To all my faithful readers - thank you for still checking in despite my tardiness :P but warning: the next few days and weeks are going to see erratic and irregular postings, as I'll be 'gainfully employed' with other matters. But keep the faith in this blogger ;)

Ok shall do a quick digest of the past week's happenings:

Monday
Doomsday has come in the form of Tax Planning (aptly ironic how the only 2 certainties in this world are death and taxes...). YL did warn us that out of the 4 questions in Section B (we were to choose 3), 2 would be computational, and the other 2 would be discussive, and out of the 2 computational questions, 1 would be particularly difficult. I read Qn 3 (Qns 1 and 2 belonged to Section A), saw that it SEEMED straightforward and short, especially in contrast to Qn 5, which was so long and convulted that the words swam before me, so I happily chose Qn 3, 4 and 6. And guess what? Yes yes, Murphy's Law applies - Qn 3 was the difficult computational question, and yes yes, my answer was totally off-tangent. But well, in the good and the bad, God is good, and I'm just going to let go and leave it in His hands. :)

Went home straight after that to piah the case for the GE interview. God already gave me inspiration for the concept (my sports cafe is to be called "Ballistic!") as well as the strategy to adopt, but I had problems with balancing the figures. At this point, help came in the form of Dad and Mum, who forsook their early night's rest to encourage me and guide me along. Thank God for parents :) Well, as for me, I went to bed at about 5.15am...

Tuesday
And woke up at about 8plus to finish up on some last min details that I believe the Lord brought to my remembrance. So, with 3 hours of sleep, but in the power of the Holy Spirit (that makes all the difference), I went in for the GE interview.

To be very honest, it was extremely tough. I was bombarded with questions that highlighted some key aspects that were neglected, and my answers, to me at least, sounded a bit lame. But well, from past experience, what I thought went badly, God turned around for good, so when I left GE tower, I just laid it all down before God and gave it into His hands. Whether the GE position is to come is all within His will for my life, which is always perfect. So, let go and let God lah.

Went to church for YM prayer after that. I love the kids lah, so raw and yet so willing to be used of God. That's what makes the difference - availability, not ability. Though of course there were a lot of last-min organisational details to be worked out, but beyond that, the Holy Spirit's gonna take over. In the long run, it's not the activities that are going to count, but the transformation work He's going to do in the lives. So - all in His hands!

After that, in the evening, was music practice for Pentacost Friday. Physically quite zonked by then, but the Holy Spirit is my strength.

Wednesday
Woke up early to go to Macs to have breakfast with God (devotion over coffee and bread :)), and incidentally met Regina and Nelson there. Decided not to be legalistic, so I set my pen and paper aside and just enjoyed the fellowship. It was good :)

The first part of OneWayUp went well, aside from the inevitable hiccups. Yep quite a number of things were overlooked and forgotten (e.g. a whistle, which is very important given that the games are played in a big field. Shouting is no joke.) Yet what heartens me is the fortitude and excellent attitude shown by the 1WU com. None of them threw tantrums or got angry (though frustration, there was :)), and stuck it through. Excellent bunch :)

And God did an amazing thing in holding back the rain! It started to drizzle a bit, but we made faith declarations that it is not going to rain, and left it as that, because we know the God we serve is bigger than nature :) And yep, as expected, it didn't rain :) God is good!

Had to run off to GE halfway through though (yep, brought my jacket, shoes, makeup, the whole works, and lugged a huge brown paper bag while managing to balance on my heels). Had a meeting with SK and S in GE for them to sound me out further re the FMP as to whether I'll be a good fit, both for their sakes as well as my own. The meeting did end on a good note though, and we even ended up talking a bit about church! How awesome is that? hehe..

Went back, changed, had some time to rest before YM service at night. And MAN was it AWESOME!!! I know SOMETHING happened in 165 Upper East Coast Road - DESTINY happened! I KNOW that the young people caught a vision beyond themselves, into who they can be in God, and I KNOW now they are really going to RISE up - ONE WAY UP! They are so so inspiring lah. Esp seeing the worship team, E & L, the emcees, the kids acting.... all of them so precious, and bursting with potential in Him! Am SO excited at what is to come!!!

And most importantly - SALVATION happened! That makes it all worth it! One more soul in God's kingdom - the heavens are rejoicing!!! And I KNOW that that's but a glimmer of the many more souls to come!

