Back Safely

Time flies, I'm back in the States. It's been two weeks since.

SoulFest from August 1-4. It's a Christian music festival in New Hampshire featuring over 100+ bands. It was amazing, post more about it sometime.

Back at the Place of Promise now, it's been a week and it's just great. I can't believe how timely it is and how God works everything out. Will be leaving for NY on Friday before I head back to school next week for RA training all the way till classes begin on the 4th of next month.

God has been gracious and extremely comforting. He is Love. He is Life.

Till then. :)

This has been one of the longest hiatuses in blogging for me. It's ironic though that I still manage to find time to blog even when I'm really busy as opposed to not posting anything even though I'm much more free right now.

That being said, I've only got a month left at home. I know this sounds cliche and as much as I want to avoid it, time really does fly. Half of my summer break gone, just like that.

Euro 2012 ended yesterday. Staying up till 5-6 am for a few nights every week wasn't really that difficult to be honest, since my regular sleeping hours (start) were between 2-4am. I caught more than half of the matches and thoroughly enjoyed most, if not all of them. Of course, only a few were particularly memorable and thrilling. I'm glad that Spain won and am also really glad that it's over although not having any match to watch in the morning now is weird. But that's okay.

I have to say that the final displayed all the reasons why Spain are world and Euro champions, creating history as well. The players gave their all, AS a team. They proved you don't need a Ronaldo or a Balotelli to score goals. And Torres proved himself to be selfless when he so generously assisted for the final goal which he could've so easily struck himself... The complete opposite of someone most of us know. Despite leaving the Reds, I still have great admiration for him as a footballer and I am glad he got the Golden Boot as well.

Been spending a lot of time with family and friends. It wasn't till a few days ago that I realized how much I appreciate my upbringing in this place... There is no coincidence, everyone I have come across in my life whether for just awhile or months and years, God has brought to my path for a reason. And I also believe that it works the other way round as well. I am grateful, extremely grateful.

Church camp was held in Taiping last weekend and it was great. The speakers talked about the Glory of the Lord over two sessions. It was quite a lot to take in but God definitely used them and spoke to all of us in His own way. I am still reflecting over what has been said and shared and pray that I will not forget.

As for this month, I'll be making a few trips to various places to conclude this break and meet up with people. And also, get working on that reading list.

I will be back soon. God bless!!

A Quick Update

Been staying up pretty late these past two weeks. Earliest bed time at 2. Have had lots to do but this craziness is about to end. 2 more final papers, 1 more day of classes and I'm done with freshman year.

Leaving for NY on Thursday for a much needed break, coming back to campus on Monday by which most, if not all students will be gone. I have to mention I'm leaving during finals precisely because none of my classes have sit-in final exams. I am grateful indeed.

RA training from 1st of May to the 3rd and on the 4th, I'll be on my way home. :).

My last Sunday at church was amazing. I have been blessed with such a great church family back home and here as well.. I've been going to the church for the past 3 months and I have received tremendous support and love and I cannot thank Him enough. Definitely going to miss everyone there but I'm looking forward to worshiping in my own church back home :)


Blog soon, I hope.

You are my strength.

Here and There

Really looking forward to going home this summer. I like it here, I really do. But it feels like I've been away from home for too long... It's a weird feeling though.

Honestly, there are so many things to say, so many things that can be said...

On another note, Spring Break's in two weeks, really excited. Will be going back to the Place of Promise, miss all the people there!! And I'm excited about what God is going to do this time around :).

School work's been a lot as always... Won't complain though, cause compared to many of my friends, I have it much easier in terms of work load, definitely not easy classes!

Gospel choir concert at SNHU down at Manchester this Sunday, really pumped...

Been a crazy emotional week for me. Not in a bad sense, it was just weird having all of those emotions again after so long. Really feels different this time though. God has certainly done amazing things in my heart after all these years, reminding me time and again of His faithfulness and sufficiency. He's more than enough for me, definitely...

Till then.

79 days till I fly home.

Extended weekend, no classes on Monday (Winter Recess).

Was at the Navs Winter Conference over the weekend, will blog about it soon.

I'll get the time this weekend, I will.

Two more days and it'll be February. Wow.

The spring semester started two weeks ago, work is starting to pile up. But I won't complain, I do like my classes. And being with my friends here again is certainly great. I had an amazing winter break which was more than I could ask for.

I posted my daily experiences at Place of Promise and took them all down just to be safe. Don't want to go against the confidetiality of the residents, not that I was told not to but yea. Anyway, if you want to read about what I really experienced, go here. I was told to do a write up on the place before I left and I did, and it was included in the newsletter to my surprise. Hope you are blessed, somehow..

