| a night with the noobs

It was a quiet Thursday evening. The clock was slowly ticking it's way to 7pm. "But if I can't swim after fourty days.." the song was playing its last line on the mp3. Just as I was about to Wikipedia about Transformers after watching it's upcoming movie's teaser trailer on youtube when..

*KAPOWW!!BZBZBZZZ!!*
AI: Low power. Build more wind-traps.

Heh~ Gotta love the old Dune games. So yea, my house was out of power, out of juice, out of mojo, out of.. wait, we're never out of mojo. heh~ Mom arose from her slumber due to the shockwave of cries of people, cut-off from their idiot-box. Mom lit up our trusty storm lamp and we went out to see the extend of the damage.

it's older than me

The whole stretch of my taman was going through a blackout. People were panicking, children were crying, youths were breaking store windows and looting everything they can find. Police choppers were hovering over the riot, policemen were firing tear gas in the middle of the group. Chaos.. Utter chaos. And because of that, I have to wait in a long queue just to pump petrol. Everybody wants to get out the dark taman.

sam's car running at around 85kmh

Mom and I, in her car and I on my bike went to Sin Hoe garden at Bukit Baru for our dinner. After a satisfying meal of beef noodles, we parted ways, she went to visit her younger brother while I went to check out what's up with the Newbie CG as they were gonna celebrate Joel and co-incidentally, Rachel's birthday. Stop smirking now you guys. Hehe~

joel and rachel... *smiles*

At Sam's Place (TM), mooncakes with lit candles were brought out as we sang happy burfday to Jo'l and R'chl. In the darkness of the living room, with the 4 candles on the 4 mooncakes as a source of light, they made their burfday wishes and blow the candles. Everybody go 'awwwwww~'. Together, they then held the kitchen knife to cut the mooncake. Everybody go 'sooooo sueeettt~'.

tanglung tanglung tanglung

The younger ones of the Noobs Newbie CG proceeded to play with the traditional chinese lanterns aka tanglungs while people like Billy, and I sat and watch TV which was showing the Surface series and we came up with the conclusion that even aliens need to use the torchlight every now and then. Heh~ Soon I was filled with boredom and decided to check out what they others were doing outside.

sam's masterpiece

They were playing with candles! Candles!! When you think of candles, you think fire. When you think fire, you think BIG fire. When you think BIG fire, you go OOooooo.. Ahhhhh.. Or maybe that's just me. Well, it was fun to watch them placed the candles in a vertical row, lit the bottom candle and watch the fire move upwards. Makes me feel very stone age. Still, it was fun and cool nonetheless.

kok phin's V masterpiece

After the last of the candles burnt out, the fun had ended and we started to clean up Sam's place as it was in a mess of wax and burnt tanglungs. Forgot to mention that one of the tanglungs caught fire and broke Sam's clothesline.. Sweet~ As we scrap off the wax from the walls and floors, we were distracted by a romance movie that was playing in the midst of our cleaning.

aren't they kiuuuuut?!!
they look so sueeeett~!!

Johnathan : Aiyooooo~

| its 4am and im hyper... that's bad

I said come on! Get up! The King is here!
There's something happening in the atmosphere!!
I said jump up! Jump up! Jump up and shout it out!
The King is here! Go tell the world about!
His love! His grace! Spread the word around!
Jump up! Jump up! Jump up and shout it out!

That's the chorus for Planetshaker's new live album, Pick It Up. The pastor with the cracked, rough voice has the prefect voice for this album. Screamo tu da maxx mann. "COME ON PLANETSHAKERS!!" hehe~ Feel so hyped up mann after hearing this album and it's already 4.10am. Can't get that tune out of my head! Looks like I'm gonna havta rock myself to sleep. ahaks~

Planetshakers 2006 : Pick It Up

Oh yea, I managed to sneak into Renee's room earlier this afternoon while she's not around and took a picture of her lovely room with new drapes. The orange, yellow thingy colored curtains really look good especially when the sun is up and the color drowns the room and gives out such a.. warm ambiance. Real nice. Wish I had curtains in my room too. I think my neighbour peeks into my window whenever I'm nude. Hehe~

what's that on her curtains...

