An exhausted Joey smiling for the camera

Don’t have pictures of everyone in the committee but David Goh ran service like a concert pro; Grace Teh can set up her own PR company now; David Choo and Melody Ong moved my heart when they led worship together and on the way home, I bumped into Nicole Tan, who was rushing to make sure that youths were on the bus bound for GII.

Of course, I saw my beloveds from the service comm running around too. You guys make me proud.

Thank you Bare Bones 2011.

Pastor Ronald shared from the life of Gideon the judge. He spoke briefly about his time in the ministry in the last 12 years. The proceedings were recorded so I hope I get a copy. I don’t remember all that PRon said now but I remember it being an  account of God’s goodness and faithfulness. He was was later appointed Senior Youth Pastor. Lionel, Kenneth and Jon then took the stage to honour him. They spoke about his influence in their lives + snippets of lessons they learnt from him.

Pastor Cui Xian was next. She thanked God, her leaders and the youths who have come her way the last decade. Hui Yi (who represented the St Theresa’s girls), David (who represented REAL), Kristine (who represented the RLs) and I (representing the RLs, couples she has mentored + 12 girls) presented her with our gifts. We also celebrated her birthday.

My pastors have significant influence in my life. Before I presented P CX with the iPad and vouchers, I told her no words could express the impact and influence she has had in our lives. I said all of us whom she has walked with have a little bit of her growing in our lives. That she was beautiful in every way and that she did all things well. I also highlighted her pioneering spirit and said thank you very much. We love you.

PRon is one of a kind. And I mean it in the best sense of the phrase. Unique, special, man of God.

I had a date with Joshua, Gao Min, Phui See and Elliot last night and as I was thinking about what to share with them, I thought it would be a good idea to evaluate the health of the ministry. Different youth leaders have different parameters of evaluation I’m sure but the way church is structured gives me ready evaluation criteria. So I said over Hawaiian and Pepperoni pizza and hot and spicy drumlets, we are going to report the health of our ministry today. We started with “fellowship,” since it was the start of the year and it was important that the cells shared a real bond; members looked forward to cell and being with one another.

We took 45 minutes to talk about six cells and one pillar. There were some victories, and many places where victory seemed distant. For some cells, differences in opinion in leadership, for others, younger members who were yet integrated. We shared ideas and I pray our prayers will come to pass.

We had a good time, nonetheless, and I remember the night with joy. I would have loved to pray more with my beloveds but it was ten twenty and we had to leave. We were the last ones out of church.

It’s not easy to be a hawker. The physical act of selling and collecting money is fun but the logistics, preparation and clean up is a lot of hard work, though I have to say (read: boast), the girls were all excellent.

They came bright and early, and were so sporting when they knew they had to wear plastic aprons, though it made them warm.

Kudos to also Gao Min and team who went out of their way to decorate the breakfast tables with these sweet things:

I was very impressed and proud of their efforts.

SCREAM on their own initiative brought coffee and tea sachets which were quite a best-seller and darling natasha peddled her toast to anyone who would buy. FOC and SOLDIERS sold ice cream and guilin gao, while most of SHASH sold the fishballs (yum!), the hot dog buns, the fried bee hoon, glutinous rice, dumplings and ang ku kueh.

Because of their determined efforts, we sold ALL the food (less the buns because there was no more hot dogs). The MVP was, however, not anyone from south a, but a certain ms sim soo wei She came even brighter and earlier to help set up and she took care of business while I was preaching. I don’t know how she did it but she’s very persuasive and a large part of why the food was sold is attributed to her excellent sales talk

Pictures of the morning’s event on facebook.

Alternating study environments; Mixing content; Spacing study sessions and Self-testing.

You can read the article here.

There weren’t many of you at youth service today and so I thought I’ll post up sermon notes here so you can also be encouraged by the word of God in this season of preparing for your mocks, blocks, prelims and whatever synonym there is for exams. I am enjoying the Live Loud series and today was no exception. It was a great sermon and I think Pastor Ronald (herein PRon) spoke the Word unabashedly and clearly about living loud especially in tough times.

The sermon was read from James 1: 2 – 12.

PRon started the sermon by saying that tough times were no respecter of whether one was a Christian or not. The difference lied in our responses. When tough times come our way, we can keep in mind and practice these four Rs.

Rejoice – Quoting PRon, Rejoicing is an attitude that we adopt when we look at tough times from an altitude. Rejoicing is about walking through tough times with the best spirit, knowing that it is good for character moulding.

Request – We can pray because God is our divine help and he hears our request. God is a God who sees us and hears our prayers. He is concerned about us and will surely respond.

Refuse – Refusing to doubt and holding onto the Word of God.

Remember – Remembering the reward that comes from endurance. PRon said that tough times don’t last but tough people do, and they are the ones who lift up the trophies.

I wish you girls were there for all the funny bits. PRon used examples of Annabel and her gymnastics lessons to illustrate Rejoicing, and spoke at length about his mission trip in country K, how he was stretched and used by God to minister to the people of Country K. I was very moved.

I hope you girls are coping well in school and I pray that the joy of the Lord will be your strength. See you soon.

Hugs and Kisses, r

I wished I had a camera to immortalise the anticipation, excitement and cheeriness of the girls. It’s the first time so many from the region participated and I was very glad that FOC, SOLDIERS and SHASH came. They are so adorable. En route to our destination, I heard many conversations amongst them and I hope (and pray) that these would continue to solidify the friendships formed in cell. I too, had conversations with the one and only Jeanie, Leng Shan, Phui See, Nicole, Gao Min … I love them all dearly and I feel rich because of all these relationships.

As I looked into the households of the families we were distributing food to, it came to me that I need very little to live. The families that we saw had beds in the living room, but they were generally simple, happy people. And it was such a pleasure to say, “你好，我们是恩典堂来的，我们有东西给你，希望你会喜欢”. It was a different sort of Sunday afternoon and I have to say that it was a not bad way to spend it. Not bad at all.

Ministry/Church/the girls have become my life. I worry about them, I pray for them, I write to them … I hope they live out their fullest potential; walk into being the women that they were made to be.

Like today, after Joey’s superb sermon on the life of Stephen, though my heart was convicted, I was prepared to give myself an excuse, I need more time. But cuicui walked over and exposed all my pretences with, “so, have you forgiven?” I told her it was not easy. She said nobody said it was going to be and in her prayer, she related the life of Jesus who gave His life for a people who was unworthy and ungrateful.

So there. Much to mull on, much to think about, much to surrender.

I’ve finally made a date with two groups of the girls this coming Sunday and the next. A breakfast affair. No agenda, no nothing. Just catching up and sharing hearts. And I cannot wait.