Geylang Chinese Methodist Church

This will be the church building that I'll be using for my wedding at the end of the year. It's right next to Aljunied MRT.

It's really by the grace of God that I manage to rent that building.

A Tribute to All the Mothers out there..

To all mothers out there:
HAPPY & BLESSED MOTHERS' DAY!!

Last Sunday was Mothers' Day. Coincidentally, the day before that, my school had a Parents-Teachers Meeting (PTM). I spoke to many parents and I could really see that all of them love their children a lot.

However, it's really not easy being a parent these days. The youths today are totally different from their parents' generation. YouTube, Wii, PSP, Xbox, MSN, DOTA are things that are unheard of to many parents.

Yet, the parents still do their best to love their children. And that involves disciplining them. It's really not easy to be a good parent.

I watched this video in church on Mothers' Day, and thought it was really a funny way of looking at how much our mothers love us (when they nag). I myself could identify with so many of the things mentioned in the song. :) I thank God for my mum.

History of Harvard

A few days ago, I came across this article about American history. I found this particular portion interesting and decided to share it here. It's about the history of Harvard University - a place where the brightest gather.

When it was first founded, Harvard enforced 8 rules which included high moral and academic standards:

1. Before attending Harvard, the student must able to write and speak Latin and Greek.
   


2. The main goal of the student's life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life. Since only the Lord gives wisdom, every one should ask Him for wisdom in secret prayer.
   


3. Every one must read the scriptures twice a day, and be ready to show his knowledge of them.
   


4. Cursing is not allowed, and the student is to keep God and the love of His truth in his mind.
   


5. A student must attend all classes and must not disturb by words or movements.
   


6. No one is to leave the college without his teachers, and no one may go to another town without his parents or guardian.
   


7. Every student must be present in his teacher's room at 7 in the morning for reading of scripture and prayer. At 5 in the evening, he must appear before his teacher to give account of his own private reading of the Bible.
   


8. If any student breaks any of the laws of God or the school, he may be punished at the monthly public meeting.
   

I really can't accept this!

About half an hour ago, I happened to tune in to the Chinese radio station, 93.3FM.

I almost couldn't believe my ears.

There was this on-air game show whereby the caller is supposed to call into the radio station and make a guess as to what the 4 secret digits are. If he can guess correctly, he will walk away with some prizes.

But the context of this 4 secret digits went like this: There's this female 93.3FM deejay who wore many layers of clothes. How much time does she need to strip to her sexy bikini underneath? There were many other suggestive remarks made by other deejays as well.

I really can't accept this!

93.3FM is one of the most popular radio station in Singapore (maybe it's the most). What kind of message are they trying to send to their listeners (especially the young ones)?!

The media have tremendous influence over our people - especially the younger ones. I really think that they have to be more responsible in the kind of messages they are sending out.

Otherwise, the future for Singapore looks pretty bleak.

Ordinary People doing Extraordinary Things

Today in school, we had our Sec 1 level meeting with the parents. One thing that impressed upon me was what our Year Head shared at the end of the briefing.

It's that all teachers should believe that our students - no matter how ordinary they seemed - are capable of doing extraordinary things. Just like what the video below shows.




Do you believe it?

Good Friday

Today is Good Friday.

For Christians like me, this day is the day that we remember our Lord Jesus for going to the cross. My heartful desires today is to enjoy God's presence, rather than God's blessings.

My heart's prayer:

"I just came again to tell You, Lord,
How happy I've been,
Since we found each other's friendship
And you took away my sin.
Don't know much of how to pray,
But I think about You everyday.
So, Jesus, this is Sze Kiang
Checking in today."

The above prayer was adapted from the following poem link: http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/105351.html. I found it through one of my spiritual nephews - Samuel's blog post. Tears swelled up in my eyes as I read the poem. Here it goes.

Checking In

A minister passing through his church
in the middle of the day,
Decided to pause by the altar
and see who had come to pray.

Just then the back door opened,
a man came down the aisle,
The minister frowned as he saw
the man hadn't shaved in a while.

His shirt was kinda shabby
and his coat was worn and frayed,
the man knelt, he bowed his head,
Then rose and walked away.

In the days that followed,
each noon time came this chap,
each time he knelt just for a moment,
A lunch pail in his lap.

Well, the minister's suspicions grew,
with robbery a main fear,
He decided to stop the man and ask him,
"What are you doing here?"

The old man said, he worked down the road.
Lunch was half an hour.
Lunchtime was his prayer time,
For finding strength and power.

"I stay only moments, see,
because the factory is so far away;
as I kneel here talking to the Lord,
This is kinda what I say:

"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD,
HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER'S FRIENDSHIP
AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY,
BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS JIM
CHECKING IN TODAY."

