The Thai Farewell

A little farewell makan session at the Thai restaurant (BAANTHAI) off Marshal Rd at Kammore for the team lissner. Tiff and Pat went back to sg today liao! Dear Neighbours, you will be missed. Already missing the cookies, muffins and 汤圆! ha-ha all the best to your future endeavours! God Bless ;-)

Is rights that important?

Here's an excerpt of the sermon by Pastor Michael Ross Watson back in July 2006. He's a regular guest speaker at my church back in Singapore. This ang mo from Great Britain spent decades serving in the mission field of Indonesia with his wife. He speaks eloquent bahasa melayu and now he has returned to an itinerant teaching and preaching ministry.

Sermon : Making Jesus Lord
Click here to download full Sermon

Hi all,

Just wanna share some photos that we took recently. Enjoy...

And, to people that are buried with assignments and tests, feel like giving up and doubt if God is still with you. God has promised to never leave you nor forsake you. He 's your helper, of whom shall you fear! Have faith in Him and don't give up... we'll all get there! Jia You!

Some verses to share with you all:
"... the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and not lacking anything." James 1:3-4

"Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised those who love Him." James 1:12

Human OCF

Facial under the sun



The Three Statures

Err Vic... are you ok?

We are so proud to be OCFers... YEAH!

Breather for those rushing assignments

This is one amazing dude. A fellow contestant at the recent Indian Idol and he's Chinese. Believe it, Your jaw will drop when you hear him sings in Tamil language.

The Lost Tomb Of Jesus

ok. The Titanic movie produced by James Cameron was an epic and this time the producer and Canadian documentary + film maker Simcha Jacobovici produced a documentary under the banner of discovery channel on the findings of the lost tomb of Jesus. Well in my opinion, Hollywood and discovery is a bad mix, not to mention all the wrong hypotheses. The "documentary" will be broadcast on Channel 10, Monday at 9 30pm.

The following are just some stuffs I have put together if you are interested to explore a bit more on the issue. Cheers :-)

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Extracts from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Tomb_of_Jesus

• The Washington Post in an article of 2/28/07 cites Dever as being "widely considered the dean of biblical archaeology among U.S. scholars" and quotes him as saying, "I just think it's a shame the way this story is being hyped and manipulated" and "all of the names [contained in the tomb] are common."

• The archaeologist William Dever summed it up when he stated on Koppel's critical analysis, The Lost Tomb of Jesus—A Critical Look, that Jacobovici's and Cameron's "conclusions were already drawn in the beginning" of the inquiry and that their "argument goes far beyond any reasonable interpretation."

More comments :

Scholars Dispute Over the Discovery Channel Documentary - (from: http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/The_Lost_Tomb_of_Jesus/losttombofjesus_response.htm)

12 Major Problems for the "Jesus Tomb" Theory

1.	The Names "Joseph" and "Jesus" were very popular in the 1st century. "Jesus" appears in at least 99 tombs and on 22 ossuaries. "Joseph" appears on 45 ossuaries.
2.	"Mary" is the most common female name in the ancient Jewish world.
3.	The DNA evidence establishes no positive links in this tomb whatsoever.
4.	The statistical comparison to Jesus of Nazareth is severely flawed.
5.	There is no early historical nor tomb connection to Mary Magdalene.
6.	There is no historical evidence anywhere that Jesus ever married or had children.
7.	The "Jesus" in the tomb was known as "Son of Joseph," but the earliest followers of the New Testament Jesus didn't call him that.
8.	It is unlikely that Jesus' family tomb would be located in Jerusalem.
9.	The Talpiot tomb was costly. It apparently belonged to a wealthy family.
10.	The tenth ossuary has been accounted for without recourse to the "James" ossuary.
11.	All ancient sources agree that, very soon afterwards, the burial tomb of Jesus of Nazareth was empty.
12.	The Talpiot tomb data fail to account for Jesus' resurrection appearances.

