My Second Cell Group Meeting

Today is Calvin's last cell group meeting before he returns to Singapore. The rest of us met up earlier to practise singing the two songs we intended to sing at the end of cell group.

It is also Calvin's turn to lead the ice-breaker today. He told each of us to think of something unbelievable but true incident, which had happened to them or which they know to be true. An example is that the youngest parents in the world are 8 & 9 years old, from China. As each person relates his/her story, the rest will give the story a score. The person who tells the most unbelievable story will get a chocolate bar. At the end of the ice-breaker, Calvin ended off with a story:

There is this lecturer in the US, who invites friends, colleagues, students, to his place every month to tell them about God. He starts off by telling about how God creates the world and us, how He sent his only son to die on the cross for us. All we have to do, is only to believe, and accept Jesus as your saviour. At the end of this, a listener asked, "Is it really that simple, that we only have to believe? How can there be such a good deal?"

Calvin continues saying, "It seems unbelievable that we only have to believe, in order to be saved... Yet, it is also unbelievable that there are so many people who find this simple act of believing to be so difficult..."

Anyway, after the ice-breaker, Vincent (the cell leader), started going through the past lessons. Since we want God to lead us in our lives, then, what is God's purpose for us? God creates us so that we can worship him (this worship part makes him sound a bit egoistical... anyone has any idea what's it's supposed to be?), have fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism.

He continues talking about ministry - to serve, either in community services, in church ministries, or in everyday life. He said that God creates us to serve, saved us to serve, calls us to serve and commands us to serve.

At this point, I was starting to feel a little apprehensive... If, in one week, we go for service, cell group, and ministry, that is like 3 days a week for church stuff... Where would anyone still have time for other things, like family, friends, so on... Then, I remembered the talk of a balanced life... "God will take care of whatever you have said NO to..."

Sometimes I am not sure if my attending cell group is because
1) I want to find out more, I want to find out what it is like...
2) I sense a need to accept Christ...
3) I need to make more friends and socialise more...
4) I can afford the time to attend...

I wonder what it will be like when I returned to Singapore...

Whatever... I'll worry about it when I am back...

A nice song we sang just now: Lord I Offer My Life

All that I am, all that I have
I lay them down before you, O Lord
All my regrets, all my acclaims
The joy and the pain
I'm making them yours

Lord I offer my life to You
Everything I've been through
use it for your glory
Lord I offer my days to You
Lifting my praise to You
As a living sacrifice
Lord I offer You my Life

Things in the past, things yet unseen
Wishes and dreams that are yet to come true
All of my hopes, all of my plans
My heart and my hands are lifted to
You

Think sleeping on a lop-sided bed has finally taken its toll on me... Woke up with a ache in my side this morning...
Anyway, my IQ test results are as follows: Liting, you are a Visual Mathematician.
This means you are gifted at spotting patterns. This and your overall high intelligence make you good at understanding the big picture. IQ score: 136.
So now, it's an established fact that everyone in my house has IQ higher than 130.
Went for a much needed swim yesterday... Had lunch with Andrew and Ruth at Nandos. Was my second time eating there. First time was on the first day I arrived and I had felt that the food was very expensive... The food definitely tastes much better when I stop thinking about the price.
Went to Audrey's flat to have dinner. She is really quite a good cook. Seems like most people cook better than me. Oh well, whatever... practice makes perfect... Had quite a productive day as well, though I had only studied from 4 to 5.30 and 6 to 7. Have finished studying MATH2210, hope I still remembers everything next week...

Called home. Glad that the earthquake didn't affect my family at all.
Revision week. Didn't study much today. Feels strange that everyone is at home most of the time. Had a good chit-chat session with housemates over dinner...
Going to sleep soon, so that can wake up early to study tomorrow.

A Balance Life
Ruth invited me to attend a talk "A Balance Life" at the University Chaplaincy with her today. The talk is given by Wee Leong, a hand surgeon, Singaporean.

