This is, by far, the most preposterous label ever given to me. What on earth...I won't have to mention the guy who called me that, and I don't thk you'd even suspect for a moment that I found out, but well, things have a way of going around. But strangely enough, I don't think I'll waste my energy and righteous indignation on you because you aren't worth it..

 

That brings to mind one of the things I've been musing about lately. You guys must be thinking "what on earth, this girl is constantly thinking"..at least i put my brain to good use mar..lol.

 

How do you classify the word "flirt"? For once, I am not going to check the dictionary for the exact definition, I'll leave it to you to find out urselves. But this issue is really mind-boggling, and as far as I know, i DO NOT flirt.

 

As i grow older, I find that mixing around with Guys gets harder. I mean, last time in my ol sch, I could just pat any guy on the back and say "yo" or sth equally buddyish and nobody minds coz that's what everyone does. The good ol days......*sigh*  And when i got to secondary sch, it seemed out of place to talk to guys! Not in the sense the schs forbids it, but how come the girls keep to the girls and the guys keep to the guys? man...there's no harm mixing around imo. Of course, i can't really appreciate shallow, on-the-surface aquaintances, so i tend to delve deeper when it comes to being with friends. To me, the person inside is the one I want to get to know. That got me into trouble. ( Amy did say that those from my pri sch were different and kinda naive)

 

 I am the "buddy-buddy pal-pal" kinda person, so I tend to mix around a lot, with both girls AND guys. Sometimes I find talking to guys easier, because guys are easier to joke and play around with. But somehow, misunderstandings happen and...if that particular guy misunderstands, what happens is a lot of tension and awkwardness. Now, I dont really care if others think I am crushed on a guy while I'm not, but if that GUY himself thinks so, it's a whole different story. THat isn't even the main problem. THe main problem is when I start approaching a certain guy and wanna be closer friends. You know, the "from aquaintance to buddy" part of a relationship. *mock scream in frustration*  Once that part is through and the foundation of the relationship is set, there's not much prob, unless of course, the guy turns out to be immature.

 

I wish everyone would just GROW up and start thinking the way I do. That way, I'd be able to have thousands of buddies and soul mates. Yeah right, I wish. To date, all the "certified"  buddies I have amount to yeap, you guessed right, Sing Kock and Kong Min. And that is barely plural. *sigh*

 

Oh yeah and to that guy who said I am a flirt, it's all in the head. In YOUR head.

The importance of having quiet time with God is always overlooked. I never understood its importance until I really got serious with Him too.

 

What is important to you? I mean, everybody focuses on something…the World Cup for instance, or perhaps music, or perhaps sports, friends, or for me personally, my studies *cough*.Computer games? Xbox? Who knows? Family?

 

The thing is, these things have a knack for taking up most of our time and attention. So sometimes, when we focus too much on these things that are important in our life, we tend to…not exactly “forget”, but don’t really take notice of God. Just to prove a point, for those who are Christians, how many times do you think about God besides before meals and before bedtime? There are many distractions, even the Internet *ahem*.

 

After a while, if we continue to forget God, our relationship with Him will also dry up. Sometimes, God feels so far away, right? But God is always right beside us, within us. He loves us so much. The problem lies with us, because we neglect our spiritual life. Imagine if you ignore your best friend for a while. After a while, I don’t think that friend of yours can be called your “best” friend anymore. It’s the same with God. The relationship dries up, just like that. Relationships can be so fragile.

 

Quiet time is meant so that we’ll grow in our spiritual life and learn to focus on God. It doesn’t take long, perhaps 5, 10 minutes in a day. Set aside some time to just read a portion of the Scripture and pray, maybe memorize scripture as well. Totally block out other distractions like your studies, your annoying brother or sister, your friends and your other activities. Lock yourself in the bedroom or the toilet or wherever you can find some peace and quiet. Focus on God fully. Isn’t God worth at least 5 minutes of your time? I mean, He is your best friend! Ask Him to speak to you and make you spiritually sensitive to what He wants you to learn from His Word. By the way, the Bible is the most remarkable book, because it is alive…man, I’m not kidding and there’s no way you can find that out without reading it.

