Listening to Don Moen - Jesus, We Enthrone You
Patrol
I happily came to base as late as I could. When I reached the base and was changing into my uniform, Kayzee told me to get my patrol stuff ready as I had been reassigned to go out for patrol with SI Norman! This has happened twice over two consecutive days already. Thank God that I don't have to actually rot and waste my life away walking around a jetty for 12 hours in the darkness!
The crew set onboard was great. Everyone was so on about patrolling that I didn't actually go down to the cabin to rest until 2a.m. Normally, I'll head down after 11 of so. But when I patrol with really nice people that don't shirk work, NS suddenly becomes very fun.
We stopped over at clifford pier to get drinks. One of the other NSmen onboard had brought a complement of 8 different kinds of tit bits onboard. This did not include the "soop toolang" (I don't know how to spell it) that one of the regulars brought onboard. SI had brought along a whole slew of prawn crackers as well. So I paid for the drinks at clifford pier to "make it an even burden" on all.
We just ate and snacked and ate and snacked non-stop from the time we left the base till 2a.m. Seriously, I am eating way too much unhealthy food. My health will so certainly suffer. My poor friends in NS are starving, being fed horrible unit "food" in camp and getting treated no better than slaves. Here I am, rocking on a high speed patrol craft with a very cold air-conditioning system and snacking away whilst cruising on the waves. For such as this, how can I not thank God for this kind of NS? It is like comparing heaven with hell.
I was woken up only at about 5a.m. And they only woke me up because basically I was the only non-Muslim onboard and so the rest of the crew had to get ready to start their fast. If they were not fasting, they'd have let me sleep all the way till 9, knowing that I have to go to church later on and that I need the rest.
So I patrolled the waters very early in the morning along with SI. He basically let me steer the boat for almost 2 hours non-stop. My confidence level of steering in the dark, or should I say, very early morning, where there is a slight filtering of blue light from the horizon, is increasing. I was allowed to steer the boat anywhere, anyhow, anyway I wanted. So it was my very first time, to steer a 3rd Gen Police Coast Guard boat all the way from the end of our territorial waters to the jetty at Clifford Pier. Even SI didn't bother to guide me anymore, trusting that I could navigate my way inside marina bay carefully without banging into any ships despite the whole bay being very crowded.
I knocked out later on. Too tired I guess. I really have not been sleeping well for the last few weeks. Although I sleep much longer hours. I feel more tired than before. Like there is no real quality rest for my body. My work performance, too, has deteriorated significantly over the last few patrols. SI didn't scold me. He just let me sleep till I was contented while he steered the boat. Its quite bad, since he's my team in-charge and I'm like probably the lowest ranking as well as least-experienced guy on the team. But SI's a really nice person, he doesn't "play rank" but gives us free reign in our activities on the boat. So I slept.
I apologised to him later when I got back on base. But he just told me it was ok. I did tell him I felt quite bad to sleep while he had to patrol the sector all alone, and that this was the first time already. SI just brushed it off and I later was informed that I would be patrolling with him on Tuesday morning. That is given, that they don't suddenly change me to do sentry duty at last minute's notice. Its quite hard to find such nice people during my NS life. He doesn't fault me for sleeping on the boat and for not performing well enough, and yet he lets me patrol with him. After all, everyone wants to patrol with SI since his sector is usually the most "action packed" one.
As I was so tired. I just called my ministry team head and asked him for a day off from ministry. No problem. He too is another understanding person that knows how tiring it can be to come back from a night shift and go straight to church to do ministry work.
Church
As I wasn't tied down by ministry work today, I could actually sit with my cellgroup as well as engage them in dialogue after just being no more than a "phantom member" who is forever out doing ministry work at Church. I was really tired in church today and did feel rather lethargic overall. Not a good feeling to experience at the most exciting time of the week I'd say.
