LAST DAY OF OUR INTERNSHIP!!! Plus a FOUR HOURS of Lunch!!!

Whoaaa!! Today is our FINAL Last day of our internship and to celebrate such a delightful and wonderful moment, we were treated to a Fabulous and super delicious lunch by Elder Yi Hui. This meal was supposingly a treat by Elder Yi Hui during one of the days back then, but because we were busy therefore this meal was postponed all the way till today. Coincidently today is also our last day of internship so we might as well have this meal as our "Graduation" lunch, to celebrate our two months of interning..
Elder Yi Hui brought all of us to a American restaurant which is located in Cathay at Dhoby Ghaut called as "Billy Bomber", located in level one of Cathay.. We were asked to meet at 11am, at Cathay basement one. And from there we proceed to Billy Bomber at around 11.30am coz it only opens at that time. Then we starts ordering for our food while waiting for Yi Xin Chuan Dao as she went back to church to get something. So we browsed through the menu and Pr. Gideon said he will be ordering those expensive lunch set.. Obviously it's a extortion.. Lols. And in the end, he did order a set lunch of $25.90. Actually it's not only Gideon who ordered the expensive set lunch, Tim and me also ordered the same set as Gideon. Hahas lols. Ok it's not funny..... Ok seriously, it's just that our set lunch has different meat and combinations. Gideon and me ordered Sirloin steak and battered dory fish, with fries and vegs.. While Tim ordered pork ribs and battered dory fish, same with what Elder Yi Hui has ordered.. Porlin, Rachel and Li Ting ordered the cheaper sets which is only $15.90. Then when Yi Xin Chuan Dao arrived, she ordered the same as Li Ting. Oh yarh, forgot to mention what drinks we ordered.. Elder Yi Hui and Pr. Gideon ordered Root Beer with ice cream topping, Yi Xin Chuan Dao ordered a cup of tea or coffee i guess, Porlin and Liting ordered Coke while Rachel ordered sprite. Both Tim and me ordered the huge milkshake and it's Chocolate.. One of my favorite food in the world, "Chocolate"... The milkshake it's really good and u guys can see it in my photos i posted below. While waiting for the food to arrive, we starts to chat and talk about our life as a church interns. But first we need to say who our parents were, coz our parents perhaps were quite "famous" in church.. Then one by one we have to say what we enjoyed during our internship and what we dislike in our internship.. Obviously i dislike the most is doing homework.. I'm currently still owe Gideon hoeworks that were a few weeks back. Sorry lahh, coz when i starts reading something that contains many many words and that's when i will be feeling dizzy and sleepy and soon u know what will i be doing.... zzzzzzz....
Then we starts to say what do we hope to improve for the next internship.. I of course said that i hope that there will be lesser homework, better no homework!! Hahahas hopefully more hands on, practical stuff.. Then that's when Li Ting shocked me with what she said. She said that there's too little readings and homework.. I will faint man if there were more and more homework like what Li Ting said.. Then our food arrived, we prayed for our food and we starts enjoying our delicious food. When Yi Xin Chuan Dao finished, she left first coz she has a church meeting or appointment in the noon. And Gideon also left after Yi Xin Chuan Dao left not long ago. We chat and ate at the same time and time just flew away while we did not notice it. At around 1 plus, 2 Mei Ling Chuan Dao and her daughter, which is also Porlin's goddaughter- claimed by Porlin herself, came and join us in our lunch treat by Elder Yi Hui.. Mei Ling Chuan Dao then ordered the same set as me and Gideon while her daughter ordered a set of pasta. We ate all the way till 3pm and that was really crazy!! We sat till our butts hurts and after our lunch we can still order deserts. I was really very full coz my set was really very filling and the portion was quite big.. Surprisingly Tim can still eat a lot, he ordered for himself a plate of waffles with ice creams on top. And Elder Yi Hui helped us to order cheese fondue for all of us to share.. The cheese fondue was really delicious and appetizing, it's a pity my stomach can't store in more food.. Served with a small bowl of pipping-hot cheese, fries, onion rings and chips. I ate a few onion rings and fries due to my overwhelming fullness in my stomach. After we finished everything, it's already 3 plus and it's time to leave.. Elder Yi Hui went to pay the bills, while Mei Ling Chuan Dao finish her food, and we waiting to leave.. Then Elder Yi Hui stayed a while longer to chat with Mei Ling Chuan Dao and we went off coz Li Ting and Porlin got to prepare and practice back in church for they were to lead praise and worship in Faithfulness fellowship tomorrow, Rachel will be with them while Tim wants to do his homework in church lest being distracted at home.. Therefore they just went back to church and i went back home to date with my girlfriend, PIANO!!! Yeah!!..

