My academic term is not over... YET!

Many of my friends wanted to throw stones at me or bashed me lately... the moment they knew that I only had one examination paper this term. Haha! Well, none of them did that literally, and the paper, which is on Intellectual Property Rights, is over!

Yesterday was another day I moved one step closer to end this term. Finally, the case study on 77th Street for Strategic Brand Management is completed and submitted! The project, though academically very demanding, was one that really widen my perspective on how a research project should be done and how a business case should be written. Learnt a lot from this course, and I hope the efforts will pay off in the final grade!

Despite all these... hmmm... my academic term is not over... YET! The next few days I will be packing for my Business Study Mission trip to China and HK, and I must say it's gonna give me (and I think for the class also) headache coz' the temperature is expected to drop rather drastically when we arrive, and probably will go lower than 10 deg C when we go inland! Tsk tsk... that will be cold. Heh. After the trip, I will still have to finish up the FINAL project and give the FINAL presentation on Dec 21, before I can comfortably immerse myself in the Christmas atmosphere...

Hmmm... I need a good break.
It will be nice to really have the chance to get away from the cities and urban forests, where I can go to the coast or the beach, listen to the waves hitting the shore, and have the chance to slow down my brain and embrace what nature has to offer. Hmmm... unlikely that will happen anytime soon. Haha. Maybe a great massage or a spa session will be good also, though it will be expensive...

Aiyah Elvis, stop dreaming! Get back to work!!! A lazy person will not reap anything. Work is the key to success and accomplishments! Haha. I LOVE WORK!!! =D

Reflection on the past three 'NO-BLOG' weeks...

It has been long since I last blogged... really long ago. Decided to get myself to really post a new entry before the blog becomes obselete. Heh. =P

Thank you to all those who celebrated my birthday 3 weeks ago!!! (Wah... I really 'left' my blog for so long... tsk tsk...) Since I came to Singapore 9 years ago, I never had anything like birthday parties or big-scaled celebrations so very much my birthdays were just like any other day. This year was very special though. My birthday was so so so full of surprises!!! It was really a day when I was so happy throughout (actually spilled over to the next day also coz' the surprises still keep coming the following day. Haha!) There was much joy flowing out of me this time round, and I just wanna thank God for making my day so memorable! A big THANK YOU to all those who gave me surprises that day and celebrated my birthday with me! ('Interestingly', my birthday ended with an overnight project meeting in school... preparing presentation on the very next day. Diao!)

Hmm let me check what else I could blog here... It has been 3 weeks! Man! Too long a lag and now for me to backlog... tsk tsk tsk... Well, for the past 2-3 weeks I went through a time more tough and difficult than ever before. Firstly, I found myself struggling in handling my academic workload (coz' I am taking 6 full-credit modules this term!) and have not been able to give my best to the projects, assignments and tests. I also kept 'breaking promises', delayed in finishing my parts in the group projects on time in order to move them forward, which was one thing I found most frustrating and disappointing this term. Running from one project meeting to another, staying overnight in school again and again... man, this term has been really demanding, but I thank God that it's ending soon (actually not that soon coz' I still have business study mission... but nevermind, at least I can travel out of Singapore. Heh.)

Secondly, I was confronted by the realisation that I am at a crossroad junction right now, one that I need to make sure that I choose the right path to move on. Okay, think I really made it sound very vague here. Well, my course bidding started 2 weeks ago, and suddenly I realised that I could actually graduate from SMU much earlier than I thought. I only left 6 more full credits to go. My original plan was to stay in SMU for 4 full years and study extra courses to learn more. However, I was shocked (and disappointed) to know that my Tuition Grant will no longer apply once I fulfill all the course requirements and be put in the graduation list. On one hand I was wondering if I should graduate early, since if I graduate early I would be able to get a one-year career head start ahead of most of my cohort. On the other hand, I felt rather 'burnt out' this term (due to the exceptional 6 full-credit modules) and I thought it won't be wise for me to rush and take so many courses in a term again! On top of all these I was also considering doing an international exchange programme next fall, planning to go to Israel. Of course, I am still trying to find out if it is indeed the right season for me to go there for such a long period of time, away from Singapore. Right now I am getting a clearer and clearer picture in terms of the module distribution over the terms (decided to reduce my workload next term to 4 to allow myself to recover and focus), but I still do not have any clue if it is okay for me to go for the exchange...

