love the clouds!

YEAH this is the kind of sky i'm talking about! =)

He knows my name

He Knows My Name (I Have a Maker)

I have a Maker
He formed my heart,
before even time began
My life was in His hands

He knows my name
He knows my every thought,
He sees each tear that falls
and hears me when I call

I have a Father,
He calls me His own
He'll never leave me,
no matter where I go


I'm Forever Grateful

You did not wait for me to draw near to You,
But You clothed Yourself in frail humanity.
You did not wait for me to cry out to You,
But You let me hear Your voice calling me.

And I'm forever grateful to You,
I'm forever grateful for the cross;
I'm forever grateful to You,
That You came to seek and save the lost.

church camp 2007

this year's church camp will forever be etched in my memory as my FIRST BEST CAMP. (i think i should call it such since i will probably have some more BEST CAMPS in the future, heh.)

i think i was more caught up with working (being part of the committee) two years ago than really spending time with God and letting Him speak to me. and last year, i only went for the second half of the camp because of my internship so i didn't really get much out of it. but i know it was also because i didn't prepare my heart then to experience the camp for what it's meant for. it's just always so easy to place the people and the work over God.

this year, i think it was a much more balanced camp for me. on the one hand, being part of the committee and learning from such wonderful leaders were simply great. it's very very meaningful work (desiring to be used by God to make church camp a memorable one for everybody) and a lot of fun too.

well for the first time, i went up with the advanced party one day before, to prepare for the camp. [side note: we had dinner at bei zhan, one of the BEST chinese restaurants ever!!] six of us were in the same room and i really enjoyed the experience of "communal living", haha. everyone was just helping each other out! we planned stuff, they helped me with my nametags... and i remember one funny thing. i tried to take a nap four times in total that day but it turned out to be not very possible due to various interruptions, haha. and each time my sleepy reaction was the same: "huh?! how long have i slept?"... "15 minutes only AGAIN?!?!!"

haha ok and then camp began! the thing was, i woke up on the second day of camp somehow thinking, "sian...four more days to go." and then i was like, hey how can i think like that... better get it out of my head and ask God to help me have a more positive attitude towards it. and so... THANK GOD i had a really really good camp from then on! i was so ministered to by the worship songs, messages, group discussion and fellowship. a lot of what the speaker said also helped to prepare me for my future chiangmai trip. he spoke on the book of joshua:

getting our feet wet
i.e. stepping out of our comfort zones. what God wants to give you is already out there, you just must step out and claim it. certainly that requires lots of strength and courage, which will be provided as we obey God.

bringing down the walls
victory begins with personal surrender and is secured by worship.
"attempt something so great for God that it is doomed to failure unless God be in it." - john haggai

dealing with sin
there's no guarantee that victory today means victory tomorrow too, therefore we mustn't let self-pride get in the way. a good point: when we refuse to ask for forgiveness (because we're too proud to admit we're wrong) how can God forgive us?
sin is convenient, costly and contagious (it affects other people too).

choosing to serve
we often make a choice and then disguise it as a non-choice. e.g. trying to get out of something by saying we have to do something else, instead of honestly saying that's what we want to do. we have more control over our lives than we think we do - it's a case of how important we view it. we have a choice; the only requirement from God is honesty.

and so...that was church camp 2007! i don't know if i'll be able to attend next year's camp so that's another reason why this year's was extra special for me. i also enjoyed rooming with geri =) and the games and the final night (performances and such), which got everyone (adults, youths and kids) so excited and so it was really funny and fun. one of the games we played was tug of war on the beach. people had STRATEGIES. wow. it was a lot of fun! =) and of course, taboo on the last night... haha... and once again, doing the camp booklets and nametags was another amazing and humbling experience... lastly, five out of nine of us from the CG came to this camp, which was great!!! =)

more pre-ceremony pics

from my brother's camera. nice camera!!

no hands!

suddenly noticed after many pictures that i didn't hook my gown properly haha.

somebody was saying something funny...
(no hands again!)

this is me running barefooted to meet lirong.
because i'd have taken three times longer to reach in heels. not to mention MORE blisters! =/

with lirong just before reporting

graduation!

