So go grab that Cuisinart stick blender that
kthxbai.
Sale-ing
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
at
12:35 AM
Just a short blurb to introduce to the foodies stalking this site to a little known site called OZKitchenware. They stock some of the most popular brands when it comes to anything cooking/baking related such as Cuisinart, Global, Scanpan and many others. Check them out! It is mighty tempting not to click the "Add To Cart" button buttons because you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere cheaper. Only Chuck Norris can do that. I suspect you are not. Oh, and free shipping over $100.
So go grab that Cuisinart stick blender thatI've you've always wanted! Like now. Go crazy for those Global knives (just don't crazy with them on other people. That's wrong.)! And while you are at it, make gazpacho for me. Summer is coming. Just saying.
kthxbai.
So go grab that Cuisinart stick blender that
kthxbai.
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Mission Possible
Saturday, October 22, 2011
at
7:59 PM
I bumped into a friend recently that I haven't seen in quite awhile. Obligatory catch-up conversations started and one thing led to another before we came to the question about my friend thinking about what to do in the future, in particular what to study. This seems very ordinary but it turns out to be far more interesting than I had previously anticipated.
You see, my friend here is deciding between two lines of study that are fundamentally very different from each other and of course this friend of mine is interested in taking the plunge on both of these. The obvious question was which one to choose. Again this sounds very ordinary but the kicker was that my friend wanted to choose which would give her the most skills to eventually serve God in the mission field or something else with a mission-centred area. At first glance, one of the lines of study immediately became the first choice for obvious reasons and that was what my friend thought as well. Then I realized something is not quite right.
Basically, my friend is putting God in a box. That service in the mission field is almost entirely dependent on what sort of skills you have.
We cannot act as though that what we study or the skills that we acquire are the things that will be most beneficial and most likely to be considered when out in the mission field, though there is some merit in that. But it is not the be all and end all for entering a mission field or even serving for that matter. God has used many people in the past who didn't exactly have the necessary abilities but they carried out God's plan regardless. For example, Moses or David or most recently studying in church, Amos. So coming back to my friend, God will use people no matter what sort of skill you have as long as you are willing to occasionally step out of your skill set to serve God. So my advice was to not to worry about which skills you are going to get out of either of the courses but just be ready to serve with whatever you have. Who knows, you may be serving using a completely different skill set than you first started out with and yet God uses that for His purposes.
But wait, there's more.
Now think about the countless Asian Christian parents whose kids are going to university. Urging them to do something that will grant stability like engineering, accounting, medicine etc. that these are the skills that will be highly useful in the mission field. Not the arts, oh no. Because what good is it that you can analyze pre-war Cambodian society or perform textural analysis of 1940's film to the poor, remote and sometimes broken societies which most Christians commonly associate as the mission field? Doing this "kills" in two ways, one that doing what you love means nothing if you can't bring in the bacon and two, indirectly teaching them that God cannot use you if you don't have the right skills for the mission field. And as an added bonus, teaching them that the mission field is in some far away God-forsaken land with no clean running water and electricity. The first is just harsh from a parent to a child, the second is borderline wrong and the bonus is just a misconception.
God can easily use an arts major to do mighty things in the mission field as to the "choice skills" person. Make no mistake about that, He has always been doing so and will continue to do so in the future. The more important question to consider (rather than what skills should I have) is will I serve regardless of what I am trained in? So don't worry about petty things like this, all you have to do is to be prepared to be mobilized.
---------------------------------
This is the only right way to do this song. Still stuck in my head.
You see, my friend here is deciding between two lines of study that are fundamentally very different from each other and of course this friend of mine is interested in taking the plunge on both of these. The obvious question was which one to choose. Again this sounds very ordinary but the kicker was that my friend wanted to choose which would give her the most skills to eventually serve God in the mission field or something else with a mission-centred area. At first glance, one of the lines of study immediately became the first choice for obvious reasons and that was what my friend thought as well. Then I realized something is not quite right.
Basically, my friend is putting God in a box. That service in the mission field is almost entirely dependent on what sort of skills you have.
