Life.

The clock of life runs, a "tick" and a "tock",
But not for long, one day it will stop.
Maybe noon or night, or morning hour,
To know the time, none has the power.

To lose one's wealth is such a sore,
To lose one's health is even more...
To lose one's soul can be a terror;
Coz when life is gone, it is forever.

SUSOM Youth Seminar 2010.

SUSOM 2010... [Kuantan]

SUSOM! Ah… It seems just like yesterday I was in Kuantan with Jing, getting our testimony about SUSOM ready for church deputation in Kuantan Baptist Church. Memories and experiences, I have, and learnt, that shall always be close to my heart. =)

24/01/2010

All of us had to wake up early today. The 6 of us, were split into 3 groups, and were to go to 3 different churches. My church deputation partner today would be with Jing! And we were to attend Kuantan Baptist Church with Sieh Jin and Jason. By the time we left, the first group had already left.
Kuantan Baptist Church is like Wesley Methodist Church Alor Setar… located in shop lots. It looked small from the outside. But when I stepped inside, my first impression of it was HUGE! Maybe it was because of the way it was furnished that made it look bigger. Jing and I did our testimony interview style. I think it was okay…? You should ask Jing what she felt it was. Sieh Jin preached the same message he did in Tamil Methodist Church in KL. The book table was set up as usual, and I think the response was pretty good. And guess what, there were refreshments after the service. It seems to be a routine here. I think it's a good way of fellowshipping. It's a good idea. I think churches should practice this, but it'll make the church broke. Haha…

A funny thing happened though, while we were having our refreshments. Before we came here, I was asking Jing, why they didn't invite us to join their youth which was after church service, like the other 2 churches the other 4 SUSOMites went. And it so happened that the speaker which was to speak couldn't make it and the youth counselor asked Sieh Jin to take his place. =D My wish came true. =)

Jing sharing.

I was shocked to see such few youths joining youth service. Maybe they aren't many youth Christians in Kuantan. But, we were totally unprepared though. We played a game, the game that Tong and Deb wanted to play with the youth service they were attending, and the loser had to do butt writing. =D (My group won! =D) And after that, we shared a little about our testimony and Sieh Jin shared about SU. But I think, the youth still managed to learn some things from us and know more about the works of SU. =)

After youth, we joined the others for lunch. We were invited by one of the Presbyterian Church's member. The chicken rice I had there was superb. How I wish the chicken rice in Alor Setar was as nice. Hm… And, our work in Kuantan was done! =D Time to head back to PJ!
But before that, we made a pit stop in FELDA Residence TEKAM. Jennifer wanted to check out the campsite for SUPA camp. I think Kedah SU Camp should be held there one day. The only thing it the journey would take more than 8 hours…? And, the guys' toilet is like the toilets in NS. Open bathing. I guess some guys would be uncomfortable with the idea. But the facilities there are quite lengkap I think. There are chalets, a swimming pool, a field, badminton and volleyball courts, dorms, halls, etc…

Anyway, we had bah ku teh for dinner (the famous one in PJ, by 1), and guess what, Josh says he has never had it before. Can you believe it? =D

"Da Niu".

Youth Seminar in KT (SUSOM =D)... [Part 1]

Notice: This is going to be a super long post! =D In my book that I used to record what happened from day to day, it was 9 pages long! =O Happy reading. =)

23 January 2010
Ah! Everyone woke up early today! Why? Because we're going to KUANTAN! And we need to put our bags into the cars.

Breakfast, was at the market. And oh, there is one thing you shouldn't order in Kuala Terengganu, and that's their "char kuey teow". It was just horrible! =S

We headed to St. Andrew's Anglican Church for a youth seminar after breakfast. But we were early and the church was locked. So, guess what we did...We lepaked in the store right next to the church that was selling bathroom stuffs! =D (And who said Jing wasn't photogenic =P)

St. Andrew's Church.

At 10:15 a.m. sharp, the seminar started with a time of prayer and worship. It was a little impromptu though, because the youth of the St. Andrew's Church wasn't told that they were to lead in worship. In the end, they used the worship songs from previous Friday Church Service.

