Changing Our Tap

Last Saturday, I attempted to change my tap for the first time.


My tap has been leaking for quite awhile and the initial plan was to get someone in to change it for us but then I decided to give it a try to see if I can save a bit of cost.

So off I went to Alexandra to choose a tap which cost me $28 and on the advice of salesgirl also got a roll of white peat tape. (“You will need it, if not sure lou shui” she told me.. so I bought a roll)

When I reached home, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. First I removed my old tap and to my horror, water started gushing out of the pipe !!!! man, I was so helpless then and tried all means to cover the pipe to no avail. Even suffering a few cuts in the ensuing struggle. It created a wet messy ponding on my kitchen floor which I later have to mop it up… throughout the whole ordeal, I was praying God help me and after a couple of minutes of immense struggle, was able to somehow turn my old tap back it to stop the self created fountain… phew! Man , how much water I have wasted…

After recovering from my shock, I gathered that I have to first turn off the main water supply before attempting such stunts so I went out to locate my unit’s water tap and turn it off. I then went back in and removed the old tap gingerly and put in the new one.

Initially the new tap doesn’t fit in well, so this is the part where the white tape was put to use and I just apply it until my new tap fits snugly unto the pipe. Finally, it was mission accomplished. A sense of accomplishment and satisfaction began to envelope me.

I know that to many men, changing of tap and DIY household maintenance is child’s play and chicken feed to them but I have never been a good handyman so this is a small victory for me.

A few lessons learnt here

1. Being no good in something doesn’t mean that I should avoid it completely. ( something similar was shared during last Friday’s leaders’ meeting by pastor Jeff, our attitude in ministry must be “I am not strong in this but I want to believe that God can work through me/ Either I am gifted or not gifted, there are some things (like outreach) which are our role, so we still have to do it/ We may have inclinations towards certain things which we are strong/passionate about but there are also areas which are important for us to undertake even if we are not gifted.



2. Be willing to roll up my sleeve and get dirty/messy. Many times, I do not take actions because I may be afraid of the mess I will get myself into. But again, like what Pastor Jeff shared, in ministry things will get messy. Mess is a sign of life so if we want to do things for God, we must be unafraid of mess.





3. Be observant and remember how the “experts” do things. Over the years, I have seen Mr. Zeng perform many repair works at our house. If only I were to observe carefully how they do things and remember it well, I would have known better than to leave my main water supply on while removing my old tap.



4. Be humble to listen to advice. When the salesgirl ask me to get the white tape, I followed instruction. Even basic ones.



Moving forward , I do hope to be a better handyman for my home as much as for the Kingdom of God.

Blessed Birthday Glenda and Gianna

On Wednesday, we had a early birthday celebration for Glen and Gigi at MacDonalds at Ridout.


Once again, wishing the girls a Great birthday and many many more blessed years ahead.

May they grow up joyfully, healthily and into strong godly women whose hearts will be ever flowing with the love of Jesus.

Real Faith that Last

Yesterday, Pastor Jeff concluded the last part of the book of Daniel.


Titled real Faith that Last from Daniel 6:1-28 , he once again emphasised that as Christians, we not only want to begin well but more importantly our aim is to finish well.

We need to have real faith that can withstand challenges like how Daniel did throughout his life as he outlast kings and kingdoms while holding on to his faith strongly.

And as demonstrated in Daniel Chapter 6, lasting faith can only be built upon when we have integrity, and when we are strongly convicted and fully committed.

To build integrity, we need accountability (someone who can ask us though questions like “how are you doing, REALLY?” )

To build conviction, we need consistency (it’s in the making of seemingly everyday small decisions that will strengthen our conviction when the real test comes)

To build commitment, we need faith ( faith to believe that God is faithful )

It is all too easy to fall away from the path God’s wants us to take. The temptations of the world, the selfishness of our flesh and our sinful desires of our heart is always pulling us further away from God.

It is indeed very sad to see one who used to be walking close with God fall away due to the many challenges encountered. However, the book of Daniel is a book of hope and encouragement illustrating once again that it is possible to finish the race well and more importantly, the promise that if God is for us, it really doesn’t matter who is against us.

For He is the living God,

And steadfast forever;

His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed,

And His dominion shall endure to the end.

27 He delivers and rescues,

And He works signs and wonders

In heaven and on earth,

Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. Daniel 6:26-27

Sub District Gathering

On Saturday, we had a combined sub d gathering at Salvation Army Peacehaven at Bukit Timah. Thank God there is a direct bus from home all the way to the place. Before the gathering, I also had a meeting with Danny and the rest of the LGLs.


Liyin was way too early, so wifey went with her to the café below for some coffee. This is the way wifey support me in my ministry (arriving early together with me without complaints and helping out in little ways) and i am very thankful for that. After an hour of meeting, the rest of the members started to arrive. For ice breaker, we played a rather fun game of calling out the names of categories starting with the same letter of the alphabet.

For praise and worship, I played the guitar for Prisc. It has been quite some time since I played the guitar and it felt really good to be able  to help lead people into the presence of God.

After that, Danny let us listen to a sharing by Edmund Chen on the books of proverbs. I learnt that

Wisdom starts from God

Wisdom protects the heart

Wisdom uses word carefully

Wisdom values family

Wisdom chooses wise company

Wisdom shine as stars

We then had catered dinner and everybody mingled freely with the toodlers being the centre of attention, naturally.    After dinner, we did some clearing up before taking the bus home.  

