have friends coming to your country. Next we bought them to Vivocity, one of the largest shopping mall in Singapore. It's not fully open yet but to me, it's just another shopping mall tough it claim to have one of the largest movie screen in Asia. But we were just walking and walking, I didn't buy anything, nothing really attractive. Then we had a drink in one place, can't even remember the name of the restaurant, ha! We tried out their drinks, June took the worst drink, ask her to describe to you. I would say it's like dirty drain water, take a look at the picture, ha! Anyway, we were really tired and Steven is not thinking very straight then, what was he doing in the picture. Anyway, Michelle is always very giving and helpful, always bring present for the Singapore Christians, of course, I also received my favourite Yeun Long's Loupo Ban from her all the time. Then she also gave June some the receipe to make Hong Kong's popular mango pudding desert, it's really very nice, the ingredients are from Hong Kong, can't get it in Singapore, so nice of her. Then Apple also made brownies for us, wah, I'm so happy, got my faourite loupo ban and rich chocolate brownies, awesome! I'm just wondering why are they still single, man, brothers you are a bit blind here, even Mathew also know not to miss a good cook and dated her. Ha! Anyway, I hope they had a great time staying at our place, we'll make sure they were feel more localised the next time they come. I'll get Jason to be in charge of this, ha! Hope to visit Hong Kong again, soon.

Crying Game

2006-11-08T23:54:00.000+08:00

I really love this award winning home video clip. It just capture the very human nature that's already instill in us even when we are baby. Even babies fake to cry to seek attention, adults also do stupid things to seek attention. At the end of the day, we just need people to be concern about us. So why not let's all initiate to love others first, I'm sure someone sincere will love you back deeply. Enjoy!

Treasure your love ones

2006-11-07T23:14:00.000+08:00

June left for Malacca for work and supposedly to come back today for a day but received her call just now, sais she need to extend her stay for one more day. I start to miss her even for a day. Initially I thought a day without her is nothing, but I start to feel uneasy. Even if I were to spend time with a close friend, it cannot replace my time with my wife. For the husbands out there, do you feel the same when your wife is not around. Few months back, June went to Sydney for work for a few days and I felt totally weird and strange all over, like something is wrong. I did alot of things with my friends, till Jason was like saying he need time on his own, ha! I took too much time from others. Sometimes, husbands just took their wives for granted but I must say I always treasure my wife alot even we are coming three years in our marriage but still miss her alot when she's not around. I hope it will always stay this way, I mean the feelings, not that she always have to travel for work. How come I'm not the one travelling. It makes me think how valuable time with the family is. It's simply priceless! OK, I'm going to work towards the goal of having the luxury to spend more time with family in the future. This would be one of the greatest blessing from God! Treasure your love ones today!

Baby Therapy

2006-11-05T16:52:00.000+08:00

I'm sure this will cheer you up, come on, give it a try, watch the video below. I'm sure it will lighten your day and change the way you look at things, maybe from the baby's perspective. This is definitely cheaper than Jason's retail therapy, actually this is FREE! Let a baby cheer you up!

So good to have friends

2006-11-04T23:25:00.000+08:00

It was a long day today, now it's coming to an end, now I'm just lying down on my sofa watching the Liverpool game. I was out the whole day, also bringing the HK sisters around, I hope they enjoyed themselves. But I'm glad to see Justin there. I was justing chating with him the other day on Skype and found out that he was a bit emotional about things, plus a bit of feeling overwhelmed. I think at times we have all felt the same when many things in our life don't go the way we wanted, all at the same time. I thought Justin was a great guy, a great friend and brother, he just need to learn to build up his confidence more and learn to express himself better. So he know how to voice out when he was denied sleep till 4am, ha! Anyway he was rewarded today, but still he wanted to voice out by singing karaoke but bro, not today, I sure accompany you next week if you still want to sing. I'm sure there are some sisters who want to come along also, ha! But I learn to treasure friendship here and not take anyone for granted. It is so good be in this family, where we have great brothers and sisters all around the world. BTW I hope by now Zhiwei already have proposed to someone to be his girlfriend, else this is the tip. Congrats!

Gray hair: To pluck or not to pluck

2006-11-02T14:03:00.000+08:00

I don't know what is your stand about gray hair. Some have deep convictions not to pull each and any one of them. They believe that if they pull the gray hair, it will still grow back and worse, more will appear. So they will rather "die" than to have their gray hair pulled out. I belong to the group where it's better to pull your gray hair. I think I'm the lucky one. Even I have gray hair, it's really little. I just pull it away and there won't be anymore for a long while. But I also found out that it is possible for some people that even when they pull out their gray hair, it will grow again, even if they pull it away the second, third time. Sad to say, if you keep pulling your hair, your new hair will be thinner and weaker, easier to drop. But if you don't get rid of that one gray hair or a bunch of them, it really make you look so "not pretty". I knew a few people that their gray hair are really messy, 'cos those gray hair are spoilt and fuzzy. I thought for guys is easier, just make a decision to shave all your hair off and take good care of your scalp, hopefully beautiful black hair will grow. For ladies, I think it's better for you to still pluck them up, watch your diet, control your emotions, maintain stress free, and excercise regularly. But if the gray hair is in the family genes, then try live with it, adopt a gray hair fashion by dying all your hair gray or white! Anyway, these are wild suggestions but to have a bunch of gray hair can really make you look sloppy, don't look your age and also don't look very confident. It's just my opinion. Try adopting it!