Nevertheless. Worship in Church today was excellent, and praise was FANTASTIC! I was no feeling well the last few days as I have come down with a cough, then I was so tired today after work, and I had a rather bad sore throat. But in all. I still chose to give to God my best praise. To offer up the sacrifice of praise to Him. For He is Worthy to be praised in both Heaven and earth!
Praise was just so fantastic! I loved it so much! Its like I get renewed and recharged everyweek when I go to church to just praise and worship God with all my heart. Things may be very bad at home, but I'm not the kind of person to drag my problems into His sanctuary and let it weigh down heavily on me and affect the quality of praise and worship that I give to God.
We had an overseas speaker today for today's evangelistic service. He just preached on Passion for God. Eye opening as he revealed to us how passionate the Apostle John was for Jesus. As a Christian, I feel that passion is the number one thing that everyone needs in the Christian life. I wouldn't be such a lethargic/crappy Christian if I had more passion in my life for God. I mean, He dies for me and I sit around not going out for evangelism? Something's really wrong with me in this area I'd say. I need more passion for God. That should sit at the top of my personal prayer list.
Our speaker just gave a simple altar call and it was like a few hundred people came forward to receive salvation! Wow! And right smack during an exam period! Praise God! Later he led the church in a prayer for healing and blessing and then service ended. Other than that, we celebrated two birthdays of the cellgroup members and then I was off to my Aunt's place for dinner.
I just slept at my aunt's house till dinner and then came home. I'll enjoy my off day tomorrow.
Thoughts
I want to go for missions trips! Even if I only end up at the backbone as a chair stacker! My church is organising a missions trip to Israel next year and I so badly want to go. The problem is that money is one. Then there's the gigantic obstacle of applying for leave. And finally, the whole church wants to go when there are only 300 vaccancies! Seems like my church is not the only one trying to organise trips to the Holy Land, but quite a number of churches as well.
I know that I have many thoughts. Just that when I sit down in front of the computer screen. They all don't seem to "come out". Funny, I can't even remember half of the songs I sang in church today. My memory seems to be worsening.
Messages
Ok, replies to all the delayed commentary tags! Thanks for all the comments! It makes this blog so much more interactive!
Joline: You know, there is this quote which I live my life by, most of the time. It goes, "Better to have tried and failed, than to have never tried at all". I mean, fail fail lah! What do I have to lose right? Failure is certainly not fatal nor final and it is the mother of success!
Praise God! You actually got into SIM without fulfilling those two criterion! You'll probably be like the younger person in the entire university because most of the people there are working level executives! It is a very good place to build connections with people from the business world. And I'm really glad you'll be able to get an Honour's degree in Psychology and then head for your Master's! Wow! Aim high! There is nothing to lose!
And who says they won't give you the scholarship? Most of the people there are already working level people who can certainly afford to pay the school fees. Perhaps you are the only one who applied if you think about it rationally? Its not like NUS/NTU where people haggle for the few scholarships, which usually go to like "people with 4 A's and 2 S-Paper distinctions that could not afford to go overseas". Yeah! Go! Get a Ph.D and be SUPT. Dr. Joline Lim. If you have a Ph.D, its very likely you can reach the rank of Superintendent in the police force. Now, that's a rank where you can comfortably rub shoulders with the commissioner of police and not be out of place rank-wise!
Remember, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by going all out. So why not? Just do it!
DOS font goes by the type font "Terminal".
En: I really should have gone to ARTS in ACJC. Even if I was in the worst class it wouldn't matter to me. ARTS is such a dynamic and interesting faculty! I don't understand why people put more emphasis on science for the fact that it is more "relevant" to the world. I guess as long as Singaporean stick to their "engineer, doctor, lawyer, banker, life-sciences" mentality, we can never foster a great ARTS hub no matter how many billions we spend.
Believe me, at one point in time, when I was in sec 4, I wanted to be a molecular cell biologist dealing with complex pharmacy drugs. Then I felt that it just isn't worth it to sit in a lab all day long in a white coat doing research. I cannot imagine myself doing that for 40 years of my life. How boring is that! Whereas as a Political Science commentator, even a freelance one, you'll always have a dynamic subject that changes every minute to comment on, to analyse, to give insights, to provide deeper understandings.