Here's some photos of the delicious yet expensive lunch treat at Billy Bombers!!.....

Sorry still under construction.... Pls wait for the photos to be uploaded at night.. Thank you for ur cooperations. =)



~Stephen (Jia Xi)~

By Faith! 'God-sent' UmbrellaS!

Its me again! Look forward to the amazing story of the 雨伞的故事! Haha.. It was a not so normal day.. We were allowed to report late at 11am because of yesterday's late night.. Me, Pr. Gideon, Stephen were punctual BUT Tim was 10 minutes late while Rachel reached later at 11.30am..  Before devotion, Rachel was stalking people again (joking.. shes doing her face hunt) and telling us about how she was rushing until she fell onto the toilet floor and now has a ba luku on her knee.. Poor thing! Better be careful next time Rach! Tim was typing an email then he remembered that he lost his umbrella on the MRT and so he started looking through the SBS Lost and Found.. Pr. Gideon went to check the available rooms for Tuan Qi.. I was helping Yu Zhu Lao Shi to cut paper.. Stephen was doing his week 4 hw.. 

The paper i was cutting

Rachel face hunting, Tim searching for umbrella, Stephen doing hw

We then had devotion at 12 pm and we had special guests! Shou Juan Lao Shi and Yu Zhu Lao Shi joined us for the first time! haha.. The morning devotion was led by Stephen.. He was really nervous.. haha.. See..

Nervous Stephen

Rachel playing Noona Neomu Yeppo by SHINee before devotion

The morning devotion was about Faith! We read Hebrews 11:8-19... We should maintain strong faith like Abraham.. But we must remember that we should treat Abraham as an example and not trying to be him but we should follow Jesus as he is the one with the strongest faith.. Stephen also say that faith is not a momentary thing but a day in day out thing.. Then we shared about our experience of keeping faith.. Some of us (Pr. Gideon, Tim and Yu Zhu Lao Shi) talked about missionary trips and evangelism while others (Me, Stephen and Shou Juan Lao Shi) talked about their life story.. We heard how God really prepares our way for us even though we are unsure of our journey ahead.. Oh yar! We had to frequently switch from Channel 5 to Channel 8.. haha.. I hope you understand what i mean.. 

Group photo 1

Group photo 2

Rachel sharing

Me sharing

Yu Zhu Lao Shi sharing

Shou Juan Lao Shi sharing

Stephen sharing

After devotion, we had lunch at Waterloo Center (opp. Hotel Royal, beside Oxford Hotel), together with Liu Mu Shi.. We ate roast duck.. It was yum yum! Haha.. Oh and and.. Shou Juan Lao Shi and Yu Zhu Lao Shi started talking about the days when we interns were young.. Interesting stories! but i don't remember those stuffs happened! how? Maybe i got short-term memory.. haha.. So we chatted while we were eating.. Then here comes the 'God-sent' Umbrella story! We were about to go our separate ways after lunch when BROOM! the drizzle became huge rain! Best thing, we did not bring umbrellas! Only Liu Mu Shi, Yu Zhu Lao Shi and Shou Juan Lao Shi brought umbrellas.. Liu Mu Shi and Yu Zhu Lao Shi returned to office first while Pr. Gideon and Shou Juan Lao Shi went to buy New Year Cards and the interns excluding me went to library to find info for the report Zhang Mu Shi asked us to do while i went to buy fancy paper for my brochure for newcomers before joining the rest at the library.. So we had to share one umbrella among 6 of us.. And then guess what! When Tim, Stephen and Shou Juan Lao Shi shared an umbrella to Grace Baptist Church, they found an umbrella on the ground (Liu Mu Shi actually predicted this you know!).. The best is yet to come! The rest of us got to the church and found out that the umbrella belonged to a Chuan Dao there who is Shou Juan Lao Shi's friend.. She actually offered to lend us the church's umbrellas! Isn't that totally 'God-sent' Umbrellas?! Haha.. It was so cool.. We walked out to the drizzle from our church to Bras Plaza by faith (actually we didn't think of bringing umbrellas.. haha) and God sent us umbrellas to go do our errands! PRAISE THE LORD! YAY! haha.. 

Heres National Library! Isn't it cool!

After we got back to church, we started to write on the New Year Cards Pr. Gideon bought... Harry and Seth joined us too.. Haha.. People! Guess who wrote your cards! We had a fun time trying to write and learn chinese at the same time.. lolz.. Some mistakes really made us have a good laugh.. Plus i wrote the New Year Card to myself.. Isn't that hilarous.. AND i destroyed my own card with 2 wrong words! haha.. Erm for the rest of the cards.. I cannot be sure that all the words are written correctly.. haha sorry paiseh! Human error so forgive us! haha.. Finally we were done..

