Is it that urgent?

I was at work in the Chinese restaurant on Saturday night. It was really busy and i was constantly walking up, down and around the restaurant for a full 5 hours non stop. I was quite an experience and i certainly learnt a lot from it. But that was not it. A rather amusing thing happened as the night was nearing to an end. There was this family of about 13 people seated at the main table of the restaurant. I think they were celebrating the birthday of their father/grandfather/father in law who must be approximately 75 years of age. They were all having a good time and i still remember that old man downing a couple pines of beer. As everybody was waiting for their desserts suddenly, the old man started to fall forward with eyes closed. I was a mere 1 metre away from their table. I watched in a bit of shock while nearly every single person at the table stood up. Some just burst out crying, some quickly attended to the old man and the others turned to me and shouted:'Call the ambulance!!'. The chief waiteress quickly grabbed the phone and called for the ambulance. It must have been about 10-15 seconds when the family members kept asking me to call the ambulance. The worst thing was they kept asking me how long it will take for the ambulance to come. All i could answer was 'they are calling now' and 'ambulance should come soon'. They all suspected a heart attack. This all happened so fast and because of the amount of people crowded around the old man i couldn't really see what was happening.

Suddenly i saw the old man lift up his head and open his eyes. I think it was because of the bad odour from everybody that woke him. He explained that he was tired and opted for a 20 winks. hahaha.. i really couldn't believe it and nearly burst out laughing. Strains of laughter broke out among the family members themselves but some of the crying grew worse for some reason. Maybe that proves that tears for joy usually produce more tears than sadness. In the end, the ambulance still came shortly after. They still took the old man in a wheel chair and brought him to hospital just as a precaution. I also over heard the doctor asking the old man while wheeling him out saying:'Sir, you mean the food over here is that dodgy until you fainted?' Hahaha.. It wasn't the most pleasant thing to experience while i was there but how it all turned out, i found it rather amusing.

Another thing that happened during the week was a family friend that passed away. Uncle Ron was dad's former boss years ago in kluang. He watched me grow up and constantly came over to my house to play with me. I do not have any recollection of him and his wife, Aunty Damaris because they left kluang when i was still quite young. The amazing thing was that every single year after they left, they never failed to send us Christmas presents. They were close to my parents and treated us as their own children as they had none. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit them in November with mom and dad. I remembered that time while we were having dinner. I was truly amazed at the way he presented himself as a person. The knowledge he had of things was astounding as well and it must definitely be the amount of books he reads. When dad texted me on thursday to tell me about his passing, i was speechless. Thoughts ran through my mind wildly. A man that i have only met once a couple of months ago somehow has made quite an impact in my life. The promise that i made to him that i would visit him again soon to play chess can now never be done. The thing that breaks my heart is the fact that he hasn't received salvation. At least not to my knowledge. God have mercy on him, please.

Sigh.. I have been feeling really tired for the past week. Not only physically but more so mentally. Issues to deal with, assignments yet to complete, badminton and football training doesn't exactly help much. This 2 things that has happened made me think about life. It made me think about how unpredictable life can sometimes be. In church today, the speaker mentioned that according to scientist our world will totally poison itself in about 15 years time. Not 50, not 20 but 15 years. As i thought about it, there was a sudden urgency inside that leap in me. It seems so foreseeable. So near, so soon. The speaker then further pointed out the closeness of Chirst's return which relates to earth's self destruction . It's always the case of time is short but so much still to do.

We constantly hear this cliche 'Live everyday as if Chirst will be returning tomorrow.'

Are we that urgent for the Lord's cause? Is the return of Chirst important to us? Is it important to me personally?

The thing is that important will lead to urgent if nothing is done. But i think whether we like it or not it is entering the urgent stage already.

Lord, help us to realise the urgency of your return. Let us be ready and not regret. Amen

Alast.. the long wait ends..

It's been more than a week since i posted anything. Why? Simply because the last week has been the most busy week in my time here in UK. Last week, i actually spent more time outside London than in it.

Monday and Tuesday: Lectures at University. First day of work in restaurant on Tuesday.
Wednesday: Travelled to University of Cardiff(Mum's university) in Wales to represent Brunel in Badminton Knock-out Competition.

Thursday: Valentines Day! Brought Alice and Serena to visit Windsor Castle.

Friday: Day off from lectures but second day of work.

Saturday and Sunday: MANCHESTER here i come!!!

