Pre-Christmas Nite 2010.

Always organized, duties were neatly scribbled written on the whiteboard.

Before the props were completed:

[Video 1] Kah Wei did the Simba move on the baby a few times.

[Video 2] Then Ju finally went onstage and said: “It’s not Simba!”

[Video 3] Then they didn’t know what to do with the baby d. Haha!

Check out Sin Yee’s sushi baby.




Then Olive and Teng completed the backdrop!
 

Kenneth came despite the hectic MMU ROC practice schedule. T_T

 

SCENE 1

SCENE 2

SCENE 3

Joseph the Phlegmatic – “What shall I do? Aih. …

I’ll sleep my troubles away whee”

SCENE 4

[Video 9] Famous Donkey song. =D

SCENE 5

 

Marcus the Innkeeper.

(it’s like we have a marcus in every play. haha!)

 

Dysfunctional couple yang baru cerai talaq tiga.

A ray of Hope.

[Video 7] Ray of Hope practice.

[Video 8] Ray of Hope for real!

SCENE 6

(btw, i thought only male sheep have horns? haha!)

Flabbergasted scene. XD

I like this scene. Because these were the first

to whom the gospel was preached.

And the first to make the decision to believe. =)

SCENE 7

(notice the Innkeeper’s evolving broom)

 

   I originally named this “Worship”.

But then,

“Jesus Christ is Lord” is the better title, isn’t it?

SCENE 8

 The simplest scene that I didn’t like at first.

I liked this the most in the end.

Partly because I loved experimenting with the music,

partly because of how, at the end of the scene,

the wise men fell on their knees in worship.

(I took videos of Uncle Philip Lee, not pictures. Hee.)

OUR HAPPY SONG!

BEHIND THE SCENES!

The Soundmen!

Sound Effects Girl!

 THE SUBSTITUTES

[Video 4] Sharma the Shepherd buat suspense move.

[Video 5] Sharma the Wise Man buat lawak.

[Video 6] The real wise man. Compare. Hee!

Shaun the Substitute Innkeeper.

GROUP PICTURES!

the christmas thingy!

I think everyone will agree that the real thing was waaaaaaaaay better than the practices. =D

Picture post will come later, since I don't have any, and since I'm in Pahang. Haha!

Chen Li and Yen, feel free to update ya. =D Will grab the photos of the play from Gary when I get back to PJ.

This post is to acknowledge and thank everyone who put in their all for this night:

Coordinator & Co-Coordinator

juliana & melissa

for coordinating everything, from the practices to the minute details,
for being the awesome spontaneous emcee and narrator,

and for being so patient with us!

Prop, Backdrop & Costume Designs

auntie tina, teng & olive

for the AWESOME GILER costumes, and
the SUPER AWESOME props and backdrop!
uncle kian boon, mr & mrs hoh, and EVERYBODY,
for the props contributed just because we needed help. =)

Props Peeps

jessica, wei jin & andy

for sneaking around quietly and stealthily to move and remove the props!

Food & Clean-Up

auntie lydia (head)

i know so many people helped - auntie wan neo, auntie nancy, auntie bee wan...

thank you for the labour of love -

the food was truly awesome,

and the chicken was ginormous!

Sound Technicians

sharma & daniel

thank you for listening when everybody else's ears went deaf with the noise of the mics,

and for working hard to make sure everyone's voice was heard.

Lights & Wiring

uncle tony, wei jin & kah wei

for doing the things everybody else couldn't do,

and for always coming early to wire and set up everything.

wei jin - thank you for replacing the burnt wire in the piano so fast. =D

kah wei - thank you for fixing the sustain thingy in the piano

although you'd never done it before. =D

Music & Sound Effects

shuen, adrian, andy (& myself)

for playing the same thing over and over again like it was our first and only time!

shuen - for utilizing the keyboard's fullest potential (awesome screams),

adrian - for singing and mek-ing though you have your own ROC to worry about,

andy - for standing in to sing at the last minute. =)

Photographers & Videographers

gary & yen mei

these are the people i talked to before the play started.

i saw more than two cameras that night though.

all you other camera people running around in the dark

making sure all of us had our snapshot glory ---

thank you! =)

Speaker

uncle rodney

for preparing the message although you had tons of SPM papers to mark,

and for all the constructive criticism and suggestions through out the practices!

Actors

santa claus | darel

elves | joel, ken, michelle

mary & joseph | sin yee & kah wei

angels | daniel, christine, celine, sarah

inn-keepers | aaron see & johnny

lawak couple | shaun & chen li

shepherds | uncles andrew & tony, kenneth

wise men | uncles anthony, philip lim, philip lee

for the time spent practicing like mad,

and for all the improvisations nobody made you do.

you guys were truly mangkuk. =D

Big and small,

tall and short,

round and square,

noisy and quiet,

everybody

for the love poured out,
the effort put in,
the strength showed,
the help shared,
the encouragement given
the shoulder lent,
and the prayers said and whispered.



and we always say the first shall be last.
and the last shall be first.
here, the last is first.

