A Very Interesting E-mail

Re-entry from Jeremiah wasn't so bad... except reconnecting with my mum. I don't know why, but my mum and I tend to quarrel a lot over small matters that don't matter at this present. 


Thinking of what to blog nowadays. Just can't get any inspiration and I think I am not used to staring at the laptop or monitor for quite a long time since I didn't do that for almost 2 months. But as I was determined to clear up my emails I came across one which is really cute and would love to share with all you readers out there. 


"What does LOVE mean?" by 4-8 year old kids

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'

Rebecca- age 8

---

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'

Billy - age 4

---

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'

Karl - age 5

---

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'

Chrissy - age 6

---

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'

Terri - age 4

---

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'

Danny - age 7

---

'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss'

Emily - age 8

---

'Love is what's in the room with you atChristmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

---

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'

Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

---

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday..'

Noelle - age 7

---

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'

Tommy - age 6

---

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'

Cindy - age 8

---

'My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'

Clare - age 6

---

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken..'

Elaine - age 5

---

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer thanRobert Redford.'

Chris - age 7

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'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'

Mary Ann - age 4

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'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'

Lauren - age 4

---

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)

Karen - age 7

---

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.'

Mark - age 6

---

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'

Jessica - age 8

*************************************************************

See how cute and also meaningful these kids can be? I love a few of them especially Billy, Terri, Chris, Lauren and Mark's. Their's are the cutest of all! And this e-mail got me thinking as well. What does LOVE mean to me? This will help me be more patient towards my parents as they grow older. Need to be more sensitive towards their emotional needs particularly. God be my helper! 

Birthday at Jeremiah School

Really, my birthday in JS wasn't what I expected at all. To be really honest here, I was expecting something more grand than I usually have back home. Sure, there was cake and I also celebrated it with my bro in Christ Ian who was also born on the same day as me. But we were so busy that night; preparing for the presentation the next day to be presented to the congregation of Living Water Sanctuary. In the midst of planning they brought the cake and sand the song. That was the climax. Let me start from the beginning. 


       The girls were whispering to each other that night. I knew they were up to something. When I woke up on 19th of February, one by one wished me "Happy Birthday" and I was still in my sleeping bag. What the girls initially planned was to wake up at midnight and wish me Happy Birthday but failed cause everybody was too tired and they didn't hear Becky's alarm. Chris heard but Becky didn't and everybody just couldn't open their eyes. LOL! PLAN FAILED! 
              I called mum after doing my quiet time. Talked a lot and ended the conversation. Went back into the room and found a thick journal with a turquoise cover and the word "peace" on my sleeping bag. I flipped it through and it was mentoring group's gift to me with  4 pages of wishes from Venn, Bea, Becky and Dee. (Thanks you guys!) 
           Later the other mentoring group gave me another journal which design was more complex and it was thinner and smaller. Still, I loved it also. (Thanks Eva, Su Ee, Cindel, Rachael and Chris!) 

Left: My mentoring group,
Right: The other mentoring group

That whole day, I remember it was quite serious. Despite it was my birthday I still have to focus on God as we were entering into the field work in Ayer Tawar. The leaders sensed that there was disunity among us and we had 1 hour quiet retreat to reflect on anything that we did to offend or to cause the disunity among us. Later after that 1 hour the girls and guys gathered together separately in our own rooms and shared. I remembered the girls, most of us poured out a lot. Especially Eva. The girl we saw who was tough and really independent. She shared about her life when she had to move to Teluk Intan and stayed with her relatives and was separated with her parents. She cried. That would be our first time seeing her cry. Becky too. Some of us shared that during CNY break, we felt like outsiders; aliens to be more precise. 

         As the president of my Youth group in church, I came back knowing nothing and I was seriously the blur case. I felt horrible actually. It's a horrid-gible feeling. All of us felt that sort of rejection in a way. Coming back to the sharing...

           All of us shared before and after our trip to SMK Methodist CF meeting. We fellowshipped with them and got to know a few. I am struggling now with who is who. There were so many people we met and talked with. And it was such a short time! Going to a CF in a school really opened my eyes and I learned something new. It made me think back of the CF back in my school. I wonder whether they are still meeting up. 

         After the sharing... I can't exactly remember what happened. Oh man... now I can really feel the importance of journaling. Sheesh! But after resting and dinner, we had to practice for worship and the presentation. Oh yeah~ Now I remember what happened during the break. 

     Denise treated me to a manicure and did my hair. (Thanks Dee!!)

Ok... moving on to the night. I was the pianist for the worship. Although in between that week Samuel also played for Pastor during the prayer meeting. And as Ian was explaining the sequence of our presentation which was a medley of 4 songs: One Way, Running After You, The Time Has Come and Take It All. It was really cool! Yeah... As I was saying, during that time, they brought the cake and wala! The climax. Here's a photo of our cake.

