Bowling night at Als

Weekly outing with Gellies This week's weekly outing with Gellies was Bowling over at Als place.... Leongie and me met up with Vic and Gladys to have dinner first before heading down to join the rest for bowling.. by the time we reached..it was already close to 8.30pm or so... so we wasted no time in getting into action...

Bims and Me

Once again.. i think i kinda suck at bowling... but it was fun.. hanging out with the gellies.. trying out funny stance and patterns of bowling.. and the best thing is... the whole bowling place 'belongs to us only'.. Als house... the condo has this 2 bowling lanes in the condo for their residents.. how cool is that??

2 private lanes

Anywayz, we bowled till bout 10..and we went to ALs house.. to tour around the house... goodness I super LOVE the master bedroom's toilet... COOLness to the max.. anyone planning on getting a condo unit and have the bucks to spare..should consider Savannah..though its ulu and all..but its really nice... luxurious to the max....

Me and Vic

Vic and the sisters

LeongS

The girlies (Sarah and Me missing from pic)

THe Boys with Meilan..

So yupz.. we hang and chilled out at Als place.. playing guitar, having our mini praising God session, with Leongie and me strumming the guitar... hoping to be future guitarists.....
Next outing with them again will be organised by me... shall think what we can do or where we can go... till then... see ya all again

My wonderful weekend

BUSY BUSY Weekend
Pic: taken on my way to churchie in the afternoon... another of my act artistic series
A pretty busy day today... first up in the morning, attended a youth cell seminar together with 4 other gel leaders.. (Ivor, Leongie, Charissa and Shi Yi) over at Toa Payoh... so we met up earlier for Mac breakfast..

So yupz, learnings from the seminar was good... kinda interesting concept and prob something stirred in my heart to take up the challenge too.. will pray about it more first before deciding on anything...

So thereafter, went back to office...for programme... stayed there to paint a mural and til it was time for GEL, and Leongie came by to pick me up..and we headed to church.. Today's GEL meet was going to the streets to do 100k blessings, its a love singapore movement targeting to bless 100,000 people through Christians praying random people or friends...

Think that was good.. cos Christians are called to bless people but most often then not, people tend to be pressured instead of being blessed whenever one evangelise or share the gospel with them, which shouldnt be the way at all... It was good to see many Singaporeans really open and receptive about the 100k movement.. and really was good that our Gellies did a good job, coming out of their comfort zone, approaching random people, and to be bold to pray for them... Great Job Gellies...

Act Artistic shot no2: My Singapore, My Home...

Leongie and me were passed 2 tix to Hillsong United Concert over at Expo last minute by Matthew...(THANKS MATT) and so we made our way there... Was a great time worshipping, jumping and praising God... sermon was by Pastor Judah Smith from US i think.. very impactful sermon given, bout the passage in Luke 7:11- 17, about Jesus raising a widow's son to life..who was being carried out to be burried in a casket...but Jesus told him to "wake up" and he woke up...

In application, he related the casket to the culture we live in today (sexual immorality, wrong relationships, doing things with wrong motives, greed etc), that we lie dead in the culture and go on with the flow till we get trapped and in the end 'die' in it...where we started off with place of compromising, falling in to deepest despair of shame and guilt and sin...

Thus we all need to wake up before we are being buried underneath... Jesus is grabbing and reaching out to us..But it is WE, ourselves that need to respond to the call... God wants to restore the beauty that is lost, and His name is sufficient to all of us... All we need to do is to respond to His call..

WOWz... powerful sermon shared... and found that true in life... believe that his sermon was meant to Christians and pre-believers alike..cos Christians Like me... do fall into the spiral of sin from time to time as well and we need to respond to God/Holy Spirit's call to turn back to God... and yupz it was a reminder for me...

So yupz.. Hillsong concert was great...they played many of Leongie's and my favourite songs and also some of their new album songs too.. which Leongie went to buy after the concert ended...

and so that was how my saturday was spent... packed back to back with activities.. tiring..but great.. All done for the Glory of God!!!!

Household of faith

Household of faith Had taken a day off today...cos it was the day Leongie and me went to HDB hub for our 2nd appointment...to get our keys to our new place....

