My Series of Fortunate Events

A lot have been happening in the past two weeks….whooh! :) I went back to Kuching (of course!), on Friday for the Raya holidays!

.

I got a chance to visit my secondary school, SMB St. Teresa. I spent 5 years of my life there. The place has changed so much! So many wonderful memories…sigh. Met with my Chemistry teacher, Pn. Foo, as well! It’s been 10 years since I left high school…waaah.

On Saturday, I attended Bishop Aeries’s consecration service & celebration dinner with my family. The dinner was a pretty grand one with various cultural performances and the 6.45am choir also preformed several songs…very impressive! Revd. Roannie entertained us with some songs and Jerry Kamit performed as well!. Such talent!

It was indeed a blessed & memorable day! I also met my Sunday school teacher, Uncle William at the dinner reception! Wow…it really does bring back lots of memories. Makes me wonder where my Sunday school friends are now….

The next day, I stuffed myself to the max during Raya visiting. Haha…don’t dare to step on the weighing machine dah. I went out lepaking with my friends & mi familia too. Got to see my little cuzzies play sand art…haha (I think it’s the new craze for little kids. Heck even grown ups play ‘em). Found out a new hang out place called BarSaga. Pretty cool! It was indeed a great time…and always NOT enough time. I didn’t get to do one thing, though. I actually planned to watch a movie at the new MBO cinema at Spring. But tak sempat…as usual. Haiya…

By Wednesday, I’m back in Miri. Work starts loading on my table. (am procrastinating quite a bit already…hehe.) And then there’s the AYC AGM which was on Sunday. The LLC’s weekly challenge's due as well. Whooh, so much things to do! Well, am glad I managed & went through the week in one piece, haha.

On Friday, the youths…Vic, Elsa, Tim, Lydia, Shannen & myself joined Revd Alfred, SD Julius, SD Jackson & the MWF to Sg. Liam longhouse. There’s a service at the longhouse’s chapel that night which was celebrated by Revd. Alfred. It started off with a Praise & Worship session and then we’re divided into groups. Elsa, Vic, Shannen, Lydia & I handled the youth group. Our mission was to reach out to them. Revd Alfred mentioned to us that the youths there are being challenged with problems as such as drinking, gambling & smoking. We even saw some of the boys smoking at the tanju just before we started off our session!
The session was at the ruai of the longhouse. We started with an ice-breaking game. They enjoyed themselves! However, we were a bit concerned with the decibel level going a lil’ too high that it might disturb the longhouse folks…oops. The sharing session was on how to prepare for exams. They were proactive… they asked questions & responded to ours as well.

We took turn sharing & I struggled with my ‘jako Iban’..oops! as I’ve never done any sharing in Iban before and found myself searching for words or rather trying to translate my words in the midst of my sharing….haha. Nama meh penyadi… :p And lastly, before we bersurai, we prayed for them & ended the session by encouraging them & challenging them to improve themselves and do their best. After the service, we had supper at one of the longhouse folk’s bilik. They served very yummy local dishes and also durians! Haha! But, am not a fan of durians. So I just took photos of ‘em instead.

.

The next day, Saturday, was another busy day…especially in preparing things for the AGM and also Family Service. (It’s the youths turn to lead in Praise & Worship). I was up & running since morning….helping out the Teenz practicing for AGM’s praise & worship session, practicing for the Family Service & then choir practice for the Miri Xmas parade. Apuu..ka luput ku..haha. I ended the day with Maggie at Chilipeppers. A nice time chillin’, releasing the stresssss & laughing out loud…literally!

.
Come Sunday, we had a Family service in the morning, which is held every 4th Sunday of the month. And in the afternoon was the AYC’s AGM. We’re very impressed with the number of youths attending this year. For the past several years, we have never exceeded 40. This year, in fact 50 youths attended! Praise God! All the various youth ministries handed in their reports, which was verry good indeed. Aiseh. We also distributed our new keychains in conjunction with AYC’s 40th Anniversary….designed by Mr. Chairman himself. The meeting went smoothly & we’re encouraged by words of wisdom from Ven. Solomon Cheong, Bro. Tommy (our advisor) and Bro. Bajeng (Mr. Chariman).

