Touched

Now I am back blogging. Just came back from church. I wrote a bit of notes of what pastor preaches every Sunday. Today, he saw my notes and he told me that he felt touched that I wrote notes. Hehe.. I take notes because without it, it won't stay in my head and I won't be a better person today.

I was talking to a friend today about not having enough time for myself. Yesterday, we had girls' tea party. We had sharing and we were asked to say what to be thankful for this year. I could not think of anything because I realize that I have not done anything interesting for myself. Sad huh..

I mean, I can think of some events that I have been. But none interesting. Sigh.. I mentioned to friend that I don't have enough time now that I have more things going on. If I have more time, I would love to do more swimming. I do like it because it is exercise and makes me feel confident. I would like to do more reading on improving my interpersonal communication skills and business writing. I would also like to blog more [I blog less often this year due to no time]. I would like to travel more [need to save more].

In the end, I just said I was thankful for God guiding me in improving towards career path. Lol all the nonsense huh.

Weather not good

I probably mentioned that I have a job now. That is, it will be until early March. This time, I learnt more on the admin part. I did some basic data entry and filing. I saw the moving of the computers and most of the office stuff from the original card centre office to the UCSA common room upstairs. I have wondered about it but I wasn't sure if they transported or they just move the computers manually. They were transported by truck even though the two locations were 3 minutes walk. =P I sound pathetic. Hehe..

Right, some time ago, I blogged about reading the book on Married to God. I finished reading it last month and have been procastinating on typing it out. Well, it was the Christmas and New Year week that made me busy for a while. Anyway, here goes the summary of what I learnt from the book.

Purpose of marriage - for children, intimacy and sex for service of God. The point of marriage institution and heart of marriage. Some people may question is it better to stay single or not, well it depends if the particular person can self-control. If not, then might as well get married. However, the person cannot simply divorce once married. It does make me think a lot about marriage ever since I finish reading the book. The most important thing in a marriage is the wife must submit to husband and husband must not be harsh to wife. (Colossians 3: 18-19)

One must not put career, or any other ahead of marriage though. I also learnt that some people may find themselves single for the rest of the life. This just means that they do not have the gift of marriedness, and you will never know if you have the gift or not until you marry. Everyone is free to marry.

Addicting

I am watching NCIS. It's so addicting. My curiosity is so strong, huh.. I am on beginning of season 3. Crime series are quite interesting to watch compared to drama. You can get glued to the screen.

You know what, it's a great blessing that my boss told me that he has given my contact to the university call contact. I am hoping to get more work experience. =)

The weather has been gloomy all week and it's going to continue next week according to the weather forecast. I hope it's not too cold for my mini field trip next week. My field trip is assessed apparently, written report. I better get on with reading the handout notes for the trip.

Know what, there's just so many adverts for insurance nowadays. Life, house, etc. Why not just get a wholesale insurance? So it's better to check out the website, wholesaleinsurance.net to know more about this insurance that they offered.

Part 2

I think there were about 30ish people at Mosaic. Not that bad for the 2nd anniversary. No performances but people giving their testimonies. Good on them for being brave and going up the stage and talk. Not all the lights were out though. But I felt so sleepy when mosaic finishes and I just don't have any mood to talk/socialize. Blame the lights. Actually I have always felt like that. Even watching movies at other people's house. Switching off the lights just made me go into the sleepy mood. Sigh.. Maybe the other thing was I couldn't connect with people on topics? But I always seem to be able to find something to talk about even though the topic is extremely boring.

Randomly say

Indeed, music is so powerful that some music can make you cry when you listen to it especially when you are sad. Ok, that wasn't meant to say anything about me. Just that it happened to me before.

Talking about distractions in the previous post, guess what? When I am listening to lectures, there are distraction too. It's the tummy grumbling. Or when I pay attention in class, somehow my mind will slip somewhere.

I think I am paranoid at times. I would be worrying over what other people think of my actions. But you know what? A friend told me not to worry so much about what other people think of you. You would ruin your life. You should do whatever you want. People talk and I guess that's life. But of course, don't act selfishly. I seriously need to stop worrying and start living a life.

I am not trying to gain any pity or telling readers off from my posts. I like to jot down things if I feel like I want to share it. Anyway, the point of starting a blog in the beginning was just to update life and things to my family, cousins and friends. Blogging is not meant to be showing off or comparing your life with anyone. You are sharing with people or your families on your life. You see, I am explaining myself again.

