LOVE by Jaeson Ma

Found out about this young Pastor recently through a friend. Here’s his latest song LOVE.

I am never into rap or hip hop music alike. But somehow I find this really cool, and I like it! What surprised me is that the lyrics for the rap wasn’t scripted when Jaeson Ma (the singer, a youth pastor) went into the recording studio. It was actually a test and he prayed and asked God for the inspiration, and here comes this wonderful song (rap)… Isn’t God creative?

Here’s a video on Jaeson Ma’s life, his incredible life-changing experience through Jesus Christ. Enjoy

Travel Up North (1)

After 2 weeks of continuous works, I took a leave to travel up north. First for reconnecting with long-lost church friends there (as well as my secondary school friends); Second is for some personal ‘let-go’ time (do stuffs I enjoy doing: travel, enjoy the nature, rest and eat all i can!)

It wasn’t really well-planned. Where I’d stay for every single night of my trip is not planned as well. Thanks God for the 2 wonderful hosts, my former piano teacher Angeline and husband James in Taiping, and Elisius and Julianna in Penang. They welcomed me to their house generously and offer me for a stay. I enjoyed not only good sleep, but also homey companion from them

I started my journey by stopping by at Pantai Remis purposely for the Ang Tau Ka (blended red-bean), a famous local beverage that straight away come to my mind whenever Pantai Remis is mentioned. I was in Pantai Remis for mission trip in 2008. Driving in to the town area did bring back a lot of wonderful memories I had during the mission trip. It was great to talk to the “Taukeh Neow” there too (lady owner of the shop). She still remember us. It was like “balik kampung” for me at that moment

Ang Tau Ka Restaurant

Ang Tau Ka

After the Ang Tau Ka, I continued my journey to Taiping. It took just an hour to get to Taiping from Pantai Remis. Too bad I didn’t reach Taiping earlier, or else I would have stop by the Taiping lake and town area for some popiah and soya bean milk.

Angeline and James, together with the 3 girls kept me companion for my night in Taiping. Enjoyed the time on the table, and just getting updates from them on our friends. It was great too as we were sharing our passion and our calling on the different ministries of the Kingdom.

Angeline was not only my piano teacher, but also a role model to me. She is that someone who commit to serve the House of the Lord with dedication and perfection. It’s a blessing to have known her and her husband, James, who is also a key leader in his hometown church!

Wonderful dinner and fellowship

Thanks to James and Angeline

I headed further to north for Penang the next day. I love to cross the Penang bridge- – it always excite me! I met my long-time friend Alex after I reached Penang. I have not been meeting him for the past 5 years! Too bad he didn’t have much time to talk (working hours), but we managed to catch-up a little bit of each others’ recent lives. It was encouraging to hear that he is still actively serving the church despite of busyness

I then stop by Hoon Guan and Chooi Chooi’s house. Haw Zheng was ill, and it had been a long day for both of them taking care of him, yet they still sit down and spent some time talking with me. We had great time! It happened to be Haw Zheng’s 3rd birthday too, so I was invited to come back for a ‘simple’ dinner.

I then spent my late afternoon in USM. It was really a good time to just quiet myself, reflect on what have happened, and pray. Thank God for those wonderful hours of serenity

Serene lake

Serenity

Went back to Hoon Guan’s house for steamboat dinner. Wow, I must say I enjoyed every single moment there! Foods were nice, fellowship was warm. Thank God Haw Zheng remained well for his birthday celebration. We had lots of fun together too

Birthday boy and parents

Thanks HG and CC for the dinner

The day was ended after I met my former disciple, Deric. It’s good to catch up with him too! Found out something more about him too. Pray that he’ll remain faithful in the Lord

Kicked start the next morning with Elisius and family. They were really kind, and they brought me to a nearby hawker center (where all the good foods are!) for breakfast. I settled for Sabah Pan Mee (unusual choice in Penang) and some Kuih Apam balik. It was sweet to spent time with them too (did not really know them deeply before this). It has been quite a journey for them since they’ve served the USM students for the last 12 years! Wow

Elisius, Julianna and little Clement

Sabah Pan Mee

I then drove for some ‘beach and sun’ time. Went to Teluk Bahang, a relatively quieter beach compare to Batu Feringgi. Oh I loved those solitude moment: just God, myself, the book, the sea, the breeze and the sun! Read a chapter of Cut To the Chase on “Individuality”, triggered my mind about the great impact a single person can do.

