Project Report #31 - MonKee Business

Hey there Sponsors! It has been a fantastic week so far. I just got went to Nilai yesterday night to do bible study with some of the Inti boys there, it was a great time. We studied about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and how it all begins by first getting the gift of tongues. One of them who has yet to receive the Baptism of the Spirit was really inspired and was eager to receive the gift of tongues.

One of the boys told me that his friend showed his a video of documentary that was disproving being slain in the Sprit, in other words, falling down when someone prays for you. I just told him bluntly, that no one who is walking right with God, whose heart is right before God, would want to fake such a thing. Falling under the power of God is just a physical expression, people can fake it but it is between them and God.

At the end of day, many people can fake it, but the ultimate proof that God has really touched them is that their lives have changed. The fruit of being touched by God is CHANGE! So judge by the fruit, and not by the expressions. After explaining that to him, I really felt in my spirit that a load of uncertainty has lifted from his shoulders, that now he knows how to respond when people challenge the truth of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Many will chase after signs and wonders, many people just pursue just the expressions of the gifts of the Spirit, but we must continuously guard out hearts to not chase after just the form but denying its power. We must always run after God’s heart, making His desires our desires and becoming a person of great substance and character. Becoming a vessel of honor begins inside… So speaking in tongues and all the other gifts are physical expressions of an internal conviction. Thank God for a fruitful time there doing bible study with the boys, as I was teaching, I too reminded myself of a lot of things..

Today’s the big day, I’m going to be facing my first round of appraisal for this year. God indeed has been so faithful to me this year in terms of career. He has blessed me with many opportunities to venture into various areas of the software development industry for F&B sector. I’ve grown a lot in my knowledge and character in handling tight scheduled projects. I also really thank God for a good, generous boss and also very helpful colleagues that have never abandoned me when I was facing difficult times. Praise God for His providence!

We’ll be going to Singapore for the Asia Conference hosted by City Harvest Church in a few weeks time. I’m really excited for what God has in store for us there. It’s gonna be a fantastic time of learning and ministry. The exchange rate for Ringgit to Singapore dollar is rather high now, but no worries, God will provide! Haha! I will not let money be an obstacle, this is an obstacle I know I can overcome through God! Be prepared for the report I will bring back from Singapore!

The Harvest Generation Worship Team is currently having vocal and choir training with our singers, believe or not I’m also in the programme. HAH! For those of you who think I can’t sing, be very amazed at the end of this programme, Ceh-Wah! Just kidding… Nothing to brag about, we’re just looking into avenues to grow our talents in music and singing. We have 2 very good instructors from the SIB BM church, Lenny and Joyce, who really pour their hearts out in teaching us.

Lenny is recording artist and vocal teacher by profession and Joyce is the choir conductor of SIB KL BM service which comprises of about 60 choir members. Joyce’s mother is a ‘big-shot’ choir conductor in Indonesia and is very well know by the locals there. When Lenny and Joyce did a demo in singing, we all felt so unworthy to sing anymore. HAHA! They are so GOOD! Even impromptu songs, they make it sound like it’s been practiced for months! But we really thank God for people who are willing to stand by the church and help build us up.

It’s been awhile since I wrote to appreciate the sponsors of this project. I shall continue today introducing a young gal, who was very timid and quiet when she first came up to Subang, but after she joined CampusCity, there was a huge turn around. She’s one of the strongest young gals I know, despite going through hard times, she has risen above the circumstances and really dependent on God all the way. This gal is no other than Amanda Tan aka Alamanda!

Don’t mistake her for a Chindian ok? She’s pure Chinese~! This gal is super athletic! She can play netball really really well. To see a young student who is willing to learn, willing to give 100% in her service to God and 100% in her studies really inspires me. I speak on behalf of all the CampusCity leaders of that time when I say that we’re all very proud of her!

When she first came to join us in CampusCity, I remember she was super quiet. She wouldn’t even say more than 4 words in a sentence. But after she opened up her heart for the Holy Spirit to work in her, things began to change. She started off serving as an usher, the later as a choir member, then she took up preaching class, leadership training and bible studies, and numerous GIGs. She even joined us to pray at 5.30am, way before the sun rose, for a week when Ps Ryan called for a prayer meeting.

