The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I watched the above movie on the 23rd Dec - 2 weeks after its release on Dec 9. Oh, I love the movie very much. Having read the whole series by C.S. Lewis and watched the first two movies, this is the movie I've been looking forward to watch.

Here is the review of the movie:

Director Michael Apted

Cast Alexander "Skandar" Keynes (Edmund Pevensie), Georgina Helen "Georgie" Henley (Lucy Pevensie), William Jack "Will" Poulter (Eustace Scrubb), Ben Barnes (Caspian X), Arabella Norton (Gael), Arthur Angel (Rhince), Gary Sweet (Lord Drinian), Billie Brown (Coriakin), Terry Norris (Lord Bern), Bruce Spence (Lord Rhoop), Laura Brent (Lilliandil), Tilda Swinton (Jadis the White Witch), William Moseley (Peter Pevensie), Anna Popplewell (Susan Pevensie), Liam Neeson (voice of Aslan), Simon Pegg (voice of Reepicheep)

Plot

The story begins with Edmund Pevensie queuing up to register to be in the military force, only to be distraced by his younger sister Lucy who claims that "you're supposed to help me with the groceries". The Pevensies return to their cousin Eustace Scrubb's house as they are staying with him, while their older siblings Peter and Susan are in America. Lucy is reading a postcard sent by her sister while Edmund listens. And when water starts pouring from a painting of a ship on the ocean in Lucy's bedroom, Eustace wondered "what's going on here". He then tries to remove the painting while Edmund tries to stop him but to no avail. The two boys and Lucy are dragged and transported into an ocean in Narnia when water flooded Lucy's bedroom.

When Lucy appears at the surface of the ocean and notices a big ship approaches. And she, Edmund and Eustace are rescued by the ship name the Dawn Treader. And the ship crew include their friend King Caspian X and Reepicheep. When the mouse saw Edmund and Lucy, he recognises their presence by bowing and saying "Your Majesties". While on the ship, Eustace finds the creatures there, especially Reepicheep the talking mouse are looking weird and hides in one corner, writing his diary. Then, a bird land in front of him and Eustace tries talking to the bird, whether it can speak like Reepicheep too. But a centaur notices it and makes joke of him. Seeing this, Eustace shooes the bird away.

Edmund and Caspian, meanwhile, are crossing their swords and have a great fight in front of the ship crew. Caspian praises Edmund's improved skills after the battle. Later, Reepicheep challenges Eustace to have a battle with him, using swords of course. Eustace at first couldn't hold the properly but later he chases after Reepicheep. But Reepicheep is quick enough that the boy couldn't catch him. In the end, Eustace is sent to the ground by Reepicheep, knocking down a basket in the process. A girl named Gael is hiding inside the basket and she is the daughter of Rhince, one of the ship crew. Lord Drinian (captain of the ship), Caspian and Lucy warmly welcome her abroad.

The Dawn Treader docks at the Lone Islands, a Narnian colony invaded by Calormen. Caspian and Edmund are captured and imprisoned while Lucy and Eustace are sold as slaves. Caspian then meets one of the lost lords, Lord Bern, who reveals that those who cannot be sold are sacrificed as a mysterious green mist. The ship crew rescues them, and they reclaim the Lone Islands from the Calormen. Bern later gives Caspian one of the seven swords originally given to the lords.

The ship later stops at another island and all the people abroadspend a night there before continuing their journey. While they are resting, suddenly Lucy is abducted by invisible Dufflepuds and is carried to another place. When Lucy finally wakes up, she wonders where she is and starts hearing voices speaking to her. She demands to know where the voices are coming from and what do they want from her. The Dufflepuds asked the girl to enter the manor of Coriakin to recite a visibility spell from his Book of Incantation. A door later opens in front of Lucy's eyes and she enters. After she enters, the door closes and disappear. Lucy finds the book but the letters on the cover of the book are all messed up. She gives it a blow and opens the book after the letters are back in place. She comes across a spell in which after she has read it, snow begins falling from above.

Elsewhere, Edmund wakes up and notices his sister is missing. He wakes everyone up and starts searching for his lost sister. Back to Lucy in Coriakin's manor. She flips to a page that contains a beauty incantation and she sees her reflection on the mirror and wondered if she could be as beautiful as her sister Susan. Then she rips the page from the book and the book flips quickly to another page revealing the visibility spell. After Lucy has recited the spell, Coriakin and the Dufflepuds become visible. Coriakin tells Lucy that he cast an invisibility spell on the Dufflepuds to protect them from the green mist.

Back to the Lucy's search party. Edmund, Caspian and Eustace notice the Dufflepuds are visible and ask what have they done to Lucy. Later, the door to Coriakin's manor reopens again with Coriakin and Lucy come out. Coriakin tells the ship crew that they must defeat the green mist by laying 7 swords of the lost lords on Aslan's table on Ramandu's island, which they can reach by following a blue star. Coriakin serves a warning that "you all are about to be tested". Meanwhile, Eustace notices the Dufflepuds start jumping away which he feels "this place is getting weirder and weirder".

Caspian leads his crew back to the Dawn Treader. Back on the ship, Lucy wakes up from her sleep and takes the beauty incantation page and casts the spell on herself, transforming herself into Susan. She finds herself at a party with her two brothers, who recognises her as Susan and do not know of Lucy or Narnia. Realising that she no longer exists as Lucy, she awakens from her vision of the party to return to her normal self. Then she sees Aslan's image appearing in the mirror, reminding her not to doubt herself as if it wasn't her, her siblings may not know what Narnia is.

The Dawn Treader later visits a volcanic island where all the crew members spend a night there. The next day, everyone wakes up and checks out the island. Not everyone, Eustace is still sleeping soundly. Lucy, Edmund and Caspian discover a pool that can turn anything to gold, including Lord Restimar. Edmund spots his sword and tries to scoop it up. Then, he and Caspian fight over who should own the pool. While they are crossing their swords, Lucy interrupts them, warning them that they both are being tempted.

The scene changed back to Eustace wakes up and finds he's alone. So he decided to look for his cousins. While he's on his way, Eustace stumbles across some valuable treasures. Tempted, he begins stealing a handful of the treasure. And when Edmund, Caspian and Lucy returns to the shore, they notice Eustace is not around. So Edmund and Caspian search for him. But they only manage to find one of his shoes and his diary, sensing something bad must has happened to the boy. Apart from that, they discover Lord Octesian's skeleton and get his sword. Suddenly, a dragon, which comes out of nowhere, attacks the Dawn Treader and abducts Edmund in the process. The dragon brought Edmund to where it has blown fire on the ground. Edmund notices the words on the ground "I AM EUSTACE". The Pevensies, Gael, Caspian & Reepicheep spend the night on the shore with Eustace the dragon. Reepicheep comforts Eustace that everything will be back to normal again.

When Gael wakes up the next day, she spots the blue star and wakes up Lucy who is sleeping beside her. Lucy and her then wake the rest up. The Dawn Treader sets sail again but was attacked during the journey. The ship cannot continue travelling unless the windsurfer is fixed. Then, the ship crew hears a loud bang and wonders if the ship hits something. But it turns out not, it is Eustace the dragon who drags the ship forward with his tail. Everyone is grateful for his assistance.

