Nigel's Birthday Celebration

Tuesday afternoon at 5 o'clock, I was invited to Grace's son Nigel's birthday celebration. After work, the mother quickly went home to start cooking. Komathy gave her a helping hand.

While the adults were busy in the house, the children were still happily playing outside with their friends. They had just discovered a few newly-born kittens.

I asked the siblings to go home to wait for the guests.

Very soon, children from the neighbourhood arrived.

Many of the Seri Siantian flat residents got to know Grace's family because of Harap Learning Centre (HLC) where she was teaching.

Grace had prepared fried kuehteow, fried meehoon, hotdogs, nuggets and chicken wings. Mrs Ee who could not come had given agar-agar.

Nigel's grandfather had sponsored a 2-kilo cake with a design of an aeroplane, knowing that the grandson's ambition is to become a pilote when he grows up.

This 8-year-old boy also received a toy car from the parents, a pencil box from me and other stationery from his peers.

After the birthday star blew the candles, his mother cut a small piece of cake to feed him as the tradition. The father who was still at work had missed these scenes. Since I was there with my camera, Grace could show her husband the photographs later.

Sis Aidah came with her three lovely children. Every time I saw their big round eyes, I would unconsciously try to make my eyes wide open.

Theresa, a former HLC teacher, also appeared with her two sons.

Though more than a dozen children were present there, all of them were very well behaved when serving or eating the food. None was making the place noisy or messy. I was impressed.

Nigel requested that I took a picture of him. He did not want to open his mouth to smile because of some flaws of his teeth.

His best friend Fikri also followed his example and finally both of them posed with a serious look.

One day, they will realise that women's eyes zoom in to men's character, not appearance.

My Blissful Moments Opening Ceremony

Yesterday My Blissful Moments Wedding Accessories Shop was officially opened. The most excited person was of course the boss Kitty Lim

and her boyfriend Wee Yen who were wearing their specially designed aprons.

It was also an occasion for the couple's families to meet up.

Being Ping's siblings, Ah Yu

and I also put on the working uniforms, thinking that we were going to get ready to help promoting the items and serving the customers.

The reality was that as soon as the buffet lunch was ready at 11am, we forgot about our initial plan and followed the first guests to fill our plates with the food that the caterers were promoting and serving.

Those were indeed our blissful moments...

Harap Learning Centre June Special Programme

Yesterday afternoon, there was a special programme at Harap Learning Centre (HLC) Bukit Baru, Melaka from 3.30pm onwards. When I arrived at around 3 o'clock, the children, dressed in traditional or modern costumes, were already sitting there as a group.

Though recently I had not been there often, I immediately recognised most of these cute,

sweet,

adorable,

or funny faces.

Sis Grace's daughter was also invited to join the other children. She was beautifully dressed up like her mother.

As the HLC administrator, Mrs Ee was no doubt the busiest person in charge of the preparations of this event. Dr Peggy Wong from Living Hope and her friend had come all the way from Kuala Lumpur with their driver to bring packets of seaweed crackers to bless the needy, HLC staff as well as volunteers.
Sis Theresa had resigned to focus on her family. Besides Sis Grace, now we had another teacher Sis Khadijah and a new cook Sis Komathy.

The children were waiting patiently and quietly until the teachers gave them the instruction to stand up and sing songs in English together.

The audience was of course their supportive neighbours from Seri Siantan flat.

Next, it was the fashion show. Some looked gorgeous,

some were shy to walk in front of the crowd,

some made us think of a certain late artist,

and some learned very fast to pose for photographs.

During the following session, the children put on funny animal masks

and sang with actions. Their wonderful performances were rewarded by the clapping from the audience

and snacks.

Dr Wong, the coordinator of HLC Bukit Baru, turned up just on time for the cutting cake ceremony to celebrate the 4th anniversary of Living Hope.

Everybody who was present there either inside or outside the centre was given a share of the moist cake.

To dismiss the HLC children, gift packs

which contained groceries

were given away to their families first.

Ps Joanne from City Community Church had kindly sent volunteers to help with the registration so that other needy families received the packs according to their numbers. The three little cuties from the Sajar family had never missed to appear at any special events of HLC.

I believe that when they grow up, they will in return be blessings to other people in need.

Transforming Our City Together (TOCT) Conference 2011 VI

The highlight of 9th April at Kompleks Masyarakat Penyayang was the TOCT exhibition.

More than 30 organizations from both non-profit and corporate sectors from all over the country were displaying their community and nation transformation work. Some of the projects are similar to Projek Harap which reaches out to underprivileged children.

Last year, our Melaka team was having the A CIKGU booth. Caroline and Philippe continued their effort to bring influences in the field of education under MAGPIE. This year, Joel had done a good job preparing the pictures and wordings, and setting up the booth to show the activities at Harap Learning Centre Bukit Baru.

Among visitors who dropped by at all the booths and chatted with exhibitors were the two buddies from Kuala Lumpur.

Andrew had got to know me last June after he had discovered my blog entries about EFC Leadership Summit 2010. I was glad to meet him in person ten months later.

Ray had also begun to be aware of my existence at the same period though we both had attended the two-day event in Penang in April 2010. Later through my blog updates, he read about the Harap Learning Centre in Melaka. As the Authentic Manhood (AM) national coordinator, he was surprised to learn that I had even joined the AM class once.

Last January, the reader finally took the initiative to get connected with the blogger.

I stayed at the Projek Harap booth in the afternoon. So I did not go to any of the mini seminars conducted by Marketplace Penang, Voice Your Choice, Real Love Ministry, Mary Kay Skin Care,and Marianna Pascal (the author of "English Fast & Easy") which many found very interesting. Sometimes, I walked around to visit other booths. The Tupperware booth stood out with the big space they were occupying in the middle of the exhibition hall and the activities they were organising.

I let one of the persons in charge paint my palm with different colours and pressed it on the white board.

Then I participated in a quiz, answered a question correctly and won a small plastic container.

That evening, I took the express bus with the Sajar family, Grace's family, Sis Grace and Joel to go back to Melaka together. These two days' experience were again an eye opener for me to see miracles as a result of the love of God.