The youth... leading in worship! =)

Worship ended exactly as scheduled! O.O The first session out of five was led by Sieh Jin. All the sessions were based on the theme "Reach Out!". His session was entitled "Intro into Evangelism". He taught us about the methods of evangelism, through events, friendship, power, care, personal and media. That got me thinking about MYF. MYF has tried reaching out to people through events (MYF Christmas Party 2009), and I must say, it was a great success, and this Easter 2010 (it has passed though! XP It was a thought at that moment), we must try it again, REACH OUT! =D He also gave us examples in the bible where he asked us to act out the character out based on the passage. It was quite fun! I think it really set the mood of the youths attending the seminar.

After Sieh Jin's short sharing, we, SUSOMites did a short skit entitled "Heaven and Hell". =D

After the skit, Daniel Koo took the next session entitled "Understanding the Gospel of God".Before he started, he broke us up to groups and asked us to think of questions non-believers would ask about Jesus. In only 5 minutes, surprisingly, we came up with tons of questions. And surprisingly, most groups had jolted down Trinity of Christ (something I did not expect) in one of the questions most asked by non-Christians. My friends in school usually ask about the restrictions of what a Christian can eat or do, or what is church service about,... etc. But through the years, I have never encountered a friend of mine asking about the Trinity of Christ.

So, the first common question asked by non-believers; "Is there a God?". I think if I were a person looking for answers about God, this is the first question I would ask. Logical, right? So, as a Christian, how would you answer such a question?

Daniel Koo thought us 4 different methods; causality, rationality, morality and purpose.

The first method, causality. A method I think I would most use to answer such a question. First, ask yourself, if there was not a God, nothing created everything around us. Every single thing around us is a result of random occurrences, including yourself. Doesn't make sense right? So, if there was a God, everything is created by Him, for He is the Prefect Designer. Logical? Yes, I think so.

The second way, rationality. Using this method, if everything was not created by God, everything is an accident? Do you think this is a valid explanation? No, right? How can everything be created through accidents? Surely there is a smart designer and inventor behind it. If your rationality is randomly established, do you think your rationality is rational enough to judge the rationality about the existence of God?

Coming to the third method, morality! If there is no God, there is no moral consciousness within us, right? Because we are the results of random genetic exchange which to me, doesn't make sense, because we have morale, if we don't have moral consciousness, why are we learning Pendidikan Moral in schools? So, if there is a God, we are made in the image of God, with a moral consciousness.

The last method, purpose. If there is no God, we are purposeless, we are born just to live and die. We are just like hungry animals looking for food, merely just to pass time. But! If there is a God, we are created in His image and we have a purpose in life, to live for Him and try to lead a life according to Him.

Anyway, the next question a non-believer might ask would be "Aren't all Gods the same?". My personal opinion would be no, each religion has different moral principles and different restrictions. Do they look the same? Do they teach the same teaching? Many tend to think religion equals to moral education and tend to think they need not teach their kids anymore moral values because they have a religion, which is untrue, right? Because to have anything involves learning.

So, after asking that question and looking at the many religions of the world, which religion is the religion with the true God? Most religions have the tendency to claim a negative perspective on other religions. No religion supports another religion, because it is just merely impossible with different moral principles and all. And to determine which religion's God is the real God is also quite hard, because, if there is a God that is proven to be real, no other religions could exist. But, among all the religions, I find Christianity the most logical of them all.

Anyway, more about this seminar in my next post! =D

SUSOM @ Kuala Terengganu Continuation...

I know SUSOM has ended long time ago... But I must keep my promise to myself and the other SUSOMites, that I'll blog about SUSOM till the very end. =)

Let's see, where did I stop in the last post? Oh yes... Kuala Terengganu!

22 January 2010
We're still in Kuala Terengganu! =D

We were pretty busy today. The 6 of us were going to be split into 3 teams, and in each team, they will be either 1 or 2 Scripture Union officers. I was paired with Deborah Y, and we were to go to Lifeline AOG (again!) English Service. Sieh Jin and Daniel Koo would be following us.

