Wednesday, November 11, 2009 @ 8:24 PM
Within 2 hours.
This is what happened.
So we began at 7:30p.m. on the 7th of the 11th with:
A time of praise and worship led by pretty-much-veteran Joyce Lim.
And it doesn't matter where you stand during worship..
..cuz it's where your heart is that matters.
Now then, announcements by the one-and-only:
CHAN MING YEN! *crowd cheers*
And a reminder: Change Your World concert - Penang is coming up on the 22nd, so if you haven't gotten your tickets yet, they're still available from any of the committee members =) RM 20 per ticket.
Oh and YOUTH CAMP IS COMING!! sign up, the earlier the better, so tidak begitu membebankan on the organising committee.
Let's move on..
Get your notebooks out for..
Mr Alex Low Peng Huat!
But before that, rewind a bit...
..as Alex gets his own notebook out..
..patience..
and there ya go!
So that night, Alex titled his message as 'FROM EARTH IN2 ETERNITY'.
It was a four-point sermon:
1. Knowing Our Identity
- who we are in Christ
- that salvation is free
- we're righteous through Him
- and we need our sin to be forgiven
- "For it is by grace you have been saved. Through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." - Eph. 2:8
- ask for His grace everyday
2. The Truth
- I am coming soon!
- ...blessed are those who wash their robes... outside are the dogs (from Rev 22:12-15)
*dogs: those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters, falsehood-ers
- check your heart 24/7
He shares.
They listen.
And Pastor Victor comes up to clarify a few points..
3. Then, why do we still struggle?
- "Each one is tempted by his own evil desire... after desire has conceived, it gives irth to sin... full-grown sin gives birth to death." - James 1:14-15
- "Where your treasure is there your heart will be." - Matt 6:21
4. So what can I do?
- BE CAREFUL. God is faithful: He will provde a way out so that you can stand up under it. (from 1 Cor 10:12-13)
- cut off the things that cause you to fall
- it takes 21 times to make or break a habit
And so Alex ended his sermon with all the fireBRANDS reading a few excerpts from Psalm 145.
And Pastor Victor had the last say.
Labels: youth service
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 @ 9:33 PM
Sugar Rush
Alright, before every night - realise it or not - there's always the preparations!
Like for example worship practice, or maybe the speaker prepping his/her notes while the LCD boy types away..
So even if the whole night was meant to be fun and games..
Joyce finishing up the ceiling deco while Joseph looks on.
The dark(-skinned) guy bringing light into the sanctuary.
And final touch-ups before going for Bible class.
All while the Supervisor looks on.
Come 6 p.m., Bible class is still on!
The perky Bible class teacher.
This time in the conference room, cuz Sanc 2 was filled with colourful stuff.
This time Bible class involved pillowcases filled with unidentified objects from Marilyn's home.
And by only looking at the pillowcases without touching 'em, each group was supposed to sell that item to the other groups. Obviously hard right, cuz you don't know what's inside.
So, this analogy shows that we need to really, really know our God before we can start sharing the Gospel to others.
How? By reading the Bible :)
After dinner.
The all-important time of prayer. Again led by Sarah Khoo, this innovative short lady had every single person there to pray a short prayer for anything they felt the need to pray for.
After prayer, before the theme night officially started, the fireBRANDS had some fellowship during what's known as 'toilet break time'.
Some talked/fellowshipped/sat down on the floor.
While the organisers got ready for the night.
A few filled up the fireBRANDS database forms.
Certain people flagrantly vained.
And others... did.. whatever they did.
Okay, let's start!
Little Miss Giggles with the announcements again!
First off, the crowd was divided into four groups consisting of pretty much equal numbers of old and young fireBRANDS and visitors alike.
And for the first game, planned by Pastor Victor:
We witnessed Leroy blindfolding an innocent child..
..a state floorballer being led by M'sia's national goalkeeper, both on all fours..
..sight-impaired youths picking up wrapped sweets with their mouths..
..while their group leaders egged them on.
And keep on going!!
Basically each group was supposed to collect as many sweets corresponding to their group as possible, in the manner shown above.
The lesson learnt was that in life, we have to listen to our Leader's voice (God) in order to achieve anything that matters.
Next game, this one by Alex:
Each group leader was taken out from the room and briefed in secret, while the rest of the members were instructed to beg for sweets in the most creative possible ways once the leaders were back.
Like this:
Yan-Y being chased and begged relentlessly by Gary and Linken for some sweets.
In the end, only certain group members received sweets, and the groups had to figure out the criteria by which sweets were given out. Like 1. is wearing a watch, 2. is a guy, 3. is wearing socks, etc.
And the group members get more sweets once they guessed a criteria correctly.
And after some time, the group leaders were invited up to reveal the criteria (each group had different sets of criteria).
