Two Surgeons-Librarians In The Calvary Care Home Office

Sunday afternoons, when the Calvary Care Home (CCH) boys were having free activities in the compound, Albert P would spend some time in the office. Even though nowadays he only stepped into it once a week as the home administrator, he always made sure the documents within his eyesight were arranged neatly. Once he requested that I took a picture of him keeping the office so clean and tidy.

Two Sundays ago after I came back from the opening of Harap Learning Centre, I suggested to Albert that we checked if there were any donated items which the CCH boys no longer needed and with which we could perhaps bless the preschoolers from poor families at Bukit Baru who would be attending the centre. He agreed and let me start to look inside the drawers.

That afternoon, besides a considerable quantity of stationery, I also found clothes confiscated from the boys as a consequence of neglecting their personal belongings during Sis Fei Gin's term. Before I left, I put the clothes into different bags to either give away through Sis Annie or pass to Daniel whose size could fit into some.

Having discovered his assistant's additional "talent", Albert created new "office work" last Sunday--reorganising the shelves. As we began to move books and boxes, I realised that we not only had to get rid of unused items but also dust which was laying and flowing everywhere.

Not willing to inhale more dirty air in addition to the haze which was already quite present in this season, I said to Albert, "I think we need to put on masks!" He immediately responded, "There are some inside one of the drawers." Two minutes later, the two "librarians" had a surgeon's look.

I had never worn any face protection even when going out during the SARS outbreak or the bird flu pandemic. This time, I had to cover my face due to air pollution in an office!

When I walked to and fro between the kitchen and the office to wash and rinse the piece of cloth which I used to wipe the surface of the shelves and cupboards, no boys noticed me except for John who was having tuition in the dining room. He looked stunned when staring at my masked face.

While the home administrator kept throwing things which he judged useless, I kept picking up again many of them from the garbage bag to reuse or recycle later. I managed to secure a box of books.

After two hours' work, we were done with the first "surgery". All Shelves were clean and some were empty. Next time, we will "operate" the stationery drawers which are now in a mess.

Batu Pahat: Hutan Lipur

Four years ago, I often joined YT, who was preparing herself to climb Mount Kota Kinabalu, to walk up the stairs at Hutan Lipur when I was back to Batu Pahat on weekends. After her trip to Sabah, we still went there quite regularly. Later, the number of my returns to my hometown reduced and YT was busy with her family buisness. As a result, we hardly gathered for tea in town, let alone outing to the forest. Moreover, as she hurt her foot, we did not resume the activity since.

Recently, we talked about exercising again. Last weekend, we finally made up our mind to exercise again. Saturday morning, the sky was unusually hazy. I thought our outdoor programme might be cancelled. In the afternoon, the weather was much better. YT picked me and Mum, whom I had invited to come along. When we reached Soga Perdana, several cars were already parked there.

A few boys had cycled there. When I saw their bicycles, I began to miss the ones I had in the past.

As soon as I took out my camera, both Mum and YT said to me, "Don't take my pictures!" So, I photographed two cute monkeys instead.

Though I do not behave like a fish when I am in the water, I am like a deer when I see the forest.

Three of us actually climb steps quite a lot in our daily lives--YT in her double-storey shop lot, Mum in our double-storey house and I in my sixteen-level campus building. To avoid the crowd in the lifts before and after class hours, I always walk up or down the stairs, which cause my high-heeled shoes spoilt faster than my colleagues'.

It was a more pleasant experience to climb the stairs in the nature thanks to the fresh air, beautiful scenery and nice company. We passed by a petai (parkia speciosa) tree which was extremely tall. I told YT that petai is expensive probably because it is very difficult to get its beans which grow at such a hight.

Mum already breathed heavily during the first minutes. So she stopped at the first turning while YT and I continued our journey.

We two also U-turned at another turning, like we used to do. When we were about to make a same second trip, Mum received a call from Ping to inform us that we were to meet Leong's family at a restaurant by 6.30pm to celebrate Zer Yih's birthday. As a result, we had to leave earlier than planned.

Taking it as a warm-up, I was not too disappointed. My next target is to reach the top to see the panorama of Batu Pahat, a view which I had last known in December 2006.

