This was the last caroling practice that we had before going out to the homes and parties to carol. And by far this practice had the most attendance. We had siew pau for breakfast (thanks to Andrew). And Aunty Susan brought us some nice chocolate wafers.
Here we can see Sammy bored..
Again, Sammy is bored here..
Uncle Paul and Aunty Susan joining in the practice..
Our new guitarist for this year, Matthew Tan..
Prenny and her relative.. Got sing or not??
About 2-3 weeks ago, I was asked to play for some BEC mass, located in somebody's house in the midst of somewhere in Bangsar.
Yeah, I didn't even know where I was. And even now, I didn't knew where I went. Blur case lah me.
We even had Father Daniel who was roped in to handle the mass for us. Special guest of honor!
I didn't had any idea whose house we were in, I simply say hi and bye to any uncles and aunties that I came across with. Maklumlah, I'm a nice guy mah.
See lah, during mass also we so happy can berchatting at the back. And not only that, we also had ample time to take lots of pictures of ourselves, not that we were infatuated with ourselves in anyway whatsoever, but because...we were bored?
It turned out to be more like a chill-out session, with Father Daniel as the speaker.
Cam-whoring!!
Here we have Fiona (also known as "baby"...although she's not that small anymore..ahah) trying to act cute. Or rather, caught in the act of acting cute. One way or the other, doesn't matter. Cute also lah hor?? (Thanks ah Fiona, owe me 1 chi yok yin fan)
Ah, here is my boss who dragged my ass down from PJ to play with him. On the upside, we were provided with really good food after the mass! Kudos and thanks to the cook, or aunty, or whoever it is you are! Got sooo many choices...nasi lemak, mee, biscuit, sherperd's pie...whatever yummy food you can imagine, it's all here.
Except shark fin soup. And char kuey teow. And Bak Kut Teh.
Ok lah, maybe got not sooo many stuffs. But still alot nontheless.
I can't really remember it now due to the fact that it was more than 2 weeks ago!
...only bad thing was that we were 'tortured' a little. It was almost 8.45pm, halfway during mass and we haven't taken our dinner yet! The food was just behind us but we were separated from it by a grill door. I guess it's appropriate to use the phrase, 'So near, yet so far!'.
We could only smell the food at admire it whilst our stomach groaned with all kinds of funny noises. Or maybe it was just mine.
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The following Sunday, a small group of us went to visit the old nuns in I.J Convent, somewhere in KL I think. Yes, I could proudly say that our presence there brought them their much needed joy. It is not easy being 80 years old and finding out that you have little, if not no reason to live for. Although it may not be nice to say, but I'm sure that there are some of them there who are just waiting for their time to come.
The least we could do was to cheer them up!
Who said Andrew couldn't do anything?? Well, he certainly proved his critics wrong this time. He did...*tada*....projectioning! I'd say he did a pretty good job, and Regina gave a performance worthy of a round of applause as well!
Everybody clap for Regina, who led the short Praise & Worship!
*clap clap*
Tagging along with the members of the St. Vincent de Paul for this outing was really an eye-opener for me. And I'm not one who would usually go for these kinda trips to old folks home or anything else, for that matter.
Yes I admit, I'm pretty much lazy. But so were the rest of you who weren't there!
It is not everyday that you get to see highly-motivated old people who desire nothing more than to just live a quiet life, help those who are less fortunate than themselves and to pray for the world to be a better place. I must say I am pretty much amazed as some of these old folks here are rather updated with the latest issues that has been going on in the outside world.
But I really do admire their courage to live and to praise the Lord, together with us!
The members of St. Vincent de Paul drop by this place once a year, I think. Perhaps I could be wrong and they would come down more than once, I wouldn't know.
But next time, YOU should come along too...just to get the experience of what's it like to be around these wonderful people. I was afraid at first too, afraid that I might be surrounded by old, sickly people with various contagious diseases.
But then again, I might have taken my imagination a little too far.
Makan time is always the best!
Here we were provided with chee cheong fun, porridge with yau char kuey, cakes, curry puff and even ice cream! Definitely much more than what I was hoping for.