Daniel Koo sharing about Scripture Union.

And, I'll always remember this service, it's the first time I've ever stood in front of the church and shared something that was about me.
Anyway, we had lunch at McDonald's. And did you notice that there is a Jawi signboard for McD? The first time I ever saw one in Malaysia.

After lunch, we had free time till at night. We had an invitation for dinner by the priest of St. Andrew Anglicans' Church. =) So.... during the free time, we played cards and at about 5, we headed to the beach! =D

Having tea below the place we stayed before heading off to the beach...

It's also my first time at Kuala Terengganu's beach. And mind you, the waves here are much stronger than the Batu Feringgi beach in Penang. Mainly because it's facing the open sea and the beach in Penang is rather protected.

Tong playing with his "electric guitar".

SUSOM 2010!

Ah, posing at the beach.

Important fact:
Do you know why there was a nickname called KooLai?

This picture says it all.. =D

Koo->Lai, inseparable. =P

Anyway, that night, we had a dinner invitation by the priest (not pastor) of St. Andrew Anglican's Church. The dinner was fantastic, the best dinner in the past two weeks (that's what I wrote down...) =D

One for the album!

SUSOM 2010! It ROCKED! =DMiss You Guys! =)

SUSOM @ KT! (Continued...)

I haven't been updating much about SUSOM lately. I've been rather lazy and busy with getting my SPM results. For older posts on SUSOM, click here.

I'll fast forward a little, because the things we do in PJ are almost the same as the things we did in the first week.

21 January 2010
After our KL church deputations trip, our next trip would be to the East Coast, Kuala Terengganu! As usual, after breakfast, we headed to SU Office to load up the barang-barang and our luggage into the vans and cars. We were going in three different cars! One car belonged to SU, another FES, and the last car belonged to Jennifer. I was to sit in the FES car, the Toyota Unser with Jing! Uncle Jason was to drive, with Sieh Jin as his co-driver.

Heading to the SU Office with our luggage..We prayed before we left.

And I think Jing enjoyed being my partner in the car, right? She wanted to be taken pictures of over and over again.. =P (I had nothing to do in the car, so, I just took anything I saw, and Jing was so "desperate" to be taken picture of. =D).

One of my few photos.. =P

We had a short pit-stop after a toll (which toll I can't remember) for lunch. But all I can remember was, the highway was so NEW, but so EMPTY! And the stores at that rest area wasn't quite fully occupied, and there were no Chinese food sold there! So, all of us had to settle with either bread or nasi lemak.

The SU Staff taking photo of us...

I slept awhile after that, and when I next opened my eyes, KUALA TERENGGANU! =)

I think this must be the "china"town of Kuala Terengganu.

We were staying in an apartment, owned by one of the church members of the local church we were going to visit. After we settled down, we decided to "hunt" for our dinner!

The view from the apartment... (We were staying on the 11th floor)

Having our first dinner in KT... with a doctor (a friend of Sieh Jin's).

The food there was... not bad!

After dinner, we headed of to AOG Lifeline Church, to attend their Chinese Service, and Deborah would be sharing her SUSOM testimony! =)

I think the congregation of the church were very responsive? Uncle Jason talked about the rich man who had plenty of harvest but did not have enough place to store them. It was a good problem for that man, but he got greedy. I think many of us have these kinds of problem. I think we saw the power of God working in them that night! =)

Lifeline AOG Church Members buying books...

SUSOM KL Outing!

17.01.10 Sunday

Today was our first church deputation trip out to KL. The 6 of us, were split into two groups, so that SUSOM could attend more churches. So, we pushed off at about 9.

Leaving SU Office...

My group, Xiu Ying and Joshua, with Sieh Jin and Jennifer headed of to Tamil Methodist Church, where Sieh Jin would share the message to the congregation, and the SUSOMites would perform a song and one of us would share our SUSOM testimony.

