Home Of Tong

It has been a busy Christmas for me as it start on the Sat before Christmas where my family met at Ang Mo Kio McDonalds for breakfast and a little gathering. We like this place because not only it is big, it also has McCafe inside it and most of all, an indoor playground where the kids can play safely. A short walk away in the surrounding garden is an outdoor playground. So we spend half a day there letting the kids play while the adults yak and yak away. The highlight is of course the giving of the presents and the 4 kids got showered with lots and lots of presents.

Sunday is another Christmas gathering, this time at our close friends house. We 3 families always meetup during this period to let the kids play with each other while we indulge in food and conversations. 7 kids in all with girls a rarity, only 2 out of the 7. The 6 older ones all got so excited that it is always difficult to final go back at 10 plus pm. With one families going to Perth for a year, it will be difficult for all the kids to meet together next year. So we allow them to play a little longer. Who knows, if money permit, we might make a trip down next year to visit them.

Christmas day itself is a time for a Christmas party organized by my cell group. We managed to book a function room in Eden@Tampines and we have close to 50 people (including children) that came. The children started out by doing some coloring on some figurines which we will be using for the main program later on, which will be hang on the Christmas tree as we narrate the story of Christmas and sing carols along the way. We had a fun time and the children of course will delighted with the gifts. The adults also had a time of sharing and gift exchange and we will be sure be continue to organize this next year.

In between all this gatherings, I have also been busy doing up a photo slideshow for my brother-in-law’s good friend’s wedding. Manage to find a more suitable software to do it and get in burn into a DVD for easy playback. This is definitely a much improved slideshow than what I had done previously and I am very satisfied with the results. I hope the couple is too. So, just want to say congratulations to Dave and Mary and may both of you have a bless marriage!

I couldn’t be there on the Sat after Christmas to attend their wedding nor see the guest reaction on the slideshow as I have a very important task. To be one of the best man for my good friend Edwin. The day started at 6am as I fetch 2 lovely bridesmaid (Xiaowei and Ernesta) to the the bride (Jane)’s house before rushing down to Edwin’s house to meet up with the rest. The other best man were Shawn and Peter. We knew each other though a car forum some 4 years ago and have been friends ever since.

The fetching of the bride met with the usual games thought up by the bridesmaid, with Joyce and Alicia completing the lineup. We have to find 8 red-colored items, scream and shout from ground floor all the way to let those on the 7th floor hear us. Eat stuff that represents sour, sweet, bitter and spicy, and help the groom sing love songs to the bride, before the groom can finally meet and kiss the wife.

Then it is off to tea ceremony at both side’s family, with an outdoor photo shoot in between, before the couple finally head off to the hotel for some well deserved rest. I too managed to go back and catch an hours nap before fetching Jane’s family to the hotel.

Once at the hotel, it is off to co-ordinating to make sure the dinner reception can be run smoothly. Overall, I think the whole day’s event went very smoothly without much hiccups, but I have yet to hear from the man himself as I give him time to enjoy a couple of days undisturbed.

So to Edwin and Jane, may both of you have a wonderful, exciting and joyous marriage as both of you start this part of your life journey together. Before you were individual, now you are one with each other. If you are reading this, just a quote that I would like to share with you, and also act as a reminder to myself.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

And another thing, start work early so that I can play with Edwin and Jane junior

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

What an exciting weekend (extended) it has been! If you have been following my blog, you would have know that our church started a campaign to bless 100K people in 1 month. 3 days to the end of the campaign, we are about 22K short, but in the 3 days, we managed to bless 30K people to reach a total of 108,835 lives. Yes, we call it lives because each of them represent a precious live that we want to bless. God works in miraculous ways!

I am able to do my part and reach my target of 20 people despite some major procrastination in the beginning. You see, I am not a man of big faith, so when the church called out to us to sign up as part of the 5000 warriors to bless 20 people each, I dismissed the idea and gave myself excuses that it is impossible for me to do it. So 2 weeks went by and I went for a prayer meeting in the middle of the campaign to encourage one another to push 0n. Seeing the many testimonials from other on how they went out with little faith but committed the whole thing to God, and they receive wonderful results.

God than prompted me to realise that it is not me who can do it, but “with God all things are possible” (Matt 19:26b). So I summon up my courage to sign up for the campaign still believing that I can bless 20 people despite been 2 weeks late. God has been gracious and on the last day of the campaign, just 3 hours short of the ‘closing time’, I managed to pen down my 20th name in my prayer booklet. Praying for them daily has improved my relationship with Jesus and I am glad that I participated.

And you know, when you bless others, you yourself will be blessed. And I fully experienced this in the last few days. The biggest news is that my younger son, Darien, who is 16months old now, has been finally cleared of his condition. Some of you might have know that my son contracted UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) since his birth. He has to endure many test since birth, some to heartache to mentioned. But since 8-10 months ago, his condition has improve, but the only problem was that one of the kidney is dilated, causing the 2 kidneys to be of different size. This is still a cause of concern even though it is very mild, as any worsening of the situation could be bad. Even the insurance agency was so paranoid about it that it decided not to offer any cover for ALL the critical illness and for the same premium, they will only cover him on death and total permanent disability. This cause us to be very upset as the doctor has mentioned to us that the condition is very mild. Our only hope is that he will be totally healed and yesterday, when we went for his review, the kidney ultrasound result came back very positive and he is totally healed and is officially discharged. Praise the Lord!

The blessing did not end there. Will share with you again what is the other major blessing that we received, also yesterday. Double blessing (双喜临门）! Double joy!