Black Bell is master...

'Slowly, Miggy paddled my way towards the starting line. It was a sub-foggy afternoon, and the race was just about to begin. He was determined to put in his all, even if it was at the loosing stake, but was wondering if racing through the fog with the New Tiger was a good idea.

' "Just get ready for anything," he said to his partner, Hao Qing. "You never know what happens in this kind of wheather."

'He then turned around to check if everything was alright at the stern, only to find in shock that Hao Qing was... gone.

' "Hao Qing? That's odd. I'm sure I would have felt it if he went overboard."

'Just then, another canoe was heading towards the New Tiger.

' "Erm, hello there!" Miguel stammered. "I... I'm looking for my partner. You see, our event's almost starting soon, and we..."

'His explainaton suddenly seized into a mummur when the boat was close enough to see the paddler's face. To Raemi's surprize, the paddler aboard the K1 was none other than...

'...Zeng Rong.'

' "Zeng Rong? What are you doing here in the middle of Bedok? Shouldn't you be in school?"

'Zeng Rong just kept his eyes on him, holding his boat still despite the medium waves.

' "Bye, Mig," he finally said in a straigt face, and with a swack of his paddle, he sent Mig into the water, along with a few fragments of the New Tiger's frontman's cockpit. Down to the depts of Bedok he sunk to. For some odd reason, the lifejack he was wearing had no effect to his drowning. Paralised from the whack in the abdomen, Raemi continued drowning motionlessly. He kept his eyes towards the surface, watching the shadow of two vessels partially blocking out the sunlight.

'And just as he was about to reach the waterbed,...

GHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! *pant**pant**pant**pant**pant**sigh* Yes, that was a re-enactment of the first part of the nightmare I had last night. At least in the second part (when I went back to sleep), Hao Qing rescued me or something like that and for some reason, ZRong gave me a treat at a nearby FairPrice to make up for me being DQed (disqualified) at the competition for unattendance.

I know, dreams tend to be weird.

But then after waking up for the last time of the day, I went to eat a simple breakfast, cleaned up and packed my bag for the day's activities. I had a Canoeing Training, a Nanyang Funfair and an ex-Classmate's Concert to attend to, so I planned out my route, and so the original plan was to go to Nanyang straight after training, then from Nanyang head for the Singapore Conference Hall for the concert.

I packed clothes, a towel, a plastic bag and a street directory (just in case for SCH) into my slingbag, and headed off for training. During the ride to Kallang, Dad was trying to convince me not to put my 100% in my racing as it'll be bad for me. Hmm, somethin tells me he had a bad encounter with a race(s) in his past - this isn't the first time he's spoken about this, and I doubt it'll be the last...

Once at Kallang, I went to do some chin-ups along with the others while we were waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. That meant only enough time for me to do a 5-14. Ah, well. Once called out to get the boats down onto the water, we all rushed to the sheds to fetch/assemble/launch our boats. Hao Qing and I had permission from Mr. Goh to switch boats with Michael and Shaun, so we had a spin with StingRay for today! (Yay!)

Once on water, we did usual sets (which I've promissed to keep secret since the time I joined canoeing, heh) and just to cut things short today was the first time I capsized out at Kallang! Haha, yayz! After a couple of weeks out here, today's the first time! But the reason for capsizing was because the military speedboats were racing beside our lanes, and thus giving many of the boats present today a hard time tacking the backwash.

(But here's a good secret for those who don't know much about canoeing, sailing, shipping, coxing and physics; the best way to tackle a humongous wave [For a canoe, 'humongous wave' can mean waves the height of your hull above sea level and above] is to face your bow right through the wave. The best way to feel the wraft of waves and strain your stomach muscles to the hardest just to keep your balance, though, is if you face either side of your hull towards the wave. These statements are as demonstrated as by the diagram;)

Yup. So much for preparations for NDP by the military. This also brings me to another advantage of training at Kallang - you get a headstart on what's going to happen at NDP. And I must say, seeing so many giant balloons flying across the waters is rather... odd, for a season like this.

After training, we paddled towards the National Stadium Park, which we invaded and docked our boats along the shore. We then sat along the park and Mr. Goh gave us a relaxed debriefing on the spot. Man, debriefing never felt so... calm. It's an interesting twist to suddenly have a different terrain for a debrief, especially a park we just invaded simply by paddling there.

When we were done, we got our boats back onto the water and paddled back to the Sports Centre to pack up, of which Hao Qing had to stay back along with many of the Juniors and Leon for the 1-Star Test. When the boats were packed, I went to the showers to change into clothes for the rest of the day.

I did the usual proceedure of having a first rinse before taking off my clothes and having another rinse before drying up and putting on the dry clothes. But when I was done showering, I realised that I brought my French multi-pocket long pants. That doesn't seem much, but actually, it is. You see, those pair of pants are actually the right height, but the wrong waist length. So wrong, it feels as if I just slimed down. So much more wrong, that a simple tug and my undergarment would be in the line of fire, if you know what I mean.

In other words, I FORGOT TO BRING MY BELT!!! At first, I was somewhat panicky, but then I calmed down and searched for ways to substitude a belt. In the end, I simply took out my wallet, unchained the wallet chain, slung it acroos my wait and buckled it together. There - a nice belt to survive the rest of the day. Praise the Lord.

I walked out of the shower, thankful to God that the pants haven't slipped off yet. A good achievement, and I'll just have to sustain it for the rest of the day. Winston waited for me, and we both walked to the bus stop to wait for the 67 along with Joshua Tan. (For those who might not know, there's a difference between Joshua Tan and Toj.) Once onboard the bus, I lent my MP3 to Winston so as to keep him from bugging me while I try to search for a route from Nanyang to Shenton Way.

Once at Coronaton Plaza, we made a walk to the old school we both shared in common. Nanyang. Yes, it was still there, and with her clocktower still standing up and proper (and with the clock face finally de-rusted). But this time, there were major-event tents on the basketbal field and the courtyard. The funfair was taken seriously, I guess.

We went in and looked around. My, the place has been turned into a fish market! The entire area was all filled with stalls providing games, toys, souveniers and refreshents. They even had a section to dunk Mr. Ting! I'm amazed at his present level of stooping down.

While I was walking around trying to locate teachers that I knew here and there, Winston was trying his best to drag me along to Mrs. Lee (who apparently appears depressed now these days) and so I was tossed around and pushed and slapped and rammed at towards her direction. The more he tackled, the more I wondered to myself if this was really what Nanyang was all about. If it was, then I din't really think coming back had any value at all. But in good time, I persisted far enough till he gave up.

And at the same time, I was thrown by momentum towards the Monkey Bars. Ah, good memories. But before I could reach the bars to do one of the things I did (and still do) the best, I was dragged again by Winston do walk around more and search for more teachers.

To cut the story shorter again, I guess I made him loose my tail and I finally got personal with the bars. I climbed up and sat on top of the monkey bars, watching from up there the entire carnival at a peak. But then I was soon to be interupted by Winston trying to untie my shoelaces and yanking my shoes off so he could place them somewhere else onto he bars, of which I could easily swing myself to position at and wear my shoes still suspended above the ground. (I guess this is where I got my sense of balance for canoeing from...)

By now, we were being joined by Kevin and Joshua Au. We went aroud for another hour or so and explored more of the terrain before ditching each other, and whne it was my turn to get ditched, I decided to go up to visit 6A again, just to see how the classroom has changed. It hasn't changed much, I guess, but nevertheless not what I left it as.

The lockers now depend on padlocks, instead of the good ol' method of personal keys. Then the shelves were re-arranged at the back of the class, a lot different to the old 'library' arrangement my time left it as. The projector isn't kept in the large cupboard, which I assume now contains new contents, and for a unneccessary detail which I just want to state to bring back good memories, the 'Snow and Jelly' sign has been rubbed off.

Ah, 'Snow and Jelly'. For those unknown to this culture, 'Snow and Jelly' was basically just 'Show and Tell', just that someone rubbed off H's stem, added a curve below the T and an extra Y at the back. This sabotage started off a wave to refer to Show and Tell as Snow and Jelly. And soon, it was classified by the class as a 'reality show', where people display their items in a hilarious way via the choice of The Dip.

When finished observing, I checked my watch and found it to be 1pm. Not intending to spend the rest of the afternoon rotting away without good entertainment, I decided I'd take my leave and go home to rest. Once at home, I got to the papers and read a few artcles on the papers.

Choppy also came out of her room and gave me my Japan present. A pair of fake spect! Aww, she made the effort! Doesn't matter if it wasn't too accurate a gift, but it's just as good enough a symbol to represent that my elder sister loves me! Thanks, Chopp!