We cannot act as though that what we study or the skills that we acquire are the things that will be most beneficial and most likely to be considered when out in the mission field, though there is some merit in that. But it is not the be all and end all for entering a mission field or even serving for that matter. God has used many people in the past who didn't exactly have the necessary abilities but they carried out God's plan regardless. For example, Moses or David or most recently studying in church, Amos. So coming back to my friend, God will use people no matter what sort of skill you have as long as you are willing to occasionally step out of your skill set to serve God. So my advice was to not to worry about which skills you are going to get out of either of the courses but just be ready to serve with whatever you have. Who knows, you may be serving using a completely different skill set than you first started out with and yet God uses that for His purposes.
But wait, there's more.
Now think about the countless Asian Christian parents whose kids are going to university. Urging them to do something that will grant stability like engineering, accounting, medicine etc. that these are the skills that will be highly useful in the mission field. Not the arts, oh no. Because what good is it that you can analyze pre-war Cambodian society or perform textural analysis of 1940's film to the poor, remote and sometimes broken societies which most Christians commonly associate as the mission field? Doing this "kills" in two ways, one that doing what you love means nothing if you can't bring in the bacon and two, indirectly teaching them that God cannot use you if you don't have the right skills for the mission field. And as an added bonus, teaching them that the mission field is in some far away God-forsaken land with no clean running water and electricity. The first is just harsh from a parent to a child, the second is borderline wrong and the bonus is just a misconception.
God can easily use an arts major to do mighty things in the mission field as to the "choice skills" person. Make no mistake about that, He has always been doing so and will continue to do so in the future. The more important question to consider (rather than what skills should I have) is will I serve regardless of what I am trained in? So don't worry about petty things like this, all you have to do is to be prepared to be mobilized.
---------------------------------
This is the only right way to do this song. Still stuck in my head.
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Fail Whale
Sunday, October 16, 2011
at
9:51 PM
Some people are made of win. Others are made of fail. I am most definitely made of fail. This weekend was full of fail.
Friday started with a less than thrilling dinner with uncle, aunty and cousins with their plus ones. Maintaining some form of family ties with the relatives who usually look down on our life's and work's choices at the expense to having awesome drinks at a bar that I have failed to go for the 4 attempts. I was hoping to exit early and join what was the remainder of drinks there but was held back by chatter and a dying phone. When I finally did exit and managed one call from the friends, the phone died while taking the train there. Took me about 40 minutes to get there and it turns out that they were done with drinks and wanted to grab some food. At a place very near where I finished having dinner 40 minutes ago. Friday felt so underwhelming that it was quite a downer. But thankfully 4 hours of yakking helped.
Saturday I cooked something for dinner to bring to a friend's place which had sauce. But a rather sudden motion caused me to spill some of the sauce on my jeans. And now my jeans smells of shitake and dried shrimp. Changed and handled dinner with the utmost caution. Then later I went to church to clean and train the new cleaner. Handed over the keys to the new cleaner but realized I left my dead phone in church. And I had to get up by 9:45 the next day. So I was at home with no church keys to go back and get the phone, no alarm clock to wake me up (the wonders of technology, eh?) and even if I did manage to retrieve the phone the next day when the church is open, I cannot contact my friend when I have arrived. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I made a calendar event on iCal to trigger super loud music when I have to wake up and left my computer on. It kinda worked. Kinda because it was actually my sister who indirectly woke me up when she left the house. And then the alarm went. One more thing to add in the Macgyver life skill's toolbox.
Left the house and brought my charger to try and have a brief moment for charging in church if I found it with time to spare. But no such luxury there. Found my phone but no time to charge so I had to leave. Arrived at friend's place and knocked on the door several times but no one answered. Got really desperate because it was late already, I ran to the small shopping centre nearby with my charger, found a power point and quickly defibrillate my phone to send a message. Whoever was watching the security cameras was probably this close to calling security to check me out. I looked super dodgy. Ran back because it was threatening to rain and after my friend came out, all was good. Except for a dead phone for the rest of the day.
So fail man.
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Come tomorrow, the first thing I am going to ask is "Open the pod bay doors.". Yay.
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So many times I feel so useless. Someone please shoot me. Sigh.
