So many things I have been thinking of and yet the situation does not permit me to speak it out.

It frightens me how vulnerable we men and guys are to sin and temptations. People who are 'up there' and in the field recognise their danger of falling, and we who are 'normal' going to church on Sundays, and perhaps, lead groups, do not see the danger. And it is those who think they are stable who will fall. Each compromise leads us closer to the edge. I have heard, seen and experienced things that show me clearly the dangers of sexual sin. It doesn't matter if you're a pastor or an overseas worker or a church leader or just one of the normal members, you ARE vulnerable, and if you fail to admit that, you are positioning yourself for a fall.

And I see we don't have an accountability group back in Bethany (not that I know of). Even the overseas workers here are meeting up twice a month to check on one another.

Chicken a la Carte

Email I got from Salome a week or so after Weiz showed me this video.

Makes me think of the condition over here. Some regions, the farmers can only grow enough food for half a year, because of the climate and land. They tend to starve the other half so death from starvation isn't an uncommon thing though we might not see it back at home or even in cities here.


A short film about hunger and poverty.

Click on the Link below and see.

This video really touched my heart, hope it touches yours too. =)

After watching the video, let's think about this.
-What can we do to help? For real, not just pity talk.
we may already be so used to being apathetic to the people who suffer alongside us in our society, on a daily basis...
how will we go after the needy, the poor,the widow and so on?
we've got to tear down the walls of religion,
wake up for the call of loving, starting with people near us.
live like Jesus. love like Him.

Chicken a la Carte : Director: Ferdinand Dimadura | Genre: Drama | Produced In: 2005

Synopsis:
This film is about the hunger and poverty brought about by Globalization.
There are 10,000 people dying everyday due to hunger and malnutrition.
This short film shows a forgotten portion of the society.
The people who live on the refuse of men to survive.
What is inspiring is the hope and spirituality that never left this people.

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a-la-Carte

Life without Plastic Bags

Just realised (and also pointed out by Jia), that I have been exposed a lot to the theories on love, hahaa.

Some things I heard from the couples I met here:

1) Long-distance relationships can work. My boss and his wife developed their relationship while he was over here and she was back in Aust. They met when he went back to attend a friend's wedding, got to know here and maintained their relationship for over a year (if I remember correctly) before getting married and she moved over.

2) Couples can start out disliking each other (like TV shows and movies). This couple who visited us from Aust (also, hahaa) started out disliking each other, and in fact had very different personalities (opposites attract, so they say). It takes more work, but it can work out too.

3) There is a special one for you. The couple of point 2 were brought together by Father. It's a long story, but He brought both of them to the same congre, had people speak to each of them about the other person, and basically led both of them to realise they were meant for each other.

4) Couples can be brought together by Father from different lands, and He can give signs to show that each one that they are meant to for one another. I sat down at the lunch table in time to hear this story of how this couple met each other a few times in different countries. And the guy developed feelings for the girl, but he wasn't sure, so he asked for a sign that if she came over to his place that night (which had never happened before), she's the one. He even went out to stack the odds against him, only to receive a call from the girl saying she had something to discuss with him and was coming over. He confessed his feelings and now they're married with a kid.

Well, I wonder why I keep hearing these stories that break my preconceived notions that these things are just fairy tales. I won't say this is the norm; they may perhaps just be exceptions, but these things can happen. Perhaps this can benefit some of you reading, hahaa.

Another tip for you guys that I heard from my boss today. Girls want to be chased, even after marriage. It does stop at marriage.

Wonder why I'm getting so much exposure to this, or probably because I'm keeping an ear out for these stories? Hahaa, not sure, but sure is interesting, heh.

Gardening and Retreat

Shannen once mentioned that I'm not one to give up easily. I'm not sure how she came to the conclusion, but indeed, I can be quite stubborn when I make up my mind to do or complete something. Not sure if you still remember me mentioning something I found I could do over here, but I did give a little clue some posts back.

It's nothing too exciting or amazing, hahaa, but I started working on the garden in the office building. The staff gave me something easy to start with - garlic and some sweet potato. There was nothing growing out of the ground for almost two weeks after I planted and the staff started commenting, perhaps it's because the garlic was old and had died. I also had my own doubts about the soil since they wash their mops there and all the detergent and dirty water might have killed the soil, but that was only one portion. I continued to water everyday regardless. And the result was growth! Not one, not two, but 5 now. Probably with more watering, I'll see more sprouting.