The Source, the Reason for the Season, Our Guide

God the Father

God the Son

God the Holy Spirit.

We praise Your Name
and pray that Your Name was praised last night.

We have received many reviews,

but we pray that the night of 25 December 2010

was acceptable to You.

Forgive us if we forgot our audience of one.

A Ray of Hope!

"I've just become a father."

-- Chua Beng Hui via SMS.

Yesh! Yoke Woon gave birth to Chua Ern Song yesterday, and he weighs a healthy 3.37kg! =D

According to Beng Hui,

"Ern" is the Chinese for "grace",
and "Song" is, well, "song".

So Ern Song's name means "song of grace". =D

Waiting for pictures, will upload them when I get them!

"I've just become a father."

I was so moved when I saw those words. T_T

[I was in court watching a trial, so I couldn't do the happy dance.]

-_-

Putting Christ back into Christmas

Helloe peeps! Keep your Christmas evening free because we, the Mangkuks from MGC are inviting you to our Christmas event! Come join us kay? XD

Visit our Facebook event invitation to RSVP yea!

Congratulations!

Adrian!

Celine!

We would like to congratulate Adrian and Celine for their brave effort yesterday. There were no experienced pianists during Sunday Worship. After a few songs sung without the piano, Adrian and Celine then stepped up and went to the piano to play for the remaining Worship. We, as the Church, are very proud of you two for what you've done and do hope that both of you will continue pleasing God by serving Him. Well done!

Cry, all ye experienced pianists,
for ye apprentices have all grown up!

Pray!

Please do pray for Qi and Yik How, and Andy who will be taking their SPM and STPM respectively. Same goes to Jessica, Daniel, Hwei and other University students in their exams. They've just finished their first week of exam, so pray for continued strength from the Lord and a good mind to be able to sit for the remaining papers. Pray also for good health for the whole month of exam.

Pray for Simon. He applied for internship in 8TV and also NTV7. The slots for internship are few, so pray that he may get a place in either one of those TV stations, and if not, God will guide him to another place for the internship.

Pray for Sally, Adrian, and Kenneth who are involved in the MMU Christmas play. They look tired so pray for strength as well and not losing sight of the goal of preaching God's love to their non-Christian friends.

Pray for the Christmas event in our church. Pray for Juliana as the organiser that she may not leave out any detail and be able to direct the play in the best possible manner. Lastly, pray that God may be with us all, for anything without His consent is useless. For teachers and students, enjoy your holidays and spend them wisely. Whee!

Xtraordinary Youth!

That was the topic for the Youth yesterday. It was taken by Joshua Liang of Focus on the Family. He told us not to despise our youth and that we can still do many things in spite of our age. He gave 6 steps to being Xtraordinary:

1. Strive for Excellence
To do our very best as if doing it for the Lord. Colossians 3:23

2. Helping Others
He gave a story about Zack Hunter, who was 12 years old when he launched Loose Change to Loosen Chains in a bid to raise awareness and funds to end slavery.

3. In-Depth Friendships
To put simply, he quoted Anon, "I went out to find a friend; but found no one. I went out to be a friend; and there were friends everywhere." To find a friend that you can really trust and connect well, you have to be that friend first.

4. Never Give Up
Many famous and successful people in the past have failed before becoming who they were known to be. A fine example would be Peter the apostle, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Edison. If you've never failed, that means you've never lived.

5. Encounters that are Intentional
To deliberately be with Jesus and feel Him in spite of the busyness of the world. True spirituality isn't about retreating from the world to find Jesus, but finding Him in the world.

6. Seize every Opportunity
He shared with us the Latin word Carpe Diem. It means seizing every opportunity and Ephesians 5:16 bears the meaning. Carpe Diem by itself is not enough, as you need Coram Deo too. Together, Carpe Diem Coram Deo means seizing every opportunity in God's presence.

With these 6 steps, he or she S.H.I.N.E.S for God.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Are we committed?

Condolences

Dylan's (or the famously known Ta Shinn) maternal grandmother passed away yesterday.

Our deepest condolences to his family.

Let's keep his family in prayer and that God will strengthen them during this time of sadness and grief.

Those we love remain with us
For love itself lives on
And cherished memories never fade
Because a loved one's gone
Those we love can never be
More than a thought apart
For as long as there is memory
They'll live on in the heart
-Unknown author-

A successful operation! Thank God!

Joshua had a successful operation.

Doctors are still monitoring him.

Heart pressure still a bit high for now, so on medication.

