Celebrating Mum's Birthday

Tonight, we were gathered in a restaurant in Batu Pahat to celebrate Mum's birthday. My sister Ping, the best event coordinator in my family, had assigned my third brother Leong to book the table and his wife Li Chia to order the birthday cake. Ping and I had bought for her the blouse she was wearing and a handbag according to her liking.

In my memory, it was the first time we both daughters posed together next to Mum since 2006. Can you imagine that we two had come out from her abdomen many years ago?

Ping had invited her new boyfriend to attend this dinner and he was the one who took this photo of us. With the absence of Dad who is with the Lord, my second brother Kee and his wife Ritsuko who are in the US, and my fourth brother Ah Yu, his wife Emi and their son Yuri who are in Japan, we looked like a rather small family.

We had requested the restaurant to specially prepare poon choi in advance. Many layers of different ingredients were served in a steamed pumpkin.

The most important dish to Mum was of course mee suah (flour vermicelli) which signified long life.

My niece Zer Nin who had cut her birthday cake earlier this month was again in front of another beautiful cake. She wondered why her grandmother, whose age was at least eight times hers, only needed to blow one candle. Ping's explanation was "If all the candles were put, the cake might be burnt!"

A former singing competition champion from Melaka had almost sung a birthday song to Mum on the phone in the afternoon. This evening, our "cast" included a former part-time pub singer in Taiwan who was Leong.

Zer Nin had also thought this dinner would be held at KFC like last time. Mum said to her, "My teeth will not be strong enough to bite fried chicken." I felt like telling Mum, "I know a 85-year-old man in Melaka who would be very excited to have fried chicken for his birthday meal!"

You've got the person, right?

All-American Boys Chorus At Calvary Life Assembly

In the evening with the Australian Boys Choir and the Kelly Gang, the audience was informed that there would be another concert at the end of this month to raise fund for the Wings Melaka, a non-profit organisation that runs the Early Intervention Programme (EIP) and the School Age Programme (SAP). Malacca Christianity and Culture Research Centre (MCCRC), the organiser, was going to bring in the All-American Boys Chorus.

This time, the venue was Calvary Life Assembly (CLA). Two Sundays ago before church service, I was approached by Irwne to help selling the tickets priced at RM40 each. Then my name appeared in the screen during the announcement, which confirmed my status as an official "saleslady".

I was planning to attend this concert myself. Among the Calvary Care Home (CCH) children, only David expressed to me his desire to see the Chorus. So I decided to sponsor him. Tuesday, I learned the good news that all of them would be given free admission. That night, I suddenly thought of Emmy and Felix who, I supposed, should appreciate this kind of cultural activity. Wednesday morning, I quickly contacted them and immediately received positive response that they would be free and were willing to financially support this charity event.

As Emmy and Felix did not know the location of CLA, I suggested that we met at a nearby petrol station yesterday. Due to miscommunication, they were not able to find the place at the appointed time. Thank God we managed to arrive at the church before 8pm. Many front seats were already occupied, so they sat at the back in the middle. Luke was keeping a row on the right available for the CCH gang. So I invited the Cuban couple to join us. After we moved, we realised that Emmy's friend Rani whom I had also encountered during the 10th International Convention of Melaka Twin Cities was sitting right in front of us. What a small world!

The programme started with Pastor James' welcome speech and opening prayer. It was followed by Andrew T.S. Goh and then Dr Lim Boon Hock's respective speech and presentation on MCCRC and Wings.

The long awaited All-American Boys Chorus cheered up the stage with their chili-red coats,

trained voices

and lively gestures.

I did not know most of the titles of Act 1 they presented. For this Asia tour, they had specially prepared late Teresa Teng's "Moon Represents My Heart" which pleased all the Chinese audience very much. These young choristers aged from 8 to 15 must have put a lot of effort in the pronunciation and the memorisation of the lyrics in Mandarin.

The CCH team was in charge of a stall to sell refreshments during the intermission. Actually the boys had already been on duty together with George to serve those who had arrived at CLA from outstation in the afternoon. Albert P who came later took over the cashier's job. Joshua who worked at the night shift was also giving a hand.

