Journey back in Time

Hi folks looking forward to the New Year?
Some photos from our church event on 23rd Dec at Elder Hanson's house. Enjoy!

1. The welcome committee warming up for the 'herding in' of our guests

2. A busy day 2000 years ago...

3. "How would you know if cows didn't look like this 2000 years ago?"


4. Taking shelter from the rain and in God's word

5. An angelic visitation during the skit performance by our youths

I'm sorry but I couldn't take any pictures of the sumptious spread we had because I was 'indisposed' at that time (takes one hand to hold the plate and the other to grab the food yanoe)

Btw, Happy Birthday again Esther! You are a great sister-in-Christ!

Till later folks!!

A grumbling mood of discontent
Gives way to thankfulness
When we consider all God's gifts
And all that we possess.
- Sper

Joy to the world!

Thank God for Christ... the promise of freedom from bondage to sin fulfilled! Thank God for my baptism! Thank God for my Christian friends and family members whom God placed in my life!

Our Christmas sermon had an evangelistic-out-of-logic twist in it this time round - and I want YOU to consider the underlying message said - The Christian faith is either :

1) one big lie and that all of us Christians are believing in utter nonsense - salvation - Christ - God - and celebrating and proclaiming absolute foolishness all the time

2) the truth and thus for all who refuse to believe their damnation is just.

No halfways - your God is yours my God is mine what you believe to be true is true kinda Sophist reasoning...

There is no neutral ground. If you think its a halfway or here there not sure kind of thing then you just simply don't believe - you are saying that the Christian faith is 1) one big lie...

I know its unlike some other kinds of faith where oh... there is a way... but this way isn't the only way... kinda thing... so if you think another way is better for you then well and fine...

Because God isn't a liar when He says He is the only true and living God...
Because God isn't a liar when He speaks of the wrath and judgement waiting for us sinners after death...
Because God isn't a liar when He says He will send a Messiah who will save us from damnation...
Because Christ isn't a liar when He says that He is the fulfillment of this prophecy of salvation
Because Christ isn't a liar when He says He is the bread of life... the only way...

Because God is not a liar, I can be assured He is who He is and will do all the things He says He will do... both in judgement and in wrath and in mercy and in wisdom...

Will you consider this absolute truth?

Wishing you folks a meaningful Christmas!

Btw, I'm really glad to have met up with Guoliang and Shirley who came to attend my baptism... look at them feasting below!
yes I did it on purpose heeheeheehee...btw Shirley is a full-time very 'fierce' Chinese teacher now hohoho! Just what the doctor ordered for recalcitrants like me...

let's end off this post with another photo of other Christian friends who managed to make it yesterday too! Michelle, Shenzhi, Simon and Yongjie. Thanks for your prayers even those who couldn't make it and enjoy your holidays!
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la...

Directions to Moriah Bible-Presbyterian Church

Hi all, my church christmas and baptism service starts at 9.30am.

I've posted a map here which shows how to walk to my church from Simei MRT because that's more convenient for most people . Ok so the green EW3 is Simei MRT station and the church location is on the extreme right side of the map next to block 231 (the partial building marked as 'MBPre'). Get off the MRT and just follow Simei St 3 and cut through the blocks to 231 and enter by the back gate.

Any problems or confusion please call me. Thanks so much!

For direct bus routes (I think only service no. 12 and 290) please visit my church's website at www.moriahbpc.org

Do dress appropriately for a place of worship and there'll be a lunch reception after service! See you all on Christmas day!

Day off

Invitation
My friends and people who read this blog I'd like to invite all of you on Christmas Day 25th Dec (Sunday) to my church at 9.30am for service and witness my baptism. It's located very near Simei MRT the exact address is 31 Simei Road. Do drop me a message if you can come!

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Finally washed my car this morning.

Coolant is running low a bit. Must be the hard driving.

Had a day off to go back to school to see our internship supervisor. Planned to go swim before it but by the time I got there - pool was reserved for some practice. Bleah. Met SL and SZ on the way back to the car.

intern pay is a $540/mnth sighz

working hours is 8.30 to 6 (why s0 early??)

Sent LE home then went to book class 4 driving test scheduled for Mid-March.

Have to buy post cards - hope its not too late to send them out...

Next time when playing mahjong with Jan play slowly and talk a lot. Works wonders.

Seeya guys and happy interning~

Pre-enlistee scales CMPB walls and escapes from national service

The quiet of lunch hour was shattered on Monday afternoon when a pre-enlistee who was reporting for national service changed his mind and gave military personnel the slip. While talking furiously on his handphone, he inched further and further away from the soldiers who were preparing his paperwork and suddenly made a dash out of the building, ran towards the main gate, and scaled the wall and disappeared out of sight onto the main road.

As he is still a pre-enlistee, he is not under military law and has instead violated civilian law for failing to report for enlistment.

"He's all fit and ready for NS," somebody on the scene commented. "Rather weird to come all the way here and then decide to scoot off," observed another. "Perhaps he thought he was just reporting for paperwork and not actual enlistment," suggested a clerk.

Civilian police are handling this case of draft-dodging.

Next time, just be a world-class pianist *cynical laugh*

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Talking about nation-hood, it seems that the Aceh issue is not that clear-cut. While the Indonesian parliament begins to debate laws regarding the province's special autonomy status promised in earlier peacetalks, there are 2 groups within that want further splits and are demanding their own independent status instead. These groups of minority Bataks and others seem not to want to be under "Acehnese" domination which may occur as the province gains more control over its internal affairs.

Are these groups transmigrants? Planted in by some people? The murky world of politics, ethnicity, and nationalism.