Well, we had originally planned to go for a chun meal at Bangsar's Pork Noodles haven, but only to be stuffed till the brink here...I guess Pork Noodles will have to wait till some other time.
What a great weekend! For those of you who missed it, I hope that you would not miss the next one! (if any lah..)
Till then, cheerio!
Our first caroling practice for the season started on Sunday, 11th Nov 07. It was quite surprising to see a couple of faces that have been "undercover" most of the year. But we welcome them with open arms nonetheless (we need your voices! Desperately!).
Andrew, in deep bass-y voice "Joy to the world..."
Juliana thinking ticklishly, "So sexy voice meh..."
Next practice will be this Sunday (18th Nov 07) at 10am till 1115am. See you there!
We gathered in the room above St Jude's Room (I don't know what the name of the room) for our monthly Youth Bible Sharing held on 4th Nov 07. And it turned out that the canteen was closed for that Sunday because the Sunday School held their Prize Giving Day that day, and provided food (pot-luck style), so the canteen operator decided to take a rest. So those who came for the Youth Bible Sharing had to "puasa" (hmm.. and I heard that the messenger promised delicious breakfast).
Well the reading that was discussed that day was Luke 19:1-10. And of all people, I was assigned to prepare for it and conduct the session. Basically, the reading was the story of Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector who lived in Jericho. Who climbed up the tree when Jesus was passing by because he was too short to look over the crowd. Then Jesus called out to Zacchaeus to come down from the tree and wanted to share a meal with him in his home. The crowd present grumbled at Jesus for "bergaul"-ing with sinners. But Zacchaeus repented and declared that he would give half of his possessions to the poor and he would pay back those he cheated 4 times the amount. And Jesus forgave him and said, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost."
So we did a bit of role-playing. And the tallest person in the youth group, Benedict Wong, played the role of the shorter-than-short Zacchaeus, Andrew Ho played the role of our Saviour, and Marissa, Jennifer, Clarice, Fiona, Caryn, Juliana and myself were the "ke-le-fe"s who played the crowd.
Here we can see Jesus talking to the followers, and Zacchaeus, waiting for Jesus on a "tree".
Jesus having a word with Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus: "Oh Lord, take this money which I keep in my "pants". Give it to the poor"
Jesus: "Ok. Wash your hands and let's have some tossai in your house."
In the bible, it states that the crowd was mad at Jesus for associating with a sinner, Zacchaeus. This crowd don't look too mad to me. In fact, I think they're quite happy Zacchaeus repented so they will not need to pay so much tax anymore.
Jennifer thinks, "hmm.. where can I find a sycamore-fig tree to climb?"
Juliana thinks,"What should we have for lunch later since we didn't have breakfast?"
Caryn, "You know, I used to climb fig trees you know. The fruit is round and a bit hairy."
Fiona thinks, "mmm.. the fruit must be sweet.."
Paul, "Once upon a time, there lived a short man named Zacchaeus. He was the chief publican in the time and collected tax on behalf of the Roman Empire bla bla.."
Benedict thinks, "Sure or not...?"
Fiona thinks, " mmm... sycamore-fig tree fruit... yum yum.."
After the bible sharing, we has some left over nasi lemak from the Sunday School Prize Giving Day pot-luck. Some commented that it was a bit sour. Hmm..
And most of us couldn't leave the church because the Chinese Mass was going on in church, and the church goers had to park their cars all along the drive way because development has started on the land beside the church. So some of us went on to support the Pre-Con 1 going on Pre-Con 2 students in their presentation of "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" and "Jesus, Lover of MY Soul".
So the message we got from the Bible Sharing was this:-
1. We tend to be the crowd, where by we are bias/prejudice/criticize against people who are sinners (beggars, sl*ts, posers etc.). But Christ invites to be like Him, to reach out to these people.
2. We tend to be Zacchaeus, where by we have hurts, resentments, sins that we carry in our lives. Christ invites us (with ever open arms, remember, it was Jesus who called out to Zacchaeus first to come down from the tree) to let go and repent. Because as Zacchaues understood, what he given up was nothing compared to what he would receive in return, the riches of Heaven, the greatest wealth of all.