I asked Paul to photograph us as a group. When he passed my camera back to me, I only saw two "trees" instead of the whole "forest" in the picture. And the two other "trees" had been "chopped" in half...

The CCH boys had to follow Joshua back after clearing the stalls as they needed to get up early for school this morning. Albert who was tired and not very interested in the concert also left with his foster son. I returned to the sanctuary to sit on an empty chair next to Felix to continue to enjoy the live performances. It was a pity that I had missed the first five songs of the second act.

Felix was very excited to tell me the titles he was familiar with. He and Emmy always applauded loudly after every song.

Once he even stood up alone clapping! Emmy and I also rose from our chairs to to join in to show how much we had loved the performance.

A blond-haired chorister moved his body outstandingly from the beginning to the end. By simply looking at his shadow, I knew he would be a remarkable future candidate for the American Idol!

The programme was over after two hours. As a tradition, the choristers came down from the stage to shake hands with the audience. Felix was one of those who did not hesitate to give compliments to these boys from California.

I am very glad that my Cuban friends enjoyed the show and I thank God for His blessing and the wonderful companions He had sent to be with me yesterday evening.

Indonesian Home Cooked Meal At My Place

Last Saturday, as Bro Christian had to stay in the centre, he could not join us for lunch outside. We decided to leave Selandar early. So I invited Sarma and Kee Ming to drop by at my house. On the way, Sarma who had grown up in Indonesia recognized tapioca leaves at the roadside. I was also familiar these edible leaves because of VC. We made a U-turn and got down from the car. Sarma chose the fresh ones and plucked a big bunch of them.

When we arrived at my house, Sarma immediately offered help in the kitchen. After I took out a fish, eggs and vegetables from the fridge, I let her be the chef and happily played my role as her assistant. She was going to cook Indonesian dishes with the limited ingredients and spices.

I had bought a mortar and pestle about two or three years ago and hardly used it. My guests who became cooks in my house were the ones who usually made use of it. Interestingly, tapioca leaves were the things that were most often crushed in this mortar.

For the first time, sambal smell was released from my kitchen. After less than an hour, the rice and the accompanying dishes were ready. At about four o'clock in the afternoon, we were finally seated at the table to have our lunch together.

Kee Ming was the hungriest among us. But he only wanted little rice on the first serving. So he passed some of it to his wife's plate. I scooped a lot in my plate to share with Sarma but she who had a small appetite did not accept it. I them took a picture of them and forgot to pour some of my rice back to the rice cooker. After I started eating, I realised it was too much for me.

The sambal was so appetising that my guests themselves could not resist the second serving of rice to eat with the salad, two cooking versions of tapioca leaves and fried fish. And I also emptied my plate despite my weight losing programme!

I had longed for this small gathering with Sarma and Kee Ming since I knew them at the end of 2008. Having friends with me in my home sweet home is always one of the most wonderful moments in my life.

Second Visit To Selandar

After my first trip to Selandar early this month, I thought my second visit would be many months later. Last week, Sarma telephoned me, asking me if I could conduct an English class with the Orang Asli children on the following Saturday because Pastor Joseph, their usual teacher, would be away to Kuala Lumpur. Since I would be staying in Melaka, I agreed to help.

This time, our team only consisted of Sarma, Kee Ming and me. Since I commited myself to Calvary Care Home instead of the BM service on Sunday afternoons, I seldom had a chance to chat with this young couple. Thus, I seized this occasion to have some heart talks with them during the journey in their car.

Ps Joseph had already written all the teaching instructions on paper to make our job easy.

The lesson was about "My body". Most of our pupils actually knew the vocabulary quite well.

To make sure they really understood the meaning, we asked them to show their eyes, ears, nose, face, head, etc individually when saying the related word.

We three took turns to be the main teacher.

A boy who wanted to run away from the class was pulled back by Kee Ming to specially pay attention to him.

As there was much time left, Sarma did a short Bible teaching.

As usual, there were some boys who were not serious in class but were embarassed to show their faces when I was taking a photograph of them.

