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great day :)

Monday, November 6th, 2006

parachute band

okay here’s a very bad blurry picture of Parachute Band’s pastor handing over the mike to my church’s senior pastor. and in the background is the band itself. yes. bad photo-taking. but there was good worship because we have a Fantastic God. so there :)

after church, went to meet my nursing clique, who have very bad ways of trying to disguise the fact that they want to celebrate my birthday in advance. but the intention was very sweet lahs i love them all! =D

we watched DOA cos it was the only movie at bedok cinema that was at 3pm-ish. i kept laughing at all the wrong moments. but guys will surely love this movie. we just found it so-so.

went to K-Box after that! sang for 4 hours and stuffed ourselves with food for 3. yes. buffet style. couldn’t resist the food.

)

wondering why the group pictures look so awkward? i used timer and had to run like crazy to get back with the rest to pose :)

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so honoured…

Saturday, October 28th, 2006

as you guys know(or don’t), i’m now part of the first-aid ministry in church.

 our motto is “no business is good business”. nah i’m just kidding. but it is true! who wants to fall sick on sundays?

so imagine my glee when i received an email from one of the church staff with the official line-up of events for tommorow’s service…

and saw my name in it under hospitality.

made me feel so honoured because i didn’t think that i would receive this kind of email considering the fact that if nothing medically-related happened i would be just attending service as per normal.

everybody is important in church and there’s no such thing as insignificant, y’all !

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sermon notes!

Sunday, October 22nd, 2006

[note : today's sermon i feel applies to everybody. the speaker is from my church's mother church!]

Series :  Romans 9-16

Topic :  Growing Deeper in Love (Rom 12:9-21,13:8-14)

Speaker : SP William Lee (bartley christian church)

1. Introduction

Background of the Roman Church - a mixed community

- gentiles and jews

New Identity, New community and New perspective

Importance of Sincerity in our love

2. The Look of Love - Our Attitudes

a) Sincere love rejects evil, cleaves to what is good(rom 12:9,amos 5:14-15)

b) Sincere love retains spiritual passion for God(rom 12:11,philippians 3:14)

c) Sincere love rejoices inspite of difficulties(rom12:12,james1:2)

3. The Life of Love - Our Actions

“Love, without action, is insincere”

a) Sincere love respects others above ourselves(rom12:10a,philippians 2:3)

b) Sincere love prays for others faithfully(rom12:12b,philippians1:3)

c) Sincere love responds to the needs of others(rom 12:13,1 peter 4:9-10)

4. The Lavishness of Love - Our Forgiveness

a) Sincere love understands God’s mercy(rom5:8,colossians3:13)

b) Sincere love lives at peace with others(rom12:18,mark9:50)

c) Sincere love returns evil with good(rom12:21,mathew5:44)

5. Conclusion

” Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perserveres. Love never fails”

1 Corinthians 13:4-8(NIV)

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hmm

Saturday, October 14th, 2006

i just joined a cell group after being MIA from the cg scene for 3 years-ish. there were plenty of reasons why i chose to go back now, but i must say the main reason was the fact that i’m now in not one but TWO church ministries(yay superlife and 1st aid!).

 anyways, my cell is made up of people all older than me. which effectively makes me the youngest there. but i’m pretty alright with it. cell group is not all about age you know. and besides, whenever jokes are made about being old, i won’t be targetted! haha.

we discussed quite a number of things and one good point brought up was how during cell we should be able to speak freely without being ‘politically correct’ or ’spiritually correct’ all the time.  which is something everyone should think about!

there have been times when you talk to someone and because you don’t know the person all too well or the person is not the same religion/gender as you, you’re particularly concerned about whether your speech is PC or SC.

but in a cg, we’re all a big big family in God so we should be comfortable enough to share without inhibitions(but within reasonable limits lah)!

for example things that we’ve experienced in life that God has blessed us richly in are definitely share-worthy without having to care if the event was a particularly risque one in the first place or that we don’t have any bible-references from the lesson God gave us. why? cos God’s already involved, He’s all the answers you need combined in one great Being :)

i definitely have a good feeling about cell group.

and its all thanks to God.

