Thursday, July 31, 2008

Minor Hiccups

If you guys haven't noticed yet, I've just added pictures onto the blog. These were taken during the HS weekend last Saturday, so enjoy viewing them. However the blog isn't showing all the pictures.. hmmm. Going to sort that out, hopefully will be settled today.

I have also put in youth videos at the bottom of the page but they don't seem to be loading onto the blog as well.. minor hiccup which I'm sure will be overcomed. So have patience, my friends as I sort out these problems.

Oh ya.. this Saturday no youth meeting k? I do encourage you to come for the seminar currently going on in church!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Holy Spirit Weekend

HS Weekend started at 1pm Saturday and our youths started trickling in within that time. I unfortunately didn't include Rachel's name (sorry Rachel! I missed out your form) but it was a minor hiccup. We combined with the chinese youth and we all started with an icebreaker. Ps Jonathan was a good speaker and what he said all made sense, didn't it?

The ministry time was also a real experience, when we invited the HS to come into our midst and minister to us. People cried, saw visions, received gift of tongues, ministered to. Wow! Praise the Lord for his grace and goodness. It was really amazing. I know the games were less fiesty and mild compared to the usual crazy games we usually play, but we had to cater for the chinese youth too. Never mind lah, we'll play those 'usual bien tai' games in our retreat, ok?

The guys slept in Alpha Hall while the girls slept in the rooms upstairs. I must admit I was really glad to see that mattresses were provided and that was really great! Although the mosquitoes were biting, there weren't as many as I dreaded. I don't know how the guys slept downstairs, which was pretty stuffy, but they were more troubled by the noise more than anything, I think. Some of the younger boys in chinese youth were noisier than others.

I was really glad to see Waltson, Mark and Douglas coming to join. It is truly wonderful to see them back again, and even though Waltson's holiday was short, he did come back to spend time with us (that's great of you, man!) and Mark.. Mark was able to get a day off to come spend it with us and get ministered to too. And to receive a gift from God tops it all, doesn't it? I am glad he was with us also, we've missed you, Mark!

It was really a wonderful time together, even though it was only for a day and night, it was still a great time. I hope everyone learnt something over this weekend and that you learn to apply those lessons in your lives!

Dota Revisited

I wrote about DotA 2 months ago with the aim of understanding this game the guys love to play every chance they get. And as Luiz nicely announced in the chat box, Jenny, Soo Man and I went to CX yesterday after lunch to watch 5 of the guys play their favourite game. Let me refresh your memory on what DotA is, which I extracted from Wikipedia last time and pasted here now.

Defense of the Ancients (often referred to as DotA) is a custom scenario for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft. The objective of the scenario is to destroy the opponents' "Ancient", a heavily guarded structure in each corner of the map. Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters called "creeps". As in role-playing games, players level up their hero and use gold to buy equipment during the mission.GameplayDefense of the Ancients pits two teams of players against each other: the Sentinel and the Scourge. Players on the Sentinel team are based at the southwest corner of the map, and those on the Scourge team are based at the northeast corner. Each base is defended by towers and waves of units which guard the main paths leading to their base. In the center of each base is the "Ancient", a building that must be destroyed to win the game.

So.. let me tell you my ten minute exposure to DotA. The first thought that crossed my mind when I went in CX was "wow.. this place is so systematic and clean." The screens are all flat screen monitors, with earphones attached to every computer. Then we saw the guys all seated and playing their game. Waltson wasn't too happy cos he was losing, as was Edwin. So they started another round and I saw ugly animated creatures running around the screen (these ugly creatures are heroes, I think?) followed by other smaller ugly creatures (which Klement kept telling me are creeps, I believe that, man.. what an apt name for those things) and they were fighting each other. Then there was another bigger troll hurling stones at all the creatures running around the screen, which nobody seemed to be able to kill. Then I saw Waltson breaking and 'eating' some trees.. what is that all about?

Are all the guys groaning over my description.. have I just spoiled the fun of the game? Hahaha.. ok, we girls lost interest pretty quickly. Waltson tried to explain the game to me... but all I saw was little ugly creatures running around, some throwing stones.. lots of stones.. I think Jenny and Soo Man didn't even try understanding the game.. haha.. can't blame them also lah.

Well, I left CX no wiser than when I first went in what this game was about. My brain can only categorise and shelve this experience under "The things that guys do but girls don't understand." Hahahaha

Friday, July 25, 2008

Eve of Holy Spirit Weekend

Our Alpha course is coming to an end. We have covered ten lessons and starting tomorrow, we will cover 3 more which deals with the Holy Spirit. We will hv Ps Jonathan sharing with us instead of AD JY. We will be combining with the Chinese youth group for this Weekend and this will be a chance to get to know them and make new friends.

