Of Saxophones, Violins and Magic Horns...

Had a very interesting weekend so i shall blog about it...

Friday
Met Gideon, Lele, Jon and Abel in church again to prac for Word explosion... and it was the first time that i actually heard Gid play his saxophone... and he's really quite good and talented and he picks up the notes and the fills quite quickly :D!! well what do you expect cos my dear Giddy is the next band major in his school!!! hahahaha... im so proud of him... i'd like to hear him play that saxophone for worship...

den i stayed back for Gatekeepers and it was only Nana, Auntie Lee Noi and myself... oh but the presence of God was really strong and when we sang Enter In, i saw doors being opened in heaven and i saw Jesus there with His sceptre... and the overall mood that we entered into was warfare and it felt like God was preparing and raising up His army and charging us...

It was also during Gatekeepers that i realised that the reason why many of us leaders are so tired in the ministry sooo easily is because we have left that place of intimacy with Jesus.. let's face it, the fact that we're in leadership in the first place was because we spent time seeking Him in intimacy.. but somewhere along the way, we got so caught up with the doing, doing, doing... with the running around here and there and all that problem-solving that we left that initial place.. the secret place.. i guess that we can't do anything out of our own strength and it's time for us to return.. :)

Saturday
Word Explosion day!!! practised with the bunch a bit earlier for our item and den we still had some time to quickly cram Romans 8:35-39... oh but God din waste even that time of cramming cos He showed me something new about the verse too and gave me an assurance.. that neither our present circumstances or even our future failings and mistakes can keep us from His love... cos we're in His hands... :) and it also paid off when it was our time to recite it out.. and i'm sooo proud of Gideon cos he managed to recite both passages and win that bonus Mp3 player...

We put up our item and i think it went pretty well... it was great to hear everyone cheering Giddy on for his solo... though we din get first or win the Mp3s, it didnt matter at all cos we had fun clowning around during all those rehearsal sessions and saboing one-another... :P:P:P Anyway, i think my team did a great job... i must really thank them.. they put in a lot of hard work and effort.. Jon's timing on keys was great... and his faithfulness is evident in the fact that even though he had a great deal of assignments and school stuff to keep him occupied, he still made time and effort to come down for the practices.. Abel did a great job of internalising his parts, no matter how confusing they were and reaching even the high notes.. and no matter how tired he was from school, he still came down to prac with us... Lele played the cymbals and chimes well and tastefully and he came in at appropriate places... that little boy is such a great encouragement to me, even more than he knows.. his purity, child-like simplicity and his zeal for God puts me to shame and spurs me on as well.. even in his little gestures like serving all of us drinks during dinner that evening.. really warms my heart... Gid no need to say lah.. he very pro one... and he went out of his way to retrieve his alto sax all the way from school especially for the Word Explosion event.. :) (hey guys.. if you happen to read this, pastor ban told me on sunday that he may get us to put up the song item again one of these days so get ready.. :P)

And i hope that the song touched whoever listened to it... haha... Jaron told me it sounded like a disney song.. and Linus' mother enjoyed it and asked me for a copy of the lyrics.. i wanted the song to minister to ppl, even the lyrics, especially if they're going through trying times in their lives and need an assurance of God as their Shepherd.. :)

The dinner was great.. i think CJS catering did quite a good job.. i like the roast beef and the chicken the best and the punch din taste diluted at all.. :P too bad i wasn't in my perfect eating stamina... anyway, during dinner with my group, i was suddenly inspired with where to put Abel in my Sojourner Chronicles blog... for those of you following it, watch out for his special appearance as a talking cucmber.. hahaha.. lol... though i guess we still have quite a number of episodes more to go before he appears.. :D

Den after that, a whole bunch of us went to watch Prince Caspian.. actually i wanted to watch Indiana Jones but its too old already and there weren't any timeslots that evening.. so we went down to AMK Hub...my word explosion group... Jon, Abel, Gid, Lele and we were joined by Jaron and Nana too! :) Lele wore his GAP hooded jacket and he really looks very very cuuutteee in it!!! It was also the 2nd time that Gid was watching Narnia but he loved it so much that he decided to pay $10.50 to watch it again.. lol.. i loved it too.. it was sooo much better than the first one.. there was lots more action and all.. and the story spoke to me too cos of certain things in my life that the Lord is dealing with... almost as how Peter and Reepicheep had to be dealt with in their personal egos, it's as how God is dismantling my pride so that i can come in brokeness before Him and seek Him and enter into a new place of my walk with Him...

Sunday
Went to church really early cos my Xiaomei was teaching me violin!!! Haha.. finally i got my violin out of that dusty old cupboard and brought it to church.. we spent a considerable amount of time fixing its strings and tuning it... lol.. and my Xiaomei broke her own string in the process (sorry bout that..) :P anyway, i have to get used to bowing without my upper arm moving around.. as well as bending my wrists.. not forgetting to mention that i need to get my finger positions sorted out.. oh but at the end of that short lesson, i managed to play twinkle twinkle little star and i guess it wasn't so bad for the first day... hahaha... must practice more.. it seems easier than i thought... or did i speak too soon?? :P Anyway, xiaomei, if you're reading this, thanks for teaching me!!! Really appreciate it!!! :D

was teaching in children's church so i didn't go down for service... but anyway, i felt that i wasnt really prepared for it but by God's grace i managed to deliever it in a more interactive way.. this time we had a only small group so we sat in a circle.. and the session was much more informal but probably more effective cos i feel that the children were more engaged with it.. really thank God that despite my own feelings of inadequacy, He came through for me nonetheless.. :)

anyway, with part of my mind still in Narnia cos of the movie the night before, i realised that Sarah from childern's church really reminds me of Lucy from the movie.. her quiet demeanor and her simple child-like qualities.. :)

Oh and something funny happened in children's church.. during games, Jon decided to play "Simon says".. now remember that the game goes such that every time he would say "Simon says", then everyone must carry out the action.. and i was introduced to a new terminology that everytime he would say "Sally says", then everyone is supposed to do the opposite of what he would say... and so Jon led that game for a while and then something occured to me that later sent Jon wildly laughing... i realised that Uncle Simon and Auntie Sally are married!!! :P:P:P

den went with serene, shawn, sam and martin to try out the cafe at thomson cc... it was ok lah... not as good as i expected.. prolly cos maybe they ran out of brown sauce and had to replace the sauce for the chicken chop and the mashed potato with a deceiving concoction of ketchup, water and cornstarch (of course it din fool me.. :P).. but other than that, at least the mashed potato was fresh and not those instant powdered kind... maybe i'll be merciful and give that cafe a 3/5... :)

cheers! :D