The day started late..as we took the morning to rest and sleep in..and only woke up at 10ish..once we left the house, we started a whole day of furniture shopping again..this time over at the West side... over at Sungei Kadut..mega furniture shop there..but none to our true fancy..and we kinda realised that the same item can be found in different furniture shop at different prices..despite all claiming that the item is being imported from overseas... hmmmm

Anyhowz, didnt really spot anything that we truly super duper like.. We are currently looking for TV console, Coffee table and dining table..and its really giving us headache.. din realised buying furniture was soooo hard and troublesome till now....

So yupz.. we left the west and headed over to Toa Payoh Hub...cos our appointment was at 4pm... and (pic above: our queue number) it wasnt a long wait before we were called to a room..and by 5.00pm..Leongie and me are both owners of our flat!!! so yupz.. here's some pics of our place

We call our new place: Household of Faith, 'cause its gonna be a Powerhouse for God, a house dedicated for Ministry and a household of faithful servants for Christ =)

Living room, where the sofa and Tv is gonna be
these furnitures were left behind by the owner...

Other side of the living room

The nicely done up kitchen

So yupz.. that's our humble house... =) actually pretty much of a move in condition, but we would like to do up the place a little..so now.. we cant really move in yet...and soon we will be starting the renovation soon...

Hoping for the renovation to be completed by End Aug and us moving in probably early Sept..so that we can all invite everyone over in Oct or so...to our "Household of Faith"

God's Love

The LOVE of Jesus....... Pic: taken in Cebu, LapuLapu... if u cant make out what's the we spelled with our bodies... its LOVE!! (got to apologise though for the unbearable amount of fats that i was showing in this jump)


so yupz... it was kinda like a day off for me today.(took half day leave)..Leongie took off too.. cos we were bringing my mum to the doc... she's been unwell for sometime and now with medication etc....anyway's no worries..Mum's fine..and Yupz..will continue to pray for her.. for God to heal her.

Well was a busy Off day today..other then meeting mum and bringing her to the doc, Leongie and me met up with Chloe to finalise our ideas for reno of the house..since we are getting our keys this Fri...cant wait..we finally have our own House soon....

And yeah went for BSF too..and today's lesson is about consecreting our lives to God.. God loves us and we are set apart for service and so in all that we do we should reflect God's glory upon our lives...

I guess its something that all believers struggles with...its something that we all know be head knowledge that we have to do..but to really do it is a challenge...thus giving rise to many pre-believers thinking and stating that many christians are hypocrites and do not walk their talk whenever they are doing things that doesnt seem to be 'glorifying' God...

But that's human nature... we are all flesh afterall...Who doesnt make mistakes? Main thing one needs to know and understand is that Jesus had died on the cross for our sins once and for all..and all we need to do is to seek His forgiveness wholeheartedly... and to really depend on Him to change and be transformed daily to someone who will seek to do God's work and glorify Him...and then not to do the same 'not so glorifying thing' again...we all make mistakes, but its the way we respond to it that matters...

To the rest of the pre-belivers... do give Christians some slack too.. instead of judging us...encourage us.. help us along..we are all humans too and will make mistakes from time to time....and Christians out there... remember that many people is looking out to see how we lead our lives and how our life reflect the Gospel we are to share....

Pray that we will not lead to temptations, pray that we will walk in the Light of God.. pray that we will be a good testimony for God..and pray that we do not stumble anyone....

Anywayz... after BSF today... Leongie and me went to have a 'meeting' with our Pastors and were informed that they have plans for setting up a cell over at our new place and wanted to know if we are fine with it.....Yipeeee... of cos... when we were looking for house..we were looking for one that could accomodate more people in the house...Sure we welcome a cell at our place...

cant wait for our place...and yup we have given it a name too..shall take pics of the place when we inspect it or collect keys this fri..and upload soon....

new blogger at rapturesoul

Introducing the new blogger over at the old blog add

Well...thought about the 'stalker' scare...and kinda felt that actually there was no need to worry about this stalker at all..and well friends did a search on my current blog and still found it searchable..so yupz...not gonna worry about any stalker etc anymore...

but well won't be changing my blog link to the old one again...although i still like the old one...but yeah...you peeps can still go to the www.rapturesoul.blogspot.com whenever you are free..cos it is still officially alive...cos Leongie has decided to "WRITE" too... hahah so that blog will be co-own by the both of us...and yupz... feel free to drop by when you can...but of cos..stay tune to this blog tooo

introducing elliot

Introducing...Elliot.. He's my latest favourite kiddo at church... he gives me a cheeky grin and smile whenever he sees me and not forgetting a Big hug too.. hehe... He's the son of our dearest then youth leader-Hua Ken, the assistant Pastor of our church now....