I went to Machester with my friends Joan, Serena, Alice and Rex. We left London in the wee hours of Saturday morning and the incredibly long bus ride resulted in us reaching Manchester with half day already gone. WE spent Saturday having a little tour around city of Manchester. We went to Europe's biggest shopping complex, took loads of pictures and played bowling. But the high point of Saturday was none other than Manchester United whooping Arsenal 4-0 in the FA cup. I was unable to get a ticket to the match but i am pretty sure that my presence in Manchester definitely spurred them on. Woopeeee!!

We had a lazy Sunday as usual but finally got out of the house to make my 11.20 booking of the Old Trafford museum and stadium tour. After all the patient years of waiting, the many dreams i have dreamt, the times i pictures myself running out the tunnel and finally the wait was over. I was standing in the Theatre Of Dreams, home of The Greatest football club on earth, MANCHESTER UNITED!! The museum and tour was great. The tour guide took us around the stadium which was absolutely magnificient. I could imagine in my mind the sort of noise and atmosphere during a match day. We got to go to the dug-out and run out the tunnel. I sat on Sir Alex Ferguson's seat at the dug-out.The best thing was actually being able to enter the players dressing room. The very jerseys that they wore for the game against Arsenal were all hung up on the wall. We got to take pictures with their jerseys and sat at their places. What an experience... We spent a good 3 hours at Old Trafford before we left to pack our bags for the trip home.

We had a quick lunch at Burger King before we hit the road with our 4.30pm coach ride back to London. It was there that our 27hour visit of Manchester ended. As i pondered on my short yet exhilirating experience in Manchester, i wondered why we even contemplated such a short and tiring trip. It is one of those crazy ideas that was decided at the spur of the moment. Something that is unexplainable and all achievable at a certain age. All in all, the most important element was ever present which was Fun. Even though it was tiring and not recovered from it yet, we all enjoyed a weekend out. During our tube ride back to Uxbridge from the Coach Station, we were actually discussing about our next trip. haha..

'Thank you Lord for granting us a wonderful time together. Thank You for keeping us safe. Thank You for the wonderful weather that u had provided as well. Bless You Lord. Amen.'

Friends in need become a family indeed

Chinese New Year has always been one of the biggest festivals of th year for me. As i come from big families, it is usually a crowded period. I always remember that it will literally be only standing space in my grandfather's house on the 1st day of new year. What Great Fun!! New Year also feels like a few days in the land overflowing with ba kua and pineapple tarts. Instead of 10 glasses of water a day, its 10 cans of soft drinks a day. Casino has come not only to the door step but into the house. There is no such thing as sleep and it is when everyone seems to be contributing to your annual pocket money. What better day in the year than Chinese New year?

Unfortunately, it was not the case over here in the UK. There was still lectures on New Year's day. I had to work on New year's eve and the festive atmosphere over here was at an all time high of zero. The life of a student is definitely one of improvision because of the limited resources that are available. I had a simple New Year's eve dinner with my 'family' over here. Worked on New year's eve night at a restaurant. Spend 1st and 2nd day of New Year busy sorting my part time job and necessary paper work. Think about it.. isn't it sad? While you all back home are busy enjoying the gourmet food, soaking yourself in beer and working your liver triple hard with all the access sugar and salt. Here i am working my butt off and living on bread and water.

On Friday the 2nd the day of New year, my 'family' and i decided we should make the most of our time here in the UK. Enjoy ourselves, the pride of being a chinese must live on. We played cards, mahjong and all sorts of games thru the night into the wee hours of the next morning. The following day, we had our official Chinese New year dinner. Rex, Joan, Alice, Serena and i managed to cook up a menu of 8 dishes that night for dinner. I was quite astonished yet proud of our feat. After dinner we played games again, tell weird jokes, further stuff ourselves with junk food and ended up all lying on the floor near motionless so that we would digest better.

As i come to think about it. We are a bunch of 'homeless' people in a foreign country who come together as a family to support each other. We share everything together. We know each other inside out. We accomodate and help each other when in times of difficulties. We mourn and celebrate together. It is something i feel is unique. My friends and i have come together to be a family because of something we all have in common. The fact that we are away from home and are international students. Because of the common element it has drawn us closer to each other and it therefores makes us stronger. It is similar in the Family of God. The most amazing thing i realise is that whenever i meet another Christian, i meet the person for the first time in my life and might never even meet again but all we need is a couple of minutes of conversation and we seem like best friends. Why? It is because we have a common element in Christ that draws us closer to each other. It is a fantastic feeling to have. I think this can fully explain the famous proverb: 'A friend in need is a friend indeed.'

But i think for my case it will be more like:' Friends in need become a family indeed.'

A day i will look back on..

