Sunday, March 30, 2014

My Weird Obsession

I just love this so much it doesn't even make any sense.



I'm a weeks away from 19 and I'm listening to this. Oh well.


Enjoy fellow young-at-heart-ers!

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Batam Trip

I don't think I can make it in time for the university application deadline. I am so dead. I just mailed my application today and the earliest they'll get it is Monday and Tuesday is the deadline so I don't think I'll have time to send any more data if there was anything missing. Fingers crossed.

Anyway. I went on a 5-day mission trip to Batam, Indonesia with 12 other people from 19 Mar to 23 Mar. There were the heck a lot of problems, but it was still overall very enriching.

Let me rant first.
There was a major communication issue right from the start. COGS Batam was supposed to host us and provide us with details and help us arrange our program, but my group's Pastor (let's call him LB for Little Brother since he seems like our little brother even though he's 10 years older... I gave him some Nips [cheap M&M] and he looked so happy I just had to give him the rest...) kept trying and trying to contact COGS Batam Pastor (let's call him PC) but he didn't reply until super late. There were two groups going on mission trip, one to Batam (my group) and one to Changmai, Thailand. The Changmai people got their details and programme very early and had ample time to prepare dance, songs etc while us Batam people only got our info A WEEK BEFORE THE ACTUAL TRIP. Luckily there wasn't as much for us to do, or else we wouldn't have made it in time. Irresponsible much, PC? He didn't even contact LB to explain why he was so late with the info.

My group prepared one Noah skit, 3 Bahasa songs, 2 Mandarin songs, a couple of action English songs and a handful of games. It's a good thing we prepared very flexible programmes too (the games and songs don't require many props), because NOTHING in our mission trip schedule went according to what PC told us. We had to improvise throughout the trip. I'm just thankful that we didn't fail miserably.
We contacted mostly kids, and they really enjoyed the Noah skit (we made cardboard animal masks) and the action songs~ They were so cute.
We went to a day activity place in one of the slums, 2 orphanages, visited two homes, went to St. Andrew's school in Batam (kindergarten and primary) and attended 2 Bahasa services and one Mandarin service.

I think this is the slum (can't remember :/)

Inside the activity room in the slum, singing! So cute.

Noah's ark and the animals


Most of the people we visited are Christians, so we could be straightforward with our Christian programmes and our interaction was two-way. The children in the orphanages sang and prayed for us and it was just one of the most powerful experiences of my life, really. Having children pray is very different from having adults pray, because children are pure souls that are especially welcomed by God. (':


Singing with actions at the orphanage~
"I love you Jesus, deep down in my heart~
Talk about deep, deep, down, down,
deep down in my heart~"

Performing for us!
Them children freestylin'

The teens beatboxing


We watching

That magical moment when they sang and prayed for us!



Building a "swimming pool" at St. Andrew's School!


Sorting a couple of hundred goodie bags for the children


St. Andrew's kindergarten kids performing for us! So freaking cute I can't-


Gaming: Untangle (aka Spider Web)


We actually had a lot of free time (we spend at least 4 hours everyday just loitering around) due to bad scheduling so I just felt like we could have done much more. I mean, if we were going to travel all the way to Batam already (1 hour ferry ride from Singapore, 2 hours waiting time), might as well do as much as you can. I'm the all-or-nothing type.


How we spend our free time: writing out the lyrics for the next day's programme and jamming

Mostly jamming.


I wanna go back there soon~
Everything there is cheap because we stayed in COGS (Church of Good Shepard) and most some hotel. The clothes are super cheap, the food is cheap and good, and the chilli there is so awesome I can't even-



Group photo after a home visitation! (Yes I'm inside)

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Post A's Results

Hello people so sorry I haven't posted in a long while. I've been really busy.

So. I did quite well for my A's considering that I really thought I was going to fail half the papers. Well enough that I definitely can go to a local university~ (But cannot enter law and medicine school, of course.) I got 82._/90 rank points~ Thank God. I don't have the financial means to study overseas if I couldn't enroll in local U.

Honestly, I'm really happy with my results. My Dad brainwashed me into thinking that being a doctor was my goal in life. He had very good arguments.
Being a certified doctor means that
1. You are financially assured.
2. You get worldwide recognition by ANY race, religion, or tribe,
3. meaning that you can travel to even the most closed-off places in the world
4. so that you can spread the gospel anywhere.

Honestly, I really didn't like JC biology even though I liked sec bio a lot. I'm good at understanding things from a macro point of view. I cannot stand micro stuff, like cells. I can't believe it took me 14 years of education to realise that. So I'm glad that I didn't get >85 rank points, or else I might've tried for med school and died there.

I'm still in the midst of sending Uni applications (deadline 1st April) and maybe try to apply for scholarships. I really don't think my results can get me scholarships, but hey, the worst they can do is reject me.

So I've spent the last month or so volunteering at St. Andrew's Autism Centre for two weeks from 24/02 to 07/03. It's part of the SERVE program. It was a very, very enriching and purposeful time. I'm seriously considering going back to volunteer instead of working in April. I'll go into more details about SAAC next time! :)

The rest of the time was spent preparing for my mission trip to Batam that is happening this Wed to next Sun! 5 days mission trip. My first mission trip anywhere, and I am the leader. Hahaha. I haven't been doing a very good job. There are a lot of complications and a huge lack of enthusiasm on my group's part. It is not going to be an easy trip. But, it is a challenge presented to me and I willingly accepted it. It's also a great way to test my leadership skills (if I have any). At the rate my group is going, we are currently very, very vulnerable to spiritual attacks. Please pray for us.
I have one day left to try and correct my group's mindset and attitude towards this mission trip. I want to succeed.
So this is just an update and I'll post more details if I have the time!

P.S. We'll be going to St. Andrew's School area in Batam (I don't know where that is) so maybe I'll see -you- there... If you live in Batam~