Blog, come forth!

the title is to be read in the same imposing tones as we may assume Jesus used when he summoned Lazarus back from the grave.

yes, with this post i do resurrect my blog. i did try to save it from the cold, cruel fate of being abandoned by asking The Wife to guest blog, but alas, she did not do so.

high school reunion was good. the joker of our bunch was late, and his first words upon entering the venue were, "wah, all so fat already!" heheheh. it was good seeing old friends again, exchanging histories, marvelling at how we've all grown up. why, can you believe it, some of us are even married! it's incredible.

at the same time there's a slight undercurrent of tension and awkwardness. i may be a natural extrovert, but still there is something unnerving about meeting people that one has not met in years. that feeling of not really knowing what to say, once the superficial catching-up is done. and, i couldn't remember some of their names. =P

i was very encouraged though, by one of my old friends. in ancient days i had shared the gospel with him and done abit of bible study with him, trying my best to pass on the basics of our faith as i understood it. i am thankful to God that he is still a christian and attending church to this day. =)

the Mizuno Wave Run was 10km of torture. not surprising, considering how lousy my so-called training regimen was. the surprising thing was that The Wife, who didn't train at all, beat me flat and won herself a medal. i guess life is just not fair. =P

Loading up on pre-run nutrition

Team Hasten, Mizuno Wave 10k, 19th October 2008. Left to right: Shelby, Joshua Hooi, The Wife and i.

(Photos courtesy of Joshua "Hasten" Hooi.)

Staff consultation was good, although there were some tensions and conflicts here and there. what's life without abit of fireworks to brighten it up? anyway, we've planned for the coming year, and it's going to be an exciting one... which means i'm going to be just about as busy as i've been this year, haha...

one thing arose is that Alice, our sole remaining children ministry staff, is planning to leave next year. this will leave our children ministry department staff-less, unless someone comes in... so dear reader, if you have a call to full-time ministry and an inclination towards children ministry, please come and join Scripture Union. or if you know anyone who fits that description, tell them about this wonderful opportunity to serve God and His people. =)

alright, looking forward, here's what's coming up for me over the next two months [my responsibilities in brackets]:
- 17-22 Nov, National SCF Leaders' Camp [Games, Logistics, 2 workshop teaching sessions]
- 29 Nov-2 Dec, Young Writers' Camp [Logistics, various duties shared with volunteers]
- 5 Dec-14 Dec, d'Nous Academy [Community Work, Visit to Hindu Temple, Worship]
- 6 Dec, Vincent and Maureen's wedding! [i'll ponteng 1 1/2 days of dNa and rush back to sitiawan for this... wouldn't miss it for the world!]

do pray for all the camp preparations that are underway even now... for those who will be speaking, facilitating small groups, running workshops... for safety in travelling and games... most of all, for the hand of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work of transformation in the hearts of the campers. for it is a work that only He can do... Amen. =)

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Do we really have choices?

this morning, i saw a link on my facebook homepage. it led to a note written by a friend of mine, with the same title as this blog post. this is what he wrote:

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We can't choose our parents or families.

We can't choose the countries we are born into.

We can't choose the bodies we are born with.

We can't choose the society around us.

We can't choose the weather.

We can't choose the air we breathe.

We can't choose the principles and expectations the world imposes upon us.

It's a joke to think we really choose anything.

In the end, the only real choice we have is to live or give up.

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This is my response:

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We can choose to love and cherish our parents and our families, or to bear bitter grudges against them and hold them at arms' length.

We can choose to stay and make a difference in the countries we are born into, or emigrate into what may or may not be a better life in some other country.

We can choose to keep our bodies healthy and be thankful for the fact that they're mostly functional, or nitpick about our physical flaws and imperfections and never really see how wonderfully designed it is.

We can choose to engage with society around us and be an agent for positive change, or enjoy time alone in isolation away from society, or alternate between the two.

We can choose to enjoy the warmth of the sun, the elemental power of a thunderstorm, the beauty of cloud patterns against a clear blue sky; or just complain when weather isn't exactly as we want it to be.