The staff must be amused to see me planting the seeds of whatever fruit I ate, and to keep watering despite the lack of growth. They even said they'll get me proper seeds since it must be disappointing to see a lack of results.

I also cleared up their backyard, but it's probably too dark to grow plants here. Probably I can transfer trees here after they've grown a bit. A male stuff and I managed to clear a lot of the overgrown plants here and we've turned a 'forest' back into a backyard. I had to cut down some of the bamboo plants and I'm reminded of one of Jacky Chan's lines from one of the Rush Hour movies. "Chinese bamboo. Very strong..."

I just came back from a retreat and initially was wondering how my plants will be. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that more plants had sprouted; especially the seed which I planted in a container and set on my window sill. Previously, a weed was all I got, now, there's a little seedling.

A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps of gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

The speaker for the retreat was a very good one. He talked about Joseph's life and how it applies to people who have left home to work here. I am very sure the BCI people are touched by his words. He spoke of detouring, not reaching the destination directly, but having to move on elsewhere first; of delaying, having to wait and wait for something to happen; of being faithful where we're planted, as Joseph was as a slave and in prison; disappointments and betrayal and yet still have the grace to forgive and serve when we're down ourselves.

He even talked about another thing, being faithful in relationships. I had always wonder how difficult it would be to be faithful if as a single, it's so easy to be attracted to attractive women. Would getting married make it easier? Of course not. It would take work on our part. He was honest in saying that we would still find people who draw us to them, but it would be our job to put distance between as, going against our heart (not following our heart as the saying goes so commonly) and that requires self-discipline.

We had a talent night and amazingly, no 'forcing' was required. People volunteered on their own and I got roped in into a group of youths because they lacked a person. Still don't know why I agreed. Anyway, it was just doing some easy repeated actions, but it was comical. The audiences were laughing away.

Even young kids sang, danced, acted. Kids from primary school to secondary. There were many solo violin recitals as well. The children were amazingly sporting. There were these 2 sisters who even went up repeated times and danced, surprising even their father who was playing the guitar, thinking they were just going to sing, hahaa.

Some of us, 2 sg and lots of Americans went to a nearby cave to explore. I was expected to see some natural wonders but was disappointed. The cave was carved out with steps and lights. Coloured lights. Blue, green, red. When I told my boss, he and his wife laughed about it.

There's a place called dinosaur valley near my town, and I was thinking of visiting it. Apparently they had discovered dinosaur bones and fossils there. Now, I'm not sure if I still want to go. It would be traumatizing to find a dancing T-rex skeleton complete with multi-coloured disco neon lights...

True love and finding it...?

Some bits of info I picked up in the lectures and training of staff with regards to love. You all might know this, and things I put here are mainly those that I find interesting or didn't know about at first. Not that I think it's all 101% true, even though the later part esp are derived from the lives of our very very first ancestors. Read and determine for yourself.

Lectures first.

Three kinds of love (might be more, but the lecturer says these are the main ones):

"I love you, if..." If you do this or this, I'll love you. Can one keep on fulfilling certain desires?

"I love you, because..."
Because you are like this or that, or because you have this. What exactly is the object of love? The person or...?

"I love you, no strings attached." Agape, so to speak.

No price for guessing which is true love.

True love isn't blind, rather, it sees the other person for who he/she really is, strengths, weaknesses, character, faults and all, and accepts that person.

True love doesn't expect the other party to change, and instead focuses more on what we ourselves can offer. Change comes when each individual feels so loved and cherished that he/she wants to change to become a better person.

True love is built upon three things:
Respect
Friendship
Trust

Characteristics of true love:
Love is patient, love is kind... so on, you know the drill.

Part two, from an Australian Chinese couple:

(Suddenly I recalled a phrase that caught my attention some time ago: He made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve)

It's the guy's job to go look for the girl. The proactive one. Adam looked for a helper among the animals, but couldn't find one. (Sounds wrong, lol.)

But it was Father who brought her to him, and once he saw her, he knew she's the one. So guys, while looking, don't forget you need help from Him as well.

Eve didn't exactly do much, just let Father lead her to him. So she's the one doing the waiting for the right guy.

Then it's the fall.

The snake went for the woman, why? She's more easily swayed by words, her weakness are her ears. The man would not be so easily swayed by words.