Elliot's mum aka Ju nyung is a korean..thus explains why Elliot's soooo adorable, so fair and lovely... he speaks english with an acent (cos of the Barney videos that he watch almost every other day), chinese quite well too (cos of staying in C-hina since he was born till now) and of cos Korean (cos his mummy teaches him Korean)...

hahah he's sooo cute that I cant resist not playing with him.... the other day he actually asked his mum and dad if he can go back to his C-hina's hse...to which his parents replied: "no...C-hina's house old and spoilt already..and we are in sg now..so got to buy new house" and Elliot's reply was "then can we go to the supermarket to buy a new house"

hahah How Sweet and cute is that?? Innocence of a child... well.. it got me thinking of what Jesus said in Matthew 18:3-6, where having a faith like a child (innocent and humble) will enter the Kingdom of God...where should anyone stumbles a child and causes a child to sin, it was a truly a great sin....

got me to think of the many parents, adults i see...where their actions sends the wrong messages to children.. they do not practise what they preach and worst...they do nasty and evil things to children...Read in the papers yesterday that a man who was a family friend raped a young girl for the past 8 years..since the girl was 8 years old til recently...goodness... can you imagine the amount of trauma the girl went through? a trusted family friend who betrayed the trust of the family, and worst still..did a nasty thing to a little one...

The girl from what i read in the papers engages in self mutilation, leading a promiscious lifestyle and is currently seeing a psychologist..but the dr says.. that the emotional trauma and things she went thru is too deep seated that it might take years of therapy or maybe never to have her 'cured'... that she might even develop some form of personality disorder in future.... a pity and sorrow thing that something like that could happen to a little one and causing her to grow up hating the world she lives in....

As the world turns more upside down day by day..I am reminded daily that I have a responsibility to pray...to pray for Light to shine in the midst of a dark dark world...I am reminded that I am also responsible in my daily life to be Holy and not stumble anyone else, anyone who is big, small, young or old.....

Pottering-the Half Blood Prince

Pottering the Half Blood Prince... Yesterday was the long awaited outing together with the Odac peeps...planned and organised by Papa Bear during Bing's wedding... the big outing to catch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince together.....

So we met up for dinner at 8ish...intro them all (those who came for dinner) to the Wanton Mee recommended by Teck..and then we went back to Grand Cathay to hang around till movie time and for the rest to come....

All in all there was a total of 18 who was supposed to watch the show...but only 17 (Me & Leongie, Meiyu & Yew Tien, Skee & Terry, Papa & Mummy Bear, Chimy, Carol, ZhuZhu & CK, Yucheng, VinVin, Ah Ryl, Rohting, Weilun) of us turned up...except for Vin's gf who fell sick.. =(
anyways... its been a long while since we had such a big turnout for the gathering...hehe

Well me aint really a harry potter die hard fan...(not in terms of the book), but I do enjoy watching the movie...I havent read any series of the book and i don't intend to..but i do kinda know bits and pieces of what happens in the end, from hearing from friends....But yupz.. I do enjoy watching the past few parts of HP.. especially the odd number parts... I dun really enjoy part 2 and neither did i enjoy part 4 (where most people like..cos of Cedric haha)... I remember i like part 5 cos it was getting more exciting cos of the fight between HP and the death eaters... but was sad that one of my favourite character died-Sirus Black...