Let's thank God for keeping little Joshua safe and let's keep praying for speedy recovery.

Update on Joshua's report

Joshua is having mixed aortic valve disease with large PDA and corarctation (blockage of the main artery).

Surgery must done asap.

Joshua is scheduled for an operation tomorrow morning at 9 am to close the hole and unblock the artery.

Please pray for Joshua's safety and also wisdom, alertness and steady hands for the doctors and nurses.

Baby Joshua & Simon *edited*

Baby Joshua

At the time of writing, the Cheah's are in Ipoh.

Baby Joshua's lung didn't close properly, so he's having difficulty breathing. The blood circulation is also now direct - the blood passes through the heart, but doesn't stop there. (I'm no Science student, so I don't really understand)

*edited*
Joshua's experiencing something called the "Patent Ductus Arteriosus". In short PDA.

We have two main arteries. One to distribute blood to all parts of the body (Aorta), One to carry blood from heart to lung (Pulmonary artery). The baby doesn't use his/her lungs during pregnancy (Oxygen provided by the mother). Flow from the right ventricle needs an outlet (which is through the patent ductus). When the baby is born, the patent ductus should close within 24 hours. When it doesn't, it's PDA.

He's going for an operation on Monday to seal the hole, so pray that the doctors will be careful, and that the operation will go well.

Pray also for Geng Yi and Grace!


Simon

Uncle Rod, Kah Wei, Sharma, Shaun, Shuen, Sin Yee and Wei Jin (sorry if I missed out anyone - I wasn't there.) went up to Shah Alam on Friday for Simon's father's wake service. Jessica and I went for the funeral service on Saturday. Simon thanks MGC-ians for cheering him up by making him laugh so hard on Friday.

He'll be staying on to help his mum and sis wrap up some things, and should be heading back to Malacca on Wednesday. Otherwise, it'll be Sunday.

Pray that God will be with Simon and his family, and that Simon will find a Father in Him.

Update.

It's sad for me to update this on the blog but Simon's father has passed away this morning. According to the message received by Simon:

"After yesterday's surgery, everything was fine until between 5-6am. The doctor called saying my father's condition had changed due to blood pressure dropping continuously and having breathing difficulty. These resulted to him having heart-attack-like condition. Finally, my father was announced dead at around 6.30am."

On behalf of the church, we send our condolences to you and your family, Simon. On a positive side, he is a Christian, so he's gone to a better place to be with God. If I may recall what Uncle Dexter said about Raymond, "We may love him, but God loves him more to bring him back to Him."

Let us as fellow brothers and sisters continue to pray for Simon and his family. It's a tragic loss to bear, but God will sustain them and bring them through this testing time. He has always done so, and will do the same.

"In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a mansion for you." John 14:2

Prayer!

Please pray for Simon's father. He is either having a heart surgery now or later. It was supposed to be on the 17th November but has been brought forward to today. It's a surgery that will take 6 hours. Pray that God will give the doctors necessary skills and alertness while performing on his father and that the surgery will be quick and successful. Pray as well for the family, that they be strong in this hour and also for Simon, that he may be positive in his studies and other areas in spite of this matter.

Attention!

Today(Sunday) is Frederick's last day with us in MGC! OH NOES!!!! Yep, he has already finished his course and will be working in Singapore soon. It's quite sad la... because Singapore don't have good food like Malacca.

Anyway, it was great joy and fun since you came here 5-and-a-half years ago. Yep, it's been that long! The first time you stepped into MGC, I was just in Form 1! I still remember seeing this tall dude with earrings and I was like, "Wah! So modern wan ar?"

I think you're also one of two guys in church with a ponytail! The other being Geng Yi!

Back then, Mark was fetching you to church with his Saga. But 5 years later, you're the one, in your own Saga, fetching new MMU students like Sally and Kenneth. You seemed like a reserved guy at first, but then it was totally a misconception! You were daring enough to participate in the Treasure Hunt and that disproves shyness to the max!

See! Not shy to pose for the camera, unlike Sharma!

You also play the piano well, not to mention the drums, or the guitar. Heck, you can be a one-man band if you want to! It was a real encouragement to see you do what you do with the instruments despite your condition. Thank you for those times when you played for the youth and who could forget the time you chaired the youth event so well? It's just a shame we did not utilize you enough, and for that, we apologize.

Ain't you lovin' it?

As you go on to a new chapter of your life, we hope that you'll look back in this chapter and be glad. Do give any of us a call if you need anything alright? Also, continue to serve the Lord, be it in Singapore, Ipoh, or Malacca. It is sad to see a fellow Mangkuk leave, but the time had to come, and the time is now. So do take good care of yourself and spread the Mangkuk love around in Singapore alright?

This post's to you, Frederick!