Words

2006-10-31T14:03:00.000+08:00

"The past does not equal to the future" - Anthony Robbins

I think we read and heard this too many times but how can this be put into practise? I thought no matter how well or how lousy we did in the past, it will not affect the future. It is the present that will made a difference to the future. So take hold of what you have now, including your emotions and take a leap of faith to plan for your future. Take action today!

Eng Seng Pepper Crab Time!

2006-10-23T08:21:00.000+08:00

Went along to Eng Seng to eat crab despite of my terrible blocked nose and cough. Of course one of the reasons is the crab there is simply delicious, mm-mmm! They have both the Singapore popular chili crab and pepper crab though they are famous for their pepper crab. I thought what made their pepper crab different from others is probably in their sauce. I believed they have mixed in dark sweet soy sauce with grounded peanut and of course, black pepper. Definitely the crabs have to be healthy, fresh and BIG! The pepper sauce is spicy but amazingly it did not cover up the taste of the crab meat probably it's because of the grounded peanut also. That's why both big plates of crab were finished nice and clean by all of us! June especially love the crab legs for some reasons. I don't understand, there's not much meat there. Celine is exploring ways to efficiently manage the crabs while Justin is simply having fun! I had a good time too. We even saw Vincent Ng there. Aiyah! Why I didn't brought along his book to let him autograh. And I can also comment about his writing. I wrote about his book in August. You can read it here if you are interested on exercising. (http://bruisedthumb.blogspot.com/2006/08/keep-fit-for-everything.html) Anyway it was a great time, I believed no one will regret eating the crab there. By the way, I forgot to tell you, the place only opens in the evening, and it is always packed with people. People usually have to queue up from 30minutes to an hour to get a table so be there early. Strange thing that day, we don't even have to queue, and the crabs were plenty. Something tell me it must be the haze. But still the haze is not going to stop us from eating such delicious crabs! Just watched the video below and you will know!

Eng Seng Restaurant 241 Joo Chiat Place
(junction of Still Road and Joo Chiat Place)
5pm - 10pm closed on Wednesday

I'm embarrassed

2006-10-22T23:50:00.000+08:00

I felt so embarrassed that Liverpool lost tonight. Not because of losing but because that such an awesome club with so many talented players and a grand history can lose so terribly without a good fight. They can't even put up a good fight with Man Utd tonight. I know they probably may not win but the players already have given up since the game started. No fighting spirit, no inspiration, no motivation, no risk, no idea, simply lazy and down. Players are not moving, defenders not defending, only one striker ahead, what's the manager doing with the recent formation? This is not the "Championship Manager" that you playing on the computer. How are you going to face the fans? I just felt so sad because the fans can't do much to make a point to the club, I wished the fans can do something. But I'm sure the shareholders and the elders of the club will feel something this season. We can forget about this season as what Steven said. All the best Liverpool FC, I still love you...

Concerts and Financial Seminar

2006-10-21T09:24:00.000+08:00

I'm still not feeling very well. As I was trying to buy something Thursday night, I passed by the 7-eleven store and they had a poster of Chris Botti and some of Lisa Ono's brochure. They are both in town and are performing on 25th October, on the same day! I can't beileve it. I don't think many people in Singapore knows Chris Botti but his instrumental music is fantastic. I especially love his "When I fall in love" album, it's filled with relaxing jazz. His trumpet is really soothing. Every track is so nice. Get this album and you'll know. He is really good. Next is Lisa Ono, a Japanese who in Brazil. I love her Bossa Nova, her voice makes me really relax. I got this album "Lisa Ono Dans Mon Ile" from my wife as a present and I love it very much. There's no Japanese accent in her singing. And she really sings with a Latin feel, must be her upbringing in Brazil. Anyway, I would love to go to both of their concerts. But its all happenning on the same day, around the same time, but at different places, I can't split myself to watch both. I already have a headache. In the end I decide I'm not going for both, because I'm thinking to save up money to go this financial seminar with June. I think both of us need to hear such talks together to help us gain some knowledge on how to manage our family finance together on the same note. Though I don't know much about this couple, Mark & Karen Sixl-Daniell but ChannelNewsAsia recommends them, so we'll give it a try. Anyway the ticket is just $50 a person, not too expensive for a 3 hours financial talk. Those interested can let me know, we can go together. I have a short intro below from ChannelNewsAsia. Enjoy.

A new baby girl

2006-10-19T12:22:00.000+08:00

Congratualations to Vannon and Jean for their first born. It's a girl, Erika Vianne Chiang, born October 13th, 2006 @5:18pm Canada time. I'm sure both of them are really excited. I wonder how's it like, won't be so fast for me. Those who know them can send them a message. You can go their photos gallery http://www.vannon.com/photos/erika_101706/index.html

Adapt to new enviroment

2006-10-15T21:55:00.001+08:00

I’m still trying to get use to the new working environment. No instant messaging now, no yahoo mail, Hotmail, and there’s really very little time for me to blog during office hour. I need to readjust my daily schedule again. Now I have to wake up at 6am Monday to Friday, really early. Previously I woke up at 715am. Now I have to sleep earlier. I’m got tired easily recently so I need to do something about this new working environment. Well, if the environment changes, either I change myself or I change my environment again. I’m considering both. Anyway, now I just want to re-evaluate my strength and weakness, keeping improving my network knowledge, keeps increasing my energy level and taking my spirituality even higher. But I’m not really happy of the haze condition in Singapore, it’s getting worse. I see June’s health is getting worse, some cough, flu, bad ulcer. Western medicine is not helping her so I bought her to see TCM, hope she will get better tomorrow. Please keep her in your prayers.

