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2009: Love Your Neighbour

Went to service today - it's the last service before the change to the new schedule. It sounded a lot more like leader's meeting than the normal sermon today but it's a befitting end and a resounding beginning to the new year.

Ps Khong talked about plans for the new year. Made me dread the going back to school initially because I will probably be hearing a similar plan-setting 'sermon' tomorrow when we go for school meeting. But towards the end, I felt as if God had touched me inwardly through the message from Ps Khong.

First and foremost, Ps talked about transformation not being about garnering power, status, control or being reputable. It's about loving your neighbour.

"The entire law is summed up in a single command - Love your neighbour as yourself" (Gal 5:14). One of the thing that spoke to me was when Ps mentioned that we ought to give thanks for things that went well this year but more so for those things that didn't go so well this year. So I reflected back and realized that there are a number of things that bothered me as things that didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted it to be. On top of that, Ps went on sharing about how he's going to meet other pastors for the Love Singapore meetings and it struck me that humility does come before we can go on doing anything for God. God has to humble me with people that are difficult to work with so that I can grow. And I just praise and gave thanks to God for those things this year.

Ps then went on mapping out his SOP for Love Your Neighbour. Very succintly, it's Sacrifice and Service, Ownership and Obedience and finally Place and People.

To "Love", it requires Sacrifice and Service. One takeaway that Ps drummed in was that love requires sacrifice (Jn 15:13). He gave a few examples - eg. God gave his son for us. But one interesting observation was how couples should sacrifice for one another - if all couples do that, marriages will be very stable! Matt 20:28 talked about service, on how we should serve one another and how humility comes before honour.

Next part is "Your" - and that is about Ownership (Jn 15:16) and Obedience (Luke 14:27). I think that's something really revealing to me because the people we reach out to are personal - be it colleagues, pupils, friends, relatives, family, etc. . we are all running the same race but the experience is all personal. 1 Cor 15:58 spoke to me greatly:

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain"

It's like - it's not as if I didn't exactly do anything, but somehow, things doesn't seem to be happening. I could put in my all in work and put in my all in an event, but somehow, I ain't exactly getting what I thought God will return. But this verse encouraged me greatly that all is not done in vain. One of the thing that interest me would be how Ps will be integrating the cell group strategies into the G12 vision - actually, I am sure that if Ps is a principal, he will be a top-notch one because he just defts into vision, mission and values so smoothly and distills the essentials for us to work it out. That's a master craftsman. I am actually very honoured and glad to have such a leader in my midst (though he does have his flaws lah - I mean, still human to err lah. . .)

Last off is "Neighbour" - and that is Place (Matt 6:10) and People (Gen 1:28). Acts 17:26 - 27 and Gen 12:2 - 3 talked about this as well. Just don't ask me to delve into this further because you know what? I am getting tired of blogging so much . . .

Week 3 of December holiday 2008

Last week of holiday - sigh, so fast right. I feel cheated of my holiday this year because somehow, it seemed so short. But can't blame anybody - this year has been a hectic year.

Did some really fun things lately. I went out cycling one day and ended up with a puncture tyre. Actually, I'm rather surprised by it. It just so happened that one fine day, I decided to go out cycling and started from East Coast Park and ended up with a puncture near Changi Village. Now, that's already rather amazing because the distance to Changi is about 20km. The next amazing thing is that I did the next most natural thing - walk back home pushing the punctured bike.

I took about two and a half hour to reach back. 

And, I finally got to change my car tyre! Again, it's a puncture. It's strange but such things always happen during the holidays - puncture, getting sick, . . .etc. But very happy lah. At least, I know how to do it already, after nearly 15 years on the road. I never even changed a tyre once on my motorbike previously. 

Had lots of mahjong session too - hah! It's really great to be able to play mahjong. It's like a luxury. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it although most of the time, I am paying.

Been a long time since I seen some of my cell members. It's like a great reunion during the recent cell retreat and the more recent Christmas gathering. It's good to see everybody so comfortable with one another. I felt like it's one big family. 

That aside, this is going to be the last week before holiday. Hope that I can pull through without spending too much money - I'm been spending like nobody's business!!! No money left!

Week 1 of December 2008 holiday

Still playing around with my Macbook - there's this neat plugin which works seamlessly with iphoto to upload the pictures in my iphoto application to picaso.com. Great for quick uploads to the blogger webpage.

Also been fiddling around with my Macbook - realized that most of the space is constrained to the Windows hard disk partition. That left me with little space to work with in my Macbook (mine has a dual operating partition - can boot with either Windows or Mac OS). To get around that, I created a shortcut to Windows from my Finder. So I just dump all my photos and videos in the Windows partition. That really helped me save a lot in my disk space. 

And I realized that by putting slideshows all over my blog, it made the readers scroll up and down the page. That's quite a strategy to make people wander to the bottom of the page!

The holidays have started and I am enjoying every bit of it. Went for a long swim in the morning to get a bit of tan. It's very relaxing as there's nobody to jostle with me in the pool. Really felt like I owned the whole pool to myself as I swam lap after lap. . .ah. . .bliss

Reflected a bit on what I wanted to do in life. What my values are. What I believed in. I watched a show called "Marie and the three little puppies". A very heartwarming show about how a young girl struggled with the demise of her mum and found an abandoned puppy one day. Story unfolds about how a huge earthquake destroyed the house, trapping the girl and her grandfather inside. Marie, the puppy now grown up, managed to find help but in the end, had to be left behind in the evacuation process. Marie was then left to fend for herself and her three puppies for 16 days before the girl managed to return back to rescue the devastated village. 

