PCF to New Life

When approaching the end of the year during their nursery in PCF, we were considering if we should send our children to New Life Presbyterian Kindergarten.  The school fee at PCF & New Life are quite similar.  It's just a little costly because there's a component of the school (for computer enrichment) that cannot use baby bonus.  The other issue is that New Life is far from our house and I'll need to drive them to school every morning as compared to PCF that is walking distance away.  The thing that attract us to New Life is that it's Christian foundation.  We were having a hard time making the decision.  When we tried applying for New Life, there was no vacancy and the principal told us to pray about it and put us on waiting list.  In PCF, we were concerned about the principle who doesn't seems to be active in managing the center.  We left a message for her to call us back to address our concern on who will be teaching them in K1.

As we were struggling between PCF & New Life, we decided to wait for the answer from God as we are unsure what will be the best decision for us.  Personally I would love to stay put in PCF but I'm attracted to a Kindergarten with Christian foundation.  Thus we agreed among ourselves that whoever call us first, we'll send the children to that school.

We waited and waited with no news and getting nervous as days goes by.  Then one fine day, the principal of New Life called up telling us that the school decided to create a new space and open another class, thus our children got a placement in New Life.

The next day, the principal in PCF called us saying that she was busy with the preparation of the school's graduation, that's why she was unable to call till then.  Unfortunately it was too late and our decision has been made.  It is subtle but it's clear to me that God is telling me that all timing is under his control.

Lives in PCF

Lives in PCF was simple and I couldn't recall of any event that I can highlight about miracles from God.  Nevertheless, it was a fun time going through it.  All I can say is that regardless of the type of education that we send our children to, God is ultimately in control of their destiny when we let him.

Our children are blessed with the fun and laughters of going to PCF making friends and enjoying school as well as playing in the playground after school.  They may not have learnt as much as those who are in other expensive nursery, but I would say that they had an enjoyable childhood there.

Ai Wei & Ai Min left the school after a few months because they moved to Jurong.

Overall 2013 was a honeymoon period for us with our children.  There are so much fun.  Even Ser En's first stay in hospital due to Rota Virus was fun when it coincide with Joyce birthday.

Our 2 little bumble bees in the graduation performance.  One was too stunned to move and the other was flying all around.  What a contrast in characters:

During this year, we have lots of activities as well as exploring different things for our children.  Though it was fun, one thing I found that I couldn't recall much for that year if not of the photo album.

Blogging Restart

I'm back again after going away for a long time.  What brings me back today is starts with fact that I'm supposed to post something for everyday for this week in the whatsapp chat for SOOGI Prayer Warrier.  As I am new to this chat group and I don't really know the people in the chat group except Pamela who is the founder for SOOGI, I was thinking to share postings about my past testimony on the miracles from God that happen in my life.  This leads me to remember about this blog and I realised that there are so many things that I've left out blogging all these years.

I shall start in the post to list out the agenda subsequent posts coming along:

1.  Lives in PCF (2013)
2.  PCF to New Life (end 2013)
3.  Parent supports in New Life (2014)
4.  Mini Alpha (2014)
5.  2014 Christmas Celebration (mid 2014 - end 2014)
6.  A tough year in 2015 (2015)
7.  Searching for new Church location (Q2 2015)
8.  The next phase with Caleb Chia Kay En (Q3 2015)
9.  I AM message (Q4 2015)
10.  Journey to Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School (Q4 2015)
11.  Christmas Celebration (Q4 2015)
12.  Fellowship, Prayer & Count Down to (Q4 2015)

PCF

Ser En and Rong En has been in a playgroup for about half a year already.  There is a pair of identical twin girl (Ai Wei & Ai Min) in the same playgroup as them.

Few months back, we were planning to enrol our kids into PCF (PAP Community Foundation) nursery and the other twin's parent is also planning to enrol their children to the same PCF nursery as it would be good to have familar friends in the different environment.