New environment, New friends

2006-10-12T00:04:00.001+08:00

I’m now outsourced to a new customer’s site for a month. Today was my first day there. Initially, I was wondering it’s going to be hard trying to mix into the current team of support there. The small team comprised of a woman and 2 men. Surprisingly, I was the youngest there, I think so. It’s been some time that I have been active in desktop support in an enterprise environment. It’s different from a small office environment, which I’m more confident in these 2 years. But the staff there is very helpful and friendly, I’m thankful for the help. Then I managed to strike up much conversation with the head of the small team. Found out that he stayed very near my church. Married with a coming 2 year old girl; and he’s also looking for childcare. Amazingly he’s open to the childcare in my church! I’m sure going to get whatever info he needs. His wife used to go to church but stopped after moving to Punggol. Now I’m thinking how I can invite them to come and have a look in my church. I pray something can work out, actually something already happened here, I just need to grab this opportunity to build up friendship. But strangely, both of us have things in common, we think something in common also; we were also in Navy before. These really make our conversation really interesting. Hopefully things work out. I’m quite happy today. It’s a great first day in a new environment. New environment may not always be bad, just remember this.

Death Note the movie

2006-10-10T08:43:00.000+08:00

If you were taking MRT train in Singapore recently, you probably might noticed a poster with two guys, and the words "Death Note". It's a movie that will be showing on 19th of October 2006. The story is actually taken from a Japanese Manga, with the same name. I got to read the comic quite some time back, http://www.thespectrum.net/manga_scans/death_note, I thought it's really exciting because of the chase between the good guy and the bad guy. I seldom read a story from the bad guy point of view and got excited but this story did it pretty well. Probably you can understand some criminal pyschology here. Anyway, the story talks about a top student accidently got a book which when you write a person's name in it, the person will die shortly. He thought he wants to change the world by killing all the criminals but was pursued by another super smart investigator, L. So if you like mystery, you probably may like it, but I must warn you, the story will grow darker with each second. Here's the trailer also, enjoy!

Adidas Factory Outlet in Novena Square

2006-10-09T10:49:00.001+08:00

Last week while I was waiting for Ronald in Novena Square, I found an Adidas factory outlet. I was so excited because they were selling items from the previous 2 seasons at a much discounted price! The shop is located at #02-30/32 beside the MPH bookstore. They really have many good items, men’s, ladies’, bags, tons of shoes, all kinds of sports wears. The best thing is they are having at least 30% discount on every item in this store, some even have 50% discount! I bought 2 jogging singlet and they only cost $12.90 after discount, and I also bought June a top and a pair of exercise pants for her Hip-hop sessions starting tomorrow. (YES, she’s learning how to dance, I’m so happy, finally she starts to exercise.) The bad thing maybe they may not have your size if you size normal. But if you were to go there regularly, I’m sure you’ll be able to get something you like. So if you want to start exercising seriously, get the right set of apparel here. I’m sure you will feel more motivated to exercise and reap better results.

Faith and Confidence

2006-10-06T09:55:00.000+08:00

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. - Hebrews 10:35-36

Sometimes I thought it's so important to build ourselves up with confidence. Some Christians would say their confidence is their faith in God. I really agree that but it's not easy to always act that way. You can respond terribly to a lousy situation e.g. been accused, got fired by boss, lost wallet. And still claim you have faith in God. I think confidence is not a matter of just having a belief but you have to convince yourself that you really believe. How to know you are convinced? By simply looking at how your body respond. Are you frowning all day, back arched, head down, shallow breathing, what are you thinking man? Apparently, it takes quite abit of effort to be down, so today why don't you use these effort that makes you down, to convince yourself that God is really in control. How do you really feel when you know God is in action? You get fired up! You'll look good, feel good. You'll react differently even if something disappointing is happening.

You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. - Hebrews 10:34

It says here even if your property is confiscated, you'll be fired up if you have the confidence and the faith in God. Because God has given His promise to us. Do you remember what's the promise is? Think of what your Creator has promised you. What better and lasting possessions it means here? Go find out! Take hold of it today and change the way you think. Have a great day!

BibleBowl 2006

2006-10-05T09:32:00.000+08:00

My church had a some sort of Bible knowledge competition recently and my sector was in the finals which was held last night. So sad that my sector did not win but it was really a close fight. I really admire their effort to boost up their knowledge within such a short period of time and all of them are working full time. Even ZhenYang took leave to study, amazing. I'm glad I also did well in the exam relating to this Bible Study series. It was tough but glad I went through it. If you are interested to find out more. You can ask me for more information. Well, I'm a bit bias so I only took the video of my sector. Enjoy.

