My Second Semester Result is out :)

Dear friends and faithful readers of my blog, and those who have been praying for me all these while when I am studying in SBC. My result for the second semester is finally out!

For Greek II and Asian Church History, I managed to secure A
For NT survey and Church Music Ministry (choir) I got A-
For Field Education I got A- also
For OT Studies I, I got B
and for Building Strong Family I got a B-

on average, my GPA is 3.49/4.00 max

For the choir, I am trying to check with the lecturer, on why I got A- since my attendance is full except for 1 MC. If the lecturer agreed, then my result will be slightly better. My worst mistake is the Building Strong Family, for I submitted the paper very late. The lecturer commented that I should have gotten a B+ for this subject should I have submitted the paper earlier. I cannot blame anyone, except for my bad time management and the post-mission-trip effect that causes me unable to pick up and finish the paper on time.

overall, I would say, everything is good and God is still kind and faithful to me. I truly hope that I can perform better this year and give greater result, not for my own sake, but for His own Glory.

praise the Lord!!

The Story of Big Bubble Kopitiam - part 1

I have the burden to write this story since few days ago. But because of the impending assignment and exam for Greek, I wasn't able to do it. Also, because I am emotionally unstable after I witnessed what happened in the infamous Big Bubble Kopitiam

The story of Big Bubble Kopitiam - part 1

Big Bubble Kopitiam, is the place where uncles and aunties come and go and meet each other and say their quick hi-bye and brush off. Big Bubble Kopitiam is most busy during the weekend, and very quiet during the week-days, because most of the uncles and aunties are busy and can only come during weekends.

There is one special thing about this kopitiam. on the weekend, there will be a karaoke session and everyone is welcome to participate, as long as time permits. Well, someone's got to manage the situation, and so there is a rotating system of emcees doing the weekend sing song sessions.

one weekend, when the infamous a Beng was leading the karaoke sessions, there happens to be some invited guests who wants to perform a special performance on stage. This is not something rare, because Big Bubble is one of the most well-known spot for foreign talent to come and sing. Why? 1. We don't charge, 2. We like free stuff.

Anyway, the rare thing is this, on this fateful night, there are not 1 but 3 different groups of guests. Each with their own agenda. The first group said they just finished an europe tour and want to show some slide and sing some song with lyrics nobody know before one. The second group, this one lagi hiong, was one of the performing musical team from australia. They want to show some slide also, and want to recruit people for their latest musical - the kopitiam toilet. They will be singing their theme song 'the toilet' of course. The third one is a good one also, is from those people from the X or Y or Z generation. They want to invite people same generation as them (doesn't matter X or Y or Z ) to go party to some unknown but claimed to be fun park.

Anyway, these three groups leaders has started to worried. Walau eh.. so many people performing extra stunts, where got time. Who go first? the three leaders go hompimpa.. hompimpa.. and finally, the europe team go first loh, the toilet team go second, and the XYZ generation go last. all settled, and the three teams go to the kopitiam and take their seats and waiting for their cue.

Finally, A beng has finished his long speech and repertoire of songs, and he asked the toilet team to go up. The leader of the europe team quickly give signal, no no.. europe team first.. and so he came up. Walau eh.. the dj cannot find the cd, or cannot find the right button to play. the leader stand up there and wait wait, but no signal... finally he bo huat liao, he asked the toilet team to go on first and try to check on what is wrong. oh.. the problem is because the dj then said cannot find the play button.

the leader of the europe team then come up and stand by already. waiting for the toilet team to finish. Yes, they finished, hey but what happened, no way man.. a beng go up on stage again and say something, and asked the XYZ gang to come up and perform. wah lau eh.. the europe team's leader was like, cannot tahan already. but he tried to cool down. he looked at the watch, and look at the aunties and uncles still sitting in the kopitiam. Cannot make it lah, most of them already doze of, and go home already. Our slide show in europe later no one see, go up perform also no use. He talked to his team mates, and they decided to cancel the show and come back next week.

So, after the XYZ gang finished, and a Beng ask the europe team to come up, the leader then say to him, no one already. most people sleeping or go back liao. we do it next time ok? Some aunties actually interested to know more about what is going on in europe are surprised that the karaoke session is finished. They asked the europe team leader, then he said, nevermind, most people gone already, we do it next week.

On the way to the parking lot, suddenly, a Beng come forward with another of his karaoke khaki a seng, they approach the europe team leader.

"hey you, you cannot say I am wrong, for not letting you come up the stage hoh?"

