Unplugged & Raw

How Great Is Our God

I took a blood test on Thursday to check for immunity against Hepatitis A & B and it totally sucked !! The nurse pushed that thick needle into my arm but no blood flowed into the tube, so she twisted it all over the place, then plunged the needle even deeper into my arm !! Not like my vein so small lah !! It was buldging out for her, but she still so lousy. HAHA. And until now, there's still a big patch of internal bleeding on my arm. Amazing.

I think this is gonna be a long entry coz I've got lots to say. Anyway March Camp just ended and I've got quite a bit to share about it. So much of thanksgiving and glory I want to give to God.

On Friday morning, I went to Yishun Park for our gen12ii mission trip team retreat. We split up and spent the morning in quiet time with God. It's always satisfying to be in the presence of God and His children worshipping Him.

After that I rushed home to get my camping bag, and after getting off Ang Mo Kio Mrt Station, I realized I left my keys at home !! It was already in the afternoon and my only hope of anyone at home was da ge. So I called home, hoping anyone at all will pick up the call, but nothing came. I was getting so so nervous because if I were to get locked out of home, I would be late for camp and it wouldn't be very nice because I was heading it. So I just kept asking God please please help me. At that point in time, as I was making the call and walking towards home, I saw da ge walking towards me going to work. That feeling was indescribable. It was as if God planned everything to perfection. So I asked da ge if he could pass me his keys. Really praise the Lord so much.

I reached MSHS on time and after officer final briefing was done, the camp was ready to begin. I gathered a number of officers to pray for the camp, even non believers and I was quite glad they willingly agreed. Only Justin, Eugene and I were Christians among the officers. I started in prayer and Justin closed and that was when the journey began.

The first incident happened that night. I actually lost the classroom key that the teacher-in-charge passed to me !! I thought it was in my pocket but it just disappeared. Because of this, the cadets had no proper place to store their camping bags. I really panicked. I searched everywhere until I conceded that it really was lost. The worse thing was that it was already later than 10 pm. It was dark and difficult to find a single key. But I was quite touched to see many of my fellow officers helping me out. They willingly walked all over to find the key. First Aloysious walked with me around the school. Then Thomas. I soon realized even Yongren walked the entire school including down to the primary school alone. Wah I'm really so thankful for them, made me feel so blessed. However we still couldn't find the key. At first I kept asking God why He made me lose the key, but I realized it was my own carelessness and I was blaming a faultless God. I kept asking God please let me find the key. I told God You wouldn't know how happy I would be if I were to find that key. I would be filled with so much joy. I was feeling much better and I trusted God that we will be able to find it sooner or later, or worse come to worse, apologise to the teachers since I made a mistake. I was still able to keep joking about keys the whole night. Haha.

The following day, we searched all over again, from morning until afternoon, but still to no avail. We had no choice but to report it to the teachers. To make matters worse, I fell ill. I felt so lethargic and weak in the morning. I decided to take my temperature in the afternoon before the urban hike, and it recorded 38.6 degrees !! Gerwyn was so funny he gave me another thermometer to try because he didn't believe it. Again it was the same result, so he decided to pass 1 to Eugene to try and the other he tried on himself. HAHA. Talking about Gerwyn, he's so freaking funny he never fails to make me laugh like crap. Not meaning it in a offending way, he's a total idiot lah HAHA. Anyway, I decided to continue hiking because wo bu fang xing, but my junior officers insisted I stay in school to rest. So I did and I left everything to them. So Gerwyn and I were the only officers left in the school during the urban hike, and we had to look after the cadets camping bags coz there weren't any classroom to put their bags as I lost the key. During mid afternoon, Mr Ganesh came and told me that it's alright we lost the key, but try our best to find it before he reports it to the General Office. When he left, I immediately turned to Gerwyn and said, "Don't worry, must have faith, by hook or by crook we will find the key". I was putting alot alot of faith in God in saying that sentence especially to a non-believer, but I still said it. To be honest, deep down, I conceded that it was impossible to retrieve the lost key. What happened next was amazing. As I was walking along the corridor of the classrooms, I realized a lady approached Aloysious (A few groups returned from hike already). She passed him something and hurried off. So I walked towards him and asked what she wanted. Aloysious then held the "lost" key in front of me. That amount of joy was so immense. He told me that NCC found the key and knew it was from St.John's, so they passed the key back to us.

Some of you may not know, but a few days before the camp, I had problems convincing the school teachers to set the nite walk at MacRitchie cemetary. It was on and off, on and off. We decided to continue holding it at the cemetary, but at the very last minute, Friday morning while having my team retreat at Yishun, I received news that the PE HOD in school disapproved us of holding the walk at the cemetary. Those were last orders so we had to comply. We had to hold it in school. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Because the nite walk was directly after the hike and dinner, dinner had to be cooked outdoors at MacRitchie. But we all know, it rained so crazily heavy in the evening time. Because of the last minute change, the cadets were brought back to school to have dinner instead and nite walk to be carried out in school. Just nice, they reached back, the rain came. I wouldn't dare imagined what would have happened if we the nite walk was still at the cemetary and it poured so heavily.

Now, here are my exaltations and testimonies to God. I know my God takes good care of me and loves all of us. Firstly, he made me lose the key to know the feeling of losing something and the extreme need to get it back. And how much joy it would be to finally find that something. I realized that was the same with God. We're all lost, and He's slowly searching for each one of us, until He has found us. And how joyful the Lord is when the lost is finally found !!

"Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it ? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Luke 15:3-10

Secondly, God gave me so much of problems in planning the nite walk, all because He knew the future and wanted to protect me and the camp. If it were held at the cemetary, there would be chaos. And most importantly, had the nite walk continued at MacRitchie, none of us would be in school when the lost key was found by NCC. What meticulous planning by God.

Thirdly, God made me sick, so that I would stay back in school during the hike, and in turn was able to say that sentence of faith to Gerwyn about finding the key no matter what. It came true and I'm sure it would have made him believed, if not stirred up.

God also made me lose the key, not because He was bored. Not because He was playing a harmless trick on me. No. His ways are higher. He made me lose the key, so that His glory will be seen by all the officers. In fact, for all the numerous problems he gave me, losing the key, making me sick, changing the nite walk location, all in all, was for Him to let his glory shine. And I'm sure, my friends, in one way or another, learnt something about my wonderful God. For the sake of His glory and honour, I would even willingly die if He asked me to.

You should have seen me going around the officers going on non-stop about God did this God did that because of this because of that. Until Derek told me "OKAY OKAY please enough". HAHA. Go link to Derek's blog and you'll know what I mean haha.

On Sunday I left camp for a while to attend service at Tampines Lighthouse. Joy invited me to watch her dance. Haha. Anyway it was a refreshing break from the camp and they had this "talk-show" thingy going on after P&W. It was quite funny especially the crazy guy playing maple.

So finally camp was over on Monday, I returned home to rest. I was supposed to have street evangelism at Bugis with my team, but I was so drained out and still had slight fever so I stayed home to sleep. Then I had to attend the Commissioning Night at FooChow Church where all the teams and supporters gather to commission all the mission teams for their trip. Great stuff.

Praise God for everything. His work is always glorious and wonderful.

signing off at 7:09 AM

Monday, March 13, 2006