I've found a friend who died for me

Wow I just realized that the EOY exams are only 6 weeks away! I'd had better start revising man, this upcoming September holidays better be a fruitful one otherwise I think I'll be ggfied! Haha no la not that bad. I guess this reminder has just made me reflect on how I've spent my term 3, and really I don't think term 3 was a very productive term for me. As it was just coursework over coursework, I hardly touched the textbooks unless it was to do an assignment. Man! This is bad! I'd better start hitting those textbooks and revision papers.

Well actually tonight I've got nothing to do and it just made me think about my walk with God. I have to be honest and say that it isn't where I want it to be. I guess you could say that my walk with God is only so-so and there is much improvement to be made. I really need to start trusting him more and listening much much more. I've been asking for so much but never seemed to get the answers as I haven't exactly been listening to God for these answers. With so much noise and distractions of the world, I guess I haven't sat down in the quiet and just listen to God's voice. I really need to get into the habit of that but I just can't bring myself to doing it. I guess I keep getting distracted by other stuff such as facebook and computer games.... I've constantly been journaling every night but I don't know if its effective. Sometimes I really do wonder if it is even helping me walk closer with God. Hernshung says it has made him grow closer to God but I guess thats after a really get my head straight and make God the center of my life. Thats an objective I have and hopefully I can accomplish it by the end of this year with the upcoming mission trip and youth camp.

I know my God is able
And I know His love never fails
I know my God is able
I believe in You

WAH JIALAT!!! I GOT B4 MAN!!! Walao I really did not expect to get a B4. I was really expecting myself to get an A2 or a B3 at worst, not a B4 man!! Sian la I'm definitely not gonna retake the paper again, its crazy la. And congrats to Jon Wong who was the only guy in our class who got distinction and does not have to take the EOY Chinese paper. Wah I'm really disappointed with the B4, but I guess I should be happy that its an improvement from last year's C5. Yups so thank God for that! Oh today was the final session of SL! Swee la now no more going all the way to Bukit Batok after school for tutoring only to get back home at 7pm. Now can go home everyday at 2.40pm and not have anything after school! YES AH! Oh crap since no SL I might have to go remedial! Nuuu! Again really thank God that this SL thing is over, not saying it is horrible or anything.

THANK GOD FOR MINQHEE! Really there are some friends in this world you must have and she falls into that category. Thank you so very much for letting me share my problem with Chrissy with you. I didn't mean to burden you with my problems and I really thank you for lending a listening ear as well as giving me some advice on how to deal with it. I'm so glad I have the privilege of going on the mission trip with you! :)

Dear God,

I know you're there and I know you have a wonderful plan for me. I know that you'll provide for me things and people like a girlfriend or a best friend when the time comes. I just pray that you'll help me to believe more in this. I know you will provide, it just doesn't seem to sort of 'strike' me. I really do pray that you'll mold me to become like Minqhee, who fully trust you that you'll provide no matter what and that then maybe I'll stop asking for things of this world.

Amen

When the time comes

Wow I haven't blogged for quite some time so here's an entry. National Day was 6 days ago, Happy 45th Birthday Singapore! (Yes I know its a bit lag) On a more recent note, yesterday was the opening ceremony of the 1st ever Youth Olympic Games! WOOH! I'm so proud of Singapore! 2 major events in then span of a week! NAISE! I heard the opening ceremony was very good but couldn't watch it cos I was having the first session of a newly formed small group at Hernshung's place. Wooh! THE NEW SMALL GROUP ROCKS MAN! HALLELUJAH!

