1. When preparing materials to teach, keep in mind the capacity and needs of the people that you’re going to teach. You’re not there to show off knowledge or to prove (to yourself) how good you are, but to assist them to learn and grow.

2. Do not share your life excessively (i.e. random thoughts) to anyone who’s available to hear and easily entertained by you. They don’t need to know that much and there’s already too much crap in this world.

3. Be more sensitive towards others. Be more careful with what you say or do, be more mindful about how it may affect others. Not everyone is like you. Stop thinking that if you don’t mind, everyone shouldn’t too.

The punishment for failure to make proper use of opportunities for service is severe.

In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness’, he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist Carl Jung once remarked, ‘Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil.’ – R. Foster, Celebration of Discipline

Are you feeling overwhelmed?

It was interesting how during our trip to Eastern Europe, a Swiss friend who joined us had a ‘culture shock’ with the Singapore culture of hurrying, of the muchness and manyness. She ’suffered’ as we hopped from one city to another, rushed from places to places, left bed early and returned late, to the point of falling sick near the end of the trip. She even had to spend one whole day away from us and our exhausting routine, to rest and not be busy.

At Vienna. This was one of the happier days..

At our last stop, as we rushed out from our youth hostel to explore Salzburg, she actually chuckled at the sight of angmohs sitting on the grass, just talking and enjoying the sun, “Europeans..”

1. It feels like, as I get older, birthdays become more and more overrated.

2. It’s like come on it’s the 24th time now, what is so special really..

3. I’m losing another year, why celebrate?

4. But I thank God for 24 years of blessings and guidance and love.

5. Thankful for the sweetest roommate ;)

6. I got to celebrate with my two cell groups on the eve of my birthday this year. Combined :)

7. A birthday lunch, a Care bear and a Swiss fondue set!

8. Birthdays  got old friends and the slightest acquaintances talking again.

9. And they bring back the sweet memories, too!

10. I love birthday wishes. Even a simple and seemingly impersonal “happy birthday” can say that you are not forgotten.

11. This birthday with the 4 after the 2, comes with more responsibilities, more expectations.

12. And I realise many wishes repeat every year and have yet to come true. Keep wishing.

13. Flashback. Good ones and bad ones. Emoness.

14. I’ve got to do a birthday reflection!

15. 24 years on earth, what have you done so far? Britney was 17 when she first sang Baby one more time lol.

16. I would have graduated from university on my next birthday. It’s my last birthday in school!

17. I’m not getting any younger, what to do next?

18. Daily Blessing. Thursday November 5, 2009.
Today’s Verse: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. – Isaiah 26:3 (KJV)

19. Stupid handphone spoilt, again.

20. Everyone is saying “You are soo old!”

21. I had a stupid presentation on my birthday. I don’t think I made myself understood during my presentation, but the prof was being really nice and cute.

22. And I’m kinda haunted with.. FYPFYPFYP.

23. Birthday cake for breakfast, the all time favorite Guanaja from Rive Gauche.

24. Thank you people – those who were anticipating me turning 24 and celebrating the fact that I’m very old, those who cared and remembered, those who made it such a special day for me, those who left birthday wishes and messages.

Happy 24th birthday me! Lol.

We watched the movie Luther last night in our combined cell group session. I expected the movie to be boring, but though there are parts that I didn’t catch and understand, I actually enjoyed the movie.

Not only did we see how God had used him in the history of the Christian faith and the church, we can also learn many things from the life of this spiritual giant.

Luther truly understood and genuinely struggled with what he read, heard and experienced in his spiritual walk, and more importantly, he responded to it. It sure wasn’t easy to break away from the tradition, to stand up against everyone else and the higher authorities, to influence others, for something you believe to be the Truth, accidentally causing so many deaths in the process. I can’t imagine the extent of his spirit and courage against all the doubts and guilt.

And the Bibles that we have in hand, they did not come easy.

It was also said that the reformation movement was one with a sole purpose to return to the Bible.

Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda

-

So now, how can we be used by God in His story?

