all praise be to God!!!!!

2 thanksgivings!!!!! ^_^

1) brain scan is normal!!!!! woohoo!!!!! its a great relief... although i trust in God's healing and protection, but the human part of me had abit of worry at the back of my brain. now i think, why should i worry man? God feed the sparrows, dressed the lilies up so beautifully, why would he withold anything from me? let alone ensure that my body is whole so that i can continue to do His work? lalalala so happy ^_^

2) MAMA RECEIVED CHRIST!!!!! mama is my dad's mum. i call her mama cos she nyonya so its a nyonya term. and whats more, SHE WAS BAPTIZED TODAY TOO!!!!! ^_^ let me share her testimony with you.

christians and pastors tried to share with her before. but she always tell them, you have your belief, i have mine. i cannot change to your religion so dont share with me, thank you very much. (paraphrased by me)

mama was very devout. always prepare huge feasts for the important festivals to give to the gods. had altar in her home too. also burnt alot of sacrifices for the gods regularly and i liked to help her with all of that.

many years back, the altar was taken away. think cos they renovated their place.

mama then started becoming abit blur. cos of old age. she's 83 this year btw =) sometimes she would say that she saw the 'cow head horse face' (the guards from hell i think) and she'd talk about dying and stuff about her gods and all the negative stuff.

these days she'd just sit quietly in her wheelchair with her head sunk down. a very depressing picture.

vin and i always tried to share with her about Christ. about His redemptive work on the cross. but cos our hokkien is so lousy, plus christian jargons in hokkien is even more elusive from us, we just were unable to bring the message across. but we kept praying for her. one day we sang the only 2 hokkien christian songs we knew for her! 'very good' and 'hold my hand'

on sunday, my third uncle told mama to tell me of her dream. mama dreamt that Jesus told her that He loves her. i was amazed! i asked her if she believes in Him and she said yes! then vin and i tried to share the 4SL with her but just didnt know how to share in hokkien for the most part. but she seemed to understand what we shared. we even tried to lead her in the sinner's prayer but didnt manage to say the essence.

so i asked mama and my 4th aunt if i could bring my pastor to visit mama and they said yes!

pastor, vin and i went today. pastor shared about her grandma's testimony, shared about God sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, and so much more! most of which vin and i didnt understand but mama was just absorbing all of it. after more than an hour of conversation, pastor asked mama if she wanted to receive Christ and she said yes. so mama repeated the sinner's prayer after pastor! welcome to the family! all the angels and saints rejoice with God and us!!!!!!

pastor then asked mama if she would like to be baptized. she explained what baptism meant. just like vin and i decided to get married, baptism is just like that. to declare to the world that we belong to Christ. mama said 'sure, why wouldnt i want that!' praise the Lord!!!!!

mama is so alert now! she sits upright, speaks coherently, is full of energy and joy, completely different from the mama i've been seeing for the past year or so! only God can cause this transformation in just a few hours! His joy is her strength! mama hasnt been downstairs in years! today, she allowed vin and me to bring her downstairs! all glory be to God!

really left me amazed and completely in awe of Him. in His timing, God brought mama to Him. it was so easy! Hallelujah!!!!!! ^_^

its a dog eat dog world out there

worked till almost 1030pm today. vin's still in office. we've been working real late the past few months...

i wonder. as we climb up the corporate ladder, get more responsibilities, we end up spending so much time at work. weekdays become work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep... only on weekends do we have time for ourselves. but we end up having to spend time with vin's dad, my parents, serve God in our church committments, do housework, etc... that we end up having so little time left. with that very little time squeezed out, we listen to sermons, do our devotions, that we have no time to just space out and rest. maybe once in a few weeks we have half or one hour to just space out in front of the tv. oh that's so shiok!

i like to space out. im a slacker as vin will say. so now i wonder, why is my life so packed?

my mum was telling me that my cousin wants to enrol her daughter into a particular pri school. she stays within the 1km radius i believe, but she needs to do volunteer work else her daughter would most probably not be able to get in. i think, what has the world come to???

i mean, if the parents are super busy at work everyday, how do they find time to volunteer at the school? im sure any extra time they have, they'd want to lavish it on their children! and im sure if every parent is so 'kiasu', volunteering wont even guarantee your child a place! so does it mean that you need to spend money to shift house so as to stay super near the school AND spend alot of time to do of volunteer work for the school, just to get your child a place in a good school? thats so tiring man...

my friend is sending her daughter to shicida class. flash cards. apparently it focuses on whole brain development. and its about $800 for 3 months! the power of a mother's love. almost $300 a month on extra-curicular activities when the child is not even 2 years old! and alot of parents are doing this.

the world is getting so competitive. thats why theres more and more work piled on our tables, actually sent to our inboxes since we live in a virtual world these days. *sigh* how man? how to strike a balance between rest and work? tough... let alone connecting with friends... tougher...

haha! before i continue sounding pessimistic, let me share some good news with you.

i went out with jean, ah lam and gina recently. ALL of them carry an iphone. im proud to say that im the unique one without an iphone. thats my good news.

today vin bought an iphone! thats his good news!

im excited actually. want to see whats the hype. why is everyone still buying the iphone despite the comments that it has super short battery life, calls cant get through, used to have some problems with sms, etc...

haha! im so chatty tonight. cos its almost midnight and vin's still working. gosh... anyway its not too bad cos we are on leave tomorrow. going to the hospital to get my brain scan results and hear the doctor's analysis, discuss next steps etc... pray with me for complete healing. that my pain and discomfort will be no more and i need not go back to the hospital anymore! =)))

old photos

doing some archiving of files in my pc and came across these photos that i selected to flash before our holy matrimony, while the guests are waiting.

as we grow older, somehow our time is taken up by so many more things. work consumes us, household chores shout out to us, our parents need us more, committment in church increases, etc... as a result, we have lesser time with friends. makes us sad at times that gone were those days when we used to hang out with our friends for suppers weekly, now we dont even have time to chill together.

but that's life. not saying that we stop making any effort to keep in touch, but just continue to keep them all in prayer and show concern by an msn msg, an sms, dig out time to meet, etc... glad that finally can meet up with jean, gina and ah lam later! can't wait to see gina and ah lam's children! confirm very cute one!!!!!! ^_^