David Lim's Cheese Cake Making Instructions

2006-10-04T09:33:00.000+08:00

We had fun the other day, making our very first cheese cake taught by David. I recorded abit of it so you guys can probably learn something here and hopefully able to make an edible cheese cake. Sad to say I do not have a soft copy of his recipe but you can ask from him. So enjoy and have fun!

Pooh's English

2006-10-03T16:09:00.000+08:00

Went to a customer's place just now and took down this picture. I thought something wrong with Pooh's English here. Maybe this Pooh is from China!

Singapore Smoking

2006-10-03T09:58:00.001+08:00

Recently, the view in Singapore has been quite hazy because of thickening smoke. The smoke was blown over from the south. I’m sure many would know, it’s the “unpreventable” forest fire from Sumatra. This has been going on for years but nothing has be done. Sometimes, the smoke would be blown over to Malaysia, which could be worse. Anyway, the pollution measured 73 on the PSI (Pollutant Standards Index). The ranges from 0 – 50 is Good, 50 – 100 is Moderate, 100 – 200 is unhealthy, 200 – 300 is Very Unhealthy. So now its still moderate but many feel slightly discomfort. I don’t like the haze, smoke, it may not affect me too much, but the weather makes everyone so dull. One good thing is it probably brings down the temperature. Now because of the smoke, it gives an excuse not to jog, but I want to jog. But the advice given was that outdoor activities can still continue with no precaution. But I just hate it when everything seems so blur. The sea view outside my window is no longer clear. Hate it. Anyway, even during normal days, Singapore’s visibility is also not very clear. Every time whenever I sailed last time, I can see as if Singapore is covered in a dome of smoke. The sea is much clearer, can see stars at night but it’s quite difficult to see stars in Singapore. Probably it happens in most cities. I miss those days seeing star-filled skies in Tekong, out at sea or even in New Zealand.

Don't be lazy

2006-10-02T10:35:00.000+08:00

"We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. " - Hebrews 6:12

Here in the Bible, Paul urges the Christians not to be lazy but inmitate those who has set the example. I thought this verse can also be used by anyone else. We all know that we should not be lazy every single day but sometimes our heart is willing, the body is weak. Basically this is just plain laziness unless you are deprived of rest. I thought even the Bible want us to be hardworking and inmitate those who are faithful. Many times, I denied myself to do anything but now I'm training my mind and body to listen to me, to produce more. And it's really possible. The best thing is to have someone whom you can follow and modeled after. And you will be soon following the path to success in whatever you have chosen.

Advanced Scissors Paper and Stone

2006-10-01T17:53:00.000+08:00

played a new scissors paper and stone the other day in David's house. The game is played by two groups of players. Line up a row of chairs. Get the two players from each team to start from one end of the line of chairs, one on the left, one on the right. Then one will rush to sit from chair to chair to reach their opponent and then they will throw out their scissors, papper or stone. The loser will quickly move out of the line to give way to his team mate to quickly come back to the line to take over the "fight". The team will gain one point when one reaches the other end of the line. Try it, it's quite fun and funny!

Ringtone that adults can't hear?

2006-09-29T12:48:00.000+08:00

Recently on Singapore TV, there's a commercial about downloading a ringtone for your mobile phones which adults can't hear. I thought why would adults can't hear it, shouldn't it be the other way round. Kids tend to hear much lesser things, haha! Mr Brown (from Singapore) from mrbrown.com proves it in his podcast by coming out with a ringtone which kids can't hear it. Check it out at by downloading here. Anyway, as of the ringtone that adults can't hear, it's actually a high pitch sound where many adults failed to hear due to some weakening of our hearing muscles. Luckily I still can hear it, I'm already 27, so am I still a kid? Ha! Usually you can find this high pitch sounds in mosquitoes repelling devices or even at shops that want to shoo away the kids. But I don't know how the kids are able to modify this high pitch sound to become a cool ringtone. So here it is, Ringtone Adults Can't Hear!

One loss should not lead to another

2006-09-28T15:39:00.000+08:00

I just read something on David Bach's column in Yahoo! Finance. He says

"Even the toughest people need to take time to grieve. And often, the tougher you are, the harder it can be and the longer it can take. "

I thought how true this is for me. My dad's 4th death anniversary is coming up. Sometimes, I still wonder have I got over it or am I still confuse about it. You can choose to be bitter or you can choose to let go and move on but life goes on. The future is waiting for you.

Bindi Irwin's speech

2006-09-28T12:13:00.000+08:00

watched Steve Irwin's Memorial Service Live on Animal Planet the other day. I was really touched by what the friends, colleagues and family who shared about him. I'm really convicted and inspired by how these group of people really love him though Steve is just doing his part in animal conservation but he is a super passionate man. Loves his family, spend alot of time with the family, when he's busy, he bought the whole family along. Such a family oriented man. I think that's why people are convicted not because Steve Irwin went to please all these people but his life, his passion and his values towards family really shines, and he is really an example for many to follow. And below is his daughter, Bindi Irwin's speech on her father, really moved me. I prayed to have a daughter like her. Here's what she said,

"My Daddy was my hero - he was always there for me when I needed him.
"He listened to me and taught me so many things but most of all he was fun.
"I know that Daddy had an important job. He was working to change the world so everyone would love wildlife like he did.
"He built a hospital to help animals and he bought lots of land to give animals a safe place to live.
"He took me and my brother and my mum with him all the time. We filmed together, caught crocodiles together and loved being in the bush together.
"I don't want Daddy's passion to ever end.
"I want to help endangered wildlife just like he did.
"I have the best Daddy in the whole world and I will miss him every day.
"When I see a crocodile I will always think of him and I know that Daddy made this zoo so everyone could come and learn to love all the animals.
"Daddy made this place his whole life and now it's our turn to help Daddy."