Before the class was dismissed, we sang together to worship the Lord. Kee Ming then annointed each child with oil.

While others were having lunch, Jeeva reminded me that he still remembered the spider face that he had learned from me. He also passed the skill to his friend.

Very soon, another girl was affected by the "spider virus"

and they formed a group for future performances.

I quickly grabbed the two girls over for my own band "Spider Girls".

Would you buy our albums,

join our fan club,

or prefer a South-East Asian version of The Corrs?

Sarma and Kee Ming, the two future pastors, were having fellowship with Bro Johan, the one in charge of the Orang Asli in Asahan,

and Bro Christian who had just arrived from Indonesia one month ago

while I continued to be approached by other little girls who kindly sketched my round face on the white board.

Unlike the previous time, they were no longer shy to pose in front of my camera

and were keen to be photographers themselves.

I liked this second visit to Selandar more than the first one because of the closer contact with the children and of the small service I was able to give. I came back from Selandar feeling rejuvenated again.

Burger And "Volcano" Treat For Daniel's Birthday Celebration

Last December, I started to find out which months and days the Calvary Care Home (CCH) children had been born. To me who had grown up in a family which used to attach little importance to birthday celebration of the members, it was a big effort to recall all these boys' dates of birth which were not easy to remember.

Daniel's was among the last I had jotted down in the Calvary Life Assembly calendar because even he himself had no knowledge of it until I saw the date in one of the documents related to him and told him about it a few months ago.

The Sunday before 15 July, he reminded me, "This coming Thursday is my birthday!" Actually I had already planned to bake a cake for him during one of the following weekdays. His eager voice showed that he had been looking forward to his turn after participating in other boys' birthday celebrations this year. Knowing that he loved burgers to the extent of earning himself the nickname, a new idea popped into my mind. So I said to him, "I didn't forget. We're going to celebrate with burgers for dinner this Saturday."

Last Saturday afternoon, Luke and Daniel were the only boys around when I arrived at CCH. Daniel helped to spread margarine on the bread while Luke grilled it and the burget meat. Then I spread chopped cabbage mixed with mayonnaise, chili sauce, placed two slices of tomato and a piece of meat, spread chili sauce again and placed two slices of cucumber. When the meal was almost ready, the rest, except for John and Isaac who were still doing work in the church, came back from the tuition centre. They began to voice their preferences when I was serving the buns.

Paul said, "Add more chili sauce."

David said, "Don't put cucumber in my burger."

Matthew said, "I want one slice of cucumber only."

His foster father Albert P said, "Give me the slice that he doesn't want."

Daniel was already drooling at the mouth in front of his favorite fastfood but Luke had gone missing temporarily.

While waiting for Luke to come to the dining table, I offered the birthday star a choice between two burgers and one single burger with double meat. He chose the latter.

Finally, everyone's burger was unique.

This time, I had taken a coconut cake recipe that I had copied in France because it did not required any butter or margarine, which I thought would be a less fatty dessert after the high-calorie main dish. When it was out from the oven, I realised the consequence of not following exactly the measurements--It resembled an extinct volcano with fissure vents.

I also used the same ingredients to make muffins for Mum who happened to be in Melaka last weekend. After chewing one, she described it as "tough enough to beat a dog!" I hope she understood better why I always let my sister Ping be the birthday cake baker for our mother who had fragile teeth.

And below were the comments of CCH "guinea pigs" of my food experiment--

David said, "It isn't like the ones you made before." He must have been missing even the "earthquake" cake on Luke's birthday.

Albert said, "You can't find this kind of homemade cake in shops." The meaning behind was that shops would refuse to sell this product.

Sis Annie who dropped by simply frowned at the sight of the structure of the cake. Without even having a bite, she exclaimed, "Why so hard!" I quietly put two pieces in a beautiful box, and together with two burgers I passed the whole plastic bag to her to take away to share with her daughter Adrienne at home...

What happened to the leftover cake kept in the fridge later? The next day it was still there, only without the chocolate "lava" anymore. Maybe even John, my most faithful supporter, was not willing to take the risk to taste other layers of the "volcano".

