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i started temp work at the Evangel Student Care Centre today..and heh. i quite like it. the kids are rather adorable.. the boys are precocious.. a little too precocious too handle at times.. the girls are just so so sweet.. first day@work.. heh. let me finish this month, and it may be another story. but, i doubt it :)

i was hoping/expecting to be down at the youth centre and not the primary kids side. but, working with kids may be a good change.. i must say, i'm really proud to say that i shared the gospel with 4 kids today (^-^). and, i'm really happy bcos, i think i almost led 2 of the girls to Christ. why almost? because, i don't know how to lead them in the commitment part.. i only know youth ee, so, when i shared with them, my brain had to multi task.. one of the boys, was screaming(and i really mean screaming.. hollering..) half of the time. but the other 3 kids were really listening.. just that at the end, when i came to the faith part, both boys ran away to watch spongebob sqaurepants. oh well, i think that may be for the better.

kk, back to the multitasking.. i had a hollering kid running around the room, at the same time, as i tried trying to make youth ee more kids ee..had to run the gospel presentation through my head to figure out which parts were more relevant for kids, and at the same time, share the actual gospel presentation. it was really by God's grace that i managed to pull through..

and i was so excited, that when i came home, i asked my dad n abel how kids ee is different from the youth version.. now, i'm better equipped.. i dont think i'll panic so much when i share the gospel with the kids next time. they are such a joy. their eyes are just fixated on you, and you know for sure that they are listening to you, genuinely..not out of politeness. which brings to mind the 4 girls that emily(wefc)& bell met on the streets on thur. it is quite sad that such a wonderful gift as eternal life, can bring about such harsh words.. as emily said herself, it brought daggers to her heart as she read one of the girl's blog.

no wonder Jesus said "let the little children come". to have childlike faith, is just something i wish i still have now.. i don't know if i have. mind you, childlike faith is not blind faith. because children are so simple and innocent(not necessarily naive), they recognise truth when they see it. not like adults(of my age.. older or even younger..)

as we grow older, our lives become more "complicated", we get more tied up in unnecessary "activities". although, we would like to think that we are more "matured", personally, i still prefer simplicity and innocence. to just trust in God for everything, without having to rationalise and worry. and this is a truth i've been reading about in the Chronicles of Narnia.

oh man. i can yak for ages about Narnia.. have you WATCHED the trailer for The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. heh. i haven't, but i heard it was good. i simply can't wait for the movie to come out on 22nd December... anyway, publicity, aside. let me share with you 2 important concepts about Christianity from the Narnia series.. yes, i finally decided to read all 7 books.. just that andrewfam the great lost book 3.i learnt a lot from C.S.Lewis, but, here are 2 poignant truths:

1. we did not choose God. Instead, God chose us first.
in The Silver Chair(book 4) when the girl, jill was bewildered on how, by simply calling out the name of aslan, she entered the magical kingdom of Narnia.
and, Aslan said this, " You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you."
how true. we can never call unto God, unless he has first created the desire within us.

2. to have childlike faith like lucy.
lucy, to me, is just truly so trusting in Aslan, the Lion. and that fact that she is always the first to see Him, while he remains "invisible" to the rest, speaks voulmes..

i can only say this much. i strongly ENCOURAGE you to pick up a book of the Chronicles of Narnia..start with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe first. as for me, i love the kids i'm working with.. and i can only hope that by hanging out with kids half my age, some of that innocence and sweetness will rub off on me ^ ^

GSS

damn. am i in a blogging mood or what. i simply cannot contain my excitement about the Great Singapore Sale.. although, given a choice, i would rather be in Hong Kong now, i have to make do with what i have here.. (wen, next year!! hk here we come!!!)

to curb my spending, heh, i decided i better come up with a wishlist. it's tough to keep within this limit, that i agree:

