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the many expressions of Caleb

We were at Udders along Thomson Rd. A happy little ice creamery.

Looking up at the bright lights along the display of ice cream.

Pulling a face at Fannie’s cue. It’s call “piggy face” in Cantonese. He will do it when you say it. :D

There’s another name for this face he was trying to pull. I simply can’t remember.

At the end of a long day, Mummy Fannie still looks beautiful alongside a cheery Caleb. :)

the fish ball place with caleb

Here’s the start of a series of photos of Caleb- Kevin and Fannie’s little man.

I stayed with this family during my last trip to Singapore, and I’ve come to grow very fond of this young boy.

These were taken at a noodle stall along Thomson Road. I had one of the best fish balls here. Yums.

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how be coming back to malaysia?

That was a question asked by the US-based Wen. Such difficult English to understand, tsk…Americans.

Anyways, the days following my Singapore trip has been just as fast-paced and very productive.

One of the key things on my agenda, is to complete part of my church’s membership module.

You see, I’ve been attending Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) for about 5-years now, and reckon I’ve put off the membership module for too many years.

Over this weekend (beginning with yesterday), I’ve been attending the study on 7 Steps to Freedom by Neil Anderson. I’ve done this study many years ago with my Cell, so I wasn’t really going into this with heart-filled expectations. It was more a formality to obey the leadership of the church and obtain a membership. That said, I wasn’t expecting nothing either, because I’ve learned that God can work in all sorts of circumstances and especially in the least likely ones. And seeing how He is so involved in my life, I didn’t consider an exception, and as it turns out, He did not disappoint.

This study is conducted in small groups and its highly interactive. And today, I shared something close to heart. It’s quite hard to articulate what was shared and the context in which it was shared, but I shall try.

Basically, I shared of how nothing can separate us from the love of God. It was a condensed story of God’s love for Dad. Dad was the first Christian in his family, and he was the one who led Mum to Christ. Gradually, more and more of Mum’s family came to know the Lord. In school, I met Kest, who was the son of Dad’s childhood friend, a friend Dad had brought to church and is now saved along with his household and his extended family (You can read of this testimony here).

Then, I told of how dad has been a back-slidden Christian for nearly all the years I’ve known him. Although I would hear stories of what a passionate and fervent Christian he was, I barely saw any of that man as I grew up. And in spite of repeated encounters with God through the course of his life, Dad never turned back to God until he encountered God again with the occurrence of his first stroke. In the subsequent 8-months of his life, Dad became the man I’ve heard so much about, and those who met him saw the difference. My point of the story is, it is true that nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even years and decades of rebellion, and the foregoing of third, fourth, fifth chances and so on.

In Romans 8:38-39 it says…

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Though this story and the knowledge of it is something I’ve known for a long time, sharing it today blessed me in a way that’s quite hard to explain. A soothing of the spirit if I can say so. An overwhelming sense of love, and I hope it blessed the other girls in the group, it seemed like it did. :)

You can read about SIB here and here.

what’s baking?

Warm bread in the oven = happy smelling home.

It’s my first attempt at whole meal bread. It turned out okay. The texture was alright but it was too bland. Me thinks I need to go heavier on the sugar. :)

the last day

My four days in Singapore has swiftly come to a close. And as with my previous trips, I think this latest one tops them all. I would probably be saying the same about my next one.

Singapore, or more accurately put- my friends in Singapore has seen me through some key turning points and events in my life. Last and earlier this year, it was Dad’s stroke, then his passing. And with this recent trip, I am actually at the juncture of my biggest career move. With this move there is a certainty of knowing that this is a calling, coupled with the uncertainty of the unfamiliar.

On my last night in Singapore, I decided to pray for my hosts- the Gohs. It was a habit I picked up from staying with the Pohs, a very good one. Going to prayer meetings also helps make prayer like second nature. Anyways, back to praying for the Gohs. They were really tired that night, so I thought I’d just pray a quick one with them before we retire for the night. It was such a blessing in return when Kevin prayed for me too. At this personal juncture of mine, his prayer was truly a heartfelt comfort and blessing.

During the four-days, I’ve also found pockets of time to spend with their little one, Caleb. Children are an amazing gift from God I tell you. They have such an ease at touching your heart and lives, and I was so blessed during my time with Caleb who is just 18-months old. Fannie (the mummy) also taught me how to understand Caleb better, which songs to sing for different pictures or books, and what Caleb’s sign language meant. Did you know that children learn sign language much earlier than learning to speak? I just found out about it this week, and Kevin and Fannie had made up simple signs for Caleb to communicate what he wants. It was like a “wow” moment for me, this actually works!!!

Anyways, once I’m up to pace with things in KL, I will share some pictures from my Singapore trip! Mind you, they are almost all of my friends’ children- the Lims, Pohs, Kwans, and Gohs- and they make for such pretty pictures! :)

Singapore day two

I’m onto day two of my four day trip. It feels too brief but I wouldn’t have had any different if I could do over.

The best parts of my trip so far are a few of my friends’ young boys, all under the age of 6. I took lots of photos of them and will share them in time.

That aside, I’ve been shopping and enjoying it very much. There’re such a lot of things I like here. Some I bought, most I left them where I found them. Take this for instance…

That is a roll of thin patterned vinyl. I would have loved it for a table cloth. Those sheep are just so cute! It is also one of the cheapest on display at $0.89 per cm. Sounds cheap? It’s not at all! At a 190cm, that would have cost just under $170. Sigh. Bye bye lil sheep.

There were loads of other stuff I really liked too. How now?

moves, changes and beginnings

Prior to this post, I’ve started a few over the past few days trying to pen my thoughts (the personal kind), but I couldn’t get beyond the first sentence and I would lose my words.

So here I am, making another attempt.

My holiday in Taiwan had brought along a decision on my part- to swap bedrooms with my brother, Henry. Seeing that I already have a room at Poppi, I think it’s only right to let Henry have the bigger room in our parental home (my current room). So, I’ve stepped up my “packing and moving out” efforts.

Every week, I would load my small car with bags of personal belongings. Some weeks, I would make two trips, some only get one. And it’s a little bit scary to see that I really have A CRAZY LOT of stuff. I’m throwing out what I can, but some are still tough to part with.

Much to my surprise, going through my room has been a very emotional and solemn time. Let’s take a recent “packing exercise”, just moments ago I was folding a white long sleeved shirt which was the last thing dad bought for me the day before his first stroke. That day, I had picked out two shirts of the same design, the other one was in black. I also packed souvenirs I had kept from his business trips to various countries.

It’s very tough to pack, I don’t know if it’s better to take a full day packing it all up, or breaking it into a few trips like what I am doing now. Even though each small packing exercise I do is a short hour or less, I would feel the need to give it a pause and deal with the rest another day. It’s hard to stomach so much emotion at one go, it’s……I guess I can say, overwhelming.

Anyways, that aside, tomorrow (Friday) is my lat day at my current job. Next week, I would be jobless. I really enjoyed my time here, and I’m glad I’m bringing this chapter of my life to a close on a very pleasant note. I couldn’t have asked or expected anything better. This is good.

Cheers to new beginnings!

crafty downloadables

Look what I found! A good collection of pretty free templates for cards and other crafts.

You can get it here.

ILIKES.