Prancing Pony`s Paddock

Thursday, October 30, 2008

His Vision, His Way, In His Timing

Today's Prayer
Dear God, This morning I remembered that children's song that goes "I am a promise. I am a possibility. I am a promise, with a capital P. I am a great big bundle of potentiality..." In Jesus, I am a great big bundle of potentiality. I pray that you would fill me with your wisdom and guide me in your will. I pray that I will be obedient to you and keep my focus on you. I ask this so that I will reach the potential you have planned for me. In Jesus' precious name I pray, amen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


His Vision, His Way, In His Timing
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman



"Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about'" (Gen 22:2).

Have you ever wanted something so bad that you would do almost anything to get it? Have you ever gotten so close to fulfilling a dream only to have it disappear right before your eyes? Such was the case for Abraham.

God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. He would have a son. However, Abraham panicked when Sarah aged beyond child bearing years and tried to help God by birthing Ishmael through Sarah's servant, who was not the promised son. Eventually, Isaac was born, who was the promised son.

However, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son on an altar to demonstrate his obedience to God. Truly, this is one of the hardest instructions given to one of God's people in all of scripture. It compares only to the Heavenly Father sacrificing His own Son. God intervenes and allows a lamb to take his place, symbolizing the Lamb of God as a prophetic sign of what is to take place in the future.

God often births a vision in our lives only to allow it to die first before the purest version of the vision is manifested. This has happened several times in my own journey. Oswald Chambers observes, "God's method always seems to be vision first, and then reality, but in between the vision and the reality there is often a deep valley of humiliation. How often has a faithful soul been plunged into a like darkness when after the vision comes the test. When God gives a vision and darkness follows, waiting on God will bring you into accordance with the vision He has given if you await His timing. Otherwise, you try to do away with the supernatural in God's undertakings. Never try to help God fulfill His word."*

When God's vision is finally birthed, nothing will stop it. Our job is to allow God to birth His vision through us His way and in His timing.



(By Oswald chambers, Not Knowing Where, Discovery House, Grand Rapids, MI.)

Friday, October 24, 2008

海角七號電影預告-愛情篇

みたいなあ!!!!

海角七號 OST: 1945那年

Sounds good. Everyone`s raving about this Taiwanese movie. Especially S.

Will watch it soon. This track sounds promising. Stand by the Kleenex please.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

She without arm, he without leg - ballet - Hand in Hand

Makes you think twice before you jay-walk across the road or thank God while you are Msn-ing away on your computer.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

I stand amazed.

I Stand Amazed - Wow Worship



I bring You my heart
I bring You my praise
I bring You my broken dreams
I’ve lost along the way
I lift up my voice
I lift up my hands
I lift up the moments in my life
That I don’t understand
And I lay it at the cross
Where I’m surrounded by Your grace
And I marvel at the wonder of Your love

I stand amazed
I stand in awe
I stand forgiven in the midst of it all
Before You I bow
Before You I fall
Blessed Redeemer, Sweet Savior of all
I stand amazed

I offer You thanks
I offer my life
I offer a sacrifice of praise
When I’m scattered by the night
For You are my shelter
You are my King
You are the risen Son of God
The Lord of everything

Now I’m standing at the cross
Where I’m surrounded by Your grace
And I marvel at the wonder of Your love

There is life in His body
There is grace in His blood
There is peace for the sinner
Given by God’s grace

PASSION TOKYO conference 2008@渋谷


Disclaimer: The lovely high-quality and creative shots were taken off the PASSION website at http://www.268blog.com/



Chloe says: I heart Tokyo.
PASSION says: I heart Tokyo.

God says: I heart Tokyo.



13 Oct 2008 (Monday) was 体育の日, which is a public holiday in Japan.

2000 excited people were gathered at Shibuya...

The venue was C.C Lemon Hall (don`t ask me why such a quirky name.. this is sushi-land ha!)

S bought a can of C.C Lemon drink to pose in front of the hall. Personally, i thought the big lemon sign hanging at the entrance of the hall was hilarious. Very amusing.

Excited me with the admission band. (Yes, another of the 生小孩时住医院戴的hospital-band.)

Check out the cheery luminous green. Hey, our network color leh!




Doors were stated to open at 4pm, the concert was to start at 5pm and people were already queueing up at 3plus when we went. This nice overview shot was taken by the PASSION crew. Many foreigners in the crowd... me and S included... haha!


