BMT in HOGC

I took off to attend BMT today.
HUH? I thought you're already a sergeant in Tekong?
Yes I am :D
Then what's BMT?
Oh, it stands for Basic MINISTRY training! HAHA! It's a course offered by Heart of God to train people interested in serving in Heart of God church. :D

It was a 8am - 6pm session full of sermons shared by the senior leaders (equivalent to Bethel's ZSes and above)

I must admit I slept like 3 times...slept for like 2 minutes at 9.30am, 3pm and 5pm. HAHA! All the sleepy interludes.

From 8.30am - 6pm of sermons I only slept thrice, not bad sia! It shows I was engaged like 90% of the time. Haha. Those incidences was because I was just too sleepy. You know sleepy spells, they come at certain hours. Those are mine. haha. Anyway...

Topics they covered:
1) Importance of ministry and the importance of your involvement in ministry
2) Values and character traits needed to sustain you in your ministry
3) Time management and discipline
4) Discipleship
5) How to manage your time, life and learn and lead - Prioritizing and managing your life
6) Heart of God's church heritage

They covered those and more. They also taught us Heart of God's culture, like agreeing with the speaker by saying "Yes" and explaining the rationale behind it motivatingly.

They taught us how to build atmosphere in the church like by saying "yes" when you've turned to the scripture the speaker asks you to turn to, sitting up straight and all...All the basics which many churches don't have and don't bother because it's too minute a detail to talk about.

Because of all these small minute and seemingly insignificant details that the many other churches ignore, it has resulted in mundane, dull and boring services that doesn't engage the individual. HOGc recognizes the importance of atmosphere.

Sure you can explain that oh, our faith shouldn't be so service based and it's the individual...well, stop insulting the pastors because you're telling them that they can set the service standards so low. What about professionalism & giving your best? Well, the difference shows.

Anyway, I learnt and re-learnt quite a lot of stuffs. However the most touching part was the last part when one of their senior leaders (ZS equivalent) around my age shared about their church's heritage.

He browsed through photos of the past showing how the leaders were groomed by Ps How & Ps Lia and he talked about all their funny stories they shared and what are the foundational values that kept the church and its leaders going.

As he shared so personally and so full of love for his church, it brought a sense of sadness to me. I was thinking "That's how much I used to love Bethel! If Bethel had such a session and got me to share, I'd look exactly like that guy (Jian Ming) sharing. Full of joy, pride and love for his church." It's quite a pity that the chances of my thoughts materializing are really slim.

There's still that huge attachment to Bethel and it's people. There are so many superb leaders and lovely members in Bethel. They're just all in the wrong places.

I now know the delusion leadership can cause people and I guess God's doing something in the hearts of everyone. Well God, what I don't learn in Bethel, I'll learn somewhere else...I can't run from a problem right? It'll come back embodied in a different person, a different setting...Hopefully by then, I'd have gotten my faith and strength back.

Yup, got homework to do sia! Haha. Long time since I knew what was homework. Haha. Yup, God may you continue to walk with me down this journey of faith. It's you I live for Jesus.

Lebbillie & Amy's Departure

This is a really outdated, expired post. Haha. But hey, it's still important enough to warrant a page in my life's history :D haha!

Yes, before their departure we spent a lot of time hanging out and playing before they leave again...We went out sooooooo many times that I can't recall and pen down all of them. Haha. Only those with pictures taken are important enough to be remembered as an outing. Haha.

So yup, here's our outings :)

SHOKUDO! :D Because I've got Shokudo vouchers to clear, I brought us all there. Haha! A pizza at half price...that's all. LOLS!

Anyway, had a great time eating and chatting. They're awesome friends, you can just chat about anything...chat about...the mundaneness of life, future, what we think about each other, our love languages, what we think of our church, how would Lebbillie & Yang Cheng feel after they separate again, etc...HAHA!

It's amazing how I can still remember the topics we covered! That shows how deep our conversations can go. Haha!

