Yep, what a great day. :) This morning I went out with mom, Ah Tun (our maid), and 3 kiddos (Jana, Ben, Xin Yuan). Went to HouKang to run some errands, including make new specs for Jana and I. As usuallllllll, I took forever to choose which frames I wanted! Tried on at least 20 pairs, hahah.

Came home and did half my JCHL reading homework, and started doing the quiz that Sarah tagged me with, but before I finished, it was time to leave the house again (so I'll post the quiz tmr)~. I went out to City Hall station to meet with two friends, Valerie and Kenneth, whom I met during my 2-wk June internship. So great to see them again! :D Had dinner at some Japanese/Italian place... Japanesey pasta. Oh, Kestrel, the whole time I was at the restaurant, TVXQ! music was playing, hahahahah. Later on we had dessert at the food court, but we sat at the outside area, where there was a great view of the Sg skyline and the CBD all lit up. =) No mosquitoes too! (A rare opportunity for me, coming from Thailand.)

At the Japanese restaurant. Waiter helped us take this pic. ^^

Val always prepared each forkful of food with a sprinkling of chilli, then cheese, then that smth spice that they had in the shaker. EVERY mouthful, haha!

Kenneth had this huge bag, I still dunno what was inside it...

Can't see the city in the bg cuz of the flash, =(. Without flash, the pic would've been blurry tho.

Kenneth and Valerie, just randomly pointing.... =)

Oh, and I must mention what happened on the MRT when I was going to City Hall. Nothing big or monumental, but anyway, I saw this guy, might've been Japanese or Korean or smth, dressed somewhat in the typical J-/K-pop clothes, with an emo-ish hairstyle, and very insecure body language. The first time I saw him, I just thought, "Oh hey, look, J-pop clothes." But a minute or so later, I started to feel more like, "=S He's one of those 'cool on the outside, hiding a lot on the inside' people." This whole time his back was to me, tho, he was leaning against the corner of the wall with his head down. And then at one point when he turned just enough so that I could see part of his face, a wave of sadness hit me.

He was around 18 or 19, I'd guess, with a slight frame and nice facial features... the typical bishouen ("bishie")? But the pain, the silent fear in his eyes, the emptiness I could sense coming off of him, that just seemed to fill his whole being... and he looked so lost, like a 3 year old kid. Scared, and trying to cover it up with clothes and accessories that would be accepted as "cool". You could see that he's been trying to improve his life, fill the gap, by buying into the comforts that the world had held out to him, but it was just making him feel more and more lost. I'm not a softie, you know that, but today when I saw that guy, I could've just cried right there in the MRT.

I don't often have these experiences, but on the few times when I have (especially today), it's made me realize the magnitude of our duty and our call as Christians. I think God let me experience this today to give me a bit of an idea of the ache He feels for His lost people. I wanted so bad to go up to that guy and take away whatever pain he was holding, see him freed from whatever was weighing down so heavily on him. And you know like when in Matthew 23:37 it says God longs to gather us up like a hen gathers her chicks? It was like that. I wanted to go up to him, give him a hug, and let God's love just touch and heal him 100%.

I don't know who he is, but today was something special, and I'm gonna pray for that guy. As complete strangers now, I wouldn't die for him, but God knows him and loves him so much that God came down and made that sacrifice, longing for their relationship to be restored, so that he won't have to be hurting anymore. I'll pray that even though I may never cross paths with that guy again, his life will take a radical turn at some point, and that awful, oppressive misery I saw today will be gone.

I'M BACK!

Back to blogging, back to Singapore. Oh blessed holidays~! ^^

I've been gone a loong loooong time... no, not meaning all this time on that church camp that I mentioned in my last post. Just been way too busy with school and drama and SC. And during what free time I had, I was too tired to put together a coherent blog entry.

But finally, here I am, and I just wanna note 2 things that have happened, so next time I can read this post and rmb.

-Basketball/sleepover with Joanna, RA, and Becky~
-(14th Oct '08) Drama prac ended early, had a good chat with *. :)

Right now I'm in Singapore~~~~ We arrived on Saturday night, after I took the PSAT back in school on Sat morning. Stayed over at the Seahs' house... had an awesome time (as always!), chatting and catching up, being stupid, being serious, youtube-ing...

ah, and then I realized that I'd forgotten to pack my sleeping clothes. I mean, not just to the Seahs' place. I mean that I completely forgot to bring sleeping clothes with me from Bangkok to Sg. Yup, that's right. ALL HAIL THE SOTONG QUEEN!

But as it goes, with such good friends, retarded things that one does only serve to provide laughter and a chance to strengthen friendship, as one humbly, contritely begs to borrow clothes, and the friends extend a much-needed, but undeserved hand of grace. And let one rummage through their wardrobe.

Today, I had a FANTASTIC Sunday with a bunch of crazy church ppl. ^^^^^ It was really really nice to see everyone again, esp with all the smiles, the "HI-IIIIII"s, and "HEY, you're back!"s. ^^ Had Poiema cell groups, then their music lessons, then badminton, then some of us went to Tampines and hung out at the food court. Laughed until it hurt, and made noise until some old person on his/her (yeah, we couldn't decide if it was a man or a woman) way out, told us that our (laughing) volume level was inappropriate. :P Oooops, really didn't mean to. ^^'

And other stuff, and other stuff. There're a lot of people who contributed to my day, and they're too many to name. But to all of you who did (and even if you think you didn't you probably did in some way or other tt you don't realize), I thank you for an awesome day!! =D

Tiong Wei ah :), I know you're reading this, and I already said it to you in church, but I'm just gonna mention this here so other ppl can see, and so I don't forget it, hahah:
TW, one of the Poiemians at ASE, brought 2 friends with him to church today (and another one last week, so I heard?). He himself just recently accepted Christ, and it's so inspiring to see him active in reaching out to others. Embarassing too, because we long-time-already Christians are hardly that active. We're too passive, too lazy, too afraid, too daunted, too busy, too.... whatever. Oh, for, shame. We can't rely on missionaries, pastors, and the like, to spread the word. It WE who have to go out there and take responsibility. STOP, think about it. Take it seriously.

So, Tiong! Don't ever become like that, don't get complacent, don't let this passion for Christ that you have now get worn down and bridled by time. Be... like Joel. Who invited you to church in the first place. ^^

Ok now, time to sleep. And it's gonna be another great day tomorrow. :)