Meat of the flesh, Meat of the Word

WOOT met with Robin and Janelle, my former bosses, last night. Bryan also tagged along :)

As some of you would know, Robin was also my lecturer back at NYP. He gave me a job after my graduation. Janelle is like a Project Manager/Producer, so that makes her my boss as well, I think.

Robin brought us to Phinn's Steakhouse at Bugis, and he treated us! Thank God for he's generosity! I felt kinda bad as I ordered the most expensive steak :X

But like what Pastor Kong always says, "If you feel led to give, I feel led to receive" :3

It was great conversing with them. As expected, Bryan and Robin discussed about Game Engines and programming stuff, half of which I didn't know about. Well, we got to the topic of Armor Valley, the game which I worked on when I was working for Robin.

Great news! They managed to ship the game, and the game received good reviews! This guy seems to love it a lot - he gave it a whopping 9/10!

Actually, the average score is 3.5 stars or 7/10, but that's great too. :)

Armor Valley!

After the sumptuous dinner, we went home. There was a conference call with Yufen and the CGCs at 10pm. Really thank God for refreshing my spirit during the whole prayer, as I felt that I was burning out through all the ministry. Thanks to Ernest for sharing my burden and giving good counsel. He reminded me about satisfying my soul(i.e. playing games :P), which I haven't been doing for the past week.

God revealed to me that I'll need a rhema Word, a promise from God for this season. Cos the ministering is only going to be more and more, and it will be the promise of God that sustains me.

When our world seems to be crumbling away, and all that we desire is falling before our eyes, only God's promise to us will give us hope; we can trust that everything's gonna turn out alright, because God said it, we believe it, that settles it.

God is good, all the time!

Anyway, I hope to share a great piece of news soon! God's truly gives seed to the sower!

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water, (full of life)
That brings forth its fruit in its season, (fruitfulness)
Whose leaf also shall not wither; (never not-doing-well)
And whatever he does shall prosper.

(Ps 1:2-3)

2010 New Year Herald

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION; the old has gone, the new has come!"

(2 Cor 5:17)

Praise the Lord! Happy New Year all!

2009 was an awesome year, but 2010 is gonna be greater!

I believe God spoke to me that the areas of my life that I wanted to change in 2009 will change in 2010! This means all the bad habits and disappointments in 2009 are past, and I will have victories in 2010!

2 Areas I believe I will breakthrough:

1) Passion for God: the same or greater passion that I had when I was a young believer.

2) Faithfulness: Being faithful to God, faithful in the little things(like punctuality :X).

I guess that if I have these 2, the rest will follow - financial blessings, joy, ministry promotion, etc. Thank You Jesus!

Let's take a look back at some of the cool stuff in 2009:

Awesoments of 2009:

• "Boomz" and "Shingz" added to the Singaporean dictionary
• Left 4 Dead - Awesome Multiplayer shooter
• Fireflies - Best Song (In my biased opinion)
• Dark Knight - Best Movie (Again, in my biased opinion)
• Windows 7 - Best Windows OS (Now that ain't biased)
• Jay Chou - Best Chinese Celebrity alive! (This ain't biased either!)
• Most Retarded YouTube video:

MUST WATCH!

Achievements of 2009:

• 1st time being a cheerleading flyer!
• Read finished Harry Potter series!
• 3 Polar Bears in my room!
• Learnt cheng yao dance
• Learnt Sorry Sorry dance
• Attempted to cut Show Luo's hairstyle
• Listened to the radio (hey, that's a big achievement for a guy like me :P)
• Completed Call of Duty 4
• Drank about a bottle of Heineken
• Drank beer with Sprite
• Ate 5 meals a day for about 2 weeks
• 75 posts
• Kept a Blog alive for more than 3 weeks

Good and bad happened in 2009, but I'd rather let go off the bad and thank God for the good :)

So here's some things to thank God for...

1) Graduation! (12th March)

Wow! Time does not just fly - it soars with jet packs on! Thank God that my last year in NYP was a most fruitful one, as I worked with Bryan Yeo and Robin Chia, the Top and Second of the entire Digital Entertainment Technology cohort!

