First at number 3 and Laser tag

I know this is way overdue, but I still think I want to write a short post about it. 2 weeks ago, City Harvest KL moved into a new building!! Awesome place, extremely large screen, even larger hall, nice seats, and very nicely decorated. I don't know how to describe the place, you just have got to go and see it for yourself to experience it. When asked what is the best thing I like about the new place, I'd say the size and capacity. I believe the sudden increase in size or increase in emptiness in the hall will spark off the desire in all our hearts to reach out to our friends and family.

Second thing I want to write about is laser tag. It's sort of like paint-ball or pain-ball, but without the pain. Shooting infrared laser at each other and having detectors on our suit to detect when we're being shot. Went to Shah Alam last week with my subzone, and had an awesome evening and night with them. Played 3 games and I can almost say I'm a fast learner, and can definitely say I'm a sharp shooter, so watch out all you people who wanna mess with me...haha. I think it's quite expensive for a game, 18 for around 15 minutes I think, but we had a 50% voucher so it was all half price for us. Have to say it's nice once in a while.

My post is not written very well today maybe because of the sleepiness, or lack of exercise or due to the hunger, I don't know. But still here it is

UROP 1.1

This semester Monash Sunway Engineering department decided to launch their first Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and I decided to participate. I'm taking up an intelligent surveillance camera system which decides which camera(s) are capturing important information so the security guards can take better action. I, together with another friend am helping 2 lecturer, 1 postgrad and 1 FYP student in creating this system and at the end of this 12 weeks, I'm expected to have created a GUI for the guards to use.

My first task was to install Ubuntu, OpenCV and Eclipse, and I thought to myself :"How hard can it be to install these things?" Well, very hard indeed! But after much struggling and googling, I finally did it. Next up will be learning more about programming with many files, and other things which I have no clue about.

After using Ubuntu for about a week, I must say, it can be better than windows in certain aspects. Linux does have it's advantages too. It's just week 2 and I say it's nice experience using another OS and I'm hoping for more deeper and wider experience/skills that are to come. =)

25th July 2011

Back to uni today and BAM!!! Lots of stuff to do, left uni a little dazed and dejected.

My application for the undergraduate research opportunities program was accepted, so now I'm officially assisting some lecturers, a postgrad and a final year undergrad student together with one of my friend.
12 weeks is hardly much time to learn up Linux systems, embedded systems and other things, but hopefully it'll be a fun 12 weeks.

On another note, to look at things at a positive angle, Dr Low has indeed helped me a lot. To look at it negatively, I lacked just 2 marks, even after he had increased my marks by 13.

No time to talk poetically, I gotta go and survive this 12 weeks.

G.P.S. Recalculating

So what's G.P.S. Recalculating? It stands for God's Pathway to Salvation, recalculating our lives to make sure we are on the right road, going the direction God wants us to go.
Luke 8:15 - But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Here I want to share some things that I have learned from the camp. I know it's kinda late to do this, few days after camp is over instead of immediately doing it while my memory is still fresh, but hope I can remember well.
I just realized that I did not take enough notes... I should learn to write faster, so next time I can write more. Also need to learn to listen and write at the same time...
anyway...

First session:

• Grief of pain & unwilling to hope makes the soil of our heart bad. For soil cleaning, ask God for a new heart, Ezekiel 36:26. A new heart of flesh.
• God sows seeds into all grounds, the 4 types of soil. Therefore it's the choice of the listener whether what soil he wants to be. God does not only sows into the good soil, but gives chances to everyone.
• I felt that I am a lot of the 2nd and 3rd type of soil, rocky and thorny.

Second session:

• Many of us just seem to go through the motions. Going to church, serving in ministries, attending cell/bible studies, but in our hearts, we are hollow. We have an inherited faith, a 2nd hand faith, doing what we do because our parents/friends/pastors/heroes do it, and we are just being lukewarm.
• We all need to wrestle with God, in our struggles, weaknesses, etc, then only can we find our own faith, to be authentic, to have a first hand faith.

Third session:

• We all do bible studies and study the Word very often, but how often do we let the Word study us? Psalm 139:23-24

Fourth session:

• Are we willing to give up our life rights to be a bondslave for Christ. Like Dr Living Lee.
• Lord = I am who I am. Letting God be who He should be.