Next, time was alloted for everyone to exchange sweets with each other.
Alex then slowly and steadily revealed what each sweet represented (faith, love, good looks, long life, health, salvation, etc.).
Lesson learnt: What's most important is the gift of salvation, something which shouldn't be placed second to things like health.
And, the third game, by Eunice the cupcake-baker:
Bible quiz! Each team sends out one rep. Get the question right, and you get to choose a cupcake!
Some cupcakes had those heart-sprinkles on top, others didn't.
Get your cupcake, and eat it without expression at the corner.
Asher, the first person with an answer right.
And finally more people to join him! (what happened to eat without expression, i wonder)
Andrew trying to look less menacing.
And so after many rounds of answering Bible-related questions (fished out by Joyce), it was revealed that the cupcakes with the heart sprinkles on top had wasabi in them, while the plain jane cupcakes were untampered with.
Lesson? Don't judge anything by its looks.
And with that, Trick or Treat was over.
Oh, one more thing:
fireBRANDS' group photo on Facebook which has 29 tagged people, 4 likes and 33 comments by 17 people. As of now.
How awesome we are. And how much, much more our God is!
(this post is a really good test for colour blindness xP)
Labels: youth service
Thursday, October 29, 2009 @ 5:51 PM
Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC)
..has now opened a NEW branch, at the old Choong Nam Theatre along Jalan Air Itam!
It's a small, cosy room, AIR-CONDITIONED! (of course), and instead of high-definition I-don't-know-how-many-feet screens, there's a nice li'l LCD display!
No Dolby Digital Surround Sound (hey if you take out the 'urr' our of 'Surround' you get 'Sound'!) here, but there's awesome people!
And and.
IT'S FREE!
But, sad to say, the new branch closed down after opening night.
Turns out it's a one-night-only! So, sorry if you missed it! But it was GOOD =)
*Disclaimer: the GSC part was fiction.
~ (squiggle!)
5 days ago, here's what we did!
Photography: Eulene and her DSLR compact camera
The eveningly-night started off as usual with BIBLE CLASS, conducted by the head conductress of all Bible classes, Eunice Lee!
And so this time Bible class was different.
Firstly, different topic.
We're now gonna commence our journey into Royal Psalms! Yep, Complaint Psalms've been covered.
And so everyone was split into pairs..
..guy-girl pairs.
And so the pairs were supposed to come up with a name, gender and sketch for an imaginary child and list down their expectations for him/her. Including marriage preferences!
After some time (we kinda went a li'l overtime actually), each pair then shared their imaginary child's details.
Okay, no, Bible class didn't go terpesong-ed!
This one was mostly about expectations, about how they're hard to live up to sometimes, like how we expect our child to be this-and-that..
..and next week onwards, we're gonna dive into Royal Psalms =)
~ (another squiggle! =O)
Right then, preservice prayer!
People having exams, and the worship team, the speaker, and the night itself =)
~ (did you know that it's actually called a TILDE?)
Service started off as usual (but it's anything but usual! different every week i'd say) with worship!
Short this week, due to the fact that sharing that night was gonna be a li'l long.
Short, but true worship indeed.
~ (tilde is pronounced as 'TIL-duh')
And so the rest of the night was all about Change Your World, a movement sweeping across Malaysia, from city to city, rallying and inspiring young people to change their worlds!
Pastor Victor facilitated, and managed to fit everything into ONE night, although it was supposed to be two separate sessions.
Sounds a bit squeezed?
I'd say it was compact, but very, very inspiring!
Among the things in the two Quests (parts/sections/bahagian):
- A 30-second debate between the fireBRANDS on two topics, i.e. How can we change the 1. public transport and 2. education system.
- What's holding us back from change? Fear, complacency, and ignorance.
- Extremely inspiring videos about young people who changed their world, aka Change Agents. Among them: A young guy who raised funds for modern-day slaves and has rallied the people around him to help out. A young girl who went backpacking in India and ended up building and founding an orphanage there, as well as enabling many children there to go to school.
- Remember, you only have one lifetime to make a significant change.
- Another video, this one detailing prostitution and refugees. This video, I think, was a real shell-shocker, something that'd make you wake up and realise that we need a change.
- And how just ONE person CAN make a big change.
The Change Your World Quests 1 and 2 were really relevant and something to inspire us and stand up, and to make a change.
Also, a few parents came that night =) and yeah, parents, your children CAN change the world! Undoubtedly!
~ (this is the last one lol)
Yep, that's how it went.
But trust me, Change Your World is far from over!
Look out, cuz there's a generation rising and they're gonna stand up for God in this world.
Labels: youth service
Friday, October 23, 2009 @ 4:12 PM
Change Your World
*points to sidebar*
It's happening all over Penang now and has been going on nationwide too, and it's about to be launched during this Saturday's (24th Oct) youth service!