After bathing, I realised that my tution teacher sent me a message asking me if I could make it today at 3.30pm for tution. I checked my watch. It was almost 3. It would be good to do my tution today so I could make up for yesterday. So I quickly replied back that the proposed make-up was acceptable, then went to my room to prepare it for tution.

She came, and we did a usually-interesting lesson. She asked me if there was any particular event at my school yesterday, after overhearing from my maid that I went to school in casual clothing. I explained to her that it was my school's Youth Day celebration, and that we were permitted (and by some teachers, commanded) to wear casual.

So she continued the conversation by asking what we did for the celebrations, which I replied with 'watching a movie'. On asking which movie it was, I told her it was 'Happy Feet'. She then asked me to give her the main plot of the movie since she, altough heard of the movie, hasn't seen it yet. And thankfully, I was able to do all that with 85% of the conversation being Chinese!

After reading through a new chapter in my textbook and workbook, we finished at around 4.35, which gave me about an hour before I was suppose to leave for the bus stop to take a 75 to the Conference Hall. But a few momments after that, Nick Fung called and informed me that car transportation was available by Stanley, so I agreed to the 6.20 arrangement.

And that makes an hour and 40 minutes.

I then decided I should listen to a sermon to use the time, since the wireless in my house was appparently unstable at the momment. Getting my MP3 out, I flicked my way through the 'Sermon' folders and found one about Fresh Starts.

It was about the story on Ruth, and it was revieling a few truths here and there. For those who do not know the story of Ruth, well I'll give you a brief background about the story. The book of Ruth is the eight book int he Bible (heh, eight. The number of Renewal), and so let me share the things that can be found in Ruth. The sermom's rather long, so since it's 4 chapters long, I'll try to divide the sermon into three days (Chapt 1-2, 3 and 4). Here's Chapter 1 and 2;

Story
(Explainations)
[Message]

Chapter 1
Once upon a time, there was a man named Elimelech, whose wife was Naomi and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. (Here's something for non-Hebrew speaking people: Elimelech means 'My God is King', and Naomi means 'Pleasant'. How sweet - My God is King, and He's maried to Pleasance. Something odd, though, is that Mahlon means 'Sickness' and that Chilion means 'Dieing'. I mean, what kind of mom or dad would call their son 'Sickness'? Sheesh.) They were a happy family, and had a good life in downtown Bethlehem, Judah. ('Bethlehem' = 'House of Bread') But one day, there was a famine in the land.

(Here's something I'll have to explain as well. See, God does not send famines, persay. So what was that just now? Well, take note of this: whenever you see the phrase 'The Lord send a ______(Insert suffering, e.g. famine), always remember that if you look at it from the Hebrew translation (the original language the Old Testament was written in), the phrase is not in a causative tense, but a permisive tense. What chim terminology? Let me explain; Permisive tense (if that's really how you spell it) is, let's say, you give me a book AND I allow you to give it to me.

(Now for Bethlehem's case, this story was during the time of the Judges. And if you read the last verse of the book of Judges (the book before Ruth), you'd see that 'In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.' (NIV) This meant that if they felt like murder was necesary, they did it; if they felt that sex was necesary, they did it; if they felt that robbery was necesary, they did it; and so on and so forth. They didn't want what appeared to be an inverted-comma's God's instructions to be enforced in their lives, as they felt that His judgements were wrong.

(And so it is reasonable to assume that Bethlehem was also int he rebelion against God. Now, if you look through the Bible, you'd find that [Rejecting God] = [Voting for satan]. Thus, when Bethlehem said they didn't want God, they'd also be saying that they wanted to trust the ways of the world, that is, the devil's lies.) So God being a just and fair God has no choice but to obide to Bethlehem's request and stop protecting the land, causing the great famine.)

[And so we come to one point in the sermon: God only forsakes you when you reject Him. So don't do it. But don't get the wrong picture. If you're facing a rough situation that seems unbearable, you should know for yourself if you're facing away from God. If you didn't and had always been trusting Him, then it's probaby because God has something better for you than what He took away. ('Ah Seng had to loose his job as a massage parlor shopkeeper, so that he would - later in the future - become the Vice-Chairman of Product Design for OSIM.' Not true story, but you get what I'm trying to say, right?)

[And if you feel like as if there are thoughts in your mind that somehow try to convince you to reject God, just stay calm and rebuke those thoughts; the mind can be at times influenced by the distractions of the devil, but only you (along with God) can have control of your heart.]

And so they went to live for a while in the country of Moab. (If you read through the Bible again, Moab has always been enemies with Israel. Even till this day {Moab then is now Jordan}) But during their stay there, Elimelech died. So his sons married Moabite women, one named Orpah (Another weird case: Orpah means 'Stiff Neck') and the other Ruth. (Yay! Main character is finally here!) After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. [Well, so much for calling their sons Sickness and Dieing...]

[Ah, good. This brings me to another point. Later in the story, Naomi would also say the lines, "I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty." Well, if you were already full, why'd you leave in the first place? Another thing to learn from this story is that you must always stay where God places you at.

[If you know very well that God purposely placed you where you are - be it a situation, a position, a location or a relationship - DO NOT leave that place. Even Jonah suffered the wraft of fish digestive acids when he didn't go where God told him to go (Instead of going to Nineveh to preach, he went to Spain to run away, only to be stopped halfway through the journey. But that's another story altogether...)

[But don't get the wrong picture again: God isn't threatening you to stay still. Instead, He is just warning you to stay safe at where He left you. You see, God knows best. This applies to all situations and senarios. And he wants you to enjoy the best. So when he places you somewhere, there are two possible things that will happen when you move away;

[1. You'll just miss out on the blessing, and might realise what you've missed out on later in due time, or maybe not even realise it at all. Or 2. You'll be put to risk of a danger, the danger not limited to rationing but nevertheless a danger.

[God will protect you the best when you stay where He wants you to be. For Naomi's case, her family was originally staying at Bethlehem, which as I've said earlier means 'House of Bread'. God made many promises to Bethlehem in the past, present and future about Him protecting the city no matter what.

[And 'no matter what' should include droughts.

[Unfortunately, Naomi's family decided to leave God's promised land when things started to look very dry, and ende up at Moab. Now, Moab had to appear much more successful than Bethlehem in order to convince Naomi and her family to move there. Understand that Samson wouldn't have gone after Delilah if Delilah was ugly. So in the same way, the Elimelech family must had fallen for Moab's profound appearance in order to decided to migrate there.

[Do not be decieved by what looks 'better'. Just stay where you are if God wants you to stay where you are. You would know if God wants you there or not - He always reaches the heart. So don't be afraid to hold on in the harsh times that may come, 'cause they'll eventually go away.

[And besides, it may sometimes take years before the great blessing(s) that God's got in store for you take action. It took Joseph many years before he realised that the event of him being sent to Egypt as a slave by his brothers was all in line with God's plan to make him Second-in-Command of the whole of Egypt, so as to save multitudes from severe drought.

[So to repeat, whenever you're certain that God's placed you at the place where He wants you to be - even if it appears to be the worst choice at first - NEVER leave that place. A blessing may just happen to be right behind you...]

Naomi later found out from others that God was back protecting Bethlehem and was providing His people with food. Thus, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to migrate back home.

Then in the middle of the trip, Naomi turned to her two daughters-in-law and said, "Shoo, each of you, to your mom's home. May the Lord show kindness to y'all, just like how you've shown to your dead husbands and me. May the Lord see to it that you'll have refuge with a new husband."

She then kissed them, and they both wept aloud and said to her, "We will follow you!"

But Naomi said, "Go home, daughters-of-grace. Why'd you want to come with me? Will I get anymore kids that you can marry? I'm waaaay too old to have another husband. Even if I had a hubby tonight and then get twins, would you wait until they're man enough to marry you? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, girls. It's more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has gone out against me!"

[Look here, and you'll see that Naomi still thinks that God is against her because she missed out on the goodness of God. But she doesn't realise that it's also the goodness of God that brought her back to God. And she also doesn't know that she'll be part of a masterplan God had in store - she was soon in many many many years' time to be the ansestor of Jesus.]

At this, the ladies wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

"Look, Ruth," said Naomi, "Orpah's going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her."

But Ruth replied, "No! I don't want to leave you! *sobsob* Where you go, I'll go! Where you stay, I'll stay! Your girls' night out will be my kinda jazz, and your God my God! Where you die I'll die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me. (Sounds familiar? "Till death do us part..." Yeah, it originated from here.) When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging.

So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and they asked, "Can this be Naomi?"

"I ain't no Naomi!" she told them. "The name's Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. (Another intro: Mara means 'Bitter'. So she actually said something like, "I'm not Pleasant anymore! I'm Bitter!") I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. Y'know what I saying?"

[Like I said, God does not bring misfortune upon you. You placed it on yourself in the first place. All He tries to do is save you from the misfortune, and what do you do? Run away. Just like the first point, never run away from where God has placed you, 'cause you never know what He's trying to save you from.]