Friday started with a less than thrilling dinner with uncle, aunty and cousins with their plus ones. Maintaining some form of family ties with the relatives who usually look down on our life's and work's choices at the expense to having awesome drinks at a bar that I have failed to go for the 4 attempts. I was hoping to exit early and join what was the remainder of drinks there but was held back by chatter and a dying phone. When I finally did exit and managed one call from the friends, the phone died while taking the train there. Took me about 40 minutes to get there and it turns out that they were done with drinks and wanted to grab some food. At a place very near where I finished having dinner 40 minutes ago. Friday felt so underwhelming that it was quite a downer. But thankfully 4 hours of yakking helped.
Saturday I cooked something for dinner to bring to a friend's place which had sauce. But a rather sudden motion caused me to spill some of the sauce on my jeans. And now my jeans smells of shitake and dried shrimp. Changed and handled dinner with the utmost caution. Then later I went to church to clean and train the new cleaner. Handed over the keys to the new cleaner but realized I left my dead phone in church. And I had to get up by 9:45 the next day. So I was at home with no church keys to go back and get the phone, no alarm clock to wake me up (the wonders of technology, eh?) and even if I did manage to retrieve the phone the next day when the church is open, I cannot contact my friend when I have arrived. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I made a calendar event on iCal to trigger super loud music when I have to wake up and left my computer on. It kinda worked. Kinda because it was actually my sister who indirectly woke me up when she left the house. And then the alarm went. One more thing to add in the Macgyver life skill's toolbox.
Left the house and brought my charger to try and have a brief moment for charging in church if I found it with time to spare. But no such luxury there. Found my phone but no time to charge so I had to leave. Arrived at friend's place and knocked on the door several times but no one answered. Got really desperate because it was late already, I ran to the small shopping centre nearby with my charger, found a power point and quickly defibrillate my phone to send a message. Whoever was watching the security cameras was probably this close to calling security to check me out. I looked super dodgy. Ran back because it was threatening to rain and after my friend came out, all was good. Except for a dead phone for the rest of the day.
So fail man.
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Come tomorrow, the first thing I am going to ask is "Open the pod bay doors.". Yay.
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So many times I feel so useless. Someone please shoot me. Sigh.
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Wanderlust
Friday, October 7, 2011
at
1:37 AM
I recently had a conversation with a friend who went on a trip to the other end of the earth. So as these things normally go, you ask how is it. One thing led to another before long we were talking about things that have nothing to do with the trip. In fact, there was very little talk about the actual trip at all. Things like self-discovery, aging, the troubles and inconveniences of life started popping in. I know it sounds pretty depressing but that got me thinking about me.
Friends like the one I talked to and many others have done something that until this day I haven't done at all, traveled alone (or with one other friend) to a fairly far away place. And all of them have done so at a relatively early age. As with people who have done extensive traveling (even just once) will tell you all the wonderful stories and superlative-laced descriptions of places they have been and experiences. Normally I'd just be happy listening in, absorbing all the tales that needs to be told and just be in wonder on what it is like to be in their shoes when they were there. But something turned when my friend implored me to do the same and that I can still do it. I am "still young" apparently.
Coming from a person who is about my sister age, my first response was you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about or what it means to be "still young". Heck, for a split second, I don't know whether to feel insulted by that statement. But of course my secondary higher-level cognition kicked in and realized that my problem is not with me getting older but the lack of throwing myself out there and see what happens. Perhaps it is shaped by the circumstances I've been placed in (and possibly reinforce whatever insecurities about it) that I don't dream about wandering off to exotic places. That I don't want to decide to travel. Sure I've been to some pretty cool places but not one of them was a result of my desire. After further examination, it pretty much boils down to a couple of factors.
One, money. Coming to Australia from Malaysia, money is pretty big deal for me (and of course my family). Traveling requires it, I don't have it. We have a problem. So it is in my first response to keep whatever money I have, whether earned or received from the FaMa (Father-Mother) Scholarship. So of course whatever desires of traveling to far away lands are inhibited and suppressed down to wandering through the interwebs for cats and other weird things. Two, personal priorities. You'd think money would be a priority but actually it isn't, at least for me. Money was never really a big priority. Stability, however, is. Once everything is settled only then will I have the surplus to travel. Needless to say, I've never really felt it, even now. Many of my plans towards stability have been redrawn as time goes by and when that happens something's gotta give. More suppression ensues.