The ship arrives at Ramandu's Island and Caspian and the Pevensies discover Aslan's table. Around the table, there are three lost lords sleeping with their swords besides them. Edmund and Caspian gather their swords together with the ones they have found earlier on Aslan's table, but they are short of one. The blue star, in which they have spotted earlier, descends from the sky and transforms into a beautiful young lass, Lilliandil (Ramandu's daughter). Caspian asks her where to find the last sword and Lilliandil directs them to the Dark Island, liar of the mist.

The ship travels ot the Dark Island where they find Rhoop, the last surviving lord. Rhoop warns them not to think of thier fears but Edmud fails, his fear manifesting as a sea serpent that attacks the Dawn Treader. Rhoop betrays the group by throwing his sword in Eustace's direction, stabbing him on his back. Eustace then flies away, landing on a sandy island and encountering Aslan, who transforms him back into a boy and sends him back to Ramandu's Island with Rhoop's sword. The mist tries to tempt Edmund by transforming into Jadis the White Witch. But Edmund does not fall into her temptation that "I can make you my king and much more".

When Eustace wakes up, he finds himself a boy again and discovers Rhoop's sword beside him. Without hesitation, he runs to Aslan's table with the sword and places the sword there. But the mist tries to hold him back. But Eustace overcomes the mist and places the sword on Aslan's table. When the 7 swords are united, a bright blue beam is flashed out from the swords. The 3 sleeping lords awake, the mist disappears, the sea serpent dies and the sacrificed people reappear.

After that, the Dawn Treader returns to Ramandu's Island and the Pevensies are reunited with their cousin Eustace, who is happy he's a boy again. Later, the 3 of them, Reepicheep and Caspian sail to the silver sea, finding a shore before a massive wave. They walk towards the gigantic wave and Eustace observes that Aslan is walking beside them. Aslan tells them that his country lies beyond the wave, although they amy not return if they go. Reepicheep decided to enter Aslan's kingdom and lays down his sword on the ground. Aslan blesses him and the mouse happily paddles a coracle above the wave.

Then Aslan roars, opening a portal in the wave to send Lucy, Edmund and Eustace home. Aslan also tells the Pevensies that this is their last trip to Narnia as they will never return again but he encourages them to know him in their world by another name. Edmund and Lucy bid farewell to Aslan and Caspian before joining thier cousin as they enter the portal. The portal transfers them back to Lucy's flooded bedroom, in which the water recedes and flow back into the painting. Eustace's mother then called him, saying his friend Jill Pole is here to visit him. Eustace hangs the painting back in place and he and the Pevensies watch the ship disappear behind the waves before exiting the room. *THE END*

I'll Be Back

"I'LL BE BACK!!"

This quote is directed to my fellow coursemates that I'll be joining them back in the Jan 2011 trimester.

I'm supposed to be in Daryl's group but as my juniors are having their industrial training in January, I have no idea where I stand. But after checking with the FGO, there are only two subjects offered, namely Professional Writing and Online Journalism. The rest of subjects aren't offered. I have no choice but to register for the 2 subjects first. Then, Cik Zuhairah informed me that I can do directed study for the 2 repeat subjects, but I need to register at the beginning of the trimester.

After the registration, I know that I'll be joining Eugene & Co for the coming trimester and happy to be in their midst again. I Just know that I'll stick with them until the end although I won't be graduating together with them. I plan to spring a surprise to them when the Jan 2011 trimester comes.

CF Spiritual Compass camp 2010 - Day Four

15 October 2010

Due to insufficient rest, I only woke up at around 9am. I had a quick wash-up before going for the final worship session. And I missed breakfast on that day.

When I got to the hall, I noticed that our camp speaker Dr Leong was no longer there as he has left after having breakfast with other campers. The worship took place and later there was a sharing session where the campers shared about what they have learnt from the camp.

Later, Jensen the camp commander gave us a short briefing about packing our stuff and getting ready to go home. The campers then returned to their respective rooms and dorms to pack their luggage bags and gathered at the place Jensen directed them.

Then, when everyone were ready to go, they had a photo-taking session for memories that they've been together for the past three days before departing from Golden Sands.

All the campers adjourned at a nearby restaurant in PD after leaving the camp site. They even continued the craze for photo-snapping after having lunch. After that, it's time to say goodbye to one another. All the campers headed back to their respective campus.

After a few hours' journey, I'm back in Kampar again with a few others. My parents were already waiting for me there and I went back to Ipoh happily.

CF Spiritual Compass camp 2010 - Day Three

14 Oct 2011
The Day began with a devotion at 7am in the morning. My group has gathered at the hut facing the seashore for the devotion. Later after devotion, we adjourned to join the rest of the campers for breakfast.

Then it's time for praise and worship session after breakfast. Later our speaker Dr Leong shared his sermon which was the last one for the camp. After that, lunch followed.

Free time was allocated for the campers. They could use this period of time to do whatever they wanted. Some returned to their dorms to rest, some went to the beach while some were involved in baking muffins and tarts for supper later. And I was in the third group. I could just go back to my dorm and take a nap, but I chose not to and join in the baking session instead.

Well, the baking session consumed a lot of time though in the making and baking of muffins and tarts. Not to worry, there were lots of helping hands. And some CF members from other campuses joined in as well and of course, we from Kampar campus taught them how to do this and do that (since we've done this for a few semesters already for our fund-raising). I even suggested that other campus CFs should also follow our footsteps too.

Time passed very quickly. And it's time for dinner. The make n bake session almost came to an end. All that was left was just to wait for the tarts and muffins to be baked. Some of us joined others in the cafeteria for dinner while some stayed to keep an eye on the ovens.

Another praise and worship session took place and later it's time for some sharings. Jensen as the camp commander asked his fellow campers about their own opinions and what they've learnt from this camp. Several campers stepped forward and shared their own personal points of view and experiences. Then, all the groups were summoned to have their own group discussions. The 5 groups gathered at their respective spots and did reflection on the whole camp. While waiting for other groups, my group played a game called the Watermelon Game after we're done.

Afterwards, it's time for.... supper!! All the campers and Dr Leong had a feast on the muffins and tarts that were readily made. Those who participated in the baking session saw their efforts paid off as all the campers were enjoying those pastries very much. And since it was the last night of the camp, all the campers spent time playing some games until the midnight.

CF Spiritual Compass camp 2010 - Day One

12 Oct 2010
Jensen and I woke up early in the morning, getting ready to go for the camp. We only managed to sleep for about 4-5 hours. Both of us loaded our bags and went to pick up Chipmunk (Mel Hor) and Goldfish (Renjie) again before meeting up with other campers at the bus stop opposite the basketball court.

The UTAR bus soon arrived and the campers boarded the bus. Then, the journey began with the bus leading the way followed by cars driven by Jensen, Mr K and Kelvin Wong (alone). In the middlie of the journey, Mr K went another way to pick up someone else. All the remaining vehicles headed towards Setapak to pick up campers from there.

Soon, the campers made a stop at the Setapak campus and had lunch there. Then later, those campers from Setapak boarded the bus and the journey began again. It was a long journey and everyone was enjoying the view during the trip.

When all the vehicles were at PD, all the drivers were trying their best to locate the camp site. After searching for a while, we finally arrived at Golden Sands. And when I got down from Jensen's car, Derk gave me a warm hug since he hasn't seen me for quite some time. And we chatted while waiting for the rest to get off the bus.

