My Grandpa's Legacy

My grandpa was cremated earlier in the afternoon. Together with many relatives and friends, my family and I were at the Bright Hill Crematorium to witness the cremation. Strangely enough, I don't feel very sad. I think it's because I know that he has already gone to a better place.

Many memories began to stir within me. I can remember the times that my grandpa took me out to play at Chinatown area when I was younger. I can also remember how often he brought me to the hawker centre near my house to eat my favorite Char Kway Tiao. I really miss him.

But was memories the only thing my grandpa left behind? No. My grandpa left behind a great and wonderful legacy - people. He had 1 wife, 2 sons, 2 daughters-in-law, 3 grandsons, 2 granddaughters, 2 granddaughters-in-law, 1 grandson-in-law, 1 great-grandson and 2 great-granddaughter.

He had brought up a great family - 17 people in all (including him). I am so proud of my grandpa.

救世主 - Savior

As many would have already known, my grandfather, who had been staying with me all my life, had just passed away last Sunday. He had struggled for almost 5 months in the hospital.

It was the first time that someone so close to me left. There are mixed emotions in me. They include sadness, relieved, thankful and peaceful.

Sadness - simply because my grandpa is not around any more. And I miss him terribly at times.

Relieved - because my grandpa need not suffer any more. When he was at the hospital, he could neither drink, eat nor talk. He was actually in pain and discomfort.

Thankful - my church family had been supporting me throughout. Their presences at the wake every night really blessed my family and I. Furthermore, I actually had 3 pastors who came down and prayed for me.

Also, I'm thankful for colleagues at RI as well - Mr. Otto Fong, Mr. Joseph Chong, Mr. Ng Kwon Loong, Mr. Chong Han Guang and Miss Caroline Hoong. They helped me so much with my 4 sec 1 classes when I'm not around.

Last but not the least, I'm thankful for my secondary school friends who came down too. As well as some of my NIE teacher colleagues.


Peaceful - because I know that my grandpa is with the Lord. When he was at the hospital, I asked him who Jesus is.

救世主 (savior) - that was what he wrote (he couldn't talk).

My grandpa is in heaven now - which is really a much better place. I know I will meet him one day.

RI Basketball

In RI, I'm also assigned to be one of the teachers in-charge of basketball. I'm really excited about the appointment because all my life, basketball has been one of my passions. Though I never really had any competitive experience, I played a lot of street basketball.

Just last Tuesday, I was down at the Delta Sports Hall supporting our team against Catholic High. It was tbe South Zone 'C' Div Finals. We were up against the defending champions & a really strong team. They have 3 players more than 1.8 m tall. And we're talking about 'C' Div here.

We started really well. We played tough defense. Whenever their tall guys got the ball near the basket, 2 or 3 of our players will swarm him & defend together. That really broke their momentum at the start of the game. By the end of half-time, the scoreline was really close.

In the 4th quarter, our lads began to suffer from serious cramps. 3 of our starters had to rest because of that. Nearing the final minute, our team drew within 2 points. However, we lost concentration & that allowed 2 easy baskets plus a free-throw for the opps.

Despite the loss, I'm really proud of our guys. Their defensive intensity throughout almost the whole game was amazing. They fought hard for every single point on the court. Yes, they may have lost the battle. But I believe they have the potential to win the war - to be 'C' Div National Champs.

Reason? We have a great team & a great coach.

NATIONALS, HERE WE COME!!

Life as a RI Teacher

It's been 5 weeks. Time really flies.

I'm still trying to get used to being a full-time teacher in RI.

My Table in the Staff Room

Besides teaching, I have to learn to handle the responsibilities of a form-teacher. I have to take care of my form class and that goes beyond academic grades. I'm also concerned about their character.

Yesterday marked the start of the prefect nominations. Altogether, 5 students from my form class, 1M came looking for me today to talk about it. They all shared with me that they wanted to serve the school and help the other students.

I agree that serving the school and helping other students is important. However, I think being a prefect means much more.

"What do you wish to become at the end of 4 years if you're elected as a prefect? In terms of skills and character." I asked them.

None of them have actually thought about it. I told them to think about it and write a short reflection.


I believe that in all things, we should always being with the end in mind. That will guide us as we go along, and we won't be directionless or aimless. For example, if I want to become a prefect in RI, I should know at least roughly what I want to become at the end of Sec. 4. If along the way, I find myself not working towards the goal, I need to stop, reflect and react.


Do you begin with the end in mind?

Blessing in DIsguise

As many of you would have known, my grandpa is still in the hospital.

The good news is that he should be discharged soon, in the next 1 or 2 weeks if nothing goes wrong.

However, it's not going to be easy taking care of him at home. He needs someone to take care of him almost constantly. And that person most likely is going to be my maid, Annisa.