Thank God for Hernshung too! He is really a great brother and friend to me. I met up with him on Friday for dinner at garden's market. I just shared with him the problems I was facing right now and he gave me some good advice. It was also a time to look back to reflect on how my walk with God was like and how I could improve my relationship with God. He gave me some good pointers to take back such as to start listening more instead of always asking and to maybe start journaling which I did yesterday with my first entry! :)

Today was first mission trip preparation session! WOOT! Today we basically had a small ice breaker in which we were to write what you liked about each person and what you look forward to in each person. I have yet to read mine so I'm gonna read it once I finish blogging! Haha! After that was a presentation from each group about the different areas that they had been assigned the previous week. Me, Audrey and Nicole had thought of a few post-mission trip activities on how we can encourage people to go on mission trips. Finally we set 3 objectives for the mission team. They are:

1) Bonding with and blessing each other

2) Spiritual - Hebrews 10:24-25

3) Physical - Bring a smile to the people's faces

Wow this weekend was spent mainly in church and at Christian events. First on Friday night was FOP (Festival Of Praise)! WOOT! FOP was awesome with Planetshakers hyping up the atmosphere in the indoor stadium. Don Moen was a breath of fresh air with him leading some of his classic songs such as God is good. Rev Che Anh was a really good speaker and it was very interesting to listen to him share about his relationship with his parents and how we should always honour and obey our parents. His sermon was funny and yet meaningful at the same time which was really great. However that day I was starving as I hadn't had anything to eat since the night before and since there wasn't any porridge, I had to starve throughout the whole FOP...oh well this could be a sign to go on a diet. Haha.

Saturday morning was spent finalizing Joel's and my IHS coursework until around 1+ till we finally submitted it to our teacher via email. The afternoon was used to blackshot a bit before heading for SOMY (School Of Ministry for Youth). I went there about 30 mins early to meet up with Russ, Daniel and Hernshung for the tea that the organizers provided. UNFORTUNATELY, my teeth still hurt so I had to pass on the tea and just watch the other 3 eat...sianz. The session about organizing games by Pastor Bernard was quite enjoyable with him teaching us some important pointers about games, letting us play some ourselves and showcasing some of his collection of toys and books. After the session, Hernshung drove me, Russ, Daniel and Dom to gardens to eat at chomp chomp. But since the place was as packed as ever, we went to the market instead and I got to eat...porridge...sianz man can my teeth stop hurting so I can go back to eating normal food...zzz. Anyways after a good dinner with a vibrant conversation about the different mega-churches, Hernshung kindly sent us home with me being the first to be dropped-off. The conversation in the car was mainly about our youth ministry and some points were raised about certain things we were unhappy about, oh well...

Today was 11.15am service, lunch at market and then mission trip training. Sadly today there wasn't YM and so I went with blossom and a few others for service. After service I met up with Jonathan and we went to market with Ming Xuan and Caleb for lunch. Minqhee and Clara subsequently joined us there for lunch. Guess what I had for lunch....PORRIDGE AGAIN....oh well healthy living haha! After lunch me, Jonathan, Minqhee and Clara hurriedly made our way back to church just in time for the 3rd mission trip training. This time Andy was leading the session about the history of missions in TMC as well as a bit about MMS and MMC. It was nice to know that TMC is the methodist church that has sent out the most pastors, one of them being my uncle, Rev Malcolm Tan. Kudos to TMC! Haha! From Audrey's devotion today at mission training, I shall challenge myself to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. Hopefully I can do it and not get angry or make anyone angry during the course of this week. And yes I must remember to pass Minqhee my chinese compo notes next week. Remember! Haha

Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.

The mark of a growing church is not about the number of members in it but those being sent out.

Ah man today I just put on my braces, sian... Its gonna be around a year with these metal studs on my teeth, and another year for the retainers before everything comes off. Actually it is not as uncomfortable and painful as I though it would be and I don't think I should have a problem eating solid food. But I guess I'll wait a while before I try any solid food such as the Merah from the Prata Stall! Ah man, hopefully I get used to these braces soon. Wow, now Justin is calling me and telling me that he and his friend were getting chased by the police cos they started a fire at an old railway and the fire started burning too big and that they were caught by some old guy and the police came and chased them. Amazing story, cool, though they better not do it again. Haha. They even said next time they'll bring an escape kit with a wig, make up, change of clothes, etc. Anyways past few days have been not bad, the weekend was fun with me and russ leading worship at YM and then Mission Trip Training after service. Ah but IHS essay is due this friday!!! POD and Physics coursework due next week! WAAAHH SIANZ TTM! Oh well, at least FOP is on Friday, sweet! Can't wait for it, I'm sure its gonna be an awesome night of praise and worship!

Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly with God

Wah! This week was spammed with doing IHS coursework. Sian deadlines all pushed back such that it clashed with other deadlines...Whats more pissing is Joel takes super long just to do his part of the essay. It takes him freaking 10 hours just to write 500 words!!! Thats like 50 words an hour!!! I really wonder why it takes 1 hour just to write 50 words?!?!? Hopefully he prints out everything we have cos tmr is the file check and I really wants those marks. Wah its seriously quite pissing when your project partner is damn slow....cmon man 50 words in an hour?!?!? You've gotta be kidding me right... Oh well on the brighter side; MY O'LEVEL 听力 IS OVER! THAT MEANS O'LEVEL CHINESE IS FINALLY OVER! TIME TO SLACK DURING CHINESE CLASS!!! WOOT! Haha yes Chinese for me is technically done for the year, muahahaha :P Its good to know after 3.5 years of secondary school Chinese that I can finally take a break from that dreaded subject. Whats even better is that if I get A2 or A1 for my Chinese O'level, my final year Chinese marks will become a 7 and I won't have to take the paper! Swee la! HAHA :)

I wish I could talk to you like you do with your other friends. You told me you've gotten over that stupid thing I did, but I know it won't change what I did and it'll probably ruin this friendship forever. But I know I still have hope for it to be better and faith that God will tell me as whether to continue waiting patiently or just give up. I know I don't want to give up but if it really is God's will, then I guess I'll just have to move on.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

YES AH! TODAY WAS FIRST MISSION TRIP SESSION! WOOT! Haha but before the session, I finally went for service after like weeks of not going for it :P Today's sermon was nice, short and sweet, I like. :) Since Mission Trip sessions have started, its gonna be short lunches from now on cos we have to be back in church by 2. So just had a short lunch with Russ, Jonathan and Royston at Macs - ahh the fats of macs. While Russ and Royston went home, we proceeded up to church around 1.35 where we met Clara and Jonathan helped her with Chem. Just before 2 Hernshung Andy and Pastor D came up to the Upper Room to get ready. Hernshung totally died on the floor after spamming a lunch full of Arnold's. Haha! Anyways today's lesson was on like the background of missions. Pastor D talked about like how there were still thousands of ethnic groups that have not known about Christ yet, and like how the number of missionaries in Asia are increasing but that of North America is decreasing. It was refreshing to know that so many are becoming followers of Christ each day, in places such as India, China, Africa. After the session was a quiz about what Pastor D shared about missions, and sadly I got the most wrong :( After that was a short session of getting to know each other better, sharing our Full names, Han Yu Pin yin names, favourite sports and food, dislikes of food and school. It was quite interesting to get to know the fellow mission-trippers better. Well hope to get to know each of them better and deeper as I did with some of the last year mission-trippers! :) Oh yeah I'm prayer I.C! Haha. Talking to Dennis about 'her' now. Its really comforting to know he's been through a similar situation and he's telling me to move on. But I don't think I can ever forgive myself I if I do move on, I wanna make sure its like 'REALLY OK' between us. So yeah...just hope.

Prayer is the foundation of missions, all other preparations are secondary.