Apparently, Naomi and Ruth came back at around the same period as the beginning of the barley harvesting period, and so Ruth asked her mom-in-law weather she could go out and glean. (To collect the grains that the harvesters had dropped or left behind. This act is just as good as scavenging, and harvesters are usually keen to make sure they don't drop anything and let their profits go into their hands. So take note that Ruth was poor and a non-Jew, so she wasn't even qualified to become a harvester.) Naomi agreed, and so she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters.

Chapter 2
Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, a very rich and influential man, whose name was Boaz. And it so much as turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz. (In the Old King James Version, it says that it was her 'hap' that she was at Boaz's field. 'Hap' is old-English for, if converted to modern-English, 'happening'. Thus here, we can see that when things happen the way you like them to happen, you become happy! (yes, this was where the word came from) And happy are those who obey God's instructions! (Now, doesn't that sound a lot like a set of verses somewhere...)] Around that time, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem.

(Now, as you'll discover later in the story, Boaz is suppose to be the kindsman-redeemer of Naomi's family. What's a kindsman-redeemer? Well, the kindsman-redeemer is the person in the family that inherits any of the following roles;

(a. When the elder brother/relative is murdered, this guy would avenge his death,
(b. When the elder brother/relative sells away a property for aid of finaces, this guy can buy it back for him from the guy who purchased it from the brother/relative, or more importantly to the story,
(b. When the elder brother/relative died married, this guy marries the widow.

[Now, this reflects a lot about Jesus' role in Him paying the price for our freedom. For now, let's focus on the second use of the kindsman. Jesus wanted to help God purchase Man from sin. So what does he do? He acts as our kindsman redeemer. But shouldn't there be standards to meet to qualify to be a kindsman-redeemer? Well, there were. But even better, Jesus satisfied them all! Let's look through the requirements;

(1. He must have the tradable item(s) with him. (i.e. He's rich)) [Of course Jesus is rich! rich enough to buy you from the devil! Jesus has a rich Dad, and through Him so do we!]

(2. He must be related.) [Of course He's related! He was born as a man, so He now has a family relationship wit all of us as well!]

(3. He must be willing.) [Of course He was willing! He streched out His hands to show how much He loved us, and then died there on the cross to settle the debt.]

[So he does satisfy all the conditions! Well, just keep in mind the thought that Boaz represents Jesus for the rest of the story...]

"The Lord be with you, lads!" he greeted his employees.

"May the Lord bless you, boss!" they called back.

Boaz then looked around his field and saw Ruth, so he asked the I.C. of his harvesters, "Wow dude, who's that young lady?"

The foreman replied, "That chick is the Moabitess who came from Moab along with Naomi. She asked if we could let her glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters. Man, she's been working in the field from morning till now. Well, except for a short rest in the shelter, but that's besides the point - she's a tough worker!"

So Boaz went down to Ruth and said to her, "Hey, girl. Listen to me; Don't go and glean in another field away from here. Stay here with my servant girls, watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. Don't worry 'bout the men, I've warned them not to molest you. And if you need refreshments, go and drop by the water jars the men have filled."
At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She stammered, "Erm, Mr. Boaz, sir, why're you so kind to me? I mean, you don't even know me!" (Don't forget, she still doesn't know that they're related by marrige, but Boaz does.)

Boaz replied, "I've heard all about what you've done for your mom-in-law since your husband's death, how you left your real dad and mom and your homeland and came to live with us new guys. May the Lord repay you for what you've done! May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

[Another point: God is seriously closer than you think! I know you've probably heard this many times, but it's really true! It's just that people these days don't seem to realise how close God is. Society has manipulated the way people se God as, such as religeon.

[Let me remind you that being a Christian is not joining a boring religeon, but rather engaging in an adventurous relationship. But religeon has somehow made it look as if serving God is 100% a duty, inclusive only of greatly diluted enjoyment.

[The popular concept I usually come across with is that 'we should all prevent ourselves from sinning. We must not pressure God withour bad ways and so we should cleanse ourselves before we come to His presence, and make sure we stay clean while in His presence. Whenever we commit a sin, we should ask for another forgiveness.'

[Ya-di-da-di-dah! For one thing, God already knew we can't stop sinning by ourselves. The moment Adam and Eve ate the wrong fruit, earth - along with man - had become the property of satan. And as long as man did something wrong in the eyes of the Lord, satan had every right to punish man.

[And the only way to avoid the judgement at that time was to follow guidelines to help you not do things wrong in the eyes of the Lord (a.k.a. the Laws, or the Commandments). And if you couldn't follow the guidelines, which God knew you couldn't, then you'd have to be forgiven by God. How? Give a sacrifice. In summary, the sacrifice process is as follows;

[The sinner searches for a sacrifice, as according to his sin. When he finds the animal, he searches for defects. No defects? then he brings the sacrifice to the priest, who examines the animal carefully and searches for defects. No defects? Then he brings the animal into the Holy of Holies, where he kills the animal, probably by using the method of piunishment the man was suppose to recieve but more severe, and burns it in the alter's fire. In other words, the sacrifice gets the heat at expense of the sinner, thus he gets forgiven.

[But God didn't want to watch His creations suffer through these tidious processes. In fact, the original blueprints for earth was to be a Eutopia for mankind, where man did not have to labour or anything and could have direct contact with God. So what does He do? He sends His Son down to earth and uses Him as a perfect sacrifice.

[He was observed by the world around Him and was certified to be sin-proof. Later in life, He was sent to the high priests and examined by them carefully, so they could search for something to blame Him with, only to be able to find reason to blame Him by using lies. And there on the cross, He was crucified. And if you analyse the Bible closely, He actually went to hell after His death to be tortured for every sin man commited in the past, the present and the future.

[In other words, He died at your expense, so you could be forgiven for EVERYTHING! From that first lie you made when you were 2 years-old, to that credit card you stole from your co-league at 53. EVERYTHING was forgiven for! And now that the entire dept has been paid, He just wants you to enjoy life from now on! No need to repay Him with anything - it was all based on unconditional love!

[That's what grace means! God's Righteous At Christ's Expense!

[But many people have developed the theory that we should repay Him somehow. Maybe by being whipped, maybe by being caned, maybe sickness, maybe iron thorns, maybe excesive praying, maybe even getting yourself nailed on another cross. Hello? I mean, that's just stupid in my opinion.

[You want to know what'll please God? Enjoy the life He gives you. Yeah, that's the basics - just enjoy whatever He lays in front of you and keep enjoying His prosperities and peace. But like I've mentioned int he first two points, stay where you are if God has placed you there. You'll know if God placed you there, as God'll lead you there personally using your heart. But if you leave the place, He might not be able to loop His way through your life so as to catch you and get the blessing to you.

[But first things first, you have to trust Him with your life first before He can start work on it. You can't have a construction team to renovate your house unless you give them the house first. In the same way, God can only work in your life unless you allow Him to.

[Sometimes, this could mean saying prayers that sound lame or something, but it'll take time to get use to I guess. I also pray for my training programmes too, and at first I'd wonder to myself on why God would be bothered about a simple friendly race that isn't event he real thing yet. But now, I've come to realise that I shouldn't limit God's abilities. He's God, and He loves me, and anything which I'll concider as a miracle blessing -whether it be beating the Mosquito or gearing up on my grades - He can and will do, just as long as I say the magic words.

[No, not 'Please?'. In fact, it's 'Thank you!'. Why? Because God already prepared the package and is just holding it infront of me, and all I have to do is just acknowledge that I know it's there and that God will give it to me. It's a lot like Messenger, when a convo with God suddenly says;

[Blessings - Accept. Reject.

[And all I have to do is just click on 'Accept'. Just so simple. But sadly, people sometimes make it seen complex.]

"May I continue to find favor in your eyes, boss," she said. "You've given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant, though I don't have the quality of any of your servant girls."

[In scale to Ruth, always remind yourself how deep in sin you were before you met God, all you Christians out there. Never say things like, "Oh, I wasn't that bad a sinner." Truth is, you we're that bad a sinner, and you're still sinning time after time. Those high-quality deeds/actions you've done aren't yours, but rather God's, as through Him we can accomplish all things.

[I also remind myself of where I came from. (Friends from ACS(I) may not be able to imagine a perverted and angry Miggy, but believe me there was once a time before I finally got to meet God. But I'll share this story another time.) Then I see where I am right now - the status reputation I've been declared with, the responsibilities I'm trusted with, the priveleges I'm provided with - and I turn it all straight back to God and praise Him for all that He's changed in my life.

[And also remember that God loves to give generously, like I've said earlier. And don't tell me things like, "Oh, but God also demands this this this, and that that that, and..." Even if He wants us to help Him get something, He'll first give us whatever we need to do so!]