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:)

Thursday, September 21st, 2006

after a 4 week ‘break’ from sunday school duties, it was great to be back there again :)

one of the boys apparently missed me alot. when it was time for the kids to go for their toilet breaks and my colleague asked them to ‘hold hands’(as per normal kiddy practice), he asked quietly

“can i hold your hand?”

i don’t know why some people don’t like kids.

cos the very boy i just mentioned is usually a very mischievious boy who after the toilet break started laughing at the other kids’ colorings -_-”

Posted in church, mush, personal | Comments Off

serm0n p0ints

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

[note : these aren't very good notes. not that the content of the sermon was bad(it was fantastic, but the fact that i may not have copied down all the important points. sorry hor. and erm, i don't have the title of the sermon. my reflections and corrections are in italics.]

Speaker : Sy Rogers (he speaks pretty fast but his words rang thru and thru. for more info on his background click here. he is a pastor who specialize in helping people with sexuality problems)

*there are 3 Appetites a person has

1)Food (for the body)

2)Truth (for the mind)

3) Love (for the soul)

*Counterfeits to those appetites include(there were 3, but i missed out the first one)

- philosophies that promote ideals that do not lead us/reconcile to God

- sex is the 'substitute bread' for non-sexual love

Proverbs 27:27

*What is Love? (ways to build healthy relationships)

1)Acceptance

- when you accept a person for where they are and what they are

- Romans 15:7

- one of the greatest psychological wounds a person can get is rejection

2)Accountability(being answerable to the 'Boss')

- Mathew24+25, Luke 21:34 & 12:35, 1st Cor 3:13-14, 2nd Cor 5:10, Hebrews 5:13 & 10:31 &13:17, James 2:12 + 2:1-2 + 4:11 + 5:8-9

- Lack of love = not caring

- about Christ's 2nd return

- we must be sober, vigilant and focused

- any situation that we mishandle always brings about casualties

- do not break(or even try to) break boundaries

3) Affirmation

- insecure people often doubt their own value

 - therefore they resent it when 'God gives othes but not myself'

 - the grass may be greener on the other side, but how people got their green grass may have been a long and arduous journey. anyway, green grass never stays that way forever.

- grieve with those who grieve for it shows that they matter enough to you for you to share their grievances.

- you feel affirmed when your pain matters to someone who values you

*You matter to God

John 13

*Value each other as God values you

John 15

Ephesians 5

1 Peter 4

*Love covers a multitude of sins

basically his sermon spoke to me in the sense that i realised God's love is so fantastic because He loves me despite what i've done. His love is inclusive and it never fails. even when you do silly things that lead you along the path of self destruction, He always reminds you that you can always do a U-turn by repenting and trusting Him.

you don't have to be perfect for God to love you :) you are already perfect in His eyes.

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church’s teachers’ day celebrations :)

Sunday, September 3rd, 2006

)

my church had a mini-celebration for Teachers Day today. and since i was a 'teacher' for Superlife(my church's sunday school), it was sorta meant for my colleagues and i too. we already had an appreciation lunch last week though.

when the kids came out to perform i was more amazed by the boy playing the keyboard cos he did it very well. the kids in red were so cute cos all of them were under the age of 6. some got so overwhelmed that they just stood there silently without singing at all.

i love doing nursery school. i love my kids there. but i realise i can only take kids in small doses. like, 30 at the most. any more than that…

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staring.

Monday, August 28th, 2006

i realised i haven’t blogged here for a week. not like you care.

i apologise to my faithful 3 readers

updates on my mundane life include the fact that i’m officially part of my church’s First Aid team! thankfully they specified the requirements to only ‘Trained in First Aid’. i not yet a fully qualified SN lah. waiting for next year.

 the ministry worker in charge of hospitality pumped my hand up and down vigorously in welcome as opposed to a normal handshake. i think he’d be very good at BCLS.

(as a whim, i’m gonna post up how i look like in my NYP school uniform in my next post.maybe.)

today when i was on the bus, this lady aunty came and sat beside me on the long row of seats(double deckered bus lah). apparently her derriére was so beeg, she shoved me aside using it.again. and again. until i was forced to sit sideways+behind the bar with the stop button.

after that she kicked my foot and my slipper flew off(i was sitting cross legged).