 

That 10 minutes you set apart may seem unimportant, but nothing else is more important, especially for those serving in the Christian ministry, the ISCF for instance. I learnt my lesson last year when I was serving in the ISCF: Do not ever, ever, let serving God take the place of just loving Him.

 

I was serving all right, but I was doing it for the people, not for God. You know me, given a responsibility, I have to prove I can handle it. Serving more than loving produced these results: I became frustrated, angry, and I wondered if anyone noticed the amount of effort I put in just to keep the ISCF afloat. I mean, I prepare three days in advance so that they can get something out of the ISCF (and that material probably ended up in the trash after the ISCF meeting) and so that they won’t be coming for nothing.

 

Notice the first-person pronoun. Everything was “I”, “me” and my pride came first. Wrong motives, wrong attitude and I became a burnout anyway. ;p

 

Now, I want to serve, and the ONLY reason is GOD! Quiet time is a time where God quietens my heart to focus on Him again and let Him take control of my life. Everyone needs reminders, so why not get a reminder everyday? Remember, He is your best friend, so treat Him like one. Then, you’ll grow in love and faith and obedience to God. God bless you.

 

P.S. It’s just 5-10 minutes after all… I bet you guys spend more time on the World Cup. ;p

Somehow, when I am with Amy, we can talk about anything under the sun. So let’s just say there isn’t a quiet moment or awkward silence for a minute..hehe. Anyway, that’s beside the point and this is just an opening to what I’m gonna write about next.

 

On Fri, we guys went to the Cineplex to use our free movie tickets on Cars. But um, as we found out later, there was no free list…so it was basically a wasted trip. Fortunately coz I was with Amy, there was somebody I could talk talk talk talk nonstop to, lol. Maybe that was even better than watching the movie, who knows? :p

 

So as we talked…or rather my sis dominated the conversation, the topic turned to beauty. Hekhek. Now you see, just some time ago, I checked the dictionary for the exact definition of “beautiful” and “pretty” (just for fun and to see the difference). “Beautiful” was defined as a something that is pleasing to the senses. Roughly lah, I’m not about to go downstairs and check it out again. “Pretty” was defined as something attractive without being beautiful. Aha…food for thought…hehe.

 

So of course, Amy asked me who I thought was beautiful in our class…or if I couldn’t find anybody, who was pretty then. To my surprise, this question was super tough for me. The thing is I tend to look at the personality as well, so unless I find somebody who is totally balanced on the inside and outside, I won’t call anybody beautiful. So, who was pretty? *sigh* Same situation, but this was easier to answer. Judging by the rate of guys who chased after one particular girl, I answered. Then, a thought popped into my mind. Now, is being attractive OR beautiful more important? Tcha!

 

You see, in the Miss Universe 2005 finalists, there were two young women competing for the first place (yeah I watched that, so what?). I supported Miss Australia, who gave me a fresher feeling, rather than Miss USA who looked like a Barbie doll. Miss USA was undoubtedly more beautiful than Miss Australia, but then somehow, the AURA given out by Miss Australia was more attractive. Miss Australia became Miss Universe 2005 eventually, if case you wanted to know.

 

So, is being beautiful without aura more important, or is being attractive without being beautiful more important? Something to muse about eh? People who are truly beautiful have attractive personalities as well, so with that, I CONCLUDE MY SPEECH. *ahem*

 

*thank you thank you you are far too kind (imitating Jay-Z)*

This is probably the longest entry I've ever posted, but read on.

 

Miracles happen. They really do.

 

In my EYM Boot Camp, we had a jungle trek on the second day. The jungle trek was supposed to take half an hour to get to our destination, and half an hour out. It stretched to a one and half hour in and one and half hour out.