John, I'll improve my baking skill for your coming birthday.

Visitors From South Korea To Calvary Care Home

Last two Sundays, Albert P announced to us that a group of South Koreans would be coming to Calvary Care Home (CCH) on 13 July. At first, I thought the visit might be related to my trip in South Korea more than one month earlier during which I had given a CCH card to my tour guide Jeson. Later, when I talked to Siew Hong about this, she told me that Pastor Roy, who was in charge of arranging this trip, had already been based in Melaka as a consultant of WEC (Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ) Partners in Malaysia for one year.

As I was exceptionally free this whole Tuesday afternoon, I was very glad to be able to help to receive the guests. Very soon, the workers George and Joshua brought the visitors with two vans, led by Ps Roy and Ps Joshua Kim from Walpyung Hill church in South Korea.

After hearing comments that he looked like a Korean, the CCH administrator finally had a chance to be surrounded by real Koreans. Unfortunately, he could not even pronounce a greeting word in Korean correctly. Nonetheless, his effort was appreciated by our brothers and sisters in Christ who kindly clapped their hands in return.

As many of these Koreans could not understand English very well, Ps Joshua gave a simple translation in their mother tongue of Albert's presentation.

Compared to the other time with the folks from Muar, this session of the "Albert Talk Show" was much more moderate. The host did not highlight the CCH boy's academic achievement.

Anyway, the South Korean visitors were only interested to know if the boys opened their hearts to accept them as friends, not their results in schools.

After their self introduction, our new friends turned the living room into a stage where they lively presented two praise songs in English

and Korean respectively,

and a meaningful short performance about our lives when we have Jesus as our everything,

and when we allow the devil to control us with the love of money, depression, alchoholism and lust.

Of course, if we repent of our sins

and turn to our Lord, we will always overcome the world, like Jesus.

I enjoyed this skit as much as the one by the Doulos team last November.

Next, the young adults took out balloons

and painting materials they had brought.

Not only they were talented in singing, dancing and acting,

they were also good at art.

The former full-time guardian Sis Fei Gin happened to step into the home during these interesting activities. It was a pity that she did not stay long. Otherwise, she would have got some beautiful flowers on her face

like Albert

and me.

Looking at Daniel, I thought of the face paint I had done to the children in the Philippines in September 2008.

David's face with white stripes reminded me of the aborigines in Australia.

Paul would have given me a fright if he had suddenly appeared from the back passengers' seat of my car while I was driving.

Needless to say, Luke's "facial flag" could have gained from Germany a free entrance ticket of every match of FIFA World Cup the team was playing to thank his fervent support.

Our painters themselves looked cute with moustache or musical notes on their sweet faces.

The visitors in their yellow T-shirts now cheered CCH up more by organizing outdoor games.

While most of them were playing with the children in the field,

George plucked ripe rambutans from the trees to make our guests from East Asia taste these tropical fruits. He also put a lot in a big plastic bag to let them take away.

Albert left to check out available seats at a nearby restaurant where all of us were going to have a meal together. The home administrator whose mind was in South Korea had forgot about the green flower and yellow dots on his left cheek. When he came back, he told me that his already handsome face had drawn even more admirers...

We entered the house again to rest for awhile. While getting ready to leave for dinner, Ps Joshua represented the group to express their desire to have a long-term contact with the CCH children by pairing them up as pen pals.

During the past three hours, they had already developed some friendship with the younger boys as well as the older ones John

and Isaac.

Matthew whose participation was the least active had not lost his popularity. He had two vibrant fellows to write to him in future and to add in his Facebook friends' list.

At seven o'clock, we went to "Chicken Delight" at Bukit Baru.

Our South Korean guests continued to bless us by giving us a treat and souvenirs from their country.

I suppose Sis Martha, the CCH cook, would have preferred serving others, like the Bible character with the same name, rather than being served.

The juniors were gathering around a long table

while the seniors were having fellowship at another table near the wall.

Where was I seated? You guess.

We said goodbye to one another outside the restaurant and looked forward to meeting again at Calvary Life Assembly this coming Sunday morning.