In Memory of My Nameless Goat Kid

It died on me. After all the nursing and all the hoping, it died on me.

It's mother stopped producing milk too early. It does not recognise the bottle, and it obviously do not survive well on solid food alone..it did not survive at all. My dad is away from home, and in a twist of events I became it's care taker. My mom didn't think it will survive for long, but it didn't seem like a dying kid to me. Yeah it became too weak to walk, but it sure didn't act sick. Its bleat was so loud you could hear it above all the other goats. This morning it could bearly sit up yet it ate. It ate like a strong bull and wagged it's tail, like when a kid drinks it's mother's milk.

It's timid mother ran away at full speed at my slightest move, yet was interested in the feed in my hand, more interested in the feed than in its dead kid. Doesn't suprise me, it left the kid alone in a dent in the ground two days ago. I found the kid, thanks to its mighty bleating, and carried it home. It was too weak to get out of the shallow dent itself, yet when I help it up it walked. I fed it with specially prepared feed...feed soaked in milk. I also fed it tapioca leafs, the goats love it. It had begun to get up walk on its own again. Now I held the feed in my hand, and I just...stood. It had stopped bleating.

Did I feed it too little when it was healthier? Did I feed it too much when it was weak?


I'd miss it simply because I miss admiring it's courage...my little bleating, nameless goat kid.

The Inter-Hall Games Epilogue

6 weeks of games...to be exact, a 38 days period excluding 3 days without games in between...6 weeks and not for one game did the weather the went wrong.

It was January and February, smack in the middle of the monsoon season. We were on a tight timeline and do not wish whatsoever to activate wet weather plans and postponements. And so we prayed, my co-vice and I.

By the end of the first week I knew deep down that the LORD intends to answer our prayers all the way. We prayed for no rain, and God gave us sun. On days that is rained, it stoped before the games would start. On the days that it poured, those were the days when there were either no outdoor games scheduled, or no games at all; it was as if it pour to clear the skies for a sunny day tomorrow. The entire Singapore island could be under a thunderstorm (so says the weather nowcast), and all NUS would get was a huge black cloud, a wind and a few sad droplets of rain, and the games would go on.

For 16 sports and all their games, not one had to be posponed due to bad weather conditions. I am telling you this with all confidence because we kept watch, we watched and we prayed; and all through those 38 gruesome, stressful, tiring, and emotionally draining days of the Inter-hall Games, I had at least one thing to praise and thank God for everyday--the prayer answered.

I asked the LORD why? Why did it pleased Him to answer this particular unsignificant prayer? And He said to strengthen your faith, My dear child, so you would learn of My faithfulness; and because it pleases Me that you prayed it for My Name's sake.

That is why I am sharring this with you, just as I have with many durring and after the games, not to boast of my prayer being answered, but to boast of His doing, compassion and faithfulness.
The dear LORD Jesus Christ is GOD of the skies, and God of the heart.

Trial and Error

I have fell hard, cried; what is left is to get back up again.

"Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In Your love you kept me
from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins behind Your back.

For the grave cannot praise you,
death cannot sing Your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

The living, the living--they praise you,
as I am doing today..."

Isaiah 38:17-19

The Inter Hall Games

NUS IHG 0910 has begun!!!

Click the here or the logo to enter IHG 0910 website

Hhaha it strated yesterday with tennis. The weather was terrific! Imagine it rained everyday right up to yesterday, the day the games begun. The LORD is graciously good! As usual ^^

I was about to complain about the heat again today, but you don't complain about what you asked hahaha...

First day of games is a bit of a bigger challenge for us than we anticipated, but nothing really big that could go wrong went wrong, so yay! The LORD is good to us.

Just one problem...

We have a website on which live updates on the games results could be found...but the website could not be detected on search engines. -.-

So before we could fix that, lets just be more creative huh? :p

So dear NUS hallers, here's the link http://community.nus.edu.sg/ihg

Christmas Time! ^^

Merry Christmas everyone! May this Christmas bring added bonus to your relationship with Christ =) It certainly had to mine.

Regretfully I couldn't return to KL to meet friends and family there (sorry dearest loved ones)... 'Couldn't or wouldn't? That is the question'
Haha
Well, deciding to cut down my 14 days of true holiday with my parents (after all the activities in Hall) in exchange for time spent with you all shouldn't be too hard to do as I really do miss you, but at the early stage of leaving an empty nest (again :p) for my parents, I would really rather spend all 14 days (even more if permitted) tagging along with them and not go anywhere else. I'm sure you would understand.
But believe me, I'm missing some of you too much to keep away for much longer, so I pray we'll meet soon =)



I spent Christmas travelling with my parents in the South of the country, visiting all the village churches to celebrate Christmas with them. That would mean having Holy communion everyday for 5 consecutive days! haha.. The weather was, as usual these days, often raining, but sunny otherwise. Oh the stars in the villages! I could see the Milky Way ^^. The starry-ness in the villages will not stay the same for long, as all of them have electricity supply now, either from a town nearby, or from a solar station. But for now, the nights remains free of artificial light when it is sleeping time, and the stars can still have thier stage. =)



NUS Semester 1 results was released on the 22nd of Dec this year...a sad day for me.
I'm ashamed, but I want to let it be known here so that pretense will not be an option for me (pretending that all is well and carrying on with no improvement), and more importantly that I may have your prayers:
I failed a Math which is a compulsory module (compulsory for my majoring in Physics). It's implications are many, survivable but many. Do pray for me, pray that I will be deligent in learning my lessons. =)

My parents are the greatest channels of blessings the LORD placed in my life! The blessings come in the form of advice, support, correction, and comfort. They do the most unexpected, and you are reminded that they do so because that is what the LORD does for you.

