happy life everyday

the theme song from "Facing the Giants" movie.. so suitable for the movie.. :D nice song!

Voice Of Truth

Ramon | MySpace Video

Voice of Truth by Casting Crowns
Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat and then
on to the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you never win!"
"You never win!"

Chorus:
But the Voice of Truth tells me a different story
The Voice of Truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
And the Voice of Truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes
to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone

Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand

But the giant's calling out my name
And he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the time
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you never win!"
"You never win!"

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was watching this movie, "facing the giants", during youth fellowship ystd.. and it's really superb! awesome! lot's of learning points! thus, i'm here trying to recommend this movie for you all to watch


movie summary:
From the award winning producers of FLYWHEEL, comes an action-packed drama about a Christian high school football coach who uses his undying faith to battle the giants of fear and failure. In six years of coaching, Grant Taylor has never led his Shiloh Eagles to a winning season. After learning that he and his wife Brooke face infertility, Grant discovers that a group of fathers are secretly organizing to have him dismissed as head coach. Devastated by his circumstances, he cries out to God in desperation. When Grant receives a message from an unexpected visitor, he searches for a stronger purpose for his football team. He dares to challenge his players to believe God for the impossible on and off the field. When faced with unbelievable odds, the Eagles must step up to their greatest test of strength and courage. What transpires is a dynamic story of the fight between faith and fear. Facing the Giants is a powerful experience for the whole family inspiring viewers to live with faith, hope, and love!



this movie is so so so touching.. we're all so deeply moved by it.. for me, to determine whether a movie is superb or not, i can count the number of times i tear during the movie.. if it's more than 75% then it's really quite good.. (haha, it's just one of my own theories of assessing a movie).. so for "facing the giants".. i cried almost 85% of the time.. one minute you're crying.. then the next minute there's another impactful event that caused you to cry again.. haha.. we (the girls) were definitely tearing quite alot.. but the guys were also trying hard to hold their tears back.. haha.. really good movie! watch this movie also made me fall in love with american football (for that moment only).. i even had to stop myself from tearing just by watching the trailer.. it will make me think of the story again.. haha..

well maybe we're tearing coz this movie featured issues that's we're facing everyday.. there's always moments when we feel that we wanna give up, esp when we're facing the "giants" in our lives.. so many times we feel that God has abandon or forsake us.. in times like this, it is really difficult to think that God still loves and will help us.. it's even more difficult to say, "Lord, let Your will be done".. coz you dont wanna go through these pains, fears and uncertainties.. you want things to go in your way.. i suppose that's when your faith is really tested.. but of course, our God is loving, full of compassion and merciful.. He'll definitely be there for us.. He will shut doors that no one can open but He can also open doors that no one can shut.. He is a God of miracles and strength-provider.. all we need to do is to believe WHOLEHEARTEDLY, do our very best.. and never give up :D most importantly.. we have to face these "giants" as a team, where you will get your support, strength, encouragment and love also..

this is a really really good movie! must watch! you can find it in youtube :D but it's cut into so many parts.. otherwise maybe some other watch-movies-for-free sites (lol, promoting illegal watching of movie online now).. or if you can find the dvd/vcd then all the better la~~~~

with God, nothing is impossible.. do not give up!

if we win, we praise God
if we lose, we praise God too..

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i wanna watch this movie!! i think it will be a really cool movie.. esp with ruan jing tian and zhao you ting.. hee..

wondering whether they'll release this movie in sg... hmm..

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came across this website some time back.. and i joined to be a member right away..

basically, it's a website/project that allow people to receive postcards from all over the world. You just send a postcard to a random postcrosser and another random postcrosser from somewhere in the world will send you a postcard too.. so, you send one, you receive one... you send one, you receive one.. there's an element of surprise as well, you wont know who will send you a postcard.. so it could be someone from europe, or USA, or taiwan, or malaysia.. or even singapore... hee..

i've sent out 5 postcards.. now just waiting for some random postcrossers to send me some postcards as well.. hee.. you can try it too! i think it's quite interesting.. especially for me, who wld really love to collect postcards from all over the world.. i've even made it a point to send a postcard back home whenever i go travelling.. so exciting!

