Saturday, May 15, 2004
not sure if anyone still reads this, but for the benefit of those who do, here's the latest in my life.
we r currently attached to the PPHCSC. which is located in teban gardens (near jurong east). so anyone who is in the area, please drop by n pay me a visit.
since the centre is just starting up, we r doing alot of the background work. eg, building shelves, which was a scary reminder of my finger cutting incident! haha, good thing these were a different kind of shelves which didnt cut pple so easily... we also have mundane jobs like drawing lines for the record books, n typing in stacks of resident's particulars... on the whole, i think it's a good change fr hard labour, n it's pretty slck la. nice air con environment too! haha. n twice a week, we go to the nearby sch to help out. the kids there r a real challenge man. the room we r in is permanently noisy!!! i guess i'll get used to it as time goes by. ive only been there twice anyway.
yest, i went along to see how recruiting was done for the youth club. it was a real eye opener, cos it's really just going up to complete strangers n asking them if they wld be interested in joining our activities. i wld have been too intimidated to do that myself man! neighbourhood sporting activites also seems very racist! i dont mean that in any bad way, but that's wat i observed. the street soccer court was dominated by the malays, n the basketball court was dominated by the chinese. seems real strange to me...
we r currently attached to the PPHCSC. which is located in teban gardens (near jurong east). so anyone who is in the area, please drop by n pay me a visit.
since the centre is just starting up, we r doing alot of the background work. eg, building shelves, which was a scary reminder of my finger cutting incident! haha, good thing these were a different kind of shelves which didnt cut pple so easily... we also have mundane jobs like drawing lines for the record books, n typing in stacks of resident's particulars... on the whole, i think it's a good change fr hard labour, n it's pretty slck la. nice air con environment too! haha. n twice a week, we go to the nearby sch to help out. the kids there r a real challenge man. the room we r in is permanently noisy!!! i guess i'll get used to it as time goes by. ive only been there twice anyway.
yest, i went along to see how recruiting was done for the youth club. it was a real eye opener, cos it's really just going up to complete strangers n asking them if they wld be interested in joining our activities. i wld have been too intimidated to do that myself man! neighbourhood sporting activites also seems very racist! i dont mean that in any bad way, but that's wat i observed. the street soccer court was dominated by the malays, n the basketball court was dominated by the chinese. seems real strange to me...
Friday, May 07, 2004
for those who missed the presentation but r still remotely interested in wat i shared, this is a small part of it:
So, at the end of the whole trip. I think I have learnt a lot. Of course, there r the obvious lessons like patience and flexibility which resulted from the flight cancellation episode, and trying to get the local people on the farm to work when we could barely understand each other. During the trip, we often had to remind each other that “it’s not wrong, just different” cos the culture was different. Furthermore, throughout the trip, nothing was ever confirmed. On the farm, everything depended on the weather. We could leave the farm at 5:30, or we could leave the farm at 10 pm if the weather was good and there was stuff to complete. So our stomachs had to know that they could be fed at wildly different times.
However, above these, the one most important lesson that I took home from the whole experience is that His grace is sufficient for me.
2 Cor 12:9-10 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I’m still not up to the standard of Paul yet la. Delighting in insults, hardships and persecutions is still very hard for me, but after the trip, I can really see where he is coming from. On the farm, I faced such things everyday. As a young girl, carrying crates of potatoes ard really isn’t easy, neither is waddeling along the field planting 2-3 tiny potatoes at 8cm intervals. And cutting potatoes with the constant buzz of disapproval around us isn’t my idea of fun either. The day when we had to measure out the field was when I really couldn’t take it anymore. And yet, I was reminded that this was all for Christ’s sake, and that I didn’t have to depend on just my own strength, but I could depend on God. Best of all, Hid grace is sufficient for me. So I’ll be able to make it thru anything with him.
Even thru the tough times, I thank God for all the awesome sights He allowed me to see. Which really opened my eyes, and made me feel better even after a long hard day. During our relatively short time there, I’ve seen an amazing sunset while on the winding road down the mountain, barren brown mountains range against the backdrop of the bluest clear sky I’ve ever seen, ive seen the night sky covered with a whole host of stars while the town lights glimmered below us, and I’ve seen the whole place covered in pure white snow. As one of the missionaries there told me, “God put on the snow specially for you today”. That was really cool. Whenever I saw these sights, I’m always reminded that God is the one who created all these, and I’m amazed by Him all over again. Sounds very trivial right? Just nice scenery only wat, BUT u shld see it for urself. I can only describe it as amazing! And it was a constant reminder that the God who created all these was with us at all times.
So, the trip was great, and I wanna go back for harvesting (and I don’t mean just the potatoes)! And I thank God for giving me the opportunity to see all these things. I’d also like to thank everyone who supported us either in prayer, financially, or in kind.
So, at the end of the whole trip. I think I have learnt a lot. Of course, there r the obvious lessons like patience and flexibility which resulted from the flight cancellation episode, and trying to get the local people on the farm to work when we could barely understand each other. During the trip, we often had to remind each other that “it’s not wrong, just different” cos the culture was different. Furthermore, throughout the trip, nothing was ever confirmed. On the farm, everything depended on the weather. We could leave the farm at 5:30, or we could leave the farm at 10 pm if the weather was good and there was stuff to complete. So our stomachs had to know that they could be fed at wildly different times.
However, above these, the one most important lesson that I took home from the whole experience is that His grace is sufficient for me.
2 Cor 12:9-10 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I’m still not up to the standard of Paul yet la. Delighting in insults, hardships and persecutions is still very hard for me, but after the trip, I can really see where he is coming from. On the farm, I faced such things everyday. As a young girl, carrying crates of potatoes ard really isn’t easy, neither is waddeling along the field planting 2-3 tiny potatoes at 8cm intervals. And cutting potatoes with the constant buzz of disapproval around us isn’t my idea of fun either. The day when we had to measure out the field was when I really couldn’t take it anymore. And yet, I was reminded that this was all for Christ’s sake, and that I didn’t have to depend on just my own strength, but I could depend on God. Best of all, Hid grace is sufficient for me. So I’ll be able to make it thru anything with him.
Even thru the tough times, I thank God for all the awesome sights He allowed me to see. Which really opened my eyes, and made me feel better even after a long hard day. During our relatively short time there, I’ve seen an amazing sunset while on the winding road down the mountain, barren brown mountains range against the backdrop of the bluest clear sky I’ve ever seen, ive seen the night sky covered with a whole host of stars while the town lights glimmered below us, and I’ve seen the whole place covered in pure white snow. As one of the missionaries there told me, “God put on the snow specially for you today”. That was really cool. Whenever I saw these sights, I’m always reminded that God is the one who created all these, and I’m amazed by Him all over again. Sounds very trivial right? Just nice scenery only wat, BUT u shld see it for urself. I can only describe it as amazing! And it was a constant reminder that the God who created all these was with us at all times.
So, the trip was great, and I wanna go back for harvesting (and I don’t mean just the potatoes)! And I thank God for giving me the opportunity to see all these things. I’d also like to thank everyone who supported us either in prayer, financially, or in kind.
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
anyone interested in knowing much more abt the trip is welcome to come for the presentation this fri nite, which is tmr. there will be lotsa photos n we will be sharing the highlights. need detatils? just msg me.
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