Fifth session:

• What is your life and my life going to account in the Kingdom of God?
• We are called to rebuild & renovate. To be priests and ministers of God.

Sixth session:

• Rebuild/strengthen relationship with parents, siblings, relatives, friends, CFers, church members, CG, strangers.

Seventh session:

• God Himself calls us to be watchman.
• Run with horses and run in the thickets of Jordan, believing God will "miracle-enable" us.
• We bear the wounds as our badge of success.

Random:

• Do we mean with all our heart what we sing?
• Sometimes the lyrics of the song, or singing can be a distraction in worship. Think of Matt Redman's Heart of Worship
• Focusing too much on ministry rather than God can be a thorny soil.

25th June 2011

I suddenly felt like going through my sermon notebook and went through all the notes of sermons from this semester, and these are some stuff I wrote down, and which still touches my heart now.

Change requires following through and finishing the job. -- Cindy

The greatest danger is not hating God, but taking God for granted. -- Keith

with reference to Matthew 7:24-27
Everyday we wake up is adding a brick to our house. God wants us to build our house in Jesus, nothing else is secure enough. Sometimes we subcontract this work to other things, other people or even ourselves. -- Shern Ren

Happiness is not having what you want but enjoying what you have. -- Keith

God has set us free, but in our freedom let us choose to be a bondservant. -- Pastor Malcom

When we breakdown and cry out to God and trust Him, then God will make a breakthrough. -- Cindy

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. -- Hebrews 12:14

God only tells us to do the things we can do, therefore being Holy is possible. -- Pastor Kevin

Lock the room and pray is not just so people cannot come it, but also we cannot go out. -- Pastor Kevin

We will never meet God in revival until we meet Him in brokenness. -- Shirley

Prayer:

"God, break me, let me walk with a limp the rest of my life."-- Shirley

Amazing prayer!! Walking with a limp for the rest of our life is definitely not something nice. But I guess living with a limp is much better than living without God. Just look at how Jacob changed that night when he wrestled with God and was broken. He clung on to God and cried, then Israel was born.
Do we dare to pray such a prayer? Maybe we should, for we know our Lord is a merciful God, He won't give us a limp too bad for us to survive, just enough to keep us broken and contrite in spirit.

13 June 2011

Standing on the brink of a high cliff,
with my toes over the edge.
I see the waves crashing onto the jagged rocks below.
Even from thousands of meters above,
the sound of the sea is louder than the lion's roar

I lift my eyes to the sky,
but all I see is darkness.
Dark clouds billowing towards me,
the whole earth subdued by this gloom;
As the fog closes in, the storm begun.

The winds mercilessly bend and twist the helpless trees;
the lightning furiously strike the earth, attempting to rip it apart.
As the rain drenches me, soaking every bit of me;
I hear the winds laughing at me
as its icy cold fingers try to tear my clothes off.
The fog has engulfed the place, and all I see is nothing, darkness, emptiness.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath,
but the freezing cold air choked me.
I felt pain rupturing my body as the lightning exploded a rock to pieces sending debris to pierce me.

I closed my eyes even tighter and took a step forward...

Daydream 1

As I close my eyes, I feel myself drift away,
floating away on the wings of emotion,
lifted higher and higher i go,
past through the clouds into the night sky above.

I came to a stop on a hill overlooking the city,
where the grass was green and soft,
I found a spot and lay myself down.
Hugging Pinky my beloved companion,
we gazed into the majestic sky above.

It was a clear night, better yet,
a full moon was looking down unto us.
The stars in the sky seem to be having a party
blinking and flashing their lights with such gracefulness
There's something enchanting about the moonlight,
it shines so bright, lighting up the place,
yet it magically paints the world in shades of black and white.

I close my eyes to let my other senses come to life.
I feel the cool, gentle breeze caressing my cheek
I hear the sound of the crickets in symphony in the bushes
I smell the sweet fragrant aroma from the wild flowers a few meters away
As I lay there, I hear this beautiful song playing in the ambience
as the notes of this wonderful piece of art playfully dance around me
I feel my heart beating to its beat
resonating to its frequency

I reach my hand out to the heavens in attempt to touch the stars,
and let my soul sing out all that's within me,
as I take a deep breath, all my burdens just fall away like rain unto the earth
bit by bit, this weight, this oppression is lifted from my soul
.....
...
..
.

to be continued...