Then, all the campers gathered at the hall in Golden Sands after long hours of travel. First they unloaded their bags and placed them in the compound near the office and gathered at the hall. There, all the campers got to know one another through a simple ice-breaking session. Later, a camp booklet and name tag were distributed to each camper. And the campers gathered their respective groups according to the list available in the booklet.

Afterwards, all the campers were given a briefing about the whole camp and later assigned to rooms and dorms. Of course, the guys and girls were separated and they stayed in different rooms and dorms but all the campers were under one roof (i.e they're staying in the same block). All the campers went to get their bags and moved into their respective places of stay and took a short rest before preparing themselves for the rest of the day.

Then, it's time for dinner. As all the campers were enjoying their meal, Dr Leong Tien Fock announced his arrival. The campers greeted him and he joined us for dinner. The next agenda of the day was the 1st praise and worship session, followed by message by Dr Leong. That was the 1st of 4 messages he's gonna share throughout the camp. All his messages were about how to find direction in our daily lives, which was the purpose of this camp.

When Dr Leong was done sharing his sermon, it's time for supper. All the campers had a brief supper before returning to their respective dorms. Then lights off!

CF Spiritual Compass camp 2010 - Pre-Preparation Day

11 Oct 2010

Early in the morning, my father drove me down from Ipoh to Kampar as I was going to join the UtarCF camp. I have packed the things rquired for the camp a few days earlier and loaded my luggage into the car boot before we departed.

Actually, I had an appointment with Mr Angus Ng (Utar counsellor) in the morning. So I chatted with him for about an hour. Later, I met up with my father after the counselling session. It was nearly noon and my dad said he has contacted Jensen and invited him to join us for lunch. Jensen was the camp commander whom I've been keeping in touch with, mainly asking for any updates for the CF camp.

We met Jensen at Tesco Kampar and had a wonderful meal at KFC. Later, my father dropped me at Jensen's house and left for home, leaving me together with Jensen. Well, I'm staying overnight at his place before participating in the camp the next day. Jensen told me that there were some unfinished tasks of the combined camp. So we went to fulfill the tasks together.

First we picked up Melody Hor (a.k.a. Chipmunk) in Westlake, accompanied her for lunch and later made a return to Westlake again, this time Renjie, my coursemate, joined us. Then, off we go to settle the things which were not yet done. Jensen dropped Melody and I at Cherry House to laminate the name tags of the participants of the camp, while he and Renjie adjourned to do other things and will be picking both Chipmunk and myself later.

Melody and I spent about an hour at the printing shop. While we're there, both she and yours truly helped each other in completing the task assigned to us. Then, Jensen fetched both of us back to his house at Eastlake. I went to have my shower in Jensen's room (with his permission of course) and later took a short nap before moving on with the rest of the day. Jensen took his nap as well after sending Chipmunk home.

Around 5.30pm, we made our move again. Jensen and I went to pick up Goldfish and Chipmunk again and we adjourned for dinner. Weng Kin joined us as well and we had a wonderful time together. Actually Weng Kin was supposed to do some shopping for items needed during the camp. So at around 10.30pm, we went into Tesco to look for the things on his shopping list. It was very last minute when we did our shopping. But we managed to get the shopping done though we didn't manage to get some of the required items.

Then we proceeded to Mr K's house. Mr K welcomed us and summoned us to help do some final preparation works. We helped out to sort out the camp T-shirts according to the sizes ordered by the group members. Then later we helped to fold the camp booklets while Mr K was getting them printed. And when we're done with everything, it was already 1am the next morning. We then said goodbye to Mr K before heading home.

Decided

I made up my mind to join the CF Spiritual Compass camp instead of CGBC Lifegame camp this time.

This time I decided to join the CF gang as I've missed out the combined camp last year. I've chosen to go for the CGBC Amazing Race camp in 2009 instead of the CF camp. I felt dejected for having to miss the CF camp last year cos it clashes with the CC camp.

Again this year, the same thing happened. But I've decided to go PD instead of Camerons as the CF camp is going to be held there while CC campers are going to CheFoo Centre for their camp. I've been to CheFoo once, that was during the 1st CF camp I joined.

I confirmed my participation by handing in the camp form to camp commander Jensen Chen. And I'm looking forward to the camp.

Hiatus

I won't be updating my blog from July to September due to some personal reasons. Thank you.

9-Year-Old Penang Girl Gives Birth???

Oh my goodness!! Did I hear it wrongly or did it really happen?

Apparently, it is a reality that this 9-year-old Penangite girl has become Malaysia's youngest mother by giving birth to a baby boy recently. The father of the child was her 14-year-old neighbour. But the girl's parents did not lodge a police report. I couldn't believe such thing could happen in our lovely country.

Teenage pregnancies are happening all around the world and this is quite alarming. Even in the country itself, teenage pregnancies happen among the teens. But I was totally surprised that child pregnancy like above would set its foot into Malaysia. This is nothing to be proud of, it's just another case of teenage pregnancy. Girls in today's society tend to reach their puberty earlier than they're supposed to be, around the age of 8 or 9.

Whle this girl becomes Malaysia's youngest mother, the world's youngest mother was Peruvian Lina Medina who gave birth when she was 5 years and 7 months. She entered puberty at 5 and experienced extraordinary development of her body which later she has a bulging stomach. Assuming that she has a tumour, Lina's parents brought her to a hospital for a medical check-up and discovered that Lina was already having a 7-month pregnancy. The 5-year-old delivered a baby boy named Gerardo on May 14, 1939 by Caesaran section. Lina's father was acquitted of child sexual abuse due to lack of evidence and the identity of the one who impregnated Lina was still remain a mystery.

I seriously hope that such case would not happen to my daughters when I have my own family and children in the future.

What a scare

I almost had a scare just now. I accidentally locked the toilet door from the outside... and scared that I cannot enter the toilet anymore. And when I want to go to Danish House office to complain, I used my key to open the grill door but the door won't budge. Oh man! How to go out like this? Thank goodness, one of my housemates returned just in time. He tried to open the grill door as well. At first, he also couldn't open it but with a little force, he managed to open the door. Then I told him about the toilet door. He tried opening it but to no avail. So we both went to the office to request for service. We told the officer-in-charge what happened and filled in the service request form. Shortly after we went back to our house, two officers came to our rescue. It turned out to be some minor problems as I didn't realise that the lock to the toilet door knob was pressed in. Things go back to normal after they fixed the doors.

Another scare that I experienced was yesterday. I went to school for class around 4pm. After parking my motorcycle, I headed straight to class. Class ended slightly earlier and I decided to go home, preparing to go for CF. But then I realised that my motor key was missing. Oh no! Where and when did I lose it? I panicked and tried tracing back my steps. I even sat down to think when is the moment I lost my key and prayed for God asking Him for help. Then a security guard asked me what happened and I told him what happened. He directed me to Department of Safety and Security. So I went there to report my loss to an officer that I saw there. Then he told me that another security guard has found my key somewhere and brought it to the dept. Thank goodness! I thanked him and left the place after taking my key. I happily returned home and thanking God for answering my prayers by sending a good Samaritan to help me.

Back-to-back Welcoming Nights

I had an awesome time attending two consecutive welcoming nights for the past two days, organised by CGBC Campus Connect (7 June) and UTAR CF (8 June) resepctively. Both welcoming nights were to give warm welcomes to the freshies who have just came to UTAR and Kampar. Let me highlight about both events.


