Monday tots

With regards to mission , do keep my dad in prayer as he comes back from Sarawak mission trip. This sms evoke fear and impressed on the reality of 'dying' for Christ. Just to share that over the weekend , i have got a peek at my father's direction. He has declined to be renominated as an elder in his church. He has been faithfully serving God with his own pension expenses in the ministry of preaching and prayer for the church. And now , he is impressed to go beyond structure to more evengelism focussed.

The church that he is serving is still as chaotic and marginalized. Important to have a God fearing Pastor and leader , which we are thankful in our church. Always sad to see how human politicking / will undermind the very institution that God placed in that place. But God's purpose will not be undermined and He will raise up other leaders in the absence of the 2 chinese Presby churches. I notice 2 items which are dangerous :

1) Wealth maintenance - so much time is done used maintain the landbanks. Lands that were donated were not used for mission . Instead , the focus and time were diverted towards developing those lands to earn money. And the sense of reliance and thanksgiving on God were lost as compared to the assets. And of course, a lot of arguments ( like a family dividing the will ) .

A church will always have enough. May we learn also to be a cheerful giver when we have abundance.

2) Word that is ' not alive'. How can 2 fundamental churches that is based so much on the teaching of the bible have such history ? I suspect that if word is taken as an academic pursuit with fundamental emphasis on knowledge gained , yet is not practised nor any transforming sanctification effect nor bearing of fruits may be dangerous. For faith without work is dead. Talk ( head knowledge ) is cheap , do is hard. We are called to be the light that is burned to shine for others , not a loudspeaker. haha.

Had my first dose of hepatitis B injection today . aggehh .. hate needles.

Happy 050505 - 05: 05 p.m posted .. I hope

Ok .. so this is rather cheesy , but i have 2 minutes till 5.05 to post this up . haha . So , what are the supposedly super auspicious about this timing ? I dunno .

Btw , just had a price increase in petrol across Malaysia - 10 cents for petrol and 20 cents for diesel. And might be in the news cause a girl was snapping photo at the Petronas station yesterday . Whopps .. its time .

Just realised that i can control the posting time . sigh ...

Church camp 05 - Jeram Besu

We had our camp in Jeram Besu , which is about 140 km away into the heartland of Pahang . Pahang is wonderfully situated in the middle of the richness of plants and animals. And this camp is exceptional in this way where it has not only plants , fruit plants and even animals . There are elephants , horses , siamang , lotsa birds , slow loris etc. It is pretty much a wooden shack type of lodging , much to my slight disappointment when we arrive. Of course , it is also in the middle of the current heatwave.

But after unpacking the van , we were cooled by some cold syrup water and a very good meal of chicken curry. And then found out that the rooms were air conditioned. Whooopeee.. And it was amazingly clean yet simple. There is also attached bathfoom for each room. The hall is small , but big enough to fit everybody in. We spend the time to set up the musical instruments and getting things ready . Had a 30 minutes nap before doing the game. Kids were running about and reported that there is a shop that sells ABC for RM1. Super cheap. Lead a team called Mt Sinai which are full of kids, and we won one game and were the second in the other. Haha .. great leader .. i bragged.

The worship was good as well and we learned from a book on Doctrine of grace. Super heavy even for me.

We had line dancing in the morning using the "Night fever" song. Had a detour in the afternoon to do caving as well as a trip to the waterfall. The cave was about 3 km from the main road. We had one van and a 4 wheel drive ferrying us. Of course , we rushed to the pickup to stand on top , beside and even behind the car. It was fun. The cave was not huge. Apparently like other caves in the 60s , it was the supply store for the communists. We had to crawl at one part using a small hole in between. We used our hands , stomach , legs or anything that will hobble us along . After going to the other side , the guide walked with the older people using another opening. aisksss.

Went up the tallest point . Took about 1.5 hours manning the route up and down and then going up myself. With kids running about , it can be tough if someone falls into the gravel. Honestly , nothing much to shout about as the highest point has no extraordinary view. Just saw a wooden shack and unkept farm .btw , saw a ginger plant . It has a flower that is used to make tom yam. Smells like it too.

All hot , sweaty and full of smells , we took another 35 minutes to the waterfall by bus , Lata something. And it was great here. Managed to get a pack of sweet floss at RM1.. super cheap and big. The water was cool , and it was just refreshing. Had a gala time splashing other people wet , and being attacked by the kids for a bite of Mr Potato . ( the snack ) . What a great way to end the 2nd day evening.

We had BBQ dinner at night . it was .. good. ! This is the best camp with the best food for the prize that we pay . (ABout RM 140 per pax , subsidized by church ) . And then we went down to anothe area to have out camp fire. "In the heat of the night .. " .... We sang worship songs. haha. We have to go away from the fire a few times. And then we had sharing . The Namibian kids were very cute and wonderful .

Came back to KL at about 5.00 pm the next day . Had a long jam in between . They were doing road works after Genting and it was pretty bad. The 'sor chai' part is when the authority came to open to contra flow , it was not opened on time. Soon , we see cars zooming on the incoming lane pass us. But thank God that the jam was for another KM .. and then we had a smooth way back to PJ via Kepong.

Kota Kinabalu - a friendly neighbouhood.

The Kota Kinabalu airport looks like a large paddy field with a tar lane interspersed with wooden houses on the perimeter. The whole place looked wonderful from the air.

We arrived at the Tang Dynasty hotel on the 20th April 2005. A pretty basic hotel right smack in the middle of town. Found out a nice eatery called Netty's in Centrepoint which featured a lip smacking honey chicken. Pitch black with sesame seeds on top , it was delightful to the bone.

Another good eating place that we soon found out is a Chinese restaurant called Ocean's Restaurant , recommended by Ramah ( who own's Netty ) . We had a fabulous time eating seafood , RM 125 for 6 pax is a bargain. We had

1. Crab cooked with chili
2. Hoi liu ha ( a cross between prawn and lobsters ) with butter and garlic
3. Paku ( Fern shoots that is collected from forests in Sabah ) with oil and chili.
4. Signature beancurd with soya source.
5. White cockels with garlic .