leaving

just a quick note to say that i'll be in malacca for scf today, and from there going with the rest of the youth team to batu pahat and kluang.

bye!

p.s. i'll miss The Wife =(

i'm so old...

yes, i am. twenty-six years old, to be exact. i'm now on to the second quarter of a century... heheh

my birthday was last week... on the 19th of february. we were having a staff team meeting that day, so we celebrated birthdays together for all staff born from january-june. there was a nice pandan sponge cake, which jojo enhanced with chocolate sauce and frosting...mmmm!=D

then i went home, and my wife baked me a Birthday Biscuit!

yes, that's right, a Biscuit, not a boring, normal, ordinary cake. she didn't have baking powder, so it couldn't rise to become a cake... hahaha. and it was a very nice-tasting Biscuit, too... with my name on it in raisins! =)


here's a pic of the wonderful Birthday Biscuit (and that purple thing is a blueberry-flavoured candle that had the honour of suddenly being whisked into the role of Birthday Candle):

and here's a pic of me cutting the Birthday Biscuit:

so, what's it like to be another year older? to tell the truth, it feels more-or-less the same. no trumpets, no fanfare, no sudden increase in wisdom... and i haven't really had time to stop and reflect much. but in the short times of reflections i've been able to steal away here and there, i'm heartily thankful to God for His goodness and faithfulness to me these 26 years (and beyond). indeed, His blessings overflow in abundance and His love endures forever.

God is good, yes? =) so, many thanks to Him; and to The Wife who made my first Married Man's Birthday a memorable one; and also to all of you who so kindly wished me a Happy Birthday! =)

packed weekend

that's what the just-over weekend was. packed, a little hectic, but productive and enjoyable, too. =)

on saturday, The Wife and i rose and shone at around 6.30 am. we rushed out of the house and were off to methodist boys' school, kl (henceforth mbskl). as sometimes happens, the rush caused a little bit of irritability and ruffled feathers... heheh =P

we were at mbskl for the kl/pj scf convention... a coming together of scfs from all over klang valley. there were about 200 youth in the hall that day. actually, i'm quite sure that there were many other scfs which were not represented there. if every scf in klang valley participated, it would be a really massive gathering... anyway, the theme of the convention was 'carpe diem', seize the day. hopefully, students left with a sense of urgency and a burning passion to do what God has called them to do. for they only have these few years of opportunity, while they are in high school.

after the convention, we went to ss2 to have lunch with a bunch of volunteers for Young Writers' Camp... the lunch was at some crazy expensive place. i mean, RM15-17 for a bowl of noodles?!? once we saw the menu, we decided not to eat. couldn't afford it. but then the volunteers insisted that we eat, and refused to let us pay. such kindness! =)

the end result of the YWC lunch was, we established that we do want to have the camp this year. also, the goal of the camp will be to nurture young christians who want to write [as it has been in past years] rather than trying to raise up writers from scratch [which is well-nigh impossible and would probably degenerate into a kind of 'how to score in spm english' camp]. next step is to pull a committee together and begin meeting to pin down camp dates, a camp site, and all the nitty-gritty details of running a camp.

after lunch, we went to ikea (this was The Wife's idea) and bought some stuff there. including two toilet brushes, a spatula, some rawhide bones for Frodo, and some hanging basket thingy that i tried to convince The Wife we neither needed nor wanted... [edit: but it does look nice now that it's hanging on our back door grille =P]

from ikea, we went to my uncle's house in SS1 to see my parents. after CNY, they had gone back to sitiawan to sort and clear out stuff from our old house. that saturday, they came back to PJ as they were flying back to KK on sunday. so, it was good to go and spend some time with them. they also brought lots of stuff from the old house for us. some of it was my own stuff, like my old tennis racket, a fishing reel that my dad gave me many years ago, and etc. others were household things, like plates and pots and stuff.

however, we had to tear ourselves away from being with my mum and dad in order to go for the dinner with the emmanuel efc youth advisors. this was made harder because my uncles and cousins on my mum's side were having a big gathering in another uncle's house in SS24. but i had to miss it, as i had already given my word and made and appointment to have dinner with the efc youth advisors.