I thank God for her life because she never looked down on the talents that God has given to her. She has always availed herself for ministry no matter how small the task may seem to be to most people. I mean, many people think that being an usher is a small thing, but every role in the Kingdom of God is vital! Your hand can’t tell your feet that it’s useless, neither can any ministry tell the other that they don’t need it. If you’re missing a little toe, did you know that you will find it hard to balance when you’re walking? That’s how important every part of the body of Christ is, no ministry is too small for God.

To Amanda, continue to keep that heart of humility before God. True promotion only comes from God alone, so never ever despise the days of small beginnings. I know you’ll be graduating and will eventually be working. Hold on to the principles of God, never ever let your foundations in the Word and Spirit be shaken by circumstances that will arise against you. Stay faithful to the call that God has placed in your heart and pursue the vision with everything you got.

Man may look at the outer appearance but God looks at the heart, continue seeking and pursuing the things of God and He will bless you abundantly. All the best in all your undertakings, remember to always put God first in everything that you do. Never compromise on the Word and Spirit, in everything give your 100%. Honor God with your life and He will definitely honor you.

PROJECT REPORT! I’m actually considering to install a piggy-back engine management system onto my car. Still looking into the pros and cons of doing so, it’s pretty affordable because I found a guy that I can deal with a very good bargain. I may even propose to help him sell these products if I’m satisfied with the work he’s going to do with my car. Will update you guys more about this when the job is done. Hopefully I’ll be able to land some car jobs in the coming months through this. I’m still praying and looking out for business opportunities and investments in can make to gear myself up to achieve the vision that has been placed in my heart…

Well, that’s all I have all of you today. It’s pretty short compared to me last few entries, but I guess I shouldn’t take so much of your time reading this. So take care people! Have a great weekend ahead! God Bless!!

Project Report #30 - They Came, They Saw, They Got Married (Part 2)

Hey there sponsors, it’s been awhile since I last made an entry. As usual, I’ve been really busy, it’s better than having nothing to do. Like what Pastor Ryan always say, while we’re on earth let’s work hard because when we’re in heaven, we’ll have eternity to rest all we want. Haha~! I am really looking forward to where Harvest Generation is heading towards as a church. Things are getting very exciting!

We just went to Ipoh 3 weeks back to do 5 services back to back in 3 different places covered in a span of 30 hours, amazing eh? We’re going to take another service in CBC PJ this coming Saturday evening and it’s gonna be exciting! It’s like going for GIGs but at a more amplified version of it! This time, we’re stretched as working people! But it’s great because we really see the change in the lives of these young people.

Ps Ryan now is a very happy man! Finally, my senior Pastor is no longer a bachelor! This paves the way for the rest of us to even journey on towards marriage. We had a ball during the preparation of the wedding, the bachelor night and the wedding itself! Let’s just begin with the bachelor night that we had for our beloved Pastor… Writing this is not just for you folks to read for myself also to cherish these good times…

We all gathered at Calvin’s house week before the wedding day with everything prepared. I rushed here and there just to get pastor a nice ‘sexy’ underwear, Chris T bought some sex stuff and the others bought some sushi, body shaver and shaving cream. We had a good laugh shooting videos and taking pictures of the stuff we bought, here are some pictures of that very faithful moment…

After all the stuff was settled and the ‘plan’ was devised, we set out in 2 cars to Pastor’s house. Note that Pastor thinks that we’re only going to pick him up and go karaoke, heheh… So the plan was to ask Calvin to get Pastor to open the doors as we hid in the bushes nearby where we would ambush into Pastor’s house. However, the ambush plan totally failed because Pastor locked the doors behind him as he was exiting the house. So we had to say ‘we need to use the bathroom’ excuse and all that nonsense to get him to open the house doors again. Finally after much pushing through, we manage to get him in the house and sat him down in the middle of the living room as we surrounded him and prepared the ‘bachelor night’ torture…

First up, we prepared a box of nicely sliced salmon sashimi with wasabi on the side and laid it out for Pastor to eat it. NOTE: Pastor Ryan HATES sushi! But this was the request of his dearest bride-to-be for him to eat the sashimi. So pastor ate about 3 pieces but he could not finish it, by the third piece he said he was gonna puke…”all for the sake of marriage..”

