This is super delicious blues performance of 2 of my childhood guitar heroes Gary Moore and Albert Collins. Some blues before we sleep.

I did a bit of a clean up. (Click to see before). OK it’s just a bit but at least there’s no longer bananas and it’s enough to keep me clear minded to accomplish quite a number of task today. This include solving a nasty wordpress bug for the missions website.

I ended the day meeting up with Hannah and then with some ministry mates for a movie at GV Tiong Bahru. Yes, we watched that Batman “Dark Knight” movie. Good movie but its a bit dark. The 2 aspect that I like of it are…

1) The acting and 2) The plot that really builds up key characters (and they were so many of them).

I think its an eye-opener of how far Hollywood movies have come. Overall, it is still not my kind of thing. It did justify why I’m not a big fan of Hollywood movies. I’ll go for a French movie anytime.

I’m not surprised that my PwC textbook has these to say about Hollywood producers.

Hollywood producers generally abide to these principles:
1) Girls will watch boys movies but boys may not watch girls’
2) Younger kids will watch older kid’s movies but older ones may not watch the young’s
3) That’s why to cater for the largest audience, aim at the 19 year old boys.

Yes, I did feel like a 19 year old male in the duration of the movie. Not bad for an experience but its naturally not what I’ll go for given 2.5 hours free time.

I also wanted to check out, what I mean last Sunday when we sang “Jesus is better than Batman”. Now I know, Jesus is really better, much better.

I told Sandra the Social worker, that there’s fighting in service last Sunday. She asked if its adults or children. I laughed and say ‘what do you think‘? She says adults fight too you know, internally!. Yes she’s right. But I have only seen children physically give their best (fist) to others in church.

Two boys broke into a fight in the middle of games. One grabbed the throat and try to choke the other. Oh boy, what will they think of next? I’m beginning to fear that this is only happening to us. I mean we are a church, not a wrestling ring, so shouldn’t christian boys and girls be nice people, well mannered, sitting still in service and totally submissive to biblical instruction of humble servants of Christ like us?

In retrospect, dealing with these cases on and off, I noticed a distinct pattern. These fights always come from provoking statements and these statements are often made from a 2nd generation christian towards a 1st generation one. Fights break out in reaction to those statements. It is true last week and the last few times. 2nd gen and 1st gen christians are two different breed of children. One is more refined/restrained and familiar with structure. The other is more enthuasiastic but untrained in structure. One is not better or worse than the other but yes they are different. But even though this is a fact, I know in the spirit of Christ, that these dissonance and differences can be worked out for good.

At the end of the conversation with Sandra, we agree that there may be nothing we can do to prevent kids from fighting. (Yes she assured me that it happens everywhere) but what happens after the fight is the key. So the key of these all is “Use fights as teachable moments”. And who holds the key to make this happen? Us!

We also discussed about refinement to our Service Rules and techniques like’Circle Time’ and ‘Talking Piece’. It was a great time talking with Sandra, the Social Worker. She’s a great asset to the ministry and I appreciate her input and insights very much.   (She took my kids to a concert a few weeks back. See!!)

Now God! God! send us workers who are not only managing and controlling, but are committed to training and are able to get their hands dirty to practice teachable moments. Maybe 3 or 4 of them will do. By end of this Quarter? Gee, Thanks God!

We can do things or ….

Here’s 25 Time Management Tips

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” - Romans 8:15

Not slave to fear but sons and daughters of the most High God.

Mag and I went to Mad Jack Cafe @ Simpang Bedok for dinner. We ordered lamb and chicken. The food is very good. Yes it is. It is also very affordable. Yes we can pay. We like it so much so go there. Yes, you should. It’s better than Botak Jones… err ok, I’ve never been to Botak Jones… but it’s better than McDonalds definitely. And I dare confidently say by a mile.  So I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

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If for certain reason you don’t appreciate good food reviews like what I have done there (or you are non-Singaporean) then you’ll like “Feedbags”. Click and check this out!

Found a CD containing 22 June 2008 HopeKids LIVE! service passed to be my someone. I like certain sequences especially the above about the “Super Duppa Should Cast Out Every Demon” Helmet. That was Peter acting as Peter and Wan Yueh as the devil. And the photos courtesy of our visiting photographer Penny Poon.

The man passed away last Friday 25th July. You have to listen to his Last Lecture if you haven’t.

Yesterday was a long day. I was at home with the kids the whole day (while Mag’s attending lectures) ‘Children-sitting’ is usually a mixed bag. It could be heaven, it could be hell. It is usually both for me. When I’m involved, I’m in heaven. When I’ll just get by, I’m in hell.

Later that day, Mag came home and announced that her grandma passed away in Canada. She was a kind and considerate woman, a jolly old soul. I recall what Mag shared about her diligence to wake up early every morning to pray for everyone in her family. Mag practically grew up with God’s protection invested through her prayers. Grandma believed in Jesus. Earth may be hellish but she’s now in heaven, definitely.

At night, Mag and I attended Philip, my old ’sheep’s wedding. Yes, he’s finally married to the girl of his dreams. We are so happy for him. Marriage… well, it could be heaven, it could be hell. It depends on how we make it to be.

I remember a man once said “It costs just as much to do it right as it does to do it wrong”.

Yes, we should do it right since doing it wrong is just as costly. Life isn’t going to be the longest thing we’ll do. Don’t have time for dragging our feet and sloppy living. Everyday must be deliberate and intentional with carefully planned out and executed stuff. It should be filled with energy.. with innovation and creativity.

However if innovation and creativity are all there is, it will also not make sense. What we do, shouldn’t leave us uneffected. It should cost us and make us. Otherwise its just the work of man. God’s work impacts us and makes us better people and disciples.

At the end of the day, work should not deplete us but revive us. Although we may be physically exhausted but spiritually we are more alive at the end of the day than at the start of it.

This will be my spiritual goal of today.

This is Ryo Natoyama playing his own arrangement of Eagle’s classic Desperado. He is a junior high schooler playing on a ukelele he made himself.

Yes, the maker always know his instrument better.