These are certainly Japanese though! Sushi-lander power!



只好自拍.... luckily i have my trusty 广角!Smiles? Check! V sign? Check! Green admission band? Check! Corny C. C. Lemon? Check!



Yeah! Praise God! We managed to get 好位 cos our Shalom friends choped 2 whole rows. This is me smiling for the camera but was actually hiding a stressed face because many people were eyeing our empty seats while I chope one whole row for those who had not come into the hall yet. 1 hour of waiting~~

Amazing visuals though sound was kinda too loud and cracking...
This is Chris Tomlin, starting off the 4 hours long praise meeting! We sing for our King, JESUS!


Everyone getting pumped up and HIGH on GOD!!!


Another cool artsy shot taken by the crew crouching in a hole by the side of the wall.
The presence of God was sooo strong!



Lifting our praises to Him, who is worthy!



Banners that the participants of PASSION SEOUL made, Seoul was the previous stop before Tokyo!


Louie Giglio, the man behind the `Indescribable` talk and his engaging message.
Take home of the day: Embrace what God has done for you - reacting like when you are watching High-def TV.
"Are you sure that`s Yankees whacking the other team? Man, I can see an ant crawling on the grass! This is sooo cool!"
Many of us are still stuck in the analog TV stage- "Oh yeah, i read the verse since i was a baby.
I know Jesus died for me, Thank You Jesus. Let me get back to my comfort zone in church."
We know God wants us to tell everyone about the good news. But how?

What is the plan? There is no plan. YOU are the plan.
Go out there and shine like a light. But be careful. Don`t get swallowed by the dark.


My favourite! Matt Redman, leading one of my favourite song `Blessed be Your name`.


When the darkness closes in Lord, still i will say "Blessed be the name of the Lord!"



God heart Tokyo. We prayed for Tokyo and the nation of Japan and Louie told us that Seoul prayed for Tokyo as well. The current city will always pray for the next city. So we will be praying for Hong Kong. Many students from China will be attending the PASSION conference in Hong Kong so please keep them in prayers!
That`s Matt Redman!

Lastly, we had David Crowder Band, sounding all rockish and noisy and loud but very powerful!


After 4 hours of praising God, nobody wanted to leave!!!!

Completely dehydrated, slighty temporarily deaf, but VERY energised = Getting High on God!


We were supposed to wear the band on our wrists as a reminder to pray for the next city.


Flip the green part over and the date for the next conference (3 days later) was written on it. We will pray for HONG KONG!
It was a good conversation starter. My curious prebeliever friends asked me why i was wearing the band-thingy ;)

PASSION went to Kuala Lumpur but not Singapore...sob!
日本にいるから、PASSION conferenceに行けるを感謝します!

We pray that this will ignite the PASSION in many many more people who love God and will allow God to use them to shine in this world, in Jesus` name we ask. AMEN!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Are you ready to serve the King?

Today's Prayer :
Dear Father in Heaven, my hope is in your unfailing love. I acknowledge that you are the source of all that I am. You are the one who gives me the ability to work, plan, and execute. Help me to keep my mind on your abilities, not my abilities. Please show me how to maintain this balance of your abilities and desire to do for me and through me and my abilities that you have given me to use in work and ministry. I pray that, with your guidance, I will use my abilities to the fullest at home, work, and play, and that you will get the glory for all the good that is done. Thank you in the name of Jesus, amen.

Serving Kings
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman

"Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men" (Proverbs 22:29).

I was sitting in a room of 400 business people from 75 different nations to begin an international conference. After a time of worship, a man stood up and exhorted Christians in the United States to pray for their president. It was a difficult time in our nation because president Bill Clinton was in the midst of a scandal.

The man who challenged us to pray was pastor Romain Zannou from the small African nation of Benin. Romain had earned the right to exhort us. Many years ago, God had given him a burden to pray for his Marxist dictator president, Mathieu Kerekou. For 10 years, he prayed for two hours a day for Kerekou's salvation and for God to give Kerekou wisdom to lead the nation. One day while he was praying, Romain felt that the Lord had a message for the president. Within 24 hours, he was standing in a room with Kerekou to deliver the word of the Lord.