I find that I explained myself a lot to people on excuses I gave. The reason? I think it's because I did not want them to think badly of me. Or that I am innocent. Or I did not purposely do something. (really, I wouldn't do something purposely) Ask any friends of mine and they can tell you that I am quite honest.

Now, I think I am a boring person because I think I am quite serious with  my friends. I can take their jokes though because I think they're just teasing me. But I can be quite blunt and actually corrected them when I don't get it. Then, friends have to explain to me before they started laughing at me.

Stuff

Aah.. I haven't blog since last Thursday. I have stopped working since then. But they needed my help yesterday so I decided to go in and help. So far, things have been good. I have 2 tests coming up and a report due soon. Today in class, we were told that we will be given an assignment next week. Busy busy.. seems like I cannot do anything in the weekend except studying now.

I just feel like complaining. Apparently, there's no more visitor parkings available in Ilam Village now. Does that mean no visitors allowed? Well, they said they will clamp the visitors cars. Sigh..

Oh yea, I actually wanted to share with my other readers who doesn't go to Mosaic. Pastor Jack was preaching about how music is so powerful that it makes some people feel peaceful. However, some musics can bring bad spirits. I got so scared and refused to listen to any songs after that. Well, at least only one for night. Haha..

Distractions! I can't seem to get the distractions out of my way whenever I want to study. Be it food or people. It's annoying how when I am in the mood of studying, the stomach is grumbling. There goes the mood after I finished cooking or food. Or when someone ask me to do something, my heart is making me to finish everything before continuing study. Something like I won't rest till I finish my chores/work. Yup, distractions indeed. I guess there will always be distractions. I just need to discipline myself more.

Bit of breaks

Last night at YAG Bible study discussion, we talked about Christians living 'by works' and 'by faith'. It really made me thought about how I lived my life. It should be more of I want to do it instead of how I should do it in terms of going to church, living life as Christians, etc. There's lots and I may have forgotten about what I wanted to say last night. These few days has been sunny but cold. I actually have something to blog about but I forgot about what I wanted to say the moment I sat in front of laptop. Maybe I should type it in the phone. Last week in church mass, Father talked about life has ups and downs. Of course Father did talked about the rest but I cannot remember what he said exactly. I can only remember some but I don't want to quote anything in case it wasn't what he said. =) Today in church mass, I saw Uncle Marvin and his family. I went to talk to them after mass finished. I was surprised to see them in church because they did mentioned that they normally go to 6pm mass on Saturday. Yea, just thought to say hi to them. Other than that, nothing much except studying and hanging out with friends as usual. Should I mention I got no appetite lately? Friends and I went to watch Narnia: Prince Caspian on Friday night. Movie was really good. I love it. =) I promise that I will post more interesting stuff when I am back in M'sia. Actually, it would be all about food so not sure if it will be interesting.

Thumbs up? or down?

Guess I couldn't stop laughing. When I got my hands on that big thumbs up hand, I would tell people good job on things. Actually I wasn't saying good job, I was saying bad job. Oops, hehe..



Jon decided to say that to people.



This was my group, Em was the group leader. I can't remember what we won but we did win for the best drama performed. Em won the best supporting actress. She can go to Hollywood now. Hahaha...



Look at that Jon, bullying me. He knew I wasn't tall enough to reach so he purposely did that. I did get the thumbs up thing back in the end. Guess he is soft-hearted to give me back. Muahaha...

What I mean

• sacrificial love

From 1 Samuel in the Bible, it is the friendship from Jonathan and David. Jonathan's dad tried to kill David and Jonathan was almost killed because he was protecting David from his father.
I was thinking, in this kind of world now, no one would do that kind of thing because it is not the norm. People would think you are crazy and start thinking if gay or lesbian. *shakes head* Such a world.
From my point of view, friendships nowadays are just friends hanging out and helping each other out. I bet there is no such thing as sacrificial love between friends. I mean, if I ask you to die for your friend or friends, would you want to do that?

On this, I still want to comment about what I wrote. A friend disagrees with what I said. Well, what I meant was that some people take their friend for granted, which is why I said friendships nowadays are just friends hanging out and helping each other. You can never know if this friend is truly your friend. What happens when he or she turns out to be different, as in not whom you used to know.

On friendship

I am going to summarize what I hear and learnt from friendship from church camp and reading relationship book on friendship. First of all, there is this model of friendship list.

• mutual commitment

I think this is common. Friends do commit to each other.

