New beginning

After months of hesitating and asking God for direction, we finally came to a decision to leave New Covenant Sanctuary. Maybe it's just us, but Sunday after Sunday, I feel that Penny and I were just going through the motion of going to church and serving our respective ministries. I cried out to God and asked for forgiveness that we'd become so passive. What had happened? We don't even know. I guess we came to a point where we were fed up of everything going in circles, and church was the last place we'd expect to deal with spirals.

Many have asked us - what if it was God's will for us to be placed in NCS, wouldn't we be going against His will by leaving? It's a case of being stuck between a rock and a hard place - we'd be damned if we did and damned if we didn't. Again, I prayed for forgiveness and told God that I'd rather sin in an attempt to get closer to Him than to remain there and sin anyway by harbouring so much bitterness that would kill our spiritual lives eventually.

I couldn't bear to leave everything that we tried so hard to build up, but I asked myself 'Would I be able to make a difference?'. In the end, it's all about doing it for His glory and not mine. I remember the prophecy given to me was that I'd work with youth of THE church; the prophecy didn't say THIS church, so I comfort myself with the thought that it's still His house no matter where we serve.

If it was really God's will for us to be there, guess He would send a 'big fish' to 'swallow' us up and spit us out back there.

We continue to pray for the people of NCS as we begin a new chapter in our walk with Christ.

New Year's Eve @ 477 JWest

After having so much fun at the Christmas sleepover in church a week earlier, the youth suggested that we do something similar for New Year's Eve. Although some came up with the crazy idea of camping on the beach at East Coast just so we could see the fireworks display at Marina at the stroke of midnight, I was crazier to suggest another sleepover in church plus a hike up Mt Faber close to midnight for a glimpse of the aforementioned fireworks display. But both options would have left us cold and hungry, so I opted for a BBQ at our place instead (Blk 477 at Jurong West, geddit??).

We had purchased all the necessary items earlier, going to QB Foods at Chin Bee to purchase a one-kilo slab of sirloin, frozen mussels and other similarly congealed foodstuff. It was half day at the office so it was on with the preparation the minute I got home.

Some of the youth started to arrive at about 5PM, so they helped out with the prep work while I got my hands dirty trying to get the fire going. An hour later when the red hot charcoal burning at a nice, slow pace, it was time to start bakar-ing all our stuff.

The food was great - my favourites have got to be the wings seasoned with honey mustard (my idea!) and the squid with cincalok that never fails (though a tad spicy). Penny started baking the mussels in the kitchen halfway through, but only managed half of the box as the rest were soon forgotten amidst the hoo-ha happening outside.

Of course, most of them couch potatoes took a break to catch Love Blossoms at promptly at 7PM and later at 9PM to catch Little Nonya.

Despite worrying about not having sufficient grub for the kids to last through the night, we had enough leftovers to last us for the next few days in the end - a bag of otah, two more kilos of chicken wings, one bag of sotong balls, one bag of cocktail sausages and five slices of sirloin steaks.

The major spoiler of the night was when Joel was 'recalled' home by his mum, punishment for not keeping her informed that the party was a sleepover and making her worry into the night. It sort of dampened everyone's spirit somewhat and after Joel left for home reluctantly (accompanied by Philip to cushion the impact), everyone was just too bummed to do anything else. Despite an attempt at some card games to reignite the party spirit, it was somehow half-baked with the thought that our brother was getting his @$$ kicked by his mum back home.

By 2AM, I was too zonked to carry on so I left them to go about their activities - Ash and Carissa were glued to the Korean drama series on DVD that was recommended by Penny, some were sleeping in our room while other just crashed in the living room. I found a corner in the living room to spread out a thick blanket and KO'ed there before my eyelids became too heavy to keep open. Amazingly, Ash and Carissa were still at it when I woke up in the morning!

I hate to admit it, but age is REALLY catching up. Can't keep up with these sleepovers like I used to.