I bought my flight ticket, will be back in May for 3 months. :)

Happy CNY, a tad late but oh well...

God bless, till then!

winter break

So the first semester has ended. I had a few doubts before I came particularly in relation to studies:

1. MATH. The thought of taking a Math class (only need one) was not something I looked forward to. I was never really bad at Math, but I just don't like it.

2. Maintaining a GPA of 3.3 to keep the scholarship which isn't really that high but considering the fact that the academic system here is wholly new and based on consistency, I had no idea what to expect.

Needless to say, my Math class was actually enjoyable and I aced it. My professor made it as practical as possible so all the stuff we learnt (more like revised) were useful and applicable. And as for my GPA, my mid term grades were pretty good and my final ones were even better. They were right when they said I needn't worry. Thank God. Couldn't have pulled through those late nights working on papers if it were not for Him.

Having said that, the semester was great and as much as I'd like to do a reflection on it, I'd save it for next year when my freshman year ends. It'll make more sense then.

I've been at Kathryn's place in Haverhill for a week now. Will be heading to Place of Promise tomorrow. I'm really excited about what awaits me yet a part of me's afraid of this new experience. I really wanted to do something during the winter break and I thought volunteering would be the way to go. It's a time for me to give back and not just relax. After searching for organizations to work with and contacting them, I believe God opened this door for me. It would not have been my first choice considering that the nature of the work is more challenging than if I had worked at places like YWAM or YMCA. And I know His plans are always infinitely better than I what I would want for myself. A living proof is the fact that I am here at CSC and not anywhere else in the States. I had no idea.

Anyway, a highlight of the first week of break so far is going to Boston to meet with the other friends from college. In short, we went to Chinatown, had Dim Sum which was pretty good and surprisingly reasonable. I spoke in Cantonese to the workers there and they actually understood me. Hah. We walked around Boston for a couple of hours. The pictures are all on Facebook but here's a group one:

A picture by the tree at Faneuil Hall at 2.30 p.m

Another one at 5.

Winter started yesterday but it sure doesn't feel like it. It hasn't been snowing and some people are saying this is the warmest winter thus far. Its supposed to be snowing for at least two weeks now. Apparently its coming though. We get snow in October and November but not December, its weird.

That's it for now. Christmas is coming, will post something soon. God bless you all!

close to the end

In short, the semester's over. Well not really, but my classes are.

2 final papers due and 1 exam next week and college will be done for this semester.

Been sleep deprived for the past few days especially on Monday and Tuesday. The result = slept through my alarm to miss my class which I was supposed to present with a friend. Yes it was horrible. Yes I was mad at myself. Yes I was disappointed at my irresponsibility. I usually set two alarms and I thought that I'd still get up even after snoozing the first one. Turns out the other wasn't really turned on.... My friends were telling me I was being too hard on myself, it happens to everyone. Err, maybe not when they're supposed to present? And it was my first time too. Needless to say, I emailed my professor and explained what happened. And because I've been fairly consistent in class, she decided to give me extra work for the second part of this course (in Spring 2013) instead of affecting my grade now. Thank God really.

I got over it after awhile. Learnt a good lesson and I'm not gonna let it happen again. At least this craziness is over.

To go back on all that's happened will be too long so I will not do that.

My winter break plans are kinda set now. Will be going to Kathryn's place in Mass for a week, then spend 2 weeks volunteering at Place of Promise in Mass as well; it's a Christian home for people who want to start a new life so there are all kinds of people there; homeless, sick, ex-drug addicts etc. It will be interesting, will be spending Christmas there too... And after that, I'll be headed to Brooklyn, NY for a week.

Till then!

God bless.

You're my strength, all I need

Thanksgiving was great, had a good break in Maine.

Maybe I have lost my penchant for blogging, still, I'm not going to stop completely.

A crazy week coming up with 4 presentations and 2 papers due. Final exam and papers in 2 weeks. With the amount of workload I have, you'd think I'd be crazy or stressed out. But once again, He strengthens me and gives me the grace to go through it all. Always amazed.

I'm going to be busy though, will be back when I find the time.

Winter break plans are kinda sorted out now, thank God.

Was presented with kinda sad news and it makes me wonder about a lot of things. Whatever it is, everything is in His hands and I can only pray.

Life is short, never forget that.

Let me not drift away from You but grow closer and closer till we meet...

The Beginning of Winter, No ?

First snow of the year - really pretty! But not so when it gets in your face. The snow was kinda fluffy and still clean, probably won't be as nice when it gets really thick. I'm glad the weather's gonna be back to normal tomorrow. It's only been a month of fall - this is too quick!