Looking deeper into this complex personality, I don't just do this on the issue of travel. As I have stated countless times, I overthink things. As a result, I plan a lot especially when it is towards some base level of comfort. Only when I've hit that base level will I move on to other things. Because so much of my time has been "devoted" to planning, desires get suppressed and failure to act spontaneously is eminent. I don't want things, routine is a friend. A robot. There are times where I envy friends like I've mentioned, most of them have in one way or another would throw themselves out of the fish bowl every now and then to see what it's like out there. I, on the other hand, have probably spent years telling myself to stay put because you just might not know what will happen next (read: glass half-empty). Because of that, staying in my shell is preventing me from doing a lot of things that some of my friends have suggested/urged me to do. And not just about traveling.
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I sometimes hate sitcoms especially when the main actress is sooo pretty. And of course she gets together with the super charming actor. Like Outsourced. Still funny as heck though. Meh.
Friends like the one I talked to and many others have done something that until this day I haven't done at all, traveled alone (or with one other friend) to a fairly far away place. And all of them have done so at a relatively early age. As with people who have done extensive traveling (even just once) will tell you all the wonderful stories and superlative-laced descriptions of places they have been and experiences. Normally I'd just be happy listening in, absorbing all the tales that needs to be told and just be in wonder on what it is like to be in their shoes when they were there. But something turned when my friend implored me to do the same and that I can still do it. I am "still young" apparently.
Coming from a person who is about my sister age, my first response was you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about or what it means to be "still young". Heck, for a split second, I don't know whether to feel insulted by that statement. But of course my secondary higher-level cognition kicked in and realized that my problem is not with me getting older but the lack of throwing myself out there and see what happens. Perhaps it is shaped by the circumstances I've been placed in (and possibly reinforce whatever insecurities about it) that I don't dream about wandering off to exotic places. That I don't want to decide to travel. Sure I've been to some pretty cool places but not one of them was a result of my desire. After further examination, it pretty much boils down to a couple of factors.
One, money. Coming to Australia from Malaysia, money is pretty big deal for me (and of course my family). Traveling requires it, I don't have it. We have a problem. So it is in my first response to keep whatever money I have, whether earned or received from the FaMa (Father-Mother) Scholarship. So of course whatever desires of traveling to far away lands are inhibited and suppressed down to wandering through the interwebs for cats and other weird things. Two, personal priorities. You'd think money would be a priority but actually it isn't, at least for me. Money was never really a big priority. Stability, however, is. Once everything is settled only then will I have the surplus to travel. Needless to say, I've never really felt it, even now. Many of my plans towards stability have been redrawn as time goes by and when that happens something's gotta give. More suppression ensues.
Looking deeper into this complex personality, I don't just do this on the issue of travel. As I have stated countless times, I overthink things. As a result, I plan a lot especially when it is towards some base level of comfort. Only when I've hit that base level will I move on to other things. Because so much of my time has been "devoted" to planning, desires get suppressed and failure to act spontaneously is eminent. I don't want things, routine is a friend. A robot. There are times where I envy friends like I've mentioned, most of them have in one way or another would throw themselves out of the fish bowl every now and then to see what it's like out there. I, on the other hand, have probably spent years telling myself to stay put because you just might not know what will happen next (read: glass half-empty). Because of that, staying in my shell is preventing me from doing a lot of things that some of my friends have suggested/urged me to do. And not just about traveling.
-----------------------
I sometimes hate sitcoms especially when the main actress is sooo pretty. And of course she gets together with the super charming actor. Like Outsourced. Still funny as heck though. Meh.
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Week One
Monday, October 3, 2011
at
12:00 AM
So 5 days on the job has passed and so far I'm liking it. Although I was thrown into the deep end by letting me work on one of their large projects to make some minor improvements, I've learned so much plus it is good that I'm back into the programming flow. But what I did not expect is that most of us should be moderate users of Photoshop as well. Very strange but I guess it is probably a good thing in the long run.