Thursday
The whole bunch of us stayed over at PM's place (so cute to see the little bodies sprawled all over the place. I had the small square on the staircase hehe). Slept probably less than 1 hour in effect, but well, the Holy Spirit's empowerment is enough man :) We did morning PT, then came back to pray for our schools. Another power power time of just seeking God. And hearing the impressions that the young ones shared - WOW! God is truly raising up a generation of young people who will choose to love God and people radically!!! Words cannot begin to describe the excitement I feel in my spirit lah :)

The afternoon was spent in Sentosa (Amazing-Race style ;)). Again, God did the amazing thing of holding back the rain despite an initial slight drizzle. Believe it's because His young people dared to believe and trust in their God :) But by this point, you could see the exhaustion and tiredness on the faces. Everyone was so stoned on the way back from Sentosa to Singapore, so cute lah :)

As for me, the moment I reached home, no lah I didn't immediately conk out, had to go bathe etc first, but when I did go to bed, to my surprise I didn't fall asleep on first contact with the pillow. I actually did take a while in getting to sleep. Maybe it's the idea of such overwhelming fatigue to the point where one cannot sleep cos one is too tired. But well, eventually sleep did come.....

Friday
Kinda lazed around in the morning to rest (woke up at the godly hour of 8plus. Body clock still intact, apparently ;)), before heading to uni for alumni meeting. It was nice to be able to catch up with the rest (and esp to count my blessings for not having started work yet. The horror stories that were shared...... having time now is good :P).

Had a chance meeting with the Israeli professor (who taught Accounting Theory and was lugging home the huge stack of exam scripts from the AT exam in the morning) who was walking out of SMU at the same time as I was (had never met him before prior to this). We actually had a rather deep and interesting conversation, and it's so timely to have met him, considering that I'm going to Israel on 13 June too (too bad he's only going back home in July, or else my brother and I can probably go look him up there). He says that Israel is cooler than Singapore in terms of weather - sure hope so :)

Had Pentacost Friday in the evening. I was really zonked then, and I think I actually 'blanked out' a few times while playing :O But like what was shared during the musicians' debrief, God moved despite ourselves. The Holy Spirit was there, and that makes all the difference :)

Something rather strange happened at night when I was home though. I was in my room, about to go to bed. During this time I was SMSing A and M, both who were going thru rough patches. Then as I was about to sleep, I heard some sounds of battle. I thought my younger brother switched on the TV or something, so I went out of my room to ask him to tone it down. BUT he hadn't switched on the TV, and no volume was coming out from the computer (which he was at). So I thought, ok, maybe it's my older brother. But his room was shut, and there wasn't any sound coming out of his room. Weird. So I went back to my room, lay back on my bed, and again I heard the sounds of battle. And that's where the Holy Spirit revealed to me - this is the time of spiritual battle. Felt the need to intercede for A and M in tongues, and so I did, until I felt the release, and then the sounds stopped, and I went to bed.

Audio visions, coolness plus!

Saturday
Had another early start today. Went to Macs early for morning devotion over bread and coffee, and then headed to church for music practice at 9am. Again, it was entirely the Lord's sustainence. Wouldn't have made it through without His supernatural empowering, especially physically.

Immediately following that was Gift of Love (our food distribution project to a block of single-room flats in Bedok). Again, another awesome time. God opened doors (literally!) for us to enter into homes and speak to them and bless them, and get to know them better. But more importantly, we had 2 salvations!!! Woohoo! It's all God lah!!!

After that, here's the sequence of events, each in quick succession:
2.40pm: Celebrated YH's birthday at Siglap Macs
3.00pm: Caught up with L at Siglap Starbucks over coffee
4.15pm: Prayer meeting in church
5.00pm: Pre-service practice
5.30pm: Service

And the service was power. Believe God did a transforming work in our midst, that the response to the altar call was not jus tmerely a physically response, but one that was made with a firm decision to truly carry the cross for Christ. God spoke through PM, and I know the youth were challenged to really get serious in running the race for Him, because what's ahead is going to be challenging, stretching, but definitely exciting, and worth all the blood, sweat and tears!

After service I also had a chat with another youth, A. He's such a sweetheart lah, his childlike desire to draw closer to God and to hear Him more clearly is so touching and inspirational. No wonder Jesus said in Mt 18:3 - "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." So wonderful to know we can always draw near to God, our Papa, no holds barred, but to freely come into His presence and know that He'll NEVER turn us away, because He loves us more than we can ever even begin to comprehend!

Day 9 of the Brain Fast
Actually, it's been pretty alright this week, given the full program of events, so not that much time to read other things anyway. The closest thing would probably be the resting time on Friday, but as I continued to read Peter Youngren's book on healing and listen to Hillsong United's new CD, my rest and renewal came :)

Am so so looking forward to church camp next week! It won't really be a holiday lah (I'll be laying piano, backup singing, leading one of the morning prayer meetings), but that's good!Because I'm really expecting for God to move and speak in a fresh new way to our church. Holy Spirit come!

P/S A pimple has chosen to appear on my right cheek, but nothing a little strategic positioning of the hair can't fix :)