Graduation!

These 2 buddies are not only awesome in their work, but also fun, helpful, and great people to work with! We made the best Final Year Project evar! =3

So yeah, I ended up with exactly 3.5 GPA! Thank God its not 3.49 wahaha.

2) 20th Birthday! (10th April)

2009 marked the end of my teenage years(sadded). Anyway, the 10th of April was incidentally Good Friday, and our church had our Easter Celebration during my birthday! I had lots of fun celebrating my birthday together with W406! I remember we had lunch at some Chicken Rice stall near Raffles City (imagine that!).

Thanks, W406, for the new jacket!

After which, we went to Esplanade and did all sorts of random stuff. Took plenty of photos and did some cheerleading stunts wahaha.

But most of all, want to thank God for saving Sheryl, Melody and Zining! That was the best birthday present evar! Thank God that they brought Jolin later and she too got saved! XD

3) Faith Camp (June 2009)

My 1st ever Church camp! It was loads of fun, and the sessions of seeking God were awesome!

Indeed we are the next generation of leaders, to take the baton from pioneers! Thank God for this privilege!

4) Game Programmer Job (5th July)

This job was really God-given. My elder bro told me to pray for a job specifically, so I did.

I prayed for:

- Work as a Game Programmer

- Salary of 1.6k-1.8k

- Nice boss

- Get the job in 2 weeks

My workplace in Johor.

That's right, its my boss' house.

I sent out like 2 or 3 applications, 1 of which went to my previous lecturer at NYP, who had his own game company. Bryan Yeo, Robin Chia and I made the best game project for the module which my lecturer was teaching, so he was willing to hire me!!! Praise the Lord!

Screenshot of the game I worked on

So I got a job as a Game Programmer, had a monthly salary of 1.6k, a friendly boss whom was my lecturer - all these within 2 weeks. God indeed answers specific prayers! Thank you Jesus!

5) Revelation of the Word of God (August)

I was in one of my most down periods around this time, but thank God that Weiren shared about the Word of God! He said that if we live by the Word and believe it, nothing can shake our lives. Not trials, not testings, not temptations. Our lives will ALWAYS be fruitful, NEVER having a dry season.

¹ Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
³ He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

6) Callings: Armorbearer & Leadership (August)

During this season God began to reveal to me 2 great callings in my life:

a) Be Weiren's armorbearer.

This means to serve him faithfully, anticipate his needs, refresh his soul, protect him from enemies(critics or whatever), stand by him during tough times, honor him, and to help him fulfill his destiny.

At least that's what the Armorbearer book said.

b) Grow the connect group to 200. (O.O)"

Wow okay, I'm glad I posted this - it reminded me of my callings. God only gave me the vision to grow my connect group after the calling to serve Weiren. The saying that God will only give you your destiny after you help someone fulfill his destiny is true.

Looking at this 2 callings, there's only 1 thing I can say: I can't do it.

No wonder Pastor Kong says that the dreams God give you are so big that you cannot accomplish it without God.

7) God's grace in NS (September-December)

I just can't believe the amazing grace that God has given me during the whole course of my army! God answered my prayer for 9-5 vocation, so that I can serve him! Throughout these 3 months, I have been under good and lenient supervisors! (Or at least much better than I imagined NS supervisors to be)

8) Risk game with Weiren! (30th December)

Played Risk for the first time in years on the 2nd night of the Chalet! I never really liked Risk cause:
- it seemed like more of a luck game than strategy

- the game lasts for hours

Weiren revolutionarized that! He taught us how the play Risk properly with various strategies and tactics. After a trial game, all of us became very "jian"(cunningly sinister)!

It was a pretty exciting game, which enemies became allies and allies became enemies, which the weak overcame the strong, which lasted for 3.5 hours. XD

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Wowzer that was some long post! Thank God for an eventful 2009! However we've entered into a new decade, a new era of breakthrough!

Madness? This is Christmas!