Second up, we took out the nicely prepared briefs, custom designed by me, and made him wear it outside his jeans. I purposely bought the biggest size and the most nerdish undies I could find. So he wore it and we made him pose for picture taking… if any of you watch the Zohan movie, we made him do those poses… I shall not elaborate any further… HAHA!

Third up, we took out the ‘razor’~! It’s shaving time! We made Pastor roll up his pants and asked his most trusted assistant, Calvin Tay, to rub on some shaving cream on it. Then Calvin had to shave one part of Pastor’s leg… I personally think that it wasn’t enough because it can’t even be seen! But since he’s our Pastor, we let him off with only a patch of his right leg shaved. Before we could clean his legs, he got up in retaliation towards us and started to wipe the shaving cream on anyone that was around. Poor Nick Chan was on the floor at that time so he got most of the shaving cream on him… oh well, casualties of war… HAH~!

Finally, after all the shaving stuff is cleaned up, each of us presented Pastor with a sex thingy… HAHA… there were condoms, different kinds of lubricants, massage oils which can be used as lubricants as well and other goodies for a good night of ‘FUN’. Silly Jeffery was standing beside Pastor as he was pouring out some lubricants onto his hand… we all know what Pastor was gonna do, but either Jeffery was ignorant or he likes what Pastor is gonna do… so as predicted, Pastor whacked the lubricant on Jeff’s face as he was the nearest victim while we all stayed a safe distance since earlier.

So thus comes the end of the opening ceremony of the Bachelor Night for Pastor Ryan. We then head out to Neway SS17 to have out buffet dinner and crazy karaoke session. We sang the dumbest and funniest songs… well, I guess the songs were not to blame for the horrid noises we made with the microphone and speakers.

While we were all having fun doing crazy stuff at Neway, guess what the girls were doing for Brenda’s bridal shower? They were watching Olympics at Carol’s house. Oh well, the girls are just more composed than us guys… we had the night of our life!

Let’s move on to talk about the wedding preparations. The day before the wedding, all of us were working hard to get things together before 8pm so that we could rush for the Emerge Conference at Sunway Convention. Sadly that day when I loaded stuff to be shifted to the wedding location, some of the equipment tore off my back window tints causing scratches to my windows as well. At first it was frustrating because I very saying my car mah, but then again these things can be replaced whereas a good wedding for the 2 people we love so much is priceless!

All of us were dead tired by the time we were done with the logistics, dry runs and last minute settlements. Even after the Emerge Conference, some of us had to do some more preparations before the big day… I think most of us slept no earlier than 3am that night, some didn’t even sleep…

Then the BIG DAY came! Early in that Saturday morning, we all got up really early, grab some stuff from church and prepared ourselves for the Chip San Liong session, for those of you who don’t know Cantonese, this is the ‘going to get the bride’ session in Chinese tradition. I sent Carol to the hotel early that morning before meeting up with the others guys at Pastor’s house. After Pastor came down in his new suit, we prayed for the entire wedding day. Then we took some Heng Tai photos in and outside the house before we convoyed to the hotel to meet the bride and the nemesis Chi Muis…

When we arrived at the hotel, the first thing we worried about was to get the pulpit from the lorry that came not too after we parked, and unload the other stuff that we had in our cars to be set up at the wedding place. After sweating it out for awhile carrying and working the equipment, the Chi Muis gave us a rang and told us, “we are READY…MUAHAHAHA!”

So we went up to the 10th floor of Holiday Villa Tower and right outside the door, the Chi Muis were already waiting for us... They first gave us each a few tissues and we wondered what ever for? Then they made us do pumping aka push-ups… Haiyah, simple stuff la… not a problem at all… they wanted all of us to do an accumulated amount of 200 pumps.. Pastor, Doc Leong aka Kwong Yew, Calvin and I tapau-ed over 40 pumps each already… rest just had to do the remaining. So we succeeded through the first hurdle…

Then the girls brought out a tray covered with a cloth, we don’t know what was underneath it. They had stuff in 4 cups which were suppose to signify sweet, sour, bitter and spicy. Again, we guys drank until there was only a few drops left for Pastor to take… Thanks mainly to Calvin who took most of it by himself for the sake of his pastor… we guys nailed the second hurdle with ease!