What left me really touched was how I found myself chasing after money and luxuries in life. Actually, come to think of it, I am really very blessed. I remembered my pastor telling us once to always be a blessing, always be thankful and always be joyful. That phrase struck me again as I reminsce about the past one year and how I have grown. One thing I felt I really neglected, actually two, is that I didn't keep myself fit and grow in my intellect pursuit. I always loved to study and I always like to be fit. But somehow, over the course of working, I just lost track of these two ideals. One thing I love about teaching is that I never be able to stop learning - there is just always another course/seminar to attend or just another series of modules to finish in the line. 

I found that there are other things I loved to have in life - a closely knitted family and a close company of friends/colleagues/cell group. Actually, one thing I felt I really lost out is that I just have no time for all these. But this year had been good. 

Ending off for now. . .

Sentosa LITO Programme 2008

Living in the Ocean Programme 2008 (Sentosa Underwater World)

I have created a PICASA web photo album on a recent trip I went with my pupils. It's a new initiative and a great collaboration between Sentosa and schools. I chose 40 pupils and together with 3 other teachers, went to the Underwater World

Final day of school term in 2008

Phew, finally reached the end of my school term. I think this was a really long tiring year. Actually, it was quite good already given that I had a great team of friends working with me.

- Sending off Sharon at Amirah's Grill

Went to Amirah's Grill on Tuesday to give Sharon a send off treat. It's a nice place - I espcially liked the kebab and mixed grill. Halal restaurant. It's a cozy place especially nice to hang out. They provide DVD of plenty of movies (good to hang out in - we watched A tale of unfortunate events, but didn't manage to finish through the movie) and the food is good. I booked a private room on the second floor and it's styled Middle-East, Mediterranean type and it's a good departure from the usual run-of-mill events.

Next year events

I am very surprised that I could continue thus far. I could still recall the anxiety and panic that I had when I first began teaching. Now, I am actually able to pull people into teaching. That's quite a big difference from when I first began.

Next year, I will be taking on a HA class which allows me to pull out my full bag of surprises. I am looking through my old old NIE notes and realized that there are just so many things that I have yet to try out. I will probably want to model after my first batch of P6 pupils which I think was a really interesting and successful year of teaching. But I am very glad - I finally managed to get a HA class after all these years. I wonder why I never plucked up the courage to do it the first time round.

Involvement wise, next year will also be a busy year for me. There is a lot of movement going around. As I reflect on what I am doing, I realized that in the end, God is really the pillar for me. I mean, things aren't really going very well in school - I have difficult people to work with and pupils in school are really very naughty at times. My friends, sometimes they are just so busy. My wife, . . .sometimes, she is just so busy too. And when I have nobody to turn to in my downness, I realized that He has always there for me.

Speaking of this, one of the latest reflection I got forms the heading of this blog. Sad to say, I realized that I feel closest to God in the most troubled times. Hmm . . .probably I am taking Him as a person whom I can go to in times of trouble only.

(From the book of James 1)

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

This is one of the passage that spoke deeply to me. I realized that I need to preserve on. Actually, I have been running a good race but the past two years has been a slow down for me. I guess I got misled along the way. But taking on a HA class - I better pull up my socks and do a good job. I mean, I won't want to let the HA pupils down in any way. If I can stretch them in all possible ways, I better do so and do a good job out of it. I mean, these pupils are the likely leaders of the future Singapore.

I am especially touched by the words italized - that if I lack wisdom, I can ask from God and He will give it to me. I mean, what do I really need? I think I want wise, pondered works. I don't want to trouble my colleagues with burdensome, unnecessary work. Neither do I want to give people ideas with worldly values and unwholesome attitudes.

9The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. 10But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. 11For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.
12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

One of the things that greatly saddens me is that Social Studies in my school is a very small department. Small in size and small in importance. But to me, SS is a very important thing. Actually, so is Science, another subject that I am interested in. But SS is the foundation of what I began teaching in. Geography, National Education, thinking about spatial awareness and national boundaries. All these appeals to me. I think I got a wake up call during the Humanities Education seminar I attended recently. It is just so much more interesting. Geography, NE, SS - it's about the people around us. It's about the world we live in. But every time we plan out the plans for next year, SS has always been a small player in the school. I pray that God will bless me with a prayerful and pondering heart to bless the SS environment in my school. I hope to do more but I want to do it with God's wisdom so that it blesses the school and it blesses God.

As for Basketball, my next little pet peeves in the school, I need to continue to stabilize the team. Right now, it's actually very scattered as I am without a coach. But once I can stabilize it, I will hope to do more things. Actually, I did well in the 1st semester. But somewhere along the line in the second semester, things slowed down tremendously when the coach resigned. My plans is to really get the players built up and be strong true-blue basketball players. I also hope to have an active Basketball community in the school - because seriously, I won't be able to make it for competitions in the next two years.