Friday, January 20, 2006

Blog Avalanche

The beginning of the year came all too soon, Daniel was whizzed off to New Zealand on the 8th. 8 more days to go till the end of all this going away! Hooray! Finally! Well missing him was a good time of remembering all the fun we had during the holidays. Praise God for all the time we had amidst all the busy-ness of the season. "Rumble Rumble Rumble...(sound of a snowball of photos:))
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Christmas Family Dinner (Joann's side) - yum yum
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Malcolm, all game for a photo! (me youngest cousin)
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New Year's breakfast at Halia Restaurant with Sis, Henry and my in-laws
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Took a spin up Kent Ridge Park after breakfast with 'Alfalfa'
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Daniel and Alfalfa
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Wednesday, January 11, 2006

My Verses and Song for the Year 2006

’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know, “Thus says the Lord!”

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

[notice that I changed the words of the song for 'just' to pervade, forgive me, dear hymn writer].
'Just' is an interesting word. It means 'only', 'simply', 'period'. Nothing else matters - not excitment, not anxiety, not worries, not successes, not failures, not even victories matters - safe Christ and His Word alone. 'Proved' - another interesting word. Christ, being God need not prove Himself anymore to mankind. But how often, we crucifiy Christ anew with our doubts and worries. We are the ones who need constant assurance that God is truly in charge of our lives, we are the ones who need to prove Him over and over.
Prayer: That my life would not be tossed high or low with the events of the year ahead but rested and anchored upon Your promises and to be easily, completely satisfied by 'Thus says the Lord'. In all this, I am so thankful that you have given us grace to trust you even more each day!
Grace - Divine Enablement to Desire His will and to Do His Will
"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. " 2 Corinthians 9:8

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

The Cambodia Experience

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Welcome to my pennings of Cambodia which will be written over several entries. This is the team of teachers I went with - a wacky bunch. Some are President Award Teachers 2005, Outstanding Youth in Education Award Teachers 2005, Senior Teachers, a Master Teacher (the wackiest ever) and staff from Teachers Network.
The Cambodian Temple Experience
Temples, temples and more temples. Angkor Wat, one of the 7 man-made wonders of the world is truly an awesome sight, and even more awesome if you think of the splendor it used to enjoy before age, time and destruction took over. Cambodia is a country steep in Buddhism and Hinduism. Very often, both religions are merged and manifested in their folklore and architecture. There is great tolerance and emphasis given to them. I have seen how monks would travel from shop to shop and people would give them alms and bow before them. The monks would reciprocate with chants and they move on. Cambodians are very religious people and that seems to be true for most South East Asian Countries. They willing embrace any form of religion that first came to their land.
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Ok, some 'cheeky' shots

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Be Sober and Vigilant dear Christians!

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" 1 Peter 5:8
The Lord is indeed merciful in bestowing His church with gifts and talents to serve Him. My heart is blessed each time I serve Him. With 3 hectic weeks of active service, it seems like a good time to let loose and relax. Looking at all the happiness and merry making going on after these events, it is indeed a joy. However, my heart is burdened amidst the merry making.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, take great caution even in the name of 'rejoicing' and 'thanksgiving'. Be sober in all speech, in all manner, in all conduct, in all our thoughts - for our adversary is preying at large for any glorification of self, talents and gifts. Take caution in even settling our confidence in a church united for service. Let our fellowship, our rejoicing be in and of our Lord, alone.
How tempted we are to explore greater dreams, bigger venue and larger crowd. Let's walk by faith and not by sight. Let's not get too carried away with what we intend to do for the Lord next year after apparent 'successes'. Plans made for the kingdom of God needs much prayer, reading of His word, silence and solitude and worship. This calls for a time of practical application of what I believe was taught in youth camp - Discipline our hearts to rest, to be still, to wait. When we have what it (talent, gifts etc) takes to make things work, all the more, let's take a step back and take greater pains to remove self from it and consecrate our plans entirely to the Lord.
Let's us worry and fight to see if we have enough time to take the rest of the year (not much days left) to wait and rest on Him through His Word, through prayer in solitude with Him - especially if you have wonderful plans for the Lord next year.
"Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" 2 Corinthians 10:5
It's never about us or Baptist Fellowship Church...but our Beautiful and Faithful Creator [BFC]