The third hurdle, the girl brought out a cloth with different lipstick marks on it. Pastor was given 3 chances to guess which one belonged to his beloved bride. The first guess was wrong and Pastor was totally clueless about the correct one. Then our hero came, Mr Nick Chan… asked Pastor to smell the lipstick but of course he didn’t la, but Nick continued by pointing out the one that looked most like Brenda’s lips and guess what? IT WAS CORRECT! HAHAH! We were all puzzled how Nick would know Brenda’s lips so definitely… Pei Teng even said how come Nick knows Brenda’s lips more than Pastor? We all had a good laugh!

Final hurdle, the girls told us that they wanted RM308.08 angpau to gain access to the room where the bride was in. The celaka thing was the 8 sen~! Since our ‘beloved’ government introduced the rounding mechanism, where on earth are we gonna find 3 sen? But as guys, we always find a solution to a problem. We first went checked our pockets, car seats, under car seats, under car carpets and finally only wallets, but availed to nothing. This shows that Harvest Generation guys are not cheapos that bring around loose pocket change… HAHHA!

So we went around the hotel to every restaurant and shop frantically looking for the 3 sen to make up the dumb 8 sen. Finally after much searching, we manage to get the 3 sen from a very nice florist near the entrance of the hotel. She was giggling with her other acquaintances in her shop when we told her what we needed the 3 sen for. YAHOO! The mission is completed and we all rushed back up to the 10th floor to greet the Chi Muis but with ‘something’ up our sleeves…

As soon as we arrived at the door, we started shouting and banging on the door for them to let the groom in. They said they wanted to see the money first, we tried to trick them into opening the door to pass the money to them but Harvest Generation girls aren’t so dumb la… sheesh… we scammed them by giving them the money little by little by slotting under the door. We gave them about RM100 over until we scam them by repeatedly saying that we don’t have any more money… but actually we had about RM300 over with us at that time… hehehe… the fun of Chip-Sun-Liong sessions…

So the opened up the door a little bit with the hinge still on and asked Pastor to sing the magic song to Brenda… Pastor and all of us have not a clue what is the magic song so we started to sing the song composed by Pastor himself a few years back… ‘In Your Presence’… HAHAH! I can’t believe we sang a worship song to get to the bride, it shows that Harvest Generation men goes through God to get to the women they love… HAHA! Later only I found out that the song they wanted Pastor to sing was the song he was gonna sing for the bridal entry.. And so finally, the doors were opened and Pastor got to see his bride in all of her glory for the first time ;)

The rest of us had to head down to the garden where the wedding was gonna be held to do more preparations and sound checks while Pastor, Brenda and a few other leaders stayed back to commence with the Chum Cha aka Tea ceremony with Pastor’s family. Then it started to rain heavily… oh no…

About half an hour before the wedding began, Rev Dr Kong Hee of City Harvest Singapore arrived with Ps Kevin Loo and another pastor. A lot of the younger members of our church were stunned to see him walk in to the hotel, so much so that they didn’t know what to do and just froze. But even when he walked pass me, I could really sense and feel the anointing on that man. It’s like he has an aura around him, just an amazing man of God. Donald, Alvin and Doc Leong were Rev Kong’s personal bodyguards for the day, they did a great job but they looked so funny because they were so serious… Normally they are very smiley people but that afternoon they really took on the ‘bodyguard mode’… As the guest arrived, soon the wedding began…

Sherene, one of our close friends from Harvest Times, Ipoh, took the stage as the emcee for the ceremony and kicked it off with an opening prayer. She then asked announced the entry of the bride and the crowd we ecstatic! Well, at least for the Harvest Generation and CampusCity people… Michelle Foo, Pastor’s niece was the flower girl, Carol was the bride’s maid of honour and Calvin Tay was the best man. Pastor Ryan sang the song “I Was Born For You” as the bride made her way to the altar… You could see that both the bride and groom were almost in tears at that time... It was simply a remarkable moment…

