Last Sunday Of 2009

On the last Sunday of 2009, the Calvary Care Home (CCH) boys were still having sweet dreams in their bedroom while Albert P was sweatily cleaning the messy kitchen left by them. To comfort him that most guys I knew did not care for cleanliness and tidiness, I told him about my Japanese friend whose bathroom was a nursery for mushrooms and whose rice cooker for fungus. Two hours later, when I wanted to cook rice before we all left for the service at the church, I also discovered some abstract art of leftover rice inside the rice cooker.

David, Matthew and Daniel got into my car to go to Calvary Life Assembly (CLA). They pleaded me to drive slowly, so that we would not reach the church so early. To these children, the Sunday service was like the weekly assembly in school and the sermon was like the principal's long-winded speech.

God must be joking with us. The first two traffic lights were not functioning. As we were on the main road, we had the priority to pass both junctions. So I took this opportunity to tell the boys that our life is like a journey. We need God to tell us when to do or not to do certain things, like the traffic lights to show us when to stop and when to go. Without God, we have to move every step at our own risk. Even though our life might still look successful, a hidden danger can occur suddenly to ruin us.

I also shared with the boys that the more God's children try to run away from Him, the closer He will draw them back to Him, which was my case. Then I prophesied that the following traffic lights would be all green so that we would even reach the church much earlier than expected. True enough, I did not have to brake at all! The boys were amazed at the smooth traffic all the way to CLA. I thanked God for helping me with my "preaching".

In the afternoon, John T who was dealing with a project nearby dropped by at CCH to play table tennis with the boys.

When he was about to leave, somebody telephoned him. Albert who had just come back from outside also received a call. So both men sat on the grass, busy talking with their gadgets in their hands and their cars at their back.

Matthew and Luke came onto the "stage" to pose smartly, making the scene even more manly. Not possessing a car of their own, the background object these two handsome boys were sharing between them was the mop hanging on the fence.

Since there was leftover chicken curry in the fridge for the children's dinner, I planned to go back to my house early to take a rest. I was shifting my bags into my car when Albert said to me, "Can you stay here one more hour? My intention was to celebrate your birthday with the boys." All of them had known about my belated birthday when Wilson who had come back to the Care Home on the Christmas day shouted to me, "Sis, yesterday was your birthday, right? I learnt it on Facebook."

Actually I longed to take a shower and get changed at my place as I had no more clean clothes in my bags. But since it was another occasion for us to have fun like last time with Albert's birthday celebration, I agreed to spare some more time for them. So Albert and Isaac quickly went out again to do some shopping.

More than half an hour later, there were a beautiful chocolate cake to cut, a cheerful birthday song to sing together and a new birthday wish to make in the living room. David had secretly dropped a birthday gift in my car during our outing the previous day, which I had not yet unwrapped.

This time, Albert was the one who marched in, carrying a nice paper bag with a surprise inside. He had got the idea through a conversation with me at Dataran Pahlawan.

All of them left their signatures on the lovely birthday present with a marker. From now onwards, I had a fluffy bear to hug on my bed.

Thanks again, my big and small angels of CCH!

Outing With Care Home Boys Again

The next day of Christmas, Albert P gave a financial report orally to the Calvary Care Home (CCH) boys and let them decide how they were going to spend their pocket money. After a simple vote by raising hands, the majority preferred an outing to Dataran Pahlawan. Albert and I simply respected the democracy and served as their drivers. Only Isaac who would like to go to Jaya Jusco decided to stay at the Care Home.

During the last outing to Dataran Pahlawan, we were six to be squeezed inside a vehicle. This time, five boys were separated to go with two cars. We had lunch at Sin Hoe Garden, a hawker centre at Bukit Baru. The horror began when we drove towards the town centre at about 2.30pm. We were stuck in a heavy traffic jam which I had already predicted for a Saturday afternoon. In the car, I sent a message to Albert asking him to walk around with his passengers first. When I and my passengers finally arrived at Melaka Raya, we parked at the roadside and walked to the Dataran Pahlawan. Then only I contacted Albert to find out where they were and inform him that Paul and Joseph who had gone their own way would join us later. I was surprised to learn that they were still looking for an available parking space inside the shopping mall!

We met at the cinema reception hall. As the boys had limited budget, they were not keen to watch a movie. So after an ice-cream and a waffle, they started to explore the place. We passed by a shop which was selling fitness equipment. Luke did not hesitate to step on a motorized treadmill. Then Matthew was also curious to test the product.