4E3 and Naz (Class of 2004)

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Thanks for coming guys. Besides this being a nice, touching play, the emotions portrayed are very real particularly when we take life and God for granted. I pray that you will know the real meaning in life - A Life in our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Life is all about my Savior
Jesus Christ who died for me
Now I feel the peace within me
His love has set me free
This is life that He gives so freely,
I will embrace it for the truth has set me free
See what Christ as done for me, on that day on Calvary
Over death he had the victory!
Tis His blood, that He shed so freely
I will embrace it, from my sin He set me free!
Oh, what love He gave to me on that cross at Calvary
Over sin I have the victory!
THE VICTORY!

'What Is Life About' Snapshots

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The Chin (or rather the 'Mole') Family in all our garb
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The Chin Family 'unplugged'
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'Abel' and irritating 'Max'
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The rest of the cast

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

BFC Christmas Musical - 16 & 17 Dec

Dear readers, make a date to come down on either of these dates. It would be a wonderful surprise to see you there. Complimentary tickets can be obtained.
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Click on this url to explore the flash. Click on the different images to find out more about the details of the play. http://cantata.bfcministries.com/And yes, I will be acting and singing a little, la.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Preparation for the Cantata

Preparation for the musical is slowly shaping up. Rehearsals have been intensive and so has the recording. The experience has been truly an educational one. But, it has indeed taken a toil on my normal schedule. My prayer is that we would know what we are doing all this for. It is fun to see everyone working together, it is encouraging to see the whole church pitch in. But comradeship, no matter how noble the reason, should not be the motivation for this play. God centered-ness is what will make this play a powerful one. It is the obedience to serve God with what He has given us and mostly importantly, that through this play, the wonderful message of God's love and sacrifice be shared to our loved ones this Christmas.
Some pictures from the many hours spent at the recording studio...
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Say Hi to the Chin Family!From left, me (mom), Terence (dad), Tzegang (Abel), Irwin (Matthew) and Sandra (Martha) Chin
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Meet part of my church choir!

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Peter Pan:The Musical

Fresh from graduation night, I took my Literature class to the Esplanade to watch Peter Pan. Looking around the crowd, I can say that the 18 of them were the rare few teenagers present that day. Most were tiny children and their parents. But I think it was as trancing for them as it was for the children. The snapping of fingers, the strange bohemian sounding music and the talented Peter Pan surely enthralled my 15 year old students.
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Graduation Night 2005

14th Oct - This marks the day of the first graduation night held in First Toa Payoh. I am glad and I thank God that it all worked out well. It was one of the most stressful periods in my teaching career - more stressful that Opening Ceremony. It wasn't the event alone, there was marking for examinations, traumatic incidents, form teacher duties, prizes, program, youth camp planning meetings....for the very first time, I felt overwhelmed, swamped and struggling to breath (literally). Some verses came to mind, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want' Psalm23:1 'Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God" Phil 4:6. The prayer and pleading comes easily, almost naturally. But the thanksgiving in these times are the most difficult, but perhaps the clearest way out of these situations. To be grateful and thankful to God for supplying all our needs - for giving us His word during these times, for the Holy Spirit to interceed on our behalf, for our family to support us and the family of God to cover us in prayers. How anxiety blinds our very light out of this darkness. I thank God for His sustaining hand and Daniel's understanding and patience.
These pictures now serve as precious memories for reasons I cannot make explicit:
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This is the class com who rose to the occasion on the 'actual day'. A special mention to Carmen and other 2 girls she was with on Thursday. They were extremely good help.
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Faithful Shah - who came back several days to help Mrs Tan with cutting of tickets, program booklets, emcee and all.
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The Black and White theme turned out great with the matching balloons. As for the reserved sign, I am still figuring whether it is borned out of desperation or creativity. You tell me...
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A picture with the final batch of USSS students from 5N1. Wonderful memories! See if you can spot, Sharon and Karen.
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The boys from 5N1 and my teaching pals.
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more pictures...
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The 2 faithful girls in charge of prizes...unassuming, sweet and quiet.