Wednesday, November 21, 2007


He paid the price

There once was a man named George Thomas, pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit. Eyebrows were raised and, as if in response,

Pastor Thomas began to speak...'I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.

I stopped the lad and asked,

'What you got there, son?'

'Just some old birds,' came the reply.

'What are you gonna do with them?' I asked.

'Take 'em home and have fun with 'em,' he answered 'I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight. I'm gonna have a real good time' '

'But you'll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do?'

'Oh, I got some cats,' said the little boy. 'They like birds. I'll take 'em to them.'

The pastor was silent for a moment. 'How much do you want for those birds, son?'

'Huh?? !!! Why, you don't want them birds, mister. They're just plain old field birds. They don't sing. They ain't even pretty!'

'How much?' the pastor asked again.

The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said, '$10?'

The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He placed it in the boy's hand. In a flash, the boy was gone. The pastor picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot Setting the cage down, he opened the door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out, setting them free.



Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit, and then the pastor began to tell this story.



One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation.

Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. 'Yes, sir, I just caught the world full of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn't resist. Got 'em all!'

'What are you going to do with them?' Jesus asked.

Satan replied, 'Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to drink and smoke and curse. I'm gonna teach them how to invent guns and bombs and kill each other. I'm really gonna have fun!'

'And what will you do when you get done with them?' Jesus asked. 'Oh, I'll kill 'em,' Satan glared proudly.

'How much do you want for them?' Jesus asked

'Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll just hate you. They'll spit on you, curse you and kill you. You don't want those people!!'

'How much?' He asked again.

Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, 'All your blood, tears and your life.'

Jesus said, 'DONE!'
Then He paid the price.


Be blessed. :)

Tuesday, November 20, 2007


sherman's wedding

carrying on from the last post, the next big event was on nov 9, the start of a weeklong family wedding celebrations. (no, it wasn't me who got married.) it was my cousin and we had our family members from far away places like sydney and china to come back to join us in the celebrations. you probably know of The Shaws by now as i've mentioned them in an earlier post and boy did they have to travel a lot.

to arrive on oct 30, they had to take a 27 hour train ride from where they stay, to the nearest town with an international airport and this meant that they have to leave 2 days in advance! a 27 hour train ride, a 4 hour flight, that's like 31 hours of travelling excluding waiting for transit and all! and to top it all, they had 4 young kids with them. what a test of logistics and patience that must have been!

and we enjoyed their company. i haven't seen them in ages and really missed them when they left last wednesday (14th) for another 4 hour flight and 27 hour train ride. can't wait to see them again in 2009 when they will come back for a longer period during the CNY celebrations. i'm especially eager to see how Jasper will grow up into. think he'll make a fine man.

but back to the main stars, the bride and the groom.



theresa and sherman, elegantly decked in white. they have been together since their secondary school days and it's like that sort of fairy tale relationships that a) we can only dream of, or b) mediacorp can think of. in all, they had been dating for close to 9 years before getting married! blessed they are indeed.

they held it at the orchard parade hotel, just outside the famous shopping belt and it was an ok wedding. very simple and nicely done up, though the food wasn't that good. there was a dish, i think stewed beef, it's as though the chef just opened up a few cans of beef and just poured it out onto the dish. kinda like that cp wanton ad thing. except it was beef. other than that, it was a simple wedding occassion. nothing to shout about. i must say, their wedding photos were very well done though. whitelink or something i think it was. very nicely done up in an album and the pictures were very vivid and lively too.



for those looking for a good photographer, you might wanna try whitelink.

so with the loads of wedding invitations that i and jo have been receiving for the month of november, it'll give us the perfect chance to decide what sort of a wedding we would like and more importantly, how much we should save up. i reckon to have our dream wedding, we'd need at least $30k.

so at least we'd have a couple of years or more to pray about it and pray it'll rain money someday or something.

will leave you with some pics now..

my sis got the job as the receptionist


and i got to be the bouncer!










see that drawing in the middle of the guest book?


that's jasmine's! she even signed it!


many years down the road, it'll be their turn.


the packed room


white is such a nice colour


no i didn't photoshop the bubbles in.


they blew it while pouring the champange! so cool.


the groom and us 3

a summary of dates

Like finally, a new blog update, you are probably saying now.
Like finally, i have time to update my blog, i say to myself.