Daniel started running on the third machine after awhile.

When David finally joined his buddies, the four "ambassadors"

easily attracted the attention of passers-by. Looking at our four energetic CCH boys, Albert and I burst into incessant laughter. Later, they stepped down from the treadmills one by one and proudly announced to us the kilometres each of them had covered, which made us laugh even more.

When the "roadshow" was over, we headed to other shops. The boys were most interested in DVDs

and Play Station (PS2) games.

They seemed to know the location of those shops in the two shopping malls very well even though the outings like this were not frequent.

When we were at a shop at Mahkota Parade where Albert had brought the children to buy Isaac's PS2 last year, a lady recognized the boys immediately and gave compliments to them for being more mature and obedient.

Paul and Joseph appeared again outside a digital station, the boys and Albert's favorite place, to watch a movie on a big television screen.

All of us were happy with the outing, somehow exhausted due to the long wait during the jam, the walking and the hungry stomachs.

Next outing like this? Please wait until next year.

Meaningful Christmas

When Peter and Grace randomly picked Calvary Care Home (CCH) from a long list of care homes in Melaka which appeared on Internet, they did not know that God was going to use their visit from Singapore to bring a spiritual revival to the CCH boys on the Christmas day.

This family of four came to the Care Home to spend time with the boys again. The previous day, they had requested us to prepare two things for this morning programme. When Grace began her story telling session and asked Joseph to wear the garbage bag, she was referring to our situations without Jesus. We felt ourselves stupid, abandoned, useless, etc.

When later, Joseph removed the filthy rag and put on the white blanket, it signified that we were given a new identity by God through His Son Jesus Christ. In these new garments, we had become precious children of God to love one another.

Not only the children,

we adults were also touched by the story, thinking of how we were before we followed Jesus and how God had transformed us since we began to commit our lives into His mighty hands.

At the end of the session, Peter and Grace opened the altar for the CCH children. The boys went forward one by one to be prayed for. The couple also gave a prophesy on each of them.

It was such a spiritual moment that I saw tears in Paul, Albert and Peter T's eyes.

Later, we also sat down to discuss shortly how to improve the Care Home, before heading to George's open house for lunch.

After that, we said goodbye to our Singaporean brothers and sisters in Christ who looked forward to visiting CCH again to see good changes.

Of course, we attended the important Christmas service at CLA in the evening to enjoy a beautiful musical

and tasty refreshments. I was glad that my blog friend Vince had turned up for the second time.

And I was very excited to have a new lovely foster "son" David, whose smiles and giggles often reminded me of myself.

Surrounded by big and small angels of CCH, this Christmas was indeed a very meaningful one to me.

Birthday Celebration From Ten To Ten

Recent years, I began to feel that God had purposely touched my heart to be back to Him when I was at about the age of His begotten Son who was going to die for my sins on the cross. And since I understood the real meaning of Christmas, I believe our Heavenly Father wants me to realize that because of the birth of Jesus on earth two thousand years ago, mine on Christmas Eve is a specially planned event.

This year as usual, I did not intend to have any celebration for myself, nor even mention my birthday to people I would see on that day. Early in the morning when I switched on my hand phone, a few messages from my former secondary school good friends came in. Even though now we hardly gathered once a year, they never failed to send me a birthday greeting.

When I arrived at Calvary Care Home (CCH) at 9.30am, I met Peter T, a Singaporean who had a burden to pray for Malaysia. He came to Melaka by faith two years ago and was going to serve CCH on a voluntary but regular basis. He was supervising David to prepare noodle soup and fried tauhu. Then Joseph, who was back to CCH from Montfort Youth Centre for holiday, also turned up in the kitchen. When four of us sat in the dining room half an hour later, a lady came to bless us with a cheese cake and other food. When we shared the cake with other boys who got up and joined us downstairs, I continued to receive other SMS birthday greetings from my family members, my colleague KC, and even my blog friend Vince who must have learnt it through Facebook.

Later, a Singaporean couple (Peter and Grace) and their two daughters came to CCH for a visit. After a discussion with Peter T who had made known the boys' desire for fast food as lunch, they generously invited all of us to Pizza Hut. So we drove to Jaya Jusco with two cars, but only found that all the pizzerias there had been closed down. As the boys also loved burgers, we decided to have our meals at Mc Donald's which was inside the same shopping complex.