Anyhow... knowing what happens in book 6 (ahem....death of the headmaster) i kinda had some biased towards the movie already...nonetheless, i kept an open mind and watched the show... At the end of it... well the rest of them...most didnt really like part 6...cos it was abit "DUH" cos of the ending...."Yes...I am the half blood prince"....and cos there wasnt much action in the movie....but still.. i guess it was a not too bad series for me in preparing for part 7..... and to think i got to wait like 1 year for that...lallala
On a different note... well Leongie never did watch any HP or LOTR even...but cos of HP part 6, i kinda made him crash course all the previous HP..(and as of yesterday, he only managed to watch 1, 2 and 3 before he watch part 6)..but well he said he will wanna watch part 4 and 5 soon, cos i told him i prefer part 5 more to part 6.....and soon...I will get him to watch LOTR too and convert him to a LOTR fan as well..hahah

Oh wellz, we've been going around places for furniture shopping..and its not an exception today...went loads of places to see furniture....cos we are getting our keys to the new place soon....

cant wait.... and well Pray for finances, pray for smart and wise decisions to be made for the renovations, pray for smooth moving in, and pray for God's presence to dwell in the house as we prepare to move in.. =)

BBQ at Darius' place

Weekly meet up with the Gellies... This week's meet up was over at the Sim's.... BBQ organised by Charmian at Darius & Carina's place.. initally i though i couldnt make it cos of work..but well last min the programme was postponed due to instructor being down with flu... so hehe Thank God that I was able to make it to join the Gellies for this BBQ and Swim...

They've been super enthu about swimming of late..and well these days I kinda "swim" more... for those of you who know.. I cant really swim..so am picking up swimming..cos I think i kinda like swimming since young..cos its nice to be in the water, cooling and sort of like an effortless kinda exercise..where I dun get sticky and sweaty....

Anywayz, Thankies to Charmian who went to buy all the food on her own..Thankies to leongie who set up the fire (as usual) haha and thankies to all the Gellies who were there, who contributed to the great fun that night.... here's some pics:

P-Leong the Bimbo, Leongie the Boy, C-Chanie and Meilan

Me and MeiMei the 2 S-Leongs Me and Cheryl...
finally 1 proper pic with her...din managed to take any pic with her during the mission trip..

Anyway... am happy to see the gellies all happy and meeting up regularly...next time would be to see them all happily serving God and growing deeper in their walk with God....think that will be the happiest moments we all can share together...

BSF last week spoke of God's appointed leaders being responsible to see that God's work is done as God commanded from the start to the end... And well this serve as a reminder for me...and the rest of the core group GEL leaders I'm sure... to see that our Gellies be walking closely with God, to see them growing stronger in their walk with God.... That shall be my focus and direction for the Youth Group this year.....that is to see the Gellies grow and mature daily =)

attack of the silly cockcroach

Cockcroaches are the the most disgusting and most gross thingy ever..everyone agrees?Goodness Leongie and me spent like 1 whole hour last night trying to devise ways to kill that disgusting looking thing that flew into our room..

First we were just getting ready to sleep
Then this flying thingy flew onto our bed
And stayed on our bed, went to the highest point of our quilt cover
And kinda stayed there for at least 30mins
All this time we were arming ourselves
(yes leongie isn't too fond of it and is disgusted by it too)
all the while finding armor to dress in..
My arms were wrapped in ntuc plastic bags,
Leongie's arms were also in plastic
And we both put on our jeans
And he got his long sleeve shirt
I threw on my towel over me
And my protective headgear was a marks & spencer plastic bag

And well that thing turned to look at me when I walked near.
That thing flew and disappeared for bout 10mins before it appeared
It landed on our cupboard..
I took some long stick, hit it
As I banged the stick on the cupboard...
Our landlord woke up.. (Was 12.40am)
And guess what he saw in his half awake state?
He heard a loud bang, saw 2 plastic bag covered people
Think we must have given him a big shock..
"We're killing a cockcroach...erm u mind helping us?
Hahah he helped us hunt it down..
We were grateful and felt bad to wake him up
But he's a nice person and we are eternally grateful to him

Oh wellz horrible and disgusting experience
Now we dun open our room's window at all
But haha it was a funny experience :)

Why shekhinah rock?

Shekhinah-Rock

Pic: My favourite pic from my years in NUS ODAC's trekking... taken from Stong Baha Base Camp in May 2004. (credits to MAN who took this great pic)

So people.. I first apologise for the recent changes in the blog link.. after the 'stalker' scare.. well though I still wanna keep the "RaptureSoul" link... thought it was time then to change as well.. so Finally... decided on this current blog link... a little hard to remember... and you might even ask.. What on earth does it means...