A different set of test

2006-09-27T11:34:00.000+08:00

Tonight is the night! I'm taking my christian history and doctrine test organised by my church leader. Wow stress! Though it's not my first time taking such test but this one has much more verses and dates to memorise. The good thing is I got to know much more things about different sect of Christianity, and really appreciate the little details that many chrisitians has looked over. I also learnt to appreciate world history, really interesting. Anyway, it's good to spend some time to build up my spiritual side. I'm much closer to the "higher being" or simply my Creator. And I feel good. I know many people will spend time to invest in their physical, financial, emotional side but what have you done for your spiritual side. This is the question I have for you today. Wish me all the best in my test tonight!

Singapore Idol 2006

2006-09-26T11:34:00.000+08:00

Surprisingly I was at the Singapore Indoor Stadium last night to witness the "crowning" of the next Singapore Idol. I'm not a super fan of any of the contestants but I do noticed something simiar between the previous final and this year's. It's a competition between a Malay and a Chinese again and the Chinese lost again. And I thought, these people don't really get it especially the young chinese girls. Anyway, I thought Jonathan was much better than Sly. I believe even he got second, he will be offered a contract and he will definitely do better than Hady. Because of the music market he is penetrating. Hady and Taufik probably just emigrate to Indon or Malaysia, they will be soon forgotten by all these cutsy little chinese girls. It was funny last night 'cos got one of the Channel 8 reporter interviewed me regarding Jonathan. Think she had a hard time finding someone to interview 'cos she was at Hady's fan area and also many can't speak proper mandarin, ha! Anyway, she asked me why I support Jonathan. For the first NG, I said "因为我们都是华人!" haha! Then kena cut and ask me to try again. So I gave a very professional and political correct answer, and they say I said it very well. Thank you. After living in Singapore for 27 years, I have learnt the game. So I hope the rest will do too.I don't think I will appear on TV since Jonathan lost, anway it's not my first interview. All the best Jon and ...Hady! Hey Taufik, you still go to Tampines Mall now?

Singapore Dreaming

2006-09-21T09:51:00.000+08:00

Just watched “Singapore Dreaming” on Tuesday. I thought it was a really good movie. I went in thinking it was a typical Singapore movie, Jack Neo’s style but it was not. The movie is really showing a very real Singapore family where the elder is always thinking of striking top prize in TOTO and the son is always dreaming and not working hard. The father did manage to strike the top prize of $2 million dollars but not for long before he got a heart attack and passed away. The children then argued over the inheritance because they thought no will was done. In the end the daughter got much more than the son. Anyway I want to focus on the son-in-law. He was a regular in the Arm Forces and after he finished serving a 10years contract. His age is too old for a fresh but he’s inexperienced in doing any mature position. That’s the problem with those in Singapore serving the forces. So this guy ended up selling insurance. He’s really pathetic, called up his Secondary school friends to try to sell them something. I think he hated his job but no choice. That’s the problem with many insurance agents here. Try to be real while being fake, pathetic. Anyway, this guy quitted his job and did something else, which he was much happier. To some it may be a happy ending. At the end of the day, I learnt to treasure my love ones, work hard and stay positive. Don’t forget all the small details, learn to be appreciative in life because there won’t be a chance for you to go back in time, so don’t regret. Move on! Lastly, PLEASE SUPPORT THIS MOVIE BY WATCHING IT AND RECOMMEND IT TO OTHERS!

Spoilt Brat

2006-09-19T11:47:00.000+08:00

saw a spoilt brat the other day while I was at Plaza Singapura, Times Bookshop. This plump boy was like 9-10 years old. He was lying flat on the floor among two bookselves, reading comics! I was thinking how do you expect people to walk across or to even browse the books! BTW whose kid is this? Where's the mummy? A bookshop lady walked past and said,"I'm sorry but you can't lie down there". Imagine saying this to a kid! I can sense the agony 'cos if she were to use insensitive words, she might offend the boy's mum who might be nearby. The funny thing is I was there for 40 minutes but I still didn't see this boy's mum. As I was leaving, I saw this boy really excited ran back to the comics bookselves and guess what he did. He tore open the wrapper of a new comic book and took it back to his corner to read it. I can't believe it. I felt like grabbing this boy and scolding him, "do you have some manners?!", "你妈妈没教你吗?!" Totally ridiculous. I believed the mum probably go somewhere else and dumped the son there for some time. I thought the mum ought to teach her son. It shows today parents are probably not putting enough effort on teaching their children but more effort to earn money to give to their kids in term of education, material possessions and their big fat bellies! Watch out!

