Ask and You Shall Receive

Last night as Tity was giving her talk on Faith during Life Nite, I read the verse after the verse she quoted, taken from the Gospel of Mark:

"So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
~ Mark 11:24 ~

I find this verse always ever so encouraging, especially when I start to pray and then start to doubt again. In times of doubt and worries, this verse helps by reminding me that prayers work wonders, and it is through prayers that miracles can happen.

I see changes in people that I'm praying for, I see spiritual revival for the people I'm praying for... And all these can happen because God is there, listening to all my ramblings, all my prayer petitions, everything that I say. He's just that understanding and considerate.

I hope that all of you will be encouraged by this verse. Somehow, 24 hours a day for me seems to be not enough. Probably I tend to feel tired more often than not... I'm praying that my thyroid glands are functioning normal, and all these fatigues, swollen glands (visual sign) are just because of my weird food intake where fish is rarely seen in my diet. Gotta change my eating habit. I believe God will heal me if it is His will to heal.

Maybe I worried too much. Ahakz. I still believe ask and I will receive. Amen.

God bless!

My Weekend Frenzy

I think I had fun this weekend... All play and no work... Weekend came to an end when the clock struck 12 an hour ago... Since I sort-of promised Joanne to blog a bit, here's my entry... My Weekend Frenzy episode:

1. Weekend started on 08 August 2009 with a wedding to attend at 11 am. After a great movie (Tuesdays with Morrie) on Friday during Life Nite, I went home and had a good sleep. Sort of freaked out when I woke up to find my eyes swollen from the aftermath of crying (good movies make me cry). Managed to salvage the situation with The Body Shop eyeliner and mascara. While getting ready, I was making an impromptu appointment with my colleague over SMS to get some stuffs in Popular book store...
2. Arrived at Sacred Heart Cathedral almost the same moment as Fenelly (the bride) arrived in her lovely, gorgeous wedding gown. OMG! She looked so beautiful, so peaceful. I was glad I made it. Though there isn't any photo taken (I forgot my camera somehow), but the memory etched in my brain will be forever. Decided of not attending her high-tea reception in Kg. Bahang for I've made the appointment with my colleague... So I went to fetch my colleague after the wedding mass. Hmm... I just loved how couples professed their wedding vows!!~
3. Fetched my colleague and went to Popular in City Mall... Checked out and bought another Bio work book, and 23 paper file folders for my 4M Bio students. It's for PEKA use. Saw one of my students, potential scorer for Biology, at the counter for some last minute book-shopping I think. Had a drink at the food court with colleague and we shared about God and life. It was a good outing really... Left City Mall around 3pm, sent my colleague back and headed home to change and wait for Irene.
4. Irene fetched me at 4pm for our gal outing. Wanted to use the free tickets Aunty Agnes gave me, but it was for some Malaysian films and the time wasn't right... So, we watched the Proposal by Sandra Bullock. A lovely comedy romance. I LOVED IT! I wouldn't mind watching it a second time, really... Everything was creatively perfect! So girls, make sure you take some time off to catch this movie. It's funny, romantic, sweet, and just nice. After movies, we walked around a bit and ended up in NYNY for dinner... Good beef stew with mashed potatoes and sausage wrapped in cheese and ham. Super high cholesterol, but super nice! Well, that ended my Saturday.
5. Sunday started with Life Mass, where I was fully contented being the congregation sitting behind the worshippers. Worshipped along with them... But most importantly, God spoke to me that He'll provide all I need to go through this journey... He will definitely provide. The readings were loud and clear. Thank God!
6. I went to Kinarut Montfort with Irene for their open house bazaar after she met me in church after mass. Met Clement Wong, Mirina, Jason Yong, Thecla, Jeremy Pinso and of course, not forgetting Joanne and friends, and my kids (Amy, Alistair and Daniel Chiang). Amy can really sing, though I missed most of her performance. Looked forward to hear her perform again... Great vocal~ Was glad to see that everyone had fun. I HAD FUN for sure!
7. After the trip to Kinarut, I drove down to Bandar Sierra in Menggatal to visit Ms. Chong, my ex-colleague who is currently posted in Sandakan. Had a short chat with her while she's transferring some documents to my pen drive. Wish time doesn't fly, but it flew. So I had to go home. Thought of sleeping but ended up reading "What Katy Did Next?" for a while.
8. Wrote in my prayer journal a prayer request and then went out to City Mall to get it done... After doing my purchase, I dropped by Popular only to find Irene there!~ Yeah, so we had chit chat over dinner in The Hut City Mall.
9. Got home and took a cool shower.. The weather is super humid and dusty these days!!! Decided to go online and see what's been happening to the world, only to find a total of 26 deaths from A(H1N1) in the whole Malaysia... What the....!!!
10. It's 1.24 am now, way passed my bed time. Weekend's over and out. Tomorrow is the start of SPM Mock I exam and I know my students are pouring over books burning midnight oil last minutely at home, respectively. And so I pray that God will guide them when they are answering their paper tomorrow and until the end of exam. Amen.

