Daft Punk?

Eye bags; bigger
Dark circles; darker
Assignments makes me sleepier; more than ever
My work's better; but my work's never over.

But I can do it!

1:09am

Yes! Finally! I've gotten my long awaited pair of new shoes and I got a pair of red ones!
Yeah, the color is LOUD.

Edo, you can do it. You can definitely do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can think.
Edo, you can definitely think of lots of creative ideas for every assignment.
Edo, you can definitely cope with the workload.
Edo, you can definitely balance everything.
Edo, you can definitely grow your connect group.
Edo, you can definitely survive even though things comes in your way.
Edo, thank you.

Weird? But it works. ;)

Future.

Recently I've been thinking of what are the goals I want to achieve in the future.
I had always been fascinated by outer space.

The dark matter, black hole, solar flare, eclipse, star constellations, meteor, milky way, dwarf stars, solar system, etc.

I had always been interested in outer space, always wondering how does it look like, why is it like that, what is out there. Recently I've been really fascinated about Astrophotography!

Astrophotography is a specialized type of photography that entails making photographs of astronomical objects in the sky such as the Moon, Sun, planets, stars, and deep sky objects such as star clusters and galaxies.

I really really so wanna take up astrophotography! It's so amazing to look at the space this close!
Though it might sound crazy, but ever since young I wanted to be an Astronaut!

In the future, I hope that I would become an Art Director, someone that gives concepts and ideas and guiding the Graphic Designers to do the job.

I hope that I would be able to have the finances to take up astrophotography as my hobby, maybe even becoming professional.

I hope that I would be able to have enough finances and circle of friends and families to setup a foundation. Or maybe, joining Heal the World foundation! Working as a humanitarian in countries where children are suffering.
Why children? Because I believe that children are our future. Our future depends on the next generation. Our future lies with the younger generations. (man, I sound so old!)

I hope that MAYBE! MAYBE! to become a pastor? a full time church worker? HA!
Just maybe, maybe I'm thinking too much but well, it would be a joy though.

Or maybe I could do all these altogether in the future!
Be an art director, taking up astrophotography professionally, managing Heal the World foundation and working in the church too, maybe handling graphic stuff? or handling something that I can do.. don't really have to be a preacher though. wow wow wow wow

Yeah, so..

young men shall see visions,
old men shall dream dreams ~Acts 2:17

Let's dream big and visualize!

okay just something that I think we all should do too! Dream big, visualize ourselves in that position and work on it!

SOT 2009!

First of all, I wanna congratulate SOT class of 2009!
It must had been really crazy for these 5 months!

I remembered the other day See Wan shared with me her SOT experiences and told me some of the stories. I was like so wanna wanna join SOT!
I'm not saying that I didn't want to join SOT before See Wan shared her stories but I didn't really know what was it about and what would we experience.

Today when I saw Joseph Quek preaching on stage because he was the best preacher in the class, I was so inspired and I really hope that one day I can do that!

I hope I can join SOT right after my army!

Anyway, today we went to Toy Convention!!!
I'll let the pictures do the talk.

MISA MISA!

When you think Gundams are not real...

Oh snap! IT'S BEAUTIFUL JOE!

Guess who did we saw? HIRO NAKAMURA!!!
(okay, it's actually Dannon)

Abundance.

Just few days ago, I suddenly had a thought about the building fund.
I was just thinking, why would I even thought of that? So I started calculating the amount of blessings I've got after the building fund period.

Firstly, I've been really blessed during my birthday in the month of June!
Counting all the money and gifts altogether including my new MacBook Pro, I've had total of more than 17 times of the amount I've given for the building fund.

I remembered the other day I was talking with Hikaru about financial blessings and how much we had been tithing and giving to the building fund. We were also been pondering why are we always in financial difficulty? Why aren't we getting blessed back? Are we short changed?

Suddenly I thought, maybe the blessings are not in the form of money? Maybe it is not here yet? How much do we need to wait longer for it to come?