Got this from Wikipedia: Shekhinah is the English spelling of a grammatically feminine Hebrew language word that means the dwelling or settling, and is used to denote the dwelling or settling presence of God (cf. divine presence), especially in the Temple in Jerusalem

Remember my recent BSF study about the "Cloud resting (shakhan) on the Tabernacle"? well that is Shekhinah.... and thought that was rather meaningful.. so decided to use that in my new blog link... the "dwelling presence of God" =) as I learn more about God daily and dwell in His presence everyday...

So why Rock?? cos Jesus is the ROCK of my salvation... and its in Him that I get strength to face life's struggles and challenges to see me through my Ups and downs everyday of my life....(haha and coincidentally..Stong is STONE which kinda is the same as Rock...)

So yupz.. enjoy this "new" blog of mine--> shekhinah-rock !!!

Trapped

Trapped and Cant break free Pic: charlie brown hanging on a noose at my workdesk...

FEEL totally trapped like the Charlie brown is of late... Stiffled and really pointless.. Dont see the light at the end of the tunnel.. wants to move on yet I cant... I'm bonded in the darkness....(in literal sense....)

Darn.. its getting harder to be simple... its getting more unhappy just trying to be happy...getting super unreal in the reality state of things... the "problematic" people that the "non-problematic" people term isnt as problematic as the non-problematic people themselves....such irony...

The world's really turning upside down..darkness is really looming around waiting to pounce on any light that is flickering.... even bright lights seems questionable too.. cos of the false hope they give.... sigh...

********

Anyway...was a terrible morning today..(from the above post probably can tell it was a bad day today).. but well.. by late noon..was feeling much better.. ventilated, took time to pray about it..and yupz... there must be a purpose for this season of delay..shall hang in there for 6 more months =) So yupz.. the rest of the day when on well...and I am home now..talking to Son-Noel..having him send me songs hahhah

So yup...Went for BSF..and felt refreshed.. had a refreshing touch from God as i heard stories of my other groupmates during fellowship..about how God called them to Move from their current positions to somewhere else...

This year's BSF study is on book of Moses and we just ended "Exodus" today.. with the Cloud of God encamping in the midst of the Israelites... where the Israelites followed the directives and instructions of God.. "where the cloud goes... they goes... where the cloud stays..they stay..."

Am gonna apply that to my life.. and for now.. I guess the cloud is still not moving..and so shall stay..and when the time is right..when I am ready... and when the Cloud calls me to go.. I shalll.....

Frisbee Clinic

Busy weekend-BBQ,Frisbee, hosting, meetings...

Pic: Frisbee fun at Sentosa with Gellies bout 2 mths back......

It was a busy weekend this week.....Kicking off the weekend on Friday with a overnight stay at Boy's off Singapore island workplace-o*b*s land... with his batch mates for a BBQ and celebration for having been in the organisation for 4 years... I could join in cos I am the wifey and plus the fact that I am considered "same batch" cos i went for the same selection camp with them...

Had a great time..chilling by the pool, BBQ-ing, eating durians that their colleagues picked from Ubin itself...and also listening to Boy's colleague play the guitar... She's excellent manz..I really am envious of those who can play musical instruments so well and sings well too..these are really gifts and talents by God..and well though i know I am not musicaly inclined neither am I artistically inclined.. I thank God that he has given me other forms of talents and gifts too..

Boy says my gift is in counselling... i beg to differ...I personally thinks.. my gift is in God granting me favour with people i meet. tend to be able to get along with most people (less weirdos and stuck up peeps) and also able to encourage and motivate people in a way... But nonetheless I am still waiting for God to uncover more Gifts and talents he has given me...though I would really really wish I can play the guitar well... =) and so I am working on that Now....

Oh wellz, had a great night with Boy and his batch mates at his workplace, and on Sat morning..it was off to Pasir Park for Frisbee clinic with my Gellies... taught and intro them to the game of Ultimate and we played a few rounds..before the scorching heat made us give up playing cos we were running out of water...