Ervinda S > Kezia Elda S
HAPPY BDAY CA!!!! CIEEE UDAH 17 TAHUN.. UHUII CIHUIII DAHHH DAPET KTP… SUKSES TERUS YA.. SELALU SENANG DAN SEMANGAT..
SEMOGA :
KARYA TULIS LANCAR. LULUS DENGAN NILAI BAIK. KULIAH DI JURUSAN SESUAI DENGAN KEINGINAN. DAPET JODOH TERBAIK. GAK SERING MARAH-MARAH. RAJIN RAPIHIN KAMAR. + JAGO FLUTE. JADI GURU PIANO, TERUS SERING-SERING TRAKTIR CICI NYA DEH…
WISH U ALL THE BEST DAHHHH
GBU
4 hours ago · Comment · Like / Unlike · See Wall-to-Wall

Good friends are like stars.
You don’t always see them,
but you know they are always there.

What an excuse not to make time for old friends and put in effort to keep old friendships.

We’re soo cutee lol.

I just suddenly got reminded of a day in Zurich, when I had to travel a little bit far from where I stayed, to attend my oral exams. It was in an office of an NGO which conducted the lesson in my school. I went alone, and left really early just in case. I asked friends who had it earlier, and took note on how to go there. So I started walking, and walking for what seemed to be a really long time. And I met a few nice people.

After asking a few Swiss who couldn’t speak English well, I met an old lady, who also couldn’t speak much English, but was really nice and willing to help. After a short confusing introduction, she asked me to follow her, we crossed the road, and I almost walked when the green man turned red. She started telling me, in German, about how in Switzerland you can’t walk when the light is red, you walk when it’s green. I could understand the words Rot and Grün.

She brought me to a park area where there was an old man sitting down on the bench, and later joined us in finding the direction. His English was better than the old lady, and he started talking a lot of English. He asked me about what I do and everything too. After a while, both of them told me to just go straight in a direction, following a road path. I can’t remember now, but I think he gave me some cute messages in English.

So I walked in the direction they gave, for some time. Nobody seemed to know the building, until I met this nice guy. He was not a local, he actually came from a country which I haven’t heard about, say, Buzheckistan (I made this up, I can’t remember the name of the country!). “We are a new country.” He has stayed in Zurich for a while, and he gave me some details about himself which I erm can’t remember. He didn’t know where the building was also, but he really wanted to help. We walked, walked, and walked.

And we passed by a car rental place, where this Buzheckistan guy went in and asked the two guys inside. After some German conversations, and a little bit of English, they printed for me a map of the surrounding area, and told me to take a bus to get there because it was not very near. The Buzheckistan guy had to go to work, so he only sent me to the bus stop, and we parted there. This was half an hour before the test.

I took the bus they asked me to take, and found out that that bus wouldn’t go to the exam venue. And it brought me back to the train station. At this point I was already panicking.

I asked a few more people around the station, made a few calls, and started running to find the building, from the very spot where I started about two hours earlier. It was like the fastest direction finding I’ve ever done I guess. I reached the exam venue half an hour late, sweating and panicking. The exam was supposed to be twenty minutes long.

It turned out that another friend who was supposed to take the exams after me was there quite early, and somehow the examiners actually had him in the list before me. They were very nice about it. I got 5.5/6 for the module and a stupid but memorable experience of getting lost ;)

Martin Luther nailed 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is our God)..

Let us always remember to return to the Bible (by of course reading it in the first place). During Luther time, people like you and me did not have access to the Bible, until the change brought about by Luther, where he insisted that all people should read the Bible for themselves. Now shame on us, we’re so lazy to read when we have a few Bibles in the languages we understand.

And let us remember to be thankful, always, for the grace of salvation and justification through faith in Christ Jesus.

Soli Deo Gloria!

-

A few months ago..

I was there! With some friends and two most adorable kids..

The greatest problem of our time are not technological, for these we handle fairly well. They are not even political or economic, because the difficulties in these areas, glaring as they may be, are largely derivative. The greatest problems are moral and spiritual, and unless we can make progress in these realms, we may not even survive. This is how advanced cultures have declined in the past..

- D. E. Trueblood