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Our recent returnees

Best wishes to our returnees and may they have wonder new beginning as they pursue their future endeavours. Thank you for sharing apart of your life with all of us at OCF! Cheers

Returnee 1 - Melisa

Melissa's little farewell lunch on Sat 28 July. Our dear sister-in-Christ went back to Singapore on the 29 of July and back to work as teacher on the very Monday. Press on Cher.

Returnee 2 - ZhongRong aka 'Chong'

There are limited images of him. ha-ha you can spot him out in the photo posted in previous blog. Chong went back to Singapore on 30 July and he will be seeking for employment to keep him occupied for the next few months before returning in Feb 2008 for his Honors Year. Fortunately a few of the bros in-Christ managed to catch up for 2 days of FIFA gaming and an Asia Cup match in the City before he left for SG.

Jokes about ST... I also have one! Hehe... sorry ST!

Remember that night we watched "State of Origin" cum celebrated Eileen's birthday at my house? Patrick said a very "cold joke" (冷笑话）and everyone laughed crazily! The joke goes like this

What do people call Siong Ting when he goes party?
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Answer is
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趴地熊 (tare panda) a.k.a party Xiong =.="

Very cold right? Ahaha...

Surprise Party...Again?

The date: 29 June 2007

The place: ST and Louis' abode

The "victims": Louis and Darren

The 2 boys actually share the exact same birthday on 2 July. Haha..of course different year lah.

Although the party was given away (twice!) by the same person....we still enjoyed it alot. And had lotsa fun teasing him about it. ST, we still love you. Hee....

Give-Away 1:
L: I saw someone in front of the cake shop today. He was bending infront of the cake shelves..and I recognised that it was ST's butt!


Give-Away 2:
ST : Think we can cut the cake first. (Immediately received several murderous glares)
D: Hehe....I know what you all up to.....

Exam stress relief aid

Hey guys and gals,
All the best for the coming exam. Here's something to relief you of stress. I found a series of comic strip posted online which was done by a Singaporean. It's actually a series of parodies on the political issues in Singapore and you can see more of it on the main webby.
Just go to >>>
http://www.insanepoly.com/blog/?cat=7

If you are not a Singaporean then here's a chance to learn more about our little city-State.

Cheers :)

Knowing God's Will

Darren and I have the habit of listening to the online sermons from our church back in Singapore. The sermon that I would like to share here is by our favourite “guest” speaker, Pastor Michael Ross Watson from the UK. It’s about knowing God’s will. I guess this is a topic that many pastors have spoken on, but this one was especially refreshing and ministered to me. It’s my prayer that it will speak to you as well.

Verse: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you (Ps 32:8)

I remember a youth pastor sharing with us during a retreat: To know God’s will is like handing God a blank piece of paper and let Him write what He wants for us. But how many times do we actually do that? Our usual mode is to go to Him with a piece of paper filled with all our requests. Our interpretation of knowing God’s will is: “God, I want to know your will for me..within these options hor”.

God wants to lead and instruct us. He wants to and He will. For us, the challenge is to know how God reveals His will to us (or how He speaks to us lah).

Pastor Michael shared 4 ways in which we can know God’s will:

1. Through the Bible
God reveals His will through His word. It is like an instructional handbook. The guidelines of how we should make decisions are there.

2. God speaking to you internally
Have you ever experienced God just “put something on your heart”? It could be a phonecall or email that you want to make to a friend. It could be a place that you feel you should go. Just remember that God will not tell you to do something that contradicts His written laws and He will arrange for the circumstances for you to do the thing He wants you to.

3. Prophesy
In 1 Cor 14:3, it says that prophesy strengthens, encourage and comforts. But, we should not take prophesies as THE guidance. Prophesies need to fit in with the other things that God have planned for us. It could be the beginning of a series of events that God will orchestrate to lead us to our goals, or it could be the end of a series of events to confirm something. Prophesies should not be taken or interpreted on its own only.