Yesterday was one of my most enjoyable days in my time over here in the UK. It was nothing special or spectacular, in fact it was just a day out with my friends Alice, Serena, Joan and Rex. The weather in England is said to be one of the worst in the world. Malaysian will never really fully understand because it is always hot. Other countries have the 4 seasons of Spring, Autumn, Winter and Summer in a year. The English joke that they have the 4 seasons in a day. Sunny at one moment, raining the next. Temperatures can drop as much as 10C in a couple of hours. It doesn't usually rain heavily but it drizzles. The worst thing is that it can drizzle continuosly for more than a day with a gloom above our head. That's English weather for you.

Praise the Lord that He gave us wonderful weather yesterday. The sun was out, sky was clear, a perfect day to be outside. My friends and I decided to go out for a picnic. We didn't really plan anything, but we just wanted to go out, have fun and spend time together. We took a nice slow walk to Uxbridge. Went to tesco to buy some food for our picnic. Pita beard with salsa, McCoy's chips, egg sandwich and chocolate chip muffins were the several choices on our impromptu picnic menu. We marched our way to a nearby park and laid out our sheets right in the centre of the park. We were the only souls in the entire park and we knew the reason why the minute we sat down. IT WAS COLD!! We hadn't really realised it when we were walking but the wind was blowing and it must have been definitely less than 10C. There was a moment when an old couple were walking their dog. They had a good long stare at us. They were in full winter clothing and must be thinking :' What on earth are these 5 crazy chinese doing here out in the cold?'. We decided we will just stay and enjoy our picnic under the sun. Our picnic didn't last very long but we did cross the half hour mark and were on our feet once again. With numb feet and hands the walk back to town was unusually long and i walked into the first shop i saw just to 'defrost'. It was funny, because we all walked in to this grocery store with no intention of buying anything, stayed there for a good 10minutes and back out again. We were in Uxbridge town centre for the rest of the afternoon doing some shopping and enjoying the little children's carnival that was going on as well.

After dinner later that night, we played some card games. Rex would pop a lame chinese joke once in awhile, Joan would be busy multi-tasking, Serena would entertain us with her funny expressions and Alice would be busy blaming me for beating her in our card game. We just hanged out, relax and spent time with each other. Everything was just simple, straight forward and most importantly fun with company that you enjoy. As i reflect on the day we just had, i realise it is something that we will only do at our age. One day i would certainly look back at this day and think, yeah.. with a smile on my face. Thanks to you my dear friends for a great day out.

glancing back, looking forward

Holidays have ended, Lectures have started again. It seemed so long ago since i had lectures. I had my first lecture yesterday and it was as if it was first week all over again. Our new lecturer got to know all the students in class, going through introduction of module, discussed assignments and all the other stuff. Felt a bit weird having to begin something new again.

As i looked back at my pass 2 weeks of holidays, i feel a leap of joy deep down in my heart. The goodness of God is just unexplainable. If you had read my post before 'I'm free!! so what's next??', i had big plans for my holidays. What turned out was that events were altered quite drastically and i practically didn't follow my plan at all. Why? Because God had other plans.. Can't stop Him can we? Look at Jonah.. He was in the fish's belly for 3 days with all that stink.. God was kinder to me.. I was in my room for 3 days with an injured ankle..

My holiday turned out to be:
1. Injured my ankle, sat in my room for 3 days
2. Read 3 books
3. Mentoring Programme and Orientation for new students
4. Visited Herman and met up with cousin
5. Brain scan
6. Watch my first rugby game in a stadium

All in all, it was a fruitful 2 weeks. Kept me real busy and rather productive. As i look back, I don't think my holidays could have gone any better. I thank God for the lessons he has taught me. The experiences i had in the MRI machine. To top it all, the amazing atmosphere watching rugby in a stadium. As my new semester begins, I want to dedicate it to the Lord. I look forward to the rest of my first year in university. That all the things i do may glorify His name. Amen.

Life is like a box of chocolates

Time seems to fly so fast. Just 2 weeks i was wondering how i am going to survive my boring holidays. But my holidays were exciting, busy and of course nearly nothing went according to as i had plan. I have been involved in a Mentoring Programme and orientation for students who come in now. I has been fun, bringing them around and helping them get settled. I really am enjoying myself even though it's tiring and out of my way. I have also been planning with my friends about what we will be having for Chinese New Year Eve dinner. Hmph.. we will trying to make the most out of CNY over here. Keep up the tradition. Will be going to Chinatown to get some of those Chinese food these weekend.