At mealtime, Boaz said to her, "Yo, c'mon 'ere and have some bread! On the house! Ooo, and try the dip! It's wine vinegar!" When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, "Let her gather among the sheaves, and don't even try to stop her. Instead, just pull out some stalks from your bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't you dare rebuke her."

[See, He loves to give you blessings! And Ruth could just go and say, "See? I got so much!", but no, the reason why she got so much was because Boaz made the grains drop on purpose. Just keep on getting getting, and getting getting, and getting getting...]

So Ruth kept gleaning until evening, and when she had beaten it all out, she found it to have tallied to a whoopin' 10 kilos. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out the leftover of what she 'tah-pao'ed ('take-away'ed) from her meal with Boaz and his employees and gave it to her.

Her mother-in-law asked her, "Where'd you get all this from?! God bless the man who took notice of you!"

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law, "His name's Boaz."

"The Lord bless hi...wait a minute. Who again?"

"Bo... Boaz."

"Boaz?"

"Yeah, Boaz. Erm, is there something wrong?"

"BOAZ!"

"Oh, nononononononononono! I didn't go out with him! We didn't go for a drink or something, nonononono it was a gift! Honest!"

"Oh, *giggles* nonono I'm not mad at you! Let me explain somethi..."

"No! I didn't do anything! He's the one who gave it to me!"

"No, don't be scared! I've gotta tell you somethi..."

"I... I won't see him again! I'll go to another field! I promise!"

"Ruth! Calm down, I need to explain our customs here to you. Boaz is our kinsman-redeemer."

"Our what?"

"Our kingsman-reedemer."

"Our kingsman-what? He's a king? Well, he's hot and rich, but... he's a king?"

"Let me explain. In our culture, when the eldest son of a family dies, his younger brother marries his wife. And if he dies, it get's passed down the familiy line so on and so forth from the closest male relatives to the furthest. After Chilion, Boaz is next in line! It'll be good for you, young lady, to go out with his girls, because in someone else's field you might get raped. Boaz will protect you for sure."

So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished, as instructed by her mom-in-law.

To be continued...

After that, it was just the right timing for me to go change up and go downstairs to the lobby of Stanley's block, with an extra remainder of time for me to listen to my MP3. After finding Nick, we both went up to Stan's flat and met up with Lester to wait for the arrival of Uncle Anthony's car, along with Stanley. While waiting, Nick showed usa few magic tricks while Lester gave good statements on warfare.

(Yes, these two were the people who introduced me to the art of warfare, which later got me reading up a lot on Hiroshima, which led to me starting work on my first animation film, 'Nucleoil: The Attack of Hiroshashimi' {which sadly was abborted after less than a month's worth of work.}. But nevertheless, these two guys introduced me to the many things related to war - from World War I and II to military armstrengths of many countries.)

Once Stanley arrived in Uncle Anthony car, we (Nick, Lester, Stanley, Auntie Shirley, Uncle and I) drove out towards the Conference Hall. But during the starting portion of the journey, Auntie Shirley came to realise that Nick, Lester and I hadn't eaten our dinner yet. She then asked us if we could ta-han ('tolerate') all the way till around 9-10 o'clock.

Well, I've always thought that it was normal to end up eating extremely late after concerts, but both Auntie Shirley and Uncle Anthony wouldn't take our excuses. They dropped by at the MacDonald's drive-thru at KAP and bought us each a meal. When it came to ordering the drinks, Auntie Shirley took it that we all could drink coke, so she told Uncle Anthony that we wanted coke. But I, being only able to finish consuming a fresh can of coke over a very long period of time, tried my best to mumble a "Ice lemon tea!" across the car.

Hearing my response, Auntie Shirley quickly asked Uncle Anthony to change my order, but he already made a great portion of the orders and so got annoyed by the sudden change in iunstructions. This led to a slight quarrel at the front of the car, and I was frightened with the uncertain guilt of whether I started the argument or not. I tried my best to say, "I'm sorry" a couple of times, but Stanley later whispered, "Don't take it too hard on yourself, Mig - He wasn't refering to you."

Thankfully, the rest of the journey was more or less controlled and calm, so when we got to the Conference Hall we were all geared up with full bellies and ready to take on the concert. We went up to the hall which the performance was to be held in, and up the seats we met up with Uncle Francis and Auntie Dorrie (the parents of Roxanne), who had helped up to reserve a few seats for us all.

We shuffled ourselves in, and we awaited for the performance to begin. Uncle Francis was on my left, while John Lim (who was here before us) was on my right. Nick and Stan were trying to point out some funny stuff in the booklets that were given to us as we entered the hall, but John found something he didn't want the two of them to find. He tapped me on the shoulder, told me to look at the back of the booklet, then directed my eyes to a radius around Roxanne's name.

I giggled, along with promising him that I would tell no one what I saw. I then asked him, in pure wonder, why many of the Cashew Heights people called him a particular nickname. Uncle Francis, who overheard our conversation, came in and told me the story of how the whole lot once went to an overseas trip together (which I unfortunately didn't get to join also) and on one of those days, an animal with that nickname as her name appeared to have liked John Lim, and thus the nickname.

We all laughed together before settling back in our seats and waiting a little longer for the show to begin. I then remembered that Shil was also somewhere in the theatre, so I started to look around the area, time after time getting in the way of Uncle Francis' view of Darren (Roxanne's younger brother).

When I fianlly spotted him, I rose from my seat and started waving vigourously for his attention. A friend of his who he attended the concert with caught me and pointed me out to Shil, of which Shil responded with a light wave and thus me toning down back into my seat.

And just a few seconds after that, the lights dimmered down to a shaded black (is there such a thing?). The show has just begin.

So as to not drag the performance too long, I shall just state a few main points that happened till the end of the show. It starts off with a few items by MGS, which Roxanne was involved in. It was interesting to see how they had to coordinate their bells properly so as to get the right rythem. They accomplished this by bouncing up and down like 'as if they had fits'.

Then also watching what kind of scores they could play, especially so much as complicated as Hungarian Dance No. 5, which is well-known around the world as one of the most - erm - 'steadfast-changing' music score composed.

It was funny watching the girls bouncing around with their bells clasped tight in their hands and whacking them at those right momments to keep the show on the roll. But at the same time, I respected them for the mere fact that they could actually play such a piece. I would be the least surprized if anyone of them told me the phrase, "It certainly is harder than it looks."

I honour that phrase a lot, as I'm also involved in it's meaning (non-canoeists have no idea how complex paddling a canoe can get - it's not all about the rotation, there's weight of the boat, the angle of entry of the blade into the water, the kicking of the legs, the steadiness of your tiller, the level of...)

During the interval break, Stan bumped into the Chinese Girl's School principal! On purpose! He sure had the guts to jump in front of her a second time! All of us were laughing, Nick, Lest, John, Alyssa, and I. We had a rough prediction of what the headlines would read tomorrow; 'Principal In Search Of Rude Boy - Wanted Dead Or Alive'.

After the interval, we watched another few affiliated school's bands play, until we came to the finale whereall the resent schools combined together to play a couple more scores as one whole assemble. t was very impressive, I must admit. One thing that scared me, though, was how hard the base bells were actually smashed onto the table. I mean, you literally see them cave inwards for a split second or two.

But overall, I thingk the performance was very well done (I never knew how many instruments could be replaced by handbells. I always thought bells either went 'ding' or 'dong', but I never knew they could go 'tink' or 'plink' or 'bok' or 'twang' or other sounds I might have missed out.)! Good job, Rox! :)

But after the performance, Nick and Stan felt letargic after sleeping during many parts (heh, am I really that immune to instrumental music?) and so we decided to leave early. Uncle Anthony arrived in his car a few short minutes after we got outside the building, and we drove off towards home.

But just as we were around leaving the CBD area, Alyssa called Stan and invited us guys for a supper at KAP. "MacDonald's again?", we all muttered in a low voice, and we decided we would just give the meal a pass.

But later on in the drive, it was Auntie Dorrie who called us, and she was telling us that she would pay for the whole thing. In the end, we gave in and decided to endure the Mac a little longer. As we arrived there, we were greeted by Auntie Dorrie, Alyssa and a friend of Alyssa.

We then searched around the area for available seats for all of us to sit together. Sooner or later, a series of tables towards the front entrance were at view and we charged our way to place ownership on the territory. We got ourselves seated and started taking down our orders for supper. (Even Auntie Dorrie took out a notebook and wrote down all our orders like a waitress, heehee)

We then engaged in conversation between one another before getting our meals and feasting a little bit while waiting for 'the star of the show'. Soon, when I finished my milkshake, Rox came in with Uncle Francis and Darren, and so we all feasted till the boys turned purple and the girls turned pink (purple because we dreaded to look at another MacDonald product for the next week or two, and pink 'cause they were just laughing at us).

