I keep sleeping! Besides my 8 hours of sleep at night, I take another 2 naps in the day, one in the late morning and one in the late afternoon! Mostly, when I'm awake, I read. Currently, my book of choice now is 'Too Busy NOT to Pray' by Bill Hybels. Bill Hybels is the senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, which sees about 20,000 attendees each weekend! But this book is relatively easy to read and I find him as an author honest and sincere.
When I was doing my devotion in the morning, it came to the 'time to listen God speak' part. So as I kept quiet for a while, I started hearing lotsa chirping from the birds outside. It was really sweet chirping! Immediately, I was reminded of the Bible passage about how God feeds the birds and how much more He will feed us. So, I managed to find that in Matt 6. As I read it repeatedly, God revealed to me that deep in my heart, I'm not exactly entrusting my future to Him. I often wondered if I would be successful and rich next time, and what kind of exciting career prospects am I heading for. If I were to really trust God, then there shouldn't be any second back-up plans for the 'just-in-case'.
Everyday I learn that, everyday is a new surrender to God.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Second time at Salngan
The first time I went to Salngan, which is in Oton, it was a pleasant trip with Ps David and Laureen. But the second time was on 17 May afternoon, after finishing up the youth camp the night before. The boys and girls split up so that only Ps Cat, Laureen and I went.
It rained heavily that day and if you recall my previous post about Salngan, it's a much more rural place. The ground is not just wet, it's muddy, such that it was quite impossible to walk with our slippers on because they would be sucked into the soil. So we went barefooted. For the first half of the walk, Ps Cat didn't want us to put on our ponchos cos she says it's not fair for Ps David who doesn't have one. To this day, I'm still puzzled why she said that. Later when one of the villagers gave Ps David an umbrella, then we decided to put on our ponchos.
*I'll never get to wear a poncho in Singapore and so it felt really cool wearing one! I felt invincible against the rain cos I have my poncho!
Every stepped I took, I couldn't help but cringe cos I kept thinking that I'd be stepping on cow dung, which really looked like the mud I was stepping on! In my mind were pictures of worms and bugs and leeches biting me. I feel quite idiotic when I think back about it. The flat grounds were dangerously slippery, Ps Cat and Laureen both fell once, soiling their pants. Just when we were resting under the shelter of one of the villager's home, two crazy kids went running like 'free' past us. That scene was quite hard to absorb cos minutes ago, I was walking like a duck over that same ground.
So Laureen and I did children ministry again. There wasn't an interpreter for us this time, so with all our might, we tried to connect with the children using gestures. We taught them 3 children Christian songs but when just as I was about to tell them the story of Gideon, Ps David said it's time to go. So sad!
So we walked back to the jeepney, squish squish. We washed our legs in a mini pond filled with rainwater before going into the jeepney, which is something like a minivan. 5 minutes later, the jeepney broke down. It wasn't very surprising cos on the way there, we were riding over rather large potholes filled with rainwater, thus causing the engine to be affected. I came down from the jeepney twice to push it from the back! Finally we came to this mini waterfall, whose path was just across the road! At the side of the road was a steep fall, which was the waterfall. The level of water was just-below-my-knee deep. So we waited. Remember there's only me, Ps Cat, Ps David, Laureen and Jeban who is Ps David's 5 year old son. 3 girls and 1 man won't be able to push the jeepney sia! And we waited. Finally some strong male villagers passed by and helped us to push.
To cut the long story short, the journey was long and took a couple of hours and the sky darkened pretty soon, forcing us to abandon our next mission of going to another children programme. By this time, I was falling sick, my back was sorely aching, the ache started the day before and everytime I breathed deeply, my shoulders hurt. Other than that, I felt fine though. Somewhere along the way, the jeepney roared back to life, Praise God!
Before I slept, my back was too painful to bear. It was 'suan'. I asked Laura to give me a massage but it didn't do good. Then Auntie Mag gave me this really good chinese massage. She started pressing along my spine.
Auntie Mag: Oh, you got 'feng' in your back.
Me: Huh? How you know?