When we returned to CCH, Albert P was already there with Matthew.

We continued our sharing in the living room. After Grace and Peter learnt more about the CCH boys, they promised to come again the next morning to have another activity with them.

To fill the rest of the afternoon time, we had planned to go to the cinema. Joseph L, a Calvarite who used to invite the CCH boys for outings during previous years, came with his car to join us. He suggested "Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel" which was suitable for the children. As it was going to start in ten minutes, Joseph left with a few boys, followed by Albert with his passengers. I would be fetching Isaac and Luke.

When I was about to reverse to drive out of the house, Isaac, who was still inside the house, asked me to wait another two minutes. Five minutes later, I realized that he was still in the shower room! I began to keep looking at my watch and grumble in the car until he appeared again with a fresh and smart look. When we were finally leaving, a lady drove slowly into the road in front CCH. Seeing that she looked like a visitor, I screw down my car window. She introduced herself as Emily and passed to me ten red packets with money inside for the CCH children.

Had Isaac not delayed our departure, we would have missed the blessing and Emily would have wasted her trip. How unexpected the way God had arranged this encounter! I quickly confessed my impatience and thanked Isaac for his shower.

We were just a bit late. I had not watched the first "Alvin and the Chipmunks", so it took me some time to find out even the title and understand the story. Anyway, important was that the boys had a wonderful time watching those cute squirrels.

After the movie, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant at Bukit Beruang. After I sent my passengers back to CCH, it was about 9pm. I decided to drop by half an hour at Jeremiah and Phoebe's house at Cheng on my way home. They were having a Christmas feast. Pastors and church members from Calvary Life Assembly were invited. I had another nice moment of fellowship with some of them.

Amazingly, the first and last person who gave an audible "Happy Birthday" greeting to me was VC at about 10pm.

That was how God interestingly celebrated my birthday through those around me but not aware of it, and those knowing about it but physically far away from me on 24 December 2009.

Real Love Ministry Choir's Christmas Carolling

Early this month, I received an SMS from an unknown number introducing a professional choir for Christmas carolling. Since I did not know who had sent the text, I simply ignored it. On 20th evening, another more specific message came in to inform me that the Real Love Ministry (RLM) Choir would be carolling at night and they still had vacant slots to perform. This time, I replied to the message to find out the sender and more clarification. When my message tone rang again several minutes later, I was very surprised and honoured to learn that it was Pastor Edmund Smith! But I was too sleepy to ask for more detail.

The next morning, I was attending the Quality Day Lunch at my working place when Ps Edmund persevered to look for people to open up their home or church, etc for their choir to come and bless them through their singing. For the first time, he addressed my name in the message. I was wondering how he knew me, because previously I had only supported their ministry by making a donation through their bank account and later texting his wife Pastor Amanda, attending their Thanksgiving Fundraising Dinner and blogging about it. Moreover, my name hardly appeared in the entries. Up to now, I still cannot figure out how he managed to associate my two identities of donor and blogger. Anyway, I just replied to tell him that I would like to open my house for carolling if they did not mind to come all the way to Paya Rumput from Bandar Hilir, where their church was located. He immediately called to confirm with me the date and time. It was the next evening at about 9pm.

Now I had to invite friends to make my single-occupant house more crowded to enjoy the choir together. I had six people in my mind. Finally, only Siew Hong and her three children were able to attend, which was just nice, as I could accommodate them for the night.

When I was having dinner with my guests who had arrived a bit late, the RLM Choir in red and white arrived in front of the house. So in a rush, we shifted all the dishes from the dining table to the wet kitchen.

When I was in the primary school, I joined a Christmas carolling once. After the van dropped us, we would start singing along the road to the host's front yard. I imagined the same thing this time. But the RLM Choir was different. They were going to give a live concert in the living room!

Ps Edmund was of course the conductor.

Their choir was not only composed by singers of all ages, but also talented musicians of different genders.

The choir performed several classical Christmas carols which SH and her children were familiar with as they also used to go for carolling when they were in Perak.

In the middle of the mini concert, Ps Edmund also blessed us with his heavenly voice to lead the choir.

Towards the end, a sweet lady accompanied the last songs with sign language.