Pr. Gideon being naughty! before we started writing the cards

One of the cards plus the template on the board

Everyone busy with the New year cards

Harry the Chopper and Name Writer

Seth the Name Writer and Paster

Rachel the Card Writer

Pr. Gideon the Card Writer

Now we are going for dinner and later Dao Gao Hui so BYE!
~Porlin

The day our legs gave way!

GAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR! 

Here we are, back in our SUPER MEGA SWEET LITTLE OFFICE! Home SWEET home!!!!:DDDDD

Guess what we did for today???

WE

WALKED

THE

WHOLE

OF

DHOBY GHAUT

&

CITY HALL 

AREA!!

RIGHT AFTER LUNCH! 

It was a horrible experience! We were all already so drowsy after the heavy lunch at pizza hut! (Oh yes this week was the BEST FOOD WEEK EVER) And after the super long walk, we are now all so so so tired and sleepy!

Our initial aim after lunch at Plaza Singapura was to go over to Peace Centre to find blue coloured labels to stick over the newcomers' welcome gift bag. WAKAKAKA, we ended up stopping over many other areas to attempt to buy other things for our other assignments! Once we stopped over at an ulu shop selling ALL sorts of Chinese New Year decorations to find electronic firecrackers for 刘牧师, and ended up buying little party poppers for the visual (and a little of the sound) effect > o < 

Still we could not find the blue labels, so we ended up walking all the way from Peace Centre to Bras Besar Complex. After what seemed like eternity, we STILL could not find anything that even RESEMBLES the blue labels that we want! SO SAD, it was an utterly failed mission.

The moment we stepped back into the office and 基甸传道 told 寿娟&玉珠老师about our problem, they only took 15mins to find an alternative! They found pretty silver coloured labels that looks very good on the gift bags! Wonderful! Now we just left with a super stunned 基甸传道 who kept grabbing his hair at the fact that he spent the whole afternoon with no avail and they just spent 15 minutes!!

Ok let's stop the verbal diarrhoea on this! Haha!

Today morning, Timothy and Porlin came for work wearing the same colour - Li Ting's favourite colour - ORANGE!  Haha colour telepathy! Then we had devotions led by Timothy, who decided to start by singing a SUPER high pitched song!! Crazy boy hahaha. Today he shared with us the importance of unity. Using Philippians 2:1-5, he shared the need to imitate Christ's humility and consider others better/ more significant than yourself. What cheem stuff hahahaha!

Haha! The 3 bikerTEERS (Musketeers) - Harry, Joel and Seth - have just arrived for the weekly Bible study with 基甸传道! Here are some pictures!:

Turning a bit koo koo after the long afternoon walk

Falling...

Asleep! Tsk tsk!

Hardworking people!

Placing the finishing touches to the CNY cards for our 长老s

Look at the difference in their energy levels! (Stephen fortunately did not join us for the crazy walk)

Hmm, what's this?

Faces of our youth members! :D (My Face Hunting assignment!)

The ever sleepy tim! TIMBERRR, TIM!!

His last burst of energy to act cute!

ZZZZzzzzzz

Imitating Pr Gideon's sleepy look!

Harry's $50 通风 cap!

Harry's gift for us - Chocolates from Candy Empire! :D

Harry! Make this your new facebook profile picture!

Haha, so i'm typing this post while all the rest are having bible study now! Gotta continue with my FACE HUNTING!

BYEBYE! AH MY LAST BLOG POST FOR THIS INTERNSHIP!!!! D: TILL WE MEET AGAIN!

~Rachel

Not gone....YET

I'm not gone yet! But this shall be my last post!

I forgot photos too. Ah well. Bear with it.

Today, Rachel, Preacher Gideon and Jia Xi were all late. So we didn't have morning devotions until around....10am. Plus. Rachel led devotions today, and we started with the song 除你以外。Then after that, Rachel led us through Genesis 8:1-11, which was the passage about Noah sending the birds out.
"But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took  the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth."

Rachel started by telling us that this is like the end of our journey. Just as the flood is about to be over, our intern-ship journey is about to be over. Yes, the pun was intended. Anyway, Rachel then explained to us that just like how the dove returned to Noah, its master, we will also return to God. What was interesting about how the dove returned was that it flew directly back to Noah, and didn't just perch on top of the ark. For us, that means that we should return to God and not just stand nearby. If not, it would be like standing outside the tabernacle even though the curtain has already been torn.
Another thing she said was that the land was like our goals and satisfaction. When the dove returned without nothing, it is like us not finding satisfaction in earthly possession. And that is why we must always look towards God.

