A Future Penalty
I woke up at 6 today. I think its better to wake up at 6 these 3 weeks as Dad need not send my brother to school and then followed by me. We could both leave later and yet reach our destinations earlier. Today, I surprisingly had enough time to completely read the papers. Its one way to really start the day: be filled with the latest updates.
The morning at Kallang was spent in the Firing Simulation Trainer. I had the chance to test fre the HK MP5 A5 in a computer generated range. My shooting wasn't bad, just above average on the graded score accuracy charts and a 100% target hit in the other categories. Its really almost impossible to miss with the MP5, it is light, easy to handle, naturally helps you to aim and has very little recoil Only today, with my first handling of this weapon do I really understand now why do Special Forces worldwide choose it as their standard weapon. It just rocks.
About half the squad did not bring their donation cards that were due to be handed up yesterday. As a result, SSI John decided to punish the whole squad by making us stay back till 8. I wouldn't say much of it, its just two hours.. certainly beats a whole saturday or sunday at Tracom. Just that I couldn't go for the Youth Conference meeting today. I was quite sad and refused to accept the news for sometime.
I'm sure satan had a part in it. The Youth Conference thing must be such a threat to his kingdom of darkness that he has to go all out to stop more people from coming for it. Nevertheless I felt that somehow, I would still be at that meeting tonight. I just had faith in God to see me there.
The afternoon was filled up by a series of boring lectures with SSgt Zulkifli. Even he agreed that it was boring, so he purposely only skimmed through the topic for about half an hour and gave us a 5 minute break that ended up to be a 30 min break for us to go watch videos about the PCG and idle chatter. The later part of the day was spent with a mock gunnery test invigilated by SSI Ayub.
I probably only took like 3 minutes to do each of the four separate papers on the weapons that we've handled so far. He was so surprised that I kept asking for the next question paper when all he did was to hand me the previous question paper and go walk one round around the class. The mock test was a free frag. Managed to get 52 out of 62 questions correct - about 83%, way above the passing mark of 70%. Best thing was that I have left my gunnery manual at Brani the last 2 weeks!
Liangwei suggested that we go talk to SSI John about changing our confinement from today till friday. SSI John was ok about it. Thank God that He has given me favor in his eyes. Its not always that SSI John approves such requests. Usually more or less, all applications for leave are turned down immediately. I can honestly say that only God would allow such a thing to happen.
I made a gamble this morning that there would be no physical training. So I did not bring my PT Kit. Apprently, there was and so I was stranded with 6 other guys without a PT Kit. The bad news was that SSgt Zulkifli, who was taking today's lesson would want those "special" people to stay back till 10 instead of 8. So there goes down the drain, my effort to go to the Youth Conference.
Yet again, I did feel like it was pointless to have gone through all the trouble previously. Nevertheless, I prayed a quiet prayer of confidence to God, asking Him to let me go there. Later, I approached SSgt Zulkifli and surprisingly, he was more than happy about the arrangement. The best thing was that he shortened it from 10 to 9 o'clock on friday! Once again. God has shown His kindness and mercy to me.
After being told of the good news, Liangwei and I immediately went to pack up and leave. I told the squad that we were going to church. Somehow, they misheard it and started making a fuss about going to star search! How amusing indeed!
EMERGE Youth Conference, Service 3, City Harvest Church
Many youths from other countries had also signed up for the conference. The youth conference was so big that Alice smsed me to say that people had started queueing at 8.30 in the morning when the 1st service starts at 10a.m. It is a full day thing at church.
Liangwei and I managed to catch a train to Boon Lay, but we missed the 242 and then the 179. So we took a taxi instead to church. Upon arrival, we ran like REAL policeman chase snatch thieves to the lobby in order to register. All the people kept walking SO slowly that I had to resort to using police manoevreing tactics to jump up a wall whilst running and to engage in evasive high speed running - all in church.
I almost punched the guy who was supposed to test for my temperature. Here I was rushing like a dog and then ending up waiting at the FRONT of the queue while he laughed with his friends. I gave the other "temperature tester" a very fierce look and she immediately tapped him to take my temperature. Sometimes, you just can't help but be fierce with a few people here and there. It is necessary to avoid people stepping over you.