The minister feeling foolish,
told Jim, that was fine.
He told the man he was welcome
To come and pray just anytime.

Time to go, Jim smiled, said "Thanks."
He hurried to the door.
The minister knelt at the altar,
he'd never done it before.

His cold heart melted, warmed with love,
and met with Jesus there.
As the tears flowed, in his heart,
he repeated old Jim's prayer:

"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD,
HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER'S FRIENDSHIP
AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I
THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME CHECKING IN TODAY."

Past noon one day, the minister noticed
that old Jim hadn't come.
As more days passed without Jim,
he began to worry some.

At the factory, he asked about him,
learning he was ill.
The hospital staff was worried,
But he'd given them a thrill.

The week that Jim was with them,
Brought changes in the ward.
His smiles, a joy contagious.
Changed people, were his reward.

The head nurse couldn't understand
why Jim was so glad,
when no flowers, calls or cards came,
Not a visitor he had.

The minister stayed by his bed,
He voiced the nurse's concern:
No friends came to show they cared.
He had nowhere to turn.

Looking surprised, old Jim spoke
up and with a winsome smile;
"the nurse is wrong, she couldn't know,
that in here all the while everyday at noon
He's here, a dear friend of mine, you see,
He sits right down, takes my hand,
Leans over and says to me:

"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, JIM,
HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP,
AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN.
ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY,
I THINK ABOUT YOU EACH DAY,
AND SO JIM, THIS IS JESUS
CHECKING IN TODAY."

Malaysian Montage 2008

Last week, the whole of the Sec 2 cohort in RI went for a 5-days 4-nights trip to Pahang, Malaysia. The name of this annual trip is known as Malaysia Montage.

It was a trip whereby the students were exposed to several things that they would not be able to find in Singapore.

The main thing that struck me was that you don't always need to have handphones, PCs, TVs, Internet, PSPs, etc to feel happy and satisfied. Many of the locals that we saw during our trip don't have most of the above-mentioned stuff. But they are still as contented and happy as they are.

Sometimes, we Singaporeans (whether young or old) do need to slow down and simplify our lifestyles.


Here are some of the photos of the trip.

Sze Kiang, PSLE

Today, someone just shared something that inspired me. Hope that this will also inspire you.

Often, we go through life pursuing degrees, qualifications, etc. For instance, it certainly will look good if you have this to your name: Sze Kiang, MBA (Master of Business Administration).

I'm not saying that all this is not important. It's just that perhaps we can go for something even better, something long-lasting.


PSLE


Person that Shows Love and Encouragement

I'll be really glad to have that at the back of my name. I'm not there yet, but I'm definitely working on it.

MM 2008 - SuRvIvor Day 5

After such an eventful night the day before, my group woke up early for some team-building activties. We gathered at the multi-purpose hall at the Lanjut Resort.

Mr. Gabriel Chan, with the help of the JC1 facilitators, conducted 2 activities. The first one was getting each cluster to come up with two structures (made of straws). One of them is a tower (to be as tall as possible) and the second one is a bridge.














The second activity was similar to table soccer. Both sides are to try to move a giant ball to the other side. The guys really gave all they had as they compete with one another.






After the above activities, we started making our way back to Singapore. It took us almost 5 hours in all. But it's really "Home Sweet Home"!

MM 2008 - SuRvIvor Day 4

Time passes really fast when we're having a great time. As I'm writing this blog post, we have just ended the 4th day of the Malaysian Montage 2008.

We started the day by visiting the Water-craft museum. We saw many boats - either war-boats or fishing-boats that the Malays used to use in the past.







The second stop of the day was a place where Tun Abdul Razak used to reside. He was the 2nd Prime Minister of Malaysia and was a former student of Raffles Institution! We learnt about top-spinning and some other traditional games that the royalty used to play.







In the afternoon, we were so glad to have the local Malays hosting us at their kampung. We were also able to experience a traditional Malay wedding (mock one of course) whereby one of our students, Jordaan Goh, was asked to act as the bridegroom. The bride was one of the local Malay girls.







At night, we had our SuRvIvor Finale. Each cluster was to come up with a performance and present it to everyone. We had lots of fun laughing at one another's skit. In the end, Cluster 7 won the Best Cheer award, whereas Cluster 8 (my cluster!) won the Best Performance award.

MM 2008 - SuRvIvor Day 3

Our first stop of the day was the Deerland. It was like a zoo whereby there were many interesting animals like flying squirrels, deers, bears, hedgehogs, etc. Some of the students had really close encounters with them.











