Some Bible verses on the Holy Spirit

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Genesis 1:1-2

For the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4

"Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: 'Rivers of living water will flow from within him.'" He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. John 7:38-39

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8:14

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, and might; the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 11:2

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the suffering and afflicted. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted, to announce liberty to captives, and to open the eyes of the blind.
Isaiah 61:1

What's uP? the stars...

We've been a little quiet this May. Lots of work going on though. Most importantly a revamp of the structure within the community...

Our website is going through a make-over. Once it's up and running (next week?), I'll let you know.

Walk with the Holy Spirit
This Saturday we'll be meeting at Church of the Holy Spirit (Upp Thomson Road). We'll be having a prayer walk. I did this prayer walk several weeks ago and fell in love with life! So it takes you back a billion years ago.. yes you read right 100 000 000... (oh I don't know how many zeroes! help Daryl!) years ago..ONE BILLION LAH. and we'll walk through each important era of time, tracing the creation of every life form! We walk alone, meditative walk and at each stop we take time to read what that era was about. and finally till today.. which for this weekend is Pentecost! The Holy Spirit, the Ruah (breath) of God, the Lord and Giver of Life.

When I first did this prayer I was wondering why there were so many chairs at the end of the so-called pathway (string actually). When I got to the end of the string... the chairs made sense. Really needed to seat back and take in the awesomeness of our Creator! Everything else existed before we ever came. Hey, all you homo sapiens out there.. after this prayer walk, we'll realise just how small we are in comparison to the great big 'everything' out there..

Here I am wanting to change the world hahaha.. I'm just a new kid on the block man! Even the cockroach got here millions of years before me. I'm not comparing myself to a cockroach. But I will defintely find it very difficult to whack the next cockroach I see. The bug's like my senior... he got here way before me! and i've been thinking what an irritating bug.. get out of my way! I'm sorry Roachy.

So at the end of the whole prayer walk I realised that really we are soooo "born of the stars".. U and I, little stardusts that fell onto the earth... heehee! (ok please don't take it literally.. u know what i mean...)

While the Genesis story can tell us the 'who' and the 'why' of creation, Science can tell us the 'when', the 'what' and the 'how' of creation. Imagine! Only 2.6 million years ago when homo sapiens aka and you and I appeared on earth, then only was the beauty of creation appreciated.. In other words.. before us.. u think the flower really tell the tree "oh you big gorgeous green fella"?? I doubt it. We aka homo sapiens have the ability to praise God. The whole of creation awaits the species of you and me (aka homo sapiens) to give glory to its Creator. And you know why only we can? Because we are the only species that can be aware that we are aware! Not too complicating I hope.. haha

But is it not that also in our awareness we can look at ourselves as God?? I believe so.. Look at the little homo sapiens, the new kids on the block, trying to play God. pffft! I think we are an impatient lot of a species.. We want noodles in less than 2 mins.. and God is so patient... he waited 1 billion minus 2.6 million years for us to praise his creation.. and in the past 100 years we have started an onslaught destruction of Mother Earth. All the kiasu plastic bag people lah. All those who senselessly waste the Earth's resources... All the polluters and all those never think just throw what they like onto their void deck, the street, the drains, the oceans.. and all those men deep in the jungles, chopping down trees like nobody's business. sigh! sigh! ok I'm guilty of some offences...








this Pentecost Let us remember who it is who gives us life and breath. And instead of spending time destroying our "everything", let's PRAISE the Lord for his creation and PROTECT His creation (yes, even the roachies).

Send forth your Spirit oh Lord and renew the face of the earth.

Past acts29 events

Lenten Vigil
This Lent we had a vigil/recollection on the night of Holy Thursday. We started the evening off by attending Mass at the Cathedral. Dinner was packed by fantastic caterers. We buddied up in pairs and began our journey of church visiting. We could only visit a total of 5 parishes. We made it back to CAYC by 1130pm. We started off with the Washing of the Feet. Followed by Seder Meal. More sessions followed. The younger members managed to stay awake most of the time. And the sun rose as we finished painting out Easter Eggs.