Once done, we divided into our cars and said our goodbyes at a cross-junction (two cars aligned along each other, both cars scroll down their windows, the guys laugh at the other car, which had Lester and all the other girls locked up in a mobil) before going our seperate ways and heading towards the different ends of the Bukit Timah area. Lester now lives at Chua Chu Kang, while John lives at Coronation; two opposite ends of the area, and so we dided ourselve via these two people.

Once we sent them home, we could head back home and get some shut-eye for the next day. Ah, well. Tomorrow is Youth Day, wonder what God'll bring for me! God bless y'all!

Give it a try...

Or should I? I don't know. It's just over there, and I can just take it. But shoudl I? Would it do any good? What can I get from it all? What can others get from it all? What would God get from it all?

Tim raised the point about a re-newed ClassCommittee for the class, and I've heard that he wanted to resign as Chairman. When he asked if anyone wanted to take over any roles in the committee, the class was all silent.

I was seated at the back of the class, lookng around if there was anyone willing to inherit other positions. There was no one. This was my chance. I could be entrusted with a class and take responsibility over it. Tim was willing to give up the position, and the class seems to trust me very much. Five years after being told once that I could not be trusted with the role of a group leader, I could just get the post of an overall class leader.

And all I had to do was just raise my hand, and the authority was all mine.

With nothing to loose, I was just about to raise my hand when suddenly, a thought was raised in my mind. I then wondered if my decision to get the title was a bit far of the charts of responsibility. What if it wouldn't be necessary for me? What if a little greed was involved? I searched across my mind to see if there was anyone or anything that I would effect in a negative aspect if I took that title.

What about Tim?

Oh, yah. For one thing, you only get even the least of one LEAPS point (Leadership Enrichment Achievement Participation Service) if you get the minimum of a year of service in a class committee. If I take away Tim's role at this stage, his counter will stop and will continue on me. Through this, I'll end up recieving the one point in my report, probably without any spared for him. That was just unfair.

I was aware that last year, I also had a chairman for each semester, but I think they left with Mrs. Sharon Woon closing one eye. I wasn't sure if Mr. Dave Tay would do the same thing.

And besides, all Tim has to do is just to endure another two terms (or more like 1-and-a-half, since a half of Term 4 would turn into a holiday) of doing the job and he'll get the point. It couldn't be that bad for him, it's just registering classes, attending meetings, organising events and the sort. Not like as if he'll be making treaties with other classes, declaring war on others, negociating trade with the senior levels or colonializing the juniors.

Comparing this with my determined will to get the 'throne', I decided it'll be better for Tim to get the point first. I could probably wait another 3 years for my next chance to get Chairman. So I slowly placed my hand back on the table before anyone saw my previous decision. Tim looked around. No hands. He sighed, and scrooled back into his chair, fine with the decision and allowing Mr. Tay to continue with the rest of the administration matters our class had to settle this morning.

I looked down. 'Did I miss a good chance?', I asked myself. But it was done, registered, archived, noted. I guess I'll just stand back and stay as Language Arts Representitive still. Which brought me to another point: who would want to be LA Rep when I leave in the first place? I can't leave unless someone takes over, just like the same situation as Tim. So like I said, I'll just have to stay here for the rest of the time here.

Just as simple as that.

Now, wasn't that sad-sounding or what? Let'scontinue the day with some (shortified) liveliness!

P Sci, we had the chance to play around with illusions and all, basically circulating the topic of ME! Yes, it's a topic on me! And why do I say so? Because it's a topic about light! And light involves rays(raes)! So as we've always learnt, anything that blocks a Rae, creates a Shadow! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! I never knew I was involved in such a bright topic! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Man, I now feel so light-headed! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

*sigh* This is fun!

After seeing how my path can be altered with the help of blocks of glass (wow, a bending discovery! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!), we also... erm...er...we also...

...man, I can't recall so much but just P Sci. Can't be that corny, can it? Ah, well.

Anyway, for training, since Hao Qing went for the interview/test to enter another school, I'll be rowing on my own for today. And with that, it means rowing the Bluenellow. Let's just describe the training in four simple words. Here we go;

"Ouch, my abdomen hurts."

Well, that's all I need to say. I'm just happy Hao Qing is still my partner for the competition, and that I'm not going to row in a K1 for the race. And if the test he took today really was an entry test, then I better enjoy Hao Qing as a partner now while I still can. If he'd like to go to wherever school he's being test by, may God be with him as well! I respect HQ for being such a socialble guy, even when he's so new to the team :)

Now, if you'l excuse me I'll have to go to sleep early to recover my abdomen or I'll fall apart tomorrow in the middle of ACS(I)'s Youth Day celebrations....

God bless y'allzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........

De-stress during holidays
Owning ('being better than') Lenin-Stalin documentary
Campaign skills (leadership)
Unslackable (majorly)
Memoriable project
Educational
Navigation improvement
Timothy's average-score problem
Accounts for whole of Term 3 (History)
Real world (training for)
Young ambition

(Just to answer those who've been asking on why I've placed so much effort on the project - always answer it the 'Mr. Ang' way.)

"Kallang is the evil twin of MacRitchie..."

We had Time Trials today for training. In other words, we had our timings taken for our events. Like agreed, Hao Qing and I took New Tiger today, which after giving it a spin we found to actually be somewhat better than Old Tiger. (The strapped footrests were especially useful.) Before the Trials, Mr. Goh gave a short revision on how to board a canoe on a pontoon, so as to help prepare us for the conditions in Kallang. Barnacles.

We then paddled to our starting points (either 500m or 1000m, HQ and I being 500) and waited for our wave to start. First were the 1000m events, which took about less than half an hour to finish, before moving on to the 500m events, of which the K2s had to go first. Joon Sin didn't come today (again...), so Kenneth had to paddle Old Tiger with a Sec 1. But jokes aside, this Sec 1 is a very powerful rower, despite his angelic looks. Nevertheless, HQ and I wouldn't know if we're better/worse/at par to the Mosquito today because of JSin's absense. How sad.

Once we did a set of 500m timing (of which the Old Tiger colided into HQing's paddle's path of rotation at around 50m), Mr. Goh told us to do 4 sets of 2k Sprints, of which HQ and I didn't really hear clearly so we did Easy Row until we passed by Davin and Seng Jian's boat, when they shouted across the lanes that it was a "...BURST!...".

At least for the rest of the sets, New Tiger did what she could. Once done, we headed back to the pontoon to pack-up and brought the boat back to the Upper Shed, where Mr. Goh later brought the weighing scale to weigh the boats before we brought them to Kallang. (Yes, there are regulations in competions for boats to be within certain mass ranges so as to make the race more fair.)

Not to elaborate, but when Hao Qing and I placed New Tiger onto the scale, it displayed that she was over 19kg, a kilogram above the maximum weight for K2s! (Yes, boats can be overweight/underweight.) I know the solution for underweight boats is to put sandpackets into the bow and stern to increase the overall mass, but I don't know how they're gonna solve overweight. If only there were slimming sessions for boats...

Later, I went down to lower shed to label my paddle. (Yay! My name's just below Jimmy's signature! [Jimmy's a senior in the club.] Cheap-thrill thoughts, hee hee:P...) While labeling my blade, Yi Pin walked by and suddenly exclaimed in a soft tone, "Raemiguel! Your toe is bleeding like s***! Aren't you gonna wash it?" I looked down, and true enough, my toe was bleeding like - well, till half of my fat toe was red.

Others who heard or noticed stared and gave their random comments, while I just looked back up normally and sighed an, "Oh, I didn't notice." like as if nothing actually happened. Must had been caused by me sliding against a rock, I guess. Whatever it was, God heal my wound! I went to Mr. See to ask for permittion if I could run down to the toilet to wash the wound, of which without looking he permitted.

Down at the washing area of the toilet, a middle-aged man who was washing his shoes from mud noticed me sticking my bloody foot towards the tap and rinsing all the blood off. So he came to me and offered me a plaster. I thankfully accepted it, along with a couple of tissue papers to wipe the wounds clean and dry. While walking back up to the shed, all attended for but slightly limping, I prayed for God to bless that man. God bless him!

After settling paddles, blades, lifejacks and other small details I might have forgoten to mention, the 'B' Division was told to report at MacRitchie at the ussual time on Monday to help in transporting the boats onto the trucks, while most of the 'C' Division was to report at Kallang at 8.15 to wait for the boats to arrive. I wanted to volunteer to help out in the transportation of boats, but Mr. See wanted me to go to Kallang instead and be in charge of the Juniors (aww...).