I am indeed very thankful that I've got it easy compared to most people who are job searching or even those who had jobs but received less than what they bargained for in some respects. Even though that I've never really been in the job search area prior to this but I kinda know how frustrating it can be from other somewhat related experiences. Just today some people merged into the current conversation circle to congratulate me on my new job. They were very excited about it and of course really wanted to know the details (sound familiar?). But what I was more worried for was that one of the other people in the conversation were in the process of job searching and have been doing so for awhile now with little success. Normally I would be very excited talking about my job etc. but not so because with all this talk about my success, it also means slightly more frustration and disappointment for this person. Kinda like rubbing salt on wound.
I think we are all guilty of not acting appropriately towards other people in a decent sized conversation group. While on average our responses may be well mannered but some will be a little bit more affected compared to others. Sometimes it is good to exchange excitement with sympathy. Though it may seem like a bit boring but it's good to maintain some sanity among other people. Granted that we can only do this if we know the people in the conversation group well enough and that tends to be a little subjective. But it is better to start low and crank it up than to start high and crank it down.
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It has been a very very long time since I've had decent seafood in Melbourne and finally I've found a place that I would be more than happy to throw money at them. And not only that, while we were waiting for a table, we were entertained by this early New Orleans jazz trio that is crazy good. This raspy pianist, a very very chilled drummer and one kick-ass clarinetist with probably an average age of my dad. Perfectly cooked crab and mussels and one seriously gigantic fish with flavours that really shouldn't work together but magically they do. I don't think I've ever seen a group wiped 3 plates clean that fast. Heck even I ate rather fast which is rather hard to believe. I want to go there again!
I am indeed very thankful that I've got it easy compared to most people who are job searching or even those who had jobs but received less than what they bargained for in some respects. Even though that I've never really been in the job search area prior to this but I kinda know how frustrating it can be from other somewhat related experiences. Just today some people merged into the current conversation circle to congratulate me on my new job. They were very excited about it and of course really wanted to know the details (sound familiar?). But what I was more worried for was that one of the other people in the conversation were in the process of job searching and have been doing so for awhile now with little success. Normally I would be very excited talking about my job etc. but not so because with all this talk about my success, it also means slightly more frustration and disappointment for this person. Kinda like rubbing salt on wound.
I think we are all guilty of not acting appropriately towards other people in a decent sized conversation group. While on average our responses may be well mannered but some will be a little bit more affected compared to others. Sometimes it is good to exchange excitement with sympathy. Though it may seem like a bit boring but it's good to maintain some sanity among other people. Granted that we can only do this if we know the people in the conversation group well enough and that tends to be a little subjective. But it is better to start low and crank it up than to start high and crank it down.
--------------------------
It has been a very very long time since I've had decent seafood in Melbourne and finally I've found a place that I would be more than happy to throw money at them. And not only that, while we were waiting for a table, we were entertained by this early New Orleans jazz trio that is crazy good. This raspy pianist, a very very chilled drummer and one kick-ass clarinetist with probably an average age of my dad. Perfectly cooked crab and mussels and one seriously gigantic fish with flavours that really shouldn't work together but magically they do. I don't think I've ever seen a group wiped 3 plates clean that fast. Heck even I ate rather fast which is rather hard to believe. I want to go there again!
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Let Them Talk
Friday, September 23, 2011
at
12:39 AM
Just bought the highly anticipated album from Hugh Laurie on various blues covers. I'm telling you. It. Does. Not. Disappoint. Crazy crazy album. For a person who has not lived and breathed blues in the South to replicate the soul of genre, he has done a tremendous job at doing just that. His vocals are very distinct (picture House singing the blues) but still oh so soulful. So worth my $20 and more.