A.M: I press, I know already. It's because you every bathe so late and sleep so late with your hair still wet.
Expert sia! After her massage, my back really felt so much better. It felt liberated. What an awesome day. :) And I mean it.
It rained heavily that day and if you recall my previous post about Salngan, it's a much more rural place. The ground is not just wet, it's muddy, such that it was quite impossible to walk with our slippers on because they would be sucked into the soil. So we went barefooted. For the first half of the walk, Ps Cat didn't want us to put on our ponchos cos she says it's not fair for Ps David who doesn't have one. To this day, I'm still puzzled why she said that. Later when one of the villagers gave Ps David an umbrella, then we decided to put on our ponchos.
*I'll never get to wear a poncho in Singapore and so it felt really cool wearing one! I felt invincible against the rain cos I have my poncho!
Every stepped I took, I couldn't help but cringe cos I kept thinking that I'd be stepping on cow dung, which really looked like the mud I was stepping on! In my mind were pictures of worms and bugs and leeches biting me. I feel quite idiotic when I think back about it. The flat grounds were dangerously slippery, Ps Cat and Laureen both fell once, soiling their pants. Just when we were resting under the shelter of one of the villager's home, two crazy kids went running like 'free' past us. That scene was quite hard to absorb cos minutes ago, I was walking like a duck over that same ground.
So Laureen and I did children ministry again. There wasn't an interpreter for us this time, so with all our might, we tried to connect with the children using gestures. We taught them 3 children Christian songs but when just as I was about to tell them the story of Gideon, Ps David said it's time to go. So sad!
So we walked back to the jeepney, squish squish. We washed our legs in a mini pond filled with rainwater before going into the jeepney, which is something like a minivan. 5 minutes later, the jeepney broke down. It wasn't very surprising cos on the way there, we were riding over rather large potholes filled with rainwater, thus causing the engine to be affected. I came down from the jeepney twice to push it from the back! Finally we came to this mini waterfall, whose path was just across the road! At the side of the road was a steep fall, which was the waterfall. The level of water was just-below-my-knee deep. So we waited. Remember there's only me, Ps Cat, Ps David, Laureen and Jeban who is Ps David's 5 year old son. 3 girls and 1 man won't be able to push the jeepney sia! And we waited. Finally some strong male villagers passed by and helped us to push.
To cut the long story short, the journey was long and took a couple of hours and the sky darkened pretty soon, forcing us to abandon our next mission of going to another children programme. By this time, I was falling sick, my back was sorely aching, the ache started the day before and everytime I breathed deeply, my shoulders hurt. Other than that, I felt fine though. Somewhere along the way, the jeepney roared back to life, Praise God!
Before I slept, my back was too painful to bear. It was 'suan'. I asked Laura to give me a massage but it didn't do good. Then Auntie Mag gave me this really good chinese massage. She started pressing along my spine.
Auntie Mag: Oh, you got 'feng' in your back.
Me: Huh? How you know?
A.M: I press, I know already. It's because you every bathe so late and sleep so late with your hair still wet.
Expert sia! After her massage, my back really felt so much better. It felt liberated. What an awesome day. :) And I mean it.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Birthday night at Himamaylan
Visitation: one house is super far from the other
Night service
Me and Ant doing children ministry
The next morning
Tricycle!On the 7th of May, my team and I and Ps (Pastor) Miller went up to Ps Miller's mountain church at Himamaylan. Himamaylan is on a different island called Negros. We took a tricycle to go up the mountain. Let me make it clear that the tricycle in Philippines is not the three-wheel bicycle the kids ride in Singapore! It's a 125cc motobike attached to a side car and this amazing primitive contraption carried 7 of us up, including the driver. There is the driver and two other riders on his bike and four of us in the side car, two standing and two sitting. I SAT ON THE MOTORBIKE SITTING SIDEWAYS! The road was really rocky, such that my teeth even chattered.
The whole place was covered with sugar plantations and the scenery was breathtaking! We also saw a lot of skinny buffaloes, not just at Himamaylan though. The minute we reached the church, we started spraying all over our legs and arms with the anti-mosquito spray! Psssss... Psss!