I have a bad fashion sense. Or at least that's what my sisters tell me all the time. Heck, I think the whole world thinks I have a bad fashion sense so much so that they'll give me nice clothing as a present during my birthday. To me, I wear what I feel is nice to me I as I do various vain poses when I look into the mirror and am not really bothered by what people say about my plain-looking clothing. As one girl once reprimand me, "Wear something nicer larr. Handsome people must wear better clothes". I dunno if she's hinting me or what, but she called me handsome and that's good enough for me. Hehe~

toilette? cologne for toilette? WHAT?!

But then.. On my 20th birthday (gifts are still welcomed) my bro and grace gave me a cologne/perfume whateveritscalled as a gift. Wonder what they're trying to hint me. Nahh~ I'm tired of thinking for now. Gotta sleep. 4.30am. And people wonder why I sleep so late.

| fire fell down

Worship. I can never give enough of worship to God. Honestly, I can't. To put it into words is just.. impossible? But to experience it is truly something special, something amazing. We offer our worship and He touches our lives. Awesome..

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming
after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
~Matthew 3:11~

In just less than 2 hours, the last CF for the semester is over. It was a great time of giving worship to our God like never before. Even during the practices, it was more of an act of worship than just practice. On Tuesday, we had Praise and Worship Night and we cried out to God for His Fire to fall down on us. I believe God's heart was touched.

louis cleaning the yac with joel and i

practice, practice, practice

As everyone now returns to their daily lives and focuses more on their upcoming exams. It is my prayer that they do not forget to offer to God their worship and sacrifices. After all, praising and worshipping God should not only be confined to, 'every Tuesday, in CF' but should be a daily lifestyle.

I know, I know. I sound very preach-ie. I just can't help it.

Yesterday, I was returned something that holds a great deal of value to me. Something that I've lost and have not seen or touched for the past 2 years. It was something that I received 5 years ago at camp, a HUGE Camp. It was the first in Malacca and I still have the poster. It's quite antique and it has pictures of the various people involved in it namely Ps Chris Long and the Youth Alive Malaysia team. There's even a picture of Ps Joanne smirking at the cameraman - she seems happy. Hehe~

louis asked me take the picture of his nice red bottle

So yea, it's old but that not the only thing I got from HUGE Camp. You see, my room got broken into and my stuffs including my wallet, walkman (with Steven Curtis Chapman's Speechless album inside.. grrr~), and watch got stolen. I was truthfully thankful that the guy did not steal my guitar cause if he did, I'd be forced to hunt him down and, *chuckles* we don't want THAT to happen now do we?

HUGE Camp 2001

The next day, after the night concert, Ps Neil Smith of Youth Alive/Planetshakers was preaching the Word. I still remember it very well till this day. He was preaching about being a blessing to others and blessing others at the same time. Then, he paused and said that he heard there was a camper who's room was broken into and his walkman, wallet and watch was stolen. He called out the room number. *gasp* It's mine!

5 years ago..

My friends pushed me out. Thanks a lot. Heh~ And me, being a very, VERY shy and innocent 15 year old guy walked up the stage in a hall filled with hundreds and hundreds of people. Oh yea, Jess and Jin Wang was there too but Jess can't remember my cute face. Hehe~ Ps Neil said that since he can't give me a walkman because he doesn't have one and he obviously can't (though I wish he did, heh~) give his wallet but he said there's something he can bless me with. He gave me his watch. A Guess Steel watch that, according to him, cost over 1k Aussie.

it looks big because meant for an aussie's wrists

That was a moment I shall never forget. A pastor of the Youth Alive and Planetshakers, blessed me with more than a watch, he blessed me with a heart to do the same for others. Whether I've been a blessing to others or whether I've done a good job at blessing others, I dunno. But I do know that that is something that makes me never forget the promise that God has given me and my own promise to Him, that I shall serve Him only and use my gifts to praise and worship Him and Him alone.

Dear Ps Neil, you spark a fire in me that will
will always burn for Christ and I'll always
continue bless others just as you have blessed me

Tuesday's Praise & Worship was just one of those nights when I was able to fulfill my promise to Him. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that time of worshipping God and I'm sorry to bore you all with another long and boring post about my life. Hehe~ But in the end, indeed only Him be the glory. Fire, fall down on us we pray.

| feeling down..

