Perception

recently i shared with a friend the meaning of my name.
a boat in the middle of the ocean

for years, i think of the meaning as cool.
it quite aptly reflected how i left my family on my own as a 12 year old teenager.
alone - scary and away from the shore.

but there is always the fresh way of looking at things, a new perception.

when Jesus saw Simon, He saw a rock, instead of unstable reed.
when God sees us, He sees the way He intends us to be, rather than the way we, or others make ourselves out to be.

So, this friend of mine, redefined my name
a boat in the middle of the ocean
- one that brings comfort and shelter to others..

simply awesome
it was a revelation to me.

it was a new perspective, and it came so quickly from her.
how very wise indeed.
it changed the way i think.

you can choose to look at the negative of a matter,
to look at things from a passive mind,
or you can choose to look beyond the negative,
to look out for the good,
to perceive the way God wants it to be,
to wisely turn the situation around.

How very wise.
a boat in the middle of the ocean.
one that brings comfort and shelter to others.

Teach - love

special special...

These are our special olympic athletes from JAMs....
All the way to Shanghai...
And back... with GLORY!!! Praise God!
That's our parliamentary sec, Mr Teo. How did I end up taking picture with him?
Well, it's a long story. =)

Anyway, the focus is on this lady below here...

That's Wenyu...

Back with one Gold (single bowling), one Silver and one Bronze.

Awesome, isn't it?
Before she left, I remember Santhi led the whole church to pray for her.
That she would shine and come back with medals.
And she did shine! She is the sole Gold medallist from JAMs.

Wenyu has come a long way.
I think she has been with us for more than 9 years now.
One would remember how when she first came, she had no interest in spiritual thing.
Her only joy came when she got to play games in JAMs.
And she would throw tantrums and cry if she didn’t get to play that week.
And she was one who could not take defeats - a sore loser

Boy, has she really grown.
Grown physically
Grown in her mental learning capacity
Grown in her self esteem
Grown in her love for God.

What a privilege to see students’ lives being transformed right before your eyes!
To see students surpassing the teachers…

Awaiting more such great testimonies…
Cos our works are not in vain!

Passion 2007

A short write up about JAMs conference this year.

This year, Lily and Santhi decided to change the format of the conference.
More practical sharing sessions.
So they decided to increase the sharing sessions to 3, instead of the usual one session every year.
I had the privilege to share something that is close to my heart - on teaching.

It was a fun experience; a fun yet quite stressful one.
I was pretty tied up with school and personal matters last week.
Had to set 4 papers for exams; visit all JAMs students in the bus; do up editing project and prepare notes for the conference.

So, when i finished setting my last paper, finished my editing project last night, you can imagine the relief i feel. It feels the same as a year ago when i finished my A-level examinations (haha!!)
Anyway back to the conference.

It is challenging to try out new things. Especially since there seems to be less entertainment this year (no performance etc) in the conference. Also, no one knows how the teaching sessions will turn out to be - whether it will be applicable and relevant to the workers. And the time constraints were crazy.

If there is one person who deserves the credit for making this a huge success; (credit, not glory - all glory goes to GOD!) it must be Santhi...

She is the woman of details and of excellence; a perfectionist with a can-do attitude!
Actually, it takes a lot of adjustments from me to even "flow together" with her.
I am of detail; yet, my details are not as aesthetic like hers.
Sometimes i felt like telling her to just stick to what we have and not be sooo detailed.
Yet without her aesthetic feel; the conference will not be as successful - in fact, many times during JAMs service or big day, if there is no Santhi; the feel will just be normal; as in nothing new and fun and colourful.
It will really be just as status quo.

So, she undertook the whole project, delegated all the jobs (my goodness! She even brought BBQ skewers to try to beautify the place!)
If not for her, there would not be door gifts, no welcome song, no video, NO NOTES!
No structure.

So, I really need to applaud her and learn from her.

Many times when we prepare for things behind the scenes, no one sees it; and no one ever knows it.
And no one will know the effort you make, the problems you have to go through to get the smallest things done. And at the end of it, you have to affirm all other contributions from other people.
Yet no one really gives you enough affirmation for what you do.

It takes a really well esteemed person to not boast about themselves and move on after every success.
It takes a LEADER.
And she is one good leader - A VERY GOOD ONE

This is only a small affirmation I can give her - that she is one of the best organizers i have met.
Great teacher, Great visionary.

If not from the sessions taught, I have learnt so much from just working with one woman.
God sees your work in secret and will one day reward you publicly.

Losing Cool

These few days have been very trying for me.
A series of incidents happened, and they are all great tests to the soul.

Even as I am up to my neck, another incident had to take place today.

The moment HL came up the bus, I could tell that her temper was foul. She probably went through a rough week too. So when she started talking on the phone with her friend, she was rude, loud and brought a spirit of heaviness to the bus.

When I told to her to put down the phone, she turned rude towards me. Eventually, even though I was talking to her with the gentlest tone possible, she flared up. Anger took over her, and she slapped herself, bit her hand, pulled her hair and threw her bag on the floor.

Here is a 24 year old woman, yes, intellectually less-able compared to the rest, but mature enough to hold a proper job and live her own life, overtaken by her temper.

Anyway, in the process of her wrath, she scratched me and bit my hand, leaving quite cool marks behind on my arm.

She was eventually appeased, when I repeatedly told her it was okay and I was not angry, and that I loved her. She realized she was wrong and started crying. She was worried that I would tell her favorite teacher about what happened. I told her no, I won’t (Hmm… Perhaps I shouldn’t blog about this too).

I didn’t tell any teacher, except for Y when I came into the church. It was a trying time. I was very upset. It is not the pain in the hand, but the pain of the heart that got me. Here is this person whom I have been taking care of for the past 9 years, sowing countless time, money, energy, but showing no love, no respect towards me. I thought, I should just give up on her and move on to focus on the rest.

When I led the welcome praise minutes later, I made a statement that whether it is a good day, or bad day, we shall praise the Lord no matter what. As I held back my tears when I said that, I could see that HL was crying in the congregation. All I could think of was, God, are You sure I can take it?

I brought HL after JAMs out for lunch. I didn’t talk to her about her biting my hands and stuff. We discussed temper problems. I guess everyone is prone to losing cool. I told her that I too struggled with bad temper in the past. And interestingly, I did the things that she did too – biting, hitting, etc… That probably explained why I was able to lovingly calm her down quickly.

Difficult day it seemed. But, as I went through today’s incident, I realized how a split second decision can cause such pain to others and yourself. That was how HL hurt herself and me, by a split second decision to show her wrath. And when that happened, only grace from the other party can cover it and restore things quickly.

Don’t ride on the wave of other’s wrath. As difficult as it may seem, put the fire off lovingly.

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

baby boom

The interesting thing about being in church long enough, is that you get to see your counterparts grow up and move on in life.

Last year, we had a wedding boom - two couples who met in JAMs got married.
This year, they moved on and both couples' wives are pregnant and ready to give birth within this year.
Talking about growing the church!

Besides that, every other month someone in the cg is giving birth and adding to the nursery.
We have 6 babies for this year end - two have shown their faces, another four still on their way!

Oh yea.. And when the cycle is over, it shall restart next year, with new couple, like below.

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it..

[by the way, notice that guy with the white shirt on the left.. He is perfectly straight --- only he is possibly one of the funniest guys we ever seen. Talking about being a gentle-man.]