HopeKids LIVE! was enjoyable. Started doing "WIN" in our services where we want to ensure each child that walks into our service gets contact with at least 3 of us. The Welcomer, the involver and the networker when they step into the service. Kids are normally so short that they usually get missed. Furthermore adults often call for attention so will get ours more than these little fellas. We have to be intentional. Very intentional. The team is getting the hang of things and we are ministering more than we ever been in our services. It was good to see Freedy our new leader co-lead worship with Pris. He's great and Pris does a good job helping him.

After the service, was with the HopeTots 1 and 2 volunteers and leaders to help brief on the launch of the Tots Time service. I'm getting really excited about it and it will bring us to be more intentional as well in our outreach to children. Yes we are aiming lower and thinking smaller. :-) ..knowing that kids are the future worth our time.

The group of young volunteers and leaders make us feel young all over again. Over lunch the girls talked about boys, they made Mag laugh, I mean really laugh. They are deciding what to call her. Hannah call her "Godma" but the others wonder if they should call her "Madelin", "Auntie Madeline" or "Chern Han's Ma". They are undecided. Their energy rubs off positively to us. Some people feel uneasy by them but we take what we can and make the most of it.

It was a rare Sunday Mag and I have some time together. Alone without the kids. Mag had this $50 voucher given by her ex-company for a dinner at The Vineyard a restaurant in Laguana Golf & Country Club and its expiring tomorow. We dropped our kids at my auntie's to spend that time together. It was a lovely time together, the food was neat and meticulously created, the place was quiet and posh and we have free flow of appetiser and desert with a main course of NZ Tenderloin steak with baked Oyster. Mag had codfish fillet with escargo. With Jamie Callum playing in the background, it was a perfect 2 hours break. We paid $20 extra which we didn't mind. It was worth the time to be connected again and feel like we can keep going for a few more miles.

Life is that journey that is exciting and all, but still require some stop-bys to keep us going. It wasn't the food or the company, it was being led to a place where we can see what is ahead, clearer. Sometimes it takes food and certain company, but not all the time. We know nothing physical can do the job alone.

Back home now, with the kids asleep, trying to get some work done. Need to write a lesson for Unit Leaders Course. Listening to some classic jazz "Charlie Christian, The Genius of the Electric Guitar", feeling a bit thirsty, I looked for a nice drink to end the day. Thought what will do? Ribena, Rose Syrup, Tiger Beer, Coca Cola or some fresh juice ? Wasn't sure but couldn't find any of the options anyway so just poured myself a glass of cooked water. Realised that while I yearn for something else, it is water that I really need. How strange it is. Something to think about to to end a nice Sunday.

A humurous but poignant call for us towards spiritual work with children.

Found this is one of my favourite children's minstry blogMinistry Musing which in turn found it in the Children matter website.

Psalms 25 verses 17-18 "The troubles of my heart are enlarged; O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins"

As David was calling for the release of his trouble and distress, he did a strange thing to ask for forgiveness of his sins. Now wait a minute, shouldn't he calling for repentence of his enemies other than his own ? It is infact them who is sinning big time for causing him distress.

Maybe he knew something about human conflict that we don't. Maybe he knew it is good that to be contrite and quick to seek forgiveness from the Lord for our part in the trouble we are in. Maybe he knew that repentence can bring us closer to Him and that its good for the soul.

Did a six hour non-stop work stretch on Monday but realise that it was a bad idea at the end of it. Brain freezed, went for a late lunch and walked passed a fashion shop at Roxy Square playing Sting's 'History Will Teach Us Nothing'. Hang around outside the shop to catch a quick listen to the song because it's too lame to look around at women clothes inside. The sound wasn't too bad from a mini compo and it was great way to release some stress. Then found a small cafe to have pork chop rice. Stayed longer to read through all their magazines on the rack over some home brewed coffee. Paid for the food & drink but not a cent for the magazines and left fully recharged. Did everything legally to refresh myself again and I'm back on track.

God's given us everything possible for a full righteous life. Nothing about it is illegal or even impractical. We just need to know what's okay to have, take hold of it and live. It is sad if we don't know God's Word enough and live with guilt of our actions not because its His Word but because of our uncertainty of it. I met someone over lunch today who is going through just that - all guilt and little truth. No words I say will make a big difference to change his mind unless he knows God and hence what's legally for him to have. He owes God not his feeling of condemnation but his obedience to get to know Him well... Only then will he truly live.