1. peasant skirt ( i just bought one today.. so, erm.. yeah. but...)
2. rattan bag ( i saw one today.. more like a few.. but, their was this ancient looking bag.. ugh, which was CRYING out to me)
3. nike pink&green sneakers
4. one or two pairs on earrings (i've fasted from buying earrings for way too long...)
5. a funky top.(when i see it, i'll know it,w hich i think, i've seen one too many.sigh)
6. another bag?! in one of those funky mama psychadelic colours??? ( yes, i know, i've too many bags)

can i formulate into words what you, my dear reader is probably thinking.. yes, i feel materialistic.. and yes, i think i'm a major shopaholic.. that's a bad bad habit/hobby to pick up from a friend(courtesy of serene foo and her one too many shopping trips...) NEVER have a shopaholic as a friend, and a wealthy one too, to add.

then again, i'm a woman(that sounds so so weird.. calling myself a woman?! i mean, it's not that i've just gone for a sex change or what, but.. i think i'm entering into the realm of age-ism... sigh) and woman are entitled to shop as much as men are to football...

it is during such a time as this, i wish that i have a rich boyfriend.. ha. but, in the mean time, i'm more than contented with my heavenly Father, who's far greater than anyone else in this world and beyond ^ ^

unchanging

today, i met up with kwee yong & yi ting, my dear juniors from pjc.. heh. they,cute as ever.. they make me feel young^ ^

i tried to explain nus lingo to yi ting.. i.e. bidding system, modules, etc.. but i think i left her in more of a blur then anything else.. i better make good my promise to be there when she bids for her modules.. and i wonder whether i scared her off when i told her how lonely one can be in the first semester in nus.

sigh. can you imagine??? it's been more than a year.. just last year, i was a scared chicken, because, i had not gotten my admissions letter from nus YET. and one year has already passed, so quickly.. a little too quickly perhaps, to the extent that i feel as if i have not caught my breath. so much has happened, eversince i entered jc and left it, to work and then later off to uni... and i can only attest to one thing that has been constant.

God.

I AM.

people change, and i'm not spared. But, i'm thankful for God is unchanging.

Your love is amazing, steady and unchanging.
Your love is a mountain, firm beneath my feet.
Your love is a mystery, how You gently lift me
When I am surrounded, Your love carries me.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, Your love makes me sing.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, Your love makes me sing.

Your love is surprising, I can feel it rising
All the joy that's growing, deep inside of me
Everytime I see You, all Your goodness shines through
I can feel this God song rising up in me.

vcfers

for the picture below, i forgot to add that it was deb's birthday last week.. and the whole bunch of us vcf-ers had a surprise birthday party for her...was she shocked or what. heh.. i've never had a surprise birthday before..

anyway, another day, when i'm up to it, i shall write an entry on vcf.. and how God is leading me in nus through vcf... i'll save it for another day.

for reference, the people below, from left to right, top to bottom are:
mark, matt, andrew, kevin, ruiyi, joel & me.
jocelyn, adeline wan, deborah(her royal higness), mel, fern & angeline.

deb's birthday with fellow vcf-ers. 

power n purpose

Ps shern gave a very good sermon today, or rather, yesterday.he spoke on Acts 2:1-14, talking about the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. which was timely, cos today, in another less than 8 hours, i'll be going back to qbc for the youth ee clinic. i'm excited now. im glad. i was getting worried that if i dint get my act together, i'll be... i dunno..

i can regurgitate the entire gospel to you, but, that's not good enough. i was worried that i kinda lost the fire. i've been disappointed by past mass street evangelisms.. the youths on the streets i met, they were just not interested in God, they couldn't care less, keeping God at arms length... my heart aches for them.. it always does. and i always tear for my non-christian friends. because, recently, i've been learning that it's a long journey. life is a long and ardous journey. and praying for your friends' salvations is not a one night stand. it requires daily prayer, which i confess, i don't remember everyday. i get frustrated that when i ask my friends out for vcf talks or etc, the response is always that of, "i'm too busy, another time, ok?". please dont take it that im dissing people. on top of that, when i shared Christ with my prcs, they are all so polite and scientific.. i don't know..

it's all these things that take the fire out of you at times.. you get disappointed to see that, as if, God is not working. your prayers aren't answered. but, you know that you can't give up trying. you cant give up praying for your friends, trying to break down the communication barriers with the prcs, going out to the streets to share the gospel... because if you don't play your part, who will?

so, i'm thankful for the sermon. for God speaking to me and reassuring me that He will always re-fill me with the Holy Spirit. oh.. here's a little Holy Spirit trivia for you. baptism of Holy Spirit vs filling of the Holy Spirit?? what's the diff? i finally found out.