Going to Lowell, MA tomorrow with the gospel choir for a worship conference at Whole Armour International (a church); will be singing with other choirs as well. Only for a night but it's gonna be great! And it's all paid for as well, except for some meals. Couldn't ask for more.

Here's a picture from our Back 2 School Concert last week; it was immense!

Really grateful for everything. Thank You Lord.

Be back soon.

Where To Begin

I've been away for so long that I really don't know where to start. What exactly do I say? Here comes a very jumbled up post.

Had one of the most 'stressful' weeks last week. I put the inverted commas because the word stress is somehow foreign to me. The amount of workload I had last week was crazy; there was a paper due everyday. And procrastination did not help me. Thank God I managed to get through all the craziness without a nervous breakdown. I've seen so many people around me complaining, looking so tired and overwhelmed. God has been gracious and merciful, He's been my strength, as always.

The fall break came just in time after that and it ended on Tuesday. Classes resumed on Wednesday and now its the weekend again.

One of the most amazing things happened last week: My roommate accepted Christ. God definitely answers prayers. And the way He just moved her is still something I find unreal yet I know it is simply because that is who He is.

God has been speaking to me as well, through various people and circumstances. I feel that this HAS to be in an entirely different post so I shall retreat to that now.

It Starts Again

Went to T.Intan in the afternoon. My uncle wanted to treat before I leave. Meals in T.Intan = seafood and its always great. Really grateful.

The EPL's season begun, finally. It was quite dull without any games going on for the past few months; it's much more exciting now. Yet I always have mixed feelings in regards to Liverpool particularly because I just want them to at least get into the top 4 but competition's getting tougher and tougher every season. Just wish the best for them. :)

Disappointing start yesterday, only managed a point. But a point's better than nothing and seeing how Sunderland came back in the second half with so much more energy and determination, I guess they deserved it.

Still, YNWA. Go REDS!

I wonder how I'll keep up with soccer in the States. If I even have the time. The timing's gonna be really weird though. A 3pm kick-off in the UK would mean I'd be watching it at 10am compared to 10pm here. But as weird as it may be, its much more feasible.

I'm thinking it could be just 'weird' because I'm not used to it.

Food for thought: Have you ever done something and when someone (usually from a different ethnicity) ask you why and the only answer you can give is 'because that's how we do it?'

There's much more to that and I'll talk about it some other time. I read a really interesting book on deep culture and thought it'd be interesting to share. :)

Till then!

I decided to revamp my blog and what you see right now took me nearly 2 hours. I still want to add more stuff but this'll do for now. I've been using layouts made by other people but since Blogger has a new layout editing feature (for quite some time now), I thought I'd try it out. :)

I've exactly a month left and I'm not ready to leave at all.

Really don't know what else to say right now so till then.

God bless. :)

I guess my inconsistency in blogging is due to the lack of anything 'interesting' or blog-worthy. (I'm not saying all previous entries were anything close to that).

Or is it something that comes as we age (perhaps entering into early adulthood)? That most of the things that used to capture our interest just don't anymore. Who knows.

I guess I'd come back when I really do have something to update on. Or if I get any revelations, better not to force any just to post something.

As a brief update, I'm renewing my passport tomorrow and applying for my visa asap. Going to T.Intan with mum somewhere mid-week to stay with grandparents as well as do my medical check-up. Hope I don't have any ailments or some sort. I'd definitely be cutting down on junk then.

Bye, for now. :)

p.s: I still look back and am truly amazed at how He's led me through it all.

Exams begin tomorrow, finally! Some are done with exams, some are halfway through it, some are going to finish and here I am still as free as ever.

Got back to KL today after a month, looked at my surroundings and I honestly don't think I'd miss KL much. Probably just the people.. Anyway, no regrets for all that's taken place in the past two years. Eh, it's not time for this yet.

Anyway, I'm far from prepared. I guess my complacency is obvious, since I've already been accepted to the States and my results this time around won't really affect my admission. Unless it turns out horrible (I hope not), it should be alright. I guess I can say its all for my 'ego' now, which I don't exactly have which is why I haven't put in the effort I should have put in long ago. They say you gotta finish well... Ah, what can I say...

But I do know He's got it all in control. And all the nonsense about God helping those who helps themselves? No such thing. God helps those who are aware that they can't help themselves; the 'poor' so to speak...

One thing about 'revision' this time is that I've been reading for Religious Studies and I have learnt so much. Most of the things are relatively new and are puzzling at times. But at the end of the day, I know that we will never fully understand the Truth, but we just need to trust in it. And I do, I do. That's all I need.