So I said, I'll just keep on giving. Yes, sometimes I do hold back but I regretted it.
But I am really glad that how much God had been doing for the past few months! After the week of morning prayer meetings I found myself being more encouraged and pumped up.

I've also learned that we have to take delight in everything that we do, find and seek joy in every circumstances. I am really really delighted and joyous how much had happened during these few months.

It is more than how much I've been blessed back, more than the wow-ness of financial and material blessings. It is about our own convictions and obedience, being obedient in tithing.

Ephesians 3:20(NKJV)

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us

Truly enough, it is exceedingly abundantly above all that I've asked or imagined and think. I've never expected for a 17 fold in return. It is 1700% in return!

I thank God for all the blessings and of course I thank all the friends and my family too!

MacBook Pro

Finally, after so long! I've finally got my very own laptop and what's more, it's a MacBook Pro!
Since last year I've been asking my Dad about it but he didn't want to. He thinks that it is not needed.

A few weeks ago, I started school finding out that I need to bring a laptop for my class so when I got back home I asked him again.
At the start, he started scolding me and the words that came out were exactly the same as what he told me before.

"No Money!"

Of course, I would definitely give him the respect by not retaliating or do something that would be deemed as being disrespectful.
The next day, amazingly he called me up and told me that there is an offer at Singtel. Which wasn't very ideal but he kept insisting on telling me that it's worth it.

Of course I said why not!

The next day he asked me to go to Bugis to check for offers in Epicentre so I went and told him about it. Just when I thought it was all going to waste when he told me that it's too expensive and he can hardly afford it, he called me up again and told me that he had a friend that sells laptops including MacBook Pro.

We went down on Saturday and he immediately signed the papers and got it for me.
I guess, it's not just because he wanted to but I believe it's because of the prayers I've made and because of the long talk about my situation and his with him that made it happen.

I think my Dad seen it, how much effort I've put into this field of study - my hard work had paid off.

Thank God for answering prayers and giving me what I've been desiring for!
And of course, I would wanna thank my Dad for this MacBook Pro too.

I guess the relationship between us got better after this matter. It's not just because he bought me a laptop so I'm happy with him but it is the thoughts that we shared before he even bought it that brought us closer in a way.

Anyway, this MacBook Pro is really cheap (at least cheaper than any Apple outlets).

$1,988 can be paid by installment with 0% interest
Free 2 GB ram upgrade, so right now, I'm using 4GB DDR3 Ram.
Free keypad protector
Free laptop sleeve.

Most importantly, I have to learn and be used to Mac OS. My lecturer told me that in the industry, everyone is using Mac OS. Every design firms are using Mac OS, very seldom they would use Windows unless there is a particular program that can only be opened with Windows.

Yay~

City Harvest

City Harvest Church
CHC bases its values on Charismatic and Pentecostal teachings, with doctrinal emphasis on the Great Commandment, the Great Commission and the Cultural Mandate.

It is the largest independent church in Singapore, with 27,086 regular members and a record monthly average of 33,812 attendees in April 2009.

The church's highest record attendance was 57,691 during City Harvest's Christmas services in 2008.

The church first started off with only 20 people with Pastor Kong Hee, today CHC has at least 27,000 members strong after 20 years.

=================================

When it comes to City Harvest Church, these words has become a taboo to many people. Many people all around Singapore has their own views of the Church. Some are good, some are bad.

But most of the time, people from the public are often very critical about the church and its teachings of the word of God.

The religious and legalistic believers think that CHC is way too worldly. Why? Because we bring in many things that are so-called "wordly" to them. From pop songs to dancing to a church that has no cross but with bright lightings.

The non-believers thinks that CHC is trying too hard. People think that CHC is too much. Why is there so much commitments? Why does members have to reach early? Why is there such thing as booking seats in the church? The list can go on and on forever.

But what we believe is that we are just right in the middle.