• sacrificial love

From 1 Samuel in the Bible, it is the friendship from Jonathan and David. Jonathan's dad tried to kill David and Jonathan was almost killed because he was protecting David from his father.
I was thinking, in this kind of world now, no one would do that kind of thing because it is not the norm. People would think you are crazy and start thinking if gay or lesbian. *shakes head* Such a world.
From my point of view, friendships nowadays are just friends hanging out and helping each other out. I bet there is no such thing as sacrificial love between friends. I mean, if I ask you to die for your friend or friends, would you want to do that?

• openness and honesty

Honesty is a hallmark of real friendship. Friends do not pretend about themselves or others do not desire or need to cover up their struggles or failings. -Nigel D. Polluck-
You do have to be open and honest to your friends. If you are not sure if you can trust the friends you are with, don't open too much. But be honest because they won't like you and you can lose their trust in you if you happen to lie or do something bad to them or even one of them.

• service

Service? What do you mean by that? Well, I think it is more like you do things for your friends. I do believe that. Now compare with what you usually do for your siblings or parents. I think it is similar.
There are ways to show your love for your family and friends. You help them out on things, eg buying things for them or just helping out on chores. Anyway, my point is that if you yell at your siblings or parents or disobey them, that doesn't mean you don't love your family or siblings. =)

• God - centreness


• interdependence

Friendship is not about making people dependent upon us or about us becoming dependent on other people.
True friendship can only develop and grow when we work together, trust each other, help each other and rely on each other.
With true friends pointing out your weakness or something bad, I don't think you should keep it at heart and decide that he or she is not a good friend. Instead, you should look at yourself first and try to undo your weakness. Yes, you are not perfect and your friends are not perfect but it would help to study yourself first before start blaming on friends. Not all friends give good advice but some particularly do. Some friends are there to listen to you and give you a long big hug when you are down.
I do admit that I don't like my friends to see me crying if there is anything so I tend to go away or be quiet if I see my friends crying. So don't take it to heart, thinking that your friends desert you when you need someone to talk while you're crying.

• willing to let go

Friendship is so important and sometimes there are things that we need to let go in order to let the friendship to last. 1 Samuel 20:42 shows that.

Am I being too straight-forward? Hmm.. this is just my point of view. I will let you have your opinions, I won't judge or be defensive. I am beginning to refer to Bible verses a lot. =)

This is from church camp talks and I summarized it up. Some may be the same from what I said above.

• Friends do point out your mistakes or your differences. But how do you feel from it? Embarrassed or anger? If embarrassed, would you rather strangers telling you those or your friends? If anger, study yourself first before you start blaming your friends. Humans aren't perfect so your friends are there to tell you your differences. Again, would you rather strangers telling you?

I think I prefer my friends to tell me. I rather them laughing at me than strangers or friends whom I don't normally talk to.

• Friends don't just give advices or comfort you, they go through each step with you. They are there to guide you so don't keep them away. Remember that some friends deal with their problems better than you.

YAG camp

After coming back from field trip, I had 2 hours to shower and got ready my luggage for the church camp. Talk about being busy. Actually I packed way before I went for field trip.

Anyway, the church camp was awesome. It was relaxing and there was a lot of photos taken. So, photos will be uploaded when I get them. There's this game, doctor and patient. Everyone is a patient and your doctor is anonymous. You're also a doctor to someone else. The doctors were  to look after patient, they can write notes or bring food for their patient. And doctors cannot reveal who they are. It was dinner time when I arrived. When I sat down for dinner, someone approached me from behind and gave me soup. You can imagine how surprised I was. Only then, Em told me about the game.

There were talks on family, friends, education and future/career. I wrote quite a bit of stuff on friends which I will put it in a different post. The others were alright but not a lot. Then, there were games and drama. Oh, my group won the best drama performed. =)



This is my group and Em was the leader. =)



I was already on the ground when photo was taken. I was just too fast. =P

Notes to show off

Did I show how the conference note book look like?  It definitely looks nice. I love the front page.



I bought one book based on relationships. WZ and Em also bought a book. Em was very free to go and search for the book covers online so I am just going to refer hers to you guys. I am just too lazy to go search for mine.  I think my photo above is very blur because it's from my camera. It was in a small size photo. Hey, at least I took a photo of it.

Reasons

9 days away from everything and it means that there are a lot of things to catch up on. I am still reading my cousins' blog and both of them do blog a lot. Blogging a lot means good because it means I know what they are up to. =)

Anyway, I am not supposed to complain about being away for so long. Yes, it is fun to get away from everything and just enjoy doing something else and not worrying about study.