CGBC Welcoming Night
To kickstart the new semester, Campus Connect has organised a welcoming night using the theme of FIFA Fiesta, since the World Cup 2010 is just around the corner (in fact, it will start 2 days from now till 11 July). Sis Mun Yee and a few other brothers and sisters were involved in the organisation of the event. Everything has been planned well and there were lots of exciting activities awaiting those who attended the night. There were flags pasted on the walls of the church and all those flags were the 32 countries who have qualified for the tournament including defending champions Italy.

A few days before the event took place, preparation works have been done including decoration of the church which involved painting the flags on round-shaped cut-out cardboards. Apart from that, there was a skit practice by the team who have went to Sarawak for mission trip last month during the semester break.


On the day itself, several brothers and sisters were there early to make final preparation before the event. By 7pm, guests started coming in and there were quite a lot of new faces turning up for the event. Some members even had flags painted on their faces and the painting work was done by PC and KLynn before the start of the event. Approaching the night, more and more people were there for the exciting event.

Adeline and Kelvin Tan were the emcees for the night. They welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming. Then, PC gave her welcoming speech before the time was handed over to Kai Jun for ice-breaking sessions. Everyone participated in the games introduced by Kai Jun. The games were quite simple nevertheless everyone had a great time, though KJ has been cracking his head for games which has relation to football.

Then, it's time for worship after everyone has warmed up through the ice-breaking session. Jialing was in charge of praise and worship session and she led the crowd to a few songs. After that, the Sarawak mission trip team was on stage where they performed a skit with the title Set Me Free. The cast was none other than those who spent one week in Sarawak, spreading the gospel to the Iban people there. However, there were some replacement as the four sisters from CGBC Ipoh who joined in the trip were being replaced by other CGBC members. Anyway great performance from them as they have spent time practising the skit the previous night.

Up next, it's time for testimony sharing. Yu Shia and Richard were called forward to give their own testimonies about how God came into their life and changed their lives. After that, it's the moment that everyone has been waiting for---time to MAKAN!! There were a lot of food served. Pizza, sandwiches, tidbits and a football cake with lots of small flags on top. Everyone had time interacting and fellowshipping with one another. After some time, those who were there started leaving for their respective homes, preparing for the next day.


UTAR CF Welcoming Night
It was held at the Grand Kampar Hotel again this time, just like the previous semester. This time, several churches were involved in serving in different section of the event, for example Chinese Methodist Church in ushering, FGA in ice-breaker, Hope Church in registration.

The purpose of CF organising this event was to welcome the new freshies and also to introduce the churches available in Kampar to them. Many people turned up for the event.... freshies, representatives from churches and exisiting CF members. After getting themselves registered, all these people proceeded into the gathering hall where the event was held.

When everyone has settled themselves, the night began with MCs Gin Mah and Felicia Grace addressed everyone with a warm welcome. After that, both of them acknowledged the presence of representatives of different churches around Kampar by calling the names one by one. Besides this, representatives of the newly formed Catholic Students Society were in out midst as well. Glad that they were able to join us.

Then, it's time for some ice-breaking session with Mindy from FGA was in charge of the session. She played a footwear game which everyone has to take off their footwear and placed them on a certain spot. This sounds familiar to me as in the previous welcoming night held during last semester, a similar game was played. Then everyone has to get two different types of footwear and started to look for not the owner but another person who has another side of the footwear. Everyone should be connected in a circle in the end but somehow everyone managed to match the shoes together, though the circle was not properly formed.

Alright, everyone's back to their seats and what's next? The MCs asked if anyone knew what's the next agenda. One brother answered "Makan time!" That's right, we had our first round of food first before the night continued. GKH has prepared fried rice and fried noodles for everyone and everyone had their turns to take the food. Later, fellowship took place as everyone went around to get to know one another. At this time, freshies approached to the booths available there to find out more about the churches and their weekly activities.

After that, it's time for singing praises to the Lord. Ray Leong, Shirley Kwong, Jensen Chen and Wendy Lee led the congregation into a string of worship songs, starting with Hari Ini and ending with Spirit Touch Your Church. It was indeed good to see Christians worshipping the Almighty God together. Later, the current CF president Kelvin Wong gave his welcoming speech. He used a quotation by Eric Ong, the previous president, in delivering his speech. Eric Ong has said that "Thou shall rock Kampar" and later it is added that we CFers should rock UTAR as well. Kelvin quoted this in his speech and added something else to it. This is what he said, "In order to rock Kampar and Utar, you must first rock yourself." I agree with what he said, in order to make a dfference and win Utar for Christ, we as CFers must first take the initiative to change ourselves first and commit ourselves to Chirst before we can change others and win more souls for Christ. Well said, Kelvin!

Later, our beloved CF advisor Mr K delivered his speech as well. In his speech, he highlighted a few things including the CF camp and the joint Christmas celebration. The camp is held from 12-15 Oct and the venue is in Port Dickson.and The theme for this camp is Spiritual Compass, "a compass with an arrow that points to our Abba Father" (Jensen, 2010). In a dilemma again cos CC camp is from 15-17 Oct with the theme of Purpose Driven Life Game. The similar situation has occured again where I have to make another wise choice of which camp to attend, just like last year where I was forced to choose between CGBC Amazing Race camp and CF We Are One camp. Last year, I made a right choice by going to join my fellow Connectors in the Amazing Race camp. I hope I can do the same for this time as well. Tough choice but I'm going to make decision of what camp to go at the end of this semester.

Another thing Mr K mentioned was the Christmas celebration 2010 which will be held at the Heritage Hall in November. This is an interesting event which "brings people to one of the fundamentals of Christianity, the worship to the Lord, for the angels sing with and praise God on high with harps and lyres" (Shu, 2010). Mr K asked if everyone is willingly volunteering themselves for the organisation of the wonderful event and several brave souls including a few freshies, stood up in response. Later they were handed a survey form where they have to choose in which areas they would like to offer their service. Really looking forward for this event, even though I'll be enjoying my 3-months long semester break and doing my FYP during the break. But hopefully I can make it for the event.

After Mr K has ended his speech, he called upon Pastor Nicky of Praise Community Centre for the closing prayer before everyone was dismissed. A slideshow of information of the churches around Kampar was displayed Besides that, refreshed was served as well. Some people started leaving while some stayed back for more fellowship. The CF committee members had a meeting before they went home.


Alright, that's all I wanna say about the 2 exciting activities. I really enjoyed myself during these two nights, although I was tired and exhausted. I didn't really snap much photos for both the events. Sorry no photos to show this time. If u wanna see photos of these 2 events, check out Facebook for those photos which I was tagged in some of the photos. Thanks and have a nice day.

Penang One Day Trip (May 29)

My parents and I went to Penang to visit my brother who has just finished his final exams. Apart from that, the trip was to give all 3 of us a break from our busy life.

We began our journey at 7 in the morning and took 2 hours to reach there. We waited for my brother David at a petrol station that he asked us to wait and he appeared about 15 minutes later. Then, he brought us to eat dim sum. The place was opposite KDU College where my brother was pursuing his degree in Electronic Engineering.
Later, my brother drove us to visit the Toy Museum for a visit. After paying entrance fees of RM10 per person, we went in and checked the museum. My brother told us that foreigners have to pay double as the museum is the world's largest toy museum. Cool eh? It was indeed an eye-opener for me as there were all sorts of toys inside the museum. Took lots of photos during the visit.