Baptism- it's the initial experience. the Holy Spirit resides in us when we believe that Jesus died for our sins.

Filling- the ongoing experience. Just like a fire, we need regular douses of petrol to keep going.

so, here i am. re-filled with the Holy Spirit. i'm charged up and excited. i do hope that today i would be able to pass on the passion and enthusiasm i caught from the zion people, esp jialing, to other youth leaders, and they can pass it on to their church. i hope that that today would be a start for the youth grup at wefc. i hope to see God continue the good work done at qbc...

as for my friends, i shall just concentrate on bringing them one step closer to God everyday(:

But, most importantly, i want to be able to experience once again God working in me, and through me, for Him.

kingdom of heaven

I watched Kingdom of Heaven today with wen.. and,I'm glad she said she wanted to watch it, cos I would never have gone. I seriously thought it was a sucky show that portayed christianity in a bad light ( so I heard from my friends).

It is a good movie, plenty of action(but way too much blood. explains the NC16 rating. the blood spurts were comparable to kill bill). Furthermore, Orlando Bloom is hot as ever. In LOTR he was such a pretty boy. But in Kingdom of Heaven, he oozed such manly heroism (^o^).

Frivolities aside, this movie is good, for the very simple reason that it showed how human Christians are. it was sad to see how divided the christians were. there were 2 camps of people. One, fought for God, for Christianity, or so they thought. the other, fought for fame, wealth and power. i just, sigh. i get very sad(even more than just plain old sad) whenever people, friends say that hypocritical Christians are a big issue to them. Ghandi himself said, "Find me a Christian who's not a hypocrtic, and i will believe" (something to that extent). but, people forget that Christians are human just like anyone else. we all sin and fall short of God's lory and standard. that's why we need God. That's why you can never find a non-hypocritical Christian because everyone will fall at some point of time.

i would sincerely encourage you to catch this movie, to see the helpless and the utter hopelessness of humans. and lest we Christians think to ourselves that we are much better than the Christians portayed in Kingdom of Heaven, watch out, cause you've already fallen into the trap of hypocrisy.

disclaimer: to have a total stranger tagging on my board.. seems alien.(no offence fudgebumkin, it's a 1st in a long while.. yeha. i'm a lil deprived) i feel like a xiaxue(apparently, asia's best blog of the year) i'll comment abt her another day...btw, just for the record, i didn't write the poem.. ( i had better say that.. if not, wat with all this talk on how blogs are not one's private n personal space.. we bloggers are liable to libel suits.. gosh)

anyway, just to set things straight. i'm a christian. a firm one at that.. one who believes that evangelism is something every christian should do, be it friendship evangelism or street e, etc... so, the poem below, was something reina, a youth shared today@cg. it struck me to not give up praying for my friends, n doing the small things that would bring them one step closer to God.

we should all share the gospel with the non-christian friends around us. as the poem itself says, how can we be friends, if we never share with them the most precious thing in life??

a poem from a non-christian to her christian friend:

My friend, I stand in judgment now

And feel that you are to blame somehow

On earth I walked with you each day

And never did you show the way

You know the Lord in truth and glory

But never did you tell the story

My knowledge then was very dim

You could have led me safe to Him

Though we lived together on the earth

You never told me of the second birth

And now I stand this day condemned

Because you failed to mention Him

You taught me many things, that's true

I called you my friend and trusted you

But I learned now that it's too late

You could have saved me from this fate

We walked by day and talked by night

And yet you showed me not the light

You let me live and love and die

You know I will never live on high

Yes, I called you friend in life

And trusted you through joy and strife

And yet coming to this end

I cannot call you "my friend".