I got few comments about the things I learnt from the conference. Some were arguing about my opinions or is it questioning. Well, it is good to voice out your opinions but I won't change my mind just because of what you said. To be honest, I had fears before attending the conference. Now, I decide to let God decide for me. If He thinks that I will get married, then I will. If not, then no.

I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

I am not sure what verse I got it from but it's from 1 Corinthians 5:7. The verse really makes me think a lot. Sorry lah I don't want to share my thoughts on this because you would just argue more. So I am keeping my reasons to myself.

Hiatus for so long

Now, I am officially back home. I have no more field trips or church camps for this semester. However, I got another field trip in August. Stay tune for that. =)

Anyway, my field trip was good. I had to hike to all the places marked on the map. I think I may have lost weight because of all the walking. Details of all this will be up soon. I just want to post something to say that I am back.

After coming back from field trip, I got ready and headed off to church camp. When I arrived, my friends couldn't recognized me. They said I became dark. Well, I was mostly under the sun during the field trip. I did use sun block, though. Camp was great, though I was physically tired most of the time. It was good to relax and not do any work at all. There were few talks on family, friends and careers. More details to come. =)

Learnt

The first week of holidays really made me relax a lot. Besides the conference I went to, when I lie in bed at night, I thought about what I learnt. I shall list out what I learnt. I may not remember now but I will add in the list from time to time.

• You don't have to marry just to follow the traditions or because everyone is doing so. From the Bible, God says that if you meet somebody, it is not wrong for you to get married. However, he said that it is better to stay single. That way, you can focus on seeking God's Kingdom 100%.


• You learn to love from God. He shows His love through the Bible. Read Gen 1.

p/s : I went to Castle Hill yesterday. It was really fun and I will upload photos if I do get them before Wednesday. I will be going for a field trip and a church camp after that so I will be on hiatus after that. =)

Third and Last day

I was mentally tired by the third day and felt a bit lazy to go on but nevertheless, I pulled myself together and made myself listening. Fourth day was different. Since it was the last day, we had our breakfast in the living lounge.

The ICF members who went to the conference. We had such a good time. Everyone was so happy.



This is where we had our breakfast, lunch and dinner except for the breakfast on the last day.



This is the kitchen. We also had duties in the kitchen of serving and cleaning up.

Second day

The second day started with manuscript discovery, reflection, seminar and a talk at night. Reflection was when we went to a place where we can sit down and thought about what we have learnt about ourselves or about what we have been learning. At least that is what I thought so. We had a free time after lunch till 4pm in which we decided to walk to the stream. It was a good weather to walk around as there were no sun or raining.







Above is the place where we stayed.

first day

This is just to say what we have been doing there. After classes on Friday, Mer came to pick Em, WZ and me to the UCSA where we were supposed to wait for others. WZ was the driver on the journey there. It was supposed to be a 50 minutes drive but we got lost because the signs were too small and it was getting dark that time. But not to fear, we reached our destination. God was guiding us. :)



After reaching there, we went to check out where our rooms were. We were all scattered in all the girls rooms and requested to sleep in the same room. We had our first talk that night on God and His world.  That is the end of first day.

I am back from conference

After four days I have been away, I got so many things to catch up on. I went to this conference camp which is like 50 minutes drive away from Christchurch. This conference theme was called Love, Sex and Marriages. Boy, do I learnt a lot from the conference.

It was a full on talks, seminars and workshops on the theme. I was so mentally tired by the third day morning and that time, I had almost a day and half things to go through. I am glad that I did went to this conference. It opens up my eyes about marriages.

I definitely wrote down a lot of notes which I will put up as soon as I am finished with drafting it up. Of course, there were time gaps for us for free time/activities. First day, my friends and I walked down to the river streams. Second and third day were spent on discussion on what we learnt.

Oh, there weren't phone reception there.

Belated April Fool

People seem to get me fooled with things on April Fool Day. Sis 1 texted me and said, 'OMG, there's filming opposite the house and Jay Chou is there.' I actually believed it because I wasn't there. Turned out it was April Fool. In my first year, she fooled by saying that she got a boyfriend. Yea, I guess I am gullible at times.

My flatmate tried April Fool twice on me. First was she said something was on my face, I rubbed my face few times before she said sheepishly April Fool. The other one was she said she has a date. I believed it when she said it. She told me on msn and got another friend to play along. Man.. I feel so embarrassed after they told me April Fool. Sigh..