The third thing Rachel mentioned was about how the dove presented Noah with the freshly plucked olive leaf. This was like us presenting something good to God. Rachel gave these examples for the good things that we can present to God - by being thankful and grateful to Him for his mercy, by loving others, by showing kindness to others. And then she presented the same rhetorical question to us.

Then Preacher Gideon talked about how using narratives as examples for our own lives is a good thing, but we shouldn't use it too much. Because sometimes we go too far. And then he also talked a little about the differences between reformed Baptists and Presbyterians. And the last thing he said was about how it was amazing to see the similarities between creation and this! Because in Genesis 1:2, it says "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." See the similarities? Haha.

And that was for devotions. Thank you Rachel!

After that, we went back to do our own stuff. Porlin and I went to practise for fellowship's "worship" (it's not actually called worship, but we don't know what else to call it), while the rest went up to do whatever they needed to do. Then when we went up, w continued to do our own things. Porlin went to do the powerpoint slides, Rachel was attempting to finish up her noticeboard thing, Jia Xi, Timothy and I were all doing homework. But homework for different weeks.

Then we had lunch! Yu Zhu Lao Shi and Shou Juan Lao Shi treated us to KFC delivery because it was my last day here! So we all ate chicken, and this time we made sure hat no one ate more than he was allowed to. Yup. And then we talked about a lot of funny things which shall not be mentioned here either.
After that, we continued doing our own stuff and I also went to memorise 20 questions from the Shorter Catechism because of the exit interview. Then after my exit interview was over, Porlin, Rachel and I went down to practise again. And then Timothy came down to inform us that bible study was cancelled because Seth and Harry couldn't make it. Yup. So Preacher Gideon and Timothy left at around 4.30pm.
Now, Porlin is changing all the fan ti zi into jian ti zi. And she has just finished. And has decided to start memorising the Shorter Catechism too. Rachel is still downstairs glue-ing photos. Jia Xi is still doing homework, and I'm here (obviously....). And I'll have to wait until 7 for adult choir....

OK THEN! This is my final day and my final post as an intern. =) Tomorrow, a new day begins.

-Li Ting

Sayounara,Li Ting

Hahahaha, my goodness after i typed the title i realize how emo it sounds! But it's the second last day that Li Ting is working here, because she has to report to school this thursday after the release of her posting tommorrow! So we're treating her (or rather we're taking money from all the accumulated fines haha) to dinner today! =D Bye! We'll miss you!! *inserts dramatic farewell scene,sob sniff sniffle* ;(

Hahaha ok drama aside, today everyone was nearly on time! Wow! I can barely remember the last time we did that... So we went down, and Li Ting led us through the song 将一声交给你 first, followed by going through 2 Timothy 4:1-8, where verses 1-5 were about a charge, a call to keep serving and doing good works in the name of the Lord, verses 6-8 are about persevering on till the end and completing the race that was set before us when we first believed. She split this passage into the two chunks as mentioned above.

For verses 1-5, we discussed what it means to be ready in season, and out of season, which means that irregardless of whether the timing is conviennient or not, we still have to continue edifying, counseling, and teaching. A modern day context would be in season being Christmas and Easter, while out of season would be exam periods and the like. We continued to go through another question, whether we had ever felt like not serving or not fulfilling our ministry at all. Of course we had! and so everyone took their turns to share about the times that they were called to serve, but didn't do so, or didn't want to because of other commitments.
For verses 6-8 there wasn't much discussion cause the passage was more of a definitive statement rather than an open-ended which could generate much talk. But Li Ting asked an interesting, albeit loaded, question, whether we would be ready to say that if we fought the good fight, if we were to die right now? Her point was to make us think about the race of faith, about the charge Paul gave to Timothy in his last days, that we would continue to run towards the goal. Li Ting also made another interesting point, that we were not charged to WIN, but to COMPLETE, and i think that is a very important distinction to make because at the end of the day, while we all receive a crown signifying a winner, this crown is only possible because of God's grace, and so this ties back in to the fact that it is by grace alone and not works that we are called to this faith. So yep, that's it for devotion, thanks Li Ting! This would be your last time leading right heh ><

After that, we went down to attend jiao mu meeting, shou juan lao shi bought kueh lapis cakes for us and the rest of the jiao mus! Thank you! =D as usual there were quite a lot of things to talk about regarding our church, and we interns were kinda blur regarding those issues haha. Half an hour to 45 mins later, we went back up to do our own stuff, me, Jia Xi, and Rachel were doing homework, Li Ting helping us do the stats thing, and Porlin was doing the brochure for newcomers!