 

If you don’t get a picture of how hard the jungle terrain was, let me try to give you a picture of it. At times, we had to climb 50 degree slopes upwards and downwards, slippery mud and all. Most of the time, we used both our arms and our legs, and we still had to seek the assistance of the guys who were more used to jungle trekking. The trail was only one foot wide at times. At other times, we waded through water, most of us going barefooted because either our sports shoes were already spoiled by the water, or because we couldn’t risk spoiling our sports shoes. Imagine all those rocks underneath our feet. Yeap, we did all that. For perhaps three quarters of the whole trail, we were getting free foot massages. Danger was all around us and anyone could get hurt any moment, anywhere. We went through all these for one and a half hour to get to the destination - the waterfall.

 

The inevitable happened. During the trek back (where by then everybody was dirty, sweaty, wet and exhausted), Theresa Kulleh slipped on a mossy rock. Racked in pain, she couldn’t move, and her leg began to swell. According to Maclean, she couldn’t walk and said it was painful whenever they touched it. Her leg was broken. Now bear in mind, we’re in the middle of nowhere, where there is virtually no trail at certain parts and involved our finding ways to get through by hook or by crook. If she couldn’t walk, we could forget about getting back by lunchtime, adding the fact the guys had find a way to get her out of the jungle, SOMEHOW.

 

Now we (the other campers) didn’t know the situation well, as we were quite far in front. We thought it was just a minor injury and perhaps they’d take a little longer to get out of the jungle. But as it turned out, Theresa went into shock from that injury. People who go into shock have about 1 hour before they start dying if you don’t get them to a hospital in time. The jungle trek in already took us one and half hour, what more OUT with a casualty? Plus, if they did get out in time, which wasn’t a possibility, the nearest hospital was a 20 minute drive from Camp El.

 

The girls and younger campers were sent back to camp and 8 older guys stayed behind to help. James, a certified First Aider, was desperate. They made a stretcher of jungle wood (an A-frame), weighing 20 kg by itself. Together with Theresa’s weight, the whole load amounted to about 70 kg. How on earth could 8 form 4/5 guys manage to get her out of the jungle? Their courage and determination is admirable and to this day, I still cannot fathom how they managed to pull through with a stretcher which would be undoubtedly wider than the trail at times. God sustained them.

 

But, Theresa stopped breathing several times. Everyone was praying fervently, pushing on and hoping that she wouldn’t die. Even those back at camp (we were back by then) were praying hard because we knew how hard the trail was, even if we didn’t know the seriousness of the case. The boys pushed themselves to the limit, crying out to God for the strength that they needed. Eventually, at their hardest point, where the guys and the youth leaders were exhausted and couldn’t go on anymore, she stopped breathing altogether. She died. There was no more pulse. All hope was lost.

 

Suddenly, she sat straight up in the stretcher. For someone who has died, this isn’t possible, but then she started screaming hysterically, "I want to see Him. Let me see Him. Let me go. Don't touch me. He's right behind you. Why can't you see Him? Why don't you let me go to Him?"

 

 Mac and the others thought she was possessed by a demon. Mac asked her “Who do you want to see?” Finally, she got to her senses and told James nicely that she saw Jesus and He was calling for her, asking her to get up and walk to Him. Walk? If Mac let her off the stretcher and let her walk, in the event she was merely hallucinating, he would have to take responsibility if she injured herself further. And that would also mean untying the bandages, and letting her go. This was real test of Mac’s faith. He struggled with the decision, praying hard in his heart, “Don’t You let me down now, God, don’t You let me down.”

