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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Another boring day at work again today, only difference is that i'll be getting my pay today instead of tomorrow as the banks will be closing earlier tomorrow. Will be attending the youth camp after work today, spend the night there and go back to work tomorrow morning. Youth camp started on Sunday afternoon and will last through tomorrow. Since i had to go back to work after the Wangsa Maju trip, i couldn't bring myself to commit to another camp, so i'll just spend the final camp night there as i reckon as tradition, nobody will really sleep on the last night.

I think i'll be really really tired tomorrow and am gonna have to take in a bucket full of caffeine to survive at work. Granny will be having her birthday dinner tomorrow too, she'll be 80 come 1st Jan so it'll be a long long day tomorrow.

Somehow i can't help (still) missing the times we spent at Wangsa Maju. I know i'll make friends, but didn't expect to make good friends at that and i'm missing them lots. I kind of left most of my heart, soul and mind there and i'm now pretty much an empty nutshell walking around. Time flies too fast. If only God made 48 hrs a day, i wonder how much a difference it'll make, hmm....

I've been nudged to put pictures here, so i shall the next time i blog - probably tomorrow night (if i still have the energy left) or Thursday evening.

I've got to go back to packing my bag for tonight before i go off for work really soon.

joce blog dusted at 7:52 am -

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas ppl!

Reached back Singapore around 10.45pm last night at Kenneth Leow's place with anxious parents and other PPCOC youths waiting at the bus stop for our arrival. It was kind of a pot luck with parents bringing their own dishes to the house awaiting our arrival. They assumed we'll be famished when we reach back but in fact we weren't considering the amount of rubbish we ate in the bus on the way back.

We had pizza, bee hoon, curry, turkey, stuffings and a whole spread and it felt like a christmas celebration. Aunty Iris even baked cookies for us.

So let's get starting on the trip. Initially i was afraid as i didn't know what to expect. I don't regret my decision in going for the trip because i've learnt so much and made a couple of good friends too.

It was definately draining and tiring, but the Lord blessed the team with strength to carry on His work with enthusiasm every single day. I think it was all worth it because i did have fun with the team and the youth there at Wangsa Maju and also homestay with the Chongs was a real good and fun experience. I guess i had more take-aways from the trip than what we had to give to the brethren there. It was really fulfilling too and i'm glad i did made the decision to go.

When we reached last Wednesday, we got to work straight away with introduction and Sam's devotion. Later that night we facilitated their cell group session. There were only 4 girls in the team and Bernice and I were called to facilitate the 2 female teams since we were the oldest among the 4. It's out first time facilitating and were quite nervous but i guess it was a good first experience and Gillian and Rachel were there to pick up where we the leaders get stuck was really good and encouraging that they did actually step up to help us considering that both of them are only 13.

On Thursday, the second day, we went to KTAR college to recruit students for the LST english program organised by the church and at the same time encourage them to come for church. I was really scared as we had to approach students to come. The one thing that i'm really uncomfortable with is to approach strangers and talk to them. Thank God that Bernice was with me and pushing me to go talk to them and help me out whenever i got stuck. It wasn't so scary after awhile and managed to pluck out some courage to go talk (even though i had tonnes of help from Bern) but i'm glad that i did try. After that evening we went to Puchong church for fellowship and dinner with them.

On Friday we had community service as a part of giving back to the community. The trash there aren't exactly pleasant and the streets there aren't as clean as those in Singapore. Most of us were like 'EEEW!' or 'YUCKS!' upon seeing certain trash but we eventually picked them up. When we had reflections at the end of community service, i did share that and how it came to me that we're all like those filthy rubbish as we're all sinners but God still eventually pick us up.

On Saturday, the myanmar children from the refugee camp came over for the VBS program that we had planned. We were expecting 25 kids, 30 at most but 48 of them turned up and we were kind of surprise at the number of kids that showed up. God certainly work in ways that nobody would expect. The church stuff were also thankful that we were there to help out as they wouldn't be able to cope with the number of kids. We were certainly outnumbered but we did well as everybody had fun. I guess we learnt a lot of things from the kids too as being grateful and contented with everything we've got and i admire their spirit in taking part in activities and their passion in being part of God's work. After dinner we left with our respective homestay host for the next 2 nights. Louis, Chen Yi and I were at the Chongs - Aunty Pearly, uncle Victor, Jun Ai and Jun Ning. Louis shared his devotion with the family that night. Along the way aunty Pearly shared that about 3 years ago the girls attended this competition and Jun Ning beat the adults and all and got tops and wanted to use the example of David and Goliath but said David and Gorilla instead was really really hilarious.

The PP guys hosted the Sunday worship in the morning, had lunch and were off to the IJN heart centre where we had a program planned for the kids there. It was a really fulfilling trip as it made us realise how blessed we are and these kids have to go through heart surgeries at such a young age. There were even babies there too. You could even see the heart pumping in one of the baby's body and it was really painful to look at. We still had time after that so we went up to the adult wards to offer prayers for them and sang some songs for them too. After that we left with our host family for dinner with Rachel and Gillian who joined us for the second night. We went to pizza hut and uncle Victor and aunty Pearly dropped us off at the shopping centre. It really felt like forever since the last time we actually stepped into a shopping centre.

