Bloody Juliana and Her Cursed Swearing

Yep. We're all infected.

I voted her speaker of the day for Youth last Saturday. And the first thing she said to kick off her session (after praying all that) was:

It's so damn hot today. Ok. We can start now. Let me get my bloody paper first.

Whoa. Swearing in church!

She looked at us and smiled:

How did you all feel when I used those words?

I don't know about the rest, but what I was thinking right then was: This session's gonna be good.

Let's rewind a little bit. Just for fun.

Juliana didn't want to use the mic and asked the youths at the back whether they could hear her. Then a short but funny conversation between her and Sharma started that sent the whole crowd laughing!

You all can hear right?

Tak dengar, tak dengar.

Aiks. Tak dengar boleh jawab.

And hence Sharma keeps quiet and boleh dengar.

She then began her sharing without the mike, and claimed that we swear to "express" ourselves: It's DAMN hot today or when we're angry with someone: Go to HELL or something like that. Being an English Language student, she pointed out that English is a beautiful language and should not be "destroyed" by swear words.

She went on to say that as a Christian, swearing will only menghancurkan God's name rather than mengharumkan it. She compared swearing to drugs, concluding that they will give you a bad reputation in the end, which is not according to what we're suppose to do.

Swearing not only shows our bad behaviour, and smears God's Name and our rep, it also shows how bad our English is. Also, most of us said that we use swear words or kata hubung, as some people call them, when we're angry. Ju said that when we're angry, people can already see it, by the way we talk and through our actions, so there isn't a need to call attention to our already obvious anger. She gave the example of Jesus, when He was very angry with the people who traded in the temple courts.

Jesus was so angry that He overturned the tables all that. People could already see His anger. But when He spoke, He didn't say: "What the hell are you doing in My Father's house?? Get the HELL out of here!!!" Instead, He said: "It is written: My Father's house is a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of robbers.'"

Good one eh?

She also said we tend to swear to emphasize the importance of something. E.g. I'm so damn hungry or Bullshit. There are better words to emphasize things. Instead of damn, we can say I'm extremely hungry, and in place of bullshit, we can actually use synonyms like nonsense or ridiculous.

All of us have been swearing, even me. After Youth Meeting, when I went back to my house, unknowingly I had swore two times in front of my brother! Though it may seem difficult, but we have God here with us who'll always be giving that extra push and support that we need to go through. I'm sure all of us can do it if we really try and rely on God.

GUIDE - Writers and Quotes
shaun, hwei, juliana, sharma

Prayer Items

Continue to pray for those who have exams:

PMR
Oopps..over d.

SPM
Jessica and Jeremy..the two Js, Sharonne and also Kevin(Chen Li's cousin)

STPM
Daniel, Hwei, Marcus, Adrian, and Raymond (Sim).

UEC
Yik How

MMU
Yen Mei, Kevin, Mark, Jun Yi, Siew Chen, Frederick, Gary.

University life
Shuen, Melissa, Gary, Sin Yee, Sin Lan, Ah Zheng, Ah Derk, Sue Lyn, Teng, Darel, Chen Li, Juliana, El Sen... There are many more out there....

We have prayer meeting every Wednesday, so please come and join us and pray together especially those in Malacca...hehehe...

Your Tongue As Whose Pen?

Date: 29 September 2007 (Saturday)
Psalm 45:1

My heart is inditing a good matter:
I speak of the things which I have made touching the king:
My tongue [is] the pen of a ready writer.

Warm-Up
To show what it is like to be a writer with Writer's Block: I gave them 4 essay topics:

• My Pet
• Why I Love My Father/Mother
• My Goals/Ambitions
  
• The Girl/Guy I Like Most And Why

And I allowed them to substitute any one of the above with a topic of their own that they were comfortable with.

And so they wrote. For 20 minutes.



After they finished with their essays, I broke them into groups of two to share their essays with each other. It was interesting to hear some of their essays. Shaun's essay about his "pet", Shaun the Sheep was particularly fascinating. Ahem.

Findings:

• The essays that were the easiest to write were concerning topics they've written about many times before, were familiar with, could relate to, were personal to them, and interesting to write about.
• The essays that were the most difficult to write were concerning topics that were boring, or topics that they could not relate to or knew nothing of, such as My Goals/Ambitions

Dynamics
Think:
How many years have I been in church/youth?
Post/responsibility in church/youth?
Have I done it? Have I done anything at all?
How well? Have I done anything that has helped someone else?
Has anyone ever told me how encouraging I was or said anything encouraging about me?