That was all for my birthday. Although there was one unpleasant thing which I over-reacted about. But that's all resolved and in the past. When I got back, it was another story. 2 presents were waiting for me back home. One from a guy who had a crush on me when we were in form 2 and another one posted all the way from the USA, my penpal Melissa Kratz. 

From Daniel

From Melissa Krazt
(I love you!)

And not to forget my best friend in JS, Fong Su Ee... 

She gave me these...

From Fong Su Ee

And my best birthday present from God is my dad who drove the family up to Ayer Tawar for my graduation and commission. Thank you, heavenly Daddy...

             

Kutless - What Faith Can Do

I love this song so much!

What Faith Can Do Lyrics

Everybody falls sometimes

Gotta find the strength to rise

From the ashes and make a new beginning

Anyone can feel the ache

You think it’s more than you can take

But you're stronger, stronger than you know

Don’t you give up now

The sun will soon be shining

You gotta face the clouds

To find the silver lining

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains

Hope that doesn’t ever end

Even when the sky is falling

I’ve seen miracles just happen

Silent prayers get answered

Broken hearts become brand new

That’s what faith can do

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard

Impossible is not a word

It’s just a reason for someone not to try

Everybody’s scared to death

When they decide to take that step

Out on the water

It’ll be alright

Life is so much more

Than what your eyes are seeing

You will find your way

If you keep believing

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains

Hope that doesn’t ever end

Even when the sky is falling

I’ve seen miracles just happen

Silent prayers get answered

Broken hearts become brand new

That’s what faith can do

Overcome the odds

You don't have a chance

(That’s what faith can do)

When the world says you can’t

It’ll tell you that you can!

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains

Hope that doesn’t ever end

Even when the sky is falling

And I’ve seen miracles just happen

Silent prayers get answered

Broken hearts become brand new

That’s what faith can do

That's what faith can do!

Even if you fall sometimes

You will have the strength to rise

CNY Hong Family Reunion Klang

Blessed Chinese New Year to all Christian Chinese who celebrates it and who are reading this. I personally enjoyed this year's CNY. Mainly because I finally got to reunite with my dear uncle Joshua and his family! I miss them terribly. Seriously. 


        Alright, first up today, I spent the half day (9am-1.30pm) in church. I was doing some stuff online and deciding on the Youth Camp's theme. It's quite hard deciding it alone. Going online in church with my laptop, Zan got the crave to use the laptop too. And we fought for it and ended breaking the sliding glass of a cupboard in the library. This incident has definitely taught us to be more careful next time. It was quite funny actually. I was chatting with my friend Joel and he was advising Zan through msn and he was indirectly there the whole incident except that he didn't see the incident happening. It was very strange yet a non-forgetful experience. Haha! 
        After church, we went to Ayi's house for lunch and stayed there till Alex was ready to go home. We had to send him to the railway station and I checked out the station to Mid Valley. Thank God it's a direct link and I don't have to switch trains. 
         Later in the evening, the family reunion started! I called everyone with my unusual cheerful tone and wished them "Xin Nian Quai Le!" As I laid my eyes on Susanna, Sophia, Be Ku and Be Kim, I immediately hugged them and I was so happy almost at once. I missed them in the whole of 2010. I will cherish every moment I have with them. Tossing "yee sang" and eating our favourite pork dish that only our dear AhKim can cook, it was a marvelous dinner. We also watched Megamind together. It was hilarious! XD 
           Got to mingle around with our almost 7 months old niece. She is so cute and brave! The baby really has a unique personality. Later on at night, the Hong family went to Ah Keat's new home to have a short family and home blessing as a family of God. The house is huge! Lots of space which is no surprise why my mum likes it so much. However, it wasn't my taste, personally. 
          As I'm writing this blog, there are firework competitions held around here. It's terribly loud and I can't sleep!
         Continuing.... Got ang paos today. I feel very happy. Hehe... Here are 2 photos of me and my cousins. Oh how I miss them so much. Will see them again tomorrow. Hooray!! 

Fr left: Susanna & Sophia Hong, Me

Fr left: Poay Swan, Susanna, Sophia, ME and Zan

Shopping with Mother

Yes! I went shopping with my mother to buy me a dress, shoes and shawl for my graduation in JS. YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT!!??

Okay. Just joking around.

Yes, indeed, it is true I went out with my dear mother to shop for myself a new knee-length dress, shoes that match and a shawl that doesn't spoil the whole matched outfit. It was absolutely a splendid experience and time. We went to JJ Aeon Bukit Tinggi mall and spent nearly 3 hours shopping for just those items. 