This week was a normal same old same old week. Boring ttm as usual. Today had to go Changi Chapen and Museum for History project with Deiver and Liuwie. We agreed to meet there at 9.30am but eventually only met at 11am, due to someone oversleeping...arg hum....HAHA! Wah it was quite crazy cos we weren't allowed to take pictures and so we had to copy everything out on paper. It was totally epic with us using our phones and foolscaps to take down like important quotes by people who survived the Changi Prison as well as information on Changi Prison itself. Just a couple of hours ago I got to catch up with the peeps from Kumyan! :) It was really great to see most of them again and it was a nice time of catching up. After a somewhat early dinner at KAP, we went to MGS to watch their drama night play 'A Little Murder'. It was spectacular although I didn't get to see Anna perform as she had performed the night before. Well I also hoped to catch up with Chrissy and like ask her how she's doing that kinda thing. But it never happened. I dunno, maybe I'm just too afraid to talk to her? Or maybe I'm just a big Jerk for posting that thing on her wall and ruining our friendship till the point of no return? I guess its gone so low that it can't get lower than this and from the looks of it, its probably gonna stay this way. However hope is what keeps me going, hope that things will turn out for the better some day. I know hope is not enough but thats all I have right now, and possibly all I can do.

Dear God, please help me, I really dunno what to do now. I really wish that things would turn out alright but at the rate its going, it looks like this will never happen. What must I do to make things right? Or has it reached the point of no return? The bible says that love is patient, but how long must I be patient for? I really wish you could give me an answer. Amen.

And maybe someday we'll figure all this out

Try to put an end to all our doubt

Try to find a way to make things better now

Wooh the past week was super slack cos it was just IP Symposium and we didn't have any lessons! My class was in charge of the UN MDG 3 and our supervisor was Terrence Ng! Pwnage. Our workshops were super slack with just the watching of 2 movies, The Changeling and Million Dollar Baby. Both movies were really touching and its a must watch. Besides those 2 movies, we didn't really do anything. So for the first time in like 2 years I brought my tablet to school to keep myself occupied with playing rugby 08 and facebooking haha! I love those 4 days of just using my tablet and not having lessons. Oh yeah on Wednesday I had my last chinese tuition lesson with Lei Lao Shi. Thank you Lei for those 8 years of guiding me with my chinese! :) I guess Friday was the most happening day with chinese O-Level oral. Haha I didn't even try for it, just went through a few model essays for some idea of what to say during the oral. Thank God the topic was relatively easy: "Now a lot of students do not care about current affairs". Heng! It was not something about YOG or like the IRs otherwise I would have been dead. I guess the oral went pretty well although I could have said a bit more. Well since thats past, that means my chinese for the year is done! Although I still have a 1.5k word chinese coursework to write...sianz... Oh well really thank God for the slack week that I had with youth day holiday and IP Symposium.

Don't give up, you are loved.

Hey guys its 4th July! What day is it today!? Its YOUTH SUNDAY!!! WOOH! Only one word can describe today: EPIC! Woah man everything about youth sunday was epic, from the songs to the flash-mob. Haha I'm sure all the youths totally enjoyed themselves today, cos I know I very much did singing back-up and doing the flash-mob! Yeah man the flash-mob was just totally awesome! It really took the congregation by storm. After holy communion hernshung just took out the loud-hailer and went "SINGING ALL YOUR PROMISES WON'T LET GO OF ME!" Jordon, Jill and Olivia after placing the cover on the communion items turned around and started dancing. Soon all the youths starting coming out from their seats and dancing to the song "Promises"! The congregation were all stunned at first but then slowly everyone started taking out their phone cameras to film the flash-mob! It was a total success and I loved it! HAHA! The flash-mob ended on a very high note and the atmosphere was really the bombz! Haha! After service I had lunch with a few other youths before heading up for the mission trip interview. I was the 4th in line...hmm...4th July and 4th in line for interview...what a coincidence lol. Anyways in the holding room there was only 2 guys, Me and Jonathan and the rest were girls! According to him the ratio of guys:girls would be 3:11! 3:11!!!!! Wow that seriously gonna be interesting haha! In the holding room a few girls who had gone for previous mission trips complained that the still had to go for the trainings even though they've been through it before. Well all I can say is that the trainings are good for you to freshen you up before going to Cambodia. Yes tmr is youth day holiday, sweet! Oh well, once again today was an EPIC YOUTH SUNDAY!

SINGING ALL YOUR PROMISES WON'T LET GO OF ME!