We did visitation to 6 houses in 2.5 hours. I'm serious. Every house was so far apart and because it's a mountain, there was slopes and just tracks, no proper lane for walking. When it came to the slopes, I walked really slowly. Suddenly Anthony said, 'Anna, you better keep walking. Don't stop. There's a lot mosquitoes just behind you and they've been following you.' My heart stopped. At the end of the slope, I looked down at my legs and I really saw this cloud of mosquitoes behind my knees! The children who were following us were just skipping around and running down the really narrow slopes, man, I was utterly impressed. At the river, the children held our hands and helped us cross it by stepping on the stones without falling down.
At the visitation, we introduced ourselves and invited the locals to come for our night service at 7pm. It was a tuesday and asking them to come attend service at night was a huge favour to ask because there are no lights and it's practically pitch black at night. And they have to walk a long way, most of them don't have torches either.
So we really thank God for the good turn out at night. It was really dark even though there were some torches. It was funny to see Gabriel lead worship in the dark. Anthony and I did children ministry and I told them the story of Gideon and his 300 men, with the help of an interpretor, of course. And so, the whole service ended at 8.45pm and soon we tucked in to sleep.
The onslaught of mosquitoes was much fiercer in the night and for the girls' room we burned 3 mosquitoe coils and put two mosquitoe patches. KIASU right? It was super smelly. We tried to sleep but it was humid. Picture this: Because I'm so scared of mosquitoes biting me, I had worn my jeans and socks and covered myself up the neck in the sleeping bag. Inside, I was perspiring. I managed to sleep for an hour after that but somehow about 11.30 pm, all of us, except Anthony woke up. At 12 midnight, Laureen and Ps Cat sang this really soft birthday song for me. I didn't know what to feel cos I'm just too stunned that I just turned 19 in a little hut, tucked away in a mountain at Himamaylan. Oh, by the way, we didn't bathed that night. Ps Miller turned 33 on the same day too!
By the 3rd day of our 14-day trip, I was still wearing the same clothes I was wearing at Changi Airport. Nevertheless I praise and thank God for his protection on all of us, and guess what, I only had 2 mosquitoe bites.
The whole place was covered with sugar plantations and the scenery was breathtaking! We also saw a lot of skinny buffaloes, not just at Himamaylan though. The minute we reached the church, we started spraying all over our legs and arms with the anti-mosquito spray! Psssss... Psss!
We did visitation to 6 houses in 2.5 hours. I'm serious. Every house was so far apart and because it's a mountain, there was slopes and just tracks, no proper lane for walking. When it came to the slopes, I walked really slowly. Suddenly Anthony said, 'Anna, you better keep walking. Don't stop. There's a lot mosquitoes just behind you and they've been following you.' My heart stopped. At the end of the slope, I looked down at my legs and I really saw this cloud of mosquitoes behind my knees! The children who were following us were just skipping around and running down the really narrow slopes, man, I was utterly impressed. At the river, the children held our hands and helped us cross it by stepping on the stones without falling down.
At the visitation, we introduced ourselves and invited the locals to come for our night service at 7pm. It was a tuesday and asking them to come attend service at night was a huge favour to ask because there are no lights and it's practically pitch black at night. And they have to walk a long way, most of them don't have torches either.
So we really thank God for the good turn out at night. It was really dark even though there were some torches. It was funny to see Gabriel lead worship in the dark. Anthony and I did children ministry and I told them the story of Gideon and his 300 men, with the help of an interpretor, of course. And so, the whole service ended at 8.45pm and soon we tucked in to sleep.
The onslaught of mosquitoes was much fiercer in the night and for the girls' room we burned 3 mosquitoe coils and put two mosquitoe patches. KIASU right? It was super smelly. We tried to sleep but it was humid. Picture this: Because I'm so scared of mosquitoes biting me, I had worn my jeans and socks and covered myself up the neck in the sleeping bag. Inside, I was perspiring. I managed to sleep for an hour after that but somehow about 11.30 pm, all of us, except Anthony woke up. At 12 midnight, Laureen and Ps Cat sang this really soft birthday song for me. I didn't know what to feel cos I'm just too stunned that I just turned 19 in a little hut, tucked away in a mountain at Himamaylan. Oh, by the way, we didn't bathed that night. Ps Miller turned 33 on the same day too!