Man this one TOUGH week! Christmas + End Of Year Service + Chalet! Madness!

But it was pretty fun as well XD

Booking seats for Christmas was really warfare - rushing for the seats, negotiating with the ushers, defending the seats at 2 sections, finding alternatives when seats got taken, remaining calm and urging others to be calm, and making the new friends feel welcomed. Woot!

There were lots to plan for our CG Chalet too - logistics, getting forecast, cost, food+stuff for barbecue, games. We were also practising for the Chalet performance(which didn't turn out too well, but it was fun dancing to "Sorry Sorry" wahaha). Thanks to everyone especially the CGCs who made (and are making) it happen! Thanks to Chong Hui for his help with the dance :)

Me and Tan Jin

Nice Christmas Trees

Ultra long queue!

In MRT lift!

Awesome Red Shades.

They belong to Kenneth, Isaiah's friend haha

Our Jurong West Building is so beautiful!

So glad that many of our friends were saved! :)

On friday night, we went to play Left 4 Dead 2!!! It was super fun!!! Love the new special infected! Love slashing zombies with a katana! And the rates were pretty cheap - $1.50 per hour :)

Left 4 Dead 2 rawks!

Dad brought home turkey! You gotta love the stuffing+cranberries+sauce :)

Yep. We ravaged the turkey. Muahaha.

Weiren also treated the CGCs to Imperial Treasure on sunday!!! Thanks so much Weiren!

The Xiao Long Bao, Wanton and Dumplings totally rocked! When you bite on one, the delectable juices spill out, tantalizing your taste buds with its uh.. savoury... uh... deliciousness-ness-ness.

Check out the spread!

I ordered "Red Oil Beef Ramen"!

It looked extremely spicy but it didn't turn out that spicy - even Tom Yam is spicier, if there's such a word haha. The beef is cut into lean slices, with each slice being unbelievably soft yet springy, not to mention ver-ry flavorful.

After which we went to Starbucks to stone-I mean to relax and grab a cup of coffee :3

Yeap, I feasted a lot this Christmas Season, but honestly, it was really tough getting things done. Sometimes it kinda feels like I gotta take the initiative to do stuff cos no one else is doing it. I guess that's the life of a leader.

Anyway, we started our Chalet yesterday! Whee! Will update my blog after the Chalet is over! =D

This Season

Torchlight
I started playing this game called "Torchlight" recently, after my friend showed us the game. Its a Diablo 3 wannabe, with the gameplay mechanics, items, skills, etc. pretty similar to the Diablo style.

Torchlight,
by Runic Games

Right now playing as the Alchemist, although I'm pretty noob; I'm still at level 9 while Josiah is already level 16 or higher wahahaha :P

It's a pretty fun game; a game to play while anticipating the release of Diablo 3! XD


This game is developed on the Ogre3D game engine! And its a very polished game! Can you believe it?! Even Bryan was amazed that Ogre could make such a game.

Nice artwork.

Deepavali Celebration
Alright enough about Torchlight. Last friday, my camp had a Deepavali Celebration, and all of us had to attend it. SAF is wise in wanting to build cohesion between the different cultures and races in Singapore, but we all kinda felt that it was eating into our free time, as it was after working hours.

Nevertheless, we went and it turned out to be quite entertaining hahas.
It was a little boring at the start, and the food was too greasy, but things got better.
The dance performances by Restricted Authority was good, with the last hip-hop dance item being the best! The most entertaining portion of the event was dressing up 4 men in a an Indian Sari!

Bryan was one of them, and that day I had the shock of my life. I saw a side of Bryan that I never hope to see again. All 4 men, including Bryan, acted like women, dancing those Bollywood moves and making some obscene notions. The whole room was full of laughter and shock.