They joined hands as Rev Kong took stage to pray a prayer of blessing over them. Then praise and worship started lead by Calvin. After praise and worship, Rev Kong took stage again to give a short sermon, which was AWESOME! I have never heard a wedding sermon like that in my entire life! Was really convicted and moved in my spirit… Then he called on to the bride and groom to take stage for the exchanging of vows, communion and prayer of blessing… and finally the long awaited line, Rev Kong gave his blessing for Pastor Ryan to kiss his bride, we went ecstatic again! And Rev Kong announced the new couple “Mr and Mrs Ryan Foo Say Liang!”…

The wedding ceremony was relatively short but amazing time for not just the bride and groom, but for all of us as well. Remember I said earlier that it was raining very heavily? Well, we didn’t understand why God would allow it rain at first, but later we realized… Thank God it rained because of 2 reasons, 1) The place where the wedding was held would’ve been unbearably hot! 2) The rain drowned out the horrid karaoke session that was taking place at the restaurant just beside the wedding ceremony thus the ceremony was not distracted… So, PRAISE GOD FOR THE RAIN! HAhaha! It was also a personal breakthrough for me that day, for the first time I wore striped shirts and a polka-dot tie which cost me a bomb! Hahaha! What to do, Carol loved the shirt and tie ;)

We had a great time catching up with old friends from CampusCity that we have not seen in a long time. The bride and along with some leaders went on with another Chum Cha ceremony with Brenda’s family this time. After everything was done, the bride and groom went back to the bridal suite to settle some things and prepare themselves for the dinner. We were packing up stuff from the garden and working in the dinner hall making sure everything was organized and planned out properly. We liaised closely with the hotel manager and employees, even made some friends during the preparations. The wedding event manager, Catherine Tan, did a superb job overseeing to everything an ensured a perfect running wedding dinner.

At about 8pm, the dinner commenced with the emcees for the night, Chris and Sherene, introducing the newlyweds in. The bride and groom entered the hall holding hands with the crowd cheering them on. Then the best man and the bride’s maid entered the hall behind them holding hands too… it was so funny! Why? Like I said before, the bride’s maid was Carol and the best man was Calvin and for those of you who were in CampusCity in 2005, Calvin and Carol had some history together in our campus party drama… Calvin was so pai-seh when he sat at the table I was at and kept apologizing to me for holding Carol’s hand. It was really funny and we laughed like mad.

Then the stage lights went dim and the hotel staff put together a stage piece which involved 2 swans dancing together and suddenly 6 baby swans came out! HAHAHA! Common Pastor, You the Man! Then Sherene and Chris took stage again to emcee the entire dinner. They really did a fantastic job and had such good chemistry on stage. For most of us, we didn’t have much time to sit down and eat everything dish that was on our table. In fact, my table most of the time was empty because all of us were running around so much. I was up in the sound/lights control room half the time. The dinner went on with speeches from the best man, the brides maid then came the infamous Yam Seng session lead by Calvin Tay… it was really FUN! Hahah! Pastor Ryan and Brenda poured the Champagne on the stacked glass and delivered a speech to the crowd.

The dinner ended with the newlyweds Yam Seng-ing at every table. We joined in the fun and screamed to our hearts content till we had sore voice and a stomach full of Chinese tea. Although we had much fun but much work was also awaiting us to finish. A group of undisclosed people went to the save room with our in-house bodyguards to do the angpau counting, some went to help out the newlyweds with some final issues at the suite and the rest of us stayed back at the hall to pack up our equipments.

By the time we left the hotel, it was about 12.30am Sunday morning. Some of us guys went back to church to move the stuff back and prepare it for Sunday morning service. When we were done with moving, it was close to 1.30am. Like I mentioned before, most of us didn’t get to eat much that night and were hungry so we dropped by Taj Curry House for a quick supper. After we were done with supper, I sent Carol home before meeting up with the guys again at the hotel where we spent the night, because it was a complimentary room. We joked and laughed awhile but eventually we all ‘died’ all around the floor from exhaustion.

