hullo everyone =)
i'm back from penang, as you can see. wanted to blog while i was there, but didn't have the time.
i spoke at penang free school's scf on the topic, "how to be a witness in the school". and i also spoke at the combined scf meeting on saturday morning, on the topic "building a strong scf".
thank you for your prayer support. =)
next in line: prepare for ZMax camp in march and the seremban trip in april.
if possible, i think i should blog about something non-work/ministry soon. i sense that readers are becoming bored because my posts are always about work stuff (readers, feel free to contradict/agree/comment). but at the moment, nothing else seems to be blogworthy. hmmm, what to do? =P
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
next weekend
sorry for such a late update... have been very busy.
the trip to alor setar was great! people were incredibly hospitable, and they fed us really well...=) i especially enjoyed the time we had meeting up with youth who'd been at our camps. many of the youth in Full Gospel Church and Wesley Methodist Church alor setar have been campers at NSCFL and dNa over the past 2 years that i've been in SU.
the preaching at changlun also went well, thank God... there's a lively, friendly bunch of students from UUM there, and my prayer for them is that they will start well and finish strong (just as i preached, haha). the sad thing was, another ex-camper from last year's ZMax camp was having his birthday party, and i didn't get to go because i was at changlun. still, no regrets. =)
so, what am i so busy with, you ask? well, next weekend there's another ministry trip on, this time to penang island. apart from preparing for that, there have been meetings these few days to plan for Camp Chit Chat and dNa 2008. on top of that, i am very aware that ZMax 2008 is only a couple of months away and i am very worried about camper recruitment. and lastly, my desk looks like a war-zone and i desperately need to clean it up....
please pray for me. for grace and strength to get done all that i need to get done. thank you.
the trip to alor setar was great! people were incredibly hospitable, and they fed us really well...=) i especially enjoyed the time we had meeting up with youth who'd been at our camps. many of the youth in Full Gospel Church and Wesley Methodist Church alor setar have been campers at NSCFL and dNa over the past 2 years that i've been in SU.
the preaching at changlun also went well, thank God... there's a lively, friendly bunch of students from UUM there, and my prayer for them is that they will start well and finish strong (just as i preached, haha). the sad thing was, another ex-camper from last year's ZMax camp was having his birthday party, and i didn't get to go because i was at changlun. still, no regrets. =)
so, what am i so busy with, you ask? well, next weekend there's another ministry trip on, this time to penang island. apart from preparing for that, there have been meetings these few days to plan for Camp Chit Chat and dNa 2008. on top of that, i am very aware that ZMax 2008 is only a couple of months away and i am very worried about camper recruitment. and lastly, my desk looks like a war-zone and i desperately need to clean it up....
please pray for me. for grace and strength to get done all that i need to get done. thank you.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
the susah-ness of leaving The Wife
i left my wife behind me at seremban's terminal one about 2 hours ago. this was particularly difficult because today is a public holiday, and she will have the whole day to be lonely without me. difficult for her, difficult also for me. sighz...
in approximately an hour's time the SU youth team and i will be travelling up to ipoh. i will be driving the SU van. and tomorrow morning, we will be going on to alor setar. please pray for a safe journey, with no accidents.
thanks be to God, the changlun sermon has been birthed. an outline was formulated over the last few days and meat added this morning. the title is "start well, finish strong!" now with God's help, may i present it well and communicate His Word clearly to all who hear.
leaving the wife is made harder by the fact that i won't be home til monday evening. because there is a dNa meeting on monday, that was postponed from 11am to 2pm so that we wouldn't hv to rush back from ipoh in the wee hours of the morning and end up snoring the meeting. dNa meetings seem to bring me much grief, no?
but let us count it all worthwhile for the sake of the Cross and to hasten the coming of His Kingdom. once again, your prayer support is greatly appreciated. til next week, God bless! =)
in approximately an hour's time the SU youth team and i will be travelling up to ipoh. i will be driving the SU van. and tomorrow morning, we will be going on to alor setar. please pray for a safe journey, with no accidents.
thanks be to God, the changlun sermon has been birthed. an outline was formulated over the last few days and meat added this morning. the title is "start well, finish strong!" now with God's help, may i present it well and communicate His Word clearly to all who hear.
leaving the wife is made harder by the fact that i won't be home til monday evening. because there is a dNa meeting on monday, that was postponed from 11am to 2pm so that we wouldn't hv to rush back from ipoh in the wee hours of the morning and end up snoring the meeting. dNa meetings seem to bring me much grief, no?
