Utter RIOT

This will be kept short....apparently, my favourite columnist from the magazine 8-Days had published 2 books chronicling his exploits and fiascos with his roomies, Saffy and Amanda...

It's a certified best - seller, by the most astute book reviewer, moi....Jason Hahn rocks.....go buy his 2 books... I fully intend to get them. I was kept in stitches over the 2 books I had borrowed from my good friend.

=)

Defeatist Attitude...NOT!!!!

Sunday school today...woke up as on any other Sundays, except that today was Games Day. Travelled to Singapore Expo. At the back of my mind, I was pretty certain that the games planned would not sit well with my bunch of kids. One word I am certain they will say is "LAME!!"

Well, they certainly did not disappoint. If truth be told, the games planned certainly could not sustain the bunch of kids under my charge, being the kinesthetic ones they are. A few were insistent on playing soccer, which was, naturally, frowned upon. So I decided to be firm about it....and they managed to 'pilfer' a ball from one of my friends, another leader in Sunday school.

The long and short of it was, they were 'blatantly' disobedient and what really riled me was when the 3 of them decided to have a private chat in one of the cubicles. I totally lost it and slammed the door open, and ordered the 3 of them. I cornered them, ticked the other 2 off and sent them back. As for the Indian Chief of the group, I let it rip at him. Boy, I realised I totally could not hold back my anger (had been simmering all this while).

What was frightening was that I could not control myself, and lambasted him. Think he was too scared and started to cry. Felt really lousy about it, and of course, discouraged about it....not exactly a good testimony for God, ain't I? Went for Chinese service, and got 'slain'.....without anyone supporting me from behind. So yes, I hit the floor.

Anyway, realised also it's not simply a matter of ministering to the kids on weekends. Now I understand what it means to have to ensure I walk right with Him, so that it doesn't affect the little sheep I am guarding. Let's just say I haven't been walking properly with His commandments, but did my business with Him. Will have to continue to do my business with Him until it is fully cleared....but yeah.

The team leader told me it's ok for me to move up with my current bunch of kids when they go into Primary 4 next year....need to be more prayerful about this.

Corporate Drain....

The way I look at it, my days in my current bank are pretty much numbered. Why? Put it this way.....my 'suffer no fools' and straight-talking manner will probably be my undoing, if I don't watch it. Take today, for example. I had a disagreement with a HR colleague, and she must have hit on something, cos she has been with the bank for 4 years, and she's still surviving. The disagreement was 'broadcast' to the whole freaking world, cos the flurry of replies (only once on my end) was sent to quite a few people in HR and Compliance (where I am at).

And anybody worth his salt will say that HR is the last unit one would want to antagonise. But straight-talking me couldn't help it. Cos I had realised there was a mistake in the way the memo was communicated (which somehow made it seem like it was my end who had done the revision), so sent her a short and simple reply pointing out the areas that were wrong.

I do realise one thing though, if I want to 'last' longer here, maybe I ought to be less frank. I cannot possibly depict myself as a renegade, trying to revolutionise a culture that may have been so insiduously ingrained for ages. So it's either I conform to the 'ching cheong'ness of it all, or if I really cannot tolerate it, I should probably consider my options. Why can't I just get a job running a resort? Now that's an idea.....ha ha.

But on a serious note, it's really hard to be 'edifying' and emulate the compassion our Lord has for all, with the way I perceive people and things to be. Time to do big business with Him. And I wonder why is it that I am always so drained out......

Time for another vacation?

What with the recent spate of vacations that my friends seem to be taking, I do wonder if it's high time for me to plan for my next vacation. Funnily enough, the trip to New Zealand in May seemed so long ago. But having said that, I also 'feel' the hole it has burnt in my pocket, and think the next trip should be a cheaper one. Don't ask me how it happened, (an uncanny coincidence) but my mother was remarking to me that it's best to stay home more these days than to go on holidays, simply because you never know when you might be the unlucky victim of a terrorist attack. I had a two-liner retort to that, but decided to hold back, lest it ends in a heated argument. I wanted to go like, 'when it's time to go Home, it's time' and then realised she is rather pantang given it's the seventh lunar month where the 'gates of Hell are opened and spirits roam the earth' in typical pagan Chinese beliefs, so decided to keep quiet.

On another note, here are some of the photos I posted online of my New Zealand trip...my faves of course....




I love that babbling brook behind me in Picture 2...apparently it was the site of a gold rush in Queenstown, New Zealand. Hmm, wonder why I did not manage to stumble across a single gold nugget when I was there. Believe you me when I say I did try my best to spot one.

Anyway, today's Sunday school was cool. Realised two of my 'fave' kids in my group were born in September, same as me. One of them had his birthday one day before me, albeit many years later....

Test of Patience and Love

Sometimes I really wonder, is it just me or is He trying to show me something? Recently, I have encountered some problems with the bunch of kids under my charge at Sunday school, and admittedly, I have been somewhat discouraged. All initial enthusiasm about taking them under my charge until they get into the Youth Network of my church has dissipated. I had a chat with my pastors, and we'll see how things pan out.

But yesterday was a revelation of another sort for me. I was conducting the Sunday school session, and one of the team leaders who had sat in with me remarked that 2 of my kids have some literacy problems....and all this while, I was wondering why they are unable to read the Bible properly or even spell properly. Another 'bomb' dropped when one of the kids' mothers told me her son has 'special needs'. *Faint*.

But all these revelations have given me a better understanding of the dynamics among the kids in my group, and also understand how it is that some of them do not seem able to respond to some of the activities. Oh well, guess it's time to hunker down and really engage in some pow-wow prayers for them, now that I know their respective problems.

Thank God for revealing these to me, as I am now able to view them in a more positive and different light, as compared to the frustration I felt when they got restless and unresponsive. Big time prayers are needed to weather this. =)