Spiderman

Lilo & Stitch

Iron Man

Pokemon

Silver Surfer

After that, my brother brought us to the apartment he stays. It was quite a long distance and my father had to follow my brother all the way as he won't get lost. Soon, we arrived at the place and realised why my brother took some time to meet with us. The place he stays is quite far from our meeting place.

We had some fellowship time together as one family. Then, I accessed the Intranet and showed my results to my brother. He said it was not surprising as he himself has failed and retook few subjects during his certificate and diploma. But he persisted on and managed to complete his studies. He then gave me some motivation so I'm able to move ahead and not to worry about the results I got. That's another reason why we're there in Penang.

Later, we went for dinner and two of his housemates joined us. After that, we went our separate ways. My brother followed his housemates back while we headed southward to return to our hometown. We took a longer time to reach home as it was raining while on the way. We were tired from the journey, but it was a nice trip indeed. Hopefully I can take it easy about my exam resuls and continue on with my 3rd year.

I'm Back

Yup, I'm back in my beloved hometown Ipoh again after finishing my final exam and thus my 2nd year. I came back the previous night after my parents came to pick me up from Kampar, but not without attending the last service in Campus Connect. Eugene conducted the worship session with mostly Malay songs as he's one of the participants in the misssion trip to Sarawak and Bro Albert preached about King Solomon using the book of Ecclesiastes as his reference.

I'm still thinking of how to spend my semester break. And as for today, I've watched Iron Man 2 and also the Thomas Cup semi-finals. Mentioning about the badminton competition, Malaysia bowed out of the tournament again, losing tamely 0-3 to the mighty China, who will meet the Indonesian squad that have brushed aside Japan in another semi-final tie.

The CF committee members have started their committee retreat today in the lovely and quiet town of Kampar, planning for the activities and most importantly the direction for the coming 2010/11 term. Hope the Lord will provide the 13 of them with wisdom so they can make well-crafted plans for the CF. I will uphold them in my prayers.

Another thing I want to remember in my prayer is about the mission trip to Sarawak. Several brothers and sisters are going on this mission trip, among them are Eugene, Daniel, Irena, Patty, Pei Lee, PC, KL & 4 other sisters. May they have a wonderful trip and hope they can reach out to those people in Sarawak and share the Gospel with them, though they have no choice but to communicate in BM. But let this not be a barrier to them in their mission trip and hope that the people there will be touched and blessed by them.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the final exam. All the best, people! And happy holidays to those who have finished their exams and back in their respective hometowns to spend their semester break.

Free

Yippie! Finally I have finished my final exam and 2nd year. Now I can relax and enjoy my holidays before ready for the final year.

When I reflect back to my performance in all the 5 papers, I'm quite disappointed with myself in 2 papers--- HoEL and L.Learning. I couldn't recall whatever I've memorised while doing revision and fared badly in both papers esp for Language Learning, which I was completely blank when answering the questions. Based on my poor performance, I would have to repeat these 2 subjects if I don't pass. And I have myself to blame for this. I will do much better next time and perhaps spend more time doing whatever is priority.

And for the other 3, I'm quite satisfied with how I did in the final exam even though I could do better than that. Sometimes, I seemed to have ran out of ideas when doing certain questions but at least I tried and wrote whatever I feel is correct based on my understanding.

It's all over now. No point of thinking whatever that has happened in the final exam, I can't do anything to change whatever has passed. All I can do now is to look ahead and take a break from my studies. While relaxing myself during the holidays, perhaps I have to start thinking of what topic that I'm gonna do for my final year project as I'm moving into the 3rd and final year of my degree in EL.

Will be heading back to my hometown soon to spend time with my famialy again. Not sure how to utilise the short semester break as I'm not going for the mission trip to Sarawak. But I'll make plans for myself during the holidays. To those who are going, have a pleasant trip. And hope that the new committee would have a wonderful committtee retreat as they use this time to plan activities for the next coming semester.

Alright, that's all I wanna share for now. Have to start packing since I'm heading back to Ipoh tomorrow. Catch ya'll next time. Have a nice holiday, everyone! And all the best to those who are still having exams!

Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day today. And most people would spend their precious time with their own mothers. They would do delightful things for their own mothers to bring cheer and joy to the persons who have brought them into this wonderful world. Some people would treat their mothers with meals or presents or even bring them to places that they would feel happy. Some even dedicate songs or poems to their mothers.

I wish I could celebrate Mother's Day with my own mother but I couldn't. This is because I'm still in my exam period which will end on 12 May. Even though my hometown is quite near to Kampar, I don't travel back to Ipoh often. I should've made a trip back to Ipoh but yours truly here need more time for revision for the remaining 2 papers. Anyway, I will get to see my mom soon, after I've finished my final exam. And I made a courteous call to her, wishing her Happy Mother's Day.

Here, I would like to dedicate a song to her as well as to all mothers around the world. The title of the song is Really Love You (真的爱你) sung by HK band Beyond. I apologise to those who can't understand the song 'cause the song's in Cantonese.

Verse 1
无法可修饰的一对手
带出温暖永远在背后
纵使罗嗦始终关注
不懂珍惜太内疚
沉醉于音阶她不赞赏
母亲的爱却永未退让
决心冲开心中挣扎
亲恩总可报答

Pre-Chorus
春风化雨暖透我的心
一生眷顾无言地送赠

Chorus
是你多么温馨的目光
教我坚毅望着前路
叮嘱我跌倒不应放弃
没法解释怎可报尽亲恩
爱意宽大是无限
请准我说声真的爱你

Verse 2
无法可修饰的一对手
带出温暖永远在背后
纵使罗嗦始终关注
不懂珍惜太内疚
仍记起温馨的一对手
始终给我照顾未变样
理想今天终于等到
分享光辉盼做到

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Disappointment

2 things that happened recently which make me feel disappointed:

1) My poor performance in my first exam paper, History of English Language. The night before, I went to sleep early around 11pm, but I couldn't fall asleep. Because of lack of sleep plus revision, my mind went totally blank when dealing with the exam questions. I have answered what I could do but were clueless about the rest. And I couldn't think about what to write anymore. So I decided to leave the exam hall earlier as there's no point of me sitting there if I can't think what else to write. I'm not sure whether I can pass this subject based on my poor performance, but hopefully I will.

2) I didn't get my order of drink. This happened just a while ago where a few of us went Ghany yum cha after service. I only ordered 100Plus as I'm quite full from the refreshment after the service ended. My friends received what they've ordered but not me. I waited and waited and still the soft drink didn't come until when we left the place. I don't know what's wrong but perhaps those Ghany staff were too busy with loads of orders that they forgot about my order. Anyway, I'm not so thirsty at that time. But this is the 2nd time I get my order; the 1st time was when I went yum cha with CF gang few weeks ago. I ordered both food and drink but in the end, I only got my drink but not the roti Maggi that I wanted.

Trading My Sorrows

I'm trading my sorrow
I'm trading my shame
I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord

I'm trading my sickness
I'm trading my pain
I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord

Chorus
And we say
Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, yes, Lord!
Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, yes, Lord!
Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, yes, Lord!
Amen!