 We ordered pizza for lunch! Cause it was raining haha, and we didn't feel like going out, plus there's that novel experience of ordering food! -.- Hawaiian and cheezy sausage ftw!

 Haha group zipai shot!

So after lunch, i went out to buy a packet of chicken rice for Rachel! Cause i ate an extra piece that she was supposed to have oooooooooops >< but after that we continued our work Work work work, until 6 plus, and we went for farewell dinner! Held at Chanpon in honour of Li Ting =D You've never heard of the place before right? Don't worry,neither have I! xD

 This was taken when we were bored and waiting for food, chopsticks triple threat!

                                                                      Share the love!

Dynamite!

 Me trying to act cute and prove that i can hold chopsticks well =D

Of course, which meal would be complete without a hearty serving of chatter (gossip)! And so after eating we (or rather the girls) continued talking, over non-stop cups of tea, about all sorts of things that would um, put lian he wan bao out of business if they were ever leaked! So don't ask me anything hahahaha xD

Anw so yup, we chatted until 9 plus, and went home for the next day!

-Tim.

Saturday (Beach Evangelism)

Hahas today is the day we go out to public for real life evangelism experience.. We can finally apply what we've learnt on the previous saturday which is a evangelism training. Yup. We used the Gospel tracks that was bought on the wednesday at SKS for this beach evangelism at East Coast. We distributed the tracks to people we met and we try our best to spread the Gospel to them. We were expected to meet at 10.15am in the morning and there will be a catered bus to fetch us to East Coast.
We had debrief and methods taught to us regarding the evangelism today. Then we were spilted into groups of two's to three's. We were instructed that boys can only spread to guys and girls to girls.. Lastly, Gideon led us in a prayer and we head off towards East Coast. When we reached there, we were given a bag of tracks to every groups. Then we went off for evangelism.. I was very nervous and don't know how should i approach the people there. I was teamed up with Nathaniel and a guy called Bryan. The three of us went around trying to approach them but we lack of courage so we often missed our "Targets", sianz... We walked and walked. Finally, Nat saw this elderly man sitting by the beach and he told me if i can speak Chinese fluently. I must admit that my chinese is definitely better than my english, so we went up to him and approach him. The elderly man listened to us attentively and we introduced ourselves to him first. Then we offered him a track and he accepted it. Hopefully he can really read it and to accept Christ as his personal savior. After which, we went to several passerby and approached them to spread the Gospel. That's when Nat suggested that we must reached a target before we go for lunch. We were supposed to approach ten of the public as our targets. Then we went around trying to engage in people that we saw and when we did not realize where we're walking, we blindly walked towards Macdonald and we just went in for lunch. After our lunch, we continued our mission, giving tracks and walking back to our meeting area. We were asked to return back to a pavillion where we started spreading the Gospel. So after our lunchtime, our evangelism is coming to an end. Therefore we decided that we slowly head back to the pavillion. When we reached back to the pavillion, we take a rest before the conclusion briefing starts. Some of us take a rest at the bench while some of us play monkey with a volleyball. Then finally in the end we had a sharing session and we try to voice out our opinion for today's beach evangelism. We told them our problems and difficulties faced when we approach the public. In the end we do a "pop-corn" style praying, whoever wants to pray can pray after the one before him finished praying. It's a very good learning experience to me personally, and i felt that today's event greatly help me to boost my courage to really benefit me in my evangelism in the future. And i'm sure today's event also helped all of us to know that this is how a evangelism and spreading the Gospel feels like. U will surely feel great if someone that you spread to eventually accepted Christ. That feeling is unable to describe through words. Praise the Lord!!!

Here are some photos about the Beach Evangelism at East Coast. Taken and contributed by Nathaniel.. Thanks Nat and for taking our "Natural" photos.. =)

                            

                               
                                   The "Ambulance Bike"- purposely meant to reach a place asap



      
                                                     Porlin looking stunned at the camera....




      
                                                               Me alone emoing posing....



      
                                                               A group of tiring youths...



      
                                   One of the Gospel tracks - "Where can you find True Love"



       
                                             The Gospel track with our church address on it....



      
                                          The comic type of a Gospel track.. Very creative.



      
                                          A bunch of four shy girls refusing to look at the camera..
                                          *Notice: guess who is the girl at the most right is?  "Liting"


                                
                                                                        Hey hello Tim...


       
                                                                 Me, Tim, and Sek Zen..



                              
                                                      Pr. Gideon having fun with the bike...

Hope u guys are enjoying watching the very "Natural" photos... Hahas =)

~Stephen (Jiaxi)~