My First F1 Experience

Last Friday, I had my first F1 experience. Even though the event is in its 6th year, this is the first time we witnessed it live.


Thanks to Mike who managed to get the passes for practice and passed a pair to me and wifey.

We nearly became too lazy to leave home after a rather heavy dinner of sushi and oyster mee sua but because we do not wish to waste the hard-to-come-by passes, we decided to go over and take a look.

It was a relatively long walk from city hall MRT to the Float @ Marina but because of the balmy night and carnival like atmosphere with lots of merry makers , we just soaked in the whole experience while walking and it did feel much more bearable.

As soon as we walked up the stairs of Bay Grandstand and saw the beautiful scene right before our eyes, our tiredness was gone and we felt glad that we decided to go over.


The practice lasted for about 3 hours and we left for home at about 10:45pm




On the Podium!





Leadership

“Leadership” is a topic that interest me no end. I can spend a lot of times reading about leadership theories, concepts and stories without ever getting bored.


My eyes lit up, my mouth widens and my heart pounds a wee bit faster whenever I come across leadership topics…

I believe that every one of us is a leader because at the very least, we have our own life to lead and decisions to make every moment.

For some, the leadership role gets more because they may be leading a family, a company, a life group or even a soccer team.

Knowing what leadership is about (leadership IS influence) and how to lead well is important because the stakes can be very high.

I am fortunate to have come across several leaders whom I think I can learn a lot from and one of them is Michael Raditya, Pastor Jeff and even my bro in law.

And from afar, Messrs Steven Gerard, Bill Hybels, Obama and Optimus Prime; o)

This year, I will be attending the Leadership Summit on the 1st/2nd November. I am excited by it and I know I can learn a lot from the speakers.

To end off, I would like to list down some important aspects of leadership which I came across very recently-

1. Character : Be a Piece of Rock

2. Charisma: the first impression can seal the deal

3. Commitment: it separates the doers from dreamers

4. Communication: without it, you travel alone

5. Competence: if you build it, they will come

6. Courage: One person with courage IS a majority

7. Discernment: Put an end to unsolved mysteries

8. Focus: the sharper it is, the sharper you are

9. Generosity: your candle loses nothing when you lights another

10. Initiative: You won’t leave home without it

11. Listening: to connect with heart, use your ears

12. Passion: take this life and love it

13. Positive attitude: If you believe you can, you can

14. Problem solving: You can’t let your problems be a problem

15. Relationship: if you get along , they’ll get along

16. Responsibility; it you won’t carry the ball you can’t lead the team

17. Security: Competence never compensates for insecurity

18. Self-discipline: the first person you lead is yourself

19. Servanthood: to get ahead, put others first

20. Teachability; to keep leading; keep learning

21. Vision: You can seize only what you can see

If we care about anything…if we care about our families, if we care about our churches, if we care about our businesses, if we care about our society…




…We Better Care About Leadership.”



-Bill Hybels

That's One Small Step for Dad, One Giant Leap for His Self Belief!

Last sat, wifey and myself woke up early at about 540 am to prepare ourselves to bring her dad out for a walk.

It has always been my father in law’s wish to walk from his home to his workplace SPD at Tiong Bahru and all along, we were not confident that that is something possible. ( in our mind, we were worried about the traffic, weather, and if we can cope )

Since it’s his birthday soon, we decided to let him try fulfilling this wish of his.

Thank God that the weather was perfect on that day. The late night storm which stopped in the morning made the air really cool and comfortable for our walk.

As dad took one small step at a time up the slope towards SGH

and than headed left along a walkway and across an overhead bridge

we finally reached his destination, together.

Like what Neil Armstrong proclaimed when he first set foot on the dusty surface of Moon on 21st July 1969 "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." I would like to believe that maybe somewhere deep within my father in law’s heart, his self belief grew a wee bit more with each action of  placing one foot ahead of the other and trudging doggedly through the 2 hours of walking

*after the walk, we had breakfast at Tiong Bahru Market and walked around a little bit more before heading home as the sky threatened to rain again. However, the weather continues to hold, so we brought him to have his long overdue haircut (barber threw in free shaving, eyebrow trimming and plucking of nostril hair for free as a complete birthday package… haha isn’t that nice? that would normally be a $68 package at Jean Yip)

At night, I brought wifey to Marina Square for dinner. It has changed so much since the last time we were there and there is now a wide array of dining choices at the entrance of the mall ( it is called Food Edition, I think) . Wifey also took the chance to have a picture taken in front of the oh-so-familiar One Raffles Link , her former stomping ground which apparently still holds a fair bit of nostalgia for her, awww...

We had a simple dinner at the foodcourt that night and then went across to stroll along the bay (saw a tourist playing with a gecko off a tree, how brave is that??) and then sat down at the amphitheatre, sharing a cup of corn and listening to a couple singing some songs before taking the bus back to rest.

A Selfie on the way home... giving Mr. Baey a run for his money. oops..

On Sunday, we had lunch with Eugene, Jac and Emmanuel, Judy and David at KFC after service.

you're not gonna have this egg tart unless you give me some kisses...muhahaha

Wifey had some fun time playing with Emmanuel before going over to Bugis with Liyin while I had a comcare meeting. In the evening, I went to join Matt and Mick for their soccer training. It was surprisingly tiring playing with the bunch of kiddos who seems to have boundless energy.

At night, we managed to book our air tickets to Bangkok from 22-28 Nov . Bringing wifey for a retreat during our wedding anniversary. Sweet!