Latest in HRC updates! (actually this is a little outdated..but some of you may not have heard about it..)
Now we all know that Uncle Paul has recently bought an electronic drum set for Phelan to play with us during mass. You should know it too, and even if you've been dozing off in mass like me, it would be almost impossible not to notice the presence of the drum set (and the drum beat).
However, just when we thought that this was a brilliant move to rope in the younger generations, Father Daniel decides to BAN the drums. Of course, you would agree with me that this does not make any sense at all. Why ban the drums when it blends in nicely with the other instruments?
According to Father Daniel, the drums produced a rather loud and unsettling sound which he
wasn't comfortable with. But helo? This is an ELECTRONIC drum set, not an aquistic one. How is it still loud when we can control the master volume from the mixer and set itself?
To prove my point, he has no complain whatsoever when Fiona uses the drum beats on her keyboard. Weird huh?? Guess what, they both sound almost identical! (except quality maybe abit different lah)
Majority of the people who's opinion we seeked has given positive feedback on the drumset.
Yes, of course we had planned to incorporate the drums into the weekly band-on-duty to produce even more lively music. Many of you should be well aware that the amount of active youth in our church are declining at an alarming rate over the years, with mostly the older generations filling in the gap. Music was among the various long-term solutions to bring back the youth to our church, which can be proven by monitoring more
modern Catholic churches such as SFX, Assumption, SIC and etc. These churches
have a rather powerful youth foundation, and it doesn't surprise me if it all started from music.
As the saying goes, a song is a 100 times more powerful than a prayer. (Don't know if its true or not)
Aunty Anne even had an argument with Father Daniel regarding this matter. After all, its just an issue regarding a drum set and it's availability. Is it worth getting ourselves ripped apart over this issue?
What do you think?
It has been HRC english speaking youth ministry's tradition to hold a bible sharing meeting during the 1st Sunday of every month. However, it seemed kinda obvious that with the more amount of bible sharings we hold, the less the number of participants. Kinda like an inverse graph, get it?
Guess what, even Aunty Susan also lazy to attend! Heh.
We buka puasa as usual after mass. No free meals from the youth funds this time...aiyer, next time don't want to attend already. Oops.
Brother Andrew Ho was desperately trying to rope in some of the kids there but to no avail. All these kids there are either too cool, too busy or too lansi-lanyongtaufu to give a hoot about our presence.
In the end, this was how small the group had become. What a sight for sore eyes!
However, Bridget and another guy came later and joined us..so not so bad lah, although the number still could be counted be two hands.
Who says bible sharing can't be fun? See, even the ever-serious Juliana can manage a smile and laugh along as well.
Our topic for discussion today was 'Faith' and what it meant to us.
Juliana asked me whether I had listen to what the readings were about during mass. Sorry to say but I did not pay enough attention to remember what it was about. With my quick thinking, I diverted the question to the Paul Chuah who was sitting opposite me, hoping to push the responsibility on someone else.
What do you know? He doesn't listen as well.
And it's not just the both of us. Even Clarice, Bridget, Regina, etc also doesn't listen to the sermons or readings.
So we found out today that most of us don't listen to readings. Hmm, do we actually even pay attention during mass itself? A question to ponder on.
Maybe of course, with the exception of Brother Andrew.
We proceeded to talked about faith and stuff and other related matters which I can't possibly remember. And bla bla bla, yada yada yada...and the end!
THOSE OF YOU THAT DIDN'T ATTEND THIS ONE BETTER ATTEND THE NEXT ONE...OR ELSE!
Or else nothing la. What could we possibly do to you?
It's been awhile since the camp now, and I can hardly remember much of it. I shall attempt to put together the bits and pieces of whatever that's left of my memory.
I do remember John Sek trying to dive into the ocean though.
Benedict nearly scared off a couple of young girls who were swimming there by trying to go skinny dipping.
Thank goodness I managed to stop him in time. We wouldn't want the kids to emerge from the water with horrified looking face now, do we?
We managed to catch this black looking thing, which I think it is a sea cucumber, if I am not mistaken.