Woah 1st week of school was not as bad as I expected it to be. I thought all the homework and projects will start cramming in to my life but actually the workload is still manageable. Yeah finally the weekend is here, a long one too with the youth day holiday on monday. However can't rejoice on monday as the afternoon will be spent at NLB doing research for projects...sigh... Oh wells got this weekend to chiong blackshot and make full use of my 3-day enfield. Yeah Baby Yeah! Well this week nothing interesting happened; classes were boring as usual except for chinese lesson where we got to watch ice age ? (i dunno what number) but in chinese....Diaozzz. Oh well I think I'd better start on my projects if I wanna meet the deadline, so its off to work after this :) Yesterday night was just epic! The worship team had worship practice for youth sunday whilst other youths were practicing the surprise flash-mob that they would be doing during service. They'll dance to the song "Promises" by the Desperation Band. They got to practice with us a couple of times and it totally rocked! Doing backup with Russ, we both too had to dance and sing haha! It was very hilarious but awesomelly fun as well! :) Supper followed the joyous practice at R.K Prata House! The walk down was super funny as the Virtus Clan from blackshot just starting talking a whole lot about the game and it was seriously damn funny! We had prata with a couple of people before my bro and I went to Jared's house to pick up his bro's guitar. Sadly Jestyn will be leaving YM for 1.5 years to further his studies in Australia. Will miss you bro! :( This just got me thinking, with Hernshung stepping down for a while and Jestyn going off to Australia, that hardly leaves us with worship leaders, let alone YM leaders. Oh man this is gonna be tough. Dear God please help us get by this time of shortage of hands!

Bye Jestyn! Gonna miss you bro! Come back visit us soon! :)

By your mercy we come to your table, by your grace you are making us faithful.

Awww man! Its the last day of the June Holiday..zzz.. Haha I've had a blast this holiday with planning for Ignite games, Ignite itself as well as all the fun times I spent hanging out with friends! :) I've really enjoyed myself this holiday and I am in no mood to go back to school!!! Back to school means more homework, more stress, more scolding from teachers haha :P and just 6 hours of sianzness every weekday! Anyways on the bright side, I did back-up singing for the 11.15 service in church for the first time :) It was quite nerve recking as it was my first time and so I was not quite sure of what to do. But thanks to Ben's help and God's grace, I managed to pull myself together and not screw up haha! :D Sadly I missed the filming of our flash-mob dance going to be done next week during Youth Sunday :( Haha in any case I've seen the video and it was super funny! HAHA! Yeah Youth Sunday is coming up, gonna be EPIC! Haha! :)

Some people are really insensitive. People are already kinda upset and you still have to rub it in...You are totally heartless! The world would be much better without people like you! Really man I dunno what your problem is....Cheer up Kimberley! :)

This is where the healing begins

This is where the healing starts

When you come to where you're broken within

The light meets the dark

Wow it has been the last week of school holidays and there was nothing much to it except for the awesome potluck! Haha. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all taken up 'planning' for the potluck! It was kinda rush and so Nigel and I didn't think it'll work out well but in the end it did! All thanks to God's graciousness. It felt exactly like the days before Ignite where a couple of us were chionging to plan the games :) On Wednesday it was raining cats and dogs like the whole morning and afternoon but thanks to God, he stopped the rain at around mid afternoon and we were able to have a nice and cooling weather to enjoy our potluck. The amazing thing is that as soon as we finished it started to drizzle again! Haha, God does work wonders! :) At first we thought that there would be too little food to feed everyone but it turned out there was quite a lot of food left-over, especially the fried rice and bee hoon! Haha! Well anyways it was a great time of fellowshipping and eating (of course) just before the start of school term. Aww man school is starting in like 3 days and I'm in no mood to go back at all! I wanna stay in this holiday FOREVER!!! Haha well that would be a dream come true, perhaps one day? :) Well I'd better spend these last 3 days of holiday enjoying it ttm before 10 weeks of sianzness dawns upon me.

To change the broken world, we must first change the broken man.