so tt's for postcrossing.. i just realized that my blog domain changed it's entire design and layout.. i'm so used to the previous format that even though it's in jap, i cld navigate ard easily.. now i gotta learn to memorize which links go to which page again le.. :X

but there's also a good point.. i think it's easier to see everything now~ so as i was navigating around the website.. i came to this page which show me an overview of all the comments i received throughout the years.. and that's when i realized i missed out on quite a number of comments.. well there's ALOT of comments written in jap.. but also some written by friends and even restaurants owners on entries that i've reviewed abt them.. hmm.. maybe they goggled their own restaurant name and found my blog..

no dining vouchers though :(

anyway~ next time just leave comments in the comments box on the left la :D then i can see them even earlier.. haha..

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i've been to ard 5 mission trips.. this is the toughest but most fulfilling trip..... this is also going to be a SUPER LONG post.. with all the photos and details :D



so we ate porcupine meat :D actually we're eating in the dark, so cant really see what we're eating clearly.. plus uncle john only tell us when we're halfway eating.. we just thought it's wild boar meat.. but thankfully porcupine meat tasted not bad.. :D uncle john didnt believe it when the villagers told him it's porcupine meat initially.. he let us guessed as well but we just cant get the answer right.. i guess nobody will ever guess it's porcupine.. we're so amazed the villagers catch it for us.. actually it's illegal to eat porcupine there.. coz they're endangered.. but then for the villagers.. everything they can eat they will eat... well~ so we also got the opportunity to try it.. :D

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on the 3rd day, we visited this village.. this is the farthest village we've ever been to.. so far the farthest village we've been to take about 2hrs by foot.. but this time.. it's 3hrs journey by 4-wheeler.. so it's really FAR and high up in the mountain.. i really thank God there's roads for cars to drive thru so we didnt have to trek all the way~

but having a 4-wheeler oso didnt mean we can sit back and relax.. the entire journey was so bumpy and dusty.. we have to be mindful not to breathe in too much dust plus not falling off the truck.. busy ar.. in the end we all got aches and bruises from the ride.. but thank God no one fell off or got seriously injuried... and also thank God it wasnt raining.. coz if it's raining, the roads will be muddy.. and it'll be even more dangerous to go uphill...

though the journey was tough.. i fell in love with the village right aft i reached there.. i love the open-concept of the church.. i love the kids/villagers.. i love the river/waterfall.. though i got beaten by leeches twice here (on the way to the waterfall).. !$)*$#(! those leeches.. sucked my blood.. and it hurts when you remove the leeches here.. argh! @$)!@()*%# them... heard that salt will kill them.. i'm gonna bring a packet of salt with me the next time i go for mission trip again..

alright.. though i love this village the most.. this is also where we experienced ALOT of spiritual attacks/disturbances... so this post is going to be long, coz i'm gonna explain them...

before we came to this village, we heard of how "powerful" the evil spirits were over here.. so much so there's disturbances for the villagers every single night.. even pastor lizun and "rocky" min were visiting this village for the first time, so we were all very unsure what we can find/will face in this village.. and it's quite freaking at times to be so unsure.. but we just trusted God and went ahead..

before we began our night service.. it started to rain very very heavily.. but once pastor lizun and us prayed abt it, the rain stopped immediately.. we were glad God stopped the rain coz so more ppl will come and attend the service.. nothing can stop God's people from coming!

the village youth sang a few songs to begin praise and worship.. all the kids and adults were singing very loudly and dancing to every songs.. we were worried that the church might collapse with everyone jumping so hard since it's built on stilts.. and the church was shaking and bouncing as we're jumping and dancing.. but God is good.. He held the church up while we praised Him with all our hearts..

then we had to sing a few songs to lead in praise and worship.. somehow we were all VERY VERY distracted this time.. normally we'll really sing with all our hearts and rejoice at our best.. but this time, we were just very dead and distracted.. uncle john noticed this and immediately warned us in between the service, "you are all very distracted, FOCUS!".. we saw how stern and serious uncle john was and so started to treat this more seriously.. thank God we performed a good skit and pastor lizun had a good sermon with the villagers..