anyway, no regrets. we were treated to a massive, RM48 german buffet at euro deli. german sausages! pork knuckles! lots and lots of meaty meat! hahaha. good food and good fellowship - what more could anyone ask for? we really ate enough to bust our buckles! =)

after a good nights' rest in my uncles' house in ss1, the next day found us rushing to kl. unfortunately we underestimated the travelling time from my uncle's house to bethel baptist church, which led to us arriving about 10 minutes late to the church. this church was the church where i preached my second sermon ever, and they called me back to preach again! [either i didn't speak too badly, or they are rather desperate for speakers... hehehe] thank God, all went well as i preached on the topic "start well, finish strong". an improved version of what i preached at changlun. [this was during the trip to alor setar, which you can read about here and here] =)

after that we walked from the church to Pudu LRT station. along the way, there were many little stalls selling all kinds of stuff. The Wife almost bought a bag, but decided against it because it wasn't roomy enought. as it was, we ended up going back with a pair of slippers, a lobster/crayfish/giant prawn for my cousin, and a pair of carp (!).

we then went back to my uncle's house in SS1, rested, packed all the stuff from sitiawan into The Wife's Car, collected guppies and plant cuttings from my aunty (The Wife has a 'thing' for fish and plants, heheh), and went to my other uncle's house in SS24. we visited for awhile, gave my cousin the lobster/crayfish/giant prawn, laughed at the surprised delight in his face when he got it, chatted abit with my uncle, aunty and grandma, and then left.

by now we were tired, and we should have gone home. but did we? nope. we went to midvalley megamall!!! haiz. it's all GSC's fault. they gave me a "free ticket" because it's my birthday month. so we tried to use it, but couldn't get good seats at any movie worth watching... bleargh.

but the trip to midvalley wasn't wasted, because we ended up going to to carrefour (seremban doesn't have carrefour) and buying broccoli, fish fillets, dishwashing liquid, and other assorted groceries. we also explored the gardens, but went back to midvalley's food court for a pasta dinner before heading back to home, sweet home.

we slept well on sunday night. phew! =)

p.s. sorry this post comes so late. i wanted to get it out on monday, but was caught up with staff meetings til tuesday. then wednesday was spent calling up teachers in klang valley to talk with them about ZMax camp and ask them to help us publicise it in their scfs, and preparing a session on purity which i delivered to the UNIM (uni of nottingham m'sia) vcf on wednesday evening. well, better late than never, right? =P

Happy 6th day of CNY! =)

for those of you who want to gasak angpows from me, your time is running out! only 9 days to go, muahahaha...=)

CNY was funtastic! the FOOD... yum yum! all those cookies, and mandarin oranges, and pistachio nuts, and gor-lu (sweet-and-sour fish float, a hockchiew delicacy), and mee sua (long-life noodles cooked with red wine, another delicious hockchiew dish! mmmmmmm...), and steamboat, and i really need to go on a diet now. as usual. =P

this was our first year of giving angpows instead of receiving them. to answer kakiayam's comment on the last post, it felt bittersweet... there was the consciousness of our newly married status; the joy of giving to our younger cousins, nieces and nephews; the worry of how much we should give, in order not to be seen as stingy; and the pang of not being on the receiving end anymore. we still got a few though, from my mum and dad ["you'll always be my son, so i'll always give you!"] my por-por [same as before, only change 'son' to 'grandson'] and one aunty ["i'll stop giving when you have your first child."]. thank God for generous people! =)

besides that, there was the joy of reunion with uncles, aunties, and cousins whom i seldom get to see. but for The Wife, it was bittersweet (again) as it was her first CNY away from Penang and The In-Laws. still, she tells me that she had a good time and that she appreciated being accepted and welcomed into the Kiew family circle. so that's good. =)

after the big reunion dinner on New Year's eve, we had Family Worship. we sang a few songs (some of them chosen by me, as i was 'persuaded' to lead it), had a time of sharing and thanksgiving for what God has been doing in our lives throughout the past year, and a time of corporate prayer. apart from the children getting a little bored and fidgety during the prayer time, it was a good time of communing with God as a family.