Many parents does not want to enrol their children to PCF, but we don't have issue with that and it's good to find people sharing such common understanding.  On the first day PCF open for registration for next year's class, we went to register and it came to our surprise that there are only 4 vacancies left for the session that we wanted to enrol in.  The reason is that those who were already in the PCF playgroup are given 1st priority to enrol into the nursery and the session that we were interested in is the morning session which is more popular.  Perhaps it's also because Woodlands' residents are not as well off as compared to people staying in other estate for I heard that in other estate, there are plenty of vacancies in PCF.

We were a little disappointed as we are not sure if our children could be enrolled into PCF and even if they were enrolled in, Ai Wei & Ai Min may not be enrolled as the enrolment is not based on first come first serve basis.

Well, we didn't give up hope and start praying.  After months of waiting, we were notified that our children are successfully enrolled into the session that we registered for.  We shared the news with Ai Wei & Ai Min's mom and they were also enrolled into the same class.

God is really amazing and wonderful in answering our prayers.

Are you working?

On dear, I've not been writing for the past 2 years :p

Recently I introduced Alpha Course to our church English Congregation.  There are not many people in the English Congregation, only about 20+ people every weekend.  It is encouraging to see 15 participants for this course.

In the 1st lesson, there is a guy who happen to be around when he sent his son to Sun class organized by the church for children.  He saw us and join in the session to listen.

On the Sunday when we go to church for the 2nd lesson, something coincidental happen.  Few days back, a friend gave me a CCTV to install in my car.  He is the manufacturer of the CCTV and he gave the set to me for free, it's so good of him.  I've been playing around with the CCTV and exploring it.

This CCTV requires SD card for storage.  I've got a few SD at home and the night before, I formatted one of the SD to NTFS and clearing space for another SD (the one used by a camera) to be used as spare.

As we were rushing to go to church on Sun (as usual, always rushing), I left the house first to bring Beckham to my in-law's place for dog sitting as no one will be at home.  While in my car, I realized that I didn't bring the SD card for the CCTV.  Thus I called YiFei as asked her to bring along the 2 SD card on the table when I come back to fetch them later.

So I sent Beckham to in-law's place and come back to pick up the family to church.  I go a SD from YiFei and inserted it into the CCTV.  It seems like there's some problem as the CCTV doesn't seems to be able to record.  After thinking for a while, I figured out that it may be because I've formatted in NTFS and it's a format that is not supported by the CCTV.

Thus I asked YiFei to remove the SD and insert the other spare SD.  YiFei was struggling to remove the SD as she is not good with gadgets and tries to insert the other card.  She was asked to do it as I was driving.  As she tries to insert the other cards, it seems like she is experiencing problem and the card flew out.  Thus I got the card from her and inserted it into the CCTV.  I managed to get it inserted, but the CCTV is still not recording.

I couldn't figure it out what is the problem and thought that maybe I've inserted it wrongly as I was driving and couldn't really focus.  Thus I asked YiFei to remove the card and this time round she was not able to do it no matter how she tries.  As I was on the expressway, I couldn't help.  Then we I was approaching church and stopped at a traffic light junction, I tried to remove the card but I was also not able to to remove it.

As you can see, the whole journey my mind was focused on the CCTV and memory cards and I couldn't prepared myself for the Alpha course.  I reached the car park and spent 5 minutes in the car trying to remove the memory card unsuccessfully.  It's running late, thus I removed the CCTV and bring it along to the church.

I was a little late, but the session has not started yet as we were waiting for another person to arrive.  I was at a corner trying very hard to remove the memory card and getting frustrated.  As I examined my emotions during this period of time, I realized that something is wrong.  I had been focusing on the worldly things and getting frustrated and not feeling joyful of the good Sunday morning when we are going to have fun through the 2nd lesson in Alpha.

I decided to put it down and start praying.  When I gave up, God's work in my life started to take effect.  The new guy who joined us for Alpha last week was there observing me struggling with my gadget.  He figured it out that I was trying to remove a memory card and he offered to helping highlighted that he is in IT line.  It's good that someone can help though I'm not sure if he is able to help as I'm also in the IT line :p  Thus I passed the CCTV to him while I prepared to get myself ready for the Alpha course.