but let us count it all worthwhile for the sake of the Cross and to hasten the coming of His Kingdom. once again, your prayer support is greatly appreciated. til next week, God bless! =)
Monday, January 7, 2008
farewell and greetings
farewell to 2007! =)
the past year has been a year of New Beginnings for me. the biggest New Beginning was of course, The Wedding, which marked the beginning of my marriage with The Wife. =)
apart from that, it is also the year i began preaching in churches (only twice so far, still lots to learn); began speaking at youth camps (check out this blog post if u want to see about a hundred pics of the camp where i made my debut as a camp speaker); began my Masters in Christian Studies with STM; began learning about the sufferings and satisfactions of owning, paying for, and maintaining a house and a car; so yeah. an apt moniker, The Year of New Beginnings.=)
greetings to 2008! =)
i forsee that this new year will be a year of Marriage and Ministry. as The Wife and i pass the first-year mark of being together as Husband and Wife, our "dance" should be smoother as we learn not to step on each others' toes and to keep time with one another. as we adjust and adapt to each other, we should begin enjoying each other more and become adept at handling and resolving any conflicts that may arise. and ideally, we will grow deeper in love with each other as we grow deeper in love with God. i don't doubt that there will be challenging times too, but i have confidence that we can weather any storm with God's help. =)
at the same time, as i enter into the second year of my contract with Scripture Union, i should continue to grow and learn in the ministry. may i continue to develop to be a sharpened tool in the hand of God, fit and able to be used for His purposes.
and then of course, there's balancing the two things! =P
p.s. a quick note about my movements this weekend: i'll be off on a minstry trip to Kedah and Penang. and one of the things i have to do is preach in a church in Canglun! please pray for me as i prepare my (God's?) message. as they say, third time's the charm! =P
the past year has been a year of New Beginnings for me. the biggest New Beginning was of course, The Wedding, which marked the beginning of my marriage with The Wife. =)
apart from that, it is also the year i began preaching in churches (only twice so far, still lots to learn); began speaking at youth camps (check out this blog post if u want to see about a hundred pics of the camp where i made my debut as a camp speaker); began my Masters in Christian Studies with STM; began learning about the sufferings and satisfactions of owning, paying for, and maintaining a house and a car; so yeah. an apt moniker, The Year of New Beginnings.=)
greetings to 2008! =)
i forsee that this new year will be a year of Marriage and Ministry. as The Wife and i pass the first-year mark of being together as Husband and Wife, our "dance" should be smoother as we learn not to step on each others' toes and to keep time with one another. as we adjust and adapt to each other, we should begin enjoying each other more and become adept at handling and resolving any conflicts that may arise. and ideally, we will grow deeper in love with each other as we grow deeper in love with God. i don't doubt that there will be challenging times too, but i have confidence that we can weather any storm with God's help. =)
at the same time, as i enter into the second year of my contract with Scripture Union, i should continue to grow and learn in the ministry. may i continue to develop to be a sharpened tool in the hand of God, fit and able to be used for His purposes.
and then of course, there's balancing the two things! =P
p.s. a quick note about my movements this weekend: i'll be off on a minstry trip to Kedah and Penang. and one of the things i have to do is preach in a church in Canglun! please pray for me as i prepare my (God's?) message. as they say, third time's the charm! =P
Friday, January 4, 2008
happy new year!
yeah, i know. i'm 4 days late. nevertheless, Happy New Year!!!=)
not that it feels particularly new. still recuperating from the high-pressure, fast-paced camping season just over, coming back to work feels like... it's really, really old. does the work never end? i don't remember feeling this weary when i was a student. am i growing old or something? hahaha.
nevertheless, the promise of isaiah 40:31 still holds true: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." so, i must learn to wait upon the Lord...=)
about emmanuel efc's youth camp, all thanks and glory to God. i survived, they didn't stone me. =P seriously, i think the sessions went well, and all thanks to God's grace. i did 5 sessions about True Reality:
1. Reality? What's That?
i questioned the nature of reality and how we can be sure what is real. perhaps we are all living in the Matrix now; how do we know we aren't? i concluded that as Christians we can be sure of truth and reality because we have a God who is True and Real. if there is no God, you're in big trouble because you can't be sure of anything.
2. Real Worldviews
different worldviews would give different answers concerning what true reality is. i briefly covered postmodernism, theism (Christianity, Islam and Judaism), pantheism (Buddhism, Hindhuism, and New Age), spiritism and polytheism (many chinese who call themselves buddhists actually fall in this category), and naturalism. yes, i'm aware that each of these worldviews can merit an hour-long session in themselves; so it was just a very broad introduction to worldviews, with the hope that it would start them thinking and challenge them to develop a true Christian worldview.