wow, graduation...!!! posting up the pics, i suddenly realised what a big day this was actually, hehe as i always do (kinda slow lah). can't help but reflect on the three years that went by! and i think they might have been the three most defining years of my life! not only did i have a fantastic education in all senses of the word, i also got to learn more about God and deepen my relationship with Him by experiencing His amazing love, faithfulness, grace, mercy, peace and power every time. each time there seemed to be no way, He was there to make a way... just like how He'd send different people to help, encourage and cheer me up. there were so many ups and downs, knocks and trials, satisfying times and not to mention hilariously memorable times... and who can forget the last semester which was the hardest we ever worked... all of which i'm glad for because they made my life so interesting and meaningful! praise God!

so graduation day today, as i've just realised haha, was the culmination of these three very, very special and memorable years. wow. =)

we happened to park at my school, so i thought we might as well take some pics!
side note: this is the first year NP grads wore gowns. but it was still a chore thinking of what to wear for me! haiyoh sarah! =P

i really cannot say thank you enough to my family for just being who they are. MY FAMILY! a family who loves God together... laughs A LOT together... and helps one another. i guess they had no choice but to allow themselves to be roped in on many of my projects so i really must say thanks guys!!!

entering the convention centre.
the buffet spread after the ceremony was really quite a SPREAD!

haha i watched so many graduates do it before me but when my turn came i went into blur mode. i know i said "thank you" really softly and then i knew i had to turn around but when i finally located the photographer's face, i went "oh!" as in "oh there you are!" so it wasn't a smile but an "oh!" face.

really good friends - jenny and lirong
special note: hey lirong (my 相依为命 partner), thank you so much for these three years! =) and jenny, it was really great being classmates and project mates with you during our last semester! =)

with the rest of the gang and one funny lecturer whose emails i'll always keep.
sam, fel, lydia, terence, wanjun, etc... really wished you guys were there too!

all the wonderful, wonderful lecturers who taught so well.
to borrow a line from someone... they did not fish for us, but taught us how to fish!

and this is what we are now, haha.

classic taboo moments from church camp

at 1 am, they were really, REALLY funny.

the word: nursery
zy: ok, what's before kindergarten?
tab: primary!
zy: no before that!
tab: secondary!
zy: no before that!
tab: tertiary!

the word: tofu
tab: you know women always say don't touch my what?
everybody: WHAT!?!?!
zy (the only boy): huh?!?!?!
tab: no you know it's like something soft...
everybody: WHAT?!?!!

that girl watched too many chinese drama serials lah hahaha. her explanation was that they always say stuff like "不要吃我的豆腐!" right?... haha okay...

another one that i heard from my friend...
the word: glacier
somebody: ok titanic hit into a what and sank?
pam: iceberg!
somebody: no something smaller!
pam: ice cube!

haha i'll NEVER forget them... ok i'll blog a proper one about church camp again soon coz it was really the best church camp for me ever.

giordano oh giordano

i'm blogging again! means.... i'm procrastinating =P

i just wanted to record this day as the start of my quest to become a GIORDANO MEMBER. i have 60 days to succeed. aiyoh considering how often i shop at giordano, i should have become a member a long, long time ago!

the last time i accumulated enough receipts, the promotion was mysteriously over... 这次只许成功，不许失败！

<3 skies and babies but not the weather :(

random update #1:
today has been an extremely hot and sticky day. and i was feeling it so much already even though i spent the entire day at home... (sigh... and it still is!! at 12 midnight i still feel sticky!!) so i really feel sorry for everyone who was out under the hot sun today.

random thought #1a:
singapore's skies have nice clouds to look at but they also make this place one humid island. american skies have very little or no clouds and thus the very bright sun always makes my eyelids droop and then i drift to sleep and don't see the sky very much ultimately (this was what happened during our road trips)... but what i liked about it was that it was not humid and i had more good hair days over there (i believe these two things are related?). but the one thing both these skies have in common certainly is the feeling they always give me: how amazing and beautiful is the vastness of it all, and how great and awesome is our God.

random update #2:
i have a nephew now! i'm so in love with him even though i have not met him yet. but he has gorgeous black curly hair and such a cherubic face. i haven't seen his eyes yet because in all the photos they were closed. well, he has a cool name because his dad is thai. and i think he's about a week old now. it's so cool. it's like, wow he's only been on this earth for SEVEN days... think about that... and every single day must have been (and is going to be) so exciting and precious for himself, his parents and the people around them.