By the 3rd day of our 14-day trip, I was still wearing the same clothes I was wearing at Changi Airport. Nevertheless I praise and thank God for his protection on all of us, and guess what, I only had 2 mosquitoe bites.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Day 6 at ILOILO
Me with the kids at SalnganToday was day 6 at Iloilo, please say yi-lo-yi-lo.
I was sent as an indivdual, alone, to Pavia. (Just think Toa Payoh) Without my team members, I felt less gung-ho. Thank God the youths there were very friendly, especially the girls. The young people in Iloilo are generally very hospitable but awfully shy! With all the PR skills I could master, I tried to overcome the language barrier and draw them out of their shells. Before long, they were asking me all sorts of questions, even to the point I was quite distracted to listen to the pastor!
So for the first time in my life, I stood before a congregation of 30 to preach. Because it is Mothers' Day, I specifically had to talk about mothers! Initially I thought I was quite ready with my message, and I started off quite well, but as I reached the middle part, I got quite kan chiong! Anyway, the service ended off with me praying for all the mothers individually.
I used to wonder if I could worship God out of Singapore and now I know that because God is everywhere and as long as His presence is there, you can worship Him!
After a hearty lunch, Ps John of Pavia gave me a ride on his motorcycle to meet Laureen at Oton. (Think Ang Mo Kio) Picture this: I sat on the back of the motorcycle, WITHOUT A HELMET, cruising along the streets of the villages in which I saw not a single traffic light. I was quite neurotic, in my mind and not in front of Ps John cos that would have been real rude, that I might die. If Singaporeans can blow up a matter of school children not having to wear seat belts in a safe and covered school bus, much less the commotion about the lack of a helmet! Without a helmet, the wind was blowing into my face and eyes so I had my eyes shut. Pretty soon, I fell asleep in the middle of the ride [you can't blame me, this was after lunch!] and woke up with a sharp jerk when the motorcycle went over a bump. Later when I confessed to Ps John of my dozing off, he said that he felt the slackening of my hands on his shoulders. God, thank you for protecting me!
After meeting Laureen and Ps David at Uton, we were off to minister to children at Salngan. [Think Khatib] This place is a lot more rural and that means a lot more cows, mosquitoes, grass, poverty, dirt tracks, trees, grass and whatnots that come with the word 'country'. There were 50 children and man, they were all lovely. So what if they were quite dirty? All that matters is that we want them to know that Jesus loves them. After leading songs and a short sharing, done by me and Laureen, we started giving out sweets and balloons that were twisted into crosses. They were so excited and crowded around me as if I were Santa Claus or better! It was stressful though cos we knew we didn't have enough resources to go around.
After Salngan, Laureen and I were given a ride on Ps David's motorcycle. Yes, that's 3 of us, WITHOUT HELMETS, on a motorcycle. It was a squeeze but what an experience. You can forget about riding on a motorcycle without a helmet with two other people for 30 minutes in Singapore. No siree, it'll never happen!
I've learnt so many things in Iloilo, Philippines. If I thought I was already grateful for what I have in Singapore, I couldn't have been more wrong. But I'll tell you more on another day!
I was sent as an indivdual, alone, to Pavia. (Just think Toa Payoh) Without my team members, I felt less gung-ho. Thank God the youths there were very friendly, especially the girls. The young people in Iloilo are generally very hospitable but awfully shy! With all the PR skills I could master, I tried to overcome the language barrier and draw them out of their shells. Before long, they were asking me all sorts of questions, even to the point I was quite distracted to listen to the pastor!
So for the first time in my life, I stood before a congregation of 30 to preach. Because it is Mothers' Day, I specifically had to talk about mothers! Initially I thought I was quite ready with my message, and I started off quite well, but as I reached the middle part, I got quite kan chiong! Anyway, the service ended off with me praying for all the mothers individually.
