Hello, you!
So I am back from m.e.e.t. camp. And since we’re all sworn to secrecy…i shall be discreet.
the camp, in chronological order, was…
of being donald trump and cocacola
of disneyland ponchos and ahfooks
of guitar bangings and crumpled paper
of karaoke lounges and jasmine flowers
of food and the presumed lack thereof
of nearly losing my cool and praying so hard
of going back to the Good Shepherd and
of being unable to sing ‘Joy to the world’ and ‘Jingle bells’
of memorised liturgies without blessings and hosannas *heehee*
of food and the presumed lack thereof again
of transportation modes and sharing on it
of dismissive waves and whatevers
of the whole tray of garlic *EWWW* and massaging peppery chicks
of italicised squares and ninjas
of building dams and bathing
of jet planes and selflessness
of m.eeting sups and learning about dichotomies
of changing plans and unchanged direction
of cotton candy makers and drills
of inequality and ice-cream *darn*
of God’s reassuarance that He loves me no matter how many mistakes I did
of fear and pseudo-icecream sticks (tongue depressors!) that refuse to crack
of praying and knowing that God is there
of dabdabdabs and ibus and bapaks
of ant carcasses and
of creative accounting and doing long division (10.60 / 2.24) at 3.30am without a calculator
of dragon breath and water from rocks
of love and photo shots
of timely transportation and “eh, that’s my parents!”
of su(n)danese and receipes which are secret
of traipsing across and living dangerously
of kung fu truddies and “walking by faith”
of being broken and knowing that it is for the better
of loving each and every team member
of knowing that God is in control
of experincing God’s love once again.
of thanking God over and over again

till next time,
debs

Hello, you!

this morning when i woke up at 1015am, the first thought which came to my mind was, oh boy, in 24hours time, i’d be at cal.vary bap.tist church preparing to go malaysia. cue: puke. oh well. more about that later. first, results.

so i woke up late yesterday to get the results. was hoping to click on the dot at eleven. the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. so even when i went online at twelve-ish, i couldnt get in. quite constipating stuff, doncha think? that your results are there but the stupid server HAD to crash there and then. oh well, R checked for me in the end.

am beyond grateful for my results cuz maybe now i can apply for that sep scholarship and would save a big deal of money. and this time i can say with 100% honesty that it is all God’s work and none of mine. because the sem was really crappy, the crappiest of three sems. but God still saw me through and blessed me beyond what i’d ever imagine.

ah. thanksgiving always warms my heart.

but i am miserable. as in, even with the results out, all that is/was/has been on my mind is the dang meet camp. dammit. *stomps on the ground* *throws a dignified 20-yr-old tantrum* urgh. i am seriously dragging my feet to do this (insert a string of punctuation marks here) camp. christian camp. christian camp. christian camp ON CHRISTMAS, you (insert another string of punctuation marks).

and i can’t even whine out loud cuz that would bring morale down. *mumbles* hopefully this is just a phase which would passover (hurhurhur) by tmr. ok, concession, a part (TEENYWEENY part) of me knows that this is inevitable no matter how much i whine. and the entire part is assured and convicted that God’s plan is for missions and a substantial part is convinced that meet is a good learning expereince. so i hope meet camp is the same.

arghs. after meet has sucked me dry for the dec holidays and has spit me out on tues (hopefully with sufficient alive-ness to do bidding), i want my cup of coffee. i don’t care. i am so going to drink a cup of coffee. HA. take that. (cue: all i do each night is prayyyyyyyy… . man, i love them!) cofffeeeeeeeeeee coffffffffeeeeeeeeeeeee. how inhumane is that? to deprive people of coffee. bummer.

i want meet camp to be over. NOW! ok. if not now, then well, may tuesday night come really really soon. i think i should start counting down…
meanwhile, off to pack. my uber heavy bag.
may God’s love fill our hearts at christmas time. and forever! because love came down at christmas.

christmas isn’t christmas till it happens in your heart
somewhere deep inside you, is where christmas really starts
so give your heart to Jesus, you’ll discover when you do
then its christmas, really christmas, for you.

till next time,
debs who can’t wait to drink coffee on tuesday!