Keep praying and changing

2006-09-15T16:46:00.001+08:00

Life has been quite boring or should I say, just feel so little energy yet there’s like thousands of things to do. I hate to feel lethargic or even lazy. Probably it’s normal since I’m making some decision to seriously change a few areas in my life. Especially the harvest month is coming; I need to get my heart right. I hope I can move on to a more positive and spiritual self and pulling my wife along. She’s awesome, I love her very much! Seeing her so depressed recently really saddens me but I’m changing my associations in my head so that I can think straight rather than been even more negative, also to rely and trust God more. Im glad I got time to pray with Steven and Jason for Semed and Tracy. It’s really not easy for them. Pray for their first child to come out of ICU, healthy and strong. God speeds!

June is discouraged

2006-09-11T17:01:00.000+08:00

Man, it's not easy working with such a lousy boss. Many times, probably you would think maybe the person is not capable. But in my wife's situation, most or all of her department colleagues just feel so down of themselves. The boss has been so mean and demanding and that's why I say, he's worse than the devil in prada! Anyway, it's not easy being the husband of a victim of an office bully. I only can keep encouraging her and pray with her, listening to her. Of course we can't plot any form of revenge but I know God will deal with the wicked and the unrighteous at the right time. Of course, I also need to provide the kind of love and encouragement June needs. It's not easy that's why even I myself also have to pray about it since I'm a sinner not a superman. I need to find sources of motivation and strength. So people, please pray for my wife to be strong. No point praying for fairness, there's no such thing, especially even Jesus commands us to pray and love our enemeies! So I'm now pushing myself through another stage of discipline and spirituality, I'm looking forward to upgrade to Bruce ver 27.7!

Run away disciples

2006-09-08T23:29:00.000+08:00

As my wife is enjoying her time at the Singapore Idol Live, I'm siting in a bible study with Raymond. This time round we were at Upper Thomson Road. We tried the Kampong Chicken House for dinner, I thought the chicken skin is abit artificially yellow and the meat is tender. Kampong chicken meat is supposed to be tough. Luckily, the chili and the ginger is nice, wonderful. The point is we had a great time even we are going to talk about serious issue on the Bible. I'm glad other than Raymond, even I learnt a great deal on the Book of Jonah again. I felt it's the most amazing book in the Old Testament because you can really see God's unconditional love here. The study was deep and heart-cutting. It was so deep until Justin was super deep in thoughts, ha! He kinda look like Dolly the fish here or even Old Master Q's good friend, Mr Qin! Anyway, Justin is an awesome brother, had some tough time but chose to come back to God. Admire his heart and may God bless those run away disciples who chose to turn back to You!

Quiz on chapter 5

2006-09-06T17:34:00.001+08:00

Man, quiz on chapter 5 of my church deep teaching series. This time really crack my head. I need to gather all my memory power ‘cos there so much to remember, dates, verses, events. Though I love Church history and theologies but the time is too little. Nevertheless, I’ll still give whatever I can, hopefully I’ll pass the quiz. But I’m proud of the new knowledge I gathered on Sinner’s Prayer. It’s amazing how this method is never in the Bible and only popularized in the 1940s yet so many people now, trust their salvation with it. I thought the world sure come out with a lot of crap even in the religious area. I hope I can make good use of the new knowledge I got. For those who wants to read on the history of Sinner’s Prayer, http://www.bible.ca/g-sinners-prayer.htm I hope more people would thirst more of the real truth!

The crocodile hunter is died

2006-09-05T10:07:00.000+08:00

Steve Irwin, the famous Australian Crocodile hunter was pronounced died yesterday due to deadly stung by a stingray. You can always found Steve on reptitle shows on Animal Planet. Never imagaine he would die at 44. Though I don't know him personally but everyone can sense his passion and zeal over those animals. Haven't seen someone like him probably except Tarzan. I always thought he would probably be betrayed by his "close friends" the crocs, and bitten to death, never woulf I thought he would die by an animal which Singaporeans love to eat so much. Sometimes I wonder why passionate people always die young like Bruce Lee and Jesus, well, basically you will never know what will happen to anyone, no matter passionate or not. So treasure whatever you have now and take time to appreciate your love ones and seek the truth before you can't. I wish the best for his family, his wife and his young children. May God speed His love to them.

The Devil don't wear Prada here

2006-09-05T00:00:00.000+08:00

Glad my wife is asleep now so I can spend some time to write. Talking about my wife, I remembered we just watched "The Devil Wears Prada" on saturday. My wife felt so relatable to the show. The story talks about a new staff, Andy(girl) started work in a top fashion magazine firm. She was the second assistant to the super-powered editor Miranda. Throughout the show, Miranda made alot of ridiculous requests. Along the way, Andy decide to really meet up to her challenges and became a totally new person. She was really good in her job, better than the first assistant but later realised she lost her boyfriend and also herself. Till a certain point, she realised this is not what she wanted and quit her job. I thought the boss was mean but she was not as mean as the many stories I heard from those of Singapore bosses. Yea, Singapore you won the meanest boss in the entire world, aren't you proud?! Anyway, sad to say, the victims are usually women but the bosses can both be men and women. For those mean male boss, I'm really ashamed of you, such a lousy leader setting terrible example and somemore being mean to your staff, never admit your mistakes, ridiculous. But I always believe, what goes around, comes around. All the best to the mean bosses. To those victims, don't take what your mean(bully) bosses said or do personally or seriously, just laugh over their idiotic comments and their childish reaction. Ha!