4. Sanctified Common Sense (my favourite)
Use your minds! Sometimes it’s not that difficult to make the decision. We like to complicate things in order to “show” that we are seeking God’s will. If we have a close fellowship with God on a daily basis, what we desire is what He wants for us (erhm, abit complicated here. i hope i can explain clearly: it means, if we know Him enough, we will know His character and what He will do in certain situations. so, what we think we should do, we are already under His “instructions”...makes sense?). Whenever we make any decisions, trust God to close the doors if you have made the wrong decision. Remember that He wants to leads us? And He is our loving and faithful God. It hurts Him to see us hurt. (Ps 37:4, John 15:7)

Personally, God speaks to me in another way: through images. God can speak to me using a bus-stop sign. A poster on the road. A building or a tree. I remember some years back I couldn’t decide where I should go for my mission trip. It was between China and one of the SE Asia countries (can’t remember which country now liao). I was on the bus on my way to church and I saw the China Embassy. It was a new building and I did not notice it in the last few times I took the bus. I made the decision then: China. I was scared of going China at first, because my impression of China were that of the spitting locals and the door-less toilets. But God removed that fear n during my trip there. I have learnt to love the Chinese and had been back again in 2004. And I will go back again.

But well, knowing God’s will does not mean we will have a set of full-proof blue print of our lives. It does not happen that way lor. We have to take it step by step. We move one step in the correct direction, God will lead us to another. It takes time and a lot of patience. There are many times we are just too impatient and of course there are times we make mistakes and need to go round some circles. When we seek God’s will, we want instant answers to solve our immediate problems. We lose sight of what is important from God’s perspective. We want money to pay the rent, but He wants us to build faith in Him. Contrasting goals? No. Just one is short-term and one is long-term. God works in long-term basis. There are many times that I look back on my life and now then I understand why God made me go through all that difficult times. But seriously, during those times, I questioned God lor. Why I need to go through them and why God just did not take them away. Give me a miracle to solve all the problems at 1 go.

So what is holding us back? It’s the fear of the unknown, the lie that Satan made us believe. The lie that says if we give God that blank piece of paper, God is going to write “Give up everything and go India as a missionary”. Following God’s will is not going to be miserable. We will not end up losing the life we are used to. We will not end having to make huge sacrifices. Of course, there are some of us who will be called to do these. But many of us can still follow God’s will in the jobs or ministries that we are in. Even our roles in our families can reflect God’s will in us.

For many of us, the big decision that we will face soon (or later) is what are we going to do after our studies? Go back Singapore or stay here? Continue with Honours? Masters? PHD? Don’t wait until your last semester (or after your last exams) to ask God what He wants you to do. Seek Him now and see Him at work in your life as He leads you step by step towards the plan He has for you. But first, pray that He will remove the fear in your heart and reject that lie that Satan has made you believe. When we want to listen to God, we have to be still (Ps 46:10, Ps 37:7) and cut out the distractions in our lives that are preventing us from listening to Him. And what is the guiding principle that we are on the right track? Peace! When we are in God’s will, we have the peace in our hearts.


Disclaimer: Me no pastor hor. Just sharing what God impressed upon my heart from the sermon and “steal” some notes from Pastor Michael. So, don’t take whatever I wrote as bible truth hor. (:

PS: For the full sermon, can download from http://www.coos.org.sg/sermon/

What's good leh?

Hey guys if you are looking for something different from Gospel songs or hillsongs tracks to listen to... Check out the song "Lose my Soul" from the album Portable sounds by Toby McKeehan. The genre is Christian Hip Hop. TobyMac is from dc Talk; a Christian rock band formed in the late 1980s. You can sample more songs from this album. Just google it.

First Saturday's OCF BBQ

@ Roma Parkland

Group Pix


Hot Shot.




hot plate Food !!


Game of the day which we didn't get to play.


Nope. It wasn't because of the renovation.


...too much Ultra-Violet Rays.
Our Game marshal doing his sky gazing.

CNY away from Home

What can you do in a Foreign land during Chinese New Year?

You could visit your locate Chinatown if there's anything interesting.

