Valentine 2005 Rhyme

A need

Somebody needs one ,

Somebody needs two ,

I only need one ,

And its only you.

Somebody needs three,

Somebody needs four ,

I got mine for free ,

So why pay more?

Well , another sweet , ironic poem from me to my loved one. She asked me to repeat them again .. and i actually need to explain the whole construction. Btw , the " somebody needs" actually refers to wives. 4 wives are magical number in certain societies.

Norwich City Vs Chelsea - what is ur view?

Just found out that another church is 'tapping' up one of the youth 'leaders' to serve in this person's church ... Yes , ala Maurinho and Ashley Cole. haha . It does give me a tinge of sadness and to think of another Norwich City vs Chelsea scale of comparison . Sometimes ironic that small churches end up fighting to retain their small resources that God provides. And the rich gets richer. But of course unlike the economics of football , God's 'economy' may not be a common 'sen'se and ringgit that we humans reasons. Perhaps that is the sunshine in this situation.

This youth was very accountable in explaining the invitation to go to the other church , due to the relationship the person + friends have. And i think that is very worthy conduct in this modern times. And i alllowed this person to go as i think trust is an important element in any ministry. But after some chats , do 'feel' that something is just 'not right' but i kept quiet. Just got a confirmation on my gut feeling . that the leader is persistently asking for commitment to help out in that church. And the youth is currently having a dilemma of what to do , yet not sure how to say no. I guess there will be another long chat this weekend .

Certaintly , it brings about the question of how 'forceful' one should be in the ministry. I remember having a chat with Eric and he shared on his dilemma in presenting his sermon - rational based or excitement based. Not fitting exactly in this scenario - but it is a dilemma. I have a dilemma on being forceful in this area, and i believe that at the end .. people will decide based on what God wants them to do. For me to influence them other than encouragement and prodding , I might end up being the "God" that provides them with the illusion of ministry. Yet , this is the 2nd time this week that i am faced with this question.

The first one being a good session i had with a brother when we chanced upon the topic of a common friend who is deciding to serve in a presbyterian church in Klang valley. When this friend asked me , i told him that we would welcome him gladly and need servers in our small church , but asking him to decide after he viewed both churches ; esp as he was staying near to the other more notable church. And on the other side , apparently they are very aggressive in getting him .

I guess my dilemma would be in 2 fold . One , is if i should change my approach and be more forceful in the ministry . In fact , i think that it brings the result and the people in short term and potentially long term. Secondly , can God's purpose of another person be more than what is available in the church or organisation that we are tauting / selling ?

So perhaps it has to do with an understanding of the difference between 'God's ministry' and 'Church / organisation's ministry' . With a clear understanding , maybe we can approach people differently in respecting their calling in service. I remember this sharing by another KL thinker - Seng Ghee on leadership . That leaders " point people to God". Perhaps this is only what is expected to be done.

Tsunami Fund raising in St Andrews

Check out cool photos in this link

One of the more 'churchy' churches around with lotsa gwai loh who speaks very good , pure accented English . Of course , some of us do try to speak like them and be identified with. Still , we were there for a mission ... to present 3 songs and to do the finale with the rest of the presenters.

Had 30 minutes sleep in between church , youth and going over. And we tot that we did good time by reaching KL in 25 minutes. Somehow , Mr Murphy is on CNY holiday as well . No , not the CNY jam . But the Le Tour de Langkawi Jam . yes , there is such jam in KL other than 'usual jam' , ' flood jam' , ' bottleneck jam' , ' avoid paying Samy Vellu's highway toll jam' and jam caused by people who slowed down to look at accidents. Took us another 35 minutes being ushered from one corner of town to another. But , we felt better when we realised that the whole KL was stuck in the same jam .. including the organisors. brah haha

Soon , we were up practising with the rest. The first group consists of a trio who look so composed. In fact , when the lady singer opened her mouth ... she sounded like Sheila Majid . Yes , lovely voice. And the pianist were doing jazz stuff while rhymming with Diana Wee. The third person is Yew Kong , son of Dr Living Lee whom teaches me in Beyond Headstart group. What a small world! And they are undergraduates from UKM , i tot they are some profesional upstarts.

To tell you the truth , after the other group went up for practise we do not feel too great about ourselves. But the 'leader' in me decided that we just got to think differently and enjoy / learn. ahem .. of course , i do not know if that is a sound advice. get it?

Anyway , only God knows how it will go. Had great Burger King for dinner. Never seen girls whallop whopper so frightfully fast.

Soon , the seat are filled and the presentation went on . Each group , presenters were very strong and distintly capable to present on their own . Big names like DUMC , Logos etc. soon filled up the MC's speech of introduction . Wow , one even did a choir in Hokkien . Impressive. Finally , it is our turn . The S2S group from Doulos PC. Who? Doulos the ship? Did they leave these guys here on purpose? nope .... we replied. hehe

The first song was a fast song " Turn Mourning into dancing again" . That brought the whole excitement up . And since we are the only group who makes thosse instruments sound loudly , it attracts attention . Even the 2 year old kid infront was shaking his butt in unison with the music. Second song is " Stands by me" in which the chorus is changed to " Jesus , stands by me". And capped it up with a redefined hymm " Prayer". It went on super well . PTL PTL . And the final end song is " One voice " . That was made more grand since we were in a grand looking church.

hemm .. will take up Steven's offer for a open house outing in his house in a forthnight.

Well , me going off now for a one week Chinese New Year break! My best wishes to all the readers in the world who views my blog constantly . ... yeah.... ;)

Journal 6 : Wong is back

Our Smart Board Wong is back to Malaysia. He is a very helpful man. He came to class today to check on us . And he came to us with the special gift??? The latest and greatest Smart Solutions suite 9.2 . It was great to get the software , and some reading materials to use along.

And he did a presentation using some of the new functions of the software.

Hey , latest news ...
March 5 2005 - Presentation
March 12 2005 - Exam (9.00-12.00)

Journal 5: 2nd meeting

Thurdsday 3rd February . It sounds like a date.. but it was not quite. Have to do a lunch meeting with Dr Maznah over lunch for our second meeting. It was done over 1-2 pm in University Malaya.

It was a pretty short meeting where we went through the previous meeting minutes .We also went through the questionnaire , with Dr Maznah advising us on how to improve the forms better.

It was a long ..... drive to and from . The traffic is pretty bad.

What Iraq Voting questions

This is real cynical way of putting the truth into a hurtful joke.

exerpt from Hawra Karama
Do you prefer to be tortured by
A) American soldiers or B) British soldiers?
When occupying soldiers stop you in the street, would you rather be strip-searched
A) with blindfold or B) without blindfold?
When foreign soldiers enter your house in the middle of the night to arrest your husband and terrorize your kids, would you prefer that they
A) knock or B) ring the doorbell? [This question seemed odd because I thought they knew we don't have electricity and therefore the doorbells don't work.]
Which of the following CIA-paid Iraqis should represent you? [The list is too long to reprint here.]
Do you want the foreign forces occupying your country to leave?
A) No. [I imagine they had accidentally forgotten to print "Yes."]

To make sure our voices were being fully heard, some of the questions were open ended. Voters were actually allowed to write in their opinions on a number of issues. Observe:

Which media outlet should hold the copyright to the pictures of your torture?

The occupation has violated the sanctity of the holy sites in Najaf and Karbala and bombed many mosques in Baghdad and Falluja. Are there any other holy sites you believe the occupation has missed?
Which American company do you believe should be awarded a monopoly on Iraq's oil?