Too bad cameras are not allowed in camp, or I would have posted those abomina- I mean unbelievable scenes :P

Personal Life
As for myself, I believe that now is the season for me to have a breakthrough relationship with God, to know Him as a friend, to have conversations with Him frequently. Now, I only know Him as a source of strength, wisdom, anointing and provision. Weiren told the CGCs that we have to go up one level higher in a spiritual maturity before our breakthrough as a Cellgroup will come. I believe this is the next level that I will achieve :)

Its quite a struggle to patiently wait on God and to seek Him diligently. Perhaps the issue is faith. This is the verse for my season:

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Heb 11:6)

In other words, I have to believe that God will draw close and speak with me as I diligently seek Him.

Faithful in the little :D

Hey guys, haven't been updating my blog cause I had a busy week, but I'll try to do so more often :D

We met a Captain today to discuss about our postings. Bryan and I will be posted to do the NYP website! :D

Weiren has been sharing to us about being faithful in the little things, and I decided to do my best to do the seemingly insignificant things (e.g. clean my table and room, maintain personal hygiene and dressing), and things entrusted to me.

I started going to the gym, spent a whole day tidying up my table, make my bed every morning etc. It wasn't easy, and there are some things I still can improve, but at least I made the decision to do it :)

Honestly, it was rather stressful - I get stressed over the smallest things. That's might be because I'm a perfectionist, but I'd like to see it as God expanding my capacity :D Nevertheless, it was like "Woohoo" after doing these things, especially cleaning up my table XD

Our service weekend attendance shot up to 38 this week!!! I believe it's because we all decided to be faithful in the little things. Jesus says that if we are faithful in the what is least, we will also be faithful in much, so He can entrust us with growth!

Let's continue to be meticulously faithful, and believe God for 50 members!

Pre-Enlistment Speech

Well, I'm entering NS like tomorrow, so I thought that it'll be good to do a speech.

So here it goes... (ahem)

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my honor to address you this umm.. extremely early morning. As you would have known by now, I will be entering into Full-Time National Service tomorrow, on the 15th September. The whole course of my training may last for 10 years, in which I will encounter many life-threatening situations which includes fighting terrorism, engaging jungle warfare, battling wild boars and cleaning toilets. But my country needs me, and I must defend with my life. To express my patriotism, I am even playing a patriotic song on this Blog. As such, I would like to give my well-wishes and goodbyes to all my dear friends, knowing that this may be the last time we will ever meet again....

Nah just joking :P

Alright I'll be serious...

My Views About NS
I believe that NS is the season of consecration and breakthrough for my life; I will draw closer to God, grow more spiritually mature. My dream, as Weiren has inspired me, is to become a Cell Group Leader while in NS :D

It is rather impossible to serve God as a Cell Group Leader while serving as an NSF, because of the high commitment of both positions, but with God all things are possible!

Of course I'm a little nervous about it cos NS is something new and unknown to me, but I just trust God that everything's gonna be alright.

I'll try my best to be a blessing to my Officers and my camp and shine for the glory of God - please pray for strength and wisdom :)


My Desires:
1) Cellgroup Growth
I really want to see W406 grow to 50 regular members corporately, and our spiritual levels grow individually. This is Weiren's vision, that we grow to 50 by October, and it will happen if we stay united in this vision!

You guys rock!

If we're gonna grow to that size, all of us must become more mature; going from "little children" to "young men (and women)". And the only way to do that is by the Word of God! I'm always praying that all of us will know, believe, confess and apply the Word of God in our lives!

"...I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one."
(1 John 2:14)

My heart's desire, as Weiren's desire, is to see all of you leading victorious lives - overcoming emotional and spiritual struggles, being blessed in everything (finances, studies, relationships, etc) and REJOICING ALWAYS!

"...Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
(Nehemiah 8:10)

2) 9 to 5 vocation
I'm praying that I'll be able to book out everyday, so that I can attend service, attend cellgroup, attend BS, give BS, attend prayer meetings and conference calls, attend Revivalist meetings, go out with w406, go out with Leroy and gang, nua at home, work on projects, sleep more, serve God, learn Jay Chou songs, go gym and have proper quiet time.