As promised, I'll talk about the results of the Johari and Nohari windows I posted up two weeks ago. Not surprisingly, numbers have not changed at all since the last time I mentioned it. You guys (mostly) are stalkers, aren't you? Let's see what the 6 people have said about my positives. The most dominant trait as voted by the people is intelligent. Funny, I'd thought I'd be more silly than anything. So far all of them have managed to pick up the traits that I think describes me so I guess that is a good thing. To the person who thought that I was organised, I'm pretty sure you haven't seen my room on normal days. So. Far. From. It. The rest of the attributes are ones that I'm pretty sure that I have exposed it one way or another. Moving on to the Nohari window where only 4 people said something about my negatives. The other two must have found it hard to limit their choices to 6. The most dominant negative trait is that I am insecure which is not a big surprise there. Anyone who reads this blog long enough can sense it straight away. The rest of them are also fine except one that said I was intolerant. I did not see this coming. I'm trying to think of the things that I am intolerant about but come up with nothing. Interesting. Enlighten me. Perhaps I'm intolerant about not being intolerant?
I will be starting a new area of life that has so far been left untouched. Excited but also not really knowing what it is going to be like, how stressful it can be or how great it is. I hope this will break down a lot of the apparent barriers that I have been experiencing over the past 3 years. And certainly I didn't expect it to come this fast (less than 2 weeks!). I certainly thank God for providing and being gracious to me after all the rubbish that I tend to do. Need to trust Him more.
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Recently, some of my friends decided to cause a riot with me which is starting to worry me a bit. And it all started from a small but apparently significant domino effect set-up. It's amazing how one casual conversation gave the motive and just ONE unrelated tweet to start the domino tiles falling. And now suddenly I have a "marketing team/think tank", a "fan base" and now a QR code for a crowd-source based effort to make me more awesome than I actually am. Fact: Refer to the title of this site.
You know what the funniest thing is? This really started from an ex-housemate of mine and graduated with a photography diploma who has said, and I quote him, "...spends too much time making him [me] look good." when he used me as a subject for some of his assignments. This time, he's got some solid support to give it another shot. Not sure if this will ever succeed.
Friends. You gotta love 'em for being a little...rowdy.
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I really need to fix this.
As promised, I'll talk about the results of the Johari and Nohari windows I posted up two weeks ago. Not surprisingly, numbers have not changed at all since the last time I mentioned it. You guys (mostly) are stalkers, aren't you? Let's see what the 6 people have said about my positives. The most dominant trait as voted by the people is intelligent. Funny, I'd thought I'd be more silly than anything. So far all of them have managed to pick up the traits that I think describes me so I guess that is a good thing. To the person who thought that I was organised, I'm pretty sure you haven't seen my room on normal days. So. Far. From. It. The rest of the attributes are ones that I'm pretty sure that I have exposed it one way or another. Moving on to the Nohari window where only 4 people said something about my negatives. The other two must have found it hard to limit their choices to 6. The most dominant negative trait is that I am insecure which is not a big surprise there. Anyone who reads this blog long enough can sense it straight away. The rest of them are also fine except one that said I was intolerant. I did not see this coming. I'm trying to think of the things that I am intolerant about but come up with nothing. Interesting. Enlighten me. Perhaps I'm intolerant about not being intolerant?
I will be starting a new area of life that has so far been left untouched. Excited but also not really knowing what it is going to be like, how stressful it can be or how great it is. I hope this will break down a lot of the apparent barriers that I have been experiencing over the past 3 years. And certainly I didn't expect it to come this fast (less than 2 weeks!). I certainly thank God for providing and being gracious to me after all the rubbish that I tend to do. Need to trust Him more.
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Recently, some of my friends decided to cause a riot with me which is starting to worry me a bit. And it all started from a small but apparently significant domino effect set-up. It's amazing how one casual conversation gave the motive and just ONE unrelated tweet to start the domino tiles falling. And now suddenly I have a "marketing team/think tank", a "fan base" and now a QR code for a crowd-source based effort to make me more awesome than I actually am. Fact: Refer to the title of this site.
You know what the funniest thing is? This really started from an ex-housemate of mine and graduated with a photography diploma who has said, and I quote him, "...spends too much time making him [me] look good." when he used me as a subject for some of his assignments. This time, he's got some solid support to give it another shot. Not sure if this will ever succeed.
Friends. You gotta love 'em for being a little...rowdy.
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int size = group.getSize();
if (size % 2 == 0 || (size % 2 == 1 && size > 10)) ju.setComfort(true);
else ju.setComfort(false);
return;
I really need to fix this.