random thought #2a:
i can't wait for my nephew to grow into a cute little toddler, all nice and cuddly, and charming everybody with all the kiddy cute funny smart hilarious things he will say!!! hehe and maybe by then we'd be both around the same level so we might just understand each other's kiddy thai perfectly! now that would be fun... :) <3

good ol' archives

i love browsing through the old issues of my church's weekly bulletin from the 1980s! i'm supposed to look for some sermon outlines, but it's hard not to get distracted by all the other stuff, like little notes, announcements and reports of church happenings, etc. they were very personal and straight from the heart, and very narrative and humourous... i find the archives so cool. :)

and i came across one particularly funny report! it's of a car rally they held on 29 may, 1987.

...Uncle LS (Team A): His car was not as fast as Team C's new Honda, even though he was doing about 110 km/h (ahem, with kids in the car! Naughty, naughty.)...

...Uncle SM of Team B was so excited that he forgot to change gear when going downhill (dear me!). [my favourite! haha.]

...Team G's Uncle T was sent to buy the mangoes, although he was the only male in the team and had no knowledge of mango-purchasing, that did not deter him from gamely prodding and poking each mango he saw. Finally, the storekeeper told him that he would give him a free mango if he bought ten...

...Team H consisted of just one person - Uncle A. It was a blessing in disguise because at that moment Uncle ET desperately needed someone to man one checkpoint. He took up the offer to man the checkpoint at the Westin Stamford and plonked himself at the lounge and had tea - alone(!), making it extremely difficult for the participants to find him at that checkpoint. He conveniently had his red identification kerchief (which he was supposed to wear) on his table. He still dared to report that his job was the most relaxing for the longest period of time!

...Team I - alas, Team I - was headed by Uncle D. This team was distracted and fascinated by all sorts of strange things, like the gory 12 gates of hell at Haw Par Villa and the resemblance of Tiger Balm to recycled baby-food. Poor Team I got the wrong end of the stick - the lady at Jurong Bird Park was so fed up with everyone asking the same questions that she forced Uncle D to buy a $5.00 book on the Park for all the information he wants. Unfortunately all the information in it was outdated. Furthermore, Team I's car got stuck outside a mosque (it was Hari Raya) and was too late to finish. But it had fun, none the less...

...Elder Ang ended the day by reading Psalm 133 to us and commenting on the need for Christians to dwell in unity. He commended that the church had demonstrated much Christian love and unit in the activities of that day. All in all, it was a good day. Can we have another like it - soon? - A Ang

--------------------------------------------
THANKS. A vote of thanks to the Rally Team -

...Checkpoint men:
A Lim - Westin Stamford. Made the most of the luxury hotel's facilities.
Kong ET - Kallang Stadium. Had to wait in vain for the last lost sheep (car).

and look what else i found!
just the kind of thing sentimental me likes to find! :)

hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world

i've FINALLY finished murakami!!! it was really good. i'm so glad i borrowed it. it all started when i got very bored in orchard road and decided to go to the library instead. i wanted to borrow jodi picoult but her books were all gone. so were sophie kinsella's. (talk about extreme tastes, hehe). anyway, i'd heard quite a lot about murakami also so i decided to borrow this book. six weeks and probably $1 worth of renewal fees and overdue fines later, i'm a new murakami fan! :D he has a really brilliant mind. but not so for me... that's why i took six weeks to finish it. haha. i wish i didn't just read one chapter a night or worse, every few nights, because i forgot stuff and hence, lost a lot of "links". but anyway, i still had a good time reading it. now i need to quickly return the book before i chalk up more fines, sigh.

fines aside, i think libraries are wonderful places. cosy, lots of interesting books, and you don't have to think about how much this or that book costs at all. :)

speaking about libraries...
one chinese choir afternoon, our "principal" was sharing about how he'd met his wife at the university library 19 years ago. "when sarah was still in her diapers," he added. blah blah blah... we were all laughing at his story... and then, "oh, and now sarah is at the age where she should be going to the library more often right?" wah i think the very cute old uncles and aunties got quite excited, haha.

maths genius :P

yesterday afternoon, at my usual weekly orientation session with pastor peter (in preparation for my mission trip), he gave me a test to do, and after that, i was supposed to "plot on each grid the point where the two average scores intersect".

oh man, each time i think about what i did, i just can't stop laughing... clever me used my ez-link card to connect the points on the two axes and then i happily drew an X on that line. i did this for ALL the grids. i didn't really dare to look at pastor peter's reaction, when we both realised what i'd done. but he was very nice and polite about it. he went something like "ahh." and helped me to plot the correct point.