Lord, should I ever be distracted by the now or whatever that comes my way, help me remember that this life is just temporary and I am not where I belong.. Not yet.... Help me live my life solely for You... You alone.

break

Been working on my essays; tried to at least. Did get somewhere, not as much as I planned but still. 

5 supplements, 1 and a half done. 

I'm going back to KL tomorrow, joining a youth camp on Sunday to Wed. A much needed break; can't wait to see what He has for me, all He'll say to me, all He'll remind me. And other things too. For once in a long time, I have no responsibilities in camp; can finally enjoy as a normal camper. 

When I'm back, it's back to applications; have to go all out. 

But till then, I'm taking a break. 

And I just completed The Pursuit of God by Tozer today.. Parents bought it for me when they went to the States for Sam's graduation 2 years back.. I read halfway but stopped and just took it up again recently. Christian books aren't meant to be read like a novel; gotta really read and chew on it... It's a really good read. And I've learned a whole lot... Will perhaps blog about it when I have the time. 

God bless :)

This life, is all for You. 

frivolous

They say college applications will drive you mad to the point where you feel like pulling out all your hair.

I've got less than a month to complete everything and no I haven't reached that stage yet. 

Progress = 30% 

Frivolous' the word for me.

I'm taking the SAT on Saturday; already planned it some time ago, at least 2 months ago but look at how much time I have left now. Procrastination - I really have nothing to say. Only have myself to blame. But then again, no point regretting now. I'll try to make the most out of these few days left. 

When my mum's friend heard I was going to prepare for the SATs in a week; she was shocked; "Is that even possible? I thought it'd take months to be ready."

If I can break 2000, it'd be a miracle. There's only so much one can do, right.

Exams are in January but I have to set it aside for now; at least till applications are done with. 

And just a reminder; life is short, it really is.

It hurts to see the ones you love suffer. It often makes you question the One above... 

But I choose to believe; everything happens for a reason. I know it to be true.

I echo Job's words... "I know that You can do all things, & that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted"

For that reason, I am secure. :)

gone - music video

I posted this on FB, but I'll put it here anyway. 

So college had a music video competition organized by the Sessions Club. We had to submit our video this past Monday and today was the event where we watched the videos and the winners were chosen etc.

I simply put my name in for fun not thinking about what to do. Winner would get prize money but that wasn't even in my mind; competition was too tough. Got Vicki in with me and we decided to do an original song since it bears more marks; she had a chorus so I took it and added the remaining parts; then we wrote the bridge as well. She came over my place during the weekend and we barely slept; editing the video and all. 

Anyway, it turns out pretty okay and by God's grace we came in 2nd place. Really unexpected; the other entries were good as well. Kenneth came in 1st; good for him. I owe it to my awesome batch mates who supported us all the way. Though our batch is the smallest; they came and cheered the most. 

And the song really means a lot to me; I shall not go on about it. 

Credits to Mei Xian and Isaac for being our actors and all the rest who came in as well. 

Thank God for everything.

And thank you.

Ipoh was great to say the least; eat, sleep, eat sleep... 

Back to normalcy once again. 3 weeks left till college ends for the semester. Science students are leaving though. :/

I still have a birthday post coming up... (more like a reminder to self)

I have alot of things to update but I barely have the time

It's gonna be a really busy month; probably the busiest? 

I got my Psychology paper today; the one I took after passing out; and by God's grace; there is no other reason; I fared pretty well. I really don't deserve it; wasn't really prepared but I'm just really amazed at what He does... Praise God anyway; all glory to Him.

Signed up for the SATs in Dec; less than a month left to the day; ALOT to work on. Taking IELTS on the 20th. Basically it's all about applications.

Need to finish coursework by Friday; the final draft... His strength shall sustain me, as always. 

I am comforted...

I think being busy isn't such a bad thing; it helps me keep my mind off things... 13/10.. That's where it started - again. Okay you're not supposed to get this.

God bless!! 

Will update more when I have the time. 

Really brief one for now.

Ipoh's been good. Great, in fact.

Phone's been fixed; some buttons were spoilt since July.

Thank You Lord for everything...

I am blessed indeed.

Still unsure about certain things.. 

I choose to trust; there's really nothing else I can do.

You allowed this; I will not complain but embrace all You have for me.

We're always asking Him what we should do; but you know sometimes for certain things I think He really wants us to just decide on our own. 

He guides me, through every step of the way.

I'm comforted. 

:)

Loves

Proverbs 19:21 - Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.