“solli ah…solli ah” was all she had to say.

i was so boiling mad inside but i kept my cool on the outside. tried to get my slipper on whilst she gave me a very ‘aiyoh why you take so long to put your slipper back on’ look.

kept staring at her after that(she was blissfully unaware) and sadly the one who got scared was the poor lady sitting opposite me with her 3 children. she looked absolutely petrified. changed my expression to a slightly more contrite one for scaring her.

(maybe i should post a picture of me staring instead and take a poll)

my intended staring victim did not get a taste of The Talented Horror that is me. how unfortunate.

Posted in church, contempt, personal | Comments Off

million dollar view

Sunday, July 30th, 2006

the view from my church's rooftop terrace

isn't the view from my church's rooftop terrace nice? okay fine at least the top 2 pictures. i wasn't very concerned about taking super nice pics. just being up there and feeling the breeze was sweet!

my pastors love calling the rooftop terrace's view "the million dollar view"(partly because the new church building cost a pretty penny to build). anyways, they always encourage us(actually us = those who brought newcomers) to go up and drink kopi, soak in the view and stuff.

sermon was good as usual. but today i think i'll skip on typing out the entire sermon. but generally it gave me a good feeling cos Elder Boey reminded us about how the 'troubles'(john 14:30,16:1-4,20-22) in our lives are things that we should face bravely cos nothing is too tough if we remain in God who has already given us His peace(john 14:27,16:33).

You're all I want

You're all I ever needed

You're all I want

Help me know You are near

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sermon lessons.

Sunday, July 23rd, 2006

(am looking into a file-saving thingy where i can download the sermon notes from my church's website and host it somewhere so that you guys can download from here. confusing? yah. i'm also confused. but sometimes they don't put up the notes la. so i'll see about things. *as always, italics in notes are extra stuff/my own reflections. feel free to ignore or read*)

Series : Drawing Back To God

Topic : A Call To Perservere (book of Jude) - Pt 2/4

Speaker : SP Vincent Lun

CORRUPTION IN THE CHURCH(v 1-16)

4 Phases whereby corruption affects the church:

1. Creed  (corruption of teachings)

a) change the grace of God into licence for immorality(v4)

i can't remember exactly what SP Lun was saying about this issue but if i'm not wrong, he spoke about how people would just commit sins knowing full well what they're doing and just console themselves by saying that God would still forgive them anyway.

b) deny Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord (v4)

one good example is how the Da Vinci Code story claimed that Jesus was married and His 'descendents' were living in France.

2. Conduct (behavior)

a) israel in the wilderness(v5)

the israelites saw God's miracles and were delivered by God when He parted the red sea for them. yet they did not believe and therefore got punished.

b) angels at Hermon(v6)

these few angels did not keep their position of authority properly. they were too power-hungry and therefore were banished to hell.

c) Sodom and Gomorrah(v7)

they were destroyed due to overwhelming sexual immorality and perversion. i always enjoy reminding people that the words Sodomy and Gonnorhoea were derived from these 2 cities. i could be wrong, but i may be right too. heh.

3. Character (v11-13)

a) Cain - man of anger

he killed his brother Abel out of pure jealousy when God favored the latter's sacrifice of an animal over his gifts.

b) Balaam -  man of greed

aye, he was too money-grubbing.

c) Korah - man of ambition

a man of too much ambition. he went on to rebel against moses.

4. Conversation(v16)

What sort of speech characterizes these people?

a) grumblers and fault-finders

b) boasters and flatterers

these people boast about themselves and flatter others, but only for their selfish gain. your conversation pretty much reflects your character. something to think about eh?

A CALL TO PERSERVERE (v17-25)

How do we deal with it?