Alright, till I have time to post an entry, Pax et Bonum, and God bless!

Trapped in Warfare

Okay....... This is one of the days where I feel trapped everywhere, and everywhere seems to be like distorted and disoriented, especially in school. Besides, it is as though everything I'm doing is becoming more and more meaningless. It has been happening since I came back from school break... When things started to get from bad to worse...

The Devil is indeed working very hard in this battle. And today I feel totally defeated by anger the first thing in the morning. And it continued until this moment. People, please pray for this only private Catholic mission school in whole Sabah which I'm working in now. The warfare is thickening as the day goes by. Many things are happening, not only to me but to all teachers, principal and the school's management. Everyone is affected but many do not understand. What is the effect of having a non-practising Catholic as the head of the school? Will he be transformed? Will he lead the school further and further away from God? Will this school be infested with worms and locusts? Will this school becomes a gathering of demons and evil spirits? Or will this school be filled with sunshines and rainbows soon? What can we do besides praying?

This warfare is worsen as day goes by... The negativity is building up... I need prayers, we all need prayers and intercessions from everybody who is reading this entry today. Just say a prayer for my school, my students, my colleagues and myself... The management of the school needs to start listening and understanding the plight of the teachers and the students instead of listening to craps everywhere. Who would understand the need of the students if not the teachers teaching them in school? Who would understand the need of the teachers if not the fellow teachers? If we're not being protected, are we not being swallowed by the Great Whites? I don't want to see the school eventually suffers the possibility of closing down due to man-made conditions. The school was started as a mission to evangelise to all and bring people closer to God... Are we doing it right?

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Mother Mary, pray for us.

St. Michael, pray for us.

All the holy angels and saints, pray for us.

Please be a prayer warrior today and start praying for my school (and maybe yours too). God bless all and thank you in advance for the prayers!

Alpha? Yes, Alpha.

Personally, I think I had posted a pathetic point of view during my last entry. And after a long period of silence, here's what had been happening in my life. Yups... As per image of the entry, Alpha course is what I've been attending rather faithfully for the past few Mondays. This course is organised by the church's Light of Jesus Christ Covenant Community (LJCCC) and I was encouraged by Aunty Agnes Kong to attend the course (on the funny basis that I need not cook on Monday evenings). What really encourages me to continue going week after week is the desire to know more about my own faith and also to go back to the basic. Many-a-times, we tend to forget our basics, the foundation of the church based on the the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, etc. This course is acting as a refreshment for me in order to deepen my relationship with God. And indeed, I hope, it is working out well.

I was in Pace Bene, Papar, for the Alpha weekend away, where we listened to the DVD talk by Nicky Gumbel about the Holy Spirit. I guess the highlight of the whole weekend was the ministry time where we were being prayed over. It was really good and I saw changes, really obvious ones, on some of my fellow group members. The obvious joy that is bubbling inside them was so contagious that spending a few minutes talking to them made me joyful inside too. The mass was celebrated by a hilarious priest, Fr. Eric Jerome. He spoke with such fervent and so much of zeal in him. He used very hilarious and down-to-earth type of examples when it comes to explaining about human relationships and our relationship with God, etc. Not forgetting the hilarious Uncle Patrick from the community who kept telling me that I have four angels with me ever since we first met him during Inner Healing and Transformation Seminar last November (2008). My friend, Irene, told me that Uncle Patrick told her he saw four angels laughing with me after I was being prayed over by Uncle Daniel Kong during the seminar in Bundu Tuhan. And he mentioned he has 10 angels with him. Amen to this uncle!