We were then told of all the horror stories of Kallang and what conditions to expect. Such tales were like that there were some buoys which we had to stay away from, as they may be connected to high-tention cables which if snapped could slash through almost anything in its path ("...even diamonds would shatter..."), and that stepping on barnicles isn't dangerous - it's when you slip on them that you get wounds "far worse than what Raemiguel is having now.", and also on what debries could be floating just underneath the surface, most which are hard enough to chip/scratch/chip and scratch the hull of an unfortunate boat that paddles towards it.

In summary, "Kallang is the evil twin of MacRitchie," as quoted by Mr. See. I'd just have to be more careful when I get there.

Once dismissed, I gave Mr. See my phone number so he could call me once the trucks that would be carrying the boats were nearby the sports centre, and in turn he gave me his number just in case I had any troubles while waiting for them or with attending to the Juniors. After changing up and heading home and reaching home and feeling home, I said the prayer for a verse for the day and ended up at Matthew 1o:32-33, which is;

32"For those who declare publicly that they belong to me, I will do the same before my Father in heaven. 33But if anyone rejects me publicly, I will reject him before my Father in heaven.

To imagine that while we're down here on earth saying something like, "Oh, and y'know what? I declared His love for me, an' my love for 'im, infron' of that dude and told him that there ain't no nuthin' that's gonna stop my Pops from heaven from lovin' me, y'know wad' I sayin'? I love 'at God of mine, that Daddy y'all, and I'ma gonna praise Him as long as I'im gonna live!",

Jesus' probably chatting with God over something on the lines of, "Oh, and y'know what? He declared My love for 'im, an' is' love for me, infron' of that dude and told him that there ain't no nuthin' that's gonna stop Me from lovin' 'im, y'know wad' I sayin'? I love 'at boy of mine, that sonny y'all, and I'ma gonna bless 'im as long as he's gonna believe!"

Irony. Yet blessed irony.

Then I went to my mp3 player and played the sermon my Mom wanted me to hear about. The sermon was about Remembering and Rehearsing God's Deliveances. And since this blog was meant to be my Christian journal, I'll just type ou the notes I have:

-Flip to 1 Samuel 4:19-22, and it says;

19His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. 20As she was dying, the women attending her said, "Don't despair; you have given birth to a son." But she did not respond or pay any attention.

21She named the boy Ichabod*, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel"-because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. 22She said, "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured."

*('Ichabod' in Hebrew means 'no glory'.)

-Now go to Romans 13:11-14. It says;

11You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed. 12The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light. 13Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day - no orgies or drunkenness, not immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. 14But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.

-Now, there are 7 things which these verses talk about. Here's a list;

1) Alertness
If there is anything that we need today, especially now when it's real close to the EndTimes, it would be alertness. Don't forget, Samson only had his haircut when he was sleeping, and because of that he lost all his God-given strength.

2)Put off with the things of darkness

3)Put on the armour of light

4)Honest heart
One of the best differences between you and the enemy which you can addapt should be that you have an honest heart towards God.

5)No dual living
Don't comprimise and mix your life with things that would only harm it.

6)We need to put on the Lord Jesus
So that we can depend on the Lord Jesus.

7) We need to have priorities for Kingdom Living
The enemy would try to give you many chances to fail. Take none.

-We tend to forget what good things God has done for us. And so when we go through the storms of life, we fail to keep standing. We must stand through the storms (a person who stands through the storms goes forward, not back; thinks about the things which would push him on, not ways on how to retriet.)

-We have our season for Christ!

-Stand where you have favour! Stay where you have favour! Don't leave the favour! No matter how hard things can get! Keep standing!

-It's after the victory where the chaos comes! (When we all remove our armour and go party)

-Phinehas's wife had to go throught so much animosity and pressure ("like a pressure cooker!"). But don't give up! The times will feel like as if there's no exit, no solution, no hope, but just keep clinging on! ('Those who keep praising, will get rain!")

-Don't be influenced by those who feel that things will be hopeless. Save them, for you should, but don't allow them to alter your mindset with God's plans. Don't stop fighting!

-When you stop fighting, you'd feel like as if God has left you completely. You'll be spiritually 'blind'/'deaf'.

-If you think like that, just remind yourself where you are right now. ("I will remember.")

-When you give up, your mouth will freely spread depression. E.g., Phinehas's wife called her son 'No hope' and kept repeating that the Lord had departed from God. People always find it easier to say negative things than to say positive things, as negative things seem more likely and accurate while positive things are supernatural. But remember, God IS supernatural!

-Use the testimonies which God has given to you to push forward.

-The Word of God will give you confidence - try reading it up if you feel of doubt.

-"Your latter shall be greater than your formal!"

-Still, don't be over-confident in your own works - it is God who gives you the victory! Whatever you get from God, concider it as a priveledge!

-If you've got a target, keep at it! Don't put it down or take shortcuts that will make less of it all.

-2 Samuel 23:11-12 shares about Shammah:

11Next to him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel's troops fled from them. 12But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory.

-2 Samuel 23:16

16So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the LORD.

-2 Corinthians 5:9

9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

-Zechariah 10:1

1Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone.

And that's about it for the sermon notes. And if you wanted to see, here's a pic of the wound I recieved earlier on (now a lot more healed than how bloddy it was a few hours ago);

All archived down. Ah, well. God bless y'all!

"Welcome aboard the Old Tiger, Mr. Tan-ner..."

Today starts off with training. And if I haven't recorded it down here yet, Hao Qing and I are still trying to decide which boat we should take for our race: Old or New Tiger. There is a difference between the two boats, if you're asking. (The effects of time can cause a boat to loose its gliding power, and yet increase its stabability.) So since we've tried the New Tiger with both normal and angle seats earlier this week, we gave Old Tiger a spin today.

My vote was on New Tiger when HQing mentioned about th boat being more stable if we stepped harder on the footrests, since New Tiger comes with strapped footrests. (Straps hep to keep your feet firm onto the footrest, preventing them from slipping off during the race.) But then later in the day it changed to Old after finding out that we achived a stable journey by 40 minutes, something which we ussually couldn't do onboard the New Tiger.

Hao Qing second about stabability, but he wanted to test out New Tiger during the time trials tomorrow, just to get an accurate feel of which boat's better to race in. I agreed, and so now it's just a matter of time till we see the results. The rest of the time on the water, besides the main training programme, was 10 minutes of free time (yay!), this time it had to spent on practicing non-racing skills (erm, okay).

Examples of such are like Back Water, Draw Water (Left/Right) and Helicopter [Ooo, that one was fun!]. Hao Qing and I even had a chance to switch sides for a while and see what it was like to paddle from each other's point of view! Being Backman was a little more hard in the sense of effort put outside the boat (pulling your strokes, etc.) but a little more slack for effort put inside the boat (kicking [didn't need to worry about tiller], etc.). Hao Qing also felt a bit odd on my seat, and had some trouble in keeping our direction when doing sprints - after 10 strokes, we'd end up turning towards the left, and I'd end up finding myself shouting to the front, "Starboard! Right! Starboard!" when I saw that we were about to colide into the senior Cs.

After packing up, we were debriefed a bit more on what life would be like in Kallang, and what precautions we should - no, must - must take when we're at the river basin. We were also told that after the time trials tomorrow, we'll be practicing capsize drills and revise on how to do self-rescue. This would definitely be required as once you're capsized out at Kallang, swimming back to shore with your boat may take as much as half an hour, depending on how far out you've paddled (This can sometimes even go as far as the center of Marina Bay)

After debrief, I went back home and got out my Bible. After praying the ussual prayer of asking God to show me a verse which could help me around this time in my life, I flipped and ended up on Isaiah 48:17, which says (in the Sunrise Good News version);

17The holy God of Israel, the Lord who saves you, says: "I am the Lord your God, the one who wants to teach you for your own good and direct you in the way you should go.

I gave thanks through my trust in the Lord, and later fell asleep on my bed.

When I woke up at 3pm later, I went to take my bath, eat lunch and then was about to start on the remaining flashcards I had to complete for Mdm Kavita's homework when I stumbled upon my mp3 player. My Mom has been telling me to listen to the sermons she had downloaded into it, and so I thought just one sermon for the day wouldn't do any harm, if not bless me greatly.

The sermon my mp3 shuffled to was about the Authoroty of the Believer - Knowing the Enemy.

In short, it was about how the devil was no joke. This liar has caused the deaths, infections and mis-blessings of thousands around the world through time, all because these people believed in his lies. But at the same time, with the name of Jesus we can rebuke the devil and stop his plans from diverting us away from God's masterplan for you. In James 4:7, it says:

7So then, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.

So all we have to do is to submit to God and His plans and ways, and the devil will run away from you. Run away from you. If memory serves, the New International Version should say 'flee'. Flee. Not even as dignified as 'step back' or 'pardon himself', but pathetically 'flee'. Scaredy cat. And be proud for God that the devil is a looser. Isaiah 14:16-17 shares that the devil is so pathetic;

16Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, 17the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?"

