Love Africa

I am at Changi Airport right now. I am waiting for my parents' flight to arrive from Melbourne. Earlier in the evening I joined the Love Africa meeting. Love Africa is a church level project anchored by AG4 district to gather like-minded people across the church, those who have the heart for the continent of Africa one way or another. Eugene Phang is the man behind this project.

It is great to see people from different groups in our church coming together to do something for people thousands of miles away from us. Indeed missions is done together. When each one of us does our part the combined effort can really go a distance.

Three weeks ago just before we went to Phuket we stopped by in Bangkok to meet Esther. I shared about Esther before. I met Esther in Nairobi, Kenya some time ago. In Bangkok, Esther fetched us from the airport and brought us to visit her company. She is the no 2 person in her company. She is doing business so that she will be able to support the work of missions in Kenya. This is the role that she believes God wants her to play in missions.

Indeed, there are many ways we can do missions. When the heart is willing many things can be a possibility. After all it is always about extraordinary people being used by an extraordinary God.

Tonight (technically last night) I am blessed by the sight of many young adults wanting to take part in the work of missions. I am also blessed by Esther's life, a Thai young adult who is obedient to the call of God in her life to play her part in missions for Africa.

Below are some of the photos I took in Esther's company:

Some Photos from Phuket

Around three weeks ago some of us were in Phuket attending a conference. We had a good time catching up with some old friends and making some new friends as well. In this conference, we heard many powerful testimonies. I thank God that as a movement we are indeed progressing in fulfilling the Great Commission. Missions work is now in being done in places I previously thought as incredibly difficult.

We also had some time doing some sightseeing. The places we visited were quite interesting. Phuket is a popular tourism place in Thailand.

Just recently, I managed to download the photos of this trip from my humble but useful Samsung phone. We also received some photos from another fellow goer.

Here are some of the photos:

Starting a Momentum for Exercise

Recently, I discovered that my stamina had been dropping. I would fall asleep easily when I was in bus or train. I would feel like sleeping earlier than usual as well. I believe that a lack of exercise was a contributing factor to this happenning.

In the last few months I hardly had a chance to exercise. I tried to play tennis regularly on Saturday mornings but my schedule on Saturdays had changed quite a lot this year. There were different things that were happenning on Saturdays including district/sub-district activities, weddings, travelling, Tertiary Service and Indonesian Service. Somehow, it is quite seldom now for me to have a Saturday where I don't have to do something major (to me).

Havings said that, at the end of the day, I cannot use that as an excuse. It is up to me to make time to do things that are important.

I realised that the busier you are the more stamina you need to sustain you. As such exercise is not an option but a must.

Today, I picked up my shoes and went to a nearby gym. I ran on a treadmill for around 20 mins plus. The gym only allowed people to run 20 mins each time due to the limited number of treadmills. I ran for around 2.5km in 20 mins. I am not sure if that is an average or below than average performance. But that's not very important. The most important thing is that I did it.

I did sense the difference even only after one run. I felt stronger physically, meaning fitter in my stamina. I felt that I could think and focus more clearly as well. I hope that I can really sustain this momentum for exercise.

As we are a tripartite being (spirit, soul & body) each part of our being interrelates with one another. If one part is down the other two parts will be affected as well. As such it is important for us to care for each part of our being so that we can remain a fully productive individual.

May God help me in this endeavour of taking care of my body!

Photos of 13

Here are some photos of 13 courtesy of Raymond.

Once again, I want to really thank Sam, Jingqi, Amy, Wynnie and those who are involved in the 13 production to make it into a reality. I want to thank those who invited their friends and family members to join the event. Thus far I know of two friends who came to 13 and recently came to know God.

Indeed, people really matter to God. This is the reason behind 13 and other Young Adults events we did this year. As we do our part God will surely do His part.

Back from Phuket and Going to Port Dickson

Lean Choo and I spent almost the entire of last week in Bangkok and Phuket. We attended a conference in Phuket. We were blessed much by the fellowship, teachings, testimonies and etc. We came back to Singapore on Saturday night.

We are now about to leave to Port Dickson for the staff retreat.

I will write more once I come back from Port Dickson on Wednesday.

Our Recent Trip to Australia (Part 4)

This is the final part, part 4.

As mentioned in part 3, we spent quite a lot time with my siblings and their family members. My brother (Anthony), his wife (CE), and their son (Noah) are settling down in Melbourne. My sister (Melia), her husband (Daniel) and their son (Titus) are in Melbourne for one year.

It was really good to spend time and catch up with them again. In Melbourne, we stayed with Daniel and Melia. Anthony and CE just stayed nearby. As such it was easy for them to spend time with one another.

We arrived on Friday. On Friday night we had a family dinner in a family restaurant called Sofia. The serving for their food is incredibly huge. Six of us couldn't finish the food serving for 2. After dinner, we went to Anthony & CE's house for further time of fellowship.

It was also really good to see how Titus and Noah had grown. Titus (1 1/2 years old) are now able to talk. He kept saying words like "car" and "bye bye". Noah (1 year old) was beginning to learn to walk. Some of their photos are below. (Titus on the left and Noah on the right)

The next day, Saturday, was a big day. It was Noah's 1st Birthday Celebration. Wow, we went to Melbourne at the right time. It was a very good party. The food was great. The games were fun. The fellowship was good. There were around 40-50 people in the party. Anthony & CE and some others really put in a lot of efforts to make the party into a success.

On Sunday night, we went to eat in a Vietnamese restaurant before we headed to the South Bank, a nice spot along the Yarra River. We watched the fire work that happened once per hour. It was pretty impressive though it could be scarry for kids as well. Titus was visibly scared by the fire.

On Monday, we went to have a good yum cha. Both Lean Choo and I agreed that the yum cha in Australia was generally better than what we had in Singapore. For one, I found the food to be less oily. But Daniel and Melia told us that there were good yum cha places in Singapore as well. (we just did not know it. :)) We did some other things after the yum cha before heading to the airport.

We had a very good family time in Melbourne. We enjoyed spending time with them. We appreciate them taking care of us really well. Daniel and Anthony actually took leave just to spend time with us. We also enjoyed playing with Titus and Noah. We believe that Titus and Noah enjoyed playing with us too. :)

I saw how each one of us had grown as a person. No, none of us is perfect. But it is clear to me that increased maturity help family members to get along with one another better. Differences in personality, opinion and etc will always be there. But maturity helps us to appreciate those differences instead of using it to attack one another. :)

Titus and Noah are the newest addition to our family. Their presence brings much joy and laughter. They add a new dimension to our family life. Often, they are the stars of the family. Without them realising they are actually unifying the older family members around them.

Very quickly, our recent trip to Australia came to an end. We thank God that it was a very fruitful trip. The three objectives that we had for the trip was more than met except on the annual retreat part which was a little bit short. But it was well compensated with the great time we had with our both spiritual and natural families.

We came back to Singapore feeling thankful and grateful for all that God had allowed us to experience in our recent trip to Australia. Australia will always have a special place in our hearts for many reasons. We hope to be back there again in a not too distant future.