On Monday we left early for church and we had to fit 9 people and 9 people worth of laggages into a 7-seater car as we were leaving for Frasers Hill for the Wangsa Maju church camp. We were literally squashed sardines. We reached Frasers Hill at 2pm and the weather there was colder than Genting. I had only a thin sweater with me so i had not much of a protection from the cold. At night it actually could got to about 10 degress. We had a whole lot activities and lessons throughout the camp til Wednesday. On Wednesday morning at about 2.30am, Clarence, Louis, Jun Ai and i actually went out into the cold and it was totally dark that we couldn't see anything and needed the use of torchlights to see where we were walking to. We walked down the slope and around before turning back and walking back up to the bungalow. After a while we weren't as cold and it's really a good nice walk in that sort of weather.

It was really a good and enriching trip. Jun Ai became my 556 kaki and eventually a good friend after the trip. She's my 556 kaki because during the first 3 nights there, we spent the night at the Wangsa Maju Church of Christ and there were only 2 toilets for almost 25 people to fight over. Everybody would fight over the toilet at night to shower and the last person only got their shower pass 2am. We didn't wanna fight over the toilet at night so we showered in the morning when there was no queue and we could take as long a shower we wanted so the both of us set a time at 5.56am to get up and shower. We'll then just sit around chit chatting and accompanying each other til the others got up. I had homestay with her family and we did the same early morning routine over at Frasers Hill and we did have fun accompanying each other. I guess the thing that we'll miss most is each other's company (or at least for me).

So now comes to the pictures part. I'll be uploading them soon, not here but on facebook as it's faster. I'll start to upload once i get the Wangsa Maju people as friends so i can tag them too. Initially i thought i took only 300 pictures tops, only when Ryan asked me to send him the pictures today that i realised i'd taken 551 picures + 1 video. It'll take me 10 facebook albums to get them all up. So enjoy waiting for all the pictures to be up and also enjoy looking at all our unglam pictures too.

joce blog dusted at 10:40 pm -

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

I'm packed (i think). I hope i didn't forget anything although i have a feeling i did.

Thanks for the christmas present yl, i've put it under the christmas tree and shall open it when i come back. :)

See y'all on Christmas!

joce blog dusted at 8:04 am -

Sunday, December 14, 2008

2 more days left to the mission trip. Got all my stuff - backpack; sleeping bag; bigger nalgene bottle; track pants; 3/4 track pants; disposable raincoat; torch light.

So far i've only packed the VBS stuff that i have with me and the torch light into my backpack. Looks like i have a whole lot of packing to do tonight.

Kind of mixed up the batch that i'm supposed to be in in school, so initially thought that my enrolment day was on Tuesday, thank God i decided to double confirm and it was on Monday instead of Tuesday. If i did a no show on Monday i'll be out of school for the whole of 2009.

I think i've got to get back to really packing already. If i can i'll prob squeeze 1 more post tom night and i'll be gone til Christmas.

joce blog dusted at 6:14 pm -

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The team will be leaving for Wangsa Maju in a week's time. I'm busy, nervous and somehow a part of me is not really looking forward to it. I've got so many things to buy for the trip with no money at all. I need track pants, a bag pack, sleeping bag, torchlight and stuff to buy for VBS. I'm supposed to buy markers for VBS but those at popular seems to be of those of the higher end and are severely overpriced for the use of kids. $20+ for just a 12-colour pack of markers? I don't think so. Anybody knows where to get a larger colour variety pack of markers for a cheaper price? I need to get it by Sunday and i've no idea where to get it from.

I'm supposed to finish studying the book of Acts by Tuesday, but i've only done 1 chapter out of 28 chapters! I'm so dead and behind schedule and i still have to come out with 2 devotions! I need a miracle to get all these done + getting everything for the trip + packing in 6 days!

joce blog dusted at 7:59 pm -

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Results are out. They aren't fantastic but thank God that i did pass all of them.

Here goes:-
Commercial Law - 51% (Pass)
Cost Management & Application - 54% (Pass)
Financial Accounting - 82% (High Distinction)

I certainly hoped for better marks for Comm. Law and CM, but knowing how much of a time constraint i had studying for these 2 papers didn't really get my hopes up that high and i'm just thankful that i do not need to re-take papers next semester and go through all the grueling project work all over again. I seriously expected to fail CM given that i had only 2 days to study for it, i think i could have done better if i had more time, but i'm just glad i got through it.

Over the last 2-3 weeks, i'd bought a whole load of movies from Gramaphone because they're having sales. Being the typical kiasu Singaporean, took advantage of the sales and bought all the titles that i'd wanted, afraid that the price may go back to normal later on. So yea, my money's pretty much gone like that.

So exam results were released and got a whole load lifted. Now the next event to continue keeping myself busy with - Wangsa Maju mission trip coming 17th Dec - 24th Dec. A whole load to prepare and no idea how to go around it. After that will be birthday planning. I've decided to forgo the bbq due to time contraint and a whole lot of work to do. Will prob be inviting ppl for meals or get invited out. So ppl, give me a buzz if you wanna get me out for some mini celebration/meal or whatsoever. I'm just scared that i'll feel bad if i miss some ppl out as i've not much meal times available between after christmas and my birthday due to start of school semester and stuff.

joce blog dusted at 2:54 pm -

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Results will be out tomorrow!!

I'm freaking!

I'm worried!

I'm scared to death!

It'll be nice if tomorrow never comes.

joce blog dusted at 5:37 am -

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