AJC in politics? I haven't really seen a single PAP MP from AJC, I believe. No offence. But it seems that majority come from RJC, NJC and ACJC. Even the last General Elections, 6 of the new ministers from all from ACS. But it would be interesting if all the ACS politically inclined people I know actually form up an opposition party. Money should not be an issue since almost everyone whom I know in ACS is like SO RICH and then combined with a few more people who want to sit on the opposition bench, go fight in the elections. Hmmm...Even Chee Soon Juan was an ACS boy. My JC1 physics teacher taught him. It is notable to note that he too, was a person with a Ph.D in Psychology. Young people shouldn't be so politically apathetic. One thing I'd like to see is some opposition guy sit in the "education minster" post and just change everything upside-down. Let's trash the british education style for the american education styel! Woo!
BOON: Well, one thing I would really definitely treasure, is if I could actually sit down with you one day and YOU teach me what is your thought process like when you handle the very complex mathematics. Because if I can understand and learn from your train of thought. I believe that I can become a great mathematician too! Not as in the sense that I can go proudly show it off. but in the sense that I could be a great teacher that could actually relate "boring math" to ARTS students.
I understand. The world has so much distractions. I agree. But sometimes, I feel that instead of trying to do our things first and then hope that we have some time left over for God. I feel that as Christians, God should be the number 1 priority. I would just throw everything down, chuck it to one corner and go spend time with Him. I believe that if you honour God with your best. God will honour you with His best. Its a step of faith, a rather big one I'd say honestly. I didn't really give God my very best when I was in ACJC. My results didn't come out anything good either - I was probably the worst scorer in the entire CF, but then, I still managed to enter a respectable course in uni. So why not? Perhaps you can take my little testimony of mine and just trash everything for the sake of God. I don't believe that God will not further bless and honour you in your studies and walk with Him.
mei: =)
Patrol
I happily came to base as late as I could. When I reached the base and was changing into my uniform, Kayzee told me to get my patrol stuff ready as I had been reassigned to go out for patrol with SI Norman! This has happened twice over two consecutive days already. Thank God that I don't have to actually rot and waste my life away walking around a jetty for 12 hours in the darkness!
The crew set onboard was great. Everyone was so on about patrolling that I didn't actually go down to the cabin to rest until 2a.m. Normally, I'll head down after 11 of so. But when I patrol with really nice people that don't shirk work, NS suddenly becomes very fun.
We stopped over at clifford pier to get drinks. One of the other NSmen onboard had brought a complement of 8 different kinds of tit bits onboard. This did not include the "soop toolang" (I don't know how to spell it) that one of the regulars brought onboard. SI had brought along a whole slew of prawn crackers as well. So I paid for the drinks at clifford pier to "make it an even burden" on all.
We just ate and snacked and ate and snacked non-stop from the time we left the base till 2a.m. Seriously, I am eating way too much unhealthy food. My health will so certainly suffer. My poor friends in NS are starving, being fed horrible unit "food" in camp and getting treated no better than slaves. Here I am, rocking on a high speed patrol craft with a very cold air-conditioning system and snacking away whilst cruising on the waves. For such as this, how can I not thank God for this kind of NS? It is like comparing heaven with hell.
I was woken up only at about 5a.m. And they only woke me up because basically I was the only non-Muslim onboard and so the rest of the crew had to get ready to start their fast. If they were not fasting, they'd have let me sleep all the way till 9, knowing that I have to go to church later on and that I need the rest.
So I patrolled the waters very early in the morning along with SI. He basically let me steer the boat for almost 2 hours non-stop. My confidence level of steering in the dark, or should I say, very early morning, where there is a slight filtering of blue light from the horizon, is increasing. I was allowed to steer the boat anywhere, anyhow, anyway I wanted. So it was my very first time, to steer a 3rd Gen Police Coast Guard boat all the way from the end of our territorial waters to the jetty at Clifford Pier. Even SI didn't bother to guide me anymore, trusting that I could navigate my way inside marina bay carefully without banging into any ships despite the whole bay being very crowded.