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The uproar over the nude-squat videos of a supposed Chinese national in detention, with all the damaging of bilateral relations, other Chinese nationals speaking up and bringing lawsuits, racism charges, has taken a bizzare twist as a Malay woman admitted being the one in the video. Call it the media circus. WE ARE THE TRUTH! HAahHaAHa

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I sat in my boss' new 7-series today. GPS. An aircon that feels like a fridge. OOdles of acceleration. WOOHOO~ But the boss' driver is very safe and slow. PS: my boss has a red Carrera 4 convertible too.

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From the editor of this crap-news column: Been quite busy at work. Zillions of paperwork and things running about in and out. Had a few traffic close-shaves including a Need for Speed stunt on Nicoll Highway. The rest were due to horrible driving by women. Tell more later. And bridge is a fun game.

Need... to stay calm...

I wanna run to you

Woke up with this song running in my head:

I wanna run to you
I wanna run to you
Won't you hold me in your arms
And keep me safe from harm
I wanna run to you
But if I come to you
Tell me, will you stay or will you run away
- Run to you (Whitney Houston)

must be leftovers from my once-in-a-blue-moon ktv session mentioned below. (In which we didn't sing the above song but somehow I remembered it... SH's favourite) Btw, I also forgot to mention, EC has a great voice that suited most of the songs that were sung that day...

Church Camp
Just came back from my brother's church camp finale... can you imagine he actually did some form of physical activity during the games like, RUNNING?? Yes, this is the man who believes exercise shortens your lifespan (and has managed to convince at least half of his office at CMPB so) betraying his conscience.

2 of the skits by the teams were actually really good... especially the rhyme one... cool... some of them can really act too...

But I still dislike camps very much :)

Work's been really busy we're still clearing last month's stuff and the vouchers just keep piling in as I clear them...
I'm sorry CHY I still havent updated my links page at the side hee~

I'm looking forward to my break after mid-month before I intern!

I think blogger is scheduled for a shutdown about now. May the Lord keep you~

Dream job: tending the plants in the Garden of Eden

No, I did not take my car license plate off for some glamourous photoshoot. I was sending my brothers off to church camp that morning (as usual, the smallest one woke up late, middle one kept nagging, and all that last minute packing) and at the point of disembarkment somehow the smallest one managed to slam the boot so hard the number plate fell off. Apparently noone managed to tell me and I drove all the way home to prepare for work before my other brother messaged me about it.

This is the first time such a thing has happened - hope its not a precursor of more things falling off my car.

But happier stuff - I managed to go swimming today after the 2 pre-internship seminars! The sun was great but the pool rather crowded. Also, work's been super busy but after driving the van quite a lot I finally drove the 14-foot lorry yesterday on a midnight run! Surprisingly its actually easier to park because its empty and exposed behind unlike the vans although I still have to get used to revving diesel engines harder unlike how I normally drive the petrol car...

Class 4 here I come! :)

Also had a nice time at Mich's birthday function at ComCentre... nice lounge facilities with KTV too. CXY was like raving around like, drunk. Ok I'm exaggerating but still, she was kinda high.

Pondering working life

I wonder, how many people rush headlong into their careers and working life without ever stopping to think - what am I doing and why?

Through the pre-internship seminars we were drilled in stuff about networking, impressions, working hard, commitment, sincerity and so on. During the break I had the chance to lean at the side and just stare around at NTU's beautiful scenery while finishing my sugarcane juice. Today was indeed a fantastic break from full-fledged worklife, and with the internship nearing and eventual rest-of-my-life work approaching, I thought to myself - I'm really going to miss the university lifestyle.

But work is God-ordained and we need to work to support ourselves.

But do we 'become' our jobs? What if our jobs consume our lives and we become something we ourselves don't recognize? I would fail 100% in the networking game because I can't befriend people on false pretexts with ulterior motives. I find polite small talk really meaningless. I don't like to PR people and to be PRed. I just can't see myself doing all that for networking's sake because I'm not an open person.

Or is a job just a job that ends when you leave the workplace? Can there really be a separation between your worklife and 'the rest of your life' ? Should it always be our priority? What of the other more important things in this world?

Some people live to eat. Others live to work.

I pray to live for God, in all that I do. And He will surely see me through.

Amen~

Being careful

Came back from work today at 1am, left for work at 6am...

NTUC Income insurance unhappiness

Happily, the van thing should be resolved (at some cost to myself, which is what I deserve), although sad to say the motorcyclist who accused and claimed against me for "causing" him to lose control and fall down and claimed INJURY and MEDICAL CLAIMS despite being an NSF has bitten me with a 1k insurance hike in premium for one time, and a reduction in NCD.

In the year during his case my premium went up by 1k and it was refundable after the case was concluded. But, apparently 2 years onwards after making me visit the lawyer several times, without consulting me or even informing me, NTUC Income had decided to unilaterally settle the case on my behalf (up till now I still don't know how the thing ended, none of the service staff are actually able to tell me) and hence without a fight and without any knowledge even I am saddled by a 1k penalty because of that ridiculous claim.

I am very unhappy that NTUC failed to consult or even inform me about their actions and just made the decision to forfeit the money for me. I suspect most of the money actually ended up paying the lawyers rather than the "injured" NSF.

Mishap

There was a chap in the office who after a drinking session rode his scooter and got hit by a taxi. Thankfully he just fell on the floor and the scooter fell on his arm he's now in hospital. The taxi-driver knew that he was drunk so struck a bargain with him not to claim injuries and in return he wouldn't actually report he was drunk. The chap was left on the bus-stop until some other office people came to send him to hospital.

So, be careful now chaps, especially my friends who ride.

Ok ppl are streaming into the office now.

Take care folks and the Lord be with you in your thoughts, actions and daily life.