Okay, before you get all apprehensive..
What is it?
It's about how young people can really change their world.
That and more, so do come!
And, you are strongly encouraged to invite your parents to come!
*cue the gasps*
Yes, for this particular youth service.
Okay in case you didn't register that the first time..
..you're strongly encouraged to invite your parents to come!
For the launching of Change Your World, 24th Oct, 7:30-9:30p.m., Sanctuary 2, FGA Centre.
And if you're a parent and you're reading this..
..you're invited! =D
And fireBRANDS, pls stay back after Bible class for 5 minutes, Pastor wants to talk about this event. Thanks.
PS: not bad eh this week, the blog's been updated five times, AND it's been given a new layout! hahahah.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 @ 9:13 PM
FireBRANDS reaching the community
So here's the after Saturday activity we did, see it's not only on Saturdays where the fireBRANDS are alive but as far as we're concerned we try to MAD(make a diff) everyday be it through the school CF, RecessREVO, fireCells, fireReach, fireyou and fire me(lame).. we also reach those who are in this land as foreigners missing their families and loved one, and here working somewhere doing something other than what they've been promised and being underpaid...
We reach to the unreached in our land.
On this sunny Sunday, Pr. Vic rounded up some of the youths and loaded them up the van to give away sweets(forgot what they're called) to those from abroad, in a way to share Christ's love with them and also make them feel at home.
Yea those round things.. XDSo we headed off right after church where the fireBRANDS were leading worship in Central Zone, to the closest stop, CALTEX station, or rather the car wash at the Caltex station.
if you still have no idea.. this is the place..Here's pastor and the gang going out to give them... the sweets
cameraman had to make it less obvious so i didn't go down... T.T
Everyone looking for out for people we could give the rest out to..
and we scared this bunch of people off as Pr. Vic swirved the van right in front of them and started speaking weird languages ahaha i think they're burmese...Anyways.. since we couldn't find anymore after that Pr. Vic decided we will just give them to the night service people :)
ps. i remembered what those things are called suddenly... haha they're called LADU
-THE END-words and pics by ~nomad ® 2009 OctLabels: firereach
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 @ 12:47 AM
What We Did.
First off, photography credits to the DSLR-wielding fireBRAND, James =)
Now, get ready for what went on behind the two white doors, in Sanctuary 2, FGA Centre from 6p.m. till 9:30p.m. on the 17th of October, 2009.
6:00-:30p.m., BIBLE class!
Roughly 30 fireBRANDS were made students once again (on a public holiday!) and studied Psalm 70 (go look that up in your Bible).
Like last week, also a psalm written by someone (David) under attack, this time more on telling God how you feel when you're under attack.
And yup, without fail, Gary's famous wiseman words were again quoted: "When we're happy, we don't praise God. When we're sad, we also don't praise God."
This time Bible class was meaningful-ised with Daniel (the mahaguru) sharing his own personal testimonies of his experience before coming to where he is now.
Like Pastor Victor said, he's an inspiring guy!
Okay, 6:30-7:00p.m., dinner!
Uh, no photos on that, even photographers need breaks.
7:00-:25p.m., preservice prayer =)
And those few photos, I think, are enough to convey how downright VITAL preservice prayer is to the fireBRANDS.
Though, prayer is a thing of the spirit, something cameras can't capture.
And while that was going on down here on earth, can you imagine what more in heaven?
7:25-:30p.m., toilet break!
No need photos...
7:30-:50p.m., icebreaker.
A form of warm-ups in youth. No five rounds round the court here..
Eulene the icebreaker (not orchestra) conductress.
Listening.
Everyone was divided into two groups (seniors/juniors), lights were switched off, and now you have the fireBRANDS groping around in the dark, searching for jigsaw puzzle pieces, the only source of illumination being their handphone lights, and..
...the occasional flashes of light from the camera, to take photos such as this.
And when you finally find a puzzle piece, it's exhilaration all over!
Subsequently the seniors won (if they didn't it'd be kinda embarrasing lol) so the juniors were subjected to a cruel, ego-shattering punishment:
butt-writing!
7:50-8:20p.m., praise & worship.
Warmed-up after the icebreaker, now ready to settle down and give Him the true worship He seeks and deserves.
The worship team, and Pastor Victor saying a few words to the fireBRANDS.
When no one's left behind the seats, when everyone's up there worshipping the Lord of Lords.
And while worship was going on, here we have the LCD-boy-behind-the-scenes: Daniel Derek!
8:20-:35p.m., announcements.
With Ming Yen away in KL, her shoes (okay, heels actually) were stepped into by none other than..
..InDY!
And, one of the most important announcements that night:
..you've seen it after you stepped into the sanctuary..