Thirdly, I am also faced with matters related to my spiritual walk with my God. Probably due to the fact that I felt so tired and frustrated over things (including financial difficulties which I am facing almost for the whole month), I realised I really need God more than ever, and there is still a long way for me to go. I wept many times this month, and a CHC cell group leader in SMU accurately told me that I have lost the joy of the Lord, which is the source of strength, just before Pst Ulf changed the whole Service 4 two weeks ago and mentioned that somebody in the church auditorium has lost the joy of the Lord... Never had I imagined that God would prepare this to get me to rededicate myself to Him once again! Also it is in this month that Pst Kong taught us in the Churchwide Bible Seminar on the Tabernacle, and beyond all the knowledge and wisdom learnt during the 4-part series, God spoke to me gently in the last session and asked me to really 'seek Him', that if I do so, I will find the answers to many many questions that I have been asking and pondering and wondering, and I will grow much more in Him...

So many times this month I wished that I did not need to go through all the concerns in this world, and could come to His presence and stayed in His house and refuge... God is truly amazing. He is indeed all-knowing, controlling everything. I thank God for giving me a purpose to live for, visions to see and ability to dream. He sustained me through this period of time, and slowly I have also realised, what I have been praying for is indeed coming true... my capacity has increased and is still increasing. I know He is preparing many great things for me and I can't wait to see them come to pass in the near future!!! =D

A New Anniversary, A Renewed Wish

Time flies. It is the time again for me to celebrate the faithfulness of God in my life since the day He gave me that breath of life. Yup, there goes 21 full years and I thank God it is still counting! =)

This evening a friend of mine from both my university and my church asked me what my wish is this time round. I thought for a while, and this is my wish for the next 365 days... kinda like a renewed wish:

I pray that I will have more strength and wisdom from my Heavenly Father, to know how to fulfill the purpose He has destined for my life.

Simple and straightforward, haha. I never really managed to summarise my 'wish' so effectively. Hope this covers all my desires, visions and dreams, in a nutshell. Haha! =D

Life is in the Blood!

I always thought that I couldn't donate blood because I had low blood pressure. Well, at least that's the perception I have always had because 1). sometimes I do feel giddy for unknown reasons while walking on the roads; and 2). when I was hospitalised in Hong Kong last December the nurses kept having problems taking my blood pressure readings! But hmm... perception is after all, preception, and I am so glad to find out today that it is actually the opposite case!

This morning I received an SMS asking if my blood type is B+ or B- as someone in church is in critical condition at NUH ICU and desperately needs the plasma of these blood types. Well, I do have, and I decided to go for it because life matters! When I arrived at NUH Blood Donation Centre in the afternoon, surprisingly, the staff told me that my blood pressure was good enough for the donation! I think I was kinda overly excited about the whole donation process. From time to time I was very nervous, while from another time to another time I was laughing my way through. From time to time I was very quiet, while from another time to another time I just couldn't stop talking and squeezing the stress ball. Strangely, I was not afraid at all. (I think so lah! I just did not look at the needles going into my veins, neither I focused on the blood flowing through the pipes...)

The most dramatic thing that happened during the plasma donation was that when the first cycle of blood flowed back to my body, the needle actually moved away from my vein (probably due to my overexcitement and therefore I moved too much!)! The blood simply stuck there at the skin and created a big lump there, and as a result, the nurse had to relocate the needle to my another arm! I was like... wah... how come my first time donation could become so dramatic. Haha... but nonetheless, the whole plasma extraction process was completed in about half-an-hour, and I kept taking in food and drinking water after that to make sure that I don't faint (which I almost did when I was in NUS Arts Canteen!). Life is in the blood, and I am so glad to know today that I can go for blood donations in the future! Yippie!!! =D

The Promise of God's Love

Was reading Max Lucado's Come Thristy this morning before dawn...
I came to a section of the book where I was so overwhelmed, and I wanted to pen down the verses here...