.

Kudos to the Praise & Worship team..Zara, Lydia, Cyril & Shannen for the great effort. It was their first time & I could see that they’re nervous but they are very brave indeed to take up the challenge. The guitarists were Daniel, Bartholomew & Melvin. Very proud of them!

.

.

After the meeting, we had some refreshments & fellowship, as usual…di bawah pokok. :) By 5.30pm it’s time to pack up & go home.

Finally! I can let out a bigggg sigh of relief & thank God for His endless blessings & guidance. :D

Two weddings and some Raya cards

The past week or so I was crafty busy making two wedding cards ordered by my friend and ex-colleague, Marianne. One was for her childhood friend who got registered on 09.09.09 and another one for her relative in Canada (if am not mistaken). Here they are... And I also found time to make some Raya cards for my colleagues & friend. I try to make them verrry simple. I made use of the duit raya packets. They're so adorable. I just can't resist. Hehehee. The best thing about this, is that, it didn't take up much time to do! :) The cards all came together with a cake each, which Charles, my colleague, and I bought for them. Didn't get to take their picture with the cakes though...haha.

My Raya creations:

Wishing all my Muslim friends Selamat Hari Raya 2009! Happy & blessed weekend everyone! :)

p/s I'm several hours away to going back to home sweet home Kuching...yaaay! *feelin' goood*

Some like it HOT!

Here it is…..a card I made, specially requested by my friend, Jiahang, for our old buddy (haha), Ray’s birthday! He wanted the card to be naughty or in his terms “kinky”(?!). (Boys will be boys...haih) Hahaha!

I took the challenge. And challenge indeed it was. I have no idea how would this card turn out to be! I’m so used to making cards with pretty stuffs like flowers, ribbons, cute lil’ buttons and such… and now I have to switch mode! Akai. Well, after some brainstorming sessions…I “stormed” out a ‘HOT’ card. Berasap-asap palak pikir...
Well, I like the fire I made, though...hehe. It was free hand…no templates whatsoever. :) I roughed the edges of the card a bit, to give it more texture (can't really see it from the picture, though).

A tough one but I’m well pleased with it! :D Phewh!

Just crafts

Here are some of my crafty updates!

I decorated a photo frame for my mum as her birthday gift. Her birthday falls on 10th August. Instead of putting a photo in it, I typed out a poem for her. Adorned with flowers, buttons, ribbons and a strand of pink pearls. Simply lovely. :) And oh, she loved it!

Next is LLC's challenge to make a Hari Raya card...since Raya is just around the corner...one more week...another holiday..yay yay! I made an untypical (is there such word?) Raya card. Well, the only typical thing about this card is that it's grrrr...een in colour... I think I'll make some more & give 'em to my friends & colleagues. :)

Last week, LLC's challenge was to make a card for kids, given by Sue! I guess, knowing that hers is on the way, it gave her that inspiration for the challenge...hehe! I can't wait! :D Two words that came to my mind when Sue told me about the challenge was 'colourful' & 'fun'! So I came up with a beary colourful & beary fun one. Haha! ;p This is it....

That's all from me! Happy weekend all! ;)

Merdeka!

This year, I celebrated Merdeka with my family. We went to Johor Bahru, where my brother is currently studying. It has been 3 years since I last stepped foot in JB. This place used to be where I studied too. Now, my lil bro is taking over my place. I visited JB in 2006, two years after I graduated, to meet up with some friends. Such a memorable place, where I spent 4 years of my life!

As usual, just like any family trip, we spent our time shopping, sightseeing and most of all….eating! And of all the days, my dad kena gout! I guess it’s because of all the eating sessions we had! Thank God, he’s back on his feet after taking ubat.