Chinese New Year is a great time to appreciate and express affection for one's family. so, Mum, Dad, Sis, and any other relatives reading this: i really enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year with you all, and I LOVE YOU!!! =D

p.s. on the ministry side, here's what's going on:
- ZMax Camp planning meeting, tonight
- Rawang SCF planning meeting, friday afternoon
- KL/PJ SCF Convention, saturday morning
- Dinner with Youth Advisors from Emmanuel EFC, saturday night
- Preaching at Bethel Baptist Church (they called me back! heheh), sunday morning
- Word Surfers' Camp revamping and planning meeting, next monday morning
- Speaking at Nottingham Uni CF on 'Purity', next wednesday evening
- Visiting Bukit Bintang Boys' School, next friday
- Sharing in SU/FES prayer meeting on 'Jim Elliot', next next wednesday
- Ministry trip to Melaka/Batu Pahat/Kluang, end feb-beginning march
quite packed eh? so, do pray for me. thanks and God bless! =)

happy cny!!!

this is just a short post to say....

Happy Chinese New Year!!! =D

The Wife and i will be going down to Johor to celebrate there. i have an uncle there who is hosting the Kiew Reunion Dinner this year. (there, i've blogged about Life with the Wife already...haha)

to those who have been pestering me and demanding for angpows, come and visit me in seremban and i'll give u one. no guarantees that is will be enough to cover your travelling expenses, though. =P

steven

let me tell you about steven.

steven is this old indian guy who is often hanging around the place where i hang around when i wait for The Wife to pick me up at the end of the day. he's skinny to the point of scrawniness, has sparse, greying hair, a pronounced slouch, and a slightly not-so-nice sort of smell. not that i go about sniffing him, it's just one of those things that one can't help noticing. he would usually be wearing an old-looking checked shirt, a dark-coloured pair of slacks rather worn at the knees, a pair of black canvas shoes, and a pair of broken glasses fixed with a rubber-band around the left lense.

we'd previously exchanged pleasantries and introduced ourselves. he told me that he's a catholic, and he seemed pretty alone in the world. but yesterday, The Wife was late in picking me up; so, there was time for some deeper conversation.

though previously he had told me that he's a catholic, believes in God and Jesus and all that, now on probing deeper i found that he held some rather contradictory viewpoints.

on one hand, he believes in witchcraft. he insists that it's real and powerful and dangerous. he thinks that he lost his job because he was a victim of witchcraft. i said that as Christians who know and believe in the Almighty God, we have nothing to fear from witchcraft because Christ who is in us is greater than any of these evil forces. and his reply was that only a naive person who knows nothing of the reality of the world would say something like that!

now i'm not saying that witchcraft isn't real and powerful and dangerous. it is. but knowing the God who created the Universe, and knowing His Son who died to set us free from all such darkness, what have we to fear?

so after some argument, he asked me how i knew that God is more powerful than witchcraft. and of course i said, i read it in the bible!

and he proceeded to tell me about what an old, antiquated, irrelevant book the bible is. he claimed that science has superceded the bible. he told me about how men have gone to the moon, and sent monkeys to mars (i think he was mistaken about mars. we've sent unmanned probes there, but no monkeys as far as i know). he told me about the big bang. to which i replied, what was before the big bang then? why did the big bang happen?

i tried to help him see that the discoveries and progress of science have not disproved the bible in any conclusive way. i tried to explain to him how the existence of God is the only thing that gives meaning and purpose to life - science can't do that.

he didn't seem to realise that witchcraft and science don't exactly mix well, either. but i didn't have the chance to point that out to him, because finally, The Wife came for me. so i said goodbye and left. but i do hope that some of the things i said got through to him.

strange how a man can call himself a catholic and a christian, and yet seem so far from the saving knowledge of Christ.