Goodbye folks

This short entry will be my last post.

To my dear blogger friends - Really appreciate your faithful readership.

Why am I stopping? Well maybe I'm tired of blogger. Maybe I need new stuff to do. Maybe a lot of things ... keke...

If you need to reach me, you know my email.
If you don't know my email, you probably don't need to reach me.

My Sanctuary

A photo of my toilet roll.

Both Daleerius? and Kito think I'm being ridiculous.
But I think it is a nice photo :)

Purposely titled this piece My Sanctuary because very often it is in the toilet that I get my quietest undisturbed moments. Not to mention my moments of brillance.

Time Discipline

Do you have Time Discipline?

I learnt this concept from a colleague. Essentially it just means setting aside an allocated amount of time for a task and sticking with it, regardless of how much you manage to accomplish within that amount of time.

Like a website I read on home management for housewives.
...For daily cleaning, you should spend no more than 15 minutes in a room clearing the things there. Use a timer so that once 15 minutes is up, you move to the next room...

Such ruthless focus and discipline is simply unheard of and unseen in naniecheng's universe. My eyes have been opened to another way of doing things.

Because of my very strong P trait (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), I am wont to spend inordinately huge amounts of time and effort just pottering in a specific task until I'm completely satisfied with it, regardless of deadlines and other taskings.

In other words, there really is no sense of timing in my world.

Of course that makes me a wonderful artist but a very very inept civil servant. Wonder how I managed to survive in this job for so long. Then again, it is the civil service. Everyone survives here.

Hmm... Time Discipline. Think I shall plunge into perfecting the art of it over the next few days ;)

Morning everyone!

The delicious prata this morning certainly perked my spirits up, especially from the horrid day I had yesterday both at work and home.

Sigh...

Anyway do you ladies out there have problems fixing stuff at home? It seems that whenever I try to help Hubby with household repairs, I end up making the problem worse.

Yesterday we tried to change the water heater casing (the on/off button with a red light). Sounds simple right?

1) unscrew
2) put new casing
3) screw back

Simple until mua came into the picture.

Well because of my "insistent intervention" & "bright ideas", we ended up spending 3 hours on that blasted little white box without any successful outcome. Worse still, I spoilt 2 items so now the case is really beyond repair.

It was a pathetic sight. Two of us sweating in the dark, holding a torch and a screwdriver fumbling along. Me trying to be innovative and Hubby trying desperately to keep his calm. I think it definitely was the love of God that restrained him from shouting at me.

I spent the rest of the night well out of his sight. (kinda like kaizer and kobe when they have done something wrong, like pee in the hall)

So now we have a heater case dangling precariously from the wall.

Well, at least I have my hot shower running now. Keke...

a

BLESSED BIRTHDAY

to

TehPeng

&

Pamda Superfly

!!!

End of Lutheranism Class #3

Verdict: More confusion esp regarding the theology of the Holy Communion. It was enough trying to grapple with Luther's differences with the Catholic Church. Today we learned his differences with the other protestant reformers.

Wow I really need time to think through Luther's points and come to terms with his arguments.

Well at least one thing I do know for sure from today's class.

Lutherans believe that man, if left to their own devices, will never choose Christ. Our ability to believe in God comes from Him first in the form of grace.

So in other words, there is no free will. Luther calls it "bondage of will".

I'm sure you can appreciate the ramifications of such a stand.

Questions like the following will arise inevitably:

1) Does God choose who he wants to save? (i.e. does He impart grace selectively?)

If no, then how do you explain people who die without ever knowing God?

If yes, then isn't God really unfair? Are some of us just damned from birth?

2) Can one who has received the grace of God ultimately choose to reject Him? Because if they can, then why does Christ say no one can snatch us from God's hands? Jn 10:29

3) What then is the role of human will in terms of salvation?

4) Do we still go around preaching and asking people if they would want to accept Christ? (as if acceptance was up to them to decide according to their own free will)


But let's not jump the gun and straightaway say that Luther believes in predestination the way the Calvinists do. I think there is a difference between Lutherans and Calvinists. Read somewhere that the difference is Single Predestination (lutherans) vs Double Predestination (calvinist).

Well, I look forward to the lesson on predestination according to Lutherans.

TO MY LUTHERAN BLOG READERS -

Now you know that you did not choose Christ.

Rather, Christ chose you.

Your will had nothing to do with your salvation.

beanbean >> There is this book on the history on Lutheranism that u might be keen to read. Let me go find the title first. Also, I'll fwd you the weekly lecture notes too if u like. But I'll need your email. Please email me at naniecheng@gmail.com if u want to receive the materials.

Last night I dreamt I died

Last night I dreamt I died.

Funny how death has been popping up frequently in my mind these days.

Some nights I lie in bed wide awake, wondering what life would be like if one of us (b/w hubby and I) died. It's quite unimaginable.

How badly would we take it? Everyone dies some day. Some sooner than others. Will we move on? How will we move on? How will we cope?

Whenever I have such thoughts, I would turn and look at Hubby's sleeping form and then I would weep. I guess it is only when I’ve truly learnt to love that I truly understand loss.

Recently I attended the wedding of a man whose wife died just about a year ago. Now he's remarried (happily I presume). Is it really that easy?