To think that the momment you glance at whoever is causing all the spiritual chaos you'd be surprised that the thingy could actually do all that with just a simple pack of lies, says that the devil really is pathetic. Imagine a crippled fallen angel on a medium flame, dried up as ragcloth that he can't even scream in the pain and skinny enough to see his insides so clearly till you could accurately point out where his liver is, crawling on a hard and rocky floor trying its best to grip onto your mind and make you feel doubtful in your life with God.

Nothing like what movies portray that thing, really. No horns, no tridents, no strength, no muscles, no magical pwers to transform whatever it wants into whatever it wants it to become. Not even the strength to touch a person with his own hands, if there's anything left of them. Just a useless shrip tring to get as many creations of God into joining him in his punishment as possible.

Don't fall for him, I'll leave you with that. Just when you think you've got it all under cover, you may just fall for his next lie. But at the same time, if the thing's really pestering you lately, it probably means he's afraid 'cause he's aware that God's about to bless you with something very soon, so the very more you should rebuke the thing and tell it to flee away.

After the sermon, I did as many cards as I could with Mdm Kavita's homework - 3 more extracts left to cover.

Better get back to somemore work. Will leave you with this: I've Got A Jar Of Dirt!

May God protect and bless y'all!!!

Break water!...

For today, we had Dragonboating training at Kallang. My Dad dropped me off at the entrance of the sports centre and oh, good ol' memories startes flooding back. I know this is my third session this year already, but it's been a long time since I've seen Kallang under the morning sun.

Everyone else who came earlier were seated along the sea wall with Mr. See, while everyone was waiting for Mr. Goh to come to unlock the gate. When he finally came, he unlocked the gates one by one, followed by us rushing into place our bags into the wooden cage to be (un)safely locked up. We were then told that the day would start off with running.

Joon Kiet was rather pale from the sound of that, so he asked me how far we were going to run, in hope that I'd tell him something slack and comfortable. To his disapointment, I pointed to the Benjamin Sheares bridge and told him that that would only be our turning point (In other words, we had to do double the distance). Then Joseph came in and told about how he remembered the Sec 2 seniors of last year had to run all the way to the Esplanade and back.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Doesn't that make us the Sec 2 seniors this year?"

JKiet quickly started saying "No!" in great hopes that he was right tosay so, but to his dismay Joseph was right. No, we weren't going to run all the way to the 'Durians' themselves. We'd run all the way to the second half of the Ben Shearse bridge, but that's nevertheless painful. And coming from me, that means it really hurts.

Good thing, though, was that JKiet survived the run. Yay! But Samuel didn't. So much for 50% attendance, Mr. See would say. Poor guy. Once back, we all took off our shoes and exchanged them for our water bottles and seats. We then divided ourselves into the 'A', 'B' and 'C' Divisions, so as to make it easier for Mr. Goh to assign us our boats for today.

There was a shortage of "B' Div, while there was (as always) extras from the 'C' Div, so Nick Ng and Leon went over to their boat. And that leaves Eugene and me to be the front rowers. And front rowers always break water. ('Breaking water' refers to having the first strokes on water surfaces. You see, in a theory, people at the front of the boat paddle still water towards the back of the boat to pull the boat forward, and while the people at the back are suppose to do the same thing, they end up pulling 'moving' water since the front rowers have already pulled on it.)

'Ah, that's gonna hurt.' The common thought Eugene and I had.

But somehow, I think we also survived this one. I might have sped off at a few moments, but at least we survived. And we even beated the 'B' Division boat by 1.5 boatlengths! But after the races, Mr. Goh floated pass our boat (he was onboard the 'B' div boat) and told us not to feel to lucky, because we were actually using the lightest and fastest boat in Kallang at that time. Wow, an honour!

It was rather interesting seeing all three coaches standing at the front of the dragonboats while we were racing - Mr. Ismail on the 'C' div, Mr. Goh on the 'B' div and Mr. See on the 'A' div (of which Mr. See commented was the first obease team he had to train in his whole canoeing life) - all of them like a General Washington of their own, posing like frozen chess pieces stuck on the bows and shouting back to us mistakes we might end up commiting. Rather interesting, if you ask me.

Once we were done with the training, we had a short debrief on what and what not to bring to Kallang the next time we train here. After that, Mr. See went to unlock the cage, and we got the bags out for us to shower. I forgot to bring my plastic bag to store my wet clothes, so I wrapped my towel around the things, a mistkae I was soon to realise.

I made my way to the MRT station for a train to Dover, where I took a bus towards Joel's house for the History group meeting. But then I checked my watch and saw that I still had over an hour left before the meeting time, minusing the time it'll take to walk from te main road to wherever depts Joel's condo may be. So I decided to go and have lunch at KAP before moving back to the place.

JKitt called up a few times during the whole trip. Some calls about purchasing of guns, some about where to meet and even one about whether he could meet me at KAP for lunch too. After my meal, I headed straight back for Joel's place, of which I met JKitt at the junction between Clementi and the road which Joel's condominium is at on the other end.

We journeyed our way to the edge of the road, as far as it could take us, until we found the semi-curved buildings which housed Joel in one of its appartments. We called for Joel, of which he responded by meeting us down there at the bottom of the building to guide us back up to his house. At his house, we met up with his granny and bro before making our way to his room.

Then the first part of the meeting started. Games. Wait, games? Command and Conquer, yeah games. JKit and Joel were enjoying one game before we could start, and so while waiting Shil (who arrived about 15 minutes later) and I went to the off-pitch piano to play a few scores before we were called in by Joel to start the meeting.

When we were gathered, all I could ask was fort he effects of the software Joel would be using to edit the videos. Rather nice tricks int here, I must say. At least I now know that some of my scenes can be made possible. But automatically after that, we had nothing much else left to talk about, so Joel and JKit continued playing again for th erest of the 'meeting'.

I felt so bored. I mean, most of the time when I say, "I'm bored.", I ussually mean "I'm bored, but I still have imagination and creativity in my head to entertain me!" (so even when I look bored, I'm most of the time actually rather entertained), but this time, even my imagination didn't know what to play around with. I literally went mad in the boredom, so I won't go to detail on the horrifying things I did for the remaining hours. And Matt (Joel's bro) made things slightly worse.

When it was all over, and Shil, JKit and I walked our way out and towards the other side of the road (again), I was starting to regain my sanity bit by bit again, so I was breathing somewhat calmly again.

When I got back home, I quickly went to the Bible and prayed to the Lord for something that will regain my full sanity again (hey, after four hours of madness...)

And I had 2 Chronicles 20:17;

17You will not have to fight this battle. Just take up your positions and wait; you will see the LORD give you victory. People of Judah and Jerusalem, do not hesitate or be afraid. Go out to battle, and the LORD will be with you! "

That made me feel a lot better, and so I ran normally again for the rest of the day. Well, I guess that's about it now. God bless y'all!

Where'd They Go...

Freeish day today. Very freeish.

Starts with the drive with my Mom to school, of which we couldn't listen to Paster Prince sermons since she left the CDs behind in the house. So we resorted to the radio, where on Class 95 the song 'Fame' was playing. Rather cheesy intro, but the main tune/instrumentals were interesting (A little note: I don't just listen to the vocals in a song - my mind can end up dividing the song into different instruments, and song appreciation is thus made extremely flexible.)

Then in school, things, like I said, were freeish.

Maths was mostly free-period, until Mr. Tan came into class towards the ending of his period, of which he used to brief us that there was going to be a project for us to do during the holidays. It was another group project which involved us presenting on a certain question using about any form of media, whether games, books, powerpoint, acting and so on. He used the typical 'loop' system to divide us into groups, and also assigned a leader for each group.

Apparently, I was assigned (as the majority of the class would classify) 'the worst group I could ever get'. Basically, I was the leader of a gathering that included Kirby, Matt, Raam and WYang, me being the leader. One by one, some people in the class were telling me that they pitied my misfortune, and I told them back that it was all for the Glory of God. Matt then asked if that was the only thing I could say.

Well, God did say that He uses the very things that look useless in this world to perform His miracles and shame people who think that they're superior in life because of their own deeds (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Even I've seen how these verses work out. What makes this project any different?

After Mr. Tan made us tikam-tikam ('lucky-draw') our questions, he left the class with final instructions and went his way. I had Question 5, which I'll find out what it is once I get back home and search LMS.

While keeping our Maths stuff, I overheard Tim, Jai and some others talking behind me about the groups that we all recieved and how unfortunate some of them were to recieve so-and-so members because of so-and-so traits. But they all agreed on one thing - I was truely unfortunate. Joining them in their discussion, I watched as they marked down each of my members on how much work they'd contribute, or more like how much work they'd NOT contribute.