So don't forget guys, we will be registering at 1pm so come with expectations ya!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Youth Camp Update

Hi guys... just an update on the youth camp happening in All Saint's Cathedral on 18 - 23 Aug 08. So far throughout the whole diocese, we have 191 youths signing up, let me just pass along the info I received just off the press as to the breakdown of youths according to churches;
FCC 9
St Patrick 44
All Saint's 70
CCL 12
G. Sam 6
Holy Saviour 13
Christ the King 2
G. Shepherd 2
Indah Church 1
St Michael 14
D'stream 2
St Mark 8
St Margaret 8

So that's the count so far.. 191 youths. Another news is that they have extended the deadline from 15th Jul to 31st Jul for camp registration. So, for those of us who are still considering going.. I urge you strongly to sign up for camp! It will be interesting.. I hear also that some workshops are maxed out.. wow! So sign up sign up everyone!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Away From Home - Waltson

Hey guys. Long time no see yea?Hehe. Well, the past two or three weeks have been somewhat undescribable. Work has been really tiring. So last week there was a bunch of vietnamese here to learn baking. They are a group sponsored by the RICH brand.This company sells whipping cream and many other products.So the people who came were all bosses of their own bakery. So the pressure is there for sure.We have to teach them very profesionally and not make any mistakes.Surprisingly,they have no idea how to make bread or cake.They only specialise in cake decoration.So we had to teach them from scratch. Which is gud in a way. But their cake deco is GODLIKE.Yes!Thats how i describe it!They can produce a cake thats worth so much in just 3-4 minutes!N the way they do piping is just......my goodness,just BEYOND GODLIKE!They can pipe out dragons,puppies...u name it in less that 2 mins!!!!MY GOSH!!.

Okay so u see,we have to teach them d whole day.9am-6pm.N our break is merely to rush a 5min lunch then continue work.So its really tiring.Wait, tiring has no meaning in my dictionary already.Im serious.After we teach them we stil hav to do baking,packing and lots n lots n lots n lots of cleaning!!Washing trays,equipments n so on.D worst part is these crappy vietnamese dont bother to wash the equipment they use.Crap la!!!!SO we hav no choice but to wash 4 them.So the whole week from sunday to sunday it was that way.N d worse part it was during my study week,which im suppose 2 b at home studying.So sadly i cudnt.Then on mon was exams...which is 2days ago.This whole week is exams.But left 1 paper la on fri.Tmr off.But i have to say, teaching the vietnamese was a worthwhile experience.We learn alot of things la tats for sure.N we got 2 c for ourselves the expertise of vietnamese bakers.This is one experience that i wil remember always.But that whole week was truly exhausting n hectic.

I was lucky i controlled my temper,honestly it wasnt easy. But i did wonder abt sumtin.Coz i havent gone 2 church for d past 3 weeks ald.N i actually realised that whn i missed church,i tend 2 feel tat work is extremely tiring n crappy.So i dunno la but i feel weaker la.N thn recently one of the FCC members msged me asking y i disappeared for a few weeks.So i told him tat i was reli exhausted n all.Then he did advice me.He said that God is the centre of our lives n he comes first in evrything.I admit that I haven't been doing that lately.So i will now try my best to get bak on trck.I hope you guys are learning something from this post.God bless all of u=)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Extraordinary Stuff

Last Sunday we celebrated Youth Sunday, and even though this year we didn't do many duties like in previous years, we still performed a dance. And AD Yeo said nice things about us.. yeah! Plus Ps Jonathan sang some rocking songs and many youths jumped and sang.. you all enjoyed that, didn't you? It was a fun time.

14 youths were in the dance.. let me see if I can name them all.. Hannah T & K, Steph, Jenny, Jacqueline, Slyvia, Adriel, Clement, Doug, Joel, Rachel, Moses and last but not least, Mark. Matthew was in the prac but not in the actual dance.. hmmm...what happened? and everyone.. you were all extraordinary! You all did a great job! Proud of you. Thanks and praise must go to those who choreographed the dance and those who taught (I think they are the same people, right? Mark, Stephanie & Hannah T) and also Jenny who oversee everything. Sorry if I missed out anyone, you all did really well. And you all smiled! Hahahahahaha... (the smiley worked, didn't it?) I had made a smiley and flashed it at them from the back of the church so that they would smile while they danced. There is already another dance request for Mooncake Harvest Event on 15th Sept so keep those dancing shoes on!

I received ten camp forms and this falls short of the target of 30! Hmm.. we're not very good in following targets this year huh? But I understand many are in PMR and SPM year, and the camp falls in the middle of the year. Still, I'm glad these 10 youths are joining and it will a cool camp! So look forward to camp ok, and to meeting up with your friends from other churches!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Youth Tee Shirt

Ok.. after half a year thinking over the details of our new youth tee shirt.. we finally have a design. But don't jump out of your chairs in excitement just yet, there is still work to be done. Thanks goes to Clement this time for coming out with the design (the first tee shirt was designed by Charis), which resemble that of our 1st tee. It is also flame-based, if you get what I mean, hehe, and we're thinking of reusing the pattern of the back.

Well, I know we will be able to see it better with pictures than just me talking about it, so be patient, we'll post the designs out on the blog and you can take a vote which one you like better, ok? So keep logging on to check this out!

