Yu-chan no Megane

It’s been such a trying day on so many levels. I can’t even begin to tell you how it feels actually. But only one thing can emerge from such miserable circumstances and that is a lesson learnt.

Just this afternoon, after a series of circumstances, I learnt that some friends of mine would be leaving church. While I fully comprehend the simple fact that people do indeed move on with their lives and that it also includes their place of worship, these friends aren’t leaving quite on good terms.

Let me clarify first by saying that this is by no means a rant of any kind. I’m not particularly upset with anybody, just really sad about the circumstances that surround this migration. Neither do I believe it’s exclusive to the church environment. In fact, organisations around the world face the issue of employees leaving due to dissatisfaction with management.

That’s not the point though. The church is not just any organisation, but a place where love, joy and a sense of communion should exist because we gather as a body of individuals to worship God and to learn more of His Word in a positive, nurturing environment. I can imagine that a slight in the church environment would be far more hurtful than one in another organisation on the premise that the expectations from both groups are distinctly different. People don’t expect to be guarded in church, but they might in the workforce.

I know that not all churches are like this and this is by no means a criticism but rather an observation. There are many times where those in leadership positions are not transparent in their actions. It leaves people wondering what the rationale behind a particular action is. I am not saying it is imperative that every single detail needs to be told. That’s up to the leader how open he or she is when dealing with members. However, it is beneficial for members to know at the very least that you are considering or have considered their perspectives. I personally believe that people will understand if you are open and honest with them. They might not agree with what’s happening, but there needs to be a platform where everyone is able to share freely. Things might get heated, but it is the part of every believer to remain right before the Lord.

However, there are also times when the leadership needs to put their foot down. And I believe it is in those times that members need to be submissive. By submissive I don’t mean blindly following what another has to say, but in humility before the Lord, accept the decision and commit the rest of it to the Lord. Even if you disagree. The Lord rewards obedience. We need to put more stock in what the Word of God says.

Everyone is human, both members and leaders alike. Everyone’s learning and there is always room for mistakes as long as all of us learn from it. Having experienced both and also being sandwiched in the middle of it all, I understand the difficulties of both parties. We really need to pray for a breakthrough in this area.

Sigh.

Ultimately, I have come to a few conclusions. I need to be open and honest with the people around me and to trust them with my vulnerabilities. Fairness is important. And not to forget to pray for my leaders and members alike.

Pastor Rick’s messages on Sunday were so timely. I’ve come to expect something each time he steps up behind that pulpit because I know God surely has a real zinger for me.

And I was indeed zinged. Twice in fact.

It’s time not just to live life smart, but according to the standard that God intended. Truthfully, I know I’ve forgotten quite a bit of that, so this past Sunday was a great reminder of that.

The Bible says that God is in the business of blessing people. He has already set the wheels in place for those very blessings. However, those blessings come only if we obey Him and live according to His commandments. We don’t have to ask Him for blessings, they just come when we obey.

Therein lies the crux of the Christian walk — obedience. That is probably one of the hardest things to do. As human beings we are used to getting our own way, going our own way and doing whatever we want. Our illustrious history as recorded in the Bible attests to this fact. No wonder obedience is better than sacrifice. It is the ultimate sacrifice, I tend to think.

I’m trying to give up spheres of control to the Lord. He has to be all there is and all that I live for. Right now, there are still plenty of areas which I struggle with. Suffice to say that He is changing me from glory to glory.

I have a few more years of my teaching bond to go. Who knows what will happen after that?

Back from church camp in Kuala Lumpur and have a million things to share with all of you!

Church camp for me has always been mainly about the people I get to catch up with, especially from the other regions of the country. There’s nothing like meeting up for coffee or delicious local food and yapping until the sun goes down.

However, this year wasn’t quite like that. In fact, it was the opposite.

I went with great expectation and anticipation about what God was going to do while we were there. I can’t say that I’m disappointed with what God did, but I suppose I didn’t quite expect the lack of oomph that I’ve come to expect with all church camps.

I have come to the conclusion that I should expect God to work in quiet ways. It is also true that I am no longer a youth. Time to keep it sedate.

But who am I kidding? I feel anything but old.

Worship this week was marvelous. There was a huge breakthrough corporately — there’s something to be said about people with expectations. And personally, I’ve experienced something on a different level. Worshipping with abandon is really one of the best forms of communion with the Lord. I’ve learnt to do this on my instrument (which shocked Pat — heh).

The teaching of the Word was excellent in the sense that one of the preachers really inspired me to dig into the Word of God and to get interpretations straight. There were some liberties he took which I wasn’t comfortable with. It felt a little like motivational speaking for me and I wasn’t terribly impressed. However, the Word of God never goes forth void and I did have some important takeaways from the other preacher, the visiting youth speaker and even him.