I knocked out later on. Too tired I guess. I really have not been sleeping well for the last few weeks. Although I sleep much longer hours. I feel more tired than before. Like there is no real quality rest for my body. My work performance, too, has deteriorated significantly over the last few patrols. SI didn't scold me. He just let me sleep till I was contented while he steered the boat. Its quite bad, since he's my team in-charge and I'm like probably the lowest ranking as well as least-experienced guy on the team. But SI's a really nice person, he doesn't "play rank" but gives us free reign in our activities on the boat. So I slept.
I apologised to him later when I got back on base. But he just told me it was ok. I did tell him I felt quite bad to sleep while he had to patrol the sector all alone, and that this was the first time already. SI just brushed it off and I later was informed that I would be patrolling with him on Tuesday morning. That is given, that they don't suddenly change me to do sentry duty at last minute's notice. Its quite hard to find such nice people during my NS life. He doesn't fault me for sleeping on the boat and for not performing well enough, and yet he lets me patrol with him. After all, everyone wants to patrol with SI since his sector is usually the most "action packed" one.
As I was so tired. I just called my ministry team head and asked him for a day off from ministry. No problem. He too is another understanding person that knows how tiring it can be to come back from a night shift and go straight to church to do ministry work.
Church
As I wasn't tied down by ministry work today, I could actually sit with my cellgroup as well as engage them in dialogue after just being no more than a "phantom member" who is forever out doing ministry work at Church. I was really tired in church today and did feel rather lethargic overall. Not a good feeling to experience at the most exciting time of the week I'd say.
Nevertheless. Worship in Church today was excellent, and praise was FANTASTIC! I was no feeling well the last few days as I have come down with a cough, then I was so tired today after work, and I had a rather bad sore throat. But in all. I still chose to give to God my best praise. To offer up the sacrifice of praise to Him. For He is Worthy to be praised in both Heaven and earth!
Praise was just so fantastic! I loved it so much! Its like I get renewed and recharged everyweek when I go to church to just praise and worship God with all my heart. Things may be very bad at home, but I'm not the kind of person to drag my problems into His sanctuary and let it weigh down heavily on me and affect the quality of praise and worship that I give to God.
We had an overseas speaker today for today's evangelistic service. He just preached on Passion for God. Eye opening as he revealed to us how passionate the Apostle John was for Jesus. As a Christian, I feel that passion is the number one thing that everyone needs in the Christian life. I wouldn't be such a lethargic/crappy Christian if I had more passion in my life for God. I mean, He dies for me and I sit around not going out for evangelism? Something's really wrong with me in this area I'd say. I need more passion for God. That should sit at the top of my personal prayer list.
Our speaker just gave a simple altar call and it was like a few hundred people came forward to receive salvation! Wow! And right smack during an exam period! Praise God! Later he led the church in a prayer for healing and blessing and then service ended. Other than that, we celebrated two birthdays of the cellgroup members and then I was off to my Aunt's place for dinner.
I just slept at my aunt's house till dinner and then came home. I'll enjoy my off day tomorrow.
Thoughts
I want to go for missions trips! Even if I only end up at the backbone as a chair stacker! My church is organising a missions trip to Israel next year and I so badly want to go. The problem is that money is one. Then there's the gigantic obstacle of applying for leave. And finally, the whole church wants to go when there are only 300 vaccancies! Seems like my church is not the only one trying to organise trips to the Holy Land, but quite a number of churches as well.
I know that I have many thoughts. Just that when I sit down in front of the computer screen. They all don't seem to "come out". Funny, I can't even remember half of the songs I sang in church today. My memory seems to be worsening.
Messages
Ok, replies to all the delayed commentary tags! Thanks for all the comments! It makes this blog so much more interactive!