If I have to stay in, it'll be difficult to do all these. Imagine if I become a CGL and I cannot attend CG because have to stay in camp. Pray for me that I will get a 9 to 5 vocation, and for favor with the officers :D


3) Personal Growth
Basically, I want to grow in 4 areas:

• Love
• Boldness & Anointing
• Wisdom
• Strength (Perseverance)

This are the 4 traits that I believe will lead to a successful and balanced Christian life. I may be doing a sermon on this next time lols.

4) Build the House of God!
Let us arise and build! There is one special promise in the Bible that applies to those who build God's house:

‘Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid—consider it:
Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you.’
(Haggai 2:18-19)

Let's believe together for a land in the marketplace, for the marketplace to penetrate the marketplace! A beautiful 15,000 seater stadium; an iconic structure that Singaporeans will be proud of; a place with lots of facilities to carry out Bible studies, services, meetings; a cool place to hang out with cafes and retail stores :D

May the name of Jesus be glorified by this building!

Praying that I will have the finances to give, cos I don't want to pledge a smaller amount from last year.



Alright, so those are some of my desires :D

Oh yes, as fate would have it, Bryan will be entering on the SAME day as myself! He's also reporting at CMPB, and he's posted to Armor HQ as well! Talk about 有缘!

Gotta go to bed now.
Love you guys, see ya!

A Busy but Fruitful Week

Hey all, sorry that I haven't been posting. Been really busy lately. By God's grace, I managed to survive last week. Was practically working on Armor Valley every day, without slacking off, which is quite a miracle cause I normally would slack :P

Armor Valley: The game I'm working on with my company

I asked Josiah to play while I took the screenshots. Being an older brother has advantages :D

I started jogging again after a long while, on the advice of my boss, cos I have been oversleeping :X

Last wednesday, I had dinner with Fabian after BS at Fisherman's Wharf! Their fish and chips rawks so hard! I think I had Dory fish or something, which was $7.50. Had a nice time of sharing and encouraging each other :)

Giant Magnum ice-cream!
(at Dhoby Ghaut Interchange)

That's Fabian

When Fabian shared about deciding between 2 jobs, I felt an uneasiness about 1 job, but a sense of peace about the other job. It was the Holy Spirit leading me to show him to which job to choose! True enough, the job which I felt the uneasiness required Fabian to work during his cellgroup meeting. Wow, so cool! (phrase borrowed from Wanyi)

Fabian's a real brother, always very thoughtful and caring, constantly praying for me and asking about how I'm doing :) Thank God for such a wonderful bro!!! XD

It was quite draining this week, cause apart from work, I helped Weiren played guitar for various meetings. Many times I feel overwhelmed by the stuff I gotta do, and I get anxiety attacks nearly every night. Nevertheless, "My flesh and my heart fail; BUT GOD is the strength of my heart and my portion forever!" (Ps 73:29)

For a long while, I could not believe that I can last forever while serving God. I feel that I'm destined to burn out all the time. Thank God that He gave me a revelation through Weiren about the Word of God. According to Psalms 1, if I build my life on the Word of God, I will last forever, always fruitful in everything I do, always joyful in every situation.

Last week was a struggle but thank God for His Word! I'm a person who is quite unstable, not really faithful in the things I do. That's why I love Rom 4:20-21! I've learnt to put my name into the verse:

"Israel did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief,
but was strengthened in faith,
giving glory to God,
and being fully convinced
that what He had promised
He was also able to perform."

Wow! You can have a lot of revelations from this single verse!
Line 1: I CAN be faithful, it is possible! It is a matter of choice! Let me say that again, I CAN BE FAITHFUL! :D

Line 2: When I am weak, then I am strong, for He strengthens the weak; and to those who have no might, He increases strength.

Line 3: Ultimately, all glory goes to God, none for myself, because it is He who gives me strength, and my life is not my own (Gal 2:20)

Line 4: FULLY CONVINCED! When you are convicted about God's promises, nothing can discourage you! But this conviction comes from God, you cannot have it by yourself; you must ask God for it (a paradox but that's how it works)

Line 5 & 6: My future is bright and safe in God's hands; I do not need to worry, because God has shown me a glimpse of what my future is going to be, I know where I'm heading, and I rest in His promise, because Rom 8:28 and Jer 29:11

Woohoo! The Word of God is living and powerful! Thank God and Weiren for that revelation! I gotta watch myself though, and make sure I have love, because knowledge puffs up but love edifies.