Woah today was quite exciting and epic haha! Followed my bro to church at 8 for his worship prac. Stoned for 30 mins before going for prayer meeting. I think prayer meeting is a good start to the day just to be praying for each other as well as for the day ahead. The amazing thing is that when we were in the midst of prayer, 10 later-comers also cane and sat outside the room praying along with us! That was really awesome! Ym was kinda different cos after worship we were finally split into our long awaited ym groups. I was joined by Jordon, Jonathan and Daniel as our group leader! Swee la haha! Since Terri had nothing planned for us, the groups were allowed to do whatever they wanted. Some went to lan while others went to eat breakfast and some just chilled. Daniel had to leave for worship practice clicking slides for service to our group was left to do whatever we wanted. After a short breakfast in church I met up with Josh and Zeon and headed to Macs to meet Tony and his group. Soon after 3 of us proceeded to lan haha! Met Jared's group there playing l4d2! Me, Josh and Zeon spammed blackshot haha! Soon more people came and we had an inhouse blackshot 6v6! It was super imba and damn funny with the regulars all fighting for mvp while the newcomers all had to get used to the game. In the end I got mvp 3 times! Booya! It was a super epic session of mass blackshotting haha! We should really do this again! Anyways we totally lost track of time and soon a few of us had played 4+ hours and Jared 5+ hours! It freaking cost a bomb! HAHA but it was super fun though! Blackshotting did not stop there but continued at night for a while with Josh and Bryan till they lagged out and I was too sian to play already. HAHA! Anyway overall it was a good day, tiring to the eyes but good! :D

Life will knock us down, but we can choose whether or not to get back up.

Tuesday

Today afternoon was spend studying in church with Emily, Russ, Nigel and Dominic. For like the first 20 mins it was really some serious studying. But soon it went from studying to playing and we were like not serious in studying at all, well at least the guys weren't, maybe except for Nigel haha! We landed up playing Billionaire for like 1 round before Emily got sian. It wasn't long before Blossom met us in church and we all went to the White Tangerine for dinner. There was only a basic selection of games to choose from so we decided to play Billionaire again haha! I won 2 out of the 3 rounds:) After dinner, 'down' by jay sean was being played over the sound system so me and russ decided to have a little flash mob of our own and did DDR! Haha it was super retarded but at the same time it was super fun to do! We should totally have more of these DDR sessions man haha! We started talking about match-making, I have no idea who started the conversation but after a while the conversation became quite 'intense' HAHA! We did surprise Blossom with a blueberry cheesecake as her birthday cake and a pink stuffed-toy bear for her present! Hope you enjoyed it Blossom! :) Once we were done we decided to be jews and payed $2 for 3 rounds of pool haha! We had to cover the pockets to prevent the balls from going in the first 2 rounds:) In the end we took quite a few pictures and I'm sure it was a happy day for all of us!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOSSOM! :D

Wednesday

I thought today would be a boring day since I had no plans for the day and was stuck at home. The morning and afternoon was basically like any sianzness holiday morning/afternoon. It was only at night where things suddenly got interesting! Suddenly out of nowhere Minqhee asks me to spam her formspring page...I was like ok... Woah it was super interesting chatting but not exactly chatting if you get what I mean. Haha alot of random and retarded questions started popping out and we got obsessed with a word beginning with 's'. Haha it was super funny and we were spamming each other's formspring like there was no tomorrow! :) 'lolz' and 'HAHA' were coming out all over our answers and questions and it was totally fun to ask and answer each other's questions! We should keep doing this man haha!