I saw him taking out some tools and started work.  Now I figured it out that it's a different IT line that we were in.  I'm in software, while he is in hardware... lol

After trying and struggling, he managed to get the memory card out for me and we found out that it was a wrong memory card inserted into the CCTV that caused it to jam.  Instead of SD, I inserted Memory Stick.  No wonder.

As I recollect all the events, I realized that there are so many things that has happened that is so coincidental.

1.  An IT guy put in the Alpha course when we only intended to plan it for our current members in the English Congregation.
2.  I formatted a SD in NTFS, left another SD in the computer, 1 MS on the table.
3.  I forgot to bring the SD when I left the house
4.  I bring the CCTV to the church to try to remove the memory card

If any of these events did not take place or happen differently, it will be a different story that I'm writing that makes me feel the presence of God when I'm so focused in my life and my own world.

I ought to give thanks to the precise construction of events otherwise I may have to throw the CCTV away as I don't think I'll be able to take out the memory card on my own without destroying it or I'll have no inspiring story to share.

My testimony

I was borne a Buddhist leading a faithful and righteous life because I'm afraid of death and going to hell. I knew that death is inevitable and I really hope that there is God and heaven exist. Since young, the only religion that I practiced is Buddhism and Christianity is just another class of religion (something like branded goods).

My exposure to Christianity started during my secondary school at the age of 12/13 when I was invited by my form teacher to a Youth for Christ group. This was when I was shared on the true knowledge of Christianity: Sin and Jesus Christ.

At that age, I believe that all religion preaches the truth that the religion believes in.

I've got no doubts that whatever I've heard of about Buddhism and Christianity was the truth that was shared to me.

Though I was young, my mind was driven by logic as Mathematics was my best subject then. It was very clear to me then that whatever that was taught about Christianity provides no allowance for the route to heaven. Buddhism never tell me that Christian cannot go to heaven as they still got other live to work on to reach heaven. This current live also doesn't guarantee my ticket to heaven. Christianity however tells me that my choice is my only chance to Heaven or to eternal Hell with no return at all.

While Christianity is the only wise choice logically, it was a great struggle for me. Back in home, I've heard lots of conversation between my parents about their view of Christianity. Their view of Christianity was indeed very bad and I've heard of Christian doing lots of stupid things through their stubborn faith that eventually cost a life. I knew for sure that if I were to be a Christian, there will be hell in my family.

I love my mom and dad and the thought that becoming a Christian will destroy my relationship with them is very frightening. It was OK for me to go to hell after death as long as my parents still love me. But then a fearful thought came to my mind, i.e my parents will go to hell after death because we are not Christian. I do not want this to happen. I can't bear to see my parents going to hell. I want to be a Christian and I want my parents to be Christian too.

I think I said the sinner's prayer secretly and prayed for my parents. Though my choice was clear, I was still very confuse.

Year by year passes and my religion has been a struggle. When I fill up forms that asked for religion, I always struggled between Buddhism and Christian. When the form is one that my parents may have chance to see it, I'll put down Buddhism to play safe. Sometimes, I either tell people that I'm a Christian who does not go to church, or I believe in Jesus Christ but not in Christianity.

Believe in Jesus Christ but not in Christianity??? Yes, this was true for me for a very long time as I grew older. As I understand more about the world, Christians becomes those people whom I do not wish to be associated with. But at the same time, I could not deny Jesus Christ. Buddhism to me is just a teaching but not a religion and all other religion are just man made.

Therefore, I embrace all knowledge that teaches me to be good, but ironically, I believe in Jesus Christ but do not read the bible or attempt to learn about Christianity. Most of the teachings that I embraced comes from Buddhism. To me, these teachings make me a better person.