I enjoyed the performance so much that I did not bear to leave the living room a second to prepare the refreshments which were not yet ready as I was in a rush from my working place earlier.

Next year, if I am still around to open my house for Christmas carolling, do not forget to join me for the blessing!

Catching Fish In A Drain

The following week of the Gala & Charity Dinner, John and Wilson went back to their respective parent's house. Isaac, Paul and Mark were going to attend a three-day youth camp. Since Albert P who was busy marking his SPM scripts preferred not to appear at Calvary Care Home (CCH) at all, I volunteered to take my annual leave to "babysit" Luke, David and Daniel who would be left in the house when George, the driver, was away.

At first, these three youngest boys did not feel the absence of their elders. They watched movies on DVD while I cleaned up the kitchen. In the afternoon, they began to pester me to bring them for an outing. As I was not holding any CCH keys, I sought advice from Albert by telephone who suggested that I locked the gate, brought the boys to the nearby public library and later took the key from him.

I did not want to disturb him, so I decided to simply close the gate and drove those restless children out to have a drink and some snacks. They directed me to an eatery at Bukit Beruang but it was close. Finally we stopped at a night market where many hawkers were already doing business at four o'clock.

Within less than an hour, I managed to calm down the three fellows by giving them a treat of sugarcane juice and apam balik (crispy pancake) from stalls. I supposed they were satisfied to stay in the house again after eating chiffon cake that I had bought the previous day. But they were still planning another excursion and in return invited me to join them!

I followed them to a neighbouring house. At first, I thought I could participate in their activity. When I saw them climbing down to the drain one by one in such a skillful way,

I chose to remain where I was instead of risking my old bones and fragile teeth by attempting to tiptoe down the steep sandy edge of the drain, sweat heavily to get hold of the pipes and leap clumsily to end up crashing on the pails.

This beautiful site

was not only an interesting spot for fish catching,

but also an ideal place for catwalk!

David actually went to the drain to release at a fish which he had reared in the Care Home so that it could live better in the nature. But after that, he excitedly joined Daniel and Luke to catch other victims.

I hardly understood these children's logic, how about you?

Gala & Charity Dinner At Renaissance Melaka

Three months ago, When Pastor James first made an announcement about the Charity & Gala Dinner to raise fund for the future location of Calvary Care Home (CCH), I thought it was meant for private companies to purchase the tables. Later, I learnt that Calvarites were also encouraged to support the event by sharing a table according the their cells. But none from my Cheng cell ever mentioned a word during our weekly meetings. One day, I asked Phebe, my cell leader's wife, who told me that they might not be around that evening of 13 December. As the number of our cell members had reduced tremendously this year, and we were still very few even after merging with Malim cell, I knew if I wanted to attend the dinner as a group, I had to look at somewhere else.

When I went back to Batu Pahat in the middle of November, I invited my family members to join this dinner themed "A White Christmas". As my brother Leong's family still could not decide by the end of the month, I preferred to leave the seats vacant to bless other people. First good news finally came from Mr Wong, my formal secondary school principal whom I had met again during the Chinese High School Alumni Dinner and who was going to open an orphanage at Cheng. He accepted my invitation despite his busy schedule in Kuala Lumpur. But it was a pity that Mrs Wong would not turn up.

One day before the event, I witnessed Albert P and the CCH boys' singing practice when I stayed back for dinner at the Care Home. The next day, since we arrived at the hotel together, I had a chance to listen to their rehearsal again.

John and David who felt comfortable to release their voice were placed in front of the microphone. Matthew who was too shy to open his mouth was allowed to hide behind the crowd.

At first, the CCH boys with Albert occupied a table while the workers and volunteers of CCH sat at another table. Then we decided to spit the adults and children. Albert brought over Isaac, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John to our table

while another volunteer Jothy's family and the driver George moved to the other table to sit with Wilson, Paul, David and Daniel. Needless to say, our table was the noisier one, and also most probably the noisiest among all the forty over tables!

While we were having our eight-course Chinese meal, the CCH choir conducted by Albert presented "Silent Night" and "Joy To The World". I had a childhood memory of these two songs which I had been selected by my Sunday school teacher to sing in Mandarin onstage in church with two other girls for a Christmas celebration.

During the auction, I playfully raised my hands a few times to bid a small amount for a medical checkup voucher and was made fun of by the eloquent and entertaining emcee Melvin Aeria. All of us had a good laugh.

