thaipusam.

JANUARY 30th 2010, what a day to go to the beach.
JANUARY 30th 2010, the day where places around town is jammed like crazy.
JANUARY 30th 2010, THAIPUSAM.
JANUARY 30th 2010, BEACH DAY.

like last year's beach party, there was a typical shot of some one parasailing.

bunny?

game organizers

Okay, so the day kicked off with a sandcastle building "competition".

Each team had to build a sandcastle based on their team name and it had to be like some waterworks thing like in youth camp.

And yeah, every team was a winner.
Banana team won because they were the fastest team to finish, Durian team won because they had the longest water gateway? or something like that lah, Watermelon won because their sandcastle had slippers and it was the smelliest?

Okay, weird.

ANYWAY,
the real games began when Pastor arrived.

So we were given a cloth and some paint and we had to paint something to do with our team.
We could get buckets of water by doing some tasks
- eat a banana and drink sprite.
- eat a watermelon with a fork.

And obviously, you could use the water given to sabotage the other team's flag.
We also had to build some pyramid thingy high enough to hit the marked spot on a pole.

Banana Group

Watermelon Group

Pole Dancing Durian Group

watermelons!

I have no idea whether sumo wrestling is a tradition or not, but they had it last year as well.

I seriously don't wanna be near andrew when he wrestles. hahahahah'

Joyce and Eulene trying to jump.

Honestly, there's really nothing much to say about beach day because we were just having fun at the beach.

beach volleyball, on the other side of the beach.

Thats the DRAGON behind Dixon's back.

Basically that was it.
As they say, A picture speaks a thousand words, so I'll let the pictures do the talking this time.
and since we have about 15-20 pictures, that would give us about 15000 - 20000 words. YAY.

Oh and do keep Pastor Victor, Aunty Rama, Daniel Tan, Gary, Ivy and Tricia in your prayers because they're going off to cambodia for missions for 2 weeks.

ACTS part II.

JANUARY 23, the most DREADED day of January.
WHY? Because it's a SATURDAY and there's SCHOOL.

Anyway, youth service went on as usual even though there was wildfire party 2 going on at EPCC.


Okay, firstly, BIBLE CLASS =D

Led by the Bible Class Boss herself:

EUNICE LEE

And that day we learnt about:

THANKSGIVING (see the paper, not the models)

So we did some:

ACTING

..according to the scripts given, and also with:

DRAMA

With everyone's partipation, even the:

OLD KUTU

So it's like this.. everyone would:

READ

..their scripts first before:

DRAMATISING

..it out.

So if you notice, that was two groups, and here's our last group below:

READING

..their script before making Ben a:

TEACHER

And, in the same act, we saw Daniel and Shaun:

BONDING

..and their act made everyone:

ROLL ON the FLOOR LAUGHING

No, it didn't terpesong from Bible class..

All the acts had to do with one thing, THANKSGIVING, as further explained by:

YEAN AI

Thanksgiving, as David did in:

PSALM 118

So yes, then dinner, then prayer.

But before that..

BEACH PARTY

..flyers being promoted by Eulene after being distributed by the two [insert adjective here] guys, Indy and Ben.

So, yeah, where were we..

PRAYER

..with the usual strong turnout of fireBRANDS (oh btw, there's Youth Prayer every Saturday morning, 8-9a.m.).

So anyhow, prayer points included the families and friends of the dragon boat accident victims, service that night, family and friends of one of Sharon's schoolmates who had taken her own life that week.

And again, that night prayer was done in:

GROUPS

..of 3-5 people.

Once everyone finished praying,

SHIAU XIAN

..fireBRANDS' new other prayer coordinator (besides Sarah) closed in prayer.

So next:

TOILET BREAK

Followed by:

PRAISE & WORSHIP

But, foremostly, something special that night:

LESTER WAN

..sharing his true and amazinggg testimony of how God healed him of a cyst in his toe.

While being rolled into the operation room, the doctor gave him a final check..

..and the cyst which was supposed to be there..

..was NOT there anymore!