I grew in wisdom and advanced in career. Every problem that I faced has a solution. I've got very good sense of black & white, good & bad. Of course, I'll always choose the white and good. But I'm human and as long as I can justify to myself, I can also accept things that are bad. There's a saying "男人不坏，女人不爱", so long as it does not harm others.

There will always be a limit as to how much a man can do, especially when it comes to relationship. A setback in relationship is a wakening call to me. No matter how wise I am or how righteous I am, there are many things that I don't have control over.

There is no one on in the world whom you can trust fully, not even yourselves. In life, one will have to face situation to forgo righteous to solve a problem. Wise people who do not believe in God will eventually have to forgo righteousness and still able to justify that the act does not "harm" anyone.

I became enlightened at that very moment in my struggle. I made a firm decision to start to go to Church because only God has the ruler to measure every act in the world. I was skeptical about Christians, but I've forgotten that Christians are not God.

There are many Christians in the world who offers bad testimony through their way of life, but it is very clear to me that God's word is the only truth that I've been seeking in my life. Pastor Ong's sharing of God's word is very enlightening during the period that I was struggling. The only way I can really digest the words from God is by going to Church. Reading bible by myself does not bring much understanding.

Ever since I've made my commitment to attend church and study the words of God, my view of what I see in the world and people has changed totally. I appreciate the problems that I see in the world with much more in-depth understanding.

My worries are lesser because I can leave most of them to God. Still learning how to leave all my worries to God though. Many miracles start to happen in my life when I started praying. I experience many prayers being answered on things that I've totally no controls over. Every time when I need God badly, the prayers are always answered. I cannot attribute that to luck or coincidence as luck and coincidence is not there all the time. However, I also acknowledge that there may be possibilities the story of Job may happen in my life, but I know that God is in control and he love us and will not harm us.

I have always been ready for baptism, but I've always thought that Baptism is just a ritual and can do without. To appreciate the words of God and to lead a life that is Christ like is more important.

The baptism preparation class has taught me otherwise. Going through baptism gives the ownership of my life to God and not to Sin (Freed from SIN). I've previously misunderstood “Freed from SIN” with "Free from SIN" as being the same. Now I've fully appreciate what is "Freed from SIN" and today I'm really excited to be baptized.

Baptism

Me & my wife was scheduled for baptism this year on 4th Apr. This is a special occasion as it's an easter day and it's 1 day after my birthday. So it's easy to remember.

I've been praying to God for this day since I restarted my Christian walk. What appears like an impossible task is now made possible by God. When my wife agreed to go through baptism, I was really excited as I've personnally not heard her saying the sinner's prayer.

God has done wonders in our live and it's hard not to acknowledge his existence.

On 3rd of April it started raining at night and the rain did not stop in the morning on the 4th. Not only that, it becomes heavier when we leave the house. I know that the church has been praying for good weather for this day and I believe firmly that rain will stop though there's no sign of stopping so far.

The baptism service was scheduled at 9:30am at Changi Beach starting with songs and giving testimony by each individuals going for baptism and finally the baptism ceremony in the sea. There are 3 of us.

We had to bring Beckham to in-law's place first before proceeding to Changi Beach. Due to the weather, we were a little late. On the way to Changi Beach, rain was very heavy but as we reached Changi Beach, it was drizzling as we see sign of God's work at hand.

The church member were singing in the pavilion due to the rain. William gave his testimony, followed by Joyce and finally it was my turn. I've prepared my script in English but looking at the audience who are mainly elderly who does not understand English, I decided to speak in Mandarin. Thank God that I'm able to deliver my speech in Mandarin despite the fact that I didn't prepare for it and what I've spoken is not too far out from what I've written. Initially I thought I can translate to Mandarin while reading my script in English in realtime. But after a while, I recognised that it's impossible for me, so I decided give an impromptu speech without reading the script.

While giving my speech, it's still a little drizzling. After my speech, we proceed to the beach for the baptism ceremony and the sky was clear without any rain. With the rain stopped, church members can walk towards the beach to witness our ceremony.

It was a great day of sharing, to witness the act of God and to know that he is in control.