Dinner At Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant Melaka

Two Sundays ago, Albert P told me that Calvary Care Home (CCH) was going to be given a dinner treat at a Korean restaurant at Melaka Raya by the Rotary Club on Monday 11th October and I was also invited to go with the gang. Since last May, I had been looking forward to eating a la Korean again. How quickly God granted my wish!

According to the address given by the person in charge George, Daorae BBQ Restaurant is just across Carrefour of Dataran Pahlawan. Having passed by the place by car or on foot so many times, I was not aware of its existence. Albert also had no idea of its exact location. He almost wanted to rely on his GPS to trace it. Finally, a call to George led us to reach the destination on time by 6pm.

After the whole day of watching my students' videos with many scenes of them role-playing at eateries, it was nice to be my turn to relax at a restaurant in a real-life situation. I was given a very strategic seat.

Sitting between Albert, who was fit again before this dinner but needed to avoid spicy and oily food though he intended to eat a lot, and Luke, who was recovering from his lack of appetite due to fever earlier, I could easily have access to the two same sets of dishes served on my side and on the home administrator's side instead of crossing my chopsticks with theirs all the time.

Daniel who was right in front of me was sick. David who had long awaited that evening to open his stomach was far from me, which saved my trouble of competing with him to grab the food. I supposed Matthew who did not like Japanese cuisine was not going to appreciate Korean dishes either. John who was in the midst of exams and Paul who was under discipline were not joining us.

I must confess that my "happiness" there and then was being built on the "suffering" of other diners...

The variety of free flow banchan (steamed, marinated, or stir-fried vegetables or shredded squid usually seasoned with sesame oil, salt, vinegar, minced garlic, chopped green onions, dried chili peppers, and soy sauce, served as side dishes) to accompany round rice evoked my memory of those days when Mum and I were savouring the local specialities during our trip to South Korea.

At our table, there was a lady Dolly who had brought children and staff from Salvation Army, the other organization blessed with the same meal. She had already been to this restaurant on her own a few times and seemed to be a Korean food lover too. She could tell whether the taste was authentic or had been modified to suit Malaysians' tongues.

That evening, what I cared most was whether the taste suited the CCH gang's tongues, especially my gluttonous "son" who was the best representative. Unfortunately, David was less interested in pajeon (Korean pancake) than our Malaysian roti cheese.

The CEO of Daorae Restaurant wearing spectacles and a white shirt appeared to give a simple speech in a friendly way. He told us that they had prepared typical South Korean party food for us because our gathering was like a party.

It was a pity that there was no karaoke session during the "party". Otherwise, we could have requested the CCH administrator, who was invited to pose together with Dolly, the A Famosa Club members and the management of the restaurant, to present one or two songs to entertain us.

Anyway, Albert's singing might not have energised Daniel who was still down with fever. This boy rather closed his eyes to listen to his own sipping of seaweed soup.

He loved it so much that he asked the waiter to bring him two, three extra servings. Had there been any seaweed soup drinking competition, he would have surely won!

When we came out from the restaurant, it was already dark. After the tasty meal, the two homes were blessed with boxes of Korean snacks, sweeties and instant noodles.

Now I know where to look for it when I miss Korean food again.

Last Class With My First Batch of Business Students

This week is my last teaching week this year. My groups are usually homogeneous--The Tourism students enjoy all kinds of trips, the TESL (Teaching English As A Second Language) students are active in interaction, the Administrative Science students look serious, the Finance students are shy and quiet. Last two semesters, I had a new group of Business students from different programmes--twenty over boys and girls major in either Marketing, Human Resource or International Banking.

At the end of the first semester, we had lunch together at a cafe. The following semester, they organised a breakfast.

My stomach began to get used to having spaghetti and hot dogs instead of bread or biscuits only in the morning.

My eyes also began to get used to seeing Malays who cannot stand hot chillies.

These boys called themselves "Bujang Mewah (Luxurious Bachelors) Hot, Hot, Hot!". With a grin on their faces, they liked to talk among them and laugh loudly. Even during tests, I had to constantly remind them "This is a test, not a group discussion!"

Their demeanour always cheered up the whole class. Although most of the girls were not so talkative, they definitely smiled more with their lively classmates' presence.

This Monday, they submitted their final project. After one and a half year's "training", they had gained language competence as well as acting skills.

A few thoughtful girls had bought a cake on behalf of the class to thank me. I jokingly said to them, "Is this for me? Then no need to take it out from the box. I'll bring it back to my house!" Of course, each of the twenty-seven of us finally had a share of this moist and creamy cake.

