the four right chords can make me cry

I don't know where to start. So any arbitary place will do.

click here to find out what tim means by "friendly punch to the face". we sons and daughters of zhonghua are to be courteous and righteous and edified and dignified! I miss kenny... i'm thinking me teemo kenny benben and aezoh should have a reunion one day. onz? where's your zhonghua spirit?!?!

VCF camp was so excellent. At first I was really struggling to lead the group discussions. Really struggling. And me being me, I was being assualted by the usual gamut of guilt and doubt and inadequacy. But God still used me, because it's not about me, but about God working in me. I thank God for my group, and especially my roomie dawn, they were such a blessing to me! Elias, the perfect complement, giving balance to the group, bringing laughter to us all. Tabitha, engaging people deeply, in love and sincerity; her openess and transparency in sharing. James, his conviction, his steady guidance, his warm genuine-ness, his enthusiasm and his serendipitous knowledge of engin fac and where the vcf letterbox is! Zai Xiang (affectionately known as Jonathan Cheng or Avril boy), his ideas and active contribution, even though he is (in MZ's words) the SMU spy/crashee. Yokes, her heart for God and willingness to listen and obey. Paul and his quiet ways and nice smile. Dawn, her exemplary evangelism, bubbly personality and goodness unto me. (May you be as beautiful and glorious as each bright new dawn! Shining forth God's light to the people around you as you have to me.) Our musically inclined Hui Ping, so sweet-natured and so good. Faith, her love for her friends and concern about doing the right thing. Mark, taking time off from work just to come, super solver of clues for our starlit treasurehunt, and by far the most adorable! Weiya, willing to take cab back and forth just to bless us with her presence for that short time. Min Zhi, (and the rest of the comm), for all the hard work and prayers that they put in, seeking just to glorify God.

Very challenged to live out a life that glorifies God. The four days of doing QT properly and consistently have been a shot in the arm for my spiritual life. Hearing God's word everyday, distilled down for you. It's so much easier to be a Christian among brothers and sisters. But for the majority of my time, I need to do these things on my own, and therein lies the struggle. As much as camp has been good, I hope that it wont just be an experience confined to once-a-year. The challenge is to live out the Christian life in mundane day-to-day, when the demands of school etc start again. I have a lot more to say, will share if there's a willing audience.

My birthday! We went out for supper after the sharings, where it was a fun time of chubby bunny games, and a good time of sharing "the top 3 things you liked about this camp". When we got back, we had a time of prayer, which was great too. By the time that was done, it was about 3am, and i got a message from damien to go collect my present from the science comm, so i did. They bought me a guitar stand! Totally great gift, its practical, and i like it! But i was really touched by the letters they wrote me, especially weili's. Thank you so much dear friend =) I am to reply letters soon. (soon meaning, after kota kinabalu, meaning after 25th July). Me and dawn were trying to finish writing letters to everyone in our group, when she offered to pray for me. As she was praying to me, I was just thinking how it was the best birthday of my life so far, and how wonderful it was to be prayed for like that, that we could be so un-superficial in our prayers, even though we just met 3 days before.

When we broke camp, our group went to munchy monkey's for lunch. The conversation was fantastically funny! Somehow, certain things only come out at the last day *grin* Just felt so happy and contented to be among these people, who made me feel so special and loved. =)

Enai came over to my house just to spend time with me on my birthday. She brought strawberry white wine and dark chocolate for me. I told her, "so bourgeios!" Haha... but it was a good time, talking about the things on our hearts. Thank you God, for a best friend like enai.

Having drunk 3/4 of the bottle of wine, i was feeling a little high when my family went out for dinner. that was fun, being a little high, but not drunk. (how to get drunk lah, the wine only 6% alcohol). We ate at a fancy schmancy japanese restaurant, Kuriya, and the food was really good, but it was so expensive... Watched War of the Worlds, which has the ignomity of being worst movie of 2005 on my list. Bleah, what a waste of money... for all 5 of us some more.

Woke up the next morning to rush to school. Was thinking about some things as dad sent me on the motorbike. Not good, so i'll keep it private for now. At the meeting, it was so good to see my usp friends again =) glad that i got to talk to pema, i've missed her. shaun gave me a furry sheep bookmark from new zealand! So sweet lah, i didnt expect him to get me anything. A few seniors from my OG then went to buy stuff for the camp, crammed into nian's car. I thought it was kinda quiet, hopefully we'll be more bonded before the freshies come in.

Got home just in time to rush off for tuition again. Mad rush. I was so tired during tuition, I caught myself talking repetitive nonsense about "the line AB". Slept only 1 hour the night of my birthday, havent had a good solid 8 hour block of sleep yet, and have had so many camps before that. Havent recovered from accumulated sleep deprivation. And I'm up late now blogging things down before I forget them, helping my brother transpose a chinese song, and posting photos when I have to wake up early tmr to try to meet people for breakfast. Eyebags here i come.

But you know, i'm so happy/excited (exappy?) that my JC friends are coming over for dinner tomorrow!!!! I SO CANNOT WAIT FOR IT! I've missed them so so so much. My dream has always been for a proper reunion, involving all the different factions. But like i told mandy that day, i guess i'm being too idealistic and sentimental. But YAYNESS, they are coming!!!

I wonder if they will want to watch yellow submarine with me. I like that movie. and it has the two songs i posted yesterday. I've ALWAYS wanted to say that line, "It was twenty years ago today". (like how some 4 or 5 birthdays ago i just had this strange wish that someone would say to me "here's looking at you kid" and someone actually did. It's just one of those weird things i get fixated on.) I love the when i'm 64 song cos I always remember so fondly me and V singing the song with gusto (^_^) and it was particularly relevant, "birthday greetings, bottle of wine".

this blog has been very bad writing so far. its completely been "this happened, then that happened", the absolute worst way to narrate. but no time to sit and think about things, so i can't produce any literature, just news reports. I apologize for the appalling standards and verbosity.

posted by beckyboo @ 12:34 PM