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Cerai
Saturday, September 17, 2011
at
4:00 PM
I've recently watched a film called Divided which makes a pretty bold statement about the church and the youth. At the core, it asks the question what is the reason that causes up to 80% of youth from churches to walk away from the faith once they leave for college. Their proposed answer was a little surprising, youth service or Sunday school. The premise is that how majority of churches in the United States conduct Sunday school or their youth programs are flawed. There is an awful lot of fun and games programs conducted within Sunday school with very little substance in the end that by the time the kids hit the real world by going to college, there is no solid grounding in the teachings of the Bible. Not only that but parents almost treat Sunday school as a glorified day care centre where they provide a service to educate their children in spiritual matters. When the sermon ends, they come and pick up their children and go home. Hit repeat every week until college. It goes even further to say that how Sunday school that has age-separated classes fundamentally contributes to this problem. In fact, the primary mission of Sunday school when it first started wasn't for the Christians but for those kids on the streets wasting their lives away in crime. So they argue that Sunday school was a means of outreach rather than edifying the Christians and so shouldn't be there in regular Sunday service. The idea of a youth service or even Sunday school for that matter was not a model illustrated in the Bible (ie. not a God ordained model, in their words) and so does not guarantee it works.
Whoa.
I recommend watching the film (it's free anyway after e-mail registration) as there are quite a number of things presented that I think are quite relevant and certainly the take-home lessons of the film. Some of the things may sound like a bit of a stretch, for example, how Sunday school children are getting more and more attached to their teachers than their own parents and because of all the fun activities they do, the children will get whatever spiritual teaching they can get from their teachers, if any at all. I can honestly say, after much thinking, that this is somewhat true from my own experience though not in the same "extreme" behaviour portrayed in the film.
In my old church, the one that I went to for the first 18 years of my life, Sunday school was a big deal for pretty much all the kids. Plenty of fun activities, sing songs etc. Most of us love our teachers because of it. This is not even including the Royal Rangers (think Scouts but with a heavy Christian slant) program my church had which most of the kids did join. So, if you were a regular church kid and joined Sunday school, your whole weekend and sometimes most of the holidays are filled up with fun church activities. By the time puberty kicks in, Sunday school classes for the teens start getting smaller and more awkward, even though there were plenty of kids my age. Activities became less fun, most of us started getting bored but the one saving grace was if you had been in the Royal Rangers program. You start to see more lukewarm Christian behaviour among friends and eventually most of us went to the main service and some eventually disappeared. I was quite fortunate during my teen years that my high school Christian Fellowship helped me a lot and much of my faith was built up here. The point is that while the Sunday school ministry in most churches meant to educate children in the faith but the reality is that with the overemphasis of the fun factor means that we are trading the gospel for something else. Which was what I started to see though not very conscious about it. It became even more apparent just before I finished high school that our church decided to revamp the youth program in order to get more of the youth back into church. Their approach? More fun factor. We had a games room (complete with a pool table, table tennis table etc) all of the sudden, food was catered to us, organizing highly publicized youth events and the lot. It wasn't long before I realized something is still not right.
It seems, based on the film, that one of the major contributors to the kids leaving the faith was the failure of fathers to educate them in spiritual matters. Because they treat Sunday school as a spiritual day care centre, it frees the hands of the fathers to educate, one less thing to worry about. Which again, is not a model ordained by God. I can remember clearly several months before I was to come to Melbourne that my dad said to me to be careful of teachings behind the pulpit for they are not always right. He then went on to explain the fallacies of sermons coming from the senior pastor of the church. Since then I was very careful, listening more intently to the sermons than I had before in my entire life. That one short session with my dad did more to my spiritual life than possibly all the Sunday school lessons combined. Because that was the beginning of handling the word of God properly which is far more important than fun Sunday school activities. It was said in the film that even the best Sunday school educators cannot replace the father which I find to be true.
As the film goes on, the suggested solution is to train fathers to be the primary spiritual educators instead of pouring into youth pastors or develop youth programs that are "fun and engaging". I hope that if the time comes that I were to have my own family that I would be just that. That I will not neglect my responsibilities of being a father and provide the spiritual education and grounding to my children and not sign them away to a day care service.