Great waves

Good food for thought

After the reading time, spent 1 hour or so sun bathing (or snobe by the beach. The wave was quite rough that day, it hits the shore pretty strong too! How I long to see the wave of revival hits our country one day, stronger like never before, that shakes the foundations everything that is destined to fall!

The rest of the day? Food hunting and sight seeing bah ;p

Fried Kuey Teow (Most famous stall in Penang)

Loh Bak (Seasoned pork)

Fried Oyster... a food to die for

Umbra Juice, a must try! I had it almost every day when I was there

KongFooFriedHorFun

Kg. Baru Mission Trip

It’s my first mission trip with the MMU student as well as my ministry leader (LINC Campus Team), John and Suat Ngoh. I must say that I was very stressful at first, but after getting to know them better and serving together, I became more at ease, and eventually, enjoyed the whole trip!

There are a lot of great things to share about this mission trip. Part of it is that it is a short and compact mission trip (6days) , where we need to do everything really short and sweet. I learned efficiency in this trip. Thanks to the efficient partnering church (Kg. Baru Methodist and Changkat Kruing Methodist), as well as the (very) efficient MT leaders (Leo and Ivy) and members! We’ve done quite a lot of works in those 5 days!

Local youths helped in prayer walk and visitation

Happy Participants in Life Calculator

Acted bad in Life Calculator

Message to the participants for Life Calculator

Second highlight about this trip is that God allowed me to learned what pre-evangelism is all about. I learnt it during the staff congress, and this mission trip is another perfect time for me to practice. I realise that it is actually very easy if we rely on the Holy Spirit. There are times where I felt really struggle to continue the conversation, but as I pray in my heart, God actually moved and make the other party keep the ball rolling, and often leads to discussion on spiritual topics. He loves them more than I do, He proved it by doing so

View from the place we stayed

Building bridges

Even children needs the Gospel!

Third thing is that God allowed me to experience some of the wonderful works He had done, sometimes, beyond our expectation! I had this privilege to help a semi-paralyzed man to a physiotherapy  center owned by Wesley Methodist in Sitiawan. There I was able to see some of the nicest and warmest moments throughout the whole trip… I see the realization of LOVE and COMPASSION. I also saw the importance of bringing the Gospel that is relevant to the needs of the people there.

Caring smile

We also see how God work through the children program. We (the MT members) were expecting 50-60 kids, but when we see that there are only about 25 kids turned up on the first day, we were actually a little bit disappointed. We moved on with high spirit anyway. Little did we know that the pastor there was actually expecting lesser than 10 (due to some past experience and her knowledge about the reaction of people there toward church programs). Having 25 kids turn up, and even with some non-believing parents attending children program in a church is already a miracle to her!

What a joy to hear something like that When we do everything by faith, we can witness how God’s spirit moves!

Happy Kids

Dance and song

Oh how can I forget to mention the warm familiness from the partnering church? Every meals are prepared by them, and everytime I eat those authentic Foo Chow foods, have have this warm feeling not only in my stomach, but also in my heart. It is always great to be part of God’s family!

AngZaoChicken (Red glutinous wine ginger chicken)

Whoa... still miss this bowl of rice!

AngJiu Mee Sua (Red Wine Meesuah)

The Mission trippers

Student / Staff Congress

It was a great time learning Conversational Evangelism From Dr. Dave Geisler again. It’s time to sharpen my evangelism and pre-evangelism skill too. Dr. Dave helped me to see the importance of ‘communicating’ the Gospel rather than ‘preaching’ kind of evangelism.

Another thing that I learned is that evangelism can be very simple, as long as we make it a lifestyle! I’m training myself to direct a conversation between me and my friends onto spiritual topics. It is actually quite easy as long as we rely on the power of the Holy Spirit, and follow God’s guidance in each and every conversation.

I stood in front of various discussion results on how to talk to different people with different perspective on Heaven. It was a fun assignment!

Dr. Dave (Centre)

You may go to his ministry websites to find out more on how to use your day-to-day conversation to guide your friends one step closer to Jesus Click here

We also had wonderful time to share our struggle as a leader in the ministry. Thank God for the open sharing among the staffs (especially my group mate Boon Hwi and AlbertK). There are some good times where I can ponder upon my style of leadership, as well as some potential weaknesses that I might have. Thank God also for helping me to embrace the imperfectness in me and in others, so that we can work in such a way that He’ll have His full glory!

Building a ship that can withstand the attack (a game to test our team function). We had lots of fun