normally for all our services, uncle john will call for those who wanna us to pray for them to stand forward aft the sermon.. but somehow this time, he changed and asked everyone to pray together instead.. right at that moment, all of us lifted up our hands and prayed to God in our own languages.. also at the same time, the dogs outside the church began howling and barking VERY VERY loudly for quite some time.. we know tt's not good but we continued praying to God with all our hearts and trying to block out all distractions.. which also included having MANY MANY insects biting us.. we continued praying and singing a worship song.. and with that, the dogs and insects stopped disturbing.. and we can feel a strong sense of holy spirit with us in the church protecting us.. it was really amazing how God can protect His people.. once again, nothing can stop us from worshipping the Lord!

aft the service, it's time for us to sleep.. well~ tt's when my nightmares began.. many things happened that night but i will just focus on 2 incidents bahz..

because i've heard of how this place will have disturbances every night, so i brought my mp3 along to listen to songs while i sleep.. so i'll only hear my songs and not anything else.. i was listening on a shuffle mode so there's a mixture of pop and christian songs.. but somehow, everytime.. EVERY SINGLE TIME when it came to a christian song, the song was cut halfway.. silence.... then moved on to the next song.. initially i thought nth much of it.. i thought maybe i pressed the buttons accidentally.. so i put my mp3 on hold.. but even aft tt.. ALL the christian songs still got cut halfway! i got really freaked out.. and decided to stop listening and tried to sleep asap...

but then everytime i wanna sleep.. in fact.. on the verge of when i was abt to sleep.. i cld feel a strong pull which causes me to wake up again.. this happened not just once or twice as well so i got freaked out again.. thank God everytime i'm awake, keith or uncle john or other youth will be awake.. so i know i'm not facing all these alone.. all these distrubances lasted from ard 2am to 5am.. i got really pissed off by that time and began scolding against the evil spirits.. asking them to stop and leave us alone in Jesus's name.. right aft tt i finally fell asleep.. haix.. i shld have prayed earlier..

when it's morning time.. the youth then began to share our experiences of spiritual attacks.. i guessed all of us, including myself, waited till morning to share our experiences so we will not freaked one another.. and most of us really experienced alot of disturbances that night.. some of us heard noises, like joshua heard someone calling his name to ask him to come out of the church.. keith hearing a distorted voice singing or evil laugh.. and others.... haix.. all these experiences are so real.. a really testing of our faith... but God is good.. because He is far greater and powerful than all the other gods.. He helped us counter-attacked every single attacks from the evil ones.. i believed because we have God in our hearts, so all the evil spirits could do was disturbing us and not able to touch us.. AMEN and thank GOD for that!

because of all these experiences, all our faith strengthened by many folds.. my first time experiencing such a serious spiritual attack but thank God i didnt give in at all but firmly believed that God will protect us.. AMEN!



not only those spiritual attacks opened our eyes to see the wonders of God.. but we also see how God protects and provides for the villagers here.. for example, the villagers were able to grow rice/padi on dry grounds here.. we know normally u have to grow padi on wetlands.. but they just grow padi on hard solid grounds here.. no wonder we find the rice here tasted very differently but amazingly yummy! God is so good to provide food for his people! everything is possible with Him!

we also discovered giant cucumber here.. it's so so BIG! and YUMMY! pat and me just came to a conclusion that though we have everything we want back home (we do not have to worry about survival or hunger or not meeting any basic needs), God is fair because He also provide for those who did not have enough.. this is just a give and take thing bahz.. we got more of this, less of that, but they got more of that, less of this.. :D

while waiting for lunch, we were supposed to leave before lunch but the villagers insisted us to stay for lunch.. so well we did.. and so we got more time to have fellowship with the villagers.. we played games with the kids.. simple games like throwing the ballons up and down, singing simple songs, just letting them sit on our laps or even just teaching them how to do high-five.. all these simple things made them so very happy and contended.. i'm so glad i have the opportunity to do these simple things to make them happy..

when it's time to leave.. we really cant bear to leave though.. the kids were all upset also.. well they didnt cry but they have sadness in their eyes and they didnt want to come close to us anymore.. haix.. this is so sad.. i had to hold back my tears as well.. i really miss them so much now.. cant wait to go back again..

in this village, we experienced the evil ones attacking us.. but it is also in this village, we experienced the strong wonders and powers of God's love, protection and provision for His children/people.. God will reign in this village now.. the evil ones will never have victory!

i will bring praise, i will bring praise,
no weapons formed against me shall remain,
i will rejoice, i will declare,
God is my victory and He is here!

