My First High Distinction!

Yeah, I've got my first High Distinction in my University Education! So happy! It'll probably be the only one though, got one more subject to complete and I'll be done with my Masters. Don't think I'll be getting a HD for that subject :P

S.A.Y. Out Loud Progression

Last night we had a meeting to review the S.A.Y. Out Loud first combined youth service held on 10 Aug. The feedback given by the committee and the data from the survey forms showed that the youths really enjoyed themselves and had a great time.

We then went on to plan for the next upcoming event that'll be on 8 Dec. I am very proud of the committee. They give great ideas, think deeply into the things that we are doing, honest and generous in their opinions, open in receiving feedback, willing to offer themselves to take up roles and work with others, and most importantly, they are a bunch of people with high enthusiasm and positive energy. The kind of spirit that'll flow down to the people we minister to.

I'm so looking forward to what's to come and I can see why God's plan was to have me start this and have others to see it through. Its so obvious, cos these youngER folks are so capable and equipped already!

Never "Never" and Never "Always"

Something that I'm still bitter about and need to get it off my chest cos I never really got to address it. And its always better out than in, so here goes;

Remember "The American Tale" by Walt Disney? Probably not for those who are younger. That movie was likely the first one that I watched when I was young. You might not have seen the movie but I bet many have heard the song "Somewhere Out There" One other song that I remembered was one where the pigeon was telling the mouse to Never Say Never, the idea was to tell the mouse not to give up.

However, it is also about not using absolute words such as "never". Words like that leaves no space for hope, allows no room for improvement, creates no route to turn around, and provides no reason to try.

Same goes for words like "always". Last week, a friend was interested in something that I was doing, so I asked him to come along. He didn't want to and asked me to plan for something above of what I was already doing, so I did. He asked for my plans to motivate him, so I tried. And when it seems that the plans I made included benefits for myself, he said that I was ALWAYS thinking of myself.

I resent that. Why? Cos it is not true and it hurts.

Confusions

People find me too long-winded sometimes.

But seriously, most of the time, I'm not. That gets me misunderstood on occasions. My MBTI test says that I'm INTJ; that means that I'm an intuitive and thinking person i.e. I think a lot and I look at the big picture, the outcome.

That's the way I tend to explain things to people, I miss out the details, especially the obvious ones and just emphasize on the outcome. Most of the time not even the full explanation of the outcome, just the parts that are important, cos the whole outcome would just be too much detail.
Most of the times, people just take what I say and trust me, or take a bit of to think through and understand, or see the parts I left out eventually.

Once in a while comes someone who is lazy or not so capable of thinking through, who would request for me to back track and explain, step by step, how I arrive at my outcome. I don't mind that. The irony is that these are the same people, whom when I explain things to them by the parts, often interrupt me with their "I know liao, I know liao!" in a tone that holds the hidden message of "no need to be so long-winded." Or when I reached the end with the outcome, they would ask "why didn't you just say so?"

P.S. The final 2 paragraphs are especially for those that I described in the 4th paragraph. Hope this is detailed enough for you, and I did say so; in the first 2 paragraphs

My 4 Days In Ipoh, Penang and Batang Melaka

IPOH
It has been 2 years since I last went over to Ipoh. I was quite excited to go back to the boys' home as it is a very welcoming place to be.

Capt Hary, Uncle Freddy (who flew in from Australia for the SALT training), Candidate Fiona (from Kuching) and I travelled for almost 9 hours on fri to reach Ipoh at midnight. On Sat, we went over to the Boys' Home to conduct a game for the boys there. Their ages were from 9 to 17 and there were more than 40 of them that morning. I had a tough time thinking of a game that I could use for so many boys in such a wide age group. Thank God Bernie suggest, back in Singapore, that I should try out the Candle War and I did just that. The real war, however, was not with the candles, but with the explanation of the game. Not all of them could understand English and Mandarin, but all were fluent in Cantonese, including the Indian boys. There was no way I could explain in my broken Cantonese and so it took me long time to do the explanation. By the time I finished, the boys just went off playing with the candles and completing all the tasks without adhering to the rules! Then we tried explaining and playing the game another round. Slightly more successful but one group won without completing the tasks, so I had to declare the other group the winner. Thank God that Capt came in to save the day with his little message at the end.


After the game we had free time and I showed some magic tricks. There was a large crowd following me after that and I had to move from place to place to get the perfect angle so as not to give my trick away. Being with the boys was quite an experience. They were very interested in conversations and would crowd around to listen if there were not occupied with something.

In the afternoon, I did a Sexuality talk for about 30 youths, majority boys from the home and 5 girls from the children's home. It was interesting to finally be able to do a version from the Christian perspective. I was aware that I needed to be sensitive in what I was saying as some of them might have some issues and I was right about it. One of the boys wrote this in Chinese and put it in the Q&A box, " What's so good about sex? If it is good, why did my parent do it and then abandon me? Did they just do it for the pleasure?" At that point of time, my heart was filled with compassion and I felt sad for the boy who wrote it.

The picture on the left is of one of the boys who was very hospitable. His name is Boy Boy, for real!. It was hard to believe at first but then I had no choice but to believe it when I saw his name tag on his school uniform on Monday.

I told a story in Sunday school the next morning. The initial plan that Maj Leong had was for Didi to do the Sunday School but it was unfortunate that she couldn't come along with us. The main service was quite amazing. The congregation was majority boys and girls from both homes and less than 10 adults. They have an organ and some guitars but no one knew how to play. So the whole praise & worship was done in acapella. Capt and I agreed that we should bring a team to teach them music the next time round.


PENANG
Our next stop was Penang and we left after the service. The boys in the home there were quite different; more urbanized and reserved. Spoke with some of the boys who were at the camp. Didn't get to take any pictures there as my phone batt went flat after the boys in Ipoh spent hours transfering the Christian songs to their own phone via bluetooth. We then went for dinner with Maj Mary and her children. Carmen, Alicia and Caleb were sad that Didi couldn't go and I teased Caleb for being disappointed cos he missed one chance to see the 'love of his life'. LOL.

BATANG MELAKA
On Monday, we travelled a few hours to Batang Melaka. By the time we reached there, it was 8pm. Didn't see much of the place as there was not much to see. But gathering from Capt Chong, they also needed quite a bit of help in what they are doing. I admire him and his wife as Batang Melaka is so out of place and the support and resources they can get is very little but they are doing their best and obviously passionate in what they do.


While driving back I was reflecting on my trip. I feel so much to want to help these places, to equip them with skills that they can use in their work. They are in so many ways lacking in so many things that we just take for granted here; manpower, resources, skills, support, physical things. I would love to visit them again, to encourage and empower.