I've been coming back late for the past 3 weeks or so, mostly around 11pm and by the time i find myself sitting here, in front of the computer, i'm like dead tired. there's so many things i wanna blog about, to poke fun at, or just to update you about my sweet love but it's been really tiring for me. and today is my first day to myself, so i shall reward my readers (or whatever readers that i have left) with a post.

right. so let's have a quick recap of my previous posts, the last one being on nov 7th. let's pick up from there.

nov 7. ah, i remember it vividly. i've been thanking God lately for a lot of things that he's given me especially at a time when the going was really tough. it was a severe test of my faith and i'm glad i didn't stray from Him. that was the day jo was discharged from the hospital. and there was a lot of preparation by others in the build up to her discharge. her sister cleaned up her room and we got her new clean bedsheets. all i had to do was to go down after class to help her with the discharge procedures and make sure she's well taken care of.

talking about taking care of, i must say, our TV programmes are a big lie.

#1, you know those hospital scenes, where the patient wakes up from his/her deep slumber after an operation to find all his/her family members surrounding his/her hospital bed in the ward. IT'S A LIE! Jo says they wake you up in a recovery room to make sure everything went well and that you weren't dead.

#2, you know those scenes where the family members are surrounding the patient in the ward and are mostly seen sleeping cos they have spent the whole night camping by their bed side? IT'S A LIE AGAIN!!! I got chased out by the stuff nurse after visitation hours was over and it was 3pm in the afternoon! (visitation hours ended at 2pm) It wasn't even midnight!! Wonder how these producers get the idea that we could stay overnight on a chair in the hospital ward by the bedside.

one big lie after another, mediacorp!

but anyway, thank God that Jo is recovering well. her checkup a week later went well too, where they had to remove the transparent fins that look like sotong bones, which were stuck in her nose to protect the area that was operated on.

god, they were scary. they were like a full 7-8cm long! and i can't imagine how she managed to breathe through those things. there were lots of dirt and muscus stuck at the end of it cos she couldn't remove them and they must have clogged up her nose so badly, it's like breathing through a wad of cotton! thank god the ordeal is all over and that she's recovering well.

shall be blogging about the following days but here's a summary to help you hyperlink your way through when the posts are done.

nov 7 -- jo's discharge (that's this post if you hadn't realise)
nov 8 -- revamping Jo's room
nov 9 -- sherman's wedding
nov 10 -- family BBQ/chalet and Jeff's & Xingdi's birthday celebrations
nov 20 -- awaiting the arrival of....

this is the gist of it. subjected to changes without prior notice. but do look out for them!

Wednesday, November 07, 2007


giving praise 071107

what a nice date.

071107.

and to celebrate this joyous occasion, jo was discharged (i kept saying book out. it just felt so normal after a week of reservist) after her surgery at CGH.

her fever is mostly under control, the bleeding in the nose has stopped and it seems her appetite is back too! so praise lord that everything is well.

pray that she will continue to recover quickly so that we can go makan hunting again! good food await us!! :)

Monday, November 05, 2007


giving praise 051107

jo underwent her sinus operation earlier this morning and thank god the operation went smoothly. it was a 3 hour long operation, starting at about 7 plus and only ending around 11. but she developed fever soon after and it reached a high of 38 deg cel for about an hour or so.

i prayed and so did her friends who visited her at around dinner time. and like we know it, prayer helps. the fever which had yet to subside totally for several hours went down at the first take after the prayer was said.

God is good. it went to a low of 36.8 deg cel and she felt better soon after. praise God and i know he will grant her a speedy recovery!

Sunday, November 04, 2007


a day with the shaws

the person who took care of me when i was much younger is finally back in singapore. the last time i saw her was about 4 years ago and she had 3 kids.

4 years later, she has 4 kids. and what a handful they were! makes me rethink my dream of having 7 kids with josephine. (i can hear her sigh of relief from where i am)

we picked her family (hereafter referred to as The Shaws) up from the chalet they were staying at for this trip and headed to church for a "surprise" visit. surprise because no one expected them to be back and they were really pleased to be able to fellowship with The Shaws once again.