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for the end of our mission trip, we really wanted to try out water rafting.. but then i think it's God's plan that we must not go as well.. actually pat's mom saw a vision before our mission trip.. she saw pat and this black water area.. when pat's mom called out for pat, pat ran off.. and then for many consecutive nights, pat's sleeping bag somehow got wet no matter where and which position she was sleeping.. finally we cant go up to the village for water rafting due to the rain which caused the muddy roads.. i think God really warned us right from day 1 about it le.. thank God for protecting us :)

in fact, i was very unsure and rather worried before this trip.. so worried and uncertain that i sent a msg to wan and min just before the train moved asking them to pray for us.. i just dont feel "right" of this mission initially.. maybe because the first thing that my malay colleagues told me when they found out i'm going to gua musang was, "be careful".. they told me on different occassions somemore.. which got me a little worried.. well their main concerns was the very bad weather.. coz it was flooding at gua musang initially.. we might not be able to go gua musang also because the train was stopped due to the floods.. but thank God of wonders, because throughout the first few days of our trip.. it wasnt raining at all.. either that or it will only rain once we're indoor.. God is really good!

one of my malay colleagues also shared bout how strict the malay government are over here.. and of course we've heard of that.. we've heard of how the government closed down churches over here.. and from Mr. Chua, we also heard of how the government "provided" and sponsored houses, cars, food, money etc for people who convert themselves into believing in islam.. Mr. Chua also shared that coz of this, many avoided coming to gua musang to do God's works.. but for us, we're the 2nd group of Singaporeans who were willing to take the risks and do the work.. after hearing such history and information of gua musang, jonathan shared that it made our work all the more meaningful.. because we are also offering comfort and support for those people who are unwilling to give in to the temptations offered by the governments so they can believe and worship our Almighty God freely.. how true this is! there's so much about faith and courage we can learn from these people!

i'm glad tingyu and sam joined us too.. though they're new christians but they see and experienced how God can work wonders for His people.. tingyu even shared that she initially thought we were not bringing enough clothings or food or necessities for the people, as she thought that giving material stuffs wld be better for the poor people.. she wondered how ever can singing songs, sharing abt God's Words, saying a few words to the people and playing with them could ever be enough to help them.. but aft this mission, she understand the whole essence of mission trips.. it's not just to bring materials for the people but also bringing/telling them the way to have eternal joy.. which is to know abt God.. and spending quality time with the people wld also make them very very happy.. i'm so glad she shared that with us too.. to remind us of the true meaning of going on mission trips..

through this mission trip, i truly understand the meaning of "God of wonders".. He is indeed the only God who can work so so so many wonders.. there's too many incidents that happened throughout this mission trip that God counter-attacked every single one of them.. there's just too many incidents to be called coincidences le.. our God of wonders is really working miracles throughout this trip.. (miracles do happen! just believe!) i really thank and love Him for protecting, loving, providing, guiding and allowing us to have opportunities to meet and spend quality time with the kids/adults there.. these experiences are really very valuable and priceless..

mission trip in gua musang 2009.. the most tough yet most fulfilling one.. i just cant wait to go back again.. :)

you really have to come to experience it yourself! join us the next time we go back to gua musang for mission trip! :D

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haix.. just when i thought i cld have a slightly slacker life aft my ptc last week, i had to transit my students from playgroup to nursery class this week.. so well~ i'm not going to say goodbye to my first group of 'real' students but gonna stay with them for another year.. mixed feelings...........

anyway~ today we moved from playgroup classroom to nursery classroom.. i miss the playgroup classroom even before leaving le.. now the kids and me gotta adapt to the new environment, new partners, new curriculum, new faces, new routines, and new challenges..... but thank God the transition was rather smooth today, the kids didnt really give me alot of challenges (esp when i have some who really really dislike changes).. phew.. thank God really...