Going to Tamil Methodist Church wasn't very much different my own home church, after all, mine is a Methodist church too! And I think the order of worship of most or maybe all Methodist churches are the same, so, I didn't get much of a shock or anything. I felt quite at home!

Tamil Methodist Church, KL.

Setting up the book table...

After the service, we had lunch in Brickfields itself. We had free time until dinner time after church. Jennifer and Daniel Koo had given us a choice to either spend the day at a mall, or go back to the SU Staff House and relax earlier on.

Before this, we already had a long "debate" on which mall we should go, and since Tong and Deborah were both KLians, we asked them to suggest a suitable mall for us, and it was decided that we would go to Berjaya Times Square. It would be our first and last outing trip together in Malaysia in a mall. =)

After lunch, we took the LRT (I think) from Brickfields to Berjaya. The mall was so full of people! I wonder how people can stand being in crowds, I know I can't. We played bowling @ Berjaya, it seemed to only thing that we could do together other than eating together.

Joshua bowling...The end result...

We had to rush back to the LRT station after our outing at Berjaya though, because it started to drizzle, and look at Xiu Ying, she looks so happy when she is running in the rain! =PThe one thing I hate about KL is, when we take a transit from one LRT to another, we have walk such a LONG distance to the other LRT!

We had a little debriefing after dinner, before calling it a night! =) Thus, ends the first week of SUSOM!

Supplements & Vitamins?

The SUSOMites had an outing at Berjaya Times Square after the church deputations in KL. Deborah pointed this out to me...Vitamins & Supplements are "Chips more, Koko Jelly, Cookies etc.."???

According to the Cambridge dictionary, vitamin is defined as "any group of natural substances which are necessary in small amounts for growth and good health of the body", and supplements is defined as "something which is added to something else in order to improve it or complete it".

So, by eating these stuffs on display will make me healthy? I think I would not mind... =P

SUSOM Captain Ball Outing With the Ampang Youth....

SUSOM is not just all about missions, we have sports too! The Ampang Youth invited us to join their youth service and also join in their game of Captain Ball! =)

Saturday 16.01.2010
After lunch, we headed off to Ampang Gospel Center to attend the youth service. But before that, the lights starting blinking in the office! And the whole office started to blink, like a horror movie! =D Anyway, we could smell smoke from where we were. We rushed out, and we saw this....
The pole was on fire! There were sparks off and on, but it soon died down.

Back to Ampang Gospel Centre Youth Service! =D Their youth service is about the size of my youth service, but a little smaller (I think). After worship and ice-breakers, we headed off to the field.

The 6 SUSOMites posing...

Oh well, captain ball was not a new game to me, it was to the twins though (since they never attended any SU camps before =P). All of us were split into 4 teams. I was in the same group with Jing, while Ying was with Tong, and Teng with Yong.

I must say each game was rather short. Usually, we would play for about 10 to 30 minutes per game? They only played about 5 minutes? Not even enough time to warm up. Ah Tong's group won, followed by mine. Haha... They had more man-power (which was a little unfair =P)! Anyway, after captain ball, Uncle Alan belanjaed us makan malam at a steak house called "Fiske Sate Ria". We only had to pay for our drinks! =)
We had some free time after dinner, so, we played TABOO! Haha...

Thus, ends our first day of the weekend.

SUSOM... Continuation...

The continuation of... SUSOM! =D

Friday 15.01.2010
Ah... Today is going to be a rather relaxing day for us... After the past few days of HEAVY sessions, it's time for preparations for church deputations. We were taught how to unpack books and pack books to be sold in church. You know each time SU goes to your church, they will set up a book table to sell SU books and cute stuffs? That's what we were packing for... and also at the same time, we had a one-to-one session with Runa.

A time of sorting and packing books...

Lunch was at Seng Kee (just beside SUFES Book Store). Guess what we did on the way back to SU Office!

Look at the SUSOMites posing... (And I'm not in there T.T, because I'm their photographer...)

