Meet Me at the Well?

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Getting Down to Action
Yesterday was so "happening"! Firstly, I finally "got into action" after confirmation of a few final details for the Cyclone Nargis fundraising project and I was working against time to try to mobilise as many volunteers as I can for the event next week.

And I thank God that me and my colleague had a little "foresight" and designed a checklist for a similiar fundraising project last year, so all we had to do was to whisk out that checklist and make sure everything on the checklist is done. So forms were quickly changed, information kit updated, volunteer management system prepared and the broadcast made to over 2000 people on my mailing list. It's the first time I am involved in mobilising volunteers for a disaster but I thank God that things worked out well and by the end of the day, quite a number of things were achieved. Now I just have to wait for monday to launch the system and schedule the volunteers who signed up. All things come to a standstill for now as I work on this because I have come to realise, even though what I am doing is not direct work, I still play a part in supporting our organisation's relief work there and to help fundraise... it just didn't feel good taking things slowly while I know people are suffering... boss sent me an email and little did I realise the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis (and I was still thinking it is just any normal natural disaster). According to the media, here are what the Myanmese people have to deal with:

• Many lost their homes (which are filmsy to begin with)
• Life is made more miserable with the rainy season and people need shelter
• People are scrambling for shelter
• Food is in short supply and has doubled in price (a bag of rice could cost at least S$20)
• People and children are exposed to the elements and falling sick, some with fevers and blisters
• There is danger of epidemic if medical supplies do not get to them soon
  
• People losing touch or even losing their loved ones
• Some say there are dead bodies lying around everywhere in the outskirts and further flung places like the Irrawaddy Delta
• Electricty supply and communication services are working only intermittently
• As at yesterday, estimated about 80,000 people killed and many missing

Dead bodies, damaged homes, displaced people, we can play a part... (Photos from The New York Times)

Prayer Request for Myanmar
We cannot imagine the devastation the people have to deal with and especially the anxious Myanmese nationals away from home with the frustration of not being able to get through to their loved ones. Many are also forming volunteer groups and also showing up to offer their help as volunteers. Let's continue to keep them in prayer during this time of crisis. Let's help pray for comfort, for God's covering, for the government to remove restrictions for aid agencies to enter in. Let's continue to pray for wisdom of the people planning relief efforts and for creativity in working against the odds and challenges, in bringing help to the people who need it. Pray for hearts of people to be stirred, to use their God-given gifting in rendering help to the victims. And to also pray that the love and grace of God be known in the lands and people, that God will come and bless the people.

Doing our Part
I also thank God upon hearing how our people from the local office has been quick to help in any way they can... Indeed, I can see how God has not only watched over the children by moving them out of the old building but has also used this building to bless the many who has come to seek refuge... Despite having having most part of its roof damaged and food stock dampened by the rain, it is still great to hear the homes still trying their best to provide shelter and also cooking and distributing the rice. I have also learnt that the wells at the home has been spared from the Cyclone and has been "hard at work", being pumped with generators almost non-stop, for distribution of water to the affected. Several other buidings, which were by this time, over a century old, were not spared though and were damaged and structurally unsound to stay in or even repair. Anyway, given all that the international community and my organisation is doing, I am motivated to do my part for the affected and help in anyway I can, short of going down since I do not know how I can help there. (Picture "Watersplash" by Paolavb)

Langkawi, Here I Come (With My "New" Old Camera)
I also thank God for a new camera which I had bought from a lost-and-found charity sale... I wasn't intending to get a camera but then with the upcoming trip to Langkawi and also my long time dream of getting a SLR (but not being able to afford it), the DMC-FZ18 caught my eye and I bought it, for less than $100! The camera resembles a SLR (though it is not) and is surprisingly light, with 8.1 megapixels and 18x optical zoom. Wow, real powerful for a sub-$100 camera :D What a steal! Now, I can go to Langkawi and take nice shots :D Thank God for the camera! (Picture from CNET Asia)