..and for no apparent reason too. It's a mixture of feeling down and stoned - a deadly combo as I know have learnt. *sigh*

Guess I still hold a small amount of feeling not-contented that I'll need to get rid of. Graphic card malfunctioning even though I haven't been using it to play games for the past week. Then dumb internet connection that's slower than a 56kb line. bleh~ How often do you guys see me rant (for the past few weeks. heh~).

i had fun dudes. thanx konn manns for the 5am dim sum~

Here's a short one I guess. Nite peeps~ Gotta prepare my heart for tonight.

| things are slowing down

thanx debbie for da kiut pic! *muakz*

Dunno about you guys surfin the net out there but over here, in my crib (i just said crib, heh~), I've been experiencing some very very.. very bad narrowband connections. Yeap folks, it's once again the season for Suxmyx to torture us with crap bandwidths and in return we pay RM88 for 50kbps speed.

I feel sad.. Sigh~ One day, I'm gonna move to Korea and bask myself in their big pool of 400MB bandwidth and date a hot korean chick. Heh~

fan the flame and burn eternally

Exams are up, or so I've heard from my still-studying friends in MMU. You see, I'm in a higher level then them between not-studying and jobless. I call it holiday. Hehe~ Aww, show some love people. Rest assured, I'm praying for all your exams okay? So you're not alone. I'm nearing the end of the first month of my holiday. Second month of pregnancy holiday coming soon. Yay~

i like satay.. especially when there's fat between the meat

But there's something that's coming soon to YAC. Something better than my holiday. Something that's more important than exams. This coming Tuesday is Praise and Worship Night: Offering Of Worship! Remember kids, we were made to worship Him.

i like dim sum too..

Note: as usual, pictures have nothing to do with the post

| something that's of worth?

simplest for the simple people

I dunno but you guys out there but I think bible study is fun. I really enjoy listening to people's thoughts and views on the bible. Seeing things through the different people's perspective of the bible and the meaning it holds that varies from each individual and that makes it all the more interesting. Gah~ Blows my mind.

piggeee

Wednesday night a few musicians came together to pray for this coming Tuesday's CF. We were talking about a few topics and fasting was one of them. The reason for fasting. Then sacrifice came in the topic and the thought that came into my mind was, "what do I have that's worthy of a sacrifice to God?". Yea, that got me thinking a lot.

i'll never regret..

I guess I'm still searching for something that I have that I feel is a worthy sacrifice unto my Lord. I don't want to give God something meaningless, I want to give Him something that's of worth. I wonder, what do I have that's worthy of a sacrifice to God. I found that in my gift that He gave me many years ago, a gift that I treasure. I'm still constantly giving it back to Him.

..dedicating my all to Him

The reason I hold it in my hands. The reason I strum the strings. The reason I close my eyes and lift my heart. The reason has, and will always be for Him. The thing I treasure most, I give it back to Him. Yea.. That's my sacrifice. All He has given me, I'll give it back. Is it enough O Lord? I feel unsatisfied. I want to give more. I want to give You so much more. Open my eyes lord, open my eyes.

in my life.. be lifted high
in my world.. be lifted high
im our love.. be lifted high

| atas the tanah tinggi

Here are more stuff from the Kuantan trip. When writing the previous post, I was kinda tired, thus rushed through most of it. I wonder if anyone noticed it. Heh~ Anyway this post consists of pictures and words - like all other posts.

Yea.

Oh yea~ A correction for the previous post. Sniggling is actually snugglin and giggling, not snugglin and laughing. Giggling sounds more girlish, which was exactly how they sounded that night. Hehe~ Ex-president and current president sniggling together in bed. And I thought I've seen it all. ahaks~

Justin's head is like a big ping pong.. yada yada

Just a thought. We musicians have a name for our individual instruments, like Jason has his Tremonti, Justin has Ibanez, ZX has his Yamaha, and VJ has his, uh.. drums. But Deric. Deric's special. He his has Korg. I feel uncomfortable calling that keyboard's name but I dunno what else to call it! Deric, can pinjam your Korg? His Korg was used in NOC4 and it gave a sound like no other keyboards. He must've spend a lot on it. Without his Korg, I bet NOC4's would have a hard time. Thanx Der for your.. keyboard.

| the tanah tinggi

On Friday 9 people from Melaka head off for a journey of their life time..

