Training for Ministry Work

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Fishing Class
Attended my first class in church on "Being a Fisher of Men". The class was done in lecture-style so it got a little boring at certain points in time but thank God the trainer also shared interesting stories about how he reached out to others and that saved the day. I am given a homework to write my testimony, hmm... think my blog is basically my testimony but guess I have to summarize it :)

SWAT Meeting
Later in the day, I attended a SWAT meeting. No, not some special force meeting but the Social Workers' Advisory Team meeting.

The church has a community service component and would thus like to meet up with church goers who are in the social work profession, to get some advise and insights on how to improve the way they work with the needy. In the end, we had 5 social service personnel in the meeting and guess what? All are from my cell hahaha... seems like our cell is becoming a social service cell... not that it was intentional but somehow people just started working in the social and human services sector.

Blasting Away
You know, I am always amazed how some people can be a nuisance but just somehow don't feel anything about it. Here I was, tired from a wole day of training and meeting and was taking a bus home. But halfway through the journey, these 2 girls boarded the bus and one of the girls was listening to radio on her handphone and it was blasting away through the loudspeaker; blasting away just beside me... in the end, I decided to alight because the music was causing me a headache ut guess what, she alighted at the same bus stop as me too... arghhh!

Night of Appreciation

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Hand-in-Hand
Saw a cute sight this morning:

Was waiting to cross the road and saw this dog owner holding onto the paws of his doggie, who was standing on her hind legs and looking around innocently. Too bad my handpone's camera only take low-res photos, or else it would be clearer.

Mother of all Stressed Days
You would have heard me say this these few days and today is the "mother of all stressed days". This being the last day of work before I go for my In-Camp Training, I was rushing against time to finish all my outstanding work and hand over to my colleague. In the end, managed to finish all but one and finally forced myself to leave for my cell group at 7pm. Didn't really managed to call my new volunteers to interview them so thought I would just drop them a mail to let them know I have received their applications and will call them when I return from In-Camp.

Leading Thanksgiving
I promised my cell leader that I will lead the thanksgiving session today. Along the way to cell, I was still like thinking whether I made the wrong choice because the last time I led the intro session and it turned out to be, erm, quite boring. I prayed about it and asked God to guide me through. In the end, my prayer was answered. In fact, I didn't have to do much also because without much prompting, everyone shared their thanksgiving and testimonies and the session must have went on for some 20-30 minutes. This week must have been a blessed week because we had like some 10 people sharing their blessings one after another... from new jobs to blessings at work and personal life, this is just a week full of blessings. Amen!

Some of my cell group friends shared their thanksgiving for being accepted into the church choir. Hmm, seems like I won't even be called up for audition at all... been sometime since I last signed up but then have not heard from them. Anyway, I procrastinated about calling them up too and considering all the things I have on hand now: my work, my involvement in an upcoming association for volunteer coordinators, learning the guitar, doing the video editing for one of my organization's events, helping out in the social workers' advisory team in my church, still trying to minister to my friend who is in the JMS group and undergoing the "Being a Fisher of Men" course in church, I don't think I might have time to rest. So maybe, I will just leave it the way it is for now and will choose to worship God and bless others through other forms of ministry including my work etc.

For me, I shared two things: on how God has watched over me and protected me and how He has also blessed me at work. Indeed, to God be the glory.

On Appreciation
Tonight's cell discussion is on appreciation. First we were asked to recall a time we were appreciated. Hmm, this was indeed difficult but eventually I recall an ex-client of mine who have since passed on.

Now this client of mine happen to be an alcoholic and can get verbally and physically abusive despite his frail-looking body. He is notorious in the ward and all the nurses knew that he had a mind of his own and if anyone tries to make him do something... you would get a mouthful from him. I remember dreading to see him because he would always look at me with his yellowish eyes and talk to me in such a way which made me feel like I am not welcomed. I continue to work with him for a few months and when it come a time that he had to go home, I escorted him home. At that time, I had already tendered in my resignation and will be leaving the hospital and so I told him that I will no longer be seeing him; that another colleague of mine will take over his case. For once, he mumbled something and mentioned that he knows how much everyone has done for him and mumbled "thank you". That did come as a surprise to me because I would never have expected to hear these words from him.