 

Reluctantly and gingerly, they undid the bandages. Theresa still felt pain when they were untying the bandages, and that served the guys’ doubts. But once the bandages were off, she stood up, and walked! She was healed! She walked to a point beyond the guys, and getting to her knees, she broke down in tears crying, “Thank you Jesus.” She saw Jesus! Jesus was the One who touched her and healed her. The other guys couldn’t see anything, but she could. She described Jesus as ‘a figure dressed in white’. Jesus even gave her a message to pass to all of us. In her own words: "God told me to tell you all that He loves you all very much. No matter what you've been through, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, He loves you a lot. And He wants you to share His Word, the Gospel. He trusts you all. You can do it."

 

She walked the rest of the trail back to camp, testifying that white footprints appeared in front of her and that she just followed them. She said that she expected to feel the rocks underneath her bare feet, but no, she felt like she was walking on gelatin, on jelly. Every time she fell down, she didn’t give up, got up again and finally made it back to camp.

 

Back at camp, everyone was really shaken up by this miracle. It was as if we were given a wake up call because before this, the camp was merely some usual camp and everyone was there to have fun. Little did we know this camp would be a life changer.

 

That isn’t the end yet. During campfire night the next day, she shared about her experience. In the camp, there was a guy named David who had a torn ligament. He had to wear a knee brace for sometime already. During the sharing, he had this urge to take off the brace. He was healed too and could bend his knee! This was the second miracle we witnessed. Somehow, God was trying to show us a part of his awesome majesty and power. One thing I know for sure, God does all things for a reason. We all got serious with God, and God is so real to us. To this day, EYM Boot Camp 2006 campers are still fired up for Him. We’re never too young to make a difference, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do for Him!

Hmm..I’ve been checking out other blogs online, and well, something struck me out of the blue. *lightning, thunder, sound effects*

Does it ever occur to you that the most popular blogs online (translated as “the blogs that get the most hits”) are so negative? And well, I don’t like to admit this but, sometimes I find myself enjoying those entries…Which means something’s not right here…*looking around shiftily* But lately, it's been something I've been dwelling upon.

 

Anyway, I’d just like to comment on that.

 

The thing is, life isn’t all that lousy and crappy. So why on earth do people like to act as if nothing good ever happens to them (and if something GOOD does happen to them they don’t jot it down in their online journal)? I mean, think of the Monty Python song : Always look on the berrrriiiiighhhht side of life! In my point of view, sometimes people tend to focus too much on the negatives and omit the positives. Well, don’t blame me if they go around thinking their life is the worst. Because their minds are set like that…and of course, there’s a REASON why mindsets are called MINDSETS. All in the head, ya noe?

 

The best people to be around are those who can actually see the good in everything and everybody. What’s so uncool about having a positive outlook? Seriously, the trend nowadays is the mean streak huh?  I mean, check this out :

 

X : Hey that blouse my aunt gave me was so ugly.

What would your response be? Mine would sound something like

M : So? Okaylah, at least you didn't have to use your own money to buy it. 

 

Everyone likes somebody who can smile..right? (I hope, and if you don't, well...i have nothing more to say)

 

There’s always good in everything. Romans 8:28 goes “ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Through trials, we learn patience. And of course, for those of us who believe in God, we know that in the end we’re going to heaven anyway, and that reality SURPASSES everything and anything we have to go through on earth. Now gimme a reason you have to mope and moan and groan and gripe. :)  Heh, learnt THAT from Mac. What’s so striking about that fact is that it is SO true…we shouldn’t be complaining and grumbling coz well, is the reality of going to heaven inferior to what we’re going through on earth?

 

Smile, guys!

ROMANCE MATHEMATICS   Smart man + smart woman = romance Smart man + dumb woman = affair Dumb man + smart woman = marriage Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy OFFICE ARITHMETIC Smart boss + smart employee = profit Smart boss + dumb employee = production Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion Dumb boss + dumb employee = overtime SHOPPING MATH A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need. GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife. A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man. HAPPINESS To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all. LONGEVITY Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more willing to die. PROPENSITY TO CHANGE A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does. DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument. HOW TO STOP PEOPLE FROM BUGGING YOU ABOUT GETTING MARRIED Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.