And one last thing, we've also posted a new thing on the blog.. birthdays! So.. if I miss out anyone's.. please give me a buzz k? I noticed people like to use the chat box more.. hehe.. keep it up!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Second Wind

After the flurry of postings in May when we started our blog, we seemed to have lost steam, no thanks to me being away and also being sick for a period in June. But I guess life sometimes is unpredictable, and sometimes when you're so busy you just don't have the mood to blog. But never fear, we're not going to let our blog die, are we? So do continue with your support by viewing and dropping comments ok? I know many of you are also having finals at this time so you've cut down on surfing, it's cool. Just remember to come back to view the blog k?

Ok.. let's see what has happened since a few weeks ago.. let's start with Alpha. Ah.. Alpha, we're on the last leg of Alpha now, so far we've covered about 8 topics ranging from Who is Jesus, Why should I read the Bible? Why should I tell others to How to resist evil. I've attended 2 Alpha course so far and the one in youth is the first that I'm actually sharing the word and this has been an interesting journey for me. Why? Because I find myself challenged to share the word of God every week. Of course it's made easier with the Alpha manual that was provided and all the powerpoint clips all ready. Still, it was scary at first but coming to the end of Alpha, I am glad we went through Alpha. We set ourselves a target of 10 friends but we only managed 3 friends. I hope we will do better next time round.

Speaking about friends, I think we need to be more mature and less selfish in our behaviour and attitude. Why do I say this? Well, Joel brought a friend along, a girl, but all the guys did was to tease him that it's his girlfriend. It didn't help that the girl is a shy girl, and honestly, if I was the girl, I won't come again with all the teasing! I admire Joel for actually bringing his friend, which is really a cool thing, but he got 'sabo' by all of us who tease and alienate the girl, supposedly so that Joel can spend time with her. Please lah, if you want to date a girl, or a guy, you won't bring them to youth for a date, would you? Honestly? Please, grow up guys. Let's welcome new people and stop with the teasing.

And talking about admiring, I have to salute Waltson lah, when he was here, he would always scold us for not talking to new friends.. haiya Walt, we miss your face.. I mean your scolding oh. Because we forget too easily that we should go out of our comfort zone and talk to new friends. And think about it, they are already out of their comfort zone by coming to join us, strangers in a strange place, but we, who are in our comfort zone, do not actually draw people in. Then we wonder why our youth never grow? Hmm.. there are many reasons also lah, but our friendship and warmth towards newcomers is a reason.

Something to think about huh?

Monday, July 7, 2008

Sacrifice

You know you had a good holiday when you don't want to come home. Holiday is a great escape from reality, where you don't have to worry about your work, or studies, exams, assignments, meetings with the boss, or ministries, practices. And the only thing you have to look out for is taking care to cross the road, or which sights or shopping complexes you want to go to. But unfortunately, or fortunately, reality starts when holiday ends. So there you have it, my feelings all summed up in a paragraph after my short holiday to Kuching last weekend (That's why I wasn't in youth last Sat!)

So yesterday evening while in my room, I was praying and telling God, "you know God, I'm tired. I wish I was still on holiday and I don't have to think about ministry and church. It's not like I don't like youth ministry, Lord, but.. I'm tired." So with that in mind, I did my quiet time.. and God nicely reminded me that "it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then..." Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ came to set you and I free. I have forgotten that fact, when I was complaining about being tired of ministry. Christ suffered so much for me, and I'm complaining about tired? Christ suffered so much for me, and I still continue sinning? Err... "Lord, I take all those words back."

I guess I was still on holiday mode when I prayed that, but well, I'm back in reality and am aware once again of God's sacrifice for me. So... back to business! Heheh.. And.. if that wasn't enough to snap me back to reality, let me tell you a little story.

When I was holidaying in Manila in May, I bought myself some cute little angels, and they seemed to be the favourite of my nephew too. And like all little boys 3 years of age, they are pretty clumsy. So last night, when I was about to go to bed, I happened to glance at my angels and to my horror, one of the angel was headless! HEADLESS! Argggggggggghhhhhhh.. I could hardly believe my eyes! And then I spotted the head lying beside the figurine. My nephew had come into my room while I was in Kuching and snapped the angel's head off! It was traumatic to see a headless angel, believe you me. Sigh. I managed to reunite the parts with glue and now my angel is back to normal, aka scarface. How's that for a reality check!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Youth Camp

As of today, I have received only a total of 4 camp forms, Hannah T, Sylvia, Jacqueline and Joel. The rest are..... ? where are your forms guys/girls? I expect at least 20 people to sign up woh.. and you know what, we have no excuse not to go. Let me list out the reasons..

1st.. it's in KK so there's no roller coaster bus ride to east Sabah, vomit inducing journeys that ain't pretty. It's in ASC, which is just downtown KK ya!

2nd.. it's affordable too. Only RM30 and it's for 4 days! Where can you get such affordable camp, that you can have 400 friends around, dynamic speakers, luxury accommodation, great concerts, smashing games (eh, gotta promote ba this.. ) did I say it's in KK?

3rd.. I'm going for the camp so you better not leave me alone with only 4 friends as listed above and 400 other friends.. you this.. you can't do this to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! -.-

So.... sign up sign up.. hurry hurry hurry!