As I shared this, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. May God be with him and may he rest in peace.

For the second exercise, we were asked to write down on one slip of paper words of appreciation for a chosen member of the cell group, another slip to someone who we have not appreciated for a long time and one last slip to God.

Every little thing you do can go a long way and it can be a blessing to another person. Little did I know that I have also blessed people in my little ways until I received 2 notes thanking me for sharing my experiences of how God is at work in people's lives. I was touched because in a way, I did not expect to receive any and didn't know that this little I did also had an impact on some people. I really thank God for using me to bless others and remember telling myself that I want to continue to be a blessing to others, if possible.

Gary Chapman's Five Love Languages
Now, when was the last time you appreciated someone and used the language of love? For me, I am guilty because I can sometimes be so impatient with people and can just be quite nasty... Anyway, am trying to keep myself in check and be more gracious.

Gary Chapman says that the five love languages are Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch.

• Quality Time refers to spending time together meaningfully with someone. A challenge with our current hectic lifestyle but it nonetheless communicates valuing someone.
• Words of Affirmation speaks of acceptance, appreciation, encouragement, praise etc.
• Gifts can be bth material objects or just expression of your love and appreciation
• Acts of Service would mean giving a hand to someone when he/she needs it or just doing something for that person
  
• Physical Touch, according to some, are powerful and could include a touch on the arm or a hug

Just know how people would be most comfortable with being appreciated and shower them with the appropriate language of love.

Thumbs Up!
After cell, the group, more than 10 of us, went to Simpang for supper... My friend drove me there and this is the first time I sat in a sports car and biy did he drive fast... could feel my whole body going backwards as the car went forth. Anyway, me very "sua ku" (mountain tortoise) ah, haven't been here before. Big Big market place with many things to eat but careful about "cross-ordering". According to my friends, they almost started a fight between the stall owners when they cross-ordered and the police even came :)

Now our cell had this funny practice and you would usually find people start putting their thumbs up when they food gets delivered because the last person to do it will say grace :) Hahaha surprisingly, some people (including myself), keeps forgetting. Anyway, luckily someone remindered me and up! went my thumb :)

How's Your Trip?

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How's Your Trip?
Have been working frantically these few days to try to hand over my work to my colleague so that they can cover my duties when I go for In-Camp Training next week. Besides this, I am also currently working together with my colleague from the IT department to develop a database system to support my work. So, was thinking how best I can help them understand the work I am doing and soon I thought that I will use T.R.I.P. to explain my work... T.R.I.P. stands for Tools, Roles, Issues and Processes.

Find that it could also be a good way to conceptualize about one's job: seek to understand your role (R), then work processes (P) and then the tools (T) to help you do your work e.g. forms, databases etc (you may even develop tools at a later stage). Finally, you seek to understand the issues (I) that would hinder you from doing your work efficiently and effectively and address these so your life will be easier.

So how's your trip like?

Learning Editing
Remember how I mentioned I was affected when an officer wrote an email to my director complaining about a new publication I had started? Well, garnered enough courage to call up another officer (my big big boss' wife) who is in-charge of the editorial team in my organization for her advice on my publication.

I called the officer to asked whether I could send my newsletter for her comments and editing. Guess that I might have sounded a bit nervous on the phone (after all, she is the big big boss' wife and an officer) because I struggled with what to say and she had to try hard to understand why I called. Eventually, she agreed to help and I printed out the newsletter and brought it to her office for her to edit.

Within minutes, she finished editing my 6-page newsletter and came down to go through the amendments with me. Now, I did not know why I was so nervous in the first place because she seems like such a nice lady and despite being an editor, she did not come down on me critically for the mistakes I made but instead helped me learn so many things about editing; things which I will somehow not know without her telling me such as: the plural for youth is youth, only use numerics if it is 10 and above, for one to nine, we need to spell it out, use semi colon when we are stating a list of things with verbs in them, otherwise use commas etc. It was a good lesson on editing.

To God be the Glory
I received an email from my big big boss, the commander, "congratulating' me for a job well done when he saw my newsletter. That did affirm me but seriously, I do not think I could have done it without God for He has guided me in my work, helping me to achieve so much in just within 4 months... To God be the glory.