..and here it is on the LCD.
Indy (announcing in a Ming Yen-style tone):
YOUTH CAMP IS COMING!!!
So yeah, SIGN UP! Forms are now available! For more info pls call Pastor Victor at 016-4113325 :)
8:35-9:30p.m., the preaching of the Word.
The bulk of the night!
Featuring not one, but TWO speakers! (call it a Double Whammy!)
First up to take the pulpit, Indy invited the first speaker up:
...himself! xP
The admittedly-nervous-yet-summoning-all-the-confidence-he-had 15-year-old proved that he has guts, but more importantly spoke on Matthew 9:9-13.
In that passage, Jesus was dining with Matthew (tax-collecter-turned-disciple) and family. Soon enough, the Pharisees kutuk-ed him for eating with 'sinners'.
Indy's sharing focused on the last two verses, consisting of Jesus's apt reply to the Pharisees' remarks.
And from here there were three points:
1. Healthy people don't need a doctor. Sick people do.
- People who can see should lead the blind people because the blind people don't know that there's a Doctor, or a medicine.
2. "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."
- Practical is better than theory!
3. "I have come to get sinners to follow Me."
- Imagine a swimming pool. Christians can swim, but others can't. And so God came to save the drowning, like a lifeguard.
Indy concluded with something Jesus said in that passage: "I have not come to get those who THINK they are right with God."
Do you THINK you're right with God?
After which, the 2nd speaker came up, together with his lovely helper to do the LCD for him.
Leroy Tan!
And he shared on something very crucial for every Christian out there:
Spiritual Growth.
Cuz you see, spiritual babies are helpless, but God wants us to GROW.
That said, in order to grow, you must:
1. DECIDE to grow.
2. make EFFORT to grow.
3. PERSIST in growing.
After elaborating on each point, Leroy gave an example.
His love story.
And while we were all paying the utmost attention to Leroy's every word, regaling how his love life came to where it is now..
..is she blushing?
But no, he didn't just share that for entertainment's sake (but it makes better substance than Miss Swift's song), cuz throughout his relationship he had to decide, make an effort, and persist in it. And the most important thing is, he knows she's the one he's gonna marry :)
Okay, back to the topic.
WHY GROW?
- we are created by God
- we are chosen by God
And so he digressed a little to MISSIONS.
Mission is introducing people to God. It's that simple!
God gave us the task of making others His friends too.
So, the people around us are our assignments from God (Eze 3:18), and we must quickly carry out our tasks assigned to us (John 9:4).
And so while we still have time, we can make the difference if we choose to do so.
Labels: youth service
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 11:07 PM
Deepavali Nal Valthukal =) [Happy Deepavali!]
எனக்குப் பசிக்கிறது, எனக்கு வயிற்றைப் பசிக்கிறது (I am hungry!)
im not really sure if that is in hindi or tamil or a different indian dialect. haha.
Fourteen people.
Nineteen packs of food: Super Ring, Soya Bean Milk, Tesco's junk food, Munchy's, Cadbury, etc.
RM 120 spent.
Destination: Sri Cahaya Orphanage, Batu Maung.
Time: LUNCH TIME.
Vegetarian prawns and meatballs, anyone?
Good food, good times.
Picture session with kids after their prayers.
Getting crowded, left after a short bonding session.
Stopped on the way back to see an Air Asia plane. (haha, pastor)
Christmas lunch next? =)
Ok now here's the major picture spam by Jahmess Tan
Here's people looking for what they want to get for the kids...
Pastor holding the pile as it grows...
Eunice counts the cost ".. for which king does not consider and count the cost before going to was.."
As you can see the pile grew to be quite a lot.. and all the people gathered for the purchase
The man for the occasion lolz.. he's carrying all the protein haha
after the shopping so everyone's happy.. aren't they all? who are about to share Christ love with people.
The loading.... and also the unloading...
well of course the people also had to unload.. haha (as if the road belongs to them, walking in the middle)
welcoming us was this beautiful piece of work..
Food for the kids.. If you're wondering why the kids weren't around they're doing the prayers..
We're grateful for this Uncle who started cooking since 3 a.m. for everyone.. God Bless him..
and here's us having lunch.. seriously awesome (spicy) food.
Ok here are some priceless shots :P enjoy
Btw these two boys.. are now officially Malaysian citizens =)
and finally this girl repairing the damaged kolam(pool lolz..)
Keep these people in prayer :)
Labels: firereach
Yea those round things.. XD
if you still have no idea.. this is the place..
cameraman had to make it less obvious so i didn't go down... T.T
Everyone looking for out for people we could give the rest out to..
and we scared this bunch of people off as Pr. Vic swirved the van right in front of them and started speaking weird languages ahaha i think they're burmese...