Bridge
I'm pressed but not crushed
Persecuted not abandoned
Struck down but not destroyed
I'm blessed beyond the curse
For His promise will endure
And His joy's gonna be my strength

Though the sorrow may last for the night
His joy comes with the morning

.... and the End of Y2S3

With the last presentation done, I have finally completed the 2nd year of my degree in EL! But it's not over yet... final exam is just around the corner and I have to start doing my proposal for FYP next trimester. It's going to get busy for me in the final year. But I haven't thought of any topics for the project. Never mind, focus on the final exam first, then think about it sometimes. I hope I can get some inspiration of what I'm gonna do.

This trimester has been great though it was tiring and hectic as all 30 of us have to work non-stop right from the start of the trimester all the way to the end. Not only my batch, my fellow seniors and juniors experienced the same thing. All of us have to deal with loads of assignments, presentations and exams and our seniors were working on their FYP proposals. As for my batch, we had our briefing yesterday by Mr Renu.

I did my best for every assignment, presentation and test throughout the whole trimester. Some were quite satisfying while some were not up to my expectations. I even didn't play my part well in one assignment that my group members were quite furious at me. Never mind, I learnt my lesson and won't repeat the same mistake again.

As for CF, it was quite interesting and enjoyable as there were lots of fun-filled activities throughout the 14 weeks, from tart-baking on the 1st week to welcoming night on 2nd week all the way to the AGM and just concluded installation night last Tuesday. I have missed some of the meetings due to business in my studies. Still, I managed to make it for the rest of the weeks. A brand new team of committee members were being chosen to serve for the coming 2010/2011 term and new cell group leaders and co-leaders were appointed.

As usual, towards the end of every trimesters, students took photos with their lecturers to keep as memory, whether it's group or individual.

Individual photos with lecturers:

With Mr Soh

With Ms Mok

With Mr Pritam

With Mr Renu

Group shots

With Mr Pritam

With Mr Soh

With Ms Mok

With Mr Renu

There isn't a proper group shot as many have left after our final presentation. This is just one photo that I managed to snap. In the picture are (from left) Monica, Manmeet, Pui Chee, Mr Renu and Jia Ling. Pui Chee and Jia Ling are supportive enough that they come in Punjabi attires and watch the rest of groups present their lesson plans as they have presented theirs the previous day

Actually there's another lecturer which I have left out that is my academic advisor Mr Mahalingam. I have missed his last class this morning therefore didn't managed to take picture with him.

Last presentation....

Aaahhh... finally it's done! Mission accomplished!

I had my last presentation on Lesson Plan just now and it was quite okay. But my fellow coursemates and I have to wait outside the FAS meeting room for more than an hour before we could enter. Why? Our Y2S1 juniors were having their presentations on Psycholinguistics inside. There were 8 groups altogether and some groups were very long-winded that Mr Renu had asked them to cut it short as he has another 5 groups (us) to listen to.

At last they're done and left the place after checking out their coursework marks. Then it's our turn. We went in and presented our lesson plans group by group. After that, we had to leave the room as there's another class coming in. So we went to check out our coursework marks somewhere else. After that, it's photo taking session as usual. Then everyone started returning home.

CF Installation Night + Finale

CF had its final meeting of the whole trimester yesterday with the installation of the newly-chosen committee. It was an awesome night indeed.

I arrived there early after dinner. The meeting was held in the main sanctuary of the church. Several members were already, mostly are those who involved in the worship team. It was a mixed team of old and new committee members as some were retiring and some were just chosen to serve for another term. Soon, more and more people turned up. Wow.... those in the old and new committee dressed in smart attires as that night was utmost important for them.

The night began with Shu Ern, Sui Yen and Wendy Lee led the congregation into a worship session. Then, Eric Ong went on the stage to welcome and thank everyone for coming. A video clip of what we have done throughout the whole trimester was shown. Everyone enjoyed watching and had some good laughs when some funny photos were shown.

Later, the moment has come. Mr K, our advisor, first called out the previous committee to be on stage and mentioned those names that were stepping down: Eric, Melody, Renjie, Shu Ern, Shu and Jensen (who couldn't make it to come). Then, Mr K introduced the new committee to everyone, starting from Kelvin Wong all the way to Kao Meng, according to their position.

He also called out the new CG leaders to the front (which in fact they're already at the front) and also co-leaders. Out of the 7 new leaders, only Kelvin Wong maintained his position. The previous CG leaders were appointed co-leaders instead. Apart from Kelvin, the other 6 leaders were Kyle (vice-chairman), Chang En (asst secretary), Kai Ning (treasurer), Florencetina (asst treasurer), Wendy Lee (worship coordinator) and Derk (word coordinator). As for the rest of the old and new committee, they were assigned to be co-leaders as well. Only 2 extra names were called: Gin Mah and Carlie Yong.

Mr K also called upon Fiona Wong and Kent Tan who both will be leaving for Setapak soon to the front to pray for them. After that, the installation process began. It was exactly the same one conducted by Rev Yong last time at the same place. First, the new committee, CG leaders and co-leaders responded and agreed that they would serve with all the best they can for the coming term, then later it's the congregation's turn to respond before the night continued.

The next agenda was the introduction of the new CGs by the new word coordinator. There were 7 groups in total and Derk introduced all the groups one by one: first the leaders then co-leaders later the members. All the members took note of which group they're placed in and started to get into their respective groups. And as for myself, I am under Wendy Lee a.k.a monkey. There's something special about my new group: most of the members are from Ipoh, except for Nicholas Aw. The groups were unnamed yet as the new theme was yet to be decided by the new committee. Perhaps they will come to a decision when they have a committee retreat after the final exam. After getting into groups, we played a game before the night moved on.

Then it's sharing time. First by Mr K, who spoke a little bit about the direction of CF for the new term then highlighted some of the activities for next trimester: we're gonna have tart-baking and welcoming night again, just like this trimester, and recruitment drive plus AGM (the one held last week was only internal; this one was the real one as involvement of DSA is needed for the filing of the information of the new committee). After our advisor, several people shared as well esp for those outgoing committee members (Jensen's message was read by Eric) and the 2 persons who will be going to Setapak. And Melody ended her speech by singing a portion of the Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) as she is popularly known as the chipmunk.

Later, there's presentation of souvenirs to Phee Oh Nah and Kent by Kelvin Wong. Then, Eric Ong closed this final meeting with a prayer and everyone adjourned outside for some light refreshment. Everyone had fun chit-chatting and fellowshipping with one another. Some even went yum cha after that.

UTAR 1st Karaokay Competition

UTAR Music Club has recently organised its first singing competition, starting from auditions to semi-final to yesterday night's grand final. And Banking and Finance Y2S3 student Lam Sai Yuen (Max) emerged as the champion.

Themed The Path of Dreamz, the whole competition began with the audition sessions held for 4 days from 22nd to 26th March 2010, which saw the participation of 170 participants. The figure surpassed the number expected by the organising committee. The participants were informed of the results after evaluation from judges through videos captured during the audition sessions. And 20 participants were selected to compete in the next round.

These Top 20 participants contested in the semi-final round which was held one week after the auditions. On 2nd April, the semi-final round was held at DDK5 and the contestants were called out one by one to perform their songs. After all the participants have performed, the master of ceremony entertained the crowd while the judges finalised their results. And the Top 10 finalists were announced.