Easter Celebration
What's Easter if we don't attend the Triduum celebrations? After the Sat Vigil Mass those who could, came over to my place where the table was laid out and a good sumptious meal was devoured! I think we had sushi, sauerkrats, roasted chicken.. and so on.. The Saturday fast was worth it. hehe.

The following day, refreshed and recharged work began at CAYC. to welcome friends and family who have been supporting us over the years with our mission. Unfortunately we wer so busy, we didnt have time to take good pics. But next year, akan datang.

Chinese New Year Outreach
On the eve of the eve of Chinese New Year we went to Hougang Blks 1,2,3,4 to give out food donations to residents in need. It took a couple of weeks to collect donations, sorting them out, packing and finally distribution. Many people played a different roles to make this all happen. What's most important: the poor were remembered and dialogue was fostered.

Daryl the Stock Taker and Walking Calculator


Sylvester and Tim the sorters and packers


Getting ready to Move Off!


The Rovers rearing to go



an old woman who lives along the corridor

tha lud nam (floating market)

While in Ratchaburi, we visited the famous floating market at Damoen. It can be so challenging to get around in a place where people do not speak the same language as you. Before we set off (just the 3 of us Singaporeans) Sr Mon taught us a lifepsaver thai word... tha-lud-nam. This tha-lud-nam is thai for water market. So off we went. At every turn, we'd stop and utter these 3 magic sounds "tha-lud-nam". People would nod their heads approvingly and point us in the direction of the bus stop. But one after another we realized that the nodding was the same but the direction was always different. The other Thai words we had picked up did not seem to be working. Like "bus" and "where".

Evenutally we came to what looked like a bus stop. A few men who seemed to be operating some private (perhaps illegal) taxi service approached us and asked us where we wanted to go. "Tha-lud-nam" Again they nodded but this time they pointed us to their van and tried to negotiate a price. An elderly by-stander was observing the situation. Maybe he had noticed us walking up and down the street. Crossing and then crossing back. Curious he came over for a closer look. Suddenly his eyes lit up! "I speak English", he proudly announced on recognising some of our spoken words. Woohoo...

The kind man negotiated with the drivers and decided that it would not be worth it for us to pay them what they were asking. So he showed us to the bus stop across the road. "That bus. that bus". Relieved, we thanked him and headed for the bus-stop. Just as we were crossin the road, I noticed a lorry-jeepney-yellow-bus go past us. The enthusiastic man clapped thunderously! "ok, ok", I hear you. I did what i always do... run for the bus. which is the only time I ever sprint. Daryl and Syl have slower processors and it took them awhile to figure out what was happening. As usual, when I run, I run and forgot about my 2 friends who were by now trying to catching up with me! heehee.

"tha-lud-nam?" The driver smiled and nodded... hhmmm... An elderly lady was seated in the bus with a large basket of watermelons. "Tha-lud-nam?" She smiled and nodded too. The bus picked up a few more passengers before the driver decided to make a stop. Perhaps we had arrived at some kind of interchange? the driver stopped by a food stall and the next thing we knew he was slurping down noodles and soup. The old lady continued smiling at us. After 15minutes, the driver got ready to go. "Tha-lud-nam?" Again smiles and nods!

The old lady sure had alot of watermelons and I could not imagine how she would manage. I ended up buying a watermelon from her, to lighten her load and we carried that one watermelon with us the rest of the way. haha.

Watermelon lady


Watermelons for Sale


We finally made it to tha-lud-nam.
Life by the river, a seamless flow


A woman going about her work


A fruit seller


Jacky Chan's younger brother

Ratchaburi

We did not stay long in Bangkok. After a few days we went up to Ratchaburi with Sr Monica Maddox. I met Sister in Chiangrai and somehow we just clicked from there.

The guys met her for the 1st time in Bangkok and thought the world of her. HeeHee.


