Tuesday, October 24, 2006
World Trade Center - Excellent show!

Just watched World Trade Center yesterday. Excellent show! It was one of those rare movies, when after watching, I felt like I just attended a funeral. The whole cinema was in silence and people slowing streaking out, making minimal noise, in case their mega moves disturbed the respect of silence and heavy hearts.

What I liked about the show was that it was a very humane show, revealing the raw emotions of the people. The emotions and thoughts of the 2 survivors trapped in the rubble, from having much hope to guilt (cos one of the colleague died trying to save them), to excruciating pain from internal bleeding, to expressing love to their wives, to encouraging each other to hang on (you die I die) and finally being saved.

It also showed the emotions of the family members when they suspected their husbands/father were sent there to help, to confirmation that they were there, to knowing that there were missing, to hearing news that they were saved but it was a mistake, to finally seeing them being sent to the hospital. It was really a roller coaster ride from anxiety to frustration to extreme joy.

What made them hang on to the end was their desire to see their wives. One of the touching moment was one of the men taking out a piece of paper and wrote down "I Love U A" to his wife even though he was in great pain.

Another 2 favourite scenes for me was one of the men saying the Lord's Prayer when he thought he would die and the other seeing Jesus in his dream. I do believe their faith saved them.

A movie I greatly recommend!

Monday, October 16, 2006
Yippie! I passed! All Glory to God!

Yeah, I have passed my driving test! Finally, after 3 gruelling tests, I now own a Class 3 Driving License!!!!! Yippie!!!! You can't imagine my joy. I have kindda given up hope because this time round, I only had 5 lessons before the test, including only 3 times to circuit. I didnt have much faith, but I prayed really hard. And I know in my heart, if I passed, it's purely a miracle. All thanks to God!

It's really favour from God. I actually mount kerb at the Crank course which is supposed to be an immediate failure, but the instructor only considered it as strike kerb and gave me 10 points. So, I barely passed with 18 POINTS!!!!! One more point and I'm cut.

Yeah, thank God!!! And thanks everyone who has prayed for me. Really thank you.

Btw, what happened to my tag board?

Saturday, October 07, 2006
A Buddhist Funeral is not cheap ok?

As some of you know, my grandma passed away on 1 Oct, 9.11pm. Although she did say the Sinners' Prayer, the family got her a Buddhist Funeral. So expensive man! The 10-inch paper house cost $900, then got a pair of maids, mahjong, and many gold bars and paper money. It's as good as burning money. Can you imagine how much the nun chanting cost? A total of 4 times cost $1300!!!! One extra night alone is $650. No wonder they carry branded bags. In total, think we easily spent $8000 to $10000. Sigh... all these things for show only.

Young Preacher's Contest

I'm on You Tube! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=young+preacher%27s+contest

Was exhilarating watching myself preach. Cool.

Sunday, October 01, 2006
The old nature and the new nature

This was the content of my Young Preacher's Contest Round 2. No, I am not going to post my sermon here. Didnt get into finals. It's ok. I had fun. This time, I did even more prep than before. I changed my sermon many times cos I just felt that something was not right. Something didnt flow. Somewhere, I'm stuck.

Preparing the sermon wasn't easy. Creative juices need to plenty. The 2-point sermon heading had to be fully in-line with the sermon title. The passage though may not have anything to do with baptism, must somehow lead to baptism and linked to the title. Not easy man. Then you got to think of presentation. How to connect with the audience and make it relevant to them. The most difficult was the memorising. I salute Pastor Khong for his 3 point sermons, that probably last more than 30 mins. How did he get all those words crammed into his head? Kudos to him.

Something about the old nature, or rather the evil nature that we all have within us, waiting to surface whenever there's an opportunity. Think the black dog is an opportunist.

Just few days back, I went to the supermarket to get some ingredients for making snowskin mooncake. Yes, I know how to make them, but of cos wont be Raffles Hotel's standard, but still edible.

When I was making the purchase, I noticed that he forgot to charge me $11 for the durian filling. I kept quiet cos the black dog told me so. Hurriedly, I left the supermarket and made other purchases. My heart was not there cos my mind was in a confused state. My black dog and white dog are fighting big time.

White dog: You should go tell him he forgot to charge you. Pay to Caesar what is Caesar.
Black dog: No what, it's his fault. He forgot to charge you. None of your business. Just his luck.
White dog: Cannot like that. Cannot rob God. You are dishonest. Bad girl.
Black dog: God will forgive you one. He understands. Grace what.

The conversation kept repeating in my head while I was heading the bus stop. Eventually I decided to head back to the supermarket and tell the truth. The man was surprised to see me, even more surprised by my honesty. Even the lady at the other cashier commented: " You are really honest."

I thought happily to myself at the comments that I fought a good fight. The battle of the dogs is so real. At that moment of weakness, I almost fell into the trap of the devil. Thank God, my white dog has been strong and overcame the dark forces of the evil nature. Hallelujah!