On one side, we are bringing in pop culture into the church. To become a contemporary church, to be relavant to the world outside, becoming relavant to non believers. And not becoming a world of its own.

We aim to be relavant and also to be spiritual as well.

How can the religious question the spiritual level of the church when we often pray and fast and even have bible study during the week? Personally, I think we even might be doing more than what the religious and legalistic christians are doing.

I believe that our commitment for the church is far beyond almost any churches in Singapore.

I may be wrong but I do believe our commitment to the church has already shown how hungry we are for God.

On the other side, the non-believers think that we are trying too hard. Often, critical and negative comments are being made to the church about the commitment level.

All I can say is that, if you never step into one's shoes, you can never understand them.

Yes, I do agree that our church needs to be very highly commited but on the other hand, I do believe most of us do set a great example as a Christian.

One man.. Just one man, Pastor Kong. He sparked off so many so many changes in this generation, at least to 27,000 people.

This really shows that how God can use just a man and a woman to do things for him. From 20, we grew to 27,000 members strong and 32,000 weekly attendance.

So many people's lives were being touched. So many people's lives had literally turned 180 degrees around. People that were poor then and now are rich. People that were not believers but today, they are on fire for God. Many families united because of this congregation. Many lives were changed because of this congregation. Many marriages saved because of this congregation.

Today's 20th anniversary service was really touching. The pioneers of the church were sharing their life testimonies on how much the church had changed them and also how much Pastor Kong himself has been a mentor, a brother and also like a father to them.

Each has their own stories of the church to tell.

To think that one man, that has touched so many lives in his lifetime, how can someone like that be a bad person? How can someone like that mislead his congregation? He himself is already a living testimony and an example for all of us. Pastor Kong and his team had been flying all around the world almost every week. They had been doing humanitarian works, preaching, helping to build churches, etc. The list could go on and on.

Rich? Yes, the church is so-called rich if you were to calculate how much money was being collected every week. This factor has always been critisized by almost anyone.

Why should a church member give tithes and offerings every time they go to church?

Where would the money go?

Does the pastors and staff take the money for their own benefits?

Are they earning money off the members of the church?

Are they trying to cheat money?

Let me ask, if someone were to know that their money is being cheated and are being misused or doesn't know why are they giving for, would they continue to give every time? NO!

It is said in the bible that we should give tithes and offerings and many people don't understand it! The money collected is being used to run the church. If not, where do you think and how do you think the church is going to get the money to pay for the bills?

The money is being used for mission trips, donations, building churches, building organizations such as the JAMS church (google it if you don't know), etc. As I said, the list could go on forever.

Many people don't see it. Many people tend to judge quickly of the church. Many people don't see how much the church has been doing for the past 20 years. How much Pastor Kong and his staff had been sacrificing, how much they had been praying and fasting, how much sweat and blood had been put into the church.

At the end of the day, the church is not perfect. We are not perfect people. Pastor Kong is not perfect. Why do people tend to critisize when a trivial cockup happens? But we have to say, we do not bother about anything that is being said towards the church. We do believe in what we had always believed in and always will.

Fufiling the cultural mandate, taking up the great commandment and the great commision. Loving God wholeheartedly and loving people fervently. We believe in church without walls. We believe that we as believers should not be religious and legalistic. We believe that we should be relavant to the world and not becoming a world of our own. We believe in discipleship. We believe in the caring system. We believe in God.

The church has survived 20 years. Many lives were touched, changed and whatnot.

For the next 20 years, we believe for a greater move of God, greater breakthroughs.

In my 3 years in CHC, it has been really awesome. How much more awesome can it get!

I love my church. I am very glad that I am rooted in this church. I have my commitments, I have my believes. City Harvest is my spiritual family. Like it or not, I will be like this forever.

City Harvest Church, 20th Anniversary.

Dreams are realised. Success is celebrated.

Happy Birthday City Harvest Church!