Within the Deerland itself, there was also a flying fox. Each cluster sent out two student representatives to compete. The winner would be the one who went through the flying fox in the most dramatic way.








Then we went on to the Elephant Sanctuary and learnt about the conservation of elephants. Many students had the opportunity to ride on the elephants.





Finally, for the last activity of the day, the students were asked to help clean up the Elephant Sanctuary, interview the staff over there, paint the fences, etc. This constituted part of their CIP.








Exhausted, we made our way to Lanjut Resorts. It took us almost 5 hours of travelling in the coach.

MM 2008 - SuRvIvor Day 2

The day started with a sumptuous buffet breakfast. All of us were treated with free-flow fried mee, toast bread, eggs, coffee, tea, etc.

All of the students and teachers were split into two groups today. Each group will do a different set of activities and on the following day, the activities will be swapped. I was together with Group B throughout the day.

Our first stop was the Batik Factory. The lady in-charge gave us a brief 10-min introduction on what batik painting is all about. Subsequently, the students began to make their own batik-designed handkerchiefs. Just look at how creative each and every single student can be.

In the afternoon, we went on to the turtle sanctuary at Pahang. We learnt about how the people over there help prevent certain species of turtles from becoming extinct. It was a rather interesting process.

The agriculture park was our next stop. We found many interesting fruit trees like cross-breed durian trees (between Thai and Malaysian durians). We took a tour on the tractor and went around the park.

At night, we had a buffet dinner back at the hotel, which most of the boys really enjoyed after a rather eventful and tiring day.

MM 2008 - SuRvIvor Day 1

We started our day with great excitement and anticipation. We left Raffles Institution early in the morning and crossed over to Malaysia via the Tuas Checkpoint. We stopped briefly at Yong Peng (a rest-point) and had some food.

In the afternoon, we visited the Dara tea plantation at Pahang. We were introduced to lowland tea-plants. And we also saw a live demonstration of the harvester machines.





Later on, we went on to Pandan Waterfalls. Many of the students have never seen a real waterfall before. It was indeed a great sight for most of us.





In the evening, we ended off the day with a simple BBQ dinner.

7-Up and 100 Plus

Recently, someone shared with me that he particularly likes two kinds of drinks: 7-up and 100 plus.

The reason is very simple. Both drinks symbolizes positiveness.
100 plus = 100+ = 100 positive. 7-up means everything is good, and always pointing up.

Sadly, there's this nature in most of us - myself included - that sometimes just like to criticize and tend to look at the faults of others. We are like 100 minus and 7-down

Just remember this: in every relationship, either with friends or family, you always CAN.


Connect with others.

Accept others.

Nurture others.


You CAN!

An Extraordinary Valentine's Day

Last Thursday was Valentine's Day. It was most unforgettable for me.

No, I didn't go somewhere super-romantic or super-posh, in case you're wondering.

I spent my Valentine's Day with my church family - the YCYPAO Cluster!



We had our choir rehearsal at TCT at Bukit Merah. We spent that evening giving praise to God, celebrating Valentine's Day with Him and the church family. What an experience!

I really thank God for my spiritual family!

Pulau Semakau... Where's that?!

Today, together with some of my colleagues went on a Learning Journey to an island called Pulau Semakau.

I had never heard of this place before, except that it's some kind of landfill. I envisioned it to be a place filled with rubbish. Smelly place, of course, or so I thought.

Google Map of the Pulau Semakau...

But to my pleasant surprise, it was nothing like that.



Yes, Pulau Semakau is actually quite a nice place. Really. Look at my smiling face. :)

Basically, let me try to summarize Singapore's solid waste (or rubbish) management. Every day, waste collection companies will first collect waste from various places. Then these trash will be sorted into incinerable and non-incinerable. Those that are incinerable will be sent to the 4 incinerator plants in Singapore. They will be burnt and reduced to ashes.

Then all of these ashes, together with the non-incinerable trash will be ferried to Pulau Semakau. They will be used as landfill around a marked-out boundary, which will form some kind of reclaimed land. Eventually by 2040 (estimated), all of the empty spaces will be completely filled and Pulau Semakau will no longer be useful for landfill. And we will need to find other ways to dispose of our trash.

We have to prolong the lifespan of Pulau Semakau. Every one has to learn to practise the 3 Rs. Exercise personal responsibility.

Reduce!
Re-use!!
Recycle!!!

On a lighter note, the island is also used for recreational activities - like stars-gazing, sport fishing and inter-tidal walks (to see the sea animals like starfishes, etc). One couple even took their wedding photos there last year!

Today had really being an enriching day for me.