I used to wonder if I could worship God out of Singapore and now I know that because God is everywhere and as long as His presence is there, you can worship Him!
After a hearty lunch, Ps John of Pavia gave me a ride on his motorcycle to meet Laureen at Oton. (Think Ang Mo Kio) Picture this: I sat on the back of the motorcycle, WITHOUT A HELMET, cruising along the streets of the villages in which I saw not a single traffic light. I was quite neurotic, in my mind and not in front of Ps John cos that would have been real rude, that I might die. If Singaporeans can blow up a matter of school children not having to wear seat belts in a safe and covered school bus, much less the commotion about the lack of a helmet! Without a helmet, the wind was blowing into my face and eyes so I had my eyes shut. Pretty soon, I fell asleep in the middle of the ride [you can't blame me, this was after lunch!] and woke up with a sharp jerk when the motorcycle went over a bump. Later when I confessed to Ps John of my dozing off, he said that he felt the slackening of my hands on his shoulders. God, thank you for protecting me!
After meeting Laureen and Ps David at Uton, we were off to minister to children at Salngan. [Think Khatib] This place is a lot more rural and that means a lot more cows, mosquitoes, grass, poverty, dirt tracks, trees, grass and whatnots that come with the word 'country'. There were 50 children and man, they were all lovely. So what if they were quite dirty? All that matters is that we want them to know that Jesus loves them. After leading songs and a short sharing, done by me and Laureen, we started giving out sweets and balloons that were twisted into crosses. They were so excited and crowded around me as if I were Santa Claus or better! It was stressful though cos we knew we didn't have enough resources to go around.
After Salngan, Laureen and I were given a ride on Ps David's motorcycle. Yes, that's 3 of us, WITHOUT HELMETS, on a motorcycle. It was a squeeze but what an experience. You can forget about riding on a motorcycle without a helmet with two other people for 30 minutes in Singapore. No siree, it'll never happen!
I've learnt so many things in Iloilo, Philippines. If I thought I was already grateful for what I have in Singapore, I couldn't have been more wrong. But I'll tell you more on another day!
Monday, May 5, 2008
happy birthday to me (soon)
I went to a cool restaurant to have my birthday dinner yesterday, it's called Angus Steak House. The waitresses were dressed in the English housekeeping uniform, but from their accents, a lot of them were from China. I had wagyu beef ribeye dinner course. It was so fatty, but shiok la.
I was with family and my two brother's girlfriends came too. It seemed that everyone had their partner but not me.
I'm going Philippines tomorrow morning! There are butterflies in my stomach. Ps Cat even said that just make sure they fly in formation when we go there. 14 days away from home will be longest yet, knowing myself, I'll be homesick. Will miss you all.
I was with family and my two brother's girlfriends came too. It seemed that everyone had their partner but not me.
I'm going Philippines tomorrow morning! There are butterflies in my stomach. Ps Cat even said that just make sure they fly in formation when we go there. 14 days away from home will be longest yet, knowing myself, I'll be homesick. Will miss you all.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
SMU chosen!
I'm going SMU! It should be more or less confirmed since I've already officially accepted the offer online. It's going to be a stressful, tight-pack, pull-hair frustrating four years. But I prefer to believe that it's also going to be an exciting; New people to meet, new skills to be picked up, the entering of adulthood. I'm considering opening a blog themed on my coming years in SMU. However, the thought is still being chewed on.
Over the next two weeks, I'll be gone to Philippines til the 19th. [I'll be spending one night in a mountain church. I heard the insects are huge there!] In the meantime, I'd also be turning 19. 19 is such an in-between age, it's filled with the awkwardness of shedding immature mindsets and deciding what standards I want to live by.
Over the next two weeks, I'll be gone to Philippines til the 19th. [I'll be spending one night in a mountain church. I heard the insects are huge there!] In the meantime, I'd also be turning 19. 19 is such an in-between age, it's filled with the awkwardness of shedding immature mindsets and deciding what standards I want to live by.
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