Saturday, December 29, 2007

"Ben Is No More"


This year's YDP has just ended and i must admit that it was a bittersweet experience.

As you all know, we lost a brother in Christ, Bro. Benjamin Tee passed away on the 27th of December 2007 at about 4.00 in the afternoon. I will spare you the details of his passing as i do not think it is important as to how he died but more pertinently comes the question of what do we do now. The last few days have been taxing on everyone of us. We cried our hearts out.

But again, what should we do now?

Is it right to cry? Is it right to grieve? Is it right to mourn?
In John 11.35 ; Jesus wept.
Even Jesus, the Son of God, wept over the death of his good friend Lazarus.
It is alright to cry. For even our Lord Jesus wept.
It is human nature to cry over the loss of a loved one.

But be comforted.
In 1 Thess 4:13-18
" But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep(dead), lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. "


God will bring with him, those who sleep in Jesus.

In Matt 5:4
" Blessed are those who mourn,For they shall be comforted. "

Ps 116:15
" Precious in the sight of the LORD, Is the death of His saints. "


Why God called him back even while he was so young?
Isa 55:8-9
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth,So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts."


We may not understand why God does what he does but we must trust that God knows what is best for us, eventhough we might not know it yet.

Be prepared
James 4:13-15
" Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."

Heb 9:2727
" And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. "


Life is indeed like a vapor. We do not know when God will call us back to him. But we do know that we will all die one day. The only question is "Are we right with God?" For he will judge us all according to our actions.

2 Tim 4:1-24:1
"I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. "

Do these things so that we can say as Paul said in 2 Tim 4:7-87
" I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. "

2 Sam 12:22-23
And he said, "While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?' "But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

Death is not the end, but it is rather the beginning of the journey home.
John 14:1-3
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."

Be assured brethren that Benjamin is with God in heaven today.
It is Well with his Soul.

In God we serve,
JustinC

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Youth Planning Session

The Youth Planning Session is to be held on the 29th of December 2007.
This is the upcoming Saturday. It will be held at 10.00am.
There is no fixed ending time as we are not sure how long the meeting will last.
If it stretches into lunch time, we will either order take-out or all walk to mamak. =P
Please make yourself available on that date.
All youths are expected to attend!


And if you are unable to attend please write a formal letter of absence to Bro.Joel Kirk.
lol.... =D

In God we serve,
JustinC

Thursday, December 20, 2007

YDP just arround the corner!

Hey peeps! YDP ,is in 3 days and this is what the campsite looks like. Enjoy, and see you there!

Pictures taken on the 1st of December 2007.
I apologise if there are any changes in facilities or last minute demolition that could alter the look of this Resort in the past 3 weeks. =D

Below: The Resort Buildings.

The Rooms.
The Dinning Hall

The Swimming Pool

The facillaties The Woods/Obstacle Course
Campfire
Our Organiser!

Be there this Monday, 24th December 2007!
Don't miss out on this Opportunity to Mature and to Grow in the Faith!
and make friends along the way!
See you there!
JustinC

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Let us never forget our Roots


Today, the Sunday School held the open day to bring in the new "recruits".
The event started at about 3 and ended around 5.30 in the afternoon.
Though preparations took weeks of dedication and hard work!
The kids were all geared up and ready for a fun time in their Colouring & Drawing Competition!


Meanwhile, the adults were in building A watching "Searching for the Truth".
Each visitor got a door gift with that DVD included inside. (:
After about 2 hours through the event, the kids with the most creative/nicest artworks in their age groups got a prize!
Everyone got a goody bag filled with lotsa SWEET stuff. =D i did too. haha!
And i quote the famous su yen,

Su yen
Teacher

"so did you enjoy yourself today, su yen?
" not fun la..."
*teacher astonished!* "WHY?!"
"cause i didn't get the prize"
". . . .*dots*. . ."

so cute! Life's not all about winning la su yen. =X
Anyway, there was a Tea Break to end the successful event! Mhhhmhhmmm!
Overall there were about 16, yes SIXTEEN, new enrollments!
*Clap Clap*
Gud job to all the organisers of the event!

After the event as i was checking out the new look of our sunday school i stumbled upon old memories!
Ahh...a picture board! what a normal, boring thing...Owh WAIT!

Who's that! L-Khoo Tze Wei, klang's very own Goku-son! xD R-Willy Ling, now in Singapore furthering his studies!
Wooot! L-Ashley?!?!? is that you!??! =X hahaha! R- Tan Sze Yin! so, you two were bestest of friends even back then, huh...

L-Reuben Chirng! Bellow Aunty Chong Foo-Ching Lee! Beside her(partially blocked)-Chien Chern! above him-chee kiang!, the stranglers brother! ahhahaha, now working at singapore! worshiping with the jurong congregation
sorry, cant really make out the rest..don't think i was born yet back when the picture was taken...ahhaha!

With the Pear in his mouth!- Jonathan Chan, so he was strange even from the begining! =P
R, staring right at the camera-Khoo Tze Wei, cool cucumber
In between the two-Joel Kirk, all sama gang since then la...

So sorry bout the blurness in this picture, just couldn't stop laughing! =D
L-R, Hao Shen, Raymond, Ian
Top-Debbie!Dunno who's this la....so nerd wan...wear Winnie the Pooh shirt. LoooL


Haha! there are plenty more pictures where those came from! Drop by the Sunday School one of these days and see just how much we've forgotten! U'd be surprised. (=

The point of this is actually to remind us of where we came from, our roots so to speak.
Most of us grew up in the Sunday School.
We had fun. Sang Songs with funny hand gestures. Really energetic way back then!
Even did a play...remember?
yeah, those were the good old days!
We had fun back then, so why not we do our out-most best to make the current batch's experience just as memorable!
Help out whenever called upon! Doing abit of refurbishing never hurt anyone! Show a little more acknowledgment to the coordinators of the Sunday School.
To work with kids that have too much time and energy can really test your patience sometimes. It's not easy, so we should never take it for granted!
Auntie Lily has plans for the year end gathering for the youth as well as the Sunday School kids! So, be encouraging, be supportive and make this years Year End Meet one to remember!

Our roots, people, our roots...

In God we serve,
JustinC

Postponed!

Please TAKE NOTE!

THE Youth Planning Session which was scheduled for the 9th of December has been
POSTPONED!

It will be held shortly after this year's YDP.
As for the dates, we'll just have to wait for a confirmation.