On 17th April, the grand final of the competition was held at the Heritage Hall from 6-11pm. A lot of students turned up for the event. After the arrival of the VIPs, the event kicked off with the Top 10 finalists performed We're All in This Together, a song from High School Musical. After that, the judges were introduced by Masters of Ceremony, Bani and Joey, following by opening speeches by Dr Lim Tuck Meng, the Dean of Faculty of Science and Mr Loy Seng Hoong, the organising chairman of the event. Later, DSA officer Ms Esther Loo joined Dr Lim and Mr Loy for the opening ceremony.

There were 3 rounds. In the first round, all the 10 participants performed a song of their choice and later the judges gave some feedbacks after their performances. Some contestants did quite well while some needed to improve their performances based on the comments given by Ms Evon Soh, Ms Angel Ang and Mr Khoo. After that, members of the Dance Club wowed the crowd with a few dance performances.

Then the competition resumed with the 2nd round--duet performance. All the 10 participants were divided into 5 pairs and performed songs they've chosen together. Interesting performances from all of them especially the boy-girl pair of Contestant #4 Lam Sai Yuen & Contestant #1 Cherrie Tan Xiang Wen (the rest were either all males or all females). Later, there's voting session from the audience to determine the Top 5.

The votes were counted after the ushers have collected them. While they're doing so, the Top 20 came on stage to entertain the audience. There were 3 performances: one from all the guys singing My Love by Westlife, one from all the girls and later all of them joined hands for the last performance. Supposed there were 10 participants, but only 9 were there. The last participant who wasn't there was Ezreena Jasmine, the sole Indian in the Top 20.

The Top 5 was later announced and the 5 participants who qualified for the final round were Contestant #3 Liew Kok Weong, Max, Contestant #5 Goey Heng Ee, Contestant #8 Dang Beh Lee and Contestant #10 P'ng Geok Thye. In the 3rd round, they're required to perform a fast song and all 5 of them did extremely well, turning the whole competition into a concert. And while one contestant was singing, the rest of the contestants went on the stage as well to dance.

After their performances, it's time for the judges to decide who to be crowned as champion. While they're doing that, Bani went around to ask for opinions who's gonna win. Of all the people he asked, only Max and Geok Thye's names were mentioned. Then, Bani went onto the stage to join his friends for some performances, which began with the famous song from Barney the purple dinosaur. Since Mother's Day is drawing near, Bani and friends performed Really Love You (真的爱你) a song in Cantonese by Beyond, which signified mother's love.

Later, there's souvenir presentation to the VIPs and the honourable judges by the organising chairman. Then, the moment that everyone has been watiing for came: the announcement of the results. The most popular singer award was won by Max, based to the votes for the most favourite contestant. The 2nd runner-up was Geok Thye, Goey won the 1st ruuner-up and Max made it double when he was annunced as the champion of the 1st Karaokay Competition. He then performed Black Silence (黑色幽默) by Jay Chou, the song that he sang during the first round. He even brought his girlfriend onto the stage while singing the song. How romantic!

The MCs, Bani and Joey, later invited all the organising committee members, helpers and ushers onto the stage. They also thanked everyone for spending their time to witness such an excitiing event before closing the event.


Editor's note I didn't really noticed what happened during the clasing ceremony cos I've left early. And since I haven't taken my dinner before going, I went mamaking at Ghany after returning from campus.

End of Week 13

Oh... just one more week to go and this trimester's gonna end. Very soon I have to deal with my FYP already. And next week is the final week for my seniors in PJ, Vinuraj and the rest.

Campus Connect had its final cell meeting with Burger Nite on Monday. Many people came and made their own burgers themselves. Everyone enjoyed the night and cell will resume next trimester.

Also, there's AGM during CF this week. A few people stepped down, some people stayed and there are some new faces in the committee as well. Next week is the installation and those chosen have to wear formal for the important function. I hope CF will continue to shine under the new leadership of Kelvin Wong.

The last assignment came... it's writing lesson plan. And two more presentations to go--one for Mass Media and another for the lesson plan. Then, have to do revision as well as final exam is drawing near.

CF AGM

CF had its annual general meeting last night. This was a crucial time as new leaders were to be chosen to lead the CF for another year. A few people from the previous committee have decided to step down and retire after serving for quite a long period. They are Eric Ong, Jensen Chen, Melody Hor, Tan Renjie, Shu Ern & Shu Tze Yuh, with Renjie serving the longest among the six.

Praise and worship took place as usual with Calvin & Sui Yen leading the session. After that, our CF advisor Mr Kuek took over and spoke about Why Do We Need Leaders. Beside that, he also has messages to share to those who are stepping down--Don't Worry, Be Happy; those who are staying and those who will be chosen--Make A Difference; and those 'unemployed' (meaning they're not chosen)--Be A Guardian Angel.

Then, it's time to choose and vote for the new committee. Many potential candidates were being nominated by members and chosen based on the majority. And here are the chosen ones:

Chairman: Kelvin Wong Zhi Xiong

Vice Chairman: Kyle Tan Guang Pin

Secretary: Melissa Joy Benedict

Asst Secretary: Chuah Chang En (Alexson)

Treasurer: Pua Kai Ning (Evelyn)

Asst Treasurer: Florencetina Chew Yu May

Prayer Coordinator: Ray Leong Swee Fung

Word Coordinator: Tiong Ngee Derk

Worship Coordinator: Wendy Lee Yau Wei

Logistic Manager: Lee Kao Meng

Fellowship Manager: Shirley Kwong Chee Ai

Mission and Outreach Manager: Tan Sui Yen

Publicity and Sales Manager: Calvin Nanthan

Everyone then started approaching them to congratulate them and give them word of encouragement. Later, Eric Ong (who has led the CF for 2 years) prayed for them and also drew the meeting to an end with a closing prayer. The new committee has its first exco meeting shortly after that and then, just like last year, we went Ghany for yum cha session. Our advisors Mr & Mrs Kuek joined us as well.

Though I may not be chosen, I'm satisfied cos it may not be necessary to be part of the committee to serve the Lord. As long as I can serve and worship the Lord, I'm fine with it. And for the past 2 terms (since I joined CF) plus the coming one, there are 4 people who remain in the committee as far as I can recall. They are Kelvin Wong, Calvin Nanthan, Sui Yen and Shirley Kwong.

I'm in the same group with Calvin (left), Sui Yen (2nd left) and Kelvin Wong (2nd right) during the telematch held 2 years ago when we first joined CF. That's how I met the 3 of them. Thanks for being my friends, u all are indeed awesome.

To the current committee members, I hope that u all can do your best to serve God and lead the CF well. I will give my fullest support to the 13 of u. May God be with you always in everything u do.

CGBC Burger Nite

A great night indeed! Everyone's having fun making their own burgers and hotdogs!

This is the last week of the cell group and Campus Connect decided to have a Burger Nite for the last meeting of this trimester. The event was supposed to start at 7pm but it's raining around 6pm. The cell leaders said it would be postponed to the next day (today) if the rain doesn't stop at 6.30pm. Miraculously, it stopped exactly at that time, allowing the event to be taken place. Praise the Lord!

I went there early to help setting up the place. Several members were already there to help out as well. When everything was settled, it's time to make burgers. A lot of things were prepared: burger buns, chicken and beef patties, cheese, eggs, mayonnaise etc. And members used their creativity to produce all sorts of burgers. Some people even had the chance to enjoy frying fries. Due to limited numbers of stoves, members had to wait patiently for their turns.

After making the burgers, members sat down and enjoyed their own hand-made burgers. Then, everyone started talking to one another and had lots of fun there. Some people even went on to make some more burgers, myself inclusive.