The funny thing is, Annisa only joined my household 3 months ago. And initially when she first came, my mum and grandma were saying that Annisa does housework rather slowly and couldn't seem to be able to cope.

However, it turns out that she's quite a meticulous person. And she's bold as well. She actually went to the hospital to learn how to take care of my grandpa. She did very well too. The nurses over there were all quite impressed by her.

Now, she's rather confident in taking care of my grandpa. She even knows how to do simple injections and tube feeding. It's really quite amazing. I think she has the potential to become a real nurse next time because she already has some of the skill set.

She's really a blessing in disguise to my family. I want to thank God for her.

100K Campaign

I haven't being blogging for the past week or so. I had been really busy going around giving people free gifts.

Yes, free gifts!

National Day is coming soon. As a gift to the nation, my church is on this 100K Campaign whereby collectively, we will bless 100, 000 people in Singapore.

Yes, 100, 000 people!

This blessing can come in terms of small gifts, acts of service or acts of kindness. In addition, we are also committed to pray for the needs of these people every night, for a period of 1 month. We believe that these prayers will be answered.

And there's absolutely nothing we want in return. Because we believe that "it is more blessed to give than to receive"!!

So far, I've blessed 10 people - ranging from my family members, to my friends, to my colleagues and even to total strangers. Though the target is 20, I would really want to make it a faith challenge and go for at least 30. =)

If any of you have any prayer requests, or other forms of needs, you are welcomed to approach me, either via MSN - yingmushijiang@msn.com or this blog's tagboard. I'll be glad to bless you.

Teachers' Investiture Ceremony 2007

Today, I have officially become a full-fledge teacher. I was given the appointment by the Permanent Secretary (for Education) in Nayang Auditorium in NTU. It was a formal occassion and we all had to wear academic gowns. My parents were there to witness the ceremony as well.

How fast time flies. 1 year of teacher training passed just like that. The friends made, the colleagues that did endless projects with me. Well, to a certain extent, that phase of my life is over. I need to move on.

The challenge ahead for me lies: to be an excellent teacher, out to transform the lives of my students and mold their character to be good.

At this point, it is only appropriate that I have this teachers' pledge in my heart always, to remind myself why I want to be a teacher.

We, the teachers of Singapore,
pledge that:

We will be true to our mission to bring out
the best in our pupils.

We will be exemplary in the discharge of
our duties and responsibilities.

We will guide our pupils to be good and
useful citizens of Singapore.

We will continue to learn and pass on
the love of learning to our pupils.

We will win the trust, support and
co-operation of parents and the community
so as to enable us to achieve our mission.

There's No Place I'd Rather Be

Yes, there's really no place I'd rather be. I'm every inch a true-breed Singapore Singaporean.

I went through the S'pore education, K1, K2, streamed in P3, streamed in P4, took PSLE, went on to 'O' levles and 'A' levels. Then I went on to NS. 2 and a half years later, I ORDed, and went on to do my university studies at NUS. And finally, I finished my post-grad diploma at NIE. 18 years of education!!

I love eating. I love eating char kway tiao, hokkien mee, mee goreng, mee siam, laksa, hainanese chicken rice, carrot cake, MacDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Long John Silver, bo bo cha cha, ice iachang, ice jelly, red ruby, cha siew bao, siew mai, dumplings, mooncakes, etc, etc etc........

I don't like the following stuff, but I have learnt to accept them: 7% GST, ERP, COE, Road Tax, Income Tax, housing loan, car loan, computer loan, tuition loan, kiasu mentality, Hello Kitty queue, etc. Yes, they're part of life in Singapore.

Though I've been to a few countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, London, it's true. Nothing beats home. There's No Place I'd Rather Be, except Singapore.

Hossan Leong puts it best when he says "We live in Singapura, it's not perfect living, but at least it's interesting."

We Love Singapura - Original Version

We Love Singapura - MTV Version

Guys, let's respond to challenges!

Recently, someone told me that if we want to grow in life (means in terms of maturity and character), we have to learn to move out of our comfort zone into the combat zone. When I heard that, I really agree with it.

One thing for sure, guys at every stage of life - be it adolescent, youth, young adult or mature men, thrive on challenges. When we are young, we like to challenge our peers in almost everything - be it studies, computer games (like DOTA, CS, Halo 2) or sports. When we are older, we like to challenge ourselves in our careers. We like to live in the combat zone!

When we guys overcome challenges in our lives, it gives us a certain sense of achievement. To be exact, it makes us feel validated. Each of us will believe that "I can make it". Somehow, this is part of the guys' make up. And it's terribly important to us.

Conversely, when we guys refuse to take up any challenges in life, we lose the fighting spirit in us. We lose the zest in life. We don't dare to take risks. Everything becomes a rountine. We just want to be comfortable right where we are. And when there's a turn of events (of which we can't control, like natural diasters) that shake us up, we would be paralysed and not being able to respond.

