The Bandung Experience

it's been awhile.

going through the phase again where blogging is kind of a chore.

but i wanna document down the bandung experience. so here i am.

went with my team to Bandung in Indonesia from 15th to 18th July.

just a short trip over the weekend.

the weather there is awesome! very cooling! like it's spring!

our schedule was packed! back to back! but there was not shopping. :(

but we had loads of fun nonetheless!

come together with me for a ride as i try to recall everything that happened.

Day 1

on the day of take off, the flight got delayed for about an hour. and when we were about to take off, it started raining heavily.

and when we were in the air, we spotted rainbows! three times! and so i felt awesome all through the trip. rainbows means promises. :D

can you spot the rainbow? :)

once we landed in Bandung, the airport was so tiny! there was only two planes. haha. they take off almost immediately after they land. LOL.

we headed to where we were staying. it was my team-mate's new place! the family very nicely hosted us and prepared lunch for us! his dad is a chef! hotel standard!! so blessed!

we prayed for the new home and we prayed for the whole day's activities and then we set off! :)

we headed to ICC, we supposed to help their staff pack food that will be distributed to the homeless people on the streets, but they had already completed that, so we had a prayer meeting instead and then we started practicing or planing the various things we had to put up for the trip.

Dinner followed and we had a short sharing time with the staff at ICC and then off we went.
distributing food to the people on the streets. i was told that they were left homeless as the natural disasters destroyed their homes. :( people young and old. heart wrenching. i wished we had more food to distribute. there were just so many!
we headed back to rest, feeling alot for the homeless. feeling physically tired and yet excited for the next day!
Day 2

woke up super early, we needed to leave the house by 0630. with about 2 hours of sleep. we left feeling super excited.

1st stop - the muslim school.

we played games with the children, taught them some dance moves. did a song item. told them a story and ended by giving each a gift and food. :)

the L.M.B :P

2nd stop - the orphanage

did ice-breakers, followed by praise & worship, story-telling. and the children did an item for us! the founder/owner of the home has such a big heart! prayed for all of them, gave them presents, took pictures, exchange FB emails then we had to leave quickly. :( so sad we didn't get to spend more time with them.

had quick lunch at the street stalls and we headed to GBI! :))

3rd stop - GBI youth svc

went there to support Pastor Kim Hock. the team did up an item. quite a big crowd of youths. a lovely church building they've got!

headed for dinner and hurried home again to prepare for next day. the team was split up into pairs to head various places. target audience: teenagers.

Day 3

with about 3 hours of sleep, we headed off!

1st stop - various churches (in pairs)

the place that i was at was called Cimahi Junior Community. the children there were so diligent in flipping their bibles. i was convicted and impressed at the same time. haha.

it was this stop that touched my heart the most in the whole trip. the children had such low self-esteem. together with my partner, we prayed for all the teens. we had a language barrier. i was a bit hesitant to pray for them individually. but did it anyway. quite a few of them was in tears from the ministering. felt and learnt so much.

2nd stop - ICC youth service

quite a young ministry. just three months old. (half) the team basically ran the whole service. from the opening to praise and worship, song item, preaching of the word and closing. so proud of my team. :D
the other half went to another GBI branch to support Pst KH.

finally, all the things that had to be done, is complete. we could relax now! :D

they brought us to have some good food, walked around. but at this point we were really just so tired and wanted to sleep. so we headed back. had a sharing time.

really good times. had to get ready to leave the next day. :(

we all have bandung parents now. haha :P

we love the place, love the people and like what all other trips do, we became closer :) love my team-mates even more. :)

God bless :D

June & July 2011

June went by. In the midst of July.

It's been fun and tiring and stretching at the same time.

ended work. miss the people there loads.

the whole "season" of mock cg has ended. yay!

we're halfway through the preaching tests.

loads of tests and two OPM coming our way.

Mission trip next week!

Loads of preparation. Excited!!

only 6 weeks left of school. :( happy-sad.

but i know i met an awesome group of individuals! :) deep friendships forged! :)

July...

9th - Jayesslee!! :P

10th - Packing of gifts for mission trip plus practice of P&W and song items

11th - Meeting bear!! XD

12th - 2 tests

13th & 14th - preaching tests

15 - 18th - Mission Trip (Bandung-Indonesia)

20th - Test

22th - OPM

27th - Phototaking for OPM

that is july at a glance.

have to also squeeze in bible reading and 4 book review assignments!

aja aja hwaiting! :D

Cheerios! :)

To Jasmine..

today is 8th July.

Blessed birthday to you Jasmine!

hope everything is well at your side. :)

May 2011

May has been sort of gracious to me.

Though there are quite a copy of changes and happenings, but it came nicely spread out in the entire month.

Tiffany and Connor came and went.

"sermon" for mock cg.

general elections.

changes in school schedules.

changes in work.

changes in cg.

not forgetting the crazy assignment datelines.

i just read and read and read some more.

Great-granddad passed on.

booked flight for mission trip in july with my team mates. can't wait for that.

met up Aziatix with Joelle up-close! took pic with them. XD

had a first overnight reading session with Zixiu.

many many things eh?

exciting plus tiring plus happening and a major sad family loss.

life goes on...

so long may, hi june :)

cheers

Love

got this from wei's :D

Kahlil Gibran – Love One Another
Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup, but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together.
For the pillars of the temple stand apart.
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

and we choose love :)

just had to blog about this before i sleep.

today while serving at "greeters"ministry, got to know this new friend from Paris(Alexandre).

he was just randomly invited to service by another lady (who happens to be in my parents' cg) at macdonalds. He just landed in Singapore from Thailand and is in transit, heading off to Brisbane tomorrow. anyway, after service, the lady's cg was headed to alexandra area to makan, and he didn't want to go so far, so i invited him to join my cg. we had dinner at suntec and went to the fountain of wealth with him! (my first!) then we walked to esplanade and then the merlion (tourist-sy stuff) before heading towards cityhall mrt, towards selegie for tau huay and then walked him to bencoolen where his hostel was.

throughout this, everyone was so nice and taking turns to talk to Alex. and fellowshipping at the same time. quality :)

So filled with love. i'm just so proud of my cg mates.

we walked for like almost 3 hours!

all very "co-operative" and nice and loving.

living out the love message :D

indeed we choose love

even to a stranger (we barely knew for an hour) who is new in a foreign land, we choose love :)

how everyone just walked together, talked together, showered love to one another.

awwwww :D

xoxo

Gal 6:9-10

⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

wished i was on UK now... :(

i happen to have a very very complex family tree.

this is my step-great-granddad. he's a very loving and awesome man.

he's been in the hospital awhile now. they're taking the oxygen and anti-biotics off him. so that would mean, he's headed up to heaven soon.

they asked for us to send them letters to bury together with the body. so i did up a simple pic.

may his soul find peace.

RIP mike. xxx