“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” ~Philippians 4:6

Appointed as transport coordinator for our CF, I received “advices” from seniors and even super-seniors, that this ministry requires lots of prayer. Drivers have to be contacted, number of people attending CF has to be estimated and number of shuttles have to be taken into account.

Thank God for His faithfulness and grace. For His grace is truly sufficient for me. He blessed me with an efficient “partner-in-crime” who plans everything well.

I am indeed thankful for all the drivers God has provided for us--- the church uncles and aunties, as well as seniors and my peers, who sacrificed their time to serve God in this ministry. *God, may you grant our drivers strength and joy in serving you! Multiply their time and prosper every work of their hands! Amen.* For this is not an easy task, they give up their personal time and strength to fetch others to and fro CF, always last to reach hostel.

Each CF would give me another chance to experience God’s goodness, even though not through great thunders-and-lightning way, His acts of love is tangible. Most of the time, I would be anxious about transport because something usually crops up at the last minute to cause a lack of transport or drivers. But God works in ways we cannot see, even 5 loaves and 2 fishes fed 5000+ people. So each time, miracles happen and we always ended up with more than enough transport for everyone!

Praise God for His goodness and mercy all this while in my ministry. I know I ought to be anxious about nothing, for He has control over my life and I am in safe hands.

Found this on the internet and would like to share it here…

"Wait For the Man"

Adrienne Sadosky
Pittsburgh Standard

Wait for the man who pursues you, the one who will make an ordinary moment seem magical, the kind of man who brings out the best in you and makes you want to be a better woman.

Wait for the man who will be your best friend, the one who will drop everything to be with you.

Wait for the man who makes you smile like no other guy makes you smile.

Wait for the man who respects and loves you for who you are, not who everyone else wants you to be.

Wait for the man who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats and no makeup, but loves it when you get all dolled up for him.

Wait for the man who praises God for you, and encourages you daily in your walk, and most importantly, wait for the man who is more in love with God than you. (note: this is most important!)

Someday, someone will walk into your life and make you realize why it never worked out with anyone else...

Just a brief post here about my (Hannah’s) short trip to Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya on the 22nd-23rd January 2010. Organised by our Christian Fellowship seniors, the main objective of this trip was to foster close relationship between committee members of our CF.

The place was in Shah Alam and we went there in our trusty church van. There were 16 juniors and 5 seniors. Obviously, there were also more girls than boys. Our lodging place was known as “Kampung Idaman”, haha, cool huh? And our chalets were Pak Alang Negeri Perak for the girls and Pak *whoops…forgot* Negeri Terengganu for the boys. The exquisite architecture designs are based on real traditional houses of each state in Malaysia. Sadly, I hadn’t been able to see either Sabah or Sarawak chalets.

Pic below (from left): The boys chalet (less spacious than girls’), and the living room (the girls’ chalet)

We started off with prayer and the fun began. We were led into a series of icebreaking games in which my group managed to escape punishment in the form of lipstick doodles on the face. But I guess it would be fun to get our faces decorated once in a while. Next, we broke into 2 groups and were given tasks to do. A lighted candle and balloons tied to our ankles were placed under our care.

1. Build a drinking straws tower which reaches a specified height without talking with group members. Our mouths were sealed with masking tape. But because  of all the sweat and saliva, it didn’t adhere properly. Hehe…

2. Members tie themselves facing outwards to a piece of newspaper with balloons placed atop. Balloons must not fall off. Meanwhile, there were keys and hangers scattered all about. Hangers were for attacking enemies while keys were to open the locks later.

Obviously, we were having A BLAST!!!!

Unfortunately, we became too preoccupied with attacking each other till we forgot our main goal, not to open the locks but to keep the newspaper intact and balloons safe. Hmm, lesson learnt. Just like serving God, we should always come back to our main purpose---glorifying His name and not be distracted by all the things we thought was important around us.

That night was supposed to be barbecue night. Unfortunately, it rained like cats and dogs. In spite of that, the boys insisted lighting up the grill and they sang in the rain. In the end, food was barbecued on the stove instead. (Note: the chicken wings and drumsticks were marinated by Jan, Cecilia, Yee Farn and me on Thursday 10pm-11pm, tiring work!)

After the sumptuous meal, we had a brief meeting. Then, we began the Smugglers’ Night, prepared by the seniors. The game started at 12am exactly so eerie atmosphere blanketed us as we await at the game site (the boys’ chalet). We were told that there will be guards with torches in the house who could catch us by shining on us. Our goal was to deliver a note to the Collector hidden inside. There might also be a Deceiver disguised as the Collector. By the way, it will be pitch dark in there with obstacles laid on the floor. We were only allowed to enter one at a time. Noise and sound will attract the Guards. If team members were caught, we had to choose to save him or to find the Collector. Most of us chose to save our friends from the dungeon (the toilet).

Thank God I managed to grope my way around and as I am of small build, I easily slipped away from the Guards and came out alive. Haha!!! Funny and scary the way the Guards say: “I hear sooommmeeeoneee….” or “Someone’s in my Hoouussseee….”. ESPECIALLY when it’s already past midnight. Below shows our expressions when we knew what lies ahead.

  That night (or rather, morning), I slept little because of aggressive group of mosquitoes feeding on my legs, back and face! I slathered on Tiger Balm, a thick layer of it, on my whole body, including on my pants and socks but to no avail. Hence, I spent the whole dawn scratching, covering, and applying medicine to ease the itch.