Hello, you!
So we had a retreat from monday and tuesday at aunty suan’s place
it was interesting
i realise my meet team people are mad. or at least, most are mad. like, we’ve got Y who talks to his puppets. H, who needs a wheelchair. P, who makes afro pharoahs.
i love our puppets.
esp my reggage moses. and the afro pharoah. and the donald trump califare egyptian. and the minnie califare israelite.
more importantly, i think i can survive thirty days with them
most importantly, God is in control. He is the sole reason why we are doing it. And I am grateful that He has put me in this team.

went out with S to hang in orchard today. super relaxing to just catch up, eat, and walk about. have not been in town since *gasp* october!
bought my new journal. really pretty stuff and SUPER value for money. went to hear music at borders. and realise the RENT lyrics are really smart. still love La Vi Boheme even though i shouldn’t. oh well.
seasons of love is amazing too.

525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes – how do you measure,
measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights,
in cups of coffee.
In
inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In 525,600 minutes – how do you
measure a year in the life?
How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love. Seasons of
love.

YAY
till next time,
debs

Rules of the game:
1. Post 5 weird/random stuff about yourself.
2. At the end, list the names of 5 people whom you want next to do this, and leave a comment “YOU ARE TAGGED!” in their blog and tell them to read your blog for rules.

I thought the first time i got tagged i could get away with it by displaying a nonchalant look. alas. got tagged twice. so yeah..the wierdness has descended.

1. I can’t mind my p’s and q’s.
literally. I had such severe astimagtism when i was young (700 in each eye) that I’ve worn specs since I was two. they took up half my face. my parents realised it when i wrote my E as the esprit E. as in, the three lines. so even now, i take more than usual time to differentiate between p,q,b,d. not very wise of my parents to have three of those consonants in my name. took me a really long time.

2. I have the oddest allergies.
grass, calamari (in fact all seafood. oops), flour particles, sea water, sand, chlorine water. and they have different symptoms. oh well.

3. Food.
I’ve eaten cereal and milk for all three meals for two weeks continuously. I don’t eat bananas, papayas, tropical fruits (like durian, jackfruit, jambu) or asian desserts (like red bean blablah, ling yong etc). and I hate most squishy stuff. like brinjals and lady’s finger. eeugh.

4. In my first semester in university, i did better for my electrical engin (level 2! *grins*) module than my own major (geog! *bigger grins*) module. life sure knows how to play jokes. my father was both apalled and eleated. appalled cuz he realised i will never follow his footsteps. elated cuz he realised that at least some of my genes came from him and not all from mummy.

5. Pets.
The only pets I had was a meal worm farm in primary three (with three fullgrown meal worm beetles. grins. queen of the yellow submarine..doobeedoobeedoo) and a pet fish in J2 (poor Dorky died in five hours). I’ve a serious aversion to animals. The only time i’ve petted a dog was recently (monday!) at M’s place cuz the dog seriously was harmless. The only time i’ve petter a cat was at SBC. but i got tricked into doing that.

so that’s it.
i shall not tag anybody. not having the energy to run.
till next time,
debs

Anntic. wow. a time of seriousness and silliness as well.
my group was amazing. we came from various backgrounds and some were new christians, some weren’t. but i was blessed by all. the sharing touched my heart so deeply I couldn’t ask for more. it is like as though when you first share you think a part of you is going to be lost, but no, you get blessed so much more in return.

I was a tad upset when I saw the groupings cuz even though there was another arts person in my group, he was not from CF. so i basically only knew jonathan and ian (breaking the inital-rule here), and only knew them by face. which was pretty unfair i thought. but still, God had a much better plan.

the group leader was Christine, a yr 1 from SDE who really didn’t want to be GL but was forced too, poor girl. Our Bible Study leader was jonathan, who led really fruitful discussions.
there was Steven from NTU, who gave such a wonderful testimony about his life.
then there was danielle who is a red bull addict and told an amazing testimony too, and planned really good experiential games.
Javen was the other arts person, and his testimony about how his philo class brought him to know more about Christ gave me such new insight into the 1 Cor 13 passage.
then there was Wei shan, a really sweet yr 1 law student who ask really probing questions with such a beautiful heart.
eugene was our dinosaur and his contributions at the “student ministy” discussion and the BS sessions were invaluable.
there is also ian, who i used to think that he was a really sober guy, like a monk, but boy was I wrong.
and last but not least, the next Chief Justice, jordan. he talked SO MUCH i could just faint. but a very very humorous guy who agrees with me that perhaps God laughs at our jokes and shares the same conviction that there is popcorn in heaven.