On Saturday afternoon, we went for a youth service held by the City Harvest Church. This is where my bro, Vin worships and he is involved with the music ministry, playing the bass. I was a bit anxious on how my parents would respond to the style of worship as they are very much used to the traditional way of worshiping…hymns and all. So, it’s something that I would like to see…heehee. And to my surprise, they were clapping away & trying their best to catch up with the songs…hehe...lagu rancak bah. The sermon, was preached by Pastor Chee Kiang from Singapore. He’s very fashionable…he wears this leather jacket, jeans and has spiky hair. But underneath all that rocker outlook that he portrays, his voice is gentle and has that affectionate tone. J During Holy Communion, we were given unleavened bread. Very interesting indeed...my first time eating unleavened bread! They’re somewhat like those Jacob’s crackers, you know!

And in commemoration of the coming Merdeka Day….we sang the Merdeka song while waving our lil’ Malaysian flags. Patriotism’s in the air.

After the service, we got to know some of Vin’s friends. One of them, Berlina, turned out to be related to us, which we found out after a bit of “bertusut” session that we had! She is from the Kadazan side of our family. Small world indeed!

On Sunday, Vin & I went to Singapore. My main mission to Singapore was to go to this craft shop, Made with Love & oh… also to meet up with my friend, Prakash. Hehe. Well, I came across the blog of this craft store and was mesmerized by the pictures of the store. They have so much crafts stuffs sold there and it was mentioned in their blog, that it’s the biggest craft store in South East Asia! So I imagined that it would be verrry big. Waaaah…! But………when we reached the store….it was not as big as I imagined that it would. Oh well… But I did have fun browsing through the craft stuffs & got some stuff for myself & Sue. I couldn’t help but multiply 2.4 to all the prices of the things. Vin & Prakash became my calculator…haha! Poor boys....they had to wait quite sometime for me to be done in that store. Hahah…!

After JB & Singapore, I spent a night at Kuching…Home sweet home! And after that it’s back to Miri & work work work…bluaargh.. :p However, am just glad that I had the time to “Merdeka”, literally (haha) from my daily routine…just unwind & spend time with my family. A very good breather for me, indeed!

Niah Getaway

Finally! I'm able to do some updates. I'm less busy today and managed to get my posts done.

Two weekends ago, I went for a weekend getaway at Niah National Park. It was an event organised by ADYC, which they called Partners' Weekend. And no, I did not spend a weekend in some gua looking for a potential partner, hahaha! It was a weekend for youth leaders to gather, share, be trained & be equipped to 'Transform our land in One generation'. We started our journey on Saturday morning. Janet & Bajeng carpooled with me. I was a bit worried about the condition of the tyres of my car...one of the tyres pancet the day before...but got it quickly done..And thank God, we arrived safe & sound.

Our first session started off with a walk into the caves. How awesome is that! The last time I went into the caves was back in 2005 with my colleagues..a week after I arrived in Miri. But it was raining so badly then & we had a tough time walking in the caves as it was very very sliperry. I slipped once! Sakit aa! So, this time the weather looks very fine and I was hoping that it would turn out to be better than my previous trip. :)

So, off we went. A whole 40+ of us! We have to cross the river by boat and then take a walk through the jungle before reaching the entrance to the caves. It was really fun! On the way there, I got a chance to talk to Ben, the ADYC chairman. The whole time walking, we shared stories...he shared on his printing business (which was very inspiring) and I shared on my teeny crafty business (a lil bud compared to Ben's flourishing business).

After walking for about...err...couldn't remember..coz was so engrossed with the conversation..haha...we finally reached the cave. So we prepared our torch lights and some put on their gloves(!) before we enter into the daaark. It did came across my mind, that this might be a good place to do hand mime with glow in the dark gloves! Hahah! As we entered the cave, it gave me a concoction of feelings....I was excited but then there's this tinge of fear & some sort of "misteri nusantara" feeling going on, heheh...the darkness can be a lil intimidating sometimes. But as I walk, I was more mesmerized with the formation of the cave ceilings and walls, than the looming darkness. Kinda make you stand in awe! I couldn't really describe it. You gotta see it for yourself.