But I'm not there yet. Not even sure that I'm meant to get there. But it doesn't matter.
------------------------
Why is it that I find two different reactions when it was announced that the ISA will be repealed? One is that people see it as a victory of recent events while still not being overly naive and celebrate and the other being completely cynical that nothing will change at all. And the two reactions were also mostly divided into two regions, people staying in Malaysia and those who are not. A step in the right direction does not demand cynicism but caution regardless of the proposed implementation of the step. I also guess it is because few care about a country outside the one they are in even if it is your home country.
-------------------------
Monday's a big day. Scared.
Whoa.
I recommend watching the film (it's free anyway after e-mail registration) as there are quite a number of things presented that I think are quite relevant and certainly the take-home lessons of the film. Some of the things may sound like a bit of a stretch, for example, how Sunday school children are getting more and more attached to their teachers than their own parents and because of all the fun activities they do, the children will get whatever spiritual teaching they can get from their teachers, if any at all. I can honestly say, after much thinking, that this is somewhat true from my own experience though not in the same "extreme" behaviour portrayed in the film.
In my old church, the one that I went to for the first 18 years of my life, Sunday school was a big deal for pretty much all the kids. Plenty of fun activities, sing songs etc. Most of us love our teachers because of it. This is not even including the Royal Rangers (think Scouts but with a heavy Christian slant) program my church had which most of the kids did join. So, if you were a regular church kid and joined Sunday school, your whole weekend and sometimes most of the holidays are filled up with fun church activities. By the time puberty kicks in, Sunday school classes for the teens start getting smaller and more awkward, even though there were plenty of kids my age. Activities became less fun, most of us started getting bored but the one saving grace was if you had been in the Royal Rangers program. You start to see more lukewarm Christian behaviour among friends and eventually most of us went to the main service and some eventually disappeared. I was quite fortunate during my teen years that my high school Christian Fellowship helped me a lot and much of my faith was built up here. The point is that while the Sunday school ministry in most churches meant to educate children in the faith but the reality is that with the overemphasis of the fun factor means that we are trading the gospel for something else. Which was what I started to see though not very conscious about it. It became even more apparent just before I finished high school that our church decided to revamp the youth program in order to get more of the youth back into church. Their approach? More fun factor. We had a games room (complete with a pool table, table tennis table etc) all of the sudden, food was catered to us, organizing highly publicized youth events and the lot. It wasn't long before I realized something is still not right.
It seems, based on the film, that one of the major contributors to the kids leaving the faith was the failure of fathers to educate them in spiritual matters. Because they treat Sunday school as a spiritual day care centre, it frees the hands of the fathers to educate, one less thing to worry about. Which again, is not a model ordained by God. I can remember clearly several months before I was to come to Melbourne that my dad said to me to be careful of teachings behind the pulpit for they are not always right. He then went on to explain the fallacies of sermons coming from the senior pastor of the church. Since then I was very careful, listening more intently to the sermons than I had before in my entire life. That one short session with my dad did more to my spiritual life than possibly all the Sunday school lessons combined. Because that was the beginning of handling the word of God properly which is far more important than fun Sunday school activities. It was said in the film that even the best Sunday school educators cannot replace the father which I find to be true.
As the film goes on, the suggested solution is to train fathers to be the primary spiritual educators instead of pouring into youth pastors or develop youth programs that are "fun and engaging". I hope that if the time comes that I were to have my own family that I would be just that. That I will not neglect my responsibilities of being a father and provide the spiritual education and grounding to my children and not sign them away to a day care service.
But I'm not there yet. Not even sure that I'm meant to get there. But it doesn't matter.
------------------------
Why is it that I find two different reactions when it was announced that the ISA will be repealed? One is that people see it as a victory of recent events while still not being overly naive and celebrate and the other being completely cynical that nothing will change at all. And the two reactions were also mostly divided into two regions, people staying in Malaysia and those who are not. A step in the right direction does not demand cynicism but caution regardless of the proposed implementation of the step. I also guess it is because few care about a country outside the one they are in even if it is your home country.
-------------------------
Monday's a big day. Scared.
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