To my amazement, the kids didn't know that it could squirt a white juice that looks like the guy's
...erm, you know. It looks really cool, not to mention funny as hell. You can get the video from the disc which we should be passing around sometime soon.
Lunch was just stupendously delicious. Got sambal ketam, sambal udang, vegetables, meat, soup,chicken, sotong...what nonsense also got. I usually don't even eat this kind of food in restaurants. And here I am eating luxury food for each consecutive meal! Praise the Lord!
And praise Brother Andrew for the food!
The funny thing is that we actually get to feed the wild hornbills there. Pardon me for my shallow knowledge but I thought hornbills were only found in Sabah, Sarawak and..the Internet?
Apparently I was wrong.
We had some group activities after lunch which does not ONLY include talking, but also sophisticated and complex stuff such as cutting out articles from newspapers and magazines to be pasted on manila card.
The theme for the discussion was "Sign of the Times', where we were suppose to look for pictures that depicts how the world was slowly experiencing a morale decay and etc.
After sticking all those pictures on the manila cardboard, we were expected to present it out in front of everybody.
Woops, I guess I didn't see THAT coming when I decided to choose some explicit pictures for my group's cardboard.
But still, I can't help it but stare with amazement at my group's effort. Simple yet carrying a powerful message. *cough*
Hey, who put that picture of that girl there???
After that we had team building exercise at the beach! It's really simple actually. All you have to do is hold the hands of the person next to you while a hula hoop is passed throw from one end to the other. It's so simple, even my grandmother would know how to play it.
And yet we still have cases of a few people who keep getting mixed up and don't know which way the hoop goes. Maklumlah, Malaysia boleh ma.
There was this game we played which involves standing on plastic chairs. Half the team had to stand on the chairs while getting themselves over to the finish line.
It looks pretty easy, but in fact its not! It's super easy to lose your balance and fall down like humpty dumpty. But Charles didn't believed it.
And speaking of humpty dumpty, here we have Mr. Charles Teh lying flat on his back. Jonathan couldn't resist throwing sand onto him..well, I suppose that's what you get for lying flat on the beach. Haha :P
Amidst the chaos and confusion, the dogs decided that they should have some butt-action fun too. Whoever said that Fun for Christ 4.0 was for humans only?
Tada! Our most remarkable feat! Building uh, a sandcastle...with only our hands as tools! We can't possibly get anymore childish than this, can we?
Aunty Susan was nowhere to be seen while we were at the beach. No wonder lah, she was in her room conducting some side business.
What business you ask? Selling dried shrimps and keropok! Yeah and if you didn't know, Pangkor is famous for its fresh-from-the-oven keropok and stuff. Not bad ok, business was pouring in like the tsunami in Perlis. Or was it Penang ar?
We had more sessions after that. Our speaker, Brother Gasper from Monfort Boys wasn't really suitable for our group, perhaps due to the fact that we are a bunch of energetic chums who can hardly sit still.
Oliver sat right in front. Perhaps not the best place to be if you're planning to doze off. And I think that's what he did.
Who said that the most safest place was being in the most dangerous place?? Well, I guess that fella may be right. Oliver didn't get caught, at least.
Daniel Ho seems to be in deep meditation. Is it just me or do you see a drip of saliva from the edge of his mouth? Tee hee.
During the night, we had Washing of the Feet™ where we were suppose to wash our partner's feet to remind us of how Jesus washed his disciples' feets and to show his humility.
I probably enjoyed this session the most. As I thought that the video that was played was really touching. Nearly cried lah, but need to show abit of macho-ness. So what to do...tahan lor.
And finally we had group photo!
But damn! Due to the blazing sun and miscommunication, the group photo on my camera turned out to be a fluke. As you can see, most of the people were trying to cover their eyes from the sun and some didn't even look at the camera.
And yes, I am one of them. Try and spot me if you can.
And finally, that concludes the Fun For Christ 4.0 2007! Thank you for reading!
Disclaimer: These posts are based on my experience, so please pardon me if I did missed out anything important. If there is anything you feel that you need to add, please let me know and I'll give you authorisation to post your own writings.
