Jurong Youth Ministry

The bible promises this - “commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” - Prov. 16:3

Note how the second part of that verse says “and your plans will succeed”. It didn’t say “maybe will succeed” or “might succeed” rather its says absolutely 100% confirm chop “WILL succeed”.

In order to experience walking on water, we need to first jump out of the boat like Peter. - Matt 14

God has blessed us so much. His promise holds.

Some of you would know about my studies problem, I was expecting to fail my final project but instead God has blessed me with results that I couldn’t even dream of. All praise to GOD!

Surrendering Chicken Meat! Your first respond to that might be, Why? (with a look of disbelief) That’s the most common respond that I received from people who knew of my gradual to total cut down of chicken intake in the last 3 months. Usually, I will launch into the explanation that being vegetarian is something that have been the back of my mind for the last 3 years and now is time to put that thought into action.

3 weeks ago, Gary challenged the youth leaders to fast for a week for the purpose of allowing ourselves to draw closer to God. My fast is pray twice a day (morning and night), to be vegetarian (except for lunch) and no supper. The first day was difficult, not because I craved for meat but that it’s hard to find vegetarian food! I recalled ordering wantan mee and telling the uncle to not add char siew. He asked whether do I want chilli and I told him yes and added shyly that I actually don’t want wantan. I just want the mee and vegetable. He turns around, looks at me and went “huh?” I repeat my request and he told me that he will just give me 2 wantan and vegetables. (Perhaps he doesn’t want me to feel cheated for the $2.50 that I’m paying if he just gives me mee and vegetables and thinking what a crazy girl I am.) I agreed and throw away the wantan before eating my mee and vegetables.

4^th day into the fast, I toy with the thought of extending the vegetarian diet to 1more week and told God about the idea and asked Him to tell me what do He think. 30 minutes later, the school announcement came and informs us that there will be a new stall in the school that I’m working in and it’s a vegetarian stall! Gee- God sure want me to extend the vegetarian diet. Well, today is the 4^th week into the vegetarian fast. There’s no longer a limit to that fast, it could be 2 months, 6 months or the rest of my life. Frankly, I didn’t have a concrete plan to switch to a vegetarian diet besides the stop eating chicken idea 3 months ago. I figured perhaps the challenge by Gary is God’s prompting for me to surrender meat. Since He called, the best thing for me to do is to answer isn’t it? (I can’t say that I’m a full vegetarian now. I haven’t told my mum and dad about my decision so most likely, I will be expected to eat fish at the reunion dinner to avoid conflict.)

Well, I thought about it, the next person who respond to my decision with “Why Vegetarian?”, I gonna challenge them to think about “Why not?”!!Have a Happy Chinese New Year!

I took great pride in the Design Ministry. In fact like an over-protective mum, Design Ministry is like my baby and I’m willing to pump in a big portion of my time and energy to run it.

However, I was reminded by a friend 4 months ago that all ministries belong to God and that I’m not indispensable. With that reminder, I decided to let God took charge of this year Christmas decor. It started with this ‘Web’ idea that Lionel came up with as we brainstorm the decor for the sanctuary. I remembered sitting in sanctuary for hours that evening picturing the ‘Web’ idea and refining the idea with Lionel. Lionel’s summaries it, there’s only 2 outcome, either the ‘Web’ look like crap or people will be blown away by it. I told the team to give me time to work out the feasibility of the idea and went home to pray about it.

We didn’t have any budget this year for the decor and I requested the church for $150 to carry out the ‘Web’ idea after much calculation. It was up to God to decide then and I received the approval from Pastor in a couple of hours. I prayed further for manpower to create the ‘Web’ idea and the youth kept coming, offering their talents, time and help in the last few weeks!

24 hours before the Christmas Eve service, Pastor called and asked whether is it possible to decorate the tent with balloons to create a festive mood. He summaries it, if it’s possible, do it else forget about it. I prayed about it almost immediately after Pastor and I ended the conversation. I figured 80 balloons will be enough for the tent and asked God to decide, if He provides me with just 7 youth so including me, each of us have to blow 10 balloons and hang them, I will do it. I smsed 15 youth and within an hour, I have 7 youth who said yes. On the day itself, I actually had 9 youth helping me to do the balloons decor!

There’s this appreciation dinner that I want to throw for my core Design team of 8 (including me) in Jan 08. The final decision was dinner at Sizzler and it’s going to cost me a bit so I prayed that God will provide. I was grateful when Peng Kong offered to split the cost with me and dumbfound when Pastor came to me a few days ago and told me, he really want to affirm the Design team for our hard work and told me to bring them out for dinner! I told him about my planned Sizzler treat and he declared that he will join in and will pay for the dinner!

I’m dispensable and Design Ministry belongs to God. J

It’s been amazing working with my core team (Lionel, Andrew, Peng Kong, Christon, Marcus, Jared and Clara). I’ve been touched by their talents and commitment. Thank you very much! I also want to appreciate all the youth in JYM who have helped out in 1 way or another. Thank you everyone! Most importantly, thank God for allowing me to be in charge of this year Christmas decor and for providing me so much to complete the decor.

I lost count of the number of compliments I received for the ‘Web’ idea! It’s definitely an idea that blown people away.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone.

Since a month ago, I have decided to cut down on my intake of chicken to twice a week. Why chicken? It’s my favorite meat and I figure if I can forgo chicken, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge to give up on other meat in due time.

I didn’t realize that a lot of yummy stuff is made from chicken until after I make the decision! Just the other day, on my way to work, I stop by this bakery to pick up a hotdog bread. The only thought that I had when I brought it was that it’s not pork, I totally forgot that it was a no-chicken-day. It was when I was about to take the first bite that the “chicken- alarm” rang off in my head. -_- I threw away the hotdog and eat the bread, few pathetic shreds of cabbage and tomatoes reminding myself to increase the “chicken-alarm” by a notch to prevent such stupid mistake from occurring.

The second week was the worst and discouraging one where I begin to doubt whether it was a wise decision to cut down on my intake of chicken. There was this Pasar Malam going on around my area and being a big fan, I drop by whenever it’s possible. On the first night, I was pretty sad leaving the Pasar Malam with just a stupid stick of fishballs (the only non-chicken food that I can find). On the second night, I left with 2 sticks -fishballs and tofu. Undefeated, I went back on the third night and walk away with my victory, Vegetables Pizza! The victory was short-lived though as I see my sister ate her chicken nuggests and XXL chicken. It grew to a point where I tell God, well, unless you really provide for me, I have no idea how I’m going to do it. A few days later, God did his part. I was really hungry that evening and went to the kitchen immediately after I pull off my shoes and socks, wondering what my mum cook and found fish, chicken and vegetables on the dinning table. Fish and chicken?! Usually ,it’s an either fish or chicken dinner in my house, fish + chicken combination only occur during Chinese New Year. “What’s the special occasion?”, I asked my mum and she’s like nothing special, just thought of cooking both today. As I happily eat the fish that evening, I know in my heart that God will always provides for me and that it wasn’t a stupid decision after all.  

I believe whatever choices that we made, as long as it’s one that involve God and honor Him, He will bless it and carry us through. The next step for me is to start exercising! hehehe.. What’s the point of a dietary change when I refuse to do that 20 minutes 3 times a week exercise! Somebody pass me my jogging shoes! =)