A quiet camp, I would say overall, but my thirst for the Lord has increased exponentially, in terms of worship, prayer and studying the Word.

I’ve read this section of the Bible so many times and listened to it taught over and over again, but I think this is the first time I truly understand it.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook would realise that my kitten, Max, has gone missing just this week. Now, I have no idea where he went. He might have gotten lost or was picked up by someone. Either way, I miss him and am still waiting for his return.

I’ve searched the entire block for him and waited downstairs a number of times. I’ve also stood at the door and whistled, etc etc. All this to no avail.

Then the Lord reminded me: wasn’t Max just like you in your relationship with Me?

That’s just it! I was “abducted” perhaps of my own free will and was definitely lost. Yet now, I am found. And all this time, God was waiting for me, searching for me, seeking His lost daughter, just like I have been looking for Max.

The magnitude of God’s love really struck me and His persistency in wooing me. Now, if I was a cat roaming, it would feel less significant. But knowing the things I’ve done on my own free will and the willfulness I’ve displayed so often, it’s a real miracle in itself that God would bother with me.

I sure wouldn’t. (>_<)

Sometimes, I just need to be reminded of the simple things again.

And on another note, hope Max comes back.

There is no better way to pay homage to Apple than to follow their quirky naming sense for this post. This is all about technology, people, and boy does it rock.

At this year’s WWDC, Apple announced the iPhone 3G S, Macbook Pro upgrades, Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”, Safari 4 and iPhone 3.0 software upgrade. For all intents and purposes, I’m most interested in the iPhone, OS X and Safari 4 upgrades.

Let’s begin systematically, shall we?

iPhone 3.0

Those who know what a technophile I am would know that I hopped on the 3.0 beta bandwagon approximately a month and a half ago. Yes, I paid USD$99 for that privilege and I have never regretted it. I posted previously about my 3.0 trial and here are my findings:

• Spotlight search: hardly used (I imagine if I realised it was there, I’d use it more often)
• MMS: functionality was locked since Beta 5, so I haven’t been able to use it
• Internet tethering: where? (still unavailable with my official 3.0 firmware)
• Improved App Store: loved the ability to switch between my different iTunes Store accounts and getting different apps wirelessly… great upgrade
• Improved camera: although no changes hardware-wise, obviously, there’s an improvement in the quality of pictures
• Copy & paste, SMS forwarding: hardly used, but great improvements nonetheless; at least I know I have the capacity when I need them

App stability was sketchy. At the moment FML Pro continues to crash and there are still some issues after installing new apps. Hopefully these issues will be ironed out in future updates either of the apps in questions or a future firmware update.

Here’s a little aside on how I got MMS working on a non-official carrier in Singapore. Go to Settings > Network > Cellular Data and input the details for your carrier. After a rebooting the phone, you should get MMS in text messaging.

Let’s not pass any judgments on the conversation shall we?

Oh and Japanese emoji is available. At least it is on my iPhone. ;)

Official release date for the masses is 17th June.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

It seems that 10.6, which will be rolling out some time in September is only USD$29 for current Leopard users. That’s a pretty good offer since the upgrade comes ridiculously fast after Leopard’s release. I won’t go into details about it, except that it certainly looks promising, especially with the speed increases system-wide.

Read more about it @ Gizmodo.

Safari 4

I’ve just started using Safari 4 and I can honestly say I am blown away by the speed of pages loading. In addition the Top Sites window that opens each time you open a new tab, overall it’s pretty sweet.

I’m still experiencing the goodness of the update, so I’ll keep everyone updated.

I’d say WWDC 2009 was pretty fruitful on the Mac front.

I’m buzzed and I really don’t know where to begin! (Note: this has nothing to do with OD on caffiene.)

Right now, I think maybe podcasting is just the ticket — I could yell for a full 5 minutes just to demonstrate just how revved up I am.

I’m really stoked about what God is doing in my life and in the life of others!

I had the great privilege of meeting a wonderful lady at cell group just this past Friday. She’s a really wonderful woman of God. The testimonies she shared of God’s goodness really threw me for a loop. Not that I didn’t know that God is wonderful, but it renewed something in me. That, WOW I SERVE A GREAT GOD!

Many of us take God for granted. He’s no sugar daddy. He’s genuinely interested in my life and what I have to say. I think there’s nothing more humbling than that for me, to know that the Almighty God has His eyes on insignificant mankind and wants to be involved intimately with us.