And then.. Boy and me headed home to catch a quick nap before heading to City area to meet his KL fren-May Suan and kept her company for the rest of the evening before we went back to church for worship duty and meeting up with May Suan and the rest of Boy's gang again for kopi at Chomps...

And then came Sunday... had meeting after church which lasted till 5ish and then headed home for dinner and 'measurement'... cos Our new house is of the exact same layout as my Aunt's place...Char was at our house too so she gave us some ideas as to how we should reno the house etc.... spent some time thinking, talking..goodness.. loads of decisions to decide over the next few weeks.....

Cant wait to move in..yet goodness dun wanna think of all the packing etc....and gosh.. weekend's over..and its another 5more days before the weekend comes again..and this week is gonna be a long week..cos the Boy is on course....

plans for the housie

Planning for the new housie

Pic: our room in Cebu-the room that all the 9 girls slept in for the period that we were in Cebu....haha kinda think we girls can be messier then boys sometimes...

Yupz... its 3rd July already... 21 days countdown to getting the keys to our flat... FINALLY..its been a real long wait..and we both are pretty excited and cant wait to shift into our own House..

So we met Boy's fren-Chloe to seek her expert opinion on the design of the room on Wed evening..and gotten some insight to interior designing... gosh..got to think of the colors we want our room to be etc...gonna be busy doing furniture and colors shopping the next few weeks..

Will probably be coming up with a housewarming list soon.. haha so whoever wanna sponsor something for our new house.. you're welcome to do so.. let us know k?

Anywayz, met up with the Gellies tonight for dinner- our weekly dinner gathering thingy... went to Esplanade GluttonsBay for dinner and Chan-ie had planned for us to go Marina Promenade to slack and chill after dinner... but well everyone kinda think there's nothing to do there at night..so the idea was scraped and everyone brought on the shopaholic in them out and decided to head over to Marina to shop...

Shop we did and its nice to see the gellies bonded together... and getting to know each other better... Keep it up Gellies... and its great to get to know frens of Gellies...peeps like CHEW-ie...Chan-ie keep inviting him to join us kk?

Oh wellz... Busy weekend ahead and I feel my body getting older le.. I need to slow things down a little..no longer like before where I can have activities pack back to back.. These days i feel I really need rest... a rest day/ night jus to slack and do nothing.. rot and stone at home and laze on the bed to read book, sleep or play guitar....Am I Aging???

New start for my blog

2nd half of the year Pic: taken in Philippines, visayas, Lapulapu, during one of the outreach we went to... the street kids and us.. These kiddos are really Power!! did this very style dance and even did some sommersaults on the streets.... yes on the streets..

Anywayz.. haven really been active on my blog since June til now..and on top of the stalker alert incident that caused me to migrate my blog here.. i kinda like disappeared for some time... but well since its like 1st day of the month..I shall start blogging again..a new start for the new month...

So things have been great with Gellies these days..ever since the mission trip.. everyone's bonded closer now..and we have this weekly gathering to go for dinner together etc..and tomorrow is Christina's turn to plan outing..haha cant wait...really great to see the Gellies coming together for play and for work...

Anywayz.. its MAMBO MONSTER's birthday today!!!

So here's a shout out to her!!! Happy Blessed birthday ADDIE!!! well.. these days.. mambo itch dun come anymore..probs cos I am outta the mambo craze already... so I am officially stepping down from the title u guys crowned me with "mambo queen"...shall hand that over to ZI who has always been the in denial Mambo Queen...

So yupz.. 1st of July... marks the 1st day of the 40day prayer thingy by Love Singapore.. and today's msg speaks about God preparing for light in the dark... where admist the lawlessness in the world today, where evil seems to be prevailing, God is neither passive nor indifferent, He is preparing for men and women to be ready to light candles in the night...

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations"

I thank God for His promises and the reassuring moments he placed in my life, the people He send to encourage me when I'm down... I thank God that I serve a God who is just and knows the best for me..and as I hit my crossroads moment in my life... I know I can trust on Him to lead me through and find the direction that I seek.....

The road ahead might be tough.. and filled with uncertainties..But I know my God will see me through and grant me the strength to carry on walking.....