Joel & I with our main courses :)

All of us! :D Clockwise from top left hand corner...Lebbillie, Amy, Xin Jin, Myself & Joel :D

While everyone else is joyous about Lebbu & Amy's departure, I'm not :( HAHAHA! :D

Next we went to...Dessert bowl at Serangoon Gardens! :D They were all saying the durian mousse is awesome here...haha.

However, when we placed our order, the durian mousse was already sold out -__-" Nevertheless, there were other awesome desserts that really whetted and abated our sweet tooth's craving. Haha.

Clockwise from top left hand corner: Amy Ching, Debbie Soh, Lee Xinjin, ME! :D, Joel, Yang Cheng, Lebbu & Laureen :)

Take 2 :D

Yang, Amy & Me :D

Oh, and did I forget to mention, we're recently obsessed with the new Iphone app...Iswap faces. Is that what it's called? You take a 2 people photo and you use the programme to swap your faces onto each other's body...The result is HILARIOUS!! HAHAHA!

Lebbillie & Yang were our inspiration. They first tried it out...they swapped faces and Lebbillie looked like Jonathan Yuan and Yang Cheng looked like a THAILAND AH-GUA!!! HAHAHA! Words cannot describe Yang Cheng's face on Lebbillie's body...HAHAHA! You see already just feel like punching kinda feeling. HAHA!

So yup, Debbie & I were trying the I-swapping too...haha.

I-swapping! :D

D-day! Lebbillie's & Amy's departure :( They left on different days la...duh. Haha. So the last 2 pictures are at the airport...

Anti-clockwise from right, Debbie Soh, Lebbillie, Laureen, Me, Belicia, Lynn, Amy, Xin Jin and Yang Cheng :D

Me & Amy :)

Yup, there they went :( Now we have lesser 2 companions to go K-boxing, L4Ding, makaning, movie-ing, etc... :( haha.

You'll be dearly missed.

Will wait for your return to record your new song then Lebbu! :D Haha. Take care! :)

Some FB joke...modified

GRANDPA TO GRANDSON: Go hide, your teacher is here because you skipped school today!

GRANDSON TO GRANDPA: YOU go hide…I told her I'm absent because YOU PASSED AWAY!

LOLS!

Haven't had time to blog lately...or rather, haven't made time to blog lately. I find it quite time consuming to blog so exhaustively about my life.

But what motivates me is next time, 10-20years down the road I can look back at those posts and see how I've grown. Or maybe read it with a bunch of friends or with my wife and simply laugh at the events that made me who I am.

Maybe I can publish it as a book or something. HAHA!


Yup, will update soon! :)

Show Me by Audrey Assad

As posted on my fb wall..

This song is for those who have so much to want to do for God, but can't because you have not died to yourself, or discovered God enough to. 

Amazing lyrics that echoes my frustrated soul. Feast on the morsels of truth revealed in the lyrics.

Show Me

By Audrey Assad

You could plant me like a tree beside a river
You could tangle me in soil and let my roots run wild
And I would blossom like a flower in the desert
But for now just let me cry

You could raise me like a banner in a battle
Put victory like a fire behind my shining eyes
And I would drift like falling snow over the embers
But for now just let me lie

Bind up these broken bones
Mercy bend and breathe me back to life
But not before You show me how to die

Set me like a star before the morning
Like a song that steals the darkness from a world asleep
And I'll illuminate the path You've laid before me
But for now just let me be

Bind up these broken bones
Mercy bend and breathe me back to life
But not before You show me how to die
Oh, not before You show me how to die

So let me go like a leaf upon the water
Let me brave the wild currents flowing to the sea
And I will disappear into a deeper beauty
But for now just stay with me
God, for now just stay with me

You Are (Final)

We did a final recording for Lebbillie's song "You Are" :D

This time we didn't do it at Aaron Leong's place...we did it at Lebbillie's place! :D

Used her mac to record. Not bad a recording quality I must say. Haha.

Check it out:


The main thing to catch in this video is my guitar solo! HAHAHA! At 2:00! :D LOLS!

Yup, thanks Lebbu for giving me this opportunity to help you record your first song! :) Haha.

Shall see many more songs coming from you eh? Haha.