"I got say so meh"

"those auntie auntie behind say one"

"I never say anything to them leh"

"you never say to them lah, you say to your fren, those auntie hear and tell me what" in loud tone

"ok lah, if you say so, I am sorry loh"

"how can you say bad thing about me behind my back" in louder tone

"I am sorry, please, but I didn't do it"

"you better watch your mouth young fella" very loud tone

"I am sorry, can you calm down please, what you want"

"I am giving you a warning, not to say bad things behind people's back"

"I am sorry, maybe I did say something because I am disappointed, but I didn't mean it"

"how can you say bad things about people, you ah.. call yourself a university student" very loud

"hey, I already say sorry so many times, what else do you want" starting to get loud

"I just want to teach you a lesson on how to do things right"

"hey you, I tell you, I have the right to come on stage first one you know!"

"I did give you chance what, but what happened? its your problem, your CD cannot play, want to blame who!"

"the DJ cannot find the play button what! how can that be my problem!"

"now you can say that lah, the other team already come up to me and tell me they want to come up on stage first, you never tell me before leh, how come you die die want to come up first"

"We all agreed already what, some since the previous weeks, my teams always have the first chance because it is european tour week right"

"what do you say? you say YOU have the right to sing first? who give you right!"
at this point of time, a beng grabbed a beer bottle and wanted to smash it to the euro team leader. Luckily A seng was with him and pull him away. the poor euro team leader was badly shaken and in shock. Many aunties and uncles come over to see what happen. A beng continued to rage to the other tables at the Kopitiam.

what happens next to the Big Bubble Kopitiam? wait for the next installment

Intermediate Greek Exam over

Finally.. it's the end for the intermediate greek...

no more studying syntaxes and different usage of infinitives, indicatives, imperatives, subjunctives, etc.... the exam is over... :)

wait a minute, did I say everything about syntax is over? no... in this semester we will be studying exegesis in the book of luke and acts, and whatever we have learnt in Greek, will be applied directly there.

so, yes, the exam for intermediate greek is over, but it is not over for Greek. BTW, I still have to study Hebrew for this semester.. :)

Skipping Class Today

My condition is well... maybe better today...
but I have to skip the classes still... because, I can't stand the cold classroom and furthermore, I don't want to spread my illness to others in the class. I can make better use of my time here in my room, either to study or to rest.

Last night, I wasn't able to sleep well because of the cough that keeps on coming. I think my roommate also 'suffered' with me. Only when the morning comes in, I had a wonderful sleep of 2 hours before I got to grab a plate of white porridge, just nice for my body condition, and a cup of soya bean milk. Medication follows. I think I am starting to feel drowsy. It doesn't matter... time to rest as the doctor said, trying not to overwork within the next two weeks.

Costly Flu

The old teochew saying = No sickness is equal to great profit is definitely true.

It is more true for the context of people living in Singapore, and more so for a non-earning student like me.

Ever since last thursday, I started to feel unfit. Partly because I just moved in to the hostel in SBC and not used to the lifestyle here. I am tired and not getting enough sleep. Long hours and study in the front of the laptop makes it worse. I have terrible runny nose and I started to have fever.

When I woke up, that was friday, I started to have very bad sore throat. Worse still, there's blood in my phlegm. Well, it is not the first time that I got blood in my phlegm. Past experiences tell me that the blood might be from my nose, or from coughing too hard. I wasn't coughing yet at that point of time, so it must be my runny nose. In fact, I could feel that my throat was starting to feel itch because of sticky mucus from the nose flowing backward.

I am not the only one suffers. My roommate also suffered. why? because my nose was literally blocked and I got to breath using my mouth at night, and that caused snoring. I always know if I snored when I sleep, because 1. I can hear it myself, 2. because my throat is extremely dry when I wake up. My lambie can testify for me that I did snore, because I fell asleep on the sofa when she was browsing the net in my house, and I snored rather loudly.

Well, the fever did not go away easily. I started to cough rather badly, and there are strain of blood in my phlegm, and it lasted for about 4 days. I think it is wise to visit a doctor now. And I did. The doctor is quite concerned about my problem and gave me two days mc for the next two days. The medicine, however is the costly part, totalling 69 dollars including the 20 dollars consultation fee which is rather standard. I have to finish a 10-day course of antibiotics (curam 625mg), and other stuff. If things are not getting better in a week's time, then I better go to hospital to visit a specialist, which literally means... more money lost.

Hopefully, I can get better soon. I don't want to go to hospital and waste my meager amount of savings on medicine and the expensive 75-dollars-for-3-minutes-consultation in the hospital. It just doesn't make sense.

Life in SBC Hostel

Tonight is my second night in SBC Hostel.

Some people asked me, why I decided to move in, since I got a house not so far from the school. Well, 40-50 minutes travel time is indeed not that far, but the travel tires me down easily, and after I get back home, usually there are just too much temptations like TV, or the bed, to distract me away from my studies.

I figure that if I were to stay in SBC, the environment will support me to study.

Well, let's see how it goes.