But then his weakness was his eyes. He was swayed by the woman. The woman might not have been swayed by the man if he didn't know what to say.

And then the curse:

A woman will long for her husband and he will rule over her. And so what a woman needs most in a relationship is love from her husband. And that is why husbands are called to love. Take note guys.

A man's curse is to work the field, no matter how tough, and so his desire now is towards his work. But his need in a relationship is one that respects him, no matter if he performs well or not. Take note ladies. And guys, you have to lead in the relationship.

We then split into male and female groups for more discussion. Guys if you want to know more, ask me personally. Hahaa.

I'm not certain if it's all 100% true, since the drawing out seems a bit far-fetched at points, but well, general characteristics of the 2 genders seem fine enough.

Note to self - most fruit trees don't grow if the seeds have gone into the mouth and out.

BBQ with Uni Students on 28th March

Some pics of birds from the Kunming Zoo for Weiz.

We started the day with a simple song, one about chasing your dreams and not giving up. It has a nice tune to it and meaningful lyrics. The kind of song where youths like to sing, hahaa. A short time of games followed. Most of you will remember the game where a group of people have to flip the groundsheet over while standing on it and not letting anyone step out onto the ground. It was then bbq time!

They used small pits where everyone could sit around it and cook and eat together. Much better than those we have at home where just a few people can do the cooking. Veg is the main source of food here, even in bbq. We had jiu cai (not sure what's the english name, heh), cucumber, egg plant and sliced potatoes. But what's a bbq without meat? There was also beef, chicken wings and luncheon meat.

It was a good turn out. The skies were cloudy, but thankfully, it didn't rain at all. It usually did when skies were like this.

I took these while we were on our way back. And now I understand where 'Every cloud has a silver lining' comes from.

Over the Mountains and the Sea

This week is a week of many firsts. Friday (3rd April) was a holiday for the staff, and since most of them went for a retreat, I was basically alone. I asked my classmate, Mat, how to reach the foot of the nearby mountain and he gave me directions and drew me a map. He is able to direct me to the foot, but I'm on my own with regards to climbing. He advised that I should go with someone familiar for the first time or I may get lost. Feeling a little adventurous, plus the few who can go with me aren't around, I decided to give it a shot on my own.

I made my way to the foot of the mountain despite forgetting my map (well done x1) and on the way up, I realised I forgot my gloves as well (well done x2). Well, I didn't want to make it a wasted trip so I went ahead anyway. I was tired out even before I reached the forests, but it was ok inside the forest itself. Probably cause I had to take careful steps inside, so I couldn't go fast and so it wasn't tiring. Some parts were steep though. Going up was fine... coming down later wasn't easy at these parts. I was practically sliding down.

In between civilisation (top) and the forest (bottom).

Lots of nice interesting plants, but not much flowers though. Heard that they're higher up.

View of the city and Er Hai (a lake actually), though named Er Sea.

Dear WL wanted pictures of birds so here they are.

LOL, the birds I've seen are our sg sparrows and some other green yellowish bird which I couldn't get a shot of, sorry. Very few birds in the city. I can hear them calling in the forest, but can't get a shot at them.

Fried Er Si. My first attempt at cooking here. It smells not bad, but tastes as bad as it looks. Not giving up though, will try again!

Quote of the week:

You don't know how many cuts you have until you take a shower.

Itsy Bitsy Giardia Swimming in the Lake

My favourite parasite from the modules infectious diseases and microbiology. Mainly because it's so easy to recognise under a microscope and it has an easy to remember name. This little fellow causes diarrhoea 1 week after ingestion and is spread through contaminated food and water. It's quite common over here so be careful what you eat.

I vomitted the whole night on Sunday. It was probably the bread that I kept too long. Though it was a terrible night, It's a good thing that everything I ate was removed and nothing was absorbed into my system, which would be much worse. The next day was a tiring one, and an aching stomach, having worked the whole night to push everything out. But otherwise, I was ok.

Hahaa, guess what I did to the computers at the office? I set up a wireless network for them, lol. So now, more people, including me, heh, can access the net at the same time. There's a desktop and and laptop here, so at least 2 of them can be on at anyone time.

I found something else to do at the office when I'm bored. Will show you more when I got results from my work, hahaa. I am really settling in.

Didn't know it was so easy to setup a chat box. Realised Larry had one with standard blogger template so decided to look around the blog setup page. Will be removing the moderation for comments too, since most likely there won't be anymore of them, hahaa. Just watch what you say on the chat box or comments should you decide to still do that.