I then ran to the receptionist's table. I told Liangwei earlier that if they did not allow us to be registered for "lack of space", I would immediately use all my force in a karate chop and smash the glass table. I don't know why, but NS has certainly made me a very much more violent person - policemen need to use powerful subduing force on criminals right? I would be really angry and upset if after all that rushing and frustration and red tape, I could not go for ther service.
All that pent up frustration and anger is truly a very destructive force. Its is like multiplying effect to one's strength, energy and power. An angry policeman can always subdue a more powerful criminal as opposed to a not so violent one. Thank God that up to now, I have yet to unleash my destructiveness in my life. So yeah, how's that for self control? Even in the past when I have blown my top, I felt like God actually just "stole" my anger from me. Somehow, I feel, He does not want me to become a angry and bitter person. Thank you God.
We got registered after about 10 minutes of waiting. It felt like half an hour. Every second meant one less seat in the hall. Lucky they processed our registration fast. As usual, I was giving the people at the counter fierce looks. Mum always said that my stare looked fierce. Haha, she must have been rightly so indeed!
The Service
When I walked into the hall, it was TREMENDOUSLY crowded. It was so crowded that people were sitting on the floor, on the stairs on the sides, every possible place was a seat. Lydia had told me that the cellgroup would be sitting on the second row extreme right part of the hall. When I reached there, there was no seat for me.
Just when I thought of sitting on the floor. My old friend Matthew tapped me on the shoulder and greeted me! It had been a very long time since I've seen my cherished brother in Christ. I told him I had no seat and somehow, he told me that his cellgroup still had one spare extra seat. I also met Gustin, my sec 3 and sec 4 classmate as well as ACJC schoolmate. He was sitting directly in front of me.
I also met Ben, someone in my original cellgroup 4 years ago, who had been one of the persons who had brought me to church. It was another mini ACS reunion!
Praise was EXCELLENT! In fact, I think it was the BEST praise session I've ever had this year. Its like I really gave the Sacrifice of praise. Sang till I was hoarse, jumped and clapped and shouted and just praised God. It was easier since now's like a "good time" - I did get into accountancy. The church musicians played a whole pile of my favourite Christian songs: My Best Friend, Now that You're Near and King of Majesty. The worship Songs were Blessed, I Adore You.
I Adore You has a bridge that is incredibly beautifully written. It is like a song from a depths of a person's heart"
"We will crown You
King Forever
Living Savior
Jesus Redeemer
Lord of Heaven
Robed in Majesty
Crowned in Glory
Creation Adores You
Holy Holy
God Almighty
And Forever the Lord is Exalted
Hear the Angels
Shout His Anthem
Everliving God we Adore You"
After that was a "Parade of Schools" where youths whose school formed a large portion of the Church's membership performed items relating to Jesus, Revival, Rising Up, Emerging and stuff. There are so many NUS, NTU, NYP, SP, TP, NP people in church, not withstanding Anglican High, Geylang Methodist and other schools.
The church then sang "For This Cause" before Pastor started to preach.
I had heard Pastor's sermon before, it was a repeated one, I probably heard it like 2 or 3 years ago. Nevertheless, if a message is good, its always good to hear it more than once. Pastor shared about how Youths can change the destiny of the whole world as long as we are willing to pay the price - which is undoubtedly, very heavy.
Service ended at about 10 plus, ending with Pastor leading us two prayers, one for being passionate for the lost and the other to restore our relationship with Jesus. The service ended with the new praise song, "Cos we're all about You".
The praise in service made all the frustration and "delayed penalty" all worth it. Church is a wonderful place to be and to go to.
I took the shuttle bus back home, all this while I never knew that the Church had chartered a shuttle bus for us, as such, I need not spend money on travelling home, but just walk home from Buona Vista MRT - like walking home from ACJC. I went home with the cellgroup girls, Janice, Lydia and Ezekiel were sleeping over at Vanessa's house, so that they could be in church early again tomorrow at about 8.45.
I reached home and had dinner. Mum and Lena had graciously stayed awake to warm up my dinner for me and to wash up for me. Thank God again.
I may not be a good christian, but one thing's for sure. I really want to show my love for God not by words, but by my actions.