But before that~

yes, edmund is rockin the guitar

Thursday's CG was fun. The Ishies makan'ed at the chinese restaurant next to Rama Rams. The food is good I tell ya, especially their fried rice. I mean come one, where else can you get prawns in fried rice for only RM3? It's a bargain I tell ya! Later after makan the Ish-Ish CG, the *hand-on-nose-teasing* CG, and the New CG met up at Paddlepop's house to have some fun game. The first game we played was murder-winker. Sounds wrong doesn't it? Well, I was the chosen murderer and I 1337 pwn3d those peeps. Heheh~

lionel's gonna have a hard time calling his CG

After that we played everyone's favourite game - Mafia: Kiss The Ring. Tension was on high as everyone was a suspect. I personally evaded persecution on 3 games though I was only a citizen and on 2 games, the Executioner killed me. Everyone hates me.. Heh~. Ai Ai was voted the (wo)man-of-the-match as she was the best Mafia and she killed off all her opponents with much needed brutality and managed to destroy all the evidence. Deadly.

a straight road and 3 guys

Friday night came. After dinner Raj, Justin, Deric, Jason, ZX, VJ, Shih Wen, Wayne and I set off on our journey to Kuantan. 9 peeps, 3 cars, 1 Higher Ground. Jason, Raj, and VJ in car 1, Deric, ZX, and Shih Wen in car 2 and Justin, Wayne and I in car 3. The road to Kuantan is a really long and straight one. Seriously. When I say straight, I do mean straight; no gaying to the left or right. Heh~ Jason's car had a near death experience as they almost crash into an on-coming vehicle but thankfully, God's mercy covered us all and we manage to reach Kuantan with no injuries.. otherthandericscarashedentedhiscarreversingintoavan.

Kuantan Baptist Church

they were all tired and VJ had an emo moment

poor guy

It was around 1++am when we arrived at Kuantan Baptist Church (KBC). Shih Wen's parents had just arrived earlier from Ipoh and they gave us a tour of the church and showed us our rooms. They're nice people, just like their daughter. *smiles* KBC is a really homey church. Downstairs' the sanctuary, up stairs is practically a house with rooms, a dining table, and a kitchen. I like that place. There's always food on the table!

jason's not tired cause he's high on sugar.. heh~

The guys were tired from all the travelling, 5-6 hours of driving and all, but at the same time, I guess we were excited about tomorrow. PG165 will be playing for a combine-youth event called High Ground (HG). HG is an event that is organized every month by the youths of the different churches in the area. In the previous HG, they featured bands such as Altered Frequency and Planet Shakers. This year, PG165 has the honour of blessing them.

coffee... need coffeeee....

There are 2 rooms with 2 queen-size mattresses in each room. Both rooms fully air-conditioned, comes individual bathrooms and water-heater. Did I mention homey? They gave us biscuits, cookies, eggs, milk, coffee/milo mix, and other goodies on the table for us to consume should we feel hungry at any time. We munch on the tit-bits as we settled down and talked about the up-coming event.

awww... aren't they cute?

Raj, VJ, Jason and Wayne slept in the first room, Justin, Deric, ZX and I slept in the other. I had a slight difficulty sleeping the first night. Justin and Deric kept on talking and sniggling (snuggle and laughing) through out the whole night, hugging their boasters and all. Honestly, it looks really gross and wrong but hey, every guy has his needs. Hahahaha~

it's a lovely morning folks and the time is 9.45am

We woke up at around 10am. The sun was shinning and the birds were singing out loud. A beautiful morning. ZX and I woke up first, Justin and Deric was still sleeping. Guess they must be exhausted from last night. Heh~ After washing up, we had our morning prayer and devotion together at the dining table. Raj shared to us the passage from Psalm 133, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!".

some nice curry mee place

Aaron Phua and Jeshua (i think), came in the morning and gave us a run down on Kuantan and the HG event. Aaron, a college student studying in *insert college name* took us out for brunch, Kuantan's proud Curry Mee at a coffee shop near Teluk Chempedak/Chempaka (i forgot which).