Dear students, I'll see you somewhere in the corridors or at the staircase and say "bonjour" again!

Opening Of The First Harap Learning Centre In Malaysia

Last April during the EFC Leadership Summit 2010, I was very touched by Ps Elisha Satvinder's testimony. Founder of the Harvest Centre in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, he and his team have been serving the community living in poverty by providing them with free medical check ups, grocery support, home repair, counselling and educational programmes. Their great work has inspired many.

Later in one of the MLM classes in Melaka, Ps Richard presented Projek Harap, a project which provides pre-school education, meals, support and a place of rest for the children of the poor throughout Malaysia, regardless of their ethnic groups.

Two months ago, Dr Wong talked about a Malay Sajar's family in the flat where his clinic is operating. Piek See mobilised us to do something for this family who were living less than 1km from where we had been gathering twice a month to learn the servant leadership since 2008. As a result, some of our classmates volunteered to spring clean, paint their house which was in an abominable condition and shift in new furniture and household items on the Merdeka holiday. Hosting the Calvary Care Home retreat at my house, I was not free to join these wonderful people whose physical efforts transformed every corner of the house. As Hari Raya was approaching, Mr Ee's family were in charge of bringing SJ's family members with two cars to shop for new clothes, an activity which was totally unknown to the children who, according to Mrs Ee, expressed their joy on their excited faces.

Giving hope to a family in need, Melaka also pioneered in the first Harap Learning Centre in Malaysia. The fact that the centre would be located in the same flat as SaJar's family made it more significant. I was not directly involved in the preparations of this opening. I only remembered Ps Richard had announced that it would take place on the Sunday 10th Octobre and he was expecting that the fresh paint would be dry by then. So I offered to take photographs of this event and thought there would be an official invitation via email.

Last Sunday after the church service, I sent the Calvary Care Home(CCH) boys back as usual. As two of them were down with fever and the home administrator had not fully recovered from nausea, I stayed back with them until our weekly meeting was over and they started to rest. Then only I abandoned them temporarily to go to the event. I had left my hand phone behind in my house that morning, so I could not contact anybody to find out the exact time and venue. After I parked my car in front of the flat at Bukit Baru which was about 3 minutes' driving distance from CCH, I just prayed that the Holy Spirit would guide me to the place. As I trotted towards the back of the building, I saw a Malay man sweeping the floor outside a shop lot. I walked towards his direction and that was it!

Besides Ps Richard and Piek See who came down all the way from Kuala Lumpur, Mr and Mrs Ee, Dr Wong and two other persons were seated around a table since 2pm to discuss about various tasks to be carried out or followed up before the centre would be fully operational.

Two, three children were playing in the centre as well. Later, I was told that they were from SaJar's family and the man earlier was their father SaJar!

The meeting was already towards the end. After 15 minutes, Ps Richard and Piek See were leaving to pay a surprise visit and give some encouragement to the volunteers who were dutifully helping in the voters registration at Dataran Pahlawan. I went back to CCH to be with my other God's given family.

It had been a simple opening to make the community aware that there is a group of God's servants who genuinely care for them.

I am very blessed and honoured to be part of this team to continue to bring hope to people whom God loves as much as He loves me.

Health Is A Great Thing In Life To Thank God For

Last Tuesday morning when I opened my eyes from the sleep, I felt dizzy. In my memory, it had never happened to me at wake-up times. I had to leave for work in about 45 minutes. I was scheduled to be out in town until late evening because of my two classes to attend, which I would not like to miss. And I might have a meeting in the afternoon. Knowing that Jesus is the Healer, I immediately sought Him by prayer, after which I moved my bowels several times and the urge to vomit was gone little by little.

Feeling much better, I managed to take a shower. Nevertheless, the sensation of nausea was not totally gone. So I abandoned my chicken cheese bun and doughnut which were already laying on the dining table. Instead, I put a packet of Marie biscuits and an apple in my bag to fill my empty stomach later. As I was getting ready to go, I was still a bit weak but I kept telling myself that I was going to be OK.