After exploring the cave, we made our way back. The journey back got more interesting....haha...for Bajeng & I, that is. Well, Bajeng kinda slowed down after coming out of the cave..yup, he's "out of gas" even after we made a pit stop at the stalls for drinks. I waited with him, not wanting him to be left behind all alone. Kesian bah... After the pit stop, we continued walking (waaay behind everyone else) and all of a sudden his kaki began to have cramps! And he had to make stops after every few metres as it hurts quite bad. I, took the opportunity to freeze the moment and took a couple snaps of our surroundings. I snapped some rather interesting shots. So baad kan...there was Bajeng, in pain and all...while I was happily snapping away, hehe. It's nothing much I can do. I couldn't possibly carry him! He's more than twice my weight and size! Pengsan aku. :p

After a rather "loooong" walk...we're a few metres from the jetty. Finally! And not before Bajeng's foot suddenly kena cramp again....and this one's the worst. I could see it from the way he cringed. Akai.. Well, we waited for quite sometime, til his cramps lessen and finally, we managed to reach the jetty and there was Janet anxiously waiting for us! Phewh!

The next few days of the event was very encouraging & inspiring...eventhough we experienced butt pains from sitting on the papan floor for too long and in addition to muscle pains on our legs from the cave "walk", hehe. Well we had sessions conducted by Revd. Andy Shie from St. Andrew's, BSB, Bro. Ben and Bro. Stephen Wong. We touch on topics of leadership, taking care of your "sheeps" and Bro. Wisco from Region 5 shared on their activities and how they manage their ministries, as their region has been growing a lot for the past years. We also had games, which later we could do with our own youths.

The weekend flew too fast and without realising, it was time for it to come to an end & for us to head off home. It indeed was a fruitful weekend and I got to know more youths from various regions as well as those whom you already knew, you got a chance to know them better.

I trully think that it's also a good way to start connecting with each other....to share on materials & informations for our youths. We exchanged e-mails and numbers before we parted. I don't know when will we see each other again, but I'm most sure we will. Because we're in this together.. we're partnering with each other and most importantly God...to transform our land.

This is just the beginning of the journey... :)

Gettin' stitched!

Hey there! I know I've not been updating for the past week or so..oopsy. I've been away for most of it. And it's been such an eventful week...i don't quite know where to start (gasp!), haha! I guess I'll share about the cards I made recently. One of them is LLC's weekly challenge. Well, this time round, Sue & I agreed to do a card with stitches. Yup, you heard me right! We embraced our stitching skills (well, i think mine kinda berkarat already, hehe) & took up the challenge! Here's mine:

The card is an encouragement card, with the verse taken from Jeremiah 29:11. The inspiration came from the SOMA seminar that I attended recently. During one of the sessions, we were asked to go in pairs & pray for each other. I paired up with Sue. We chose the verse from Jeremiah to focus on during our prayer. This verse has always been a "heart lifter" for me especially on days when it seems so dark & gloomy. It's a great reminder, indeed!

I hope you can see the swirly stitch ;)

I've decided to stitch a swirl on the upper right of the card. I didn't know it was that tough to stitch on paper. It was definately harder than I thought. You really have to be careful & gentle so as not to scrunched up the card...which will only lead to a total disaster! Hehe. Nonetheless, I had fun!

The next card I did was an order from Maggie. She wanted a birthday card for her daddy a.k.a Uncle Hurbert, who turned 57 on 30th August 2009! (did I get the date right, Maggie?) So here it is:

It's one of my favourite creations because of the new thing I've learned....making a folded t-shirt! I found a video on it on youtube & I really liked doing it. Plus it's very cute! Heheh. Here's some close ups...

Well, I guess that's my update for the moment. I would really like to update more, but will find time for that later. Gotta go and look at houses & such for now, haha! (was wishing it would rain so that I wouldn't have to go out, heehee, but it seems that it's NOT happening anytime soon).
Til then, happy peeking! :)