travel alone

today, i did some travelling alone :) okaylah, near by only. 

a trip up to genting :D

took the bus from One Utama. the uncle before me forgot to take his IC and Senior Citizen card and had walked off, i had to chase him and use my broken Cantonese to remind him of his card.

on the skyway :)

i always liked this part!

i met an Iranian student and her brother at the skyway place, helped them with directions and got to know the girl a bit better :) 

-in between-

on the way back, at the skyway thing again, an aunty asked if she could borrow my phone to make a call. so i lent it to her. she was talking to me in mandarin all the way :| tough!

in the bus, the uncle beside me started chit chatting with me with the line, "Are you Philipino?" :\ i think it's the sunburn! then after he figured i was chinese, he started speaking to me in Cantonese the whole journey back! i think i fared quite well and i did understand most of the conversation :) chehwah. however my responses were a whole mumbo jumbo of wrong words and tones. :\

the "in between" was the best part of the trip :)
cause i was not alone.

one thing about travelling alone is you take more notice of the people around you and you are more open to strangers,
people you have never had a connection with. 

it may be dangerous at times,
but sometimes it's an opportunity to show love to another :)

end of january!

maybe i should travel alone every end of the month.
hmmm, that's a thought :)

by the mercy of your grace

YOU ARE MY FATHER
True Worshippers



Verse 1:
It doesn't matter where I run, You're there for me
It doesn't matter what I've done, Your loves for me
You wipe away the tears, You lift me when I fall
My life is safe by the mercy of Your grace

Verse 2:
It doesn't matter where I go, You walk with me
It doesn't matter when I fall, You cover me
You wipe away the tears, You lift me when I fall
My life is safe by the mercy of Your grace

Chorus:
You are my Father, Provider
You're my Deliverer
Your mercies embrace me, surround me
Through Your everlasting love
Father I worship You
Father I worship You

Bridge:
And Your love is for me
And Your love is for me
And Your love is forever


...


i don't understand it fully
but i'm experiencing it bit by bit
GRACE

sun, sand, sea

so, this chinese new year, the family had the reunion dinner here in PJ and we didn't go back to Ipoh. not much visiting was done. we were having a quiet chinese new year in quiet PJ.

on the third day of chinese new year, i went on a trip to cherating, pahang with li foong and kay-lynn, li foong's mom and her younger brother, and an extended family of theirs. altogether 10 of us :)

we spent three days and two nights in Legend Resort and did tons of swimming in the resort pool, in the sea, walks on the beach, eating eating eating, and taking pictures for keepsake. 

my fellow travelers :)

all the girls :)

li foong and wei wei, kay lynn and tian tian, me and jing yue.

where's tian tian?

wei wei :)

jing yue saving hermit crabs.

we got really bad sunburns :\

this was the process of it.

cause we didn't bother putting ANY sunscreen at all. 

what were we thinking?!

 on the beach

 in the pool

 bad sunburns :( how we still smile is a question.

we were lobster red and our skins were (and still is) really painful :(

still, this was fun.

i had a really really good time!

lots of laughs, enough rest, lots of swimming (i love water!)

it was nice too remembering back on our last cherating trip back in 2007 :)

five years ago. :')

how we've all grown up.

thanks, girls :)

Cherating 2012 : 25 Jan - 27 Jan

hooray!

sat for my last paper for this semester today :) english proficiency. 

i just learned the meaning of 'prolific' which is highly productive, characterized by abundant production, fruitful, etc. i think i wrote it to be mean "creative". oh well. too bad.

so yes, praise God i am free from exams and studies for a while (just a while, three short weeks kind of while). and indeed He has been faithful and His goodness abounding. i super duper can't wait for chinese new year, cherating trip with li foong, maybe a trip up to sitiawan pangkor, and meet ups and catch ups with friends. why can't it always be like this? :(

so anyway, have a good holiday! toodles!

exam hall picture - after our last paper today :D
that's brandon, my assignment partner  for most of this semester
and he sits beside me in proficiency class.
clown. 

Thank you, God, for everything.

take your mind off things

so, i just got some news that's gotten me pretty nervous. it's got to do with a ton of extra responsibilities which i would be taking up next year. as if the previous semester didn't already have me in tears and fatigue, the coming semester i foresee will be a pretty tough road to walk.

nevertheless, i remind myself of the hope i have in God. the strength and joy and wisdom i know i will need is found in Him. and though i am pretty scared, okay, terrified of what is to come, i take a deep breath and know i will live through it. 

to get my mind off all that, i went on a little outing with Susan, Atie and Brandon yesterday to Sunway Pyramid. it was Susan's birthday and we went to catch a locally produced film  - Relationship Status. 

pretty good for a local made film.
though the morals in it are pretty rotten - cheating spouses, friends with benefits, etc.

however, i must say, the movie does make you think about social networking and all its effects on relationships. i recall back on all the times when i'd go check out the profiles of some boy i fancied and check out his pictures and all that. i remember how some friends put on vague statuses that they expected certain significant people or person to interpret or the times when someone read too much into a vague status which turned out to be nothing close to what was intended. i think social networking in a way has become a mask in one way or another. the way we mask our emotions, the way we mask our situations, we mask who we really are. when we want to tell the world something but we don't want the world to know everything, we can be unclear, vague, masked. (well maybe some people, not everyone. shall not generalise).

i like the break i'm getting from having turned off my facebook account for the time being. :) sad to say, i need facebook to survive in uni if not i'll be a katak di bawah tempurung. and my responsibilities require me to be in touch :\ 

so apart from a movie and good company, i baked choc chip cookies :) and did a bit of experimenting too with nutella (which turned out awesome :P chehwah..)

process and products :)
though the nutella cookies became square biscuits :\ haha.

so, that filled our house with the sweet smell of baking cookies and took my mind of what is to come for a bit. but i think what really helped me come to terms with it was a friend to talk to. encouragement, support and comfort. and a lot of reminders of a God who is bigger than my situations. thank God for friends!

and i'm reminded of item three on my advice to my future self - don't push people away, relationships are important! (and checking out someone's facebook account isn't really "keeping in touch" lah).