Personally, the latest challenge came early this year. I was given the opportunity to either apply for teaching in Raffles Institution or Hwa Chong Institution. Well, I graduated from Hwa Chong more than 10 years ago. It would of course be more comfortable for me to go back to my old school.

However, I need a challenge in life. I need to be uncomfortable so that I can grow. That's one of the reasons why I decided to apply for RI. And right now, I'm a teacher in the school. Though the culture is totally different from Hwa Chong, I really felt that I've learnt a lot, and am having a great time over there. =)


(Of course, we must make sure that the challenges that we take up are good challenges, and not bad ones.)

What is your Dream?

I had just started teaching in RI. I'm teaching 4 classes of Secondary One students Physics. As a new teacher in the school, I really would want to know my students better. Hence, I have asked some of them this question "What is your dream?"

Some of them actually said they have no dreams. Or maybe they're too shy to share.

Personally, I believe that it is important to have dreams. The dreams that we have can shape our lives, develope our potential and guide us on the right path. We should know (at least partially) what we want to aim for in life.

There's this story about Charlie Brown that I'm reminded of.


One fine day, Charlie Brown decided to do archery. He took up his bow and arrows.

The strange thing is that, he did not have a target board. He just shot his arrows, and wherever an arrow landed, he would walk up to it and drew a circle around it, indicating a hit.

Lucy was observing him from the side. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Charlie Brown! That's not the way to do archery!?! You have to have a proper target board!" exclaimed Lucy.

"No Lucy, you don't understand. If you do archery MY way, you would never miss your target."


Well, when we aim at nothing, of course we will never miss. If we have no dreams or visions for ourselves, our lives would be pretty haphazard and purposeless.

My dream is to be able to speak into the lives of young people and transform their lives for the better.


So, what is your dream?

"We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true."
Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of America

Chalet @ Aloha Changi

I just finished a 3 Days 2 Nights chalet cum church retreat at Aloha Changi. It was really a great time together with all the youths from 4 different cell groups. Everyone who went were tremendously blessed.

Yeah, and I would like to give thanks to the people who has blessed me personally during the stay.

Kelly Chia, Dun Lin and Stephen (the other 3 cell leaders)
Thanks for partnering me to put together this little retreat. Without you all, this wouldn't be possible.

Kenneth, Jarrell, Kevin, Glenn, Clement and Adlar
Your very presence is a great encouragement to me. And I know that each of you are really growing in maturity. It was really fun interacting with all of ya.

Yingxin, Venelyn and Yingzhi
Thanks for the kopi-talk. It was really interesting. I will help you all keep a look out. If next time, got those nerd nerd and honest type, I know who to intro. If got those handsome and humorous one.. also will intro. =)

Sherry, Felicia, Siokyit and Shermaine
Thanks for all the laughter that you all produced or induced throughout the chalet. Your joy was really contagious. (Btw, I'm really 26, not 36.... & I DONT act cute lah..)

Many others who came to the chalet
Really really thankful that you all make the effort to come down, even though some of you were really busy. Wonderful youths. Thank you. =)

Muar - A Place of Peace

I just came back from a little retreat with my church family at Muar. It was really a great place, away from all the city lights and distracting stuff like computers, internet and handphone.

Yah, we just spend a day or two in almost total peace. Really thank God for that.

Muar is such a peaceful and simple town.

Anyway, on the second day, we decide to play some kind of 食字路口. We have to find places or food that can string together in words. We started with the word Muar.

Muar House

House of Joy

Zoysia (a kind of grass)

Xia-mi (shrimp)

Mi-lo

Lo-ti (Roti)

Tea with Ice

Ice Teh-O

Otah!!

Ta-mee (eat noodles)

Mee Siput

Muar House -> House of Joy -> Zoysia (means grass) -> Xia-mi (shrimp) -> Mi-lo -> Lo-ti (Roti) -> Tea with Ice -> Ice Teh-O -> Otah -> Ta-mee (eat noodles) -> Mee Siput

小孩不笨

Last Sat night, I was watching 小孩不笨 for the first time on Channel 8. It was really quite a meaningful show, besides all the laughter. The 3 stars - Terry, Guobing & Wenfu acted really well. They brought so much life to the movie.



The movie brought about 2 things that I really felt deeply.

1. The Chinese language is no longer valued nowadays.
In the movie, Jack Neo's boss was so proud of himself that he couldn't speak a single word in Mandarin, and yet he could succeed in the advertising world.

I'm a Chinese. To me, it is very important to be able to converse in Mandarin. It is our roots and our heritage. But sad to say, many young people today dislike speaking in Mandarin. They have problems putting Chinese words together to form complete sentences. We really don't need to talk about 成语 (idioms) or 谚语 (proverbs).