Thanksgiving for Cell
I also thank God for cell last night and everything went well, till the end of the session.
Firstly, I thank God that I had been able to minister to someone through my SMS in the morning. A member had shared how a SMS I have sent in the morning, from Joshua 1:9b had helped her deal with her anxiety. Thank you God for using the SMS because I had initially been prompted to send to another member to encourage him on but You had prompted me to send to everyone in cell. Secondly, I thank God that I was a little extroverted yesterday, able to sustain conversations with people. Thirdly, I thank you God for opening people up in cell; already I can see people opening up and sharing. Fourthly, I thank you God for guiding the discussion yesterday and it was a fruitful discussion yesterday, interspersed with personal sharing. Little would I have thought that people would open up to share and there was very rarely silent moment as people continued to discuss and share their own questions and observations... And to think I was so worried yesterday how I was going to lead the discussion. Fifthly, I thank you God for preparing the people for the session and how surprisingly everyone chose songs of the same theme and how the songs all tie in very well with the angle I am going to take for the discussion. I stood amazed at how all these happened. Sixthly, I also thank God that You had brought my former leader back safe from China and continue to watch over her as she seeks treatment and investigations in Singapore... it does sound like a terrible time she is going through now but God, heal her.

You! Misinterpreter!
However God, something made me rather upset yesterday, till today and I can't seem to forgive myself. Throughout the week, I was ministered to by John 4 on the woman at the well. And I have come to realise how my waywardness and anger has caused me to be far away from you and refusing to come to meet you at the well for refreshment. As I continue to think about cell throughout the week and how well and water keeps coming back to me, I felt I wanted to use this story of the woman at the well to help people ponder about:

• What wells have you been drinking from?
• Jesus, just as he waited at the well for the Samaritan woman, is also waiting by the well for you, what is your response?
• Are you letting your sin turn you away from Jesus? What would have happened if the Samaritan woman turn away in her shame as a Samaritan woman and a woman with many husbands, on seeing Jesus the Jew? There is nothing that Christ do not know, just as He knows about the woman's past.
• Why don't you commit yourself to visiting the well everyday to be refreshed by Christ?
  

But then, halfway through an exercise I told my members to do, my former leader whispered to me I misinterpreted the passage which is about salvation, and then later, she passed me a slip of paper to let me know not to focus too much on "feelings" e.g. feeling of dryness... At this point in time, I froze! Because, it suddenly dawn unto me that I could have really misinterpreted the passage and frankly, I became very silent towards the end... There were a series of thoughts going on in my head at this point in time, almost like a self-dialogue:

• Codfishy, how could you?! Of all people, you have misled your people!
• But this was what I have been ministered to personally by this during this week, am I wrong? Why can't the passage be about salvation but then I am just using this as an opening and opportunity to help people ponder about their sin and how they are responding to it?
• Anyway, who is she (my former leader) to come and tell me what to do? She is doing it all over again, just as in the past, making me feel bad about myself...
• But then, codfishy, why are you feeling upset about it? It was shared with the intention to help you and shouldn't you be glad that she is here? Maybe God had intended you to share about this to let people reflect upon their sin and then have her to help bring people back to realisation the passage is essentially talking about salvation? Anyway, she could have been less loving and "challenged" you in front of everyone but she did not.
  
• But then, I do not feel good at all. I still cannot believe how I can misinterpret. How can I be a leader like that? Maybe I am not cut out to be one after all.
• You are at it again! All negative!
  

Wishing Her the Best
I am still affected by it and cannot believe that I misinterpreted the passage. I feel very lousy now. God help me with the negative feeling... Anyway, I have also decided to officially forego pursuing KM... I think there are just things not meant to be and I am not ready for a relationship. I do not deny that there have been some recent ill feelings in me about her; how she sometimes make me feel bad about my leadership and how she always seem closer to others than me... anyway, I won't carry this burden anymore and decided to officially let go. I wish her all the best and hope she finds someone who can care for her, love her and take care of her.

A beautiful song I learnt yesterday:

A Pure Heart


A pure heart, that's what I long for.
A heart that follows hard after Thee;
A pure heart, that's what I long for.
A heart that follows hard after Thee.

A heart that hides Your Word
So that sin will not come in.
A heart that's undivided
But one You rule and reign;
A heart that beats compassion,
That pleases You, my Lord.
A sweet aroma of worship
That rises to Your throne.