the silliness came from stuff like playing Old maid and Mafia (until 530am!!!). and seven rounds of bridge in a traffic jam where we moved 20m in half an hour. and the fear factor face-off we had. where we dared each other to eat the brinjal. and the funny thing was, after stuffing it down, we talked about stuff we darent eat, including shellfish and lady’s fingers. and the last joke was on us, at dinner, there were two HUGE plates of that. hence, the fear factor challenge started again.

and then there was the issue of the bunks being so close to each other that jordan heared EVERY SINGLE word of that seriously embarrassing conversation on ranking and dieting. gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. i nearly choked on my rice when he asked at dinner “so deborah, who was that with the slim legs again?” and the ability to hear snippets of the plenary going on in the other bunk too. heh. revenge is sweet.

what i learnt was that God is faithful and holy. in more ways than one. I learnt of His love for me once again. and I saw MEET from a new perspective. that for us, people of unclean lips, it really is a privilege to go and spread the gospel. i learnt that i need to derive my security from only ONE source. I learnt that i’ve got way too much pride in me. i learnt about the need to be holy. i’ve learnt so much, that…i can only thank God that He still speaks today. even to me. a puny person.

my new name for God was: the one who demands total submission
and
my new name was: the one who loves. cuz that is what i really want to do. and I only want one object of love. and that is You. no one else.

the worship sessions really spoke to my heart too. and so, i shall end with three of the chourses which were imprinted on my heart.

I’m lost in wonder, I’m lost in love
I’m lost in praise forevermore
Because of Jesus, unfailing love
I am forgiven, I am restored.

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don’t understand
When you don’t see His plan
When you can’t see His hand
Trust His heart

Send revival
Start with me
For I’m one of unclean lips

indeed.
insane photos next time.
till then,
debs who will eat heavenly popcorn someday

hello, you!
and that was one of the lines from RENT! oh boy! fantastic stuff. even the evil-who-shall-not-be-named was quite alright, big hair covered up for slightly lacklustre vocals, as compared to the rest. shall not mok her. although, in the bonk-the-wall scene, her shilouette was amazing.
the lyrics were smart and the acting (esp Angel!) was fantastic!
and the “over the moon” routine by Maureen, even though it was a tad crude..was seriously hilarious.
it defies east categorisation. absurdist with postmodernism? nah. whatever! enjoyed every moment!
what was really odd was the parallels to the bce musical. where the loft scene was like the cg scene. the only really disconcerting element was that the loft scene was for an AA meeting…so, it either makes you question what the bce script writer was thinking, or, scarily..what he is implying.

oh well. vcf. *shurgs*
till next time,
deb(s)

Hello, you!
and so it is said..perth has so many singaporeans it is now Pergapore. Met up with uncle S and aunty M at their church and saw O and I after nine years!!! man! O is the one credited for getting T, E and me into trouble by daring us to climb under the SAJC fence to get to Gilman barracks, and our SAJC drain hunting escapades every sunday. so it was good meeting up with her again. so many singaporeans!

anyhow, a foretaste of the pictures daddy, mummy and I took.
never knew even daddy was game for boliao photos. oh well, learn new stuff all the time.
an amazing trip, all in all, not boring at all. good food, great weather, interesting things. and wonderful family bonding time. *smile*

why am I not surprised? *geek out*

at the coffee house (duh, the black potion rocks!) near the WA musuem of art, i didn’t notice the face until i took the photograph. highly ingenuous stuff

i abosolutely *heart* this photo! i mean, cmon, DADA! after studying that art movement and its wierdy manifesto for a sem, seeing it as a sign made my heart leap for joy (and my stomach lurch at the thought of the essay…but oh well!) saw the sign on the first day, but forgot to bring the camera. then on the second last night, combed three streets (and dragged parents along) to find it, and then when i finally gave up, realised it was two stores away from the hotel. go figure!
the wind blows and you don’t know where it comes from, or where it is going…but we knew where we were going! Freemantle of course!

beautiful scenery (Indian Ocean at Hilary’s Harbour)

Happy parents

akan datang! *beams*