Thursday

Well today I had Service Learning at east coast with MCYC. Me, Martin, John and Adi went to east coast to prepare the games for the MCYC kids and their mentors. I met them at MacDonalds and we walked for 10 minutes trying to find the bike rental shop that the organizer had approach the day before. After 10 minutes we finally realized that the bike rental shop was just next to MacDonalds.....I was like..................weren't we just there like 10 minutes ago...Anyways the few of us cycled to some more ulu part of east coast where there was a large area of sand to play the games. We planned 3 games of Human Foosball, dig-up Dog-and-Bone and captain's ball. However due to time constrains and the weather, we could only play the first 2 games. It was fun watching the kids and their mentors play the games. There was much fun and laughter with the kids and their mentors really enjoying themselves. The dig-up Dog-and-Bone was quite funny as we gave them very small items to find. One of the rounds we asked them to find a small clip and after 10 minutes they still couldn't find. The last and decider round however we asked them to find the same clip and 30 seconds into the round a girl just found it! Amazing haha! It was good to see that everyone there was enjoying themselves. However on the not so bright side, I got burnt again! Burnt twice in 6 days at east coast...haiz... Well the trip home was quite interesting as I took the same train and bus home with one of the mentors as he just stays around my area. It was fun talking to him about school, army and found out that he was an ex Hwa Chong rugger. Cool!

Woah the past 3 days has really been a blast for me! Ignite 2010 was totally awesome! Awesome worship, awesome games, awesome sermons and best of all is an awesome God was with us! Ignite was just Epic and Awesome and no words can really describe the epicness of this retreat! Haha

Day1: Met up early at 8am for leaders and committee meeting to finalize some stuff and to just pray for the retreat. Soon people started filling up and by 9.30 all the campers were here. Hernshung smartly got stuck in the lift so we ended up having extra time for ice breakers. Whacko was really great, all the laughter and blur sotongs who had no idea what was going on haha! P.S sry Deon if i whacked u too hard. Watch Dog also rocked, super funny to see those who were blindfolded waving the newspaper rolls around like they were swatting flies. They all had that blur look on their faces when their keys were stolen haha:)

Russ, Minqhee, Tiffany and I had to go early to east coast park to set up the games. Woah it was like seriously uber hot under the afternoon sun...now i'm as red as a cooked lobster. The youths had an epic time playing the games, especially at the MUAHCHEE station! Haha it was super funny watching the youths get wet and roll in the sand becoming super dizzy and literally having the world around them spin!

It was a great feeling doing worship for the first time at a camp:) Pastor Aaron's sermon was really good, teaching us about how great out God is. The alter call after the sermon was a time of really experiencing God and encountering him. I really sat there and reflected on my life and how I was living it. I realized that my life was kind of stagnant and I did not know what I wanted to do in life or which path I should take. Thank God for Andy! Seriously! I never really realized till then that there was a friend, leader and big brother just a phone call away. Thank you Andy for praying for me and for lending your shoulder to cry on. I could really feel God's presence in the room and I'm sure everyone there had an encounter with God in their own special way. Praise God for that! :)

Crazy crazy stuff followed as I thought I could get a good night's rest before waking up early the next morning. However I didn't manage to sleep until 2am in the morning as we were up all night planning the games for day 2 of the retreat. The air con didn't help and my whole body was freezing.

Day 2: 5.30am wake up call kinda killed me haha. We arrived at MacRitchie Reservoir at around 6.30 and we then had a good time of mass worship and group devotion. In the quietness of MacRitchie, it really got me thinking of God's creation and how I could really use some time of m busy schedule to just sit in somewhere peaceful and quiet and just admire God's creation. Chaos followed as the games comm only had 30 mins to set up all our games. It was kinda rush to finish putting up the spider web but it still worked out in the end. Many funny photos followed of people being blindfolded trying to eat marshmallows. The skids were also super funny; Barney, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Twilight were just 2 of the topics that the skids were about. It was really super funny to watch HAHA!

Pastor Aaron's 2nd sermon was next after we got back and had some time to wash up. It was about prayer and how prayer can cost us out lives. Our prayers are answered in God's time and if we pray expecting him to do something, we will surely find our answers in very unique ways. Sry to say that I was kinda very tired and so was nodding off in some parts of the sermon...sorry...