四舅，我对不起你了！

genius: a person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative, either generally or in some particular respect.

by a long stretch of the imagination, i think i actually fulfill that definition of a genius! haha. it's a comforting thought. there is hope for me yet. i HAVE to brush up on my maths. i do not want to cause any unfortunate kid in chiang mai to fail his/her exam.

cute kids

so that i'll never forget these funny stories!
i shall be adding more as and when i recall them or they happen.

food republic, vivocity
my mum and i were standing in front of the dessert stall and there was a young mother with her cute little girl there as well.
young mother: girl, you stay here ah. mummy go and buy drinks. (points to drinks stall next door) just here only.
cute little girl: buutt mummyyyy... what if bad people take me awayyy??? (looks at us)

she was honestly looking at us with a very worried but cute expression on her face.

marks & spencer's kids section, wheelock place
a cute little girl walked up to my mum and pointed at the colourful striped shirt she was holding.

"NICE!"

we laughed, and her mother teased her, "who ask you to be so kaypoh huh?"

yes, i was trying on some kids clothes haha. what a great place to meet cute kids.

church
one big group of us was getting ready to go home/for lunch.
kang kang's auntie: kang kang, you go and help your meimei. the pink bag is very heavy!
kang kang: lixuan, go and carry the bags! shoo... shoo... SHOOO!!! (complete with shooing hand actions)

on work

i've been snacking too much in the office!! i think it's because i'm cold and slightly stressed. this just makes me more convinced that an office job is not for me next time, hehe. on top of the fact that generally i don't like to dress up and i don't like using the computer in an air-con room the entire day. but what else i can do right. at the moment this is in fact what i do "best" (except for the dressing up part)...sort of.

well i can't do waitressing coz i have a bad memory and bad balancing skills. i can't work at giordano or something because my nose is very sensitive to dust and i'll be providing bad customer service if i keep sneezing. haha. i gotta spare a thought for my employers and customers.

but anyway, this job is actually pretty good, with nice colleagues and working environment (btw ambrose my office's colour theme is orange!), a very flexible lunch time plus good food in the area and lots of snacks, informal dress code... all of which suit me fine. the nature of the job itself is not too bad. i've also done it before so i'm more used to it this time round. in a nutshell: phone calls, surveys, data entry...

but after three weeks of this, it'd be good to take a short break and clear my mind and let my ears and eyes recover. US trip in 16 days' time! and i'm also so glad i have this opportunity to save up for it. =) praise God from whom all blessings flow.

krispy kreme

some time ago, it occurred to me that the US was the land of krispy kremes! so
i, had been gearing up to enter the land of krispy kremes. this was supposed to take place 21 days from now. but,

my very sweet uncle brought back four boxes from sydney last night and promptly gave us one. my first encounter with a krispy kreme doughnut took place at approximately... i can't remember. but it was late enough to cause damage to my diet & exercise plan (sorry partner! i've let you down). but ok never mind.

now i know why lirong always gets her friends to bring back from overseas, hehe. and now i also understand what ambrose meant by "it's very light dough". it's really not bad at all. my singaporean review: this one got standard. haha...

praying for others

intercession is an increase in my awareness. when i pray for another person, i am praying for God to open my eyes, so that i may see that person as God does, and then enter into the stream of love that God already directs toward that person. it changes my attitude and relationship towards the person i'm praying for.

today, my CG came to my place at about 9 am for part two of the study on prayer. i thank God for all of them, because even though some lived in the east or in boon lay, they still made the effort to wake up early and come. i felt quite bad that CG was at my place! well we had a nice breakfast bought from the market, and chris shared about prayer with some help from philip yancey's new book "prayer: does it make any difference?" among other insightful things, the part about intercession spoke to me. i need to learn how to see people as God does. He loves them unconditionally, too.

give thanks

and my war with technology wages on... haha. my macbook crashed some time ago, and because i didn't backup anything, i lost everything. but it's really not hard to "give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

1) at least school is over. so this is not a disaster.