Of course, I was revealed a specific call to serve during this session. In fact, it was a continuation from the previous seminars and talks and worship sessions I had. The need of intercessors in the ministry seems to have caught up with me. I've spoken to Aunty Lucia, one of the intercessors of the community regarding the recent calls, which I personally would say, made by God through the Holy Spirit during my prayer time, worship sessions, when I was being ministered to. The short sharing with her this morning regarding my dad's condition and then about my question on "the call to be an intercessor" gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. The fuzzy and warm feeling gave me 100% assurance and comfort at the moment she smiled and started telling me how she intercedes for people. Never had I shared so openly about this call, and tonight, I actually felt the need to get it published on my blog.

So far, ever since I stepped down from Lifeline leadership, this is the first time I actually journaled openly about this call to serve. Though still in the midst of discerning and also I still need to speak to certain "authorities" in ministry about this call, I would love those who read my blog to pray for me and with me about this. The more the merrier when it comes to prayers. I'm unsure if I'm ready to share my dear sister's burden on interceding for our ministry, but what Aunty Lucia shared really encourages me to try it out. She told me that the intercessor will pray for the ministry and "transfers" the burdens transferred from the individual/ministry's shoulder to our shoulders to Jesus' shoulders. And then we will feel light and all. In fact, I would conclude from Aunty Lucia's sharing that God is more than happy to take the burdens of ministry from the shoulders of intercessors and intercessors should not take the burdens and keep them on their shoulders. I'm bad at transfering word-by-word message, but I guess this is the gist of it.

Time for me to go back to my pending work. Before leaving, I would really encourage everyone to attend Alpha course in your church (I know that many churches around the world are offering Alpha courses, including in Catholic churches!) because no matter how much we know about our church teachings, Scriptures and we have personal relationship with God and all, it is never too much to listen and understand the very basic facts on Christianity. Furthermore, we won't know when we'll meet a person who might require us to explain the basics to them. Do not fear that Alpha course may take you off from your own ministry. I, for one, still think that I'm called to be committed to the ministry that I'm already in.

Thank You, Lord God, for sending Aunty Agnes and all others to invite me to Alpha. Thank You for opening my eyes to things I've never really seen previously. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for guiding me and slowly revealing to me more and more each day. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your willingness to die for us because You love us. AMEN!

Pray for my Laptop

Hi readers, I'm back... With problems here and there... One of the obvious ones... I think my laptop is going blind soon~~~ His eyes (the screen) are blinking and showing signs of ageing. Oh my... Please pray he can go through the ordeal and be healed without needing repair etc. I need him to do teaching in class~~~

Please pray for the health of my laptop. The name of my laptop is 3LHP61S, Dell Inspiron 4150. He'll celebrate his 7th birthday in August this year...

Thanks!

Pray for Palestinians in Gaza Strip

I was watching news on NTV7 just now and the latest updates on the bombing in Gaza Strip was on. Please, my dear readers, please pray for ceasefire in Gaza Strip and peace of the world. People got too greedy with what we have until we fail to see the treasure of life given to us from God. Please, please, pray for the victims. Pray for a change of heart of the U.S. government so that they will use their veto power to stop the war instead of opposing peace in the world.

Thanks and God bless!!!

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
~ John 14:27 (NIV) ~

The Age of Movie Days

There was a period of time since 2007 to 2008 where watching movies was like going shopping for me. There was a friend, my constant companion for more than 365 days, who would be crazy enough to watch movies with me. All genre I'd say, unless it was a super-bad reviewed movie, we'd go for the movies for sure. I'd say my favourites were "Ratatouille" and "The Game Plan"... I remember watching "Blacksheep" somewhere last year, a movie on bioterrorism and genetic mutation and weird sheeps being vampire-ish. It was sort of a scary movie for me, I think I had lots of sound effects also. Somehow I sort of regretted not watching "Evan Almighty" instead... But God had a greater plan than just movies for me about "Evan Almighty"... But of course, "Blacksheep" is much better than "Quarantine" as there was an ending to the story, with the promise of a sequel (which I might not watch it if I were to go alone~~~)