I'm back in Singapore now, arrived 3 hours ago from writing this sentence ^^.

Christmas presents from my parents: New shoes for floorball (love it) Blanket (love it! ^^) and a brand new guitar! (love it love it!)

I get presents not because it is Christmas, but because Chrsitmas seem like a good excuse for (in reverse order) the stuff thay want to get me, the stuff they want to give me, and the stuff I want to get! haha

Oh! oh! you should see my old shoes they both turn chrocodile on me on the same day and for all ball practices after that I amuse everyone by showing them the panda eyes on my socks peeping out from my shoes...Bye bye shoes! :p

Thanks for stopping by, next time perhaps I'll explain more of what Hall is about =)

Happy New Year!

Bitter Sweet Homecoming and a brief filler

Dear loved ones,

Sorry I have abandoned my 'broadcast chanel' for so long. If I were to write deligently, I would have wrote for you about at least 3 things, no 4.

1. How Malaysian Student League (MSL) and the orientation program (UFO) rocks, about my group Lou-Po-Beng! and the crazy stuff we do together.

2. How the people of King Edward VII Hall (KE 7) rocks! and how my seniors here made us feel right at home, and share everything with us including thier hard work on the beautiful float. Rag day was memorable! Spending the night at the field, sharring the joy when we won, sharring the tears when it's over. Thank you for sharring it with us. :)

3. How the Malaysian freshmen of KE 7 pulled off Malaysia Night 2009. We almost gave our seniors a heart-attack haha.

4. How life in SG has been, how the elevators are faster, the cars stopped for you to cross and the people say 'zai!' instead of 'geng!' or 'cun!' Haha but it's not preferable, it's just different, like how you would love both chocolate and vannila ice-cream.

I know it's not very satisfying giving you briefs like this, but at least now my facebook pics and tags would make more sense :)

~

Had my recess break this week. Going home was bitter sweet cos my dog Shawny died last week. My dad misses him most, it was the his loyal follower. The news was a shock to me. We forget and still call his name sometimes.

But going home is always good, parents are the happiest when children go home. The durian was a bonus ^^

Once we leave home, it will never be the same again...but it need not be the same to remain a home. Home is wherever your love ones is...just remember to send your love home ;)

Tales of a Durian Smuggler

Ever tried transporting the infamous 'king of fruits' across borders through public transport? I just did.



My home is 7 hours coach ride, half an hour train ride, and 15 mins bus ride (with the agonising traffic jam included) away from school. My hyprocytic empathy goes to all who crossed paths with me.

It all started with the durian feast at home...mmMmmMm. I don't care what non-fans may say, but for me durian is luxury food, plus it has a tag that says 'home' on it. When it was time to leave, my mom thought how nice it would be to bring a piece of home to my sister who is also in SG, so she packed it tupperwares and a wrapped thme up in plastic bags, and I put them in my zip-up bag.

If only home could smell less...strong.



The coach ride wasn't that bad...i think. I only had to spray fragrantless deoderant whenever we had a toilet pit stop and no one else is in the coach to discover who the culprit was. The deoderant was more an act to sooth my conscience than of any practical use. No one complained as far as I can tell, not even the nice Cantonese speaking Indian lady seating beside me, so maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. But the bunch of young people did stayed off the coach during the pit stop until it was just about to leave...hmmm. Well thanks to the vidoes, no one seemed to notice anything.



And so things was okie...until I arrive in Singapore. Amazingly no one at the customes made a fuss. Then came the first bus ride. That was easy, just stuff the bag under your seat, sit still and will the smell not to come out. Yah right, like that would work.

Hey who knows, maybe no one would even notice. Oh but the auntie who sat next to me shifted herself to the seat across the aisle. Then she look at me and smile a kind, heartfelt smile. O..kie. No, I don't know what to think either.



Four bus stops later, I was at the MRT station. Great it's open air I can safely inspect my bag without drawing the entire city's attention to myself. By now the entire contents of my bag smells of stale fruit.

Great. More deoderent. Hope for the best.



Never in my life had I dreaded the smell of durian so much, nor was I ever so grateful for every wraft of occasional perfume from an MRT passenger. You know, the smell of durian must either be very strong or non-existant to be pleasant; anything in between is just...pungent.

When i sat down and did that stuff-the-bag-under-with-all-your-wishful-hopes trick again, I caught the uncle on the opposite row looking at me. It wasn't an annoyed look, wasn't an angry look, not even a...you know...look. It was just a long look.

A wraft of the smell, then train intercomm announces, 'If you see any suspicious person...or article...'



There were many times when out of habit I would whisper, 'Lord, please let the smell not come out.'

I could almost hear Him say, 'But I designed it to smell.'



The criminal is now in her room, having dinner, waiting for her laundry to smell good again.

She sincerely apologises to the half of SG who is probably cursing her right now. She would NEVER EVER recommend it to anyone much less herself to try it again, but if anyone were to join her in her shameless stunt for the same purpose, let me tell you that the rewards will be sweet. ^^ Imagine her sister's delight when she presents her with a piece from home!



Just one catch...it still takes a bus ride to get to my sis's.