This week was rather hectic. Afternoons are alright, but nights are all burnt. Lectures and small groups with the students of the university. The topic was media influence, and it made me realise how much movies and songs, and esp games. Look at dead space on youtube if you want to see how violent games can get. Warning, extreme gore, digusting monsters and horrible ways of dying. Not for the faint hearted.

Also, you can listen to this ridiculous song.

A couple of my friends and I went for a climb up a mountain. Turns out they had a little park up there. Quite a nice view.

My first photo on this blog, hahaa.

Just a month and He has already shown me so much about myself. There is still a long way to go, but when I start focusing on 'fixing' myself and less on Him, I've already lost focus.

Went to the 'sea-side'. It's a lake but so large they call it a sea. The beach isn't that nice, but I have some close-up pics of flowers requested by WL.

Need to be sensitive about cultural issues. Learnt recently that Xiao Jie (Miss) actually means sex workers for the people here. No wonder a nurse giggled when I addressed her in that manner. Come to think of it, I'm very fortunate to have only earned a giggle. I could easily have earned a tight slap...

Sunday

Did what we usually did on Sundays back at home, except this time it's at the homes of other people. Went for a local and international one. The local one was more sit and listen, unlike the international one, which was a study on Mark.

The international ones were workers from different countries, and their discussion, though starting from simple questions, led to deep discussion. The focus of discussion wasn't what we could get out or learn from it, but to understand and know Him more. As the leader put it, devotion came out of the word devote, that is to be ardently dedicated to a person, loyal to a person, in love with a person. Time spent with Him is not for us to read and find fault with ourselves, to change ourselves, but to grow in love with Him and let Him change us from within. I guess the workers are all theo trained? Makes me feel like taking up part time like Susanto kept encouraging me to, following Uncle Mark's footsteps? Hahaa.

And this answers my question after I read How to Read the B For All It's Worth given to me by Uncle Mark. After learning to study it, it seems everything must be used in context and hardly seems applicable. Probably, like what the leader suggested, finding something to apply need not always be the goal of the reading.

I realised what I said a few posts back might seem to suggest service is the ultimate goal. By no means. Service is good, and you'll definitely mature from it, but the most important thing is still the first and second commandment. You guys know that from the camp we just had. You guys are ready, and that is why I encourage you to step up. But NEVER ever forget Him.

In case you're confused by my posts, most of the pictures are back dated. I'm in Dali now. So here's my 'home' for the rest of my time here. This is my tiny little room. Hahaa.

This is a rack loaned to me by a fellow Singaporean. My things were all over the floor that's why no pics for you before this, hahaa. I got the mug, the tissue paper and even coffee from her too! Hahaa.

The other end of the room. The office's medicine cupboard. You can see the edge of the bed at the lower left corner.

Where I use my computer.

Oh, it's cleaner than it looks. But it runs on solar powered water heater. So cloudy day = no warm water = cold shower in a cold evening =S

Food Stuff Kunming Style

I found these in Kunming, good stuff. The coffee's even better than most of those I had at home.

There's Korean food as well at another shop, the Wicker Basket. I got my bread supply here as well.

Got to eat a lot of local food, thanks to my friends here. The guy is a relative of the sisters, the 2 on the extreme right. The girl in the middle is a friend of the sisters. I got to try the girls' cooking.

This is the famous guo qiao mian xian. It was good. No layer of oil though so it didn't feel authentic to me. But I learnt that's because this place has started to be more health conscience, with increasing health issues found in developed countries, high BP, heart problems, stroke and the like. Wonder if I'll ever find a real oily version.

Thanks for dying on me over here, my beloved Sony Mp3 Walkman. You haven't served me well. I'll help you RIP (rest in pieces) when I get hold of some orthopedics surgery equipment...

Flowers, Zoo and Cherry Blossom Festival

What a wondrous time is spring
When all the trees are budding
The birds begin to sing
The flowers start their blooming

Flower pics requested by HY.

Streets of Kunming.

From Dali. Those below are from the Kunming Zoo, celebrating the Cherry Blossom Festival. You can see why.

This is the Peacock Garden. The one below has opened up it's tail feathers. We were waiting for it to raise its tail up, but it was just grooming itself and had no intreast in the female in front of it.

Amusement park in the zoo!?

I hate formatting paragraphs with pictures in blogger...