I really hope that the MOE would put more emphasis on the Chinese language. They must really help promote the language. It is a scary thought to envision Chinese in Singapore unable to utter any words in Mandarin.

Let me be frank. I can't write Chinese characters well. But I'm quite confident of speaking in Mandarin.


2. Many students in S'pore have been 'marked' for failure at a very young age.
During my time, until even recently, in Primary 5, all S'pore students have to go through streaming - EM1, EM2 and EM3. Well, if you're in EM1 or EM2, you probably feel it's okay.

However, what about those streamed into EM3? In the movie, Terry and his friends were all in EM3. And sometimes, they were been laughed at by their friends. Sometimes, they just felt lousy about themselves. Even their parents also sometimes felt that they were useless.

Then, after PSLE, students at a young age of 12 are again streamed into Special, Express, Normal Academic (NA) and Normal Technical (NT). The perception is - if you're in NT, that's it. You won't have a bright future.

My personal belief is that every child has potential. Every child has his giftings. However, our S'pore education system is one such that it only emphasizes on Math, Science & Language subjects. But thankfully, we're already trying to change. That's why there's the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at NUS.

As a teacher, I'm quite convinced my role is to bring out the potential of my students, even if their potential doesn't lie in academic subjects.

You can find out more about your strengths by doing a simple online test at this website.

Happy & Blessed Birthday to Darren, Elkan & Stephen!

Last night, we celebrated 3 birthdays!! Here's a short tribute to each of them.

To Darren:
It's really amazing how God has changed you for the past few years. I really witnessed how you changed from a young & shy guy to someone who's mature & willing to rise up for God.

To Elkan:
You finally hit 30!! Haha.. Really thank God for your input into my life. You've been a good elder brother to me, guiding me and giving me valuable advice when I most needed it.

To Stephen:
Brother!! Don't laugh at Elkan.. you going to hit 30 soon too. =) Yah, you've been a wonderful blessing to me. Your simple faithfulness in the Lord has been a great encouragement to me and others. Thank God for you!

Darren, Elkan & Stephen looking like jailbirds..

Darren, Elkan & Stephen looking like jailbirds AGAIN..

Darren, Elkan & Stephen FREE MEN

Let's Play Doubles =)

Today, we had our 3rd tennis lesson at NJC. We learned how to play doubles today. We really had tons of fun!! All of the youths enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

Not to forget, after learning tennis, we went to Gameslab at our Cyberwellness Centre at Bukit Merah to have fun. We played games like DOTA, CS, NBA, etc. =)

Healthy Community of Gamers!

The Intense Look on Kenneth's face

Battlefield 2007

Last week, we had our church Youth Camp from Thursday to Saturday. It was really a great camp filled with many wonderful & exciting games. The name of this camp was Battlefield 2007.

The objective of this camp is to train up our youths to be able to fight the good fight, finish the race and keep their faith for God.

All the youths went through a grueling but fun camp!

Here are some photos of the camp. There will be more to come. =)

Wai Mun's Guys

Wai Mun's Guys (Funny!)

Luke Group

Luke Group (Funny!)

Our Best Camper - Mavis! (With Weng Yew & I)

I Can Serve!!

A photo of all the youths + coaches

Yesterday, I brought some youths to learn tennis from the NJC team once again. It's our second session. The purpose of this activity is to help youths balance computer gaming and healthy activities like sports.

Previously, during the first session, the youths learned how to do forehand and backhand shots.

During the second session, the youths learned how to serve. It's really amazing how fast some of the youths were able to serve like tennis professionals. Don't believe?? Check out the photos below:

A Call to Fight

Every guy looks for a fight, in one way or another. I'm not just talking about physical fights. I'm talking about challenges. Guys just like to have challenges.



Some guys fight it out at the basketball court. They really become competitive and want to win every single game.

Some guys fight it out in the classroom. They become so conscious of every single mark in their tests and exams that they always want to be first in class.

Some guys fight it out in the virtual world, either in Maple Story or DOTA or WoW. They want to be the best and own as many people as possible.

Guys, face it. We just like challenges. We like to win. And I really think it's nothing wrong, as long as the things we fight for are good. When the time comes for us to fight, we have to fight. If not, we will stand to miss out certain things in life.



For example, when I was in the BMT (Basic Military Training) phase of my National Service many years ago, I really wanted to become an officer. And to do it, I would have to fight for the limited places available. It was really time for me to rise up and fight.

Instead, I didn't really respond to the call to fight. I was a bit slack and tried to avoid doing too much stuff. To cut a long story short, in the end, I was posted to SISPEC (School of Infantry Specialists). My dream to become an officer was dashed.

Guys, when it's time to fight, fight. Don't run away. (Of course, please fight for the right thing)