I woke up at 6 today. I think its better to wake up at 6 these 3 weeks as Dad need not send my brother to school and then followed by me. We could both leave later and yet reach our destinations earlier. Today, I surprisingly had enough time to completely read the papers. Its one way to really start the day: be filled with the latest updates.
The morning at Kallang was spent in the Firing Simulation Trainer. I had the chance to test fre the HK MP5 A5 in a computer generated range. My shooting wasn't bad, just above average on the graded score accuracy charts and a 100% target hit in the other categories. Its really almost impossible to miss with the MP5, it is light, easy to handle, naturally helps you to aim and has very little recoil Only today, with my first handling of this weapon do I really understand now why do Special Forces worldwide choose it as their standard weapon. It just rocks.
About half the squad did not bring their donation cards that were due to be handed up yesterday. As a result, SSI John decided to punish the whole squad by making us stay back till 8. I wouldn't say much of it, its just two hours.. certainly beats a whole saturday or sunday at Tracom. Just that I couldn't go for the Youth Conference meeting today. I was quite sad and refused to accept the news for sometime.
I'm sure satan had a part in it. The Youth Conference thing must be such a threat to his kingdom of darkness that he has to go all out to stop more people from coming for it. Nevertheless I felt that somehow, I would still be at that meeting tonight. I just had faith in God to see me there.
The afternoon was filled up by a series of boring lectures with SSgt Zulkifli. Even he agreed that it was boring, so he purposely only skimmed through the topic for about half an hour and gave us a 5 minute break that ended up to be a 30 min break for us to go watch videos about the PCG and idle chatter. The later part of the day was spent with a mock gunnery test invigilated by SSI Ayub.
I probably only took like 3 minutes to do each of the four separate papers on the weapons that we've handled so far. He was so surprised that I kept asking for the next question paper when all he did was to hand me the previous question paper and go walk one round around the class. The mock test was a free frag. Managed to get 52 out of 62 questions correct - about 83%, way above the passing mark of 70%. Best thing was that I have left my gunnery manual at Brani the last 2 weeks!
Liangwei suggested that we go talk to SSI John about changing our confinement from today till friday. SSI John was ok about it. Thank God that He has given me favor in his eyes. Its not always that SSI John approves such requests. Usually more or less, all applications for leave are turned down immediately. I can honestly say that only God would allow such a thing to happen.
I made a gamble this morning that there would be no physical training. So I did not bring my PT Kit. Apprently, there was and so I was stranded with 6 other guys without a PT Kit. The bad news was that SSgt Zulkifli, who was taking today's lesson would want those "special" people to stay back till 10 instead of 8. So there goes down the drain, my effort to go to the Youth Conference.
Yet again, I did feel like it was pointless to have gone through all the trouble previously. Nevertheless, I prayed a quiet prayer of confidence to God, asking Him to let me go there. Later, I approached SSgt Zulkifli and surprisingly, he was more than happy about the arrangement. The best thing was that he shortened it from 10 to 9 o'clock on friday! Once again. God has shown His kindness and mercy to me.
After being told of the good news, Liangwei and I immediately went to pack up and leave. I told the squad that we were going to church. Somehow, they misheard it and started making a fuss about going to star search! How amusing indeed!
EMERGE Youth Conference, Service 3, City Harvest Church
Many youths from other countries had also signed up for the conference. The youth conference was so big that Alice smsed me to say that people had started queueing at 8.30 in the morning when the 1st service starts at 10a.m. It is a full day thing at church.
Liangwei and I managed to catch a train to Boon Lay, but we missed the 242 and then the 179. So we took a taxi instead to church. Upon arrival, we ran like REAL policeman chase snatch thieves to the lobby in order to register. All the people kept walking SO slowly that I had to resort to using police manoevreing tactics to jump up a wall whilst running and to engage in evasive high speed running - all in church.
I almost punched the guy who was supposed to test for my temperature. Here I was rushing like a dog and then ending up waiting at the FRONT of the queue while he laughed with his friends. I gave the other "temperature tester" a very fierce look and she immediately tapped him to take my temperature. Sometimes, you just can't help but be fierce with a few people here and there. It is necessary to avoid people stepping over you.