1. don't be surprised

Have been told by:

a) old testament prophets(v14-15)

Enoch prophesised about God's judgement on mankind. then, mankind was making God really upset and He wanted to wipeout the entire human race. anyway one of enoch's descendents names meant 'after my death the entire human race would be wiped out'(sic). good thing the fella lived 169 years. and his son happened to be Noah, who built the ark! so even though God said He was gonna wipeout mankind He gave warning.

b) new testament apostles(v17-19)

2. deal with this :

a) for yourselves by:

i) building up in faith(v20)

ii)keeping in God's love(v21)

iii) waiting for mercy in hope(v21)

b) for others - 3 kinds of people

i) mental doubt(v22)

ii) mortal danger(v23)

iii) moral defilement(v23)

3. Perservere to the end(v24)

- God's part and man's part in the perserverance of the saints

- watch and pray

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sermon notes+sunday sch musings

Sunday, July 16th, 2006

[am typing out the sermon notes. words in brackets are extra stuff]

Drawing Back to God (Part 1/4) : Rediscovering Our First Love

Speaker : Elder Freddy Boey

Scripture : Revelation 2:4, Philippians 2:12

1. Life after salvation : Salvation is a process, not an insurance policy.

- Apostasy : people who are never saved. Jude 3:11,Hebrews 6:4

- Don't be merely saved. 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 1 Corinthians 3:13-15

(extra : there once was a man who was the 'QC' of the church. he criticised everything and pointed out what was not there in the sermon, worship…etc. so one day when he died and got to heaven, he got taken on a little tour in heaven. he saw his pastor's house. it was a giant mansion. "wow, if his house looks like that, mine must be 3 times it's size!". the 2nd house was his worship leader's house. it was just as big as his pastor's if not bigger. "if her house is like that, mine certainly must be occupying a football field!" the angel led him to his house. to his horror, he saw a barren plot of land with mortar and bricks lying on the ground. "what happened? why is my house not built?" the angel replied "you were so busy building other people's houses, you forgot to build your own!")

- Those who looked back. Luke 17:31-32, Luke 9:62

2. Salvation through His death, Service through His Love

- We love because He first loved. If we do not respond to His love, we wil not love. 1 John 4:19

- Loving God means loving and serving His people. 1 John 4:11,12,20

- Serving without His love is not serving at all. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

- And God's Love is what compels us in our ervice. 2 Corinthians 5:14

3. Beyond salvation, there is accountability. 2 Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 2:5,3:15-17

[done!]

sunday school artwork

this is a sample of the hands-on material i prepared. and yes, in case you haven't figured out by my previous postings, i am NOT artistically inclined. thankfully my sunday school kids are only 3-4 years old. what do they know about fine art huh? lol.

today 2 girls particularly made my day better. 1 of them, A, is usually quite the stubborn lil tyke. she refuses to sit with the kids on the floor during storytime. however today she was very docile and opted to sit on my lap thru out the entire storytelling and worship. she even surprised me by reciting the memory verse from last week and kids her age don't usually do that!

B is a very cheerful girl(same girl mentioned in my jul2 entry). so today, i took a few pics with her(will nevar post them publicly, so forget about it). was taken aback(in a good way) when in the first shot she reached over to hug me. awwww. when i went outside for a little while, she even tried to follow me(my colleague alerted me by tapping on the glass partition of the door and pointing to the girl from inside the room). when i opened the door, she reached out for me(like the way kids reach out when they want to be carried) and so i picked her up. man. seeing her beam made me day sooooo good. its lovely how kids just love simply, with no strings attached.

its no wonder why God exults us to love like a child, cos their love is the purest of all :)

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life.

Sunday, July 2nd, 2006

[to a friend : i hope you're okay girl. don't know if you read my blog regularly but just wanna let you know that i'll be praying for you. nothing is impossible with God. press on.]

 its amazing how the simplest things can make people just smile and forget everything else if only for that moment. lately i've been under stress. and to top it off i completely forgot about sunday school duty so i had to throw together my hands-on project at 2am in the morning.

but a 2 going on 3 year old girl from class made me smile. she always has the knack for choosing the best hands-on piece that i've prepared. i'm pretty untidy, so whenever i do something relatively neatly i take great pride in it. 

so today, i just decided to play with her cos she was looking a little lost. the rest of the kids were entertaining themselves with a rambunctious game of 'hide and seek'(it was hilarious cos there was no where good to actually 'hide') and it was too much for her to participate.

picked her up and she asked if she could 'fly' so i swung her around and propped her up on a cabinet to look down on the carpark. she pointed out a red car and said "i like that car!" when i asked her why, she replied "1 car red!" which was…true. the rest of the cars were either black/white/grey. it was kinda refreshing to see a kid like something not because she liked the color(usually kids don't think past such basic stuff, being innocent and all), but because it was unique.

have you learnt to look at things differently?