I will also be going to have my brain scanned tomorrow. Why? Because one of the professor in university found out that I'm a genius. They want to run some test on me for further research. He said my potential is tremendous and might even surpass Einstein. (stares...) OK la.. Im going for a brain scan.Yes, that part is true. They are doing research on badminton players.They want to study how our brain functions that gives us the ability to anticipate where the shuttle goes even before it is hit. It's quite an interesting study so i accepted the offer.

Secondly, i have been invited by a family friend to go watch a Rugby Match in Watford. He is the director of English Rugby Premiership side Saracens. I bet it would be quite an experience. First time in a stadium and will be sitting in the box as well. Can't wait. hehe.. Since i came here, i have grown to love the game of Rugby even more. My biggest regret is actually not being able to play back in malaysia as it is not popular.

My new semester will also be starting on Monday. Classes will be quite different this semester as well. The time slots are more spread out, so it will be interesting. All in all, it certainly has been an interesting break. Full of suprises and unexpected turn of events. God certainly makes life exciting. Don't ever said that life is bored. Remember what Forrest Gump said.

'Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get.' Forrest Gump

All of us only has one life to live. We can choose however we want to live it. Let's make the most out of it.

Back to reality

I left University yesterday for Central London. I came to stay with Herman for the weekend. I was quite a long journey because of the tube delays. A normal and straight forward 1 hour plus journey turned into a nearly 2 and half hour journey. I was quite content in my seat with earphones on listening to music and a book in my hand reading. I anticipated the long journey and sometimes really cherish this times alone where nobody will bother me with not much distractions. It's as if I was in a world of my own. The feeling is kind of like in the movies when everything around is muffled. People moving about, getting on and off the tube. All I see is people's mouth moving and all I hear is the music from my ipod and the thoughts in my head. Ahh... my own little world. how nice...

Just before the stop i was suppose to get off everybody in the tube got off. I pulled out my earphones, put down my book and i was back into reality again. The operator urged everyone to get off because there were some problems. Firstly, there was an assault in one of the trains. Secondly, one of Heathrow Airport's terminals were closed. I got off and just waited for the next train. There was a long delay but i got to my destination anyway. I told Herman about it and he looked suprised but i didn't put much thought about it. To me, it was just some hiccups on the london tube which was quite normal, nothing to worry about. However, while we were watching the news after dinner there was news of a plane that just crash landed. Heathrow Airport is very near my University and apparently it nearly crashed into a town next to Uxbridge but thankfully the pilot was able to land the plane inside airport grounds. Then it suddenly hit me. Thats why the airport terminal was closed and caused the tube delays. Then i remembered on Tuesday when i heard a loud blast while i was walking on campus. I seriously thought it was a bomb blast but it wasn't on the news. It is not very often that i have experienced front page news that are happening around me. Places that are in quite close proximity. It sort of reminds me of life on earth.

As Christians we are quite a distinct people. We just want to mind our own business and don't really want to mix with others. I realise in many churches, the leadership bombards their members with so many activities that they are rarely outside church boundaries. The mentality of many are to keep as many people in the church. The people on the other hand are also quite happy to be kept in as the famous cliche 'comfort zone' goes. Many are just so comfortable in the church that they see no need to go out and many a times don't really know what the real world really is like out there. Many churches today are like in the world of their own. They think that their church is ideal. They think just because they are Christians everything will be perfect. God will always shower them with bountiful blessings. I would like to liken this scenario to that of me being on the tube. I was listen to my music and reading my book, in my own little world. But in reality there was a plane that just crashed not far from where i was. Im sure people were talking about it on the train but of course i couldn't hear them.

I often hear speakers and read books that say 'move out of your comfort zone'. This has become so much of a cliche that everybody is using it. I myself use to like it very much too. But as i think about it, why do we have comfort zones anyway? Why are we getting comfortable when there is so much work to be done. As Christians we should be on our toes all the time, preparing for the mission that God has put us on earth for. As a reminder let's look at a couple of passages that Jesus gave us while He was on earth.

Matthew 28:19-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Jesus very specifically said the word 'GO'. He didn't say 'stay in the church'. WE are supppose to be out there, make disciples and teach. WE are supposed to be in the world among the people and not be caught up with only church activities.

Acts 1:8
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Jesus commanded us to be witnesses to the world. For me it could quite simply be put :'... and you shall be witnesses to Me in Kluang, and in all Johor and Malaysia, and to the end of the earth.' In that context, looks like indeed we have lots to do.

Our life on earth is not going to be a walk in the park. There is a lot of work still to do but little time left. What are we going to do about it? Stop enjoying our own little world, pull out the earphones and get back into reality.