I then ran to the receptionist's table. I told Liangwei earlier that if they did not allow us to be registered for "lack of space", I would immediately use all my force in a karate chop and smash the glass table. I don't know why, but NS has certainly made me a very much more violent person - policemen need to use powerful subduing force on criminals right? I would be really angry and upset if after all that rushing and frustration and red tape, I could not go for ther service.
All that pent up frustration and anger is truly a very destructive force. Its is like multiplying effect to one's strength, energy and power. An angry policeman can always subdue a more powerful criminal as opposed to a not so violent one. Thank God that up to now, I have yet to unleash my destructiveness in my life. So yeah, how's that for self control? Even in the past when I have blown my top, I felt like God actually just "stole" my anger from me. Somehow, I feel, He does not want me to become a angry and bitter person. Thank you God.
We got registered after about 10 minutes of waiting. It felt like half an hour. Every second meant one less seat in the hall. Lucky they processed our registration fast. As usual, I was giving the people at the counter fierce looks. Mum always said that my stare looked fierce. Haha, she must have been rightly so indeed!
The Service
When I walked into the hall, it was TREMENDOUSLY crowded. It was so crowded that people were sitting on the floor, on the stairs on the sides, every possible place was a seat. Lydia had told me that the cellgroup would be sitting on the second row extreme right part of the hall. When I reached there, there was no seat for me.
Just when I thought of sitting on the floor. My old friend Matthew tapped me on the shoulder and greeted me! It had been a very long time since I've seen my cherished brother in Christ. I told him I had no seat and somehow, he told me that his cellgroup still had one spare extra seat. I also met Gustin, my sec 3 and sec 4 classmate as well as ACJC schoolmate. He was sitting directly in front of me.
I also met Ben, someone in my original cellgroup 4 years ago, who had been one of the persons who had brought me to church. It was another mini ACS reunion!
Praise was EXCELLENT! In fact, I think it was the BEST praise session I've ever had this year. Its like I really gave the Sacrifice of praise. Sang till I was hoarse, jumped and clapped and shouted and just praised God. It was easier since now's like a "good time" - I did get into accountancy. The church musicians played a whole pile of my favourite Christian songs: My Best Friend, Now that You're Near and King of Majesty. The worship Songs were Blessed, I Adore You.
I Adore You has a bridge that is incredibly beautifully written. It is like a song from a depths of a person's heart"
"We will crown You
King Forever
Living Savior
Jesus Redeemer
Lord of Heaven
Robed in Majesty
Crowned in Glory
Creation Adores You
Holy Holy
God Almighty
And Forever the Lord is Exalted
Hear the Angels
Shout His Anthem
Everliving God we Adore You"
After that was a "Parade of Schools" where youths whose school formed a large portion of the Church's membership performed items relating to Jesus, Revival, Rising Up, Emerging and stuff. There are so many NUS, NTU, NYP, SP, TP, NP people in church, not withstanding Anglican High, Geylang Methodist and other schools.
The church then sang "For This Cause" before Pastor started to preach.
I had heard Pastor's sermon before, it was a repeated one, I probably heard it like 2 or 3 years ago. Nevertheless, if a message is good, its always good to hear it more than once. Pastor shared about how Youths can change the destiny of the whole world as long as we are willing to pay the price - which is undoubtedly, very heavy.
Service ended at about 10 plus, ending with Pastor leading us two prayers, one for being passionate for the lost and the other to restore our relationship with Jesus. The service ended with the new praise song, "Cos we're all about You".
The praise in service made all the frustration and "delayed penalty" all worth it. Church is a wonderful place to be and to go to.
I took the shuttle bus back home, all this while I never knew that the Church had chartered a shuttle bus for us, as such, I need not spend money on travelling home, but just walk home from Buona Vista MRT - like walking home from ACJC. I went home with the cellgroup girls, Janice, Lydia and Ezekiel were sleeping over at Vanessa's house, so that they could be in church early again tomorrow at about 8.45.
I reached home and had dinner. Mum and Lena had graciously stayed awake to warm up my dinner for me and to wash up for me. Thank God again.
I may not be a good christian, but one thing's for sure. I really want to show my love for God not by words, but by my actions.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home