2) i learnt how to go down to the apple store on my own THREE times. i think in the past i'd have just asked my brothers to help me. it was like entering foreign territory. i went to the info counter when the repair counter was so obviously behind me. but anyway, the people there are really nice and helpful and they didn't laugh at me.

3) i have applecare :) so no damage to the wallet.

4) i can install the trial version of photoshop again. haha. and just when the one in my brother's computer expired! i'm so glad i get to use it again coz i need it for some work.

5) with the new hard disk, it's like starting anew, and i'm more careful with the things i install (though contrary to what my brother thinks, i did not install any nonsense things previously!! =P). and like the apple lady says, maybe my macbook will become faster. yay!

6) i give thanks that i am able to give thanks. it's a much better than getting depressed and bitter about it :P

sarah 1 technology 0

i'm in shock. for the first time, i managed to figure out the alien html template of this blog and get the original line spacing back. i don't know why but when i switched to the new "customised" blog layout (colours! a more organised blog archive! and one of the Bible verses that i try to live by!), some of my posts looked so squashed together. and as all my friends wouldn't be surprised to know, this bugged me a lot. =P but html is the bane of my life. well, just when i was about to give up, it worked. wow. haha.

my other recent tech triumphs:

1) i got my scanner working again. even though i can print stuff, i can't scan stuff. and it's supposed to be a 3-in-1 machine! maybe i deleted the scanner programme by mistake (oops). anyhow, i re-installed everything and now it's back. yay! :D

2) i discovered that there was an easier way of transferring pics from the camera to the macbook. i can just slot my memory stick into that 3-in-1 machine (so now i've utilised all three functions of the machine!). yes. sigh. i used to do it the USB way, which could be quite troublesome.
[edit: it's not working anymore!!!]

3) i discovered microsoft word's format painter. why why why??? why did i only find out after school ended? this is like the best tool for someone who JUST LIKES EVERYTHING TO BE NICELY FORMATTED. haha oh man sincere apologies to all my project mates who had to put up with me these three years while i painstakingly formatted everything bit by bit. my jaw seriously dropped when kai-lin showed me how to do it the other day.

ok so even though all these came rather late, but but but... better late than never! :) be my project mate next time in uni and i'll make it up to you. i'll serve everyone around me better in future. now i can scan things, upload pics, etc etc. i can be EFFICIENT. :)

happy poly pictures

last day of preschi

it was definitely one of my favourite modules! the classmates were great, and the teacher was funny and super nice :)

沙拉秀 (me)，三马币 (samapi/sam) and 德士门 (desmond)
doing our version of a variety entertainment show. super fun and i'll always remember this, thanks guys!

lunchtime jokes (poor jenny, haha)

this is the block where we had most of our tutorials

half a happy preschi class with 郭老师
early jan '07

that is desmond's hair. haha.

with kai-lin the night before pitch competition

what i should really be doing...

is not this!
haha. but i really can't help slacking, sigh.
one paper down, one more to go...

got this from juan sometime ago but i don't know where it's from...
so i'm sorry i can't give it due credit.
but it's funny!!!

the host of the lazy virus

hey, come on, come on!! school's not over yet. still gotta study, you know... sarah loser momentum (yes that's my new name) has almost completely switched off her school mode, most unfortunately. it's always that way, sigh. i just leave the school fighting machine behind the moment the last presentation or deadline is over.

ok i'd better stay up tonight to prepare all that i can, and then meet kai-lin in school tomorrow to study together. coz looking at my calendar right now, i know if i don't get proactive, i'll just regret it on monday night. already i'm having it easier than other people coz one paper is open-book and the other, we already know the questions. so, i should make the best out of it. yeah come on!!!

but first... i gotta tell you about The Host. it was fantastic. one of the best korean movies ever. and the amazing thing was, my parents didn't fall asleep halfway like they usually do, haha. i think it was because it was too exciting. the monster gave me a huge shock a few times. apologies to my father's arm because i grabbed it pretty tightly. there were also some super funny and super sad parts... so i really liked that it was not just some scary flick but a movie with a good story and REALLY GOOD ACTING. :)