We had around 2 hours for lunch and to just chill out and I spent that time playing Bridge haha :P In the afternoon we had a meaningful time at Kranji War Memorial. The time that was given to us to just walk aroudn and let God speak to us was really enough to allow me to reflect on my life. It made me realize that I should really cherish how fortunate I am to be living in a time where there is peace and no wars. Group discussions followed with Daniel taking me, Jordon and Jonathan. Some questions asked were "how are you going to live your life after looking at these gravestones?" and "what do I want inscribed on my gravestone?". I guess my answer to the second question would be the same as Daniel's, "I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith".

Worship that night was really great! It was like totally awesome with people standing on chairs while the rest just crowding to the front to just praise and worship God. Pastor Aaron's 3rd and final sermon was about us rising up like stars or in shame. After his sermon was holy communion, but instead of the pastors serving us communion, we had to serve our friends. It was a first for me and I can really say it is a different experience altogether. Well following our tmc youth camp traditions, the last night was really one of just playing, fellowshipping and only sleeping for 1 and a half hours HAHA :D At night we just went retarded playing different games and having retarded forfeits! I also managed to write all my encouragement cards, YAY! :D

Day 3: Worship that morning was really epic! The first part of worship was great, people jumping and singing praises to God! After that was a time of sharing and testimony where a few of us went up to just our experiences during the camp as well as about our lives over these few months. We had a time of just prayer where everyone was kneeling on the floor and just praying for each other. I thank God for Russ and Jonathan! They are seriously brothers that I cannot live without, I LOVE YOU GUYS! :D Thanks for praying for me, it didn't make me cry as I thought it would make me, but still it was awesome! The closing songs were really awesome! Everyone was now so emotional and excited and it was a really great sight to see all the youths jumping for God! I hope that worship every sunday will be just like the worship we experienced as a closing for Ignite 2010!

All your promises won't let go of me!

Hey peeps! Ignite 2010 is only 2 days away!!! Intense intense man, planning for games and activities are still being finalized. Oh man can we make it? YES WE CAN! Haha okok anyways today was nothing much, just had my usual session of blackshot for a couple of hours:) Oh the highlight for today that I got to see Aunty Ann and Uncle Leong. Woah haven't seen them in like dino-years, not really la only 4 years but still thats long. It was good to see them again, although we barely exchanged words. I must meet up with Ben again, its been too long since we last saw each other! Haiz next came maths tuition homework and eventually maths tuition. Sucked man, integration is like crazy haha. Got to blackshot a while more till Russ, Minqhee and I started an msn conversation to finalize the Ignite games proposal. It was super funny when Russ started going about his business with Clint and Minqhee going crazy becoming like a mom ordering the younger guys around...bully sia haha. Best part of it was that Minqhee said she'll love us for the rest of her life if we did up the proposal well enough! HAHA I'll always remember that Minqhee ;D Woah its 1 am and I'm still not sleeping haha, super hungry though...

Oh yeah before I forget...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMUEL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARMSTRONG!

For greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city.

Today was the end of a sianzness week and its gonna be the start of an EPIC week. Ignite 2010 is in 5 days time man, woohoo cant wait to ignite for God man. Anyways today had the usual ym, went for service and had great fellowship over chicken rice:) Russ and I decided to join Zeon, Jared and Josh down at Serangoon Gardens lan. Haha we totally saved the world from zombies:) Landed up playing versus with china and japanese people, noobs and pros haha. It was an epic time of L4D2 and this is a good sign to the start of my EPIC week!

As soon as i got off a comp from the lan shop, plunged back into my own comp at home and started to catch up with Kimberley, was good to know a few new things haha:) Anyways the most epic moment was at night where the games & activities comp for Ignite 2010 mass convo-ed on msn to finalize our games and activities. It was hard work getting past the strict standards of our 'big boss' (literally and figuratively) Woah we had like 3 and a half hours of epic discussion, going off topic here and there and being totally anti-climatic at some points of time. Well i definitely have to thank god that we managed to come up with a skeleton and gonna hopefully finish the proposal for games by tmr.

Its the bond between brothers that is the sword that defends the nation.