not only tt, i was asked to be in charge of the duty roster with another teacher (that is, to plan which timings the teachers are supposed to report and end work + who's gonna take leave during which period + who's gonna cover their duties + so many more).. but haix.. just looking at my senior teacher doing that i can already tell it's extremely difficult.. she got headache from planning it.. i already got headache knowing that i'm gonna be in charge.. haix..

well~ in summary, it's gonna be a new year with lot's of breakthroughs and challenges for me.. i need God to be with me.. He's my strength-provider! hee..

oh yah.. just 5 more days till i'm leaving for gua musang in malaysia for our youth's mission trip.. but there's so many things to do before i leave.. i guess like what pat said, the only time we can really rest and re-charge wld be during the mission trip.. well~ my sentiments exactly..

seriously all childcare centres shld have a one or two weeks break each year.. kindergartens can have a whole month or two of vacation.. why can't we? i'm not asking for a month also.. just a week also wld be good enough for us.. if only... if only..

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so i watched the twilight + new moon movie marathon with ps, pat and joshua.. well twilight, because we watched it twice already, was rather draggy.. but the good thing bout watching it twice was you'd notice things that you didnt see or didnt pay attention to during the first time.. more details..

and for new moon.. i definitely enjoyed it more than twilight.. more humor and more actions.. however the romance part was sorta insufficient.. there's various romance parts but just felt that it was not deep enough.. the feelings were quite on the surface only.. but love the humors and actions.. esp the actions, they're really awesome.. vampires v.s. vampires, werewolves v.s. werewolves and also vampires v.s. werewolves.. and which is why twilight and new moon is different if you compare the two movies..

maybe it has to do with the movie director.. for twilight, it was a female director, so thus she focused and did it very well in presenting the romance parts.. however, new moon is directed by a male director, so you'll see more focus in actions.. both are good though.. maybe for the 3rd book, eclipse, both directors can work together to present a well-balanced movie with sufficient romance and actions.. but for eclipse, if you read the book you'd know that there's gonna be MORE and MORE and MORE action scenes.. so i do hope they'll portray the action scenes really well.. i really love book 3 the most and hope the movie will be as good.. hee..

the good thing bout watching movies in cinema is you'll get to see/hear various reactions from the audiences.. like laughing or cheering tgt and even going ga-ga with Jacob Black taking off his top to wipe off the blood from Bella's forehead and at the same time, showing off his to-die-for abs.. well, he deserved the "praises" bahz.. since he worked so hard to gain that 10 pounds of muscles (in real life).. some girls were like "WhooooooOOooooOOO~~~" once he did that and the rest of the audiences laughed tgt at how the girls reacted.. tt's why it's so fun to watch it in cinema.. hee..

but for me, i'm not such a fan of Jacob.. but new moon focused majority on the relationship between Jacob and Bella.. so in fact i'm chanting non-stop, "edward come out, come out, edward..." haha.. i just prefer vampires than werewolves.. werewolves, not my type :D

ok but new moon had quite a number of new casts such as Dakota Fanning as Jane (she's the only actress that i can rmbr her full name.. hee), then Aro, and the wolves pack (lot's of muscles and ripped-clothes when they are transforming).. so they added quite a bit of "freshness" to the movie..

new moon movie followed closely to the storyline of the new moon book, so guess there's no much diff.. but of course reading the book is better because it's much detailed.. towards the end of the movie, i had a feel that the director was rushing to finish the storyline in the book.. because it's one diff scene aft another without a really smooth transition.. but understandable because each scene was impt and if it's too detailed the movie wld be too long.. tt's why, reading the book wld still be good..

well the ending was quite.... ok.. VERY abruptly ended.. it just ended with Edward asking Bella to marry him.. and tt's right aft a conflict between Edward and Jacob.. so while we're still digesting the conflict part, edward just popped the question and everything ended.. it just left the audiences going "What?!?!?! that's the end??!?!"

haha.. pat even turned ard and asked, "shu, dun tell me tt's the end of the movie".. haha.. i'm still quite shocked myself too.. but well, i still prefer new moon than twilight.. and looking forward to eclipse.. hee.. overall, new moon is good la :D

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