smooth beach and blue ocean

an oasis of waste.. ewww~

a higher view

a 'city of angels' moments

yeah, we found some big nuts

After a very satisfying meal, Aaron took us to Kuantan's beach. It looks much better than Melaka's. Seriously. On a scale of 1 to 10, if Melaka is 2, they're a definite 9. The ocean was blue and the sand was smooth and clean. We spent an hour strolling around the beach, enjoying the fresh air and scenery. Everything about Kuantan's beach is simply.. breath-taking.

wayne made some funny joke with the word 'test'

When we got back to KBC, we wasted little time and got straight to work. Moved the stage to a better position (after seeking permission of course), set up the equipment and did some sound check. It was a little tricky doing the sound check but with some help, it turned up okay. After a few minutes of softer-louder adjustments we managed to reach the quality of sound that was satisfying and clear. PG165 went on their practice run and though it was just practice, the worship was excellent.

nice car.. *impressed*

Shih Wen's parents was very kind and generous to take us out for dinner. Shih Wen's dad, a civil engineer, is a very funny guy, calling Deric a clown and all. Hahaha~ Her mom, a teacher, is a very gentle lady who holds her hands together as she talks. So basically Shih Wen looks more like her dad but acts more like her mom.

food!!

MORE food!!

0wn463~

Uncle blessed us with an abundant ammount of food. I mean seriously, the food just kept on coming and coming and coming and it just won't stop! He ordered an 8 course meal and fed us all till we were full and fat. My personal favourite dish was the stuffed-'yew cha kueh' and fried praying mantis shrimp that tasted like chicken. Praying Mantis Shrimp = Chicken. The world is truly full of wonders.

"does this mascara' make me look ugly?"

It was 20 minutes more before the HG event started and everyone was excited. In fact, they were so excited, everyone had to go to the toilet to do some 'big business', except me. I guess the curry mee was taking effect at the very wrong moment. Hehe~ But alas, everyone was okay when the event started. PG165 went on stage and rocked the young crowd in front of them.

ALWAYS AND FOREVER!!

Overall the praise and worship was great. PG165 started with Always and Forever and got the youths to jump around. After the praise songs, Jason told the youths to sit down and the un-plugged session was next. While setting up, Justin interacted with the crowd, explaining what he went through as he wrote his song entitled, 'My Friend'.

tanah tinggi event

shred that baby

the screamos

"let me tell you guys what spanar is.." - justin

Strangely enough he started mentioning 'spanar' but I shall leave that for him to explain to you guys. Hehe~ With the APX in hand, Justin shared his song that he hasn't been singing for over a year. Then Jason shared his un-plugged song called 'Come Home'. The worship that came next was one that I haven't had in awhile. The presence of God just came and covered the whole room. I, myself was touched by God.

they kept making fun of an American preacher.. tsk tsk tsk~

Raj shared to the youths the story of Jeremiah, which tells the youths that they're never too young for God to use and that God can use anyone to do His will. The youth was attentive in listening to the Word. The youngest among the crowd was an 11 year old boy named Jeremy. Cute lil' kid. After a time of ministering, PG165 took the stage again and ended the event with a big bang. They played 'The Time Has Come' and 'What The World Will Never Take'. This time the youth, burning with the strong fire was jumping higher than ever. Went out for mamak and fellowshipped with the youths. Came back and crashed in bed.

quicky going through the chords for Sunday service

We woke up early for Sunday service. Justin was worship leading. Though they didn't practiced for it, the band was able to lead the people into worship. Raj came up and talked about how he admired the young generation that set up the Higher Ground event and how great it is to see them united. After service we joined their youth service. Played games and Deric called himself Dried Nuts Deric. I'm not joking, he really did call himself that. Hahaha~ But Deric showed his preach-a-bility as he shared about Jonah and obeying the will of God to the youths. Had a short nap before heading off to another section of Kuantan's beach to eat some really, very good curry puffs. For 50 cents it's the best curry puffs I've ever eaten.

VJ trying to grab the little light

Soon, we said our good byes to Kuantan and headed back to Melaka. We stopped at Tangkak to have our dinner. The food, as usual, was good. Pork with Salted-fish in Clay Pot. Blew my mind. Touched down in Melaka around 11pm and went back to our respective homes.

shih wen came back with us

pork with salted-fish in clay pot = heavenly

All in all, it was truly a great experience for me. Even as we blessed them, we in return was truly blessed by them. Hope we can send a team there again one day. PG165 did a great job there once again and I'm glad I was able to helped them.