Yes, life is unfair

2006-09-01T13:15:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, throughout the day, I would think about different things that lead to comparing me with people. Things like; how come my good friend now has a great job, he owned a house, even got a side business and he only got a diploma. And I don’t feel good of my own life, felt like I have no control to make it better. I thought this is unfair. Then sometimes I would start to irrationally judge others; how come this ugly man ends up with such a beautiful and lovely woman. Sometimes, I would wonder how come this manager manages terribly but he got promotions frequently. Sometimes I would even think how come people of my age they still have their parents to take care of them but my dad passed away early. When I think back, I have many regrets. I felt that I have missed out on many good relationships. Relationships which if I had put in some effort then, I know I could have held them till now. I’m glad that the Bible and the church taught me many things to appreciate things in life now. I learnt how to build great relationships, how to love, how to encourage, how to handle disputes. I started to understand the mighty love of God. How it’s much better to give than to receive. I would encourage you to read the Bible in Mathew 18:21-35, it talks about Jesus sharing a parable regarding how a Master initially wants to punish a slave for not settling his huge debts. But as the slave knee down to beg for mercy, the master decides to show great compassion and cancel the servant’s debt and let him go. But when the servant went off and saw a fellow servant who owns him a tiny sum, he threatens him to pay back. But this fellow servant decides to knee down and beg for mercy. The servant refused mercy and throws this fellow servant to prison. When the master founds out, he summoned the servant and threw him back to prison to be tortured. Other than learning about great compassion and mercy here and also to show forgiveness to others, I also learnt something else. The forgiven servant was still thinking what his fellow servant owned him. He was so consumed with the unfairness that he forgotten that he actually had just been forgiven and debts canceled by his master! When we compared with others, many times we would think about if this situation is fair to us, most likely it would not be fair. If everyday, we keep thinking about what’s fair or unfair to us, we will end up bitter about every little thing. Focusing on these throughout the day, our mind and heart don’t even have space for other things. I believe people can fall into depression just because of this. Basically I thought there’s no such thing as fair or unfair in this world, it’s just an illusion. Definitely, the son of God, Jesus dying on the cross for the world is totally unfair to Him. And also how many times would you remember people being nice to you but actually they may be doing something unfair to someone else so just to be “fair” to you. People are always thinking of their own interest first. But I am still learning to put others’ interest above me, definitely trying my best to put God’s interest as number one. So never judge others, or compare them to you, we made our life more difficult when we try to play judge. Everyone has a different life and background so leave the judgment to God. Just learn to be contended with what you have and show compassion to others. Whatever blessings coming your way, knowing that these are God’s blessings. You would feel much better and more motivation to move on in life. I wish you all the best!

Today is Jason Ong's birthday

2006-08-30T14:16:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday, Mr Ong! Just want to use a small space in this blog to share something about this brother. Hmm, what to share about him... He is an interesting guy, has a wanderlust-ing nature (but trying him to urge him to settle down). Sometimes really thoughtful towards sisters (e.g. the plain looking notebook he bought for Y... has a story). Sometimes he is totally not sensitive, Kathy and Joyce definitely can relate. Anyway, overall he's a nice guy, someone who has done quite a bit for God and His church. Now please pray for him to be passionate of his life again other than passion over that candlestick. Bro, I think you can do much more than now, you definitely have the energy, the wisdom, all the strength, you just need to leave N.A.T.O. and seek yourself less. God will bless. Take a step at a time, progress is more important than perfection. And you definitely have all the friends to back you up and help you. Because of your friendship, Justin managed to come back to church, it's amazing what's more God can do through you! Cheers! Last but not least, attached a video of Jason taking picture of his travel doll. Isn't it sad to hear of a man and his doll? Sounds like Mr.Bean. Please sisters, try your best to encourage him!

A Long Day

2006-08-29T18:43:00.000+08:00

I felt so tired today. Went all the way to customer's site in Tuas to setup a Cisco router and a network camera in a warehouse. My job is just to configure the router but my cable vendor has a tougher job of laying the cable. Initially had a tough time setting up the internet then realise the ISP got the static IP and gateway wrong, what in the world! Wasted my time. Anyway, glad it's over. Now in Kovan, somewhere in NorthEast of Singapore. Don't think I ever come here before. It's a small town, quiet, nothing much, with a small mall called HeartLand Mall. Now in McDonald surfing net, blogging my day down since I'm waiting for the rest to come. Gonna have a Bible Study later, hope this friend will open his heart for God again. So sad that his insecurity has caused him to have lots of doubts in many things in life. His life is full of questions but no actions. Sometimes I'm also like him, think too much, ask too much irrational questions, thinking these are some deep philosophies but actually are all crap. I'm slowly converting my thoughts and questions into deeds. It's not easy but I'm glad that God has somehow lead me to Him and that I have made a stand to seek Him. Much more to learn in life. BTW I want to welcome a new life, Jolyn, daughter of Weiwen and Eileen! Congratulations! Now Weiwen you can train both your arms, ha!

Acne Outbreak!