Though he and Romain had agreed to meet after their first free elections for a time of Bible study, the former president refused to meet with Romain after only a few meetings. Almost every day after that, Romain went to Kerekou's home, only to be told that Kerekou did not wish to see him. Each day he said, "I will wait," and stood outside the wall for hours, many times in the rain and heat, in hopes that Kerekou would let him in.

After a year and a half of these unsuccessful visits, the former president finally received him and greeted him with the words, "Pastor Zannou, you are a very persistent man." They began an in-depth study of the Bible. Through this study of the word of God, the former president received Christ.

Romain Zannou is one of many unknown leaders being used to impact nations through their own workplace calling. They are an unlikely group of people - pastors, flower shop owners, builders, industrialists and even a former golf pro (me).

Be skilled in what you do. You may be standing before a king in the future.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Tourguide of the year 2008 (续集)



S's good friend Zhihao and his wifey came to visit last week so was pretty busy playing tourguide after school hours.



We went to the 'Happiest Place on Earth' with them!

LimoBus bustop. 离别的point.

Well, it was tiring but fun and I think it's great to bring people around to places I have grown to fall in love with these 2+ years. 想到还有6个月就要和这些地方说byebye了,还蛮感伤的。

So those who wanna come experience my free tourguiding, better grab your chance soon~

d(o^v^o)b

Another 2 satisfied visitors! (I hope!) (b^ー°)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

知识之旅@八景島Sea Paradise


讲了很久,终于在2008年的秋天,来到了横滨的八景岛。颠簸了快一个小时。。。终于到了!




没什么人。。。。。looks ulu to me...


入门票长得还蛮像到孕妇到医院生小孩时戴的。。。


i am navigator! yeah!


not so appealing mascot which is why i was the photographer!
屹立不到15年。。。应该是not bad 吧?

Whose smart idea was it to wear gloves to eat oily/smelly stuff? *snigger*


月饼power! Well, 中秋节was over about 2 wks ago though ;p 月饼Courtesy of Steven.


The super windy show area was packed with people, check out the cute kids in happy colored caps.. some school excursion i think.



Ok, the usual wow impressive stuff with smart white and black dolphins flying around doing stuff.. entertaining but maybe i am getting a bit old for this... hee... wanted to go dive in with the dolphin but that will mean forking out like S$100. Forget it.




Now, it was the aquarium and all the exotic marine life they have inside that caught my attention. I am reminded of my Kindy class and teaching them about 'Under the sea'. The good old days of Daneth asking me endless questions and Tania drawing lovely angler fishes.




These pretty fluorescent petal-like creatures are jelly-fishes! A sight to behold but not good when you get stung by one! According to my friends, you better go pee on the part where you got stung ASAP. (The alkaline in your pee can neutralize the bad acid, something like that.. if you think that is gross, maybe you can use soap??)

Up close and personal. I was so fascinated that my friends, were sitting at the exit with bored faces while i was oohing and wowing over the real stuff that i had only read about in National Library books when i was teaching at the kindergarten!




The huge aquarium with the travellator tunnel thingy.


Way cooler than Underwater World at Sentosa! Very educational!


Highlight of the day was .... boring predicatable Viking cos rollercoaster and Freefall tower were closed due to strong winds.
S looking stressed cos we dragged him to sit with us at the highest row.


A stressed guy and 3 excited girls. That's Little Miss Daredevil Keke, taking the photo while we were at the highest point of the ride. ;D Well done!


Ok, next we headed on to something safer.


I like horsies!

Why is S waving my 桌布?

Oh, that was his towel. And i like this crazy shot. Ha. Captain Shin looking all feministic.


That's another of my favourite: 小丸子。She's blur and happy go lucky. Cute.




Relaxing over ice-creams! Junee told me that nobody can be sad eating ice-cream! I agree! Ice-cream makes u happy!



我们真是好养。。。一面墙都可以玩到这么开心。哈!



i like this one. Can feel the 动感。Yups, the photographer was me (^o^)丿!

看得出大家都死命在跳跃吧!

We couldn't get enough of the wall!!



The nice marina. The wind was really strong!


Time to say goodbye to 仅此一次,应该不会再回来的八景岛Sea Paradise!(^^)/~~~ 


一脸倦容的四个人。。。
An instance of 回光反照 before we all 睡死 on the way back..


我们的表情是to answer this question: 今天的感想???What do you think of 八景岛?
anyway, 重点是人啦。 Who cares! Thanks for the fun guys!