No need for an operation anymore.

Really miraculous stuff eh (= prayer doess work wonders..


So yes, back to:

PRAISE & WORSHIP

..which was..

..how to say.

Giving reverence back to God.

Then, we had announcements.

With Ming Yen, yang dengan penuh gayanya:

MEMPROMOSIKAN

..go read at the bottom of post.

Also, the:

CAPTAINball CAPTAIN

..who talked about the prep for Captain Ball for Wave Challenge (in April as usual). Trainings are every Sunday at Youth Park, 4:30-6:00+ p.m..

So then, the next person to grab the pulpit boom stand was:

PASTOR VICTOR.

But then a forgetful Joyce bumped in and:

INTERRUPTED

..to announce about..

..oh crap i forgot.

So, back to the topic, Pastor continued his previous message about:

THAT

ACTS - Part 2, A continuation of Acts Part 1 obviously, from 2 weeks ago.

Click here to view.
Anyway, let's move on to step 4.

4) We must MAGNIFY God

Acts 4:23-24
Except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

Put God first in everything.
Don't take problems/ matters in our own hands but go to God and pray.
If we look at our problems all the time, it becomes very big.
We must not focus on our problems but we must look to God and put Him first in our lives.

Nothing moves us when God is sovereign in our lives.
Everything moves us when we are sovereign.

If we lean on God, He will lead us through and we will be able to experience the power of God.




5) We must maximize PRAYER

The word PRAYER appeared 48 times in acts.
God is waiting for His children to pray.
Spiritual warfare requires the use of spiritual weapons. Spiritual weapons come by prayer.

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

-Mother Teresa

6) we must model christ-like GENEROSITY.

Acts 4:32-34.
All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them

Whatever we do reflects Jesus. We need to be generous.

We Must share our best (resources, time) with people.
And when we begin to do these they will see JESUS in us.
When we give people, give the best. If it doesn't hurt. It's not giving.



7) we must mobilize everyone for MINISTRY and MISSIONS.

Acts 6:1-7. But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.

Men were chosen to serve. God wants everyone to be in ministry and missions.

NOTE-WRITING

*we were broken up into 6 groups to discuss*

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

[insert photo-that-wasn't-taken here]
SIX

And the peronda:

SUPERVISOR

Q: What kind of people should be chosen for ministry? And what are the characteristics?

Kind of people:
-Everyone

Characteristics:
- commitment
- Christ-like
- dedication
- be sure of what you want
- good hearted
- love God
- transparent to God
- able discern right and wrong
- humility
- discipline
- strong faith in God
- cooperative
- be open to connections
- leadership qualities
- charisma
- have a servant heart
- full of faith & the holy spirit
- teachable
- submissive
- patient
- obedient
- hardworking
- passionate
- have initiative
- knowledgeable
- experienced
- dedicated
- skillful
- confident
- called by God

Some CHIM & powerfull stuff:

People cannot choose people to serve, but people have to choose to serve.

There are Many people who are capable who are not called by God but those who are called by God are capable.

Oh, right, each group sent out one represetative to present their answers:

NICHOLAS


EULENE


SHAUN


SARAH


HADIRIN-HADIRAT


ELISHA


MING YEN

Q: How can we mobilize everyone for ministry?
Ways to mobilize everyone:
- approach them
- motivate them
- be an example ~ influence them
- those that are in ministry must go out to bring people into ministry
- help them find a ministry
- involve people
- warm fellowship
- prayer
- appreciate people
- expose them to reality
- show everyone the same objective/plan/vision/picture
- group people with the same skills and find a way to impact that area
- through the Mass media
- through schools

Definition of Ministry : To minister to someone in need. When you see the need, you gotta fill up the need.

So, lastly, Pastor wrapped everything up in a fitting:

CONCLUSION

ATTENTION to JYB members; NO JYB next saturday (30/1) AGAIN. sigh.
On the up side, there's a talk at EPCC, for 17 and above only.
ANNNDDD, there's BEACH PARTY afterwards.