During my driving journey, I was recovering more and more. I suddenly thought of chronic patients. While I happily take my breakfast as soon as I wake up every morning, many of these people must be suffering the way I had experienced earlier, if not worse. Before I reached the campus, I was back to my usual physical condition again. Praise the Lord! Regretting not to have brought the two buns, I quickly munched the biscuits in my office five minutes before I walked to another building and climbed the stairs to the seventh floor. I was able to talk loudly in class as usual and felt myself energetic enough to even chase after wild boars!

That day, I decided to just have the apple for lunch and to continue "fasting" until evening. After my MLM class, I joined the supper outing. I had an exceptional appetite for the late meal thanks to my morning sickness.

The following days, I learned that a few people I knew had fallen sick and were down with a fever. Many of them were either on medical leave or lying in bed covered with blankets. I realised that my good health is indeed one of the greatest things in my life I should thank God for.

Nick Vujicic's Testimony

Two Sundays ago after the church service, Albert P invited the Calvary Care Home gang to his house to watch two DVDs, first of which was Nick Vujicic's testimony.

This morning when I was clearing old emails, I realised that I had already read about him in September 2008.
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My name is Nick Vujicic and I give God the Glory for how He has used my testimony to touch thousands of hearts around the world! I was born without limbs and doctors have no medical explanation for this birth "defect". As you can imagine, I was faced with many challenges and obstacles.

"Consider it pure joy, my Brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds."

.... To count our hurt, pain and struggle as nothing but pure joy? As my parents were Christians, and my Dad even a Pastor of our church, they knew that verse very well. However, on the morning of the 4th of December 1982 in Melbourne (Australia), the last two words on the minds of my parents was "Praise God!". Their firstborn son had been born without limbs! There were no warnings or time to prepare themselves for it. The doctors were shocked and had no answers at all! (There is still no medical reason why this had happened and Nick now has a brother and sister who were born just like any other baby.)

The whole church mourned over my birth and my parents were absolutely devastated. Everyone asked, "if God is a God of Love, then why would God let something this bad happen to not just anyone, but dedicated Christians?" My Dad thought I wouldn't survive for very long, but tests proved that I was a healthy baby boy just with a few limbs missing.

"And we know that in all things God works for the best for those who love Him." That verse spoke to my heart and convicted me to the point where that I know that there is no such thing as luck, chance or coincidence that these "bad" things happen in our life.

I had complete peace knowing that God won't let anything happen to us in our life unless He has a good purpose for it all. I completely gave my life to Christ at the age of fifteen after reading John 9. Jesus said that the reason the man was born blind was "so that the works of God may be revealed through Him." I truly believed that God would heal me so I could be a great testimony of His Awesome Power. Later on I was given the wisdom to understand that if we pray for something, if it's God's will, it'll happen in His time. If it's not God's will for it to happen, then I know that He has something better.

I now see that Glory revealed as He is using me just the way I am and in ways others can't be used.

I am now twenty-three years old and have completed a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Financial Planning and Accounting. I am also a motivational speaker and love to go out and share my story and testimony wherever opportunities become available. I have developed talks to relate to and encourage students through topics that challenge today's teenagers. I am also a speaker in the corporate sector.

I have a passion for reaching out to youth and keep myself available for whatever God wants me to do, and wherever He leads, I follow.

I have many dreams and goals that I have set to achieve in my life. I want to become the best witness I can be of God's Love and Hope, to become an international inspirational speaker and be used as a vessel in both Christian and non-Christian venues. I want to become financially independent by the age of 25, through real estate investments, to modify a car for me to drive and to be interviewed and share my story on the "Oprah Winfrey Show "! Writing several best-selling books has been one of my dreams and I hope to finish writing my first by the end of the year. It will be called "No Arms, No Legs, No Worries!"

I believe that if you have the desire and passion to do something, and if it's God's will, you will achieve it in good time. As humans, we continually put limits on ourselves for no reason at all! What's worse is putting limits on God who can do all things. We put God in a "box". The awesome thing about the Power of God, is that if we want to do something for God, instead of focusing on our capability, concentrate on our availability for we know that it is God through us and we can't do anything without Him. Once we make ourselves available for God's work, guess whose capabilities we rely on? God's!

ONLY FEAR IN LIFE IS THAT I FORGET HOW GOD HAS LED ME IN THE PAST!
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Two years later when I read this written testimony again, I felt even more related to this man whose life, like mine, had been transformed by God's Word.

Though physically we are quite different, spiritually we are the same--"to become the best witnesses we can be of God's Love and Hope".