Daylight finally came, and I along with 3 other friends went for a refreshing morning walk. God showed His majesty in nature. Really was refreshing to see the breathtaking pictures God paints using sunlight and trees.

 

Later part of the day was spent wandering around the Taman Pertanian with main stop at Four Season. A place which showcases plants and real atmosphere of the four season. Around this time, we got the chance to experience the freezing cold winter, temperature of –2degree C! However, the feeling was just like being in a freezer. Trees and plants were dormant so it looked quite deserted and dead.

Pic below clockwise: Just outside Winter area (Frm left: Jan, Grace, me, Yen Mei, Sarah), Snowman and igloo, frozen roots, sleeping trees (real ones!)

   

 

Below are sceneries taken (clockwise from 1st pic on left): Lake on the way to Four Season(x2), morning scenery, shafts of light through the trees, exploring the place together.

          

  

Recently, a friend of mine from our Christian Fellowship, whom for now shall be known as Fred, was admitted to ICU for he had dengue fever at a critical stage.

We departed from hostel in a van full of guys, there were only 2 other girls with me. We got our directions from Google maps and I am here to say that it was reliable. After a few hours drive, we finally reached PJ, Assunta Hospital.

Fred’s parents were by his side, and they welcomed us. They looked relieved and quite well rested. Everyone waited for their turns to visit him as the ICU rooms only allowed admission of 2 visitors per time. Good reports spread and indeed we found his condition improving, he regained his appetite. He pointed out that his arms hurt (they were severely bruised) because needles were forced into them for blood sampling. I am glad to see him better again, all the more because his humorous nature was still intact. When I asked whether he remembered me (it has been quite a long time since we last talked), and he said, “You’re H-A-N-N-A-H…” Smiles…cause he didn’t know how to spell my name the first time so he kept repeating H.A.N.N.A.H just to get it in his head. We prayed a brief prayer of healing for him before we left.

Upon leaving the building, we realised our driver lost the parking ticket which was supposed to be presented on our way out. The fine will be RM30 for the loss, hence everyone franticly “turned the van upside down” in search of the tiny card. But we failed. So, one of our girls went and begged mercy from the security cum parking officer. We prayed hard. And to glory to God, he let us go and we all shouted our gratitude to him, bade him goodbye with “GOD BLESS YOU”s and high fives. Thank you Lord, for such an understanding guard.

Dinner time. Some guys introduced the rest of us to a food court in Subang, near Taylor’s Business School. The guys became extremely excited and they effusively ooh and ahh-ed over every “cool” shop we passed by. Their behaviour was most probably due to the lack of shops and facilities back in their hostel area. Indeed, an array of food stalls awaited us, sending out smells of food which wafted temptingly into our nostrils. In the end, I had a mushroom chicken rice while others tried western and weird fried mushrooms.

Anyway, to my amazement, almost all of us were from east Malaysia, majority from Sarawak. Thus the Sarawakian gang happily chatted away on our way back. Thank you Lord, for granting us safe journey. And thanks be to God for speedy recovery of our dear brother in Christ.

Good day! Been busy updating blog, as you can see. The reason? I’m posting as much as I can while I’m still free to think and go online.

Well, my extremely, unbelievably low marks in my English essay has finally triggered the red alert: MUST IMPROVE ENGLISH! Since God has allowed my sponsor to generously offer me a study opportunity in UK, I should be up and about brushing up on my English. Here’s a picture I “saved” from the internet, my future twinning destination---University of Nottingham, UK. Totally heavenly. Thank you, God.^^

So, we are embarking on a whole new journey. By the way, our English lessons have morphed from fun to serious. That’s because we will be taking IELTS this year, no play-play. Today, we did our speaking practice. Speaking is actually my weakness, which by God’s grace, I hope to overcome. Speaking tests require candidates to be calm, confident, fluent in the language as well as  having the ability to express mature views on issues discussed.

To begin with, our lecturer decided to split us into 2 groups for an activity which she called “speed dating”. Don’t worry, we were allowed to date those of the same gender today. Haha. The main point was to make us comfortable conversing with our friends in English. So a group of individuals will be “the dates” and the other was “the interviewers”. I was one of the dates and I got to pick any interviewer I like. We changed partners every 5 minutes. Now that IS speed dating! Hehe!

I tried my best to eliminate Manglish elements in the conversations with my “dates”. Unfortunately, I only managed up to self introduction, then all the “lah”s and loh”s and “where got”s came spilling out like an overflowing river. Arghh. Irritating bad habit. Meanwhile, some of my “dates” encounter the same problem too. =) Sample conversation:

Me: Oh, so you’re from Penang…it’s famous for food, is it?

Date: Yes, there’s Penang char kuey teow for example.

Me: So, how much ah, the food prices at hawker stalls?

Date: Erm, normally ranging from RM3 to RM3.50 loh.

Me: Ohh…quite cheap also hoh, compared to places like KL.

So, we spoke in minimum amounts when the lecturer came by, embarrassed by our typical Manglish conversation in an English class. But speaking that way somehow proves that I am a Malaysian. Should we carry on preserving our proud Manglish heritage in UK? I wonder…

But where got people speak like that in UK? Everyone will be speaking good and real English mah.

To be on the safe side, I’d better practice and brush up my English.