Next morning we got up at about 6am to prepare ourselves for church, we had to be in church by 7.30am, a little earlier than usual, because we needed to setup and make sure everything is running on stage for the service. We had a great service that morning! Pastor Ryan and Brenda thanked the church at the end of the service because they were so grateful to all who have worked hard to bring this wedding together and it all superseded what we expected. Another great testimony is that every bill, every expense was taken care of and the newlyweds had no debt. In fact, God blessed them with more! What a wonderful start to a journey together as husband and wife, without the worry of owing any one any money… God is indeed faithful!

So that’s the account of what happened in the events that led to the wedding, the wedding itself and the day after the wedding. For those of you who didn’t get to attend, well… you missed out on a great time! As tired as we were, it was so worth it! For those who are interested, there are pictures of the wedding loaded at http://www.creativeclicks.com.my/blog/?p=575

The past few weeks have been rather frustrating for me and Carol. We really had to juggle through a lot of unnecessary burdens that was laid on to us by irresponsible people, but then again, the bright side is that it has taught us to be more gracious and merciful. Sometimes people may not appreciate the sacrifices you’ve made for them, but that’s what grace is all about, to give something to someone although they don’t deserve it.

Why were we frustrated? I’ll just give you an example, if you loaned someone something because they needed it, and then when it’s time to ask for it back, that person conveniently ignores you, how would you feel? To add on to that, the person goes around telling people that you falsely accused him of stealing your stuff… WOW! And you just asked him because he was suppose to be the person responsible right? Since he borrowed it from you? That’s why we were bummed for that moment… but this is just ONE of the issues that surfaced over the months, not as simple as that lah.. It takes a lot to get me and Carol so mad. HAHA!

But despite all this, we continuously pray for that person and pray even for ourselves to guard our heart from not doing anything out of anger and vengeance, never fighting evil with evil. It’s tough, but only through God’s love this can be achieved. Injustice is all around us, if you live our lives to justify every injustice done to us, we’re just wasting time and, eventually, our lives away. We can just do all we can do and let God take care of the rest…

Leviticus 19:17-18
‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Deuteronomy 32:35
‘Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; Their foot shall slip in due time; For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things to come hasten upon them.’

So the lesson learnt, don’t try to correct everyone’s mistakes, if there’s no conviction within their spirit then there’s nothing more you can do until the person realizes that he needs God. We can be there to encourage, show mercy and help in whatever way we can for the person, but we should never waste so much time convincing the person to do the right thing if he’s not willing to… Feed those who are hungry, give drink to those who are thirsty… Disciple the ones who desire to be discipled…

Matthew 9:12-14
When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Me and Calvin are now making trips to INTI Nilai to do bible study with a group of boys there. They’re really passionate and hungry for more of God and His word. In fact, because of them, I began to pick up jogging again to maintain my health! HAHA! It’s no joking matter because I know for me to stretch myself between ministry, work, family, relationships and building my vision, I have to be both spiritually and physically fit. But the boys in Nilai have been really a great encouragement and blessing to our cell and our church…

God is really working in Harvest Generation, we can really see the type of hearts He’s bringing in to build this church together with us. People who are Church Based and Kingdom Minded… Our numbers may not be very great right now but with core values and foundations of this church built on the Word of God, our dependency on the Spirit, and our hands to the plow, we will definitely see an increase of not just numbers, but quality of the people’s hearts! So friends, believe with us for God’s best!

PROJECT REPORT! I just changed my front tires because it exploded the day after I came back from Nilai. The funny thing is both front tires burst at the same time. HAH! Cost me nearly 1k to replace just 2 front tires, but miraculously God provided. Was really worried where the money was gonna come from because my road tax is expiring this month and I had to prepare cash to go to Singapore next month for the Asia Conference in City Harvest.. budget was really tight… actually, NO BUDGET for the tires change at all would be the right term. HAHA! Praise God for His providence that I manage to pay it all off.

Well, that’s all I have for you people today. I hope you’ll have a splendid weekend ahead. Hope to bump into one of you sometime soon, I would be running around most of the time. Take care people, God Bless!!