The following questions were asked by Apostle Paul in Romans 8:31-35 (NLT):
1). "If God is for us, who can ever be against us? (v31)
2). "Since God did not spare even His own Son but gave Him but gave Him up for us all, won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else? (v32)
3). "Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? Will God? No! He is the One who has given us right standing with Himself. (v33)
4). "Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for He is the One who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us. (v34)
5). "Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? (v35)

And as the chapter continues, look at how Paul answered the questions he has asked earlier in Romans 8:37-39 (NLT):

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. (v37)
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. (v38)
Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (v39)

Nothing can ever separate us from His love! This is the promise that God has made, and as I looked deeper in the verses, it is said 'nothing in all creation...' (v39)! I was so comforted when I read these verses early this morning, because I knew that wherever I go, whatever I do, no matter what situations I may face, God loves me, and He will not stop loving me. I do not need to search any further to fill the void and emptiness in me, because His love is there. I do not need to find places in this world to run away and escape to in times of dismay, because His love is there. All along I know that God loves me by sending His Son to die for me, but after reading these verses, I am blown away by the fact that His love surpasses literally everything in whatever He created, and He wants me to know that His love is ever present and never compromised...

On a more personal note, I hope that more people will come to know this and experience His love first-hand, that they will cease denying Him and stop hiding away from Him. God is a loving Father, and He not only waits for us to go back to Him, He keeps knocking on the door deep inside every hearts, since the very day they started pumping and walking on the surface of this Earth. In a world that love is compromised and distorted and in great lack, there is no reason why we shouldn't run to the Source, where a huge signpost has been put up, read:

"An everlasting and never-ceasing Love
that nothing can ever separate you from...
FOLLOW THIS WAY!!!

-- from God, Your Father"

Building a strong foundation

Before a building is being built, construction workers will always dig the ground at the construction site. You will see them digging it deep. You will see them taking the ugly-looking soil and muds out from the site. You will probably see ground worms sniffing across the site. No way you are going to comment that the site looks beautiful. The site looks ugly, looks messy.

Once the construction workers finish digging, you will see them inserting the steel piles around the site, to build the structure to support the eventual building. These steel piles do not look interesting either, but they are strong. And it is pretty amazing to see how these steel piles manage to support the weights of the tall skyscrapers everywhere...

The time taken just to do all of the above is definitely longer than the actual construction of the building itself!

Don't get me wrong. I am not into construction industry here! This is an analogy my cell group leader illustrated during the cell group meeting 2 days ago. It simply illustrates the point that, when God builds our lives, He will first show us what we need to change: the ugliness of selfishness, pride and lust... in short, the carnal nature of our flesh. This is just like the digging of the construction site, whereby the ugliness is being exposed to our knowledge so that we can deal with it and put things back to proper order. God then continues to build our lives through His Word, and applying His Word in our lives will be like putting the strong steel piles at the construction site, to ensure that we will be able to stand strong against any challenges (storms), instability (earthquakes) and attacks (bombs?).

After the foundation is built properly, the actual building, blended with beautiful architectual designs, will be built. Level by level, it will go higher and higher, and eventually becomes a tower where people outside the construction site can see and marvel. Applying back to us, once the foundation of our lives is built properly, we will see ourselves changed, and God will bring us to new levels and heights that we would have never imagined possible, and simply, beyond what we can comprehend. Our lives will become strong towers that will emerge in our societies, and we can truly testify that God -- the architect, the beginner and the finisher -- is indeed the builder of our lives. We will marvel how amazingly God builds our lives!

I was very encouraged by this analogy, and this story was not even the actual message of that particular cell group meeting! God is the builder of my life. He has been building my life. He is still building my life. And He will continue to build my life, and take me to the heights He wants me to be. And guess what, I am excited and eagered to see how my 'building' is going to look like eventually! =)

Joined the league of bloggers... at last! =)

I knew the trend that people are blogging has been there for a long while.
I have also read some of my friends' blogs, and I don't understand why it's pretty interesting to keep going back to their blogs and read (or wait for) latest entries.

I think it's really time for me to join the league of bloggers...
And at last, here I am, posting my first blog here! Aloha!!! =)

I really hope that there will be people reading my blog *with fingers crossed tightly*...
But I think more importantly, I really want to use the blog to document my life in a more organised manner, because my life has become a lot more meaningful and colourful in recent years, and it's simply not easy to stuff all the memories into my brain and dream on that they won't decay! So, I think there's my primary reason joining blogging lah.

I have made my first step today. The challenge now will be to keep this updated, frequently! Heh... shall give it a try and make it a habit. I know I can... *with fingers crossed even tighter!*