All of us have talents, skills and gifts. There's no reason for us to flaunt them and show off, but there shouldn't be a reason for us to hide them either. We're supposed to be workers for God, not just people who help out once in a while. We need to start channeling our energy and time into the work of the harvest! If not with the gifts given us, at least with the tongue that each one of us have.

Is your tongue the pen of a ready writer or the pen of a writer with Writer's Block?

Conclusion
We ended by gathering around the piano and singing the song, Clouds Above. A huge Thank You to the MHS boys who sang along when I asked them to! I think that was one of those times when we really felt like a real family with a common goal and a common purpose. I sincerely hope we can be like that everyday, even when we're not singing together.

Psalm 45:17

I will cause Your Name to be remembered in all generations,
Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.

We are not only to remember Jesus, we're also to cause His Name to be remembered in all generations.

If the world were to forget Jesus one day, if there were to be a generation that would forsake Jesus Christ, let it not start with us. Let our generation not be the one to break our Lord's heart.
Let us strive towards the day where we would join that crowd of faithful witnesses, spurring the generations after us towards the finish line.

Gambate, everyone!

Life's Brief Candle

It is with mixed emotions that I pen/keyboard this down tonight.

Mrs Chua's aged mother passed away yesterday morning - Wednesday, 19 September 2007. The elders, the adults and Kevin went to see Mrs Chua yesterday night after a short prayer at MGC.

The funeral wake will be held at 8.30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, in Mrs Chua's house in Klebang Besar.

The funeral service itself will be on Sunday, 23 September 2007, 10.30am.

Mrs Chua's mother was almost 90 years of age when she passed on and walked into our Lord's arms. Mrs Chua has been holding on to her mother's life through years of hardship and patience, seeing to her every need as a bedridden individual.

We mourn with Mrs Chua for her loss, and yet, we rejoice for the new life she will henceforth walk.

God bless Mr and Mrs Chua for their unending labour of love through the years, and may God use them even more mightily as He reveals a new turn in their course of life.

And we thank God for saving the soul of Mrs Chua's mother. Though we know her not, our hearts are bound together by the bonds of a Christian heritage.


Take a moment to pray for the couple.


And then let us begin to prepare to live a life that will be worthy of a place in the blogs of young men and women, when we too, walk the golden streets one day.


Amen.

Brief Updates

I'm gonna go briefly here. Sincere apologies for the recent lack of updates to this blog! Guess we've all been kind of busy. I'll make this a prayer list too k?

PMR students: 1-5 October
Shaun

SPM students: November
Jeremy, Jessica, Sharonne, Fong Wan, Kristie, Jess Heng

STPM students: 19 November - 3 December
Tse Hwei, Daniel, Marcus, Adrian, Seok Ling

College/University students: Assignments, Exams
Shuen, Sin Yee, Sin Lan, Mel, Juliana, Chen Li, Ah Zheng (just shifted into new house outside campus), Kevin (final year), Frederick, Gary, Wei Jin, Li Lian, Sherene, Yen Mei, Sarah, Ei Leen (studying+working)

Overseas
Derk - Singapore. Auntie Kiat Tin says he's very stressed out so pray for him; his combination of subjects that he chose are quite difficult, literature being one of them brrrr.

Working youth/young adults
Geng Yi, Ngee Shin (UK)

Miscellaneous
Yik How (Pay Fong)

People with illnesses/burdens

• Mr Chua (prostrate) and Mrs Chua (taking care of aged mum and mr chua)
• Mrs Tong - arthritis
  
• Uncle Beng - leg was grazed by a car a few months back, now on crutches cuz there was a blood clot in his leg, and is cooped up in Unc Rod's house with very little moving capacity and almost zero comfort
• Beng Hui - broke his collar bone in an accident a few months ago. Not wearing the cast anymore, but he still hangs his arm near his side as if it was still in a sling. Gonna check out his condition on Sunday so more updates then.
  
• Auntie Nancy - taking care of aged parents

Special Prayer Item
Ei Leen (Cheong from Cheng) is studying in the Open University and working at the same time. Things are stressful for her as she has to juggle her time between work and studies. She tore a ligament in her leg also. So pray for her k?


We recently had a BBQ-FamilyNite event in MGC. Last Friday, to be precise. There was quite a good turn-up, with the youth and children making up most of the crowd.There are quite a number of children who are keen on coming for the Children's Hour every Saturday. So pray that their parents will not disallow them to come. The photos are with Chen Li so when she's free enough (kinda rare), I'll bug her to put them up here. Wait for it!

Gotta go now. The RM0.50 I put in for my one-hour stay in the office is fast running out of value.

Buhbye!