The highlight that night was the evergreen singer Francissca Peter, who six weeks earlier had blessed the Melakan audience of the Real Love Ministry's Thanksgiving Fundraising Dinner with her powerful voice.

This charismatic artist randomly invited diners to sing with her. On the third time, we shouted Albert's name. The "principal" of CCH was not only an expert in physics but also a born tenor who had swept more than twenty trophies in singing competitions in the past!

He and three other persons had actually been requested to standby to sing in case there were slots. Due to the heavy programme, he was unlikely to perform at first. But thanks to this song "You Are My Sunshine" in duo, many Calvarites who usually saw Albert quietly sitting in the church with the CCH boys suddenly realized that this brother in Christ was a great singing talent.

Later, Francissca Peter also invited children to sing together with her. After the hamburger eating competition, Luke and Daniel happily represented the CCH to go onstage again.

The evening ended with the last door gift for the guests, the blessed draw, and still, laughter. I had a wonderful time chatting with Mr Wong who had helped me a lot when I was a 17-year-old graduating student going for further studies. It was also a thanksgiving dinner for this helpful former school principal of mine who had a heart to reach out to children and youth.

Christmas Charity Drive At Avillion Legacy Melaka

I was planning to go back to Batu Pahat last weekend when Albert P asked me if I would be free to replace Letchmy, the cook of Calvary Care Home (CCH) who needed a rest to recover from an operation, to attend a high-tea with them at Avillion Legacy Melaka on Saturday at 1.30pm. Since I had no appointments in my hometown, I happily accepted the invitation and postponed my trip to Johor. As the hotel was near my city campus at Jalan Hang Tuah, I would go there with my car alone and meet them at the lobby. Albert who had already known the same function last year told me, "You don't have to be there too early. Normally they'll start at about two o'clock."

That morning, I took my time to do house chores, thinking that I would leave my house at 1.30pm. Albert called to confirm again my attendance at Avillion and my stay for dinner at the Care Home so that Adrian could estimate the quantity of food to prepare. Lastly, he informed me that George, the driver of CCH van, would not join us.

"If we put all the boys in the van, it's like an oven."

Indeed, that day was particularly hot. Even wet curtains that I span with my hands dried very fast. So, I immediately got his point and agreed to drive to Bukit Baru to fetch four boys with my car. Albert would bring the rest with his.

The CCH children were already familiar with this annual charity event called “Time For Giving, Time For Sharing” organized by Avillion Legacy Melaka.

During this Christmas season, about fifty orphans from three orphanages were invited to the hotel for hi-tea, entertainment and presentation of gifts by Santa Claus.

When Isaac saw the Santa Claus girls, he reminded me of the movie "Taxi 3" on DVD that he had watched at my house three days earlier. The younger boys were only interested in asking for more chocolate sweets from these friendly ladies.

During the hi-tea, there was a quiz session for children. The first question was "What is the full name of the Chief Minister of Melaka?" A girl from another orphanage raised her hand first but her answer was very incomplete. I knew the longer version of the name with the title. As Luke was willing to give it a try, I asked him to repeat the answer several times after me before he went on the stage.

Luke's mind was so occupied by those words that when the host asked him, "What's your name?",

he simply uttered, "Dato Seri Ali Rustam!" Everybody laughed out loud. The host kindly guided Luke to say the exact answer and finally gave him a present.

When our stomachs were filled with food, then only the host announced that there was going to be a hamburger eating competition for boys. Luke and Daniel volunteered to take part. Without surprise, our CCH boys were the winners. Luke had finished first while Daniel, second, had actually removed a small bite from his mouth and hid in his pocket with tissue paper.

Next were the musical chairs and the balloon blowing competition. Knowing very well the tactic to win, Our CCH boys tried to cheat again by secretly bringing stapler bullets to stab into their balloons to make them burst faster without blowing to the fullest.

One month before Christmas, the hotel employees, guests and the public had made cash contributions to the orphanages or purchased gifts for the orphans. Albert was of course the one who represented CCH to receive the donation.

When he was away to the hotel office to collect the exact amount of the share, I stayed with the boys who started to bully Snow White's friends.

Not only they dug nostrils at the dwarfs' noses, they also lifted a poor character from under the Christmas tree and strangled him.

I could not stop laughing during the three hours. Without our CCH boys, this event would definitely not have been a time for having fun!