Before we left from home, I prayed. I even started praying when I was told that we girls need to wear dress. In my whole life, I only owned 5 dresses. 3 when I was pre-school and below and 2 between the ages of 7-12. Since 11 years old, I have not owned any dress. So you can get the idea on how I feel when I wanted to get a dress. I didn't know the basics of shopping for a dress. Okay, so we got the dress first. We went searching the whole mall until we came to a special boutique called Cruz. There was only one dress which is knee-length and it fitted me perfectly. It was definitely God answering my prayer. It's purple some more. Double blessing. 

We then got the shawl from Brands Outlet. And the shoes!! I tell you I hate shoe shopping because I can hardly get my size!! But all glory to God I now own my first high heels shoes! They are called wedges and it fitted me 'ngam ngam hou'! And I don't feel awkward walking in them and I especially don't feel extra tall. Hehe... At first my mum and I were considering flat shoes but they look quite ugly on me cause my right foot is bigger than my left foot and my right toe lines could be seen while my left one was totally covered. Really sad... Until I found those wedges. 

Praise God my mum was so generous. After a very long time, she finally started using her credit card on me. *sniff *sniff. I was extremely touched. Tried not to cry by reasoning in my mind. She promised to give me RM50 for every A I got for PMR. So that's all settled. But my inner being can't think that way. She has worked hard for the money and CNY is coming up. Papa really has to start giving me the allowance he owes me. He has given Zan 3 times more than me. Twice when I was away in JS! *grumbles

Anyway, today was really fruitful. I did my quiet time before breakfast and actually held to "No Bible, No Breakfast" principle. I must now do my quiet time. Hmm... I'm having this tiny desire to start a private blog to do my journaling. Maybe I should. 

I'm gonna renovate this blog some time this week and start writing in a different pattern. It's time for a real make-over! 

Thank you Lord for this day

Your abundant grace and blessings I felt today

I did not waste my time unwisely

You granted me that request I made this morning

O Lord how loving You are to me

I can't thank You enough for every kind deed

I received from You, my Daddy in Heaven

I bless Your name and confess widely open

YOU ARE MY GOD, SAVIOUR AND FRIEND!!

AMEN!

Jeremiah School 2011 (Week 1)

Wow... One month just flew by so fast! It's a sad fact but life must go on. *sigh...


Week 1: 4th-9th January

          OKAY!! These are the things that I went through during the first week of JS. The beginning itself was full of funny memories. I 'tumpang' PJ Trinity church's van and there were 5 of us in the van excluding the driver: Zhi Wei, Ian, Joel, Cindel and myself. We talked on the way to PD but we got lost in PD. We were supposed to go 12 o'clock at the roundabout but we entered 9 o'clock instead. That way led us to the highway back to KL! It was seriously funny and Zhi Wei (who was giving the directions) was starting to panic. But we managed to get back to PD using the Lukut exit on the way and we got proper directions from a mate who was already there. We actually got the right directions but from a wrong perspective. The good thing is that we arrived safe and sound. Orientation day was not really eventful except that we got into our groups and were briefed on the rules and regulations. 

          The next day we started our lessons right away. We learned about "Love of God", "Knowing God the Father" and "Personal Development Plan". And we watched Columbine that night. It was about the Columbine shooting that took place in a the Columbine High School. And the story was mainly about a girl named Rachel Joy Scott who was shot dead and her funeral was on CNN and her family was invited by Oprah to go on her show. Here's the video clip I found. 

I cried so hard that night watching this video. Many people shared how she was an angel to them. She really shone for God in her school and church. People could never say a bad thing about her. Her story and eulogies spoke to me and I was moved to really shine for Jesus more. Reflecting back on my life, I've lived a really dull life and I don't think I've impacted anyone. I surrendered my life to God fully and through the 4 weeks in JS, I've learned a lot and I'm back now with a blaze not a fire but a blaze. That's for Day 1. 


Day 2! 
          Meditation... Yeah, sounds really chim and "yoga-ish" but it's not at all. We went out to nature. We all stood in the field facing the sea and we did some kind of activity where we were led by a mentor and a stick. We were asked to close our eyes all the way and listen to every instruction we hear from the mentor that was leading us around the field. It was quite scary at first cause we don't know what's in our way and the fear of tripping. But I managed to follow through with a few peeks =P 
Still, it was really meaningful and it gives a really metaphoric illustration of our lives and how much be trust God to lead our lives. The following sessions were "Meditation: Scripture" and "Reflection". We had "Chapel Time" at night. I remembered the first 3 people that 'preached' were Titus, Ruth and Eva. All of us were required to preach a sermonette for 10 minutes. It was quite scary at first but we all managed. There's still the other half of JS after CNY and there are a few more of us who have not preached yet. Hehe... looking forward to that.
             That night, I fell sick! I had fever and the next day: Day 3, I had food poisoning. I threw up 3 times and I rested in the dorm the whole day till dinner. And everything was a blur that night. I can't remember what exactly we did that night. 
             