Or

Put up decorations at home to improve & bring in the joyous atmosphere of CNY.


But the best way to remind you of CNY is to...
eat , eat and eat.


Have your neighbours over for a mini-CNY Dinner

Or

Have a big scale "makan" eating session with fellow frenz.


Nothing beats the good old fashion steamboat dinner.


Now that is how you celebrate your Chinese New Year anyway in the world.
...a time of fellowship.
;-)

Surprise Party?

Last night was Mei's b-day. How old is she? Ask her yourself lah. (:

Mei picked up some clues along the way and sort of guessed what we were up to..guess we did not cover our tracks that well. Haha...anyway, we had a good time of fellowship...over food! Yummy!




Every party needs a highlight. And that came from Kane's incredible stunt of stuffing grapes into..his mouth! It started off as a silly suggestion to guess the number of grapes that could fit into his mouth. Kane very sportingly took up the challenge...and...well, look at the video to see how many grapes actually went in. Tiffany guessed the number correctly though. YAY!

See ya Bro-in-Christ

Jon has gone another state to pursue his studies. A couple of us joined Jon at Sabu Sabu restaurant for a mini farewell dinner. All the best Bro and see ya around when we drop by your state. God Bless & take Care.

A New Year's Message

This is a sharing from a fellow sister-in-Christ!

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Here i would like to share with you some practical ways to live out the Christian life at work which i got from attending OCF Convention 'o6. THank you to Mr Paul Coyle who hosted the "Worship GOd at work" workshop.

Why in the world do we work?

Let's rewind from 2007 back to Genesis. What was the first task that God assigned Adam to do?

No it wasnt sex , nor eat and be merry. It was WORK!

The Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Gen 2:15)

Now, does that tell us how important is work?

What does it mean for me to worship God at work?

God is totally at home at our workplace as he is at our church.

I've heard of this term once. A man can be a tiger at church yet desize to as small as a mice at work, not influential nor victorious at all. Let us not fall into that trap and be deceived.

For me, it is the challenge to treat and serve everyone equally, be it an arrogant doctor, a lesbian couple, a customer who's a thief or supernice customers. I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -----the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. (Acts 20:24) At the end of the day, only what's done for CHrist will last. Thus this verse will be my NY resolution for 07, what's yours?

Lessons from a wise King - King Solomon

1. Motivate yourself (Prov 6:6-7)

2. Work is a calling (Col 3:23)

3. Get started (Prov 6:9-11)

4. Be useful (Prov 10:26)

5. Face the facts (Prov 12:11)

6. Complete what you start (Prov 12:27)

7 Embrace hard work (Prov 14:23)

8. Face your problems (Prov 22:13)

I like this prayer very much that he gave us in the handout:

Lord Jesus, as I enter this workplace,

I bring Your presence with me.

I speak Your peace, Your grace and Your perfect order into the atmosphere of this office.

I acknowledge Your Lordship over all that will be spoken, thought, decided and accomplised within these walls.

Lord Jesus, I thank You for the gifts You have deposited in me.

I do not take them lightly, but commit to using them responsibly and well.

Give me a fresh supply of truth and beauty, on which i draw as i do my job.

Anoint my creativity, my ideas, my energy so that even the smallest task may bring You honour.

Lord when i am confused, guide me. When i am weary, energize me.

Lord, when i am burned out, infuse me with the light of Your Holy Spirit.

May the work that i do and the way i do it, bring hope, life and courage to all that i come in contact with today.

Oh Lord, even in this day's most stressful moment, may i rest in You.

In the name of the Big Boss of the Universe whom i serve,

In the name that is above all names, my Lord and Saviour Jesus I pray,

Amen.

I hope u're encouraged by what Mr Paul Coyle have inspired in this workshop as much as i did. Since i'm in a burned out state now, i'll leave you with this beautiful picture taken at Mt Cootha on New Year's day 07. Like the sun that rises everyday, so is our GOd who is so FAITHFUL. Praise the Lord.

In Christ's abundant luv + my limited luv,

judy