Then, some people started leaving while some stayed back to clean up the place. And after some time, the place is back to normal again. Some members even spent some time interacting and fellowshipping with one another before everyone went home.

Mmm... it's tasty!!

From left: Kai Jun, Koon Eu and Isaac Chay

End of Week 12

Just 2 more weeks and this trimester will come to an end.

Exam timetable and bar list were out this week. I have 5 papers in 9 days (exam timetable on the right). And I'm safe and eligible to sir for the final exam as I keep a clean sheet on the bar list i.e my name isn't listed. But several of my coursemates and juniors were barred from a few subjects. Really kesian them lah.... but some of my friends managed to get themselves unbarred. Anyway, I wish them luck in the final exam.

CF has its last Bible study of the whole trimester on Tuesday. And for the next week, it's AGM where new committee will be chosen. Some committee memhers are stepping down and passing the baton to other members. Who will be chosen as the new committee? Answers will be revealed in the next CF meeting. Then on the final week, it's the installation of the new committee.

I have done my 5th presentation on my L.Learning group assignment. And overall, it was a bad one I can say cos our presentation was not clear in the area of content. Our lecturer said it was quite confusing and pointed out where we've made mistakes. Anyway it's good to learn from mistakes. Also, the Mass Media group assignment was handed in yesterday, leaving us with one more assignment - writing lesson plan (L.Teaching) - and 2 more presentations.

Sometimes, I wonder why the world is unfair, especially to we EL students. Students from other courses have settled all their assignments, presentations and exams weeks before the final exam, while we have to deal with all these from the beginnning until the end of the trimester. It isn't the 1st time we face such situations, our previous trimesters are also similar. The workload begins to ease off towards the end of the trimester, giving us more time to study for the final exam. However, I personally feel that this is unfair to us compared to other students.

Beautiful Gate visitation

This morning, several CF members visit Beautiful Gate in Kampar. Beautiful Gate is a home for the disabled people. About 10 of us gather at the bus stop opposite the basketball court in WestLake as was told by Gin. We set off and arrive there shortly as the place isn't too far away.

We bring along some recyclable items such as newspapers and aluminium cans for recycling purposes. Then, we head into the house and Gin gets everyone in the house to participate in an ice-breaking session. A few simple games are played and I can say everyone - both the CF members and the disable people - enjoy having fun together.

After having some fun, it's time for us to fulfill our purpose of being there: helping to clean the house. Tasks like sweeping and mopping the floor and wiping the fans are distributed among the CF members. Everyone plays their part well in helping out and getting the job done. We have a brief photo-taking session before we leave to have our lunch at KFC in Tesco. The residents thank us for coming and tell us that we can visit them sometimes.

This is my 2nd visit to the home; the first time was 2 years ago when I joined Campus Connect in the S+URGE camp. It was part of the outreach activities of the camp. We dropped by there to help out with spring-cleaning before we departed to Harvest Haven, Gopeng for the rest of the activities. Wow.... the place has changed a lot since my 1st visit. There are study rooms, office, classrooms and also a computer room. A large signboard is placed in front of the house as shown in the picture below:

Visitation to Beautiful Gate has made me realised that I'm more fortunate than the residents there. I hope they will be blessed through our visit.

James 1:19

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You all must be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry.

~New Living Translation

Victory in Christ, God with us

That's the theme for the Easter Musical held in CGBC Ipoh recently. I totally agree with the significance of the theme as Easter is the celebration of resurrection of Christ.

There were two nights: 8pm (Friday) and 7.30pm (Saturday). I missed the first one but attended the second night. It was indeed an awesome night as the youths have put up an egg-citing performance (forgot to mention that the first night was for adults while the second for youths). There's a choir singing hymns at the beginning, followed by a sketch where a father showed his son the the true meaning of Easter. There's dance performace by several teenage girls. Wow.... their dance moves really impressed me as if they're talented ballet dancers.

Later, a brother shared his testimony about his addiction to pornography and how he managed to get rid of the addiction. He even composed a song to demonstrate his love to the Lord. There's 2 more sing presentations: the first one was by a brother and in the second, several brothers and sisters carried a few banners and waved them during the whole presentation. And there's one banner that has Christ is Risen written on it. Amen!

Then, Bro Jospeh Raj took over the stage to share his sermon of the night. Bro Joseph's sermon was mainly about Easter and the resurrection of Christ. In his sermon, He discussed about the relationship of Jesus and Peter, one of his 12 disciples. He also said that the message conveyed from the sketch and the testimony was quite clear i.e Christ is risen. At the end of his sermon, Bro Joseph shared a testimony. His testimony was how the family of one of his coursemates accepted Christ. The father of that coursemate passed away due to cancer several weeks after becoming a Christian while the mother was baptised during Christmas last year. And that coursemate is actually his wife who was interpreting his sermon to Mandarin that night (FYI his wife is a Chinese).

The night ended with Bro Joseph praying for several brave souls who wanted to accept Jesus Christ into their life. While he's doing so, some people started leaving the place, including me & my parents. Actually, I wanted to talk to Bro Joseph since we haven't seen each other since the Amazing Race camp but my dad wanted to leave earlier to avoid traffic congestion. But never mind, I can always keep in touch with him.

End of Week 11

It's the end of week 11 and I'm back in my hometown to celebrate Easter with my family.

I returned to CC Monday cell and CF this week after skipping a few times because of assignments, tests and presentations. Now I'm not so busy compared to previous packed weeks. I can take some time to relax myself for the remaining weeks. Of course, I have 2 more assignments and presentations that I need to work on. And the final exam is getting closer.

There's worship all day long during CF this week and they planned to celebrate Easter but didn't at the end. Campus Connect also had Easter celebration as well but there isn't any sketches this time, unlike last year where I was part of the Easter drama cast. Sis Shirley presented a song while Ps Chan shared his message on ressurection of Christ. In conjunction with Easter Day, CGBC Ipoh is having Easter Musical for 2 days, yesterday and today. I have missed yesterday's session and hope that I can go tonight.

Good Friday

Today's Good Friday and it's the day of crufication of Jesus Christ. And on Sunday, it's Easter Day which marked the Resurrection of Christ. Usually, Easter is associated with Easter Bunny and Easter eggs.

And right at the moment, CGBC Ipoh is having an Easter Musical tonight but I decided not to go cos I'm tired of travelling from Kampar to Ipoh. But not to worry, there's another session tomorrow night at 7.30pm. And the speakers for both nights are Pastor Leroy Ng and Bro Joseph Raj. I have not met Pastor Leroy personally but he has preached at Emmanuel AOG Ipoh (my home church) a few times. As for Bro Joseph, I met him through The Amazing Race camp organised by Campus Connect last year. I hope I can attend tomorrow's session and have a great time there.

Happy Easter and have a blessed Holy Week everyone!

I See Grace

Verse 1
Jesus my help, I call out Your name
I cast my cares to You
Jesus my hope, my tower of strength
My faith is found in You

Pre-Chorus
I see You pierced, wounded for me
When I look at the cross I see

Chorus
I see grace, sealed by Your sacrifice
I see love reaching for me
Precious blood washes and sanctifies
Healing flows, setting me free
I see grace

Verse 2
Bearer of sin, afflicted and tried
You paid redemption's price
Rearing my curse, You set me on high
Your death has brought me life