Yesterday was the first day of study, officially. I moved in in the morning and quickly went to the classroom to study Hebrew. After 2 hours of lessons, we proceed for lunch and another 2 hours of OT Studies 2. Time was 4pm, and there is not much time to rest. 5 pm Indonesian Fellowship had a meeting that ended at 6pm, followed by dinner. I went back to the room thinking of wanting to sleep, but my meager furnitures in the triple-sharing room need to be rearranged. After I am more or less settled, and I managed to study for 30 minutes. But lo and behold, time is now 10 pm already! and we had a floor meeting for 1 hour until 11pm. Lights out!

Lights out doesn't mean that you need to sleep. Many continued to work, study eventhough it was only the first day at school. Me? I got to zoom in to my accounting work due for the sunday's mission challenge. I managed to finish everything at 2.30 am, and preparing to sleep.

Sleeping in a new bed, new room, with 2 new friends, without aircon, without blanket, without pillow case, is not 'easy' I must say. I turn and turn, adjusted my personal fan, until I fall a sleep perhaps 1 hour or more later. My sleep did not last long also. at around 6 am, there are already sounds here and there and people started to wake up preparing for the morning duty.

I stayed until 6.30 am to get up and went upstairs to sweep the classroom assigned to me. When I finished at 7 am, I managed to get about 30 minutes nap before breakfast time. I got class at 8am.

3 hours uneasy sleep is definitely not enough for my frail body. Not to mention that the morning weather is cool with rain. The airconned lectured room was cold. Before long, I started to have runny nose. Oh God, how can I last today's 8-5pm lessons? When the class ended at 10 am, I excused myself from the morning chapel and get about 40 minutes sleep. Lessons continued at 11 to 1pm, followed by lunch, then another class from 2-5 pm. A short break is there for me to check and reply mail. 6 pm, we started to have dinner, and I have to sit in for another meeting at 6.30 to 7, to remind me of my 'kitchen duty' tomorrow, from breakfast until dinner time.

Well, one thing I can thank God for, I managed to finish the final accounting report. and tonight, I shall have a good sleep. Tomorrow is already thursday, and I haven't really touched much on the subject to be tested this saturday, but I have the entire afternoon to prepare. I hope that I can make use of the time well.

So, you see, the time in SBC is spent in many activities, and not much time to rest, not much time to study either. I hope that after this saturday, I will be able to really study for all the subjects I am taking this semester.

thank God.. for everything... :)

A New Church in Singapore ???!!!

Church planting is the desire of many missionaries. Be it in the past, or even in the present. It can take form of a house church, underground church, on the ground church, etc. It can be in the jungle, in the desert, in the densely populated city, or just some common town or village.

In the city of Singapore, used to be called the garden-city, the newly proclaimed 'global city', however is a place where we are not lacking in church building.

Wait a second. Maybe I am being a bit too hasty, like what the old Treebeard said in Lord of the Ring. The church could be a new church that reaches out to a new group of unreached people group, or nationality right? I sincerely hope that it was so, but that is simply not the case.

According to the Singapore Church Directory, there are over 500 registered churches in Singapore, from those rigid conventional main stream denominations, to the new up beat type of youngsters mega churches, and we even have those reknowned cults such as True Jesus Church, Mormon, Church of the Heavenly Mother, Jehovah Witness, etc. Well, they continue to exist, as long as they don't break the law, and if I should add, so long as they contribute to the economy of the society.

There are churches for the Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Hainanese, for Tamil, Malay/Peranakan people, for Korean, Deutch, Americans, you name it we have it. For the 100thousand or so Indonesian population in Singapore there are more than 16 churches of different denominations.

So I begin to ask, why there are two additional Indonesian churches established in this year 2008? are they going to help reaching out to those Indonesians who have yet to find a church or rather, the faith in Christ? if that is the case, I praise the Lord. But no. These churches started to ask and calling and inviting christians who are already attending churches regularly to go and attend their newly founded church. In the simple term, I call it "sheep stealing".

Some of my college friend, eg. sam, will say that "why you call it sheep stealing?, who is the shepherd anyway, is it not the Lord?" "Amen" I say. Indeed, if we have the view of Kingdom of God, it makes no difference where God's people going to worship, as long as they do worship God.

The issue here is this, why waste resource, money, people, to establish a new congregation here, where people are not lacking? and why not channel your resource to some outback countries like ethiopia, sudan, or even in the country in places like Kalimantan, Irian Jaya? Is it because the 'dollar' we are earning here is more valuable than the sweet potato grown by the dayaks or nalcas? go figure.. only the person in the leadership of these new churches have the answer.

oh yeah, don't give the bullshit answer such as "we have our congregation member from Jakarta who are in Singapore, so we have to come and build a church for them". Yes, I call that a bullshit answer. Simply.