3. The World's Reality
the world constantly bombards us with a picture of reality which is at odds with what we as Christians believe to be True Reality. some of the skewed values of the world have sublty infiltrated into our churches. so in this session i talked about materialistic reality (money is of prime importance), aesthetic reality (beauty is of prime importance), hedonistic reality (pleasure is of prime importance), academic reality (education and results are of prime importance), and sexual reality (sex is of prime importance). for each of these worldly realities, we checked out bible verses to see what the Christian reality is.
4. Real Bible Characters
in this session, we looked at biblical examples of people who had the right ideas about reality and people who had the wrong ones. for example, samson (whose downfall was sexual temptation) vs joseph (who resisted portiphar's wife day after day). i did this session in a quiz format, in which the campers supposedly had to check the bible passages to find out who the biblical character was before they could answer. interestingly, on more than one occasion they just guessed instead of looking up the passage. apparently some people think being the first to answer is more important than getting the answer right!=P
5. Spiritual Reality
spiritual reality is an invisible aspect of reality. because it is invisible (or more accurately, intangible), many people dismiss it and ignore it. this has potentially catastrophic eternal consequences. i then talked abit about how the Christian portrayal of spiritual reality includes an element of spiritual warfare, and that if we take the bible to be true then we should know that we are involved in this spiritual warfare. i ended with some implications of spiritual reality, i.e. if what the bible says about it is true, then
- human beings are more than just intelligent animals
- there is such a thing as sin and morality
- death is not the final end of our existence
- questions of salvation, atonement, and etc arise.
so with that, 2007 ends and we welcome 2008. may God continue to lead each of us deeper into Himself as we journey on with Him. =)
not that it feels particularly new. still recuperating from the high-pressure, fast-paced camping season just over, coming back to work feels like... it's really, really old. does the work never end? i don't remember feeling this weary when i was a student. am i growing old or something? hahaha.
nevertheless, the promise of isaiah 40:31 still holds true: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." so, i must learn to wait upon the Lord...=)
about emmanuel efc's youth camp, all thanks and glory to God. i survived, they didn't stone me. =P seriously, i think the sessions went well, and all thanks to God's grace. i did 5 sessions about True Reality:
1. Reality? What's That?
i questioned the nature of reality and how we can be sure what is real. perhaps we are all living in the Matrix now; how do we know we aren't? i concluded that as Christians we can be sure of truth and reality because we have a God who is True and Real. if there is no God, you're in big trouble because you can't be sure of anything.
2. Real Worldviews
different worldviews would give different answers concerning what true reality is. i briefly covered postmodernism, theism (Christianity, Islam and Judaism), pantheism (Buddhism, Hindhuism, and New Age), spiritism and polytheism (many chinese who call themselves buddhists actually fall in this category), and naturalism. yes, i'm aware that each of these worldviews can merit an hour-long session in themselves; so it was just a very broad introduction to worldviews, with the hope that it would start them thinking and challenge them to develop a true Christian worldview.
3. The World's Reality
the world constantly bombards us with a picture of reality which is at odds with what we as Christians believe to be True Reality. some of the skewed values of the world have sublty infiltrated into our churches. so in this session i talked about materialistic reality (money is of prime importance), aesthetic reality (beauty is of prime importance), hedonistic reality (pleasure is of prime importance), academic reality (education and results are of prime importance), and sexual reality (sex is of prime importance). for each of these worldly realities, we checked out bible verses to see what the Christian reality is.
4. Real Bible Characters
in this session, we looked at biblical examples of people who had the right ideas about reality and people who had the wrong ones. for example, samson (whose downfall was sexual temptation) vs joseph (who resisted portiphar's wife day after day). i did this session in a quiz format, in which the campers supposedly had to check the bible passages to find out who the biblical character was before they could answer. interestingly, on more than one occasion they just guessed instead of looking up the passage. apparently some people think being the first to answer is more important than getting the answer right!=P
5. Spiritual Reality
spiritual reality is an invisible aspect of reality. because it is invisible (or more accurately, intangible), many people dismiss it and ignore it. this has potentially catastrophic eternal consequences. i then talked abit about how the Christian portrayal of spiritual reality includes an element of spiritual warfare, and that if we take the bible to be true then we should know that we are involved in this spiritual warfare. i ended with some implications of spiritual reality, i.e. if what the bible says about it is true, then
- human beings are more than just intelligent animals
- there is such a thing as sin and morality
- death is not the final end of our existence
- questions of salvation, atonement, and etc arise.
so with that, 2007 ends and we welcome 2008. may God continue to lead each of us deeper into Himself as we journey on with Him. =)
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