We can choose to practice a lifestyle which improves the quality of the air that we breathe - carpool, don't smoke, etc - or one which continues the pollution and degradation of our air.

We can choose to accept the principles and expectations that the world imposes upon us, and be conformed to the pattern of this world; or have the courage to live counter-culture, according to the principles and expectations of God, and be transformed by the renewing our our minds.

It's no joke to think we really have choices to make.

In the end, it makes the difference between seeing life as a fatalistic choice between living and giving up, and seeing life as a great adventure full of choices to make... The most important of which, is the choice to enjoy it together with the One who gave us life in the first place.

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ironically, to believe that we don't have choices, is in itself a choice. =P

so, what do you choose? =)

Heroes of the Faith

that was the theme of the UTAR Kampar CF camp i recently spoke at.

i did four sessions based on this theme. apart from looking at the lives of Biblical heroes of the faith (based on Hebrews 11), we watched some video clips on the lives of Eric Liddel and Jim Elliot. and in the final session, i challenged them to be the heroes of faith for their generation.

each of us who calls ourselves 'Christian' are standing on the shoulders of giants. we are where we are today in our journey of faith, because of people who've gone before us who've passed the baton of faith down to us. they were able to do so because the people who came before them passed the baton to them in turn. and so it goes, down the generations and the centuries, an unbroken chain of faith, all the way back to the heroes of the Bible. therefore, it is now our turn to run the race well and pass that baton on to those who will come after us.

here's a pic of all of us, courtesy of ee ling:

one reason i really enjoyed this camp is that there's a pretty big gang of sitiawanites (sitiawanians?) there. one of them is joshua, now a leader in the CF... another is andrea, who's fabian's li'l sis (fabe was my best man at my wedding last year!), then there's anna, who's father is the famous bald physics teacher in my school who was also our SCF teacher advisor for years and years, and ren jie from ayer tawar whom i knew when she was literally a baby! (there was also a girl named mei sing there, but i dunno her that well cos she's from a different church). in many ways, these are precisely the people to whom i hope i left a legacy of faith when i left sitiawan... the people i passed the baton of faith to. it was great to see them again and to know that they are continuing to grow in their faith and serve God through the transition into uni! =)

besides that, the other campers were great too... it was a pleasure getting to know them, and a privilege to minister to them. at least two of them shared with me that they have a call to full-time christian ministry... may they be true to their calling as God leads and guides them! oh, and mr. kuek is a really interesting character too... he's a lecturer in UTAR kampar and the CF advisor. he's a veteran SU camper, and we may even have met at some long-forgotten SU camp, because we have the same SU Theme T-shirt! =)

i was pretty exhausted at the end of the camp. my voice was already weak at the start of camp, because of my trip to genting with The Wife. someone gave us two free tickets to the theme park there, and because of the expiry date, the only opportunity we had to use it was just before this camp. all the screaming on the rides and roller coasters had given me a sexy (yeah, right!), hoarse voice. and then during camp, there was this crazy game in which one group is divided and stands at opposite ends of a badminton court, and they have to shout a message across the court while the other group makes noise to distract and disturb them. the pandemonium was insane, and i couldn't sing properly anymore after that... heheh

thank God for the two days of hari raya, i really needed that time to recuperate.

last weekend and this weekend i was/will be in pj, taking a course for my part-time Masters in Christian Studies. this module is about Methodism, and it's pretty inspiring to learn about the roots of this denomination that i belong to. at the heart of the Methodist Revival was the man John Wesley, after whom my home church in sitiawan was named. reading about his quest for personal and communal holiness and his formidable self-discipline, i find that he is truly a hero of the faith whom i'd do well to emulate.

Looking forward, i have a high-school reunion thingy happening on 18 October, followed by the dreaded 10km run on the 19th (i still can't run more than 1.5km at a stretch! die lah this time...=P) and then SU staff consultation on 20-24th October. staff consultation is a really important time for us as we seek God's face, bond as a staff team, discuss important issues and ministry matters, and plan for next year's camps and events. as always, your prayers are highly valued and appreciated. =)

'til the next post - God bless! =)