Lost Bible
Hahaha, I actually misplaced my bible today. Was going for devotional and after that we had a small makan session so I placed my bible on a shelf before I went to get food to eat. But when I left, I just conveniently forgot about my bible and went back to office. A blessing that my colleague came along to ask me something about Daily Bread and I soon realized my bible was not with me... eventually found it back... aiyah... :)

Good News and Bad News
As I am typing this, am watching TV. There is this one programme which is a tribute to a politician who has passed on and there was a face-to-face interview with another politician about him. Even though it is a tribute to the politician who has passed on, I can't help but also feel the bitterness that the interviewee has for the one that passed on because some negative comments were made e.g. comments which hinted that he is not good with managing people etc. Of course, nice words were also spoken but then can still sense the bitterness.

Moments later, another programme, "True Courage", came on. Now, my family would usually be watching channel 8 during this time but somehow, no one changed the channel and here I am watching this episode of "True Courage" on the story of Neivelle Tan, a notorious gangster in the days of early Singapore turned pastor.

The story is inspiring and spoke of how God has changed his life. Remember he mentioned how he ridiculed a pastor when he came to minister to him but at a later stage, when he was locked in the dark room, he develop a fear for closed spaced and prayed. He was eventually released from the dark room. There was also a scene which mentioned how he was trying to find the verses to a hymn that he sang in school but angrily threw the bible on the floor when he couldn't find it, only to find the bible open on the page with the lyrics to the hymn that he was looking for.

Inspiring true story.

The Pioneering Spirit

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Hectic days as usual, think I am going bald soon with all the hair-pulling. Doesn't help that I am preparing to go for my In-Camp Training and trying to clear all my outstanding work and preparing for work coverage during my absence (since I wasn't keen on 2 weeks of work piling up and pouncing on me when I return).

Blessed Achievements
Was reflecting back and realized a lot happened over the last 4 months in my job. The 4 months seem to have been forever and I have learnt so many things and also achieved many things. Despite being new to the field of volunteer coordination, I find it surprising that I was able to achieve so much within 4 months and I owe it only to God for all that He has granted to me... from establishing workflows, developing forms, getting volunteers for projects, creating templates, creating publications, developing simple databases, compiling statistics and reports on the volunteer programme... I can only feel guided along the way and being provided for; God has sent the right people along the way to help me, provided me with the wisdom to understand things and blessed me with things happening in the right place at the right time... It is not possible for me to achieve so much in 4 months based on my own ability and I really thank God for that.

Breaking New Grounds
Just returned from a meeting with a few other volunteer programme managers who would like to set up a new association for volunteer programme managers in Singapore. It is really excited and indeed an honour to be among pioneers helping with the establishment of a new organization. That to me is a real challenge. However, I do hope I am not getting myself into more work with this involvement because we are looking at a real tight schedule of getting the association registered and launched in July this year... Just hope I did not make the wrong decision (and end up bald). :)

Things Gotten Worst
Anyway, just learnt yesterday that my ex-colleague has decided to leave my ex-organization... It would indeed be a great loss because now the organization, which used to have 10 staff, is now down to 3. It really seems like things are really chaotic and I shared with the director, in the capacity of a member, that I am concerned (getting worse after I left and not better) and in a way disappointed at how things have turned out... I can just pray things will get better.

God Watching Over Me

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Remember I was somewhat given a calling to minister to a friend who was in a cult? Kinda "slacked" over these past few weeks because was quite overwhelmed by work and many other things, so somehow didn't really do much recently after the research on cults.

Anyway, my friend recently called and asked if I wanted to meet him for dinner someday. I had earlier prayed for guidance from God on the matter and since God gave me the opportunity, I said yes; thinking it would be a good opportunity for me to meet him and maybe even to minister to him, hoping to be able to get him out of the cult.

But little did I know that he brought another friend along (someone who has been with the church for a long time) and they were in fact trying to minister to me... But I thank God for watching over me. They had wanted to show me a DVD showing the life of the cult leader but somehow the laptop's DVD drive didn't work. They had wanted to take out the bible to study but given that we were in a Turkish restarant, it would be religiously a little sensitive to bring out the bible and as such the idea was abandoned.