           The next day, we traveled to Seremban and visited Beautiful Gate and heard the history of Beautiful Gate. We helped clean up the place especially the ceiling fans and the windows AND we weeded the whole compound! We discovered many creatures that inhabit the compound. For me, everything was tiring and I didn't really enjoy doing the weeding. I was recovering and my body was weak. We then visited Seremban Wesley MYF and played 'human foosball' with them and captain ball. 

Playing Human Foosball in Seremban Wesley

Playing Captain Ball in Seremban Wesley

           We had our dinner there and we had to split into half. My mentoring group which consists of: Ruth, Becky, Denise, Beatrice and Vennesa plus the guys mentoring group: Titus, John, James, Bryan, Zhi Wei and Austin. The 12 of us went to Taman Unjung Methodist Church. It is a small church and consist of many older generation members. But they have their own youth group too. And meeting and interacting with them made me feel grateful for my Youth back home. We have all the facilities and space. They have one confined room to themselves with a keyboard, guitar and a small percussion instrument. They used praise and worship song books. It's more like a cell group style. It was meaningful though. I actually enjoyed my time there until we had to leave. 
        The later part of that day, all of us spent 4 hours in Seremban Aeon JJ. The layout of the building is quite similar to the one in Bukit Tinggi. Couldn't really eat much cause the smell of food really made me wanna puke. And I spent most of the time talking with my best girl-pal, Su Ee. We were talking and reading through Cloe magazine in MPH. We got to know about each other more. I really regretted not snapping any photos that day. But these are the only ones I could find from my JS mates who took. 

Taman Unjung Methodist Church
Fr left: Denise, Beatrice, Me, Becky

Fr left: Becky, Beatrice, Vennesa, Me

I enjoyed the first week despite being sick and feeling a lil left out. But everything went so smoothly and we all bonded so fast. It's totally a great experience. Week 2 will be up soon I hope. So much to write about!!   And OH!! We celebrated one of our mate (Eva's) birthday on that Sunday. She was born on the same date as my dad and my neighbour. Here's a group photo of all of us and her with her cake. She's the Indian chick by the way =P

Eva's Birthday!! 

Youth Quake 2010 & Jeremiah School

YOUTH QUAKE 2010
ROCKS!!!

It was just simply amazing!! 

Made new friends and had so much fun!

But the best thing of all, my spiritual being was reignited. The passion and heart to seek God grew despite the occasional quiet time nowadays. Those who went from SOS Youth, we all bonded. We learned more about each other and the most amazing thing was we prayed together as a whole group. It was just wonderful when we all started to cry one of us prayed. We all do care for our Youth Ministry. So, that was the important part.

It is through the team building that I learned how a grandma feels when she starts to ache all over. Thanks to our dear Segar's brother-in-law, I suffered joint pain (knees), I couldn't stand up straight properly (abs too tight and tensed from vigorous exercise) and I couldn't stand up or sit down as swift as a normal teenager should. 

And thanks to the dance instructor, Wei On, I have gained a temporary 2 packs  on my abs. 

"Let's do some warm up before we start!" he said.

10 minutes later...

"Push! Girls don't go on your knees! It's useless"

"Aarrhh.... Uugghh...!"

And the outcome, I experienced a temporary state of being an A-ma. 

Isn't this a lovely part of God's wonderful creation?Sunset on the first day(26.12.10)

JEREMIAH SCHOOL 2011

I really don't know what will happen to me after Jeremiah School. Most of my older friends who had joined JS became a better and different people after the whole process. So I don't know what will the end product of me will be... 

Still, my motive of going is to focus on God and seek His will for me. I'm not entirely sure of what to do after SPM despite receiving many letters of college promotions. So yeap...

And spending 6 weeks together, it's gonna be a blast and a heartache at the end. *sigh...

And mixing around with guys too! 

I'm very sure we're all gonna get attracted to each other.

But I'm a really tough fish to catch. 

So I'm not that worried about that part.

But maybe who knows... 

Someone there could actually succeed. 

Nevertheless,

The motive and objective of going there

is NOT to find for my soul mate

It is to SEEK MY SAVIOUR. 

Take care my friends...

=)

I'll be back by: 29th of January and 27th of February
I'll be gone by: 4th of January and 9th of February