Group photo on the see-saw!
Another group photo! =D

After our "photo shoot" session, we prepared for the church deputations for Sunday! Nothing much happened today, except Tong and Teng couldn't sleep well, because of the twins! =P

More about SUSOM 2010! =)

More about SUSOM! For older posts, click here! =) I think this post will be rather long! Happy reading! =)

Thursday 14.01.10
The fourth day of SUSOM begins! As usual, I woke up late again. =P

We had another session with Uncle Jason. It will be his last session with us. After this, he'll be just be joining us for the mission trips around Malaysia. He shared about "Understanding God's Will For My Life". Let me start with a quote from Asian Beacon Volume 31/5 1999.

"If one is led by the Spirit, one must be the right person at the right place at the right time."

He introduced us to 5 models of God's Will for My Life (in his view of this topic). The 5 models are the blue-print model, the non-inference model, the final-destination model, multi-tier model, and personal guide model. Let me go through all the models one by one.

The first model, the blue-print model. Do you believe that God has a special and detailed plan for your life? In the bible, it says in Jeremiah 1:5:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

Jeremiah 1:5

He knew us before we even born, because it is He who created us. Although we might say, we are not Christians and all, but still, do you know that every bad thing that happens to you happens for a purpose? Most of the time, when a bad thing happens, what do you do? You blame God for allowing the bad thing to happen. You would question, "WHY GOD? Why didn't you protect me? Don't you love me?". But I believe if you look long and hard enough for the reason it happened, I think you'll find the purpose why God allowed it to happen. But, it's just what I believe and what I think. You may disagree with me.

The second model, the non-interference model. God allows people to make their own decisions and plans, because He gave us free will to make a choice (since Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the Garden of Eden). An example in the bible of it is in Judges 21:25.

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did what he saw fit.

Judges 21:25

God doesn't interfere with the choices we make. We have our own free will, for He gave us that will. Therefore, if we want to turn our backs on Him, there is no one stopping you.

Final Destination. God has one ultimate or a few ultimate destinations for us. We are free to get there any how. Meaning, if you follow God, and God wants us to be a doctor, it doesn't matter we study locally or outstation, the end result would be still you would be a doctor. Like Joseph in the bible...,

Joseph's final destination is to be in a certain position in Egypt so that he may provide food to his family in famine time.

Example of Joseph

After Uncle Jason's DEEP session, we had a closing orientation session. This marked the ending of these heavy sessions, and the rest would be hands on experience. We were given a short briefing about the church deputations work we would be doing in Kuala Lumpur. The 6 of us had to split into two groups, as we were going to two churches; SIB Brickfields and Tamil Methodist.
Joshua, Xiu Ying and me were to go to Tamil Methodist, with Sieh Jin and Jennifer, while the other half with Runa at her church SIB Brickfields (FYI, SIB Brickfields is a Malay speaking church). Going to a Methodist church wasn't much a big deal for me, after all, I'm a Methodist too. Each group had to perform a skit or a song (My group performed a song, while the other did a short skit).

Lunch at Cameron Towers!

After lunch, we had a Pastor from Malacca to conduct a session on Cambodia, as he has been there for mission work in the children ministry. He touched a little on the Cambodian history. Did you know that Christianity was only legalized in Cambodia in 1990s? Before this, if you were a Christian, it was against the law! O.O

The Pastor sharing about Cambodia.

We had a little free time after his sharing, because he ended his session earlier than scheduled. Guess what we did!

Online! =D

After our little session of online"ing", we headed back to the SU Staff house to cook dinner... We were going to cook SPAGHETTI that day. Guess who was on duty to prepare dinner... Joshua, Xiu Ying, Xiu Jing and me (Sure very sedap, because I'm cooking! =P).

Jing playing with "Tong" the chicken... =D

Jing washing "Tong" the chicken... =D (She just loves to play with "Tong") =P

End result: Spaghetti and the sauce!

Spaghetti...
Sauce...

According to Jason Lai, when the spaghetti is cooked, throw it against the wall, if it sticks, means it is cooked. (Funny, huh? But somehow I think it's not true, because the spaghetti was still a little hard. =P).

Anyway, SUSOM ROCKS! =D