There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons.
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.

- Emily Dickinson

Posted in church, inspiration, mush, personal | Comments Off

sunday!

Sunday, May 28th, 2006

done by my 'xiao hua jia'

this was colored in by my ‘xiao hua jia’. he’s soooo cute. and so talented. call me biased if you must but remember that he’s only 3 years old.  other kids scrawl messily or color in everything the same color. but he has style =)

(try not to be distracted by the almost illegible writing. it was done by me. and after writing the same message on 36 pieces of paper…it started to get progressively messy)

Posted in church, mush | No Comments »

301st post!

Saturday, May 20th, 2006

 this video is soooo cute.

 

teaching sunday school tomorrow. theme is ‘Be Thankful’. so one of the art projects i’m suppose to teach the kids is to look at magazines, ask them to cut out pictures of things they are grateful for.

while the only mags i have stashed round the house are 8days magazines(a family magazine, they say), i took a full half hour to vet the mags to cut out kiddy-safe pictures for the kids to look at. can’t possibly have the kids corrupted by pictures of celebs not very covered up, i say.

 

 

Posted in church, funny, personal | 2 Comments »

=) I is Happy!

Monday, April 17th, 2006

Easter was really good. Especially during my sunday school class with the nursery kids.
anyway yesterday there were quite a number of kids! all of them are so. cute.

my friends tell me that everytime i go for nursery duty i become so much more smiley and cheerful. that’s the effect of hanging around innocently mischievious tykes(ah, the oxymoron in my words).

so before the start of class i had to take temperatures cos of the recent HFMD( or as one girl put it “jiejie i know, it’s because of MHFD right?”). reactions to the thermometer were varied but the cutest one had to be a this little boy whom at first thought that i was going to hug him so he hugged me very tightly until i withdrew and he saw the thermometer. first he clung onto me and wailed, after that he clung onto his helper and wailed some more. had to wait until he wasn’t struggling before i could actually do it(he didnt even realise -_-”).

after that one of the kids’ mothers called me 15 years old(sian lah, new record leh!) and insisted i really looked like one. alas.

during storytelling, there would always be 1 or 2 fidgety kids who refuse to sit down. one girl was more fascinated by the balloon blowing in the corner. so i had to persuade her back into the group. i sat down and she was content to sit on my lap quietly to listen to the story. (seriously, whenever the kids just willingly trust whatever you say and do, it makes me wonder why i swore never to have kids in the future like 3 years ago. its really quite comforting in a way)

the highlight of that day was observing a boy hard ‘at work’ doing his coloring sheet. most kids at his age(he’s only 3 years old) would be content to scrawl messily at the sheet and color the faces of the cartoons green or something, color the entire sheet in the same color or prefer to jab at the sheet instead.

but check THIS out :

3 year old genius at work please!

perhaps from the picture you can’t see how well he did it but i was amazed at how he got about doing something so simple. for the brown background, he laboriously colored it in a very systematic manner. and imagine, during class he can be sooooo naughty, running all over the place, talking very loudly and arguing with other boys. but when he gets serious, woah.

one kid was quite mean about his work though.

one kid : i don’t like your coloring!

me : how can you say such a thing? that’s not nice! we must encourage him because he colors so well!

coloring kid : *grins*

awwwwww…

ps : I GOT MY PHOTOCARD LICENCE!!! not going to post any pics of it up cos the photo i used for it is really quite bad. so nobody’s gonna get the chance to laugh at it. well except maybe kaypoh friends. lol.

Posted in church, mush, personal | 2 Comments »

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