My washing machine is fixed and that's the end of handwashing our clothes. Mag is thrilled. It's always good to have something fixed. Speaking of that I think its about time I visit the dentist.

May Ann has this good habit of telling us what happens in school every day. Yesterday May Ann told me that each person has 3 sets of teeth. I thought only 2, the baby teeth or milk teeth and the other the final set of adult teeth. I thought there's some new discovery in science that they are teaching in the schools.

With some many problems with my current set, I was excited and filled with hope, I asked her so what are they? She said 1) the baby teeth 2) the adult teeth and 3) the denture! .... I was flabbergasted. It wasn't even a joke, she wasn't laughing. She meant it and I thought to myself that's really false hope, isn't it?

We get a lot of false hope from this world, not only from children but from adults too... especially from ourselves. We create false hopes to appease ourselves. We justify that its okay to conform to the patterns of the world because it gives a certain comforting feeling that we are doing it right when its actually not. We are called to be different because we have real hope that God is in control. He gives us this real hope so that we can take part in the redeemption work with Him.

So if things are not convenient and comfortable when we serve Him, it may not be wrong, it may just means that we are not dependent on hope that the world gives. It means we are following God and our hope is in Him alone.

Can't believe I woke up at 3am in the morning to post my previous post.

This is a photo of me done up with Photoshop Elements which is going to replace that pair of raggy shoes in my profile. Some people asked me why I could do these type of things ....I just told them 'I just took time to learn'.

A few weeks back someone mentioned something that bothered me. The person responded about something that I should do .."because you are multi-talented". I didn't take it as a complement. I felt uneasy. I never think that anybody is talented just like that. Show me talented people, and I'll show you hours, months and years of effort put into learning that thing that they are talented in. As Christians, I believe that the Lord bestow on us what we are faithful in using for his glory.

I remember the first time that I spoke in public when I presented my honors thesis before a group of professors and lecturers, I bombed out so badly I was a laughing stock in the batch. I remember people's comment of my purple sky and green skin of people when I first started to paint, I remember the first time I posted my songs on the internet, someone said that's the vice of the internet that songs like mine can be distributed to people all around the world. I remember the first website I developed for a customer in Ministry of Education, they say it looked like a cheap porno site. Nothing in my past suggest that I'm multi-talented just like that. I would like to think that everything that I could do today is a result of hardwork, faithfulness and the mercy of a great God. I doubt myself quite a lot but I never doubt God and what he can do. My goal is not to be good in anything but to trust God in my diligence and faithfulness.

I used to be proud of what I could do but I've long realised that its a one of the many man's futile pursuits. Nothing about what I can do drives me today. In the 2 weeks of being without a helper, it is easy to think that Mag and I are okay because we are such amazing people but it would be wrong when the grace of God is powerfully at work to sustain us.

In this world, how evil it is to give glory to self for power bestowed onto us because we are His children. We are robbed of greater glory when we allow ourselves seek glory for work not done by ourselves. If we seek self glory the sad thing is, that will be all we are going to get, 'Self glorification'. It is wise to wish for something more.. and that would be God's glory and the ability to be grateful

Alone in God
my soul waits, silent.

My help is from Him. Alone in God
rest, my soul, in silence.
My hope is from Him.
He alone is my rock, my safety;
I shall not be shaken.

- Psalms 62:2,6

I missed Tuesday's devotion (amongst some other days) because I was devoted to other things which I cannot remember what they were. The truth should really be that if we cannot remember them, then it probably isn't worth doing in the first place.

Today I put my hope in the Lord again. It is 'again' that I'm saying this. I was given this quote “Every day I say to myself – today I will begin.” by St. Anthony of the Desert, and it must be so. So let's be His... not just yesterday or last week but today and everyday.

Germany packed their bags for an earlier flight home. They lost to Italy 2-0 in the semifinals ... but hey wait a minute they are home!

Yes most thrills are temporary. Anyway here’s a German song to remember 2006 World Cup in Germany. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY5zDQWd5bE&eurl=