I'm not being morbid. I just don't want Hubby to be all alone and sad when I do die one day (assuming I return to God before him). I can't stand to think of the pain he would have to undergo when I’m gone. Who will comfort him?

That's why I've started writing and leaving him little scraps of daily notes / scribblings / ramblings / grumblings (basically anything that represents our daily lives) so that when I do go finally one day, be it tomorrow or in 50 years time, he would have all these writings for remembrance.

For him to know how much I loved him and for him to be comforted and reminded of all that we've shared together. I hope all these will help to ease the pain for him and bring healing to his heart.

If he goes first, then these notes will remind me of him so I don’t feel as if I’ve lost him totally.

These notes also help me to remain cognizant of our love today, at this moment, lest I fall into the trap of taking him and what we have for granted.

It is a beautiful thing to pause in life and whisper “Thank you darling”. In that moment, time stands still for the 2 of us and the memory of what we have shared becomes a small monument of love. The more you take time out to do this, the more monuments of love you’ll accumulate and the richer you will be as a united body.

Funny how I've already started preparing for the end.

I should really be in the Insurance business. Don't you think?

A photo to share with you. Life ultimately converges in death before we are truly liberated to live as God's own.

Dinner with Dr Castro

Dinner with Dr Felipe Castro on Sunday at Ivins was great. The food was delicious and the company very comfortable.

(for the more technically inclined, this was taken with a 10mm lens. Cool sia!)

For me, in many ways this current mission team (the younger ones that is) is like the group of church friends I never really had. I mean I do have good friends like visinvis but not really a group of friends that I can communicate so freely with.

Even with the church youth fellowship in the past, I've always felt sorta out of place. But I'm so comfortable in this group.

It's a nice feeling :)

Love Cambodia Exhibition

Yesterday marked the first of our exhibition runs on Cambodia. I'm so glad everything went well and our church members and friends showed so much support.

It was also an opportunity to meet up with pfong and his wife.

Both Shutterbug and lil ms snooze have blogged about the event so you can read up more about their thots at their blogs. Shutterbug, btw, has some really cool shots of the event, like the 2 I've posted here. So check them out at his blog.

Everyone in the organising committee really worked hard to make this happen. Let's see, there was lilmssnooze, tehpeng, mighty mouse, little brother of mighty mouse (mini mouse? keke) kito, visible,invisible and yours truly.

The road ahead is still long as we endeavour to bring this exhibition to various churches. Call it a labour of love for it truly is one.

Have I ever explained the aim of this exhibition? Well, it's a Christian Missions Awareness Programme. Because the photos TehPeng took during our latest Cambodia trip were so evocative, the idea of using them to create awareness and interest among our church members came up. As lil ms snooze rightly puts it in her blog -

Yes, the exhibition is never about us.
Not the team that put this together, not the photographer and not even about who went on mission trips.

The photos tell the story of the need of the Cambodians and to encourage people to support mission work in their own ways - through financial support, prayer support or going on mission trips.

Dr Felipe Castro, the Filipino missionary who works in Cambodia, visited us yesterday in Church. He gave a message on true religion. What is true religion? Is it a set of rituals? Is it a set of codes of dos and don'ts? No. Let's hear what the Bible has to say about true religion.

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard."
(Is 58:6-8)

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27)

Halfway through the sermon, Dr Castro nearly broke into tears as he recounted the struggles and doubts he had about his ministry in Cambodia. He said that all his counterparts had migrated to Canada, Australia etc and were all very successful in their careers, now enjoying the fruits of their labour. But where was he? Dr Castro had his dreams too. He wanted to be renowed highly-sought-after-surgeon. He wanted to build and run hospitals. But God has instead called him to build churches, leading a humble life of labour and love. There is very little monetary rewards in this line. Sometimes his patients have no money to pay him so they give him bananas and eggs.

Dr Castro ended his sermon by saying all he ever looks forward to is a simple "Well Done" by our Lord Jesus when he finally returns home to heaven one day.

That's the spirit of missions! It's not motivated by our own charitable heart. It should be motivated first by a love from God for God and then love for people who are made in His image. Missionaries have self-doubts too and struggles. But they press on, because they know they are working for greater rewards and a satisfaction that nothing on this earth can ever give them.

And such is the aim of this exhibition.
To let our church members get in touch with this part of God's work. To be part of something much greater than themselves.
To be part of the global work that the Christ is doing.

A saturday at the concert

Just the other day I attended a concert at the invitation of my church friends.

It was so delightful.

I am just reminded of the good old days when I was in the school band and how, through my instrument, I would become one with the music and the audience.

I love playing in a band. The feeling of being part of something bigger. When the music rises, the individual musician ceases to exist. There is only the music and the exhilarating thrill of riding with the song. It is simply quite magical.

All that familiar nostalgic feeling came rushing back to me last Saturday as I sat through the concert.

It was wonderful.

BB Sunday

Once a year, our church will have BB installment and enrollment service. It's quite a grand affair where the boys will conduct parades in our church, hand out new ranks and awards, and install or reconfirm leaders among the boys. The church will in turn renew her vows to support and help the boys to grow up in the ways of God.