Joline: You know, there is this quote which I live my life by, most of the time. It goes, "Better to have tried and failed, than to have never tried at all". I mean, fail fail lah! What do I have to lose right? Failure is certainly not fatal nor final and it is the mother of success!
Praise God! You actually got into SIM without fulfilling those two criterion! You'll probably be like the younger person in the entire university because most of the people there are working level executives! It is a very good place to build connections with people from the business world. And I'm really glad you'll be able to get an Honour's degree in Psychology and then head for your Master's! Wow! Aim high! There is nothing to lose!
And who says they won't give you the scholarship? Most of the people there are already working level people who can certainly afford to pay the school fees. Perhaps you are the only one who applied if you think about it rationally? Its not like NUS/NTU where people haggle for the few scholarships, which usually go to like "people with 4 A's and 2 S-Paper distinctions that could not afford to go overseas". Yeah! Go! Get a Ph.D and be SUPT. Dr. Joline Lim. If you have a Ph.D, its very likely you can reach the rank of Superintendent in the police force. Now, that's a rank where you can comfortably rub shoulders with the commissioner of police and not be out of place rank-wise!
Remember, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by going all out. So why not? Just do it!
DOS font goes by the type font "Terminal".
En: I really should have gone to ARTS in ACJC. Even if I was in the worst class it wouldn't matter to me. ARTS is such a dynamic and interesting faculty! I don't understand why people put more emphasis on science for the fact that it is more "relevant" to the world. I guess as long as Singaporean stick to their "engineer, doctor, lawyer, banker, life-sciences" mentality, we can never foster a great ARTS hub no matter how many billions we spend.
Believe me, at one point in time, when I was in sec 4, I wanted to be a molecular cell biologist dealing with complex pharmacy drugs. Then I felt that it just isn't worth it to sit in a lab all day long in a white coat doing research. I cannot imagine myself doing that for 40 years of my life. How boring is that! Whereas as a Political Science commentator, even a freelance one, you'll always have a dynamic subject that changes every minute to comment on, to analyse, to give insights, to provide deeper understandings.
AJC in politics? I haven't really seen a single PAP MP from AJC, I believe. No offence. But it seems that majority come from RJC, NJC and ACJC. Even the last General Elections, 6 of the new ministers from all from ACS. But it would be interesting if all the ACS politically inclined people I know actually form up an opposition party. Money should not be an issue since almost everyone whom I know in ACS is like SO RICH and then combined with a few more people who want to sit on the opposition bench, go fight in the elections. Hmmm...Even Chee Soon Juan was an ACS boy. My JC1 physics teacher taught him. It is notable to note that he too, was a person with a Ph.D in Psychology. Young people shouldn't be so politically apathetic. One thing I'd like to see is some opposition guy sit in the "education minster" post and just change everything upside-down. Let's trash the british education style for the american education styel! Woo!
BOON: Well, one thing I would really definitely treasure, is if I could actually sit down with you one day and YOU teach me what is your thought process like when you handle the very complex mathematics. Because if I can understand and learn from your train of thought. I believe that I can become a great mathematician too! Not as in the sense that I can go proudly show it off. but in the sense that I could be a great teacher that could actually relate "boring math" to ARTS students.
I understand. The world has so much distractions. I agree. But sometimes, I feel that instead of trying to do our things first and then hope that we have some time left over for God. I feel that as Christians, God should be the number 1 priority. I would just throw everything down, chuck it to one corner and go spend time with Him. I believe that if you honour God with your best. God will honour you with His best. Its a step of faith, a rather big one I'd say honestly. I didn't really give God my very best when I was in ACJC. My results didn't come out anything good either - I was probably the worst scorer in the entire CF, but then, I still managed to enter a respectable course in uni. So why not? Perhaps you can take my little testimony of mine and just trash everything for the sake of God. I don't believe that God will not further bless and honour you in your studies and walk with Him.
mei: =)
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