The Shaws in FIBC.

and it being the first sunday of the month, the service was cut short by an hour so we could spend more time interacting with the church members so it was a really good time for all of us. the kids, needless to say, had lots of fun, running about, playing with the new toys and soaking up the limelight from the aunties at church.


Jasper, the latest addition.

after a wonderful pot blessed lunch and lots of catching up, we went for a sightseeing tour in my car, down orchard road, marina bay and shenton way to update them on the new developments in singapore. they all agreed that the redevelopment was really taking place very quickly and that in just 4 years away, she felt like a tourist in her own country!

we ended the day at vivocity where there was a huge play area where the kids could play while the adults shopped. the kids enjoyed it totally, running around, splashing water about, climbing up slides, running around, filling cups with water, running around, getting soaked, running around.

while jo and i had to watch them.

it was hard work i tell you! much more xiong than reservist! i had to run after little jasper and that boy can really run. but he's a really smart kid, you can tell. from his actions and behaviour, you can see he will grow up to be a smart, sensible boy.

the biggest kick i get out of it is the looks people give when they hear the kids speaking chinese. they have spent close to a year in China and they have picked up the language really well there. even better than me (which is actually no big deal) and maybe josephine (which is really something).

imagine, a family, black, 4 kids, curly hair, speaking english with a british accent then suddenly, the switch in a spilt second and start bantering in chinese (with real chinese accent) amongst themselves! priceless i tell you. one taxi driver look so shocked, he turned his head around so quick, i could almost hear it snap.

i wish i could speak as well as them. jo suggested i go china for a year. well perhaps, if the chance arises. then i can shee-shua-shui-shee with my little cousins!


Jasper, 2


Jed, 5


Jasmine, 6


Joshua, 7


The Shaws

Friday, November 02, 2007


AAR -- Reservist

no.

this blog is not dead.

yeah i know it's been quite a while since a proper post but so much has happened during the last half of october.

the key point -- reservist.

and it was fun to go back to see how my platoon mates are doing and as well as exchange the latest gossips (like who's getting married or have kids or have the highest paying job etc etc). yes, we guys do do that a lot too. and besides gossiping, we also tend to pick on those who act blur live long and make others in the platoon suffer. these people, they act blur to avoid any form of work but when it comes to getting some form of incentive (or being first in any queue) they will be there.

and i had the chance to get up close and personal with one such person during this reservist. his name is Kong. nobody liked him and he was a drifter, moving from clique to clique cos no one wanted to accept him.

i gotta be honest, i didn't like him very much. there wasn't very much attractiveness in a person like him. but the message from both my church and jo's have been preaching about love and accepting others.

and when kenneth, one of my platoon mate, mentioned about our training days and who we thought were the best instructor, i thought for a moment, what my men thought of my training methods. all the shoutings, punishments and push ups. it all seemed necessary then. when we underwent training ourselves, we got much worse but we felt it was necessary too.

as some say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

but then again, are there other teaching methods that don't require belittling or shouting at the trainees?

i told myself, if i ever had a chance to teach anyone anything, i will refrain from shouting. maybe like what pastor said, love is the answer. could it?

and then guess what God decided to do the very next day?

He decided to let me train Kong.

yes, unlovable Kong.

cos he never really was a boatman, he needed some refresher course on handling the boat. and i had to do it.

so it was a real challenge trying not to shout or belittle him while teaching him cos he really didn't know much of the basics. the best i could do was a firm voice. i can't imagine speaking to him gently. i will puke all over the boat.

but i did it. i didn't scream a single word of vulgarities at him and he did drive reasonably well. everyone was so afraid he would screw up big time. and i don't blame them. i mean, he managed to drop his glasses into the water while putting on his life jacket before he boarded the boat. how much confidence that must have gave the medic and the lifeguard who were on board. they cast worried looks the moment i handed over the motor to Kong and wondered aloud if i was making a wise decision.

But thank God he preserved me. and i'm glad i passed His test.

so one ict down. 9 more to go. next year's quite xiong. 21 days as compared to the 8 i just went through. and it will be much tougher.

God bless me.