I thank God for YOU! :)

state of calm

this week was joanne’s birthday she turns twenty-one! sue ann and i took her out for lunch after one of her tough papers and after my “kinda” last paper and a surprise re-test but it was a good catch up time with the two

birthday girl is the tiny one at the back seat love you, joanne!

i thank God very much for the both of you in my life!

it was also phi nn’s birthday that same day and she came over to our room to share some cake. i’ve really enjoyed her friendship and company as i got to know her a bit more through our orientation helper days.

will try to spend more time with you!

this week, i sat for four papers. one more paper to go (next friday) and then i’ll be officially done with semester one of my second year. *woohoo!*

a friend asked me if i’m still emo and i answered “no, cause circumstances are favourable at the moment.” i call it the “state of calm”. but i got to learn to find my joy in God which means joy in spite of whatever circumstances i may be in, good or bad or super bad. joy, even when life is like a ship-sinking storm!

yeah, i’m not quite there yet. and so this year, i want to find my joy in God, and that the joy of my salvation be restored unto me. there’s this whole thing about living for eternity through Christ who saves us. and i am able to have joy because of this eternity i believe and live for.

apart from that, sue ann and i had a flashback moment where we watched a bunch of videos we made to our future selves in two-thousand-twelve. we had a lot of hopes for our future selves i must say and advices too (as if we had it all figure back then righhht..)

These were my five advices to WaiYan of 2012

1. Be obedient to God. Listen and obey. Don’t rush and don’t follow your own desires because God knows best.
2. Be spontaneous and don’t always be so uptight and rigid and square because sometimes God wants you to be flexible and creative. And God is pretty fun…at times.
3. Don’t neglect people around you. You’re quite bad at that, you tend to push people away when you’re busy. Cause at the end of the day, it’s about the relationships you make and the friends that are important and how you impact their lives and how they bless and encourage and comfort you when you…yeah, don’t neglect the people around you lah.
4. Exercise ah! And don’t eat so much junkfood and so much biscuits. Don’t become more gemuk than you already are (HAHA!)
5. If there is a boy in your life, always put God before that boy and (long pause) you will realise that all your ideals for a boy, sometimes you’ll have to throw a few out of the window. Hopefully, you’ll be wise when it comes to it. Just don’t let your emotions take over you like a rollercoaster or something like *pshh*. God first!
   (i would like to edit the final advice just a bit. May God be your everything.)

those were pretty good advices and still very relevant and practical for my life.

we had a ton of hopes! truckloads of them! a few we’ve taken grasp of, a few still trying to find. But all in all, i think we’re growing and going in the right direction *hopefully.

i hope you always find your joy and life in God, waiyan.

one year ago – 2011

umbrellas

This is what I saw as we were worshiping and praying in the presence of God during our youth camp. Umbrellas up and the rain falling. The message was that it's time to put away those umbrellas of ours. For too long we've stood under them, dry and comfortable. God's Spirit is like rain and it's falling down on us. But we're just too comfortable under these umbrellas of ours, many of us don't want to get wet, don't want things to get messy, inconvenient. Sometimes it's fear, we don't want to get out under the rain cause we're afraid of the effects of the rain. We don't understand that for the Spirit to wash over us, we got to get out from under our umbrellas, our safe zones.

So, close your umbrellas and put them away! Go under the rain. Allow His Spirit to set you free, wash away your iniquity, quench your thirst. Wash over you, refresh! Enjoy the rain, enjoy His presence.

Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.

John 7:37-39

 Holy Spirit, rain down.

helloo, 2012 :)

2011 was a meaningful year.

It started out like how most of my new years start - with much hope and excitement. But to be honest, at certain points along the way and towards the end of the year I felt pretty broken. Always knew God was there, but to believe it at times, I admit, it was hard.

Yet in all my doubt and struggles, God was faithful through it all. God is faithful.

This year, I did a quite a bit of travelling; Kuching, Bali (my second stamp in my passport :P), Pulau Pangkor, and a few places here and there. I love travelling :D

This year, I got a bit more involved in UM; served in and through PKVUM, became an orientation helper (Pembantu Mahasiswa), joined the college committee, played a bit of netball, decided to stay in college, and in the process, build some pretty amazing friendships I will treasure.

This year, I experienced a lot outside my comfort zone; Gerakan PPUM where we went to the sick in the hospital to pray and bless them, SWEEP 2011 (and all the mini SWEEPs and Awesome Plans) exposed me to so much around me which opened my eyes and broke my heart, volunteering at the refugee school where I received more than I could give.

This year, both my grandmas passed away. This year a lot of people lost loved ones. This year a lot of calamities struck and took away a lot of lives. Lives, the only things that are eternal yet so fragile. Here today, gone tomorrow. It reminded me of the value of life - others and mine.

This year, I experienced God's grace at a new level. Through failures and weaknesses, He was my saving grace. He gave me second chances. He restored me, renewed me. Over and over again I am reminded, not by works but by His grace I am saved.

And so, I step into this new year, full of hope in God once again because I know that He was the God who brought me through 2011 and He is the God of my yesterdays, today and tomorrows! He is the true and living God. In Him I can trust. And in Him, I am made new. Thank You, God.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

the old has gone, the new has come!

2 Corinthians 5:17