We took a bus to "labuli" as the locals call it. We arrived in the dead of night, some time passed 11pm. I almost fell off the bus seat when Sr Mon told us that Bishop would come pick us up! What? the Bishop? Wow. That's so kind of him. Actually the 3 of us Daryl, Syl and I had no idea where we were going to stay in "labuli". We just felt that we had to go meet Sr Mon and spend time there. We thought we'd look for a cheap hotel and bunk in there for the rest of the stay. But Bishop John Panya welcomed us with open arms, ushered us straight to his residence and he put us up at the guesthouse. We were extremely touched by the kindness and warmth of the Thais. We were like 3 stray youths.. strangers to this land, yet we felt so welcomed especially in the diocese of Ratchaburi.

Bishop John Panya


The Bishop Mobil


We attended a children's day celebration at a parish with Bishop.
These girls are getting ready to perform a dance.


During our stay we were able to visit a Burmese "village". Here the Burmese people are not refugees. However they cannot leave the area without seeking permission. Life is hard and there is little hope for them return to their homeland.

After obtaining permission from the Thai landowner to cut down some trees, the Burmese were able to use the wood to build their homes.


A Burmese lady is preparing some firewood.
Others work in the plantations owned by Thais.


Thanks to these little Burmese angels for guiding me around the village

January 2007, On the way to Bangkok

Sometime in January, Syl, Daryl and I made a reccee trip down to Thailand. This is our story.

The start:
Our journey started at Golden Mile Complex where we hopped onto a bus headed for Butterworth or is it Butt Worth??

We reached early in the morning, found the nearest parish and went for Sunday Mass. We hung aroung Butterworth the rest of the day till it was time to catch the train to Bangkok.

Here comes the train, here comes the train,
here comes the train all the way to Siam


On the train:
So what were we going to do for the next 23 hours on the train? We played cards, studied as much Thai as we could and made friends with the train people. During the train ride, we learned something valuable about the Thais that made our trip so memorable. Thais are gentle and friendly. It's easy to be their friend. Always be ready to give them a sincere smile and just treat them as your friends :)

During the 23 hours we made many friends on the train. I wanted to get a group photo of the staff and fellow passengers in our carriage but decided not to in the end. Here are pics of our favourite train people. Unfortunately we did not even know how to ask for their names in Thai so we gave them names we thought suited them best. hehe.

This is Moe. He made sure everyone got onto the train and that the train left on time too. Ok he doesn't look very friendly.. but Sylvester seems to like him! hahaha


Then there's Joe. He is such a sweet man! He was very interested in our Sony Ericsson handphones. He was tickled pink by Sylvester's card tricks. He even volunteered to take photos for us. Here he's just chilling out with us before the train pulls into Bangkok. Joe is in charge of housekeeping. He sets up the beds for passengers in the evenings.


The lady in the centre is Sally. Sally was so hospitable and cheery throughtout the ride. She got the tables ready for our meals. I guess she's with Room Service.


As for this guy, we just called him Guard. We only met him when we alighted from the train. Initially Hhe looked like real fierce and stern... Maybe because of the tense political situation? I wasn't convinced he wouldn't smile. When I showed him my camera, big smile and said "Picture", he lit up immediately.


Here is our first tuk-tuk driver. He's smiling though you can't see it. See that packet drink on his gear shift thing? He was really happy when we offered him one.. and that came all the way from Butterworth!


I'm sure this guy has many customers. He was so happy cooking, we stopped to try out his food.


If you're still wondering how we made friends with all these people, it was easy. A camera breaks the ice, try to speak Thai even when you know they're just going to laugh at you and if someone in the group knows a little magic, the friendship is sealed! :)

the new Paaralang Pantao

I have been so busy for a while i've forgotten all the things I want to blog... thankfully the pics I took will help me remember.

This March we had a teacher's workshop and I was able to check out the new school building in Payatas. Its two thirds the size of the original and the ceiling is also much lower. There's less smoky mountain air and my bag didnt smell too strongly of Payatas when I reached home! :)

It didn't take me long to adjust to the new place... cos it looked just like the old one... just one third smaller.


What I found cool about the new school... check out the basin.. the toilet flush.. yep.. running water...


During the teacher's workshop, the teachers shared what being a teacher meant for them.


Here the teachers try out a student-centered learning approach. They're trying out this Maths lesson on Graphs with the help of MnMs