2006-08-28T16:13:00.000+08:00

I'm sad to hear that Sasha was involved in an accident but thank God she is discharged from the hospital now after 4 days. You can encourage her at http://sashalee.blogspot.com. Anyway, I'm also sad about ny face's condition recently. There's a pimples, acne outbreak on my forehead and I don't know why. I never had such an outbreak before and my skin condition has been good just slightly oily but still smooth. It just happened 2 weeks ago. Pimples started to appear on my forehead. I thought they would go away and so didn't bother since I'm always using facial wash. But they didn't go away and they got worse. I squeezed them and washed them but next moment they appeared in another place. Then I bought Oxy 10, maximum power, spread them all over my forehead, clean and apply for a few days but it doesn't get better. Then I was told to use Tea Tree Oil, hehe, my wife has a few tea tree oil gel stick and I apply them, it did slightly better but still not good enough. I was really tired over this war with acne. I knew there are people who fought with them their whole life and even lost terribly. But I am not going to give up so I decided to start analyse what could possibly be the cause. My diet is healthy, not oliy. I'm not stress during this period. I exercise recently so my blood circulation is good. So it may be my bedsheets, or some 2years old sun-block that I put on my face recently. So yesterday I changed my bedsheet, bought a medicated anti-acne facial foam by Sebamed. And I will keep applying the tea tree oil and I hope my face will turn for the better. If anyone has a similar situation, please share some tips here. Thanks!

Genpets real?

2006-08-26T19:01:00.000+08:00

I got a friend who sent me an email today regarding a bio-engineered animal selling as a pet. Looking at the title of the email, I thought this must be some spam crap but after going to the main site, the site looks pretty impressive (http://www.genpets.com). They have a 20pages reseller catalogue, FAQs, Support & Warranty. To me, the picture of the packaged genpet looks like a frozen chiwawa. The site claims it's in hypernation, waiting to be released! Here's what the site says " Are Genpets Real animals? How? Genpets are living, breathing mammals. Bio-Genica is a Bioengineering Company that has combined, and modified existing DNA to create the Genpets lineup. Genpets have blood, bones, and muscle; they will bleed if you cut them, and die if mistreated just like any other animal. The electronic components are only in the packages and are for basic life support, outside of the packages the Genpets are wholly organic. "
Before I thought man, this world is going crazy, I found this site (http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4198/) so it says it's a hoax. I really believe its a hoax. Can't imagine there are such things running around, at least I pray that God would not allow such things to happen, imagine next time your maid comes in a plastic! Ha!

Customer Service

2006-08-25T15:40:00.001+08:00

I just came back from Hong Kong and it was a great trip. Though it was really hot there, 33°C and it’s dry hot, not much wind, so you can really feel the burning heat, but we still managed to enjoy ourselves. I saw tones of tourists in Hong Kong especially most came from China. I’m amazed by their spending power. Hong Kong’s customer service was fantastic. Even a small shop could have good service. I’m very impressed by their Giordando’s service; their staff is even equipped with walkie-talkie to communicate with each other. They are friendly, efficient, patient and giving very good advice. Compared to Singapore, totally no fight. Our sales assistants are quite stiff and not genuinely sincere, either you can say they are not trained by their boss, or they simply are not happy with what they are not doing(refer to my previous post), or you can say because many of them are from our neighbor up north so they just can’t be bothered. I thought it was quite stupid for Channel 5 to do a program to test our customer service, everyone knows our customer service is bad or its robotic. The show will of course portray the better ones. Even our PM is encouraging the customer service to have an identity, ‘cos we only know how to say “what can I do for you”, simply robotic. I sometimes wonder why I’m also like this. Is it how Singaporeans are brought up or simply because this society here runs in a legalistic and robotic way following the military. Maybe we can try to find out the root reason why Singaporeans are always not genuinely happy, probably this root reason may also be the cause of low Chinese birth rate here, lack of creativity, tons of office bullies, am I just jumping into conclusion? Let me know what you think.

Keep fit!

2006-08-24T16:26:00.000+08:00

Don't feel like talking about politics today, so I would share the stats with you when I feel like it, or you can read about it at http://www.happyplanetindex.org . Today I just feel like I need to stick to a workout routine so that I can keep fit and consider fit by the age of 30. I'm 27 now, age is catching up and so is illness. I'm happy with the swim and tennis game I have with David and Justin every saturday but I thought I need to be more tough on myself, anyway I'm "Bruised". Thus I'm going to re-read my many Bruce Lee's materials and also this new Vincent Ng's Ten that I just bought. I hope I can find some motivation and inspiration. I hate my love-handles and flappy tummy. I need to tonne up and strengthen all my muscle groups, especially my lower back, I don't want to be so weak when I'm old. And please pray for my knees not to give way when I start my jog again. Hate to run but it's good for me. I remember I just learn a verse that talk about this, Deut 10:12-15. BTW I love the recent deep teaching on the Bible that my church is having. It's challenging for both my brain and heart but you know what, just like my physical training, it's all for my own good!

My other talent

2006-08-22T15:49:00.000+08:00

My other talent. Use to think of been a cook but just not good enough. But muffins are not as difficult as what you think.

Need a little encouragement

2006-08-22T14:47:00.000+08:00

hopefully this time, I can easily and openly express my thoughts. Thus I need a little encouragement or we all need some form of encouragement everyday. Cheer up!