Anyway, I observed something about the people in the group and realized that they looked rather different. Not sure if it is psychological but then sensed that there is a very heavy kind of feeling in them and they all somehow looked burdened...

Anyway, I thank God for not only watching over me but also giving me "advertisement time" and gave me the opportunity to minister using my testimony. For me, the opportunity came when I was asked what made me go back to church and I shared the dramatic circumstances that has brought me back and also how God has not only saved me by His grace but has also continued to bless me continually at work. I don't know why but I just talked at length about my testimony and they just listened. I had remember what my brother-in-christ reminded me; that we should not spend time studying the ways of the devil i.e. studying the cult etc but in knowing the word of God and using it to minister to them. As such, I prayed before going for the dinner and I believe God gave me the "airtime" and used me to minister.

Anyway, they had also tried to talk to me about their leader / bible study teacher and shared that their leader Joshua Jung has been given a calling by Jesus to bring salvation to the people through bible study. Mentioned that their leader has read the bible 3000 times and has a good and accurate understanding of the bible and thus was able to teach the proper interpretation. My friend's friend even spoke about how their bible teacher was, for example, able to correctly interprete the story of Joshua and how the sun and moon stopped and say that conventional Christians would have taken it as that; that the sun and moon stopped and will be asked to believe it in faith. According to the group's interpretation, God has stopped time rather than stop the sun and moon since God is also a God of Science and could not have done something against science.

I have also tried to find out how they saw their bible teacher e.g. do they see him as a prophet etc? No direct answer was given to me (although research on the net shows that the cult's bible study suggests that he is Jesus). They told me some see him as a teacher, some see him as a lover, some see him as a prophet etc.

What ever it is, I have confirmed that the group is the same cult that I have been researching on; the leader has the same name, same face, the organization also reach out to others through something called GACP and uses soccer etc to reach others etc.

I thank God for watching over me.

Having a Hangover

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Sleepless in Singapore
My whole weekend seemed to have gone by in a flash... and I had to nurse a "hangover" from a lack of sleep. Had cell group on Friday and by the time I got home from cell, it was like 1am Saturday morning. Managed to catch a 3 hours' wink before waking up again at 4.30am to send a friend off to US for a vacation. Had I known, I would have stayed in the East since I was like in Pasir Ris the night before and had to travel back to Changi Airport again within a few hours... Even though in the end I missed some 5 hours of sleep, I spent a whole weekend nursing that hangover... compounded by the fact I had a hectic week.

A Frugal Life
I haven't been splurging but somehow feel guilty that I am not saving much per month. Now, where did all my money go to? Anyway, was going through my personal finance over the weekend and was like trying to strategize to make full use of available resources. Was also "psycho-ed" on Saturday to open a Standard Chartered eSaver's account.

Anyway, since the person told me that there was no minimum deposit, no minimum balance, no minimum period to keep the money in the account, that the account offers a higher interest rate than conventional savings account and they will also give me the first dollar to start up the account, so I thought: "Why not?"

As expected, they tried to market their insurance-linked savings account and everytime I said "no", they kept saying "if you are serious about it, you will not hesitate to sign up for this". Thinking back, I don't need this kind of guilt trip. Anyway, am glad in the end my friends came to "rescue" me and I left a happy owner of a new bank account with $1 in it :)

I have also started to dig up all the rewards programmes I am part of but somehow have not "cashed-in" and redeem my points... In the end, exchanged a couple pairs of movie tickets and a $50 dining voucher... hahaha. So happie! :)

Professional Dilemma
Faced my first dilemma at work. Happened to know that one of my volunteers was involved in a court case. He had recently started to volunteer his services with the hope that his involvement in volunteer work will help with his case. His father called to request for certification of his voluntary service and mentioned that he has come to help regularly. The problem is: I do not visit that centre and hence do not know how regular his attendance has been. Anyway, am just worried because my certification might have an impact on his case. Whatever it is, I am going to check with his volunteer leader on his attendance before I decide how I am going to type his letter.