I then asked if I needed to push them hard through labour for projects like this, mimed out a whip and 'slashed' the edge of Jai's table. Tim responded that it would surely be necesary, 'although Juun Kit would love to be whipped by you.' Feeling that that sounded rather weird, I quickly 'dropped' the whip and wiped my hands on my shirt.

Language Arts B = Free Period (I took part of this time to photocopy my Report Card for Mr. See. Had a nice chat with the photocopying uncle about taxes in school fees! The rest was spent on watching PotC:Dead Man's Chest with Raam on his PC.)

Computer Science = Deleted

Oh, yah. ComSci was taken over today by a talk on Comic Drawing. We were told to bring our tablets to give our shots on the stuff (Tablet features are rather 'perfect' for comic drawing), but I had a flat battery so I had to miss out on all the fun. How sad.)

Then after the talk, we had Recess. Went down, bought the ussual two tao sar baos and sailed through the SAC until I found a nice colonial place to settle at, which today was apparently with the main mixed group of HPPS and a few ACPS. Toj was asking me why I always buy baos for Recess, and I was about to give him the lengthy explaination as follows:

"Well, I've discovered that baos are very convenient to bring around the place, so if I can't find anyone to sit with I could just keep walking around the SAC until I'm done and leave. Then it's also very suitable for time, since the servings are rather palm-sized and easy to predict on. After meals, I can also just dispose of the paperbag into any rubbish bin in my way to the exit(s) instead of having to walk all the way to the specific shop I bought my meal from and returning the cutlery before being able to make my leave. The bao shop is also next to the Oasis stall, so if that also acts as a reminder for me to estimate if I need to buy any drink(s) to refresh myself before moving on to eating with others. And lastly, Mr. See had already imposed a full Competition-Season Embargo, so I can't eat intensely oily stuff like the pratas you're eating, and also explains why I can't celebrate on Fried Food Day anymore. Besides, this is only gonna last for this term - Last term, my most frequent food item in this SAC would be the Doughnut, followed by the Chicken Burger, so I'm always changing my food preferences on a termly basis so I won't get too dull on anything here. Bon appetite."

But I wanted to spare him from the animosity, so I simply told him:

'Bao is the new Doughnut."

Then more and more people were joining the table, and the conversations were getting interesting, so I tried to eat slowly so I could stay longer. But my baos were slowly but surely fading away from my bag, so once they were finished, I decided to go and buy one last lotus bao and return just to extend my time.

So I left, bought the bao and went back to the table to catch the guys laughing about something, which Tim later insisted was 'not meant for Ben or you.' Stood at the edge of the table, and tried tosee where everyone was in any present conversation. But just then, I realised that the topic was now about computer games. And they were talking about the recent crazes which the class, even Jai and Ben, had had the pleasure in playing.

Something I couldn't relate to.

So I stood back and watched as they used terms I wasn't really familiar with.
Mig
Company (a.k.a. anyone else in the SAC)

Need not look at me
Just your Tablet PC
I won't seen the gaming me yet
Give me time I'll have to forget the rest

I got more in me
But not MvCC
I can't Forestmoon with my friends
But despite who I am

Remember my name
Lame
I'm gonna leave forever
I am not learning to try
Sigh
I feel alone altogether
People won't see me FarCry

Lame
I'm goin' before eleven
Fright up the class with a name
Lame
I'm gotta have endeavour
Need not remember my name

You lamer
You lamer
You lamer
You lamer
You lamer
You lamer
You lamer
You lamer

Tried to play the fight
But I don't know the right
You can shoot me: call me a flop
In a game, I'd stake all I've got to 'live'

Ever I'd be tough
Too much is not enough
Press the controler till it breaks
Ooh I know it is fakes

Lame
I'm gonna leave forever
I am not learning to try
Sigh
I feel alone altogether
People won't see me FarCry
Lame
I'm goin' before eleven
Fright up the class with a name
Lame
I've gotta have endeavour
Need not remember my name

(Slowly backs away from Table and SAC)

You lamer
You lamer
You lamer
You lamer
You lamer
You lamer
You lamer
You lamer

Once done with my bao, I quickly left the table and made my way to the classroom. Well, obviously I wouldn't be so emo as to really believe in the edited song as stated earlier, but the dissapointment that I have one disability theme which I can't use with the rest of the guys who I presently know dawns in time after time.

And it's those momments where I remind myself that there are other things besides computer gaming which I can communicate with others, which is proven by the fact that I'm highly regarded in the class as an exampliary gentleman. And besides, God's always there beside me, and at one stage or another He went through what I am going through now while He was made into a man. So I'm never actually... 'alone'.
(Bursts into classroom)

FAME!!!
I've got'da joy forever
I'm gonna learn how to fly
High
I may not be like a gamer
But they will see me alive
Fame
I'm gonna live with my Saviour
Give it a try without shame
Fame
I'm gonna strive forever
Baby remember my name

Remember
Remember
Remember
Remember
Remember
Remember
Remember
Remember

Remember my name
Raem!!!

Besides, I'm not THAT unknoledgeable about comm games. I play Rise of Nations, and I've got prior knowledge on GTA. That's good enough to satisfy the doubts.

Anyway, when I came back to the classroom, I found Mdm Kavita at the front of the class announcing to us that there was more homework to be added onto us through the holidays. For her case, we had to read up on the remaining abstracts in the Pink Booklet and do the questions provided in pointform onto flashcards so we could revise for the Oral Presentation which we're doing for exams next Term, just that she used a whole lot more sentences to convey this message than I just did. LA'B' was to be checked on LMS.

After her long and far-dragged announcement, she left the room, leaving behind a greatly distressed class screaming at the top of their voices behind closed doors that they hated the idea of a school break being taken advantage of by, well, homework.

I have to admit, being able to complete everything (P Sci Show-and-Tell, ISO Surveying and Compiling of Results, History Documentary Filming, Life Science Gene Therapy Research, Maths Holiday Assignment/Question Product Presentation, Language Arts 'A' Flashcards, Language Arts 'B' Written Assignments) in four quick weeks would be an adventure indeed. But personally speaking, I don't feel that much effected by the extra load.

The many things I'd want to do in my spare time wouldn't be enough to occupy four weeks, so Canoeing trainings/competitions and projects are somewhat a way to occupy the remaining space, even if it means killing a bit of time from the stuff I want to do in the first place. And besides, some of the projects are actually quite fun, so I'm not going to complain about those. The tough ones add a chalendge to the theme, so there's good twist to the whole relaxation period.

But nevertheless, I doubt my class would fully agree with me. They've all got different lifestyles altogether, and no two of them are identical, so I'll just stand back until the senario of someone actiually asks how I actually can smile at a crisis like this, of which I'd reply with the ussual, "Because God gave me the love and peace to go through this, and I know very well He'd never give me anything too much for me to handle." (a.k.a. "By the Grace of God!")

The class then went up to the lab for P Sci Practical, which we were remarked as late despite our explaination that Mdm Kavita held us back all because of her suppose-to-be-short announcement. We then continued practicing the use of pipettes and something-else-which-measures-accurate-volumes. Rather fun, and at least now I understood how the things work. But soon, we were dismissed from the cheap thrills of chemistry an left for a second Recess.

Which lasted through the rest of the day since there was no Chinese'B'/Chinese or ePOD. So during this time, I also helped Jaira photocopy his result slip since I was also on the way to the photocopying room (I realised that I also needed to give a copy of my results to Josh Renee (Is that how you spell it?)). He didn't have change with him, so he paid me with a guitar puck. I accepted the offer since after all the guitar in my house seems rather lonely and plucking with a puck seems easier than with your nails.

After school, I met the rest of the Canoers at he bus bay for Dragonboating again, this time I forgot to bring tow distinct gear for such - my 2l water bottle and my Dragonboating seat. And in the hot weather the day could provide, the water bottle seemed more precious. No one's allowed to share water bottles onboard, mind you. But as much as my uncertainty of my survival in the middle of a hot seawater bay without fresh water, I had to go for the thing anyway with only my God to trust that I'd not faint of dehydration.

And shockingly enough, I actually survived! Many rounds of sprints at Kallang in normal weather conditions and I actually didn't get headaches! Praise the Lord almighty!

After training, I joined the main bulk to go to Kallang MRT station and had a couple of trains to Orchard Road, where I did some research on the History project at Borders for a few minutes before meeting up with my Dad. In my opinion, General Percival looks, erm generally geeky. High waistline, high socks, crossed legs when standing. If JKit really wants this role, I guess he'll have to endure the looks. And Yamashita is actually chubby, nothing like Tim. I gues I really have to plan out the cast further now...

Once met up with both parents, we went back home and I finally had a good place to rest my head (and bottom) for the day. *sigh* The relaxing feeling of it all. Well, leave me to my relaxing, and God bless y'all...