Okay... What was the gist is this... I met some new friends right after the movie that day... My friend's friend and his girlfriend. Surprisingly the gf and me sort of struck a chord together and kept in touch up to this point... Ok, what's the other point? Few days ago she sent me this sms (guessing chinese characters making a sentence) which I couldn't decipher. After figuring out for a day plus, I gave in and asked her for answers... Well, sms went after sms... So she mentioned about watching movie together when we are free since we hadn't been watching any movie together since June if not mistaken... My friend, myself, her boyfriend and herself. Names were mentioned specifically! Haha! Great... At a point... I was a bit stuck as I didn't really know how to reply... I could only answer the typical "See how la when I get back" sort of answer knowing that chances are we probably wouldn't watch movies together until further notice. What a fib I am!! Sorry, gal... Too many things happened recently... If only you knew, but I don't you would... LOL! Sad tale, but I believe more happy tales will come for us soon~~~ Readers dearie... Pray for us! (those who know what story I have now and those who don't know...)

Now I can only ask God to provide me with the strength to carry on today... Another long and interesting day later~~ Can't wait to go to the beach with my colleagues~~ Yaya!!! I want good lunch also with Mirina... Hahahahaha!

Counting down... 28.5 hours to Inner Healing journey...

November 20, 2008, 11:37 PM

For the sake of Joanne, here's my part of ramblings~ I'm running out of titles for my blog entries... Maybe I should run a competition about blog entry titles???

JUST LIKE JESUS

Ok... Let's see... I finally finished reading "Just Like Jesus" by Max Lucado. It's a brilliantly-written book, with study guide at the back (which I haven't done it because I realized it only after 5 chapters away from the first). Oh well, it's giving me additional reasons why I SHOULD RE-READ the book AGAIN! Of course, for my spiritual health reason too~ You know what, my dear readers, I bought this book without knowing whether it was good or bad, because I saw the front cover and was attracted to it when I first stepped into Salvation Bookstore. Whenever I shared with others that I'm currently reading this book, I remember somebody told me she read the book... Two years ago... Haha! I never knew I was so out-dated~~ It's alright, I know God doesn't think of me that way. *Brushing off that thought now*

This IS a good book, good for my spiritual growth, I'd say... Now, every step that I'm taking, I just want to know Jesus, I just want to re-learn this process of loving relationship with Him.

Readers/Commentators Formation (Part II)
Tonight was the practical part. Fr. Cosmas gave a lengthy explanation on many things that I often wanted to know and ask, but many people couldn't answer me if I ask, thus I ended up not asking anymore. I couldn't explain in details here because I don't have the note with me. I'd say I really learned a lot from this two-day formation. Hopefully the Lifeline leaders who attended the formation will share what they had experienced to the others.

Invigilating
LOL! Two days of invigilating... Two days of berbuka puasa with others... FYI, buka puasa is my direct translation of "breakfast"! Haha! Well... Today we ate in the same shop opposite Kedai Kopi Tenom... *sob* Second attempt to eat the very-the-sedap ngiu chap but still unable to do so. The whole coffee shop was closed today!!! :( So I made myself very happy by drinking the Teh-C special with cincau again, together with food and crapping with Simon, Dot Wong, Bian and Harold Boo... Very happy and slept very well when I had a long afternoon nap. I know, it will make me fat, who cares?!

ETC
I'm attending a walk-in interview with some friends tomorrow morning. Exact details I don't think it is good to post it on such a public space for the time being. But just for the experience of it. If I get it, I praise God, if I don't, I thank God for what I have now. Just pray for me as I kinda attracted with the stuffs I saw online just now. It's at 10am. Thanks, my beloved readers.

Time to rest now. Good nite and God Bless!

Sacred Space

God calls us to various place. Today, I'd like to share this webpage known as Sacred Space with you who read what I posted. It is a daily prayer online and the reflection is superb.

I'm going through very tough times these days and I request you who read my entries to pray with me that I will be strengthened by God who lives and reigns in my life no matter under what circumstances. I know all is worth the sorrow and pain I'm going through because He is made visible in this part of my life. The loss I'm encountering is just for this moment. I still hope this loss is just a part of a bigger joy in future. And I pray God will grant my desire in His time.

To learn to love Him is like a baby learning to crawl, walk and talk. To learn to be loved by Him is even tougher. I'd say it is like a mother deciding to carry the baby in her womb to term.