I think that Wee Leong is really a great speaker. Anyway, summary of the talk:

Jesus is the most balanced person. He grew in wisdom and in stature,..., in the light of God and in favor of men (Don't think this is the exact phrase... but something like this lah). So, there are mainly four aspects of leading a balanced life: Intellectual, Physical, Spiritual and Social.

There is also this inner life, where we need to build a strong foundation of. For, with inner peace and strength, we can be steadfast and strong even when there is turmoil around us.

It is only when something bad happens that our inner strength is being tested...

Ok, what I really feel is that somehow, recently, I do not think that letting God lead my life is a ridiculus idea anymore. I sort of even want him to show me the way... Actually, I must admit that there have been times quite long ago, when I had the urge to pray, but I stopped myself, telling myself not to be stupid... I know that I am especially prone to want to accept Christ in times of stress... Yet, I don't feel particularly stressed now... or maybe I have too much time now, such that I can afford to attend cell group and such seminars...

Maybe God will show me the way... Hmm... seems like I do believe in the existence of God...

I always seem to do things at the wrong time... I would probably have an easier time if I had done certain things earlier or later...

Ruth just told me about blogger having new more template choices and being more user-friendly... And there I was, a few days ago, struggling with the templates and tag-boards...

Yijin's friends (Ainie, Li Jun and Cordelia) left today. The house seems to be very quiet without them... I guess this is good for studying though... Hmm... missing them a little... can still see little trace they left behind, like the food they left for us... They are really very sweet, treating us to dinner yesterday... I totally didn't expect it, though Yijin already knew what they were planning... As usual, I am not very observant...

Trip to Ilkley, 9th May 2004
I went to Ilkley with them. It's this small little town near to Leeds, only about 30mins by Metro Train. Ainie and I took so many photographs! Will be sharing the photos soon. Had a very tiring day... I'm aching all over today and almost forgot that I still have a revision lecture to attend... Though at the end of the trip while we were waiting for the train, we sort of had a "racist" experience...

There was this group of kids in their early teens, who were just hanging out at the train station. They were sort of looking at us (Me, the three girls, Yijin and Kenneath) continuously, since the moment we stepped into the station. After about 30-40 minutes, the of the kids (girls) came over and started talking to Yijin and Kenneath. Since Ainie and I were sitting close to them, they sort of talked us as well... We tried to ignore them as they were talking nonsense, about midges trying to eat up the moon because they thought that the moon is a block of cheese...

Soon, more of them started to come over... I was thinking that the kids were probably having a bet on whether those first two girls could get the two guys interested in them or something... Or maybe, the kids were eyeing the Pringles we were eating, becaues one of them actually asked about the pringles and we told them that there was no more left and they looked disappointed...

Anyway, the whole bunch of them followed us up the train and continued taunting us with sentences like "See you in China when I go over" or "Are you guys from China?", etc... Kenneath actually told them that he stayed in this country beside China and they asked if he could cycle to his country from the Great Wall... These kids either do not know how big China is or that there are such things as overseas Chinese... Sometimes, I think that the education system in UK is too slack... These kids have nothing better to do man...

8th May 2004
I went to York with the girls and Yijin. I'm glad that all of them had a good time. We had tea at Betty's Teahouse. It was really good! I shared a Yorkshire Cream Tea Set with Li Jun and Cordelia. The set comprises a pot of Tea Room Blend tea, two scones, with strawberry preserve and clotted cream...

We also went for the ghost trail, which we were brought around York by a lady dressed in black, telling us all the ghost stories in York... Towards the end of the trail, it started to rain and Li Jun was experiencing acute gastric pains... Must be due to the relatively expensive food in UK... Hmm... seems like I still need to brush up on my skills in making people feel welcome... Even when she first experienced the gastric pains, Yijin was the one who was supporting her along as she walked... It just didn't occur to me that it might have been more convient if I were the one who supported her. I only thought of it when I accompanied her to the toilet... Hmm... I must try be more proactive in such areas...