Can you sense my awe here? Words are just so inadequate at times like this.

I’m experiencing breakthroughs in my life right now. If I listed everything down on paper, I might just utilise an entire tree.

I have a colleague who is open to the Gospel and I’ve spoken with her openly about church life and some thoughts on life in general. I shall continue to work on that. Work has new meaning for me and I am refreshed and rejuvenated in a way that is not humanly possible (because I’m a lazy ass). I can obviously only credit God for that. God is using me in greater capacity in ministry. I need to be humble because I know everything comes from Him.

What is God doing in YOUR life?

Bear with the mess while this blog undergoes a long overdue facelift.

It is officially the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL for the first semester of 2009.

I am STOKED.

I think all of us deserve a real break, relaxing and singing karaoke or whatever it is that floats our boats. I will miss the kids for a month and when they’re back at the end of June, I’m sure they’ll need taming all over again. But I guess that’s the real challenge.

I have a ton of things I would like to do over the holidays and since that’s starting shortly, I shall talk about it a little.

• Have more training sessions with my keyboardists
• Practice on the KB on my own a lot more
• Prepare more worksheets to satisfy parents who want more homework (although I do see the benefit of this)
• Plan a more systematic way of approaching work and read up on new strategies
• Work on a workshop for teachers
• Prepare for STELLAR briefing for parents

Whoa. Nothing really for myself eh? I do want to:

• Get into the Word of God a lot more
• Change the look of my blog (I’ve bought two templates for the price of one although I’ve yet to edit it)
• Read something for the sake of enjoyment
• Watch some anime (maybe)
• Get on that blasted treadmill!
• Get a Javanese massage (something that will crack some bones etc)
• Learn a bit more guitar so I can worship better
• Clean up the room and the work desk (actually this has to happen before everything else) — AND KEEP THEM CLEAN (wt!)

So many things to do and so little time. I think I need to work on my productivity as well. I’ve always admired the likes of those high achievers who are always on the go with Blackberry in hand. While I do get a ton of mail at work, I can’t access them on the go due to sensitivity issues etc, which is a little annoying. There seems to be no way to forward the emails either. Ah well. Do I want to receive annoying work emails all the time? Maybe not.

No emails = good news.

And it’s late now. I really should be sleeping. =__=

What a brilliant weekend! I have been so blessed by the people around me. God is really doing something marvelous and I am so overwhelmed by it all — in a good way.

This weekend, we had our favourite Worship Pastor all the way from Melbourne down to be with us during the corporate worship team rehearsal. Ray brought his music director, Darrell, along. They gave us so much input — Ray in terms of the Word of God and Darrell in terms of band technicality.

I learnt so much about things like how to sustain spontaneous worship, how to direct a band in learning a new song, how to layer the sounds and most importantly, to treat each practice session like a worship session that it should be. Our aim as a team is not to play the coolest riff or the most dynamic song, but to minister to the Lord and then to the people. I hope I never forget that.

Spiritually, God once again reminded me that He wants to have an intimate relationship with Him. That He is discoverable and willing to share about who He is. He wants to be involved in every aspect of my life. What Ray said over the pulpit this morning is right — we often leave services the same way we came in and that in itself is sad. We should be taking God’s Word and applying it in our lives. Which is something I aim to accomplish each day.

I also need to work on charting notes for my violinist. I have my work cut out for me. Urg. But it’s so much fun and I really thank God that He has been gracious enough to bestow such a gift upon me. I really have to keep ego at bay and Jesus in front of me at all times. It’s so easy to fall into that whole “I’m great” thing that musicians are prone to. I must be humble and accept this gift of grace as it was meant to be.

It’s so exciting to be on a journey with the Lord!

Wow, as usual it’s been ages since I last posted something. I have been extremely busy with work, rushing through the syllabus (though I wince at the thought) and processing results. Not everything’s over yet though as there’s still plenty of work to be done (such as a work review).

Boy have I missed this place.

While I was busy, I have also been through the following (not in any order):

• A pretty bad bout of fever
• A new cat — his name is Max
• iPhone 3.0 beta 5
• STELLAR observations
• Hilarious dialogue with Top Brass
• Kris Allen winning Idol season 8

I’m sure there are other things, but I can’t be bothered to recall.

I’ve also been toying with the idea of changing the look of the blog… perhaps something less fangirly and anime-centered. I’ve since put them aside for work and other pursuits (although I still love them actually). Then again, I probably won’t have time to tinkle with code like I used to. So perhaps I’ll keep it like this. After all, purple is still my favourite colour.

Am I maturing? Maybe. But how much of that happens when you’re in the company of 7 year olds most of the time?