Okay I could carry on talking about the Word of God but then the post would never be complete, so let's move on...


Leaders are also people, and we need to "nua" once in a while...

Scene before Cellgroup Meeting

God spoke to me a few times over the past 2 weeks, showing me what is my purpose now, and my purpose 5 years from now. However this week started off with temptation - I had a carnal dream on Monday which I have never had before in my whole life. Had to shake it off by confessing the Word.

I still have PLENTY of weaknesses, especially in self-discipline, but "being CONFIDENT of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will COMPLETE it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1:6)

Alright that's what I want to say, although it's kinda spontaneous and unorganized :D
I know I still owe the final segment of The Best Of Jay Chou series, but I won't have time to do it until next week, when I finally stop work XD

Seeya!

Haircut!

I was tired of my shabby hair, thus I spontaneously decided to go to the barber today.

Usually, I would go to the barber at Yio Chu Kang as that barber's skills are not bad and she understands what kind of hairstyle I want (I had told her I wanted 罗志祥 hairstyle). She would also give her advice on how my hair should be trimmed, which portions I should leave and how I should style my hair. All that for $8!

Nevertheless, I was going to work and didn't want to waste time making a detour to Yio Chu Kang. Thus, I went to the nearest EC House at Khatib. It was a BAD MISTAKE!

I gave instructions on how my fringe should be like, and that the top of my hair should be short. I specified that I didn't want a slope and I wanted my hair to be generally shorter than usual.

The result was a disaster!!! The barber practically destroyed my sideburns and desecrated my left fringe! She shouldn't have left a gap between my left fringe and my left sideburns! I wanted nicely shaped sideburns but now it looks so wispy!

I was rather angry at this and swore that I'll never go back to EC House again. I wanted to do something drastic like go to the barber at Yio Chu Kang to touch it up, but I concluded that it would only make things worse. The best thing to do was to wait for my hair to grow back again before another trim.

Thus I prayed to God that I would lift my eyes off my own selfish needs and look up to His desire and others' needs. Thank God that the anger subsided :)

Eventually, I looked at myself in the mirror and realised that it isn't all that bad. Hahaha.
I guess confidence comes from within, not without.

Alright, I have to go now. Still busy with work and stuff. I'll revamp my blog when I have the time ;)

Till next time!

Graduation Day!

Yay I graduated from Nanyang Polytechnic, School of Interactive Digital Media with a Diploma in Digital Entertainment Technology on the 29 May 2009!

Me and Chen Thong,
with half of Xuan Yu's face

Xuan Yu and Chen Thong

Me with sian face haha.

Performance by NYP students.
Kinda small in the photo...

Kenny came all the way from Canada!
So touched by his gesture!!! Great to see him again, with his new awesome hairdo hahahaha. It was very much a pleasant surprise XD

Me and Joseph!
This joker dyed his hair later. I was shocked to see his whole hair purple after the Song of Solomon Bible Study. Lawls.

Mr Danny Koh and I!

My Certificate!

Song Of Solomon Bible Study
Pastor Kong preached an awesome Bible Study! I felt that the whole Bible Study was talking about me. He talked about believers who have been christians for some time, but became burnout while serving and do not know Jesus intimately. This was all true for me! The only thing not true for me was about bad leaders who lay heavy burdens on the members - Weiren is a great leader!!!

Pastor preached about getting our first love with Jesus again. This is the best message I've heard since 6 years ago, when I was just a few weeks old in CHC. Back then, Pastor Kong preached about the presence of God, the "Shekinah Glory".

When we sang "Draw me, O draw me away...", we all felt the presence of Jesus and began to tear. Indeed, only Jesus can satisfy completely. My greatest desire is to be passionate in love with Jesus, a step deeper each day! I will lay aside all distractions and discouragement!

Thank you Jesus for your love and faithfulness!!!