This is Our Story, This is Our Song!

Due to popular demand (popular being loosely defined as 2 requests), Wen Hao and I have decided to share a bit about the journey which ultimately led to Facebook presenting us as “in a relationship”. Ah, the joys of facebook. The number of congratulatory wall posts we received 1.2 seconds after our changes in status were flattering indeed and thus we feel it is only fair that we give the 2 people what they want (our story).

Seriously though, the reason we’ve decided to do this is really to give thanks to God without which none of this would have happened. As we sat back and reflected (along the banks of Torrens River, pausing every 30 seconds to protect [me : “WARGH IT IS GOING TO PECK ME SAVE THE MUFFINS!!– because they are awesome” wh : “SHOO!” *does not work so we move to another patch of grass* X3 ] our muffins and ourselves from black swans and pigeons ahh sweet memories indeed) on 5 years of friendship prior to this, we couldn’t help but marvel at how much we’ve grown as individuals, at how we never quite expected this to happen and yet it did at just the right time. We’ve each had our own fair share of living, tainted with experiences good and bad. And through it all, we see God’s hand at work guiding our every step just as He continues to do today. A lot of life’s lessons we learn in retrospect, and though we know we have a long way to go as far as this relationship is concerned, our hope is that by sharing some of the things we’ve learnt and experienced thus far, you dear reader, will be blessed and most importantly, that we will be able to give God the glory that He fully deserves.

The Beginning

We cannot quite pinpoint when things started to change between us. All we know is that sometime in the beginning of this year, something changed.

Chuen – And to be quite honest, I freaked out a little for no other reason than the fact that this was him. We’d been good friends for so long and were pretty good at it too. We always joke about how our friendship started over a cup of bubble tea. Which is a story for another day. (It basically involved him thinking I was a nutjob whose only highlight of the day apart from making it to class on time without getting a parking ticket in the process was bubble tea from MAC Centre.) But I digress. Maybe it was because I suddenly realized that hey, here’s a guy, one of my best friends, who shares my interests, listens, encourages and best of all, shares my heart when it comes to the things of God. Everything I’ve always wanted and prayed for in a man. My man, to be specific. Experience has taught me to never act on anything (especially something of this magnitude) without first thinking and praying it through. That and also the fact that when it comes to love and relationships I come from the 19^th century school of thought where chivalry was the norm and girls were meant to be seen not heard, the pursued and not the pursuer. And so I did (thought and prayed that is)

I can’t possibly continue this without first saying that the past 18 months in Adelaide have possibly been the best yet in terms of my walk with God. I’d like to think of 2007 as my Year of Self Discovery. Where God brought me on a journey that started right from the basics of my Christian faith. Where He reminded me once again of my identity as a Child of the Most High God. That I was created with love, and made for a purpose. That though life on earth will never be without trouble, through even the worst of times, God’s love for me will never change, His power absolute. With that said, I prayed (and ok, questioned as well because I was naturally worried that this was just a passing thing) and distinctly remembered telling God that my conviction lies in the fact that He loves me, knows my heart and therefore knows just the right one for me. And that was that. I was very deliberate about telling no one in the beginning for a few reasons, chief of which were – I had to at least be sure of what I was feeling and I really just wanted to hopefully hear from God without any external influence that may subconsciously affect my view of things. Understand that I am in no way propagating that we are our best counsels and that accountability bears no importance. I have to stress that this was during the earliest possible stage of our whole (or rather mine at this point) journey. Think of it as the equivalent of the blastocyst stage in the human embryonic development. (yikes just realized what a totally geeky analogy that was. Obs and gynae was my last big rotation la ok) So anyway, not long after, I shared this with someone whom I knew would pray along with me. And so we did.

Wen Hao - I am constantly reminded of the time in A Levels where we were waiting for our lab session to start. It was noon time and at that moment I began to spark a conversation with her – the girl who was always running late for classes yet always managed to grab hold of a bubble tea in between classes.

Little did I know of what would happen from A Levels to IMU to now – she’s continuing her medical degree in Adelaide & I am in Melbourne. Our relationship grew from mere classmates to close friends to best friends – where we share hearts & thoughts together, and now God has put us in a journey of courtship. I’m truly blessed by our courtship now. I remember the early days in college when I had a crush on her, but she was attached to a friend from church, and the feelings faded away. Although their relationship ended more than a year ago, it was never in my mind that it is possible to take our friendship to another level – simply because we were so close. But God had another plan in His mind, & I thank Him so much for bringing us through a personal journey of discovering each other since early this year. I was told by a friend that if we each fixed our eyes on God, it will be like a triangle, and we will soon meet under His covering! But if we fix our eyes on each other, we will leave God out of the triangle & we step out of His canopy of love. After all, He is love & only in Him, will we truly understand & discover the real meaning of love.

The In-Between

Chuen – Picking up where I left off, I was at this stage still doing what I knew best to do. Praying and constantly reminding myself that if this was something approved by God, all I had to do was continue seeking Him and allowing Him to speak into my life. (Bear in mind that up to this stage and actually right till the end, none of us had mentioned anything regarding the issue of “us” for, as we later found out, much the same reason – we didn’t want to ignite anything prematurely or in wh’s words, “let my heart rule over my head”) I truly thank God for showing me through relevant people in the bible that every God ordained journey no matter what the destination always, always, starts, continues and ends with growth. So no matter what the outcome, we still win. With that in mind, I made the decision to focus and pray not for the end result, but rather to fix my thoughts and eyes on Jesus, the One in whom my total dependence lies. Where 2007 was my Year of Self Discovery, 2008 so far has been and I believe will continue to be my Year of Revelation. It’s amazing how many things I’ve learnt over the past year through my own time with God, church, connect group and just life, in general. It’s like everywhere I turn, I feel God revealing something to me in the form of new perspectives and revelations, to name a few. My faith has been stirred and challenged on so many levels that at times it’s all I can do to keep from bursting into song and praise at the grace and power of my God.

Wen Hao – Throughout these 5 years, our friendship has grown from strength to strength. In the early days I wasn’t a Christian, and I remember the times when she tried to share with me how amazing God’s love is (but I was not convinced by it. You see, I grew up in a Buddhist family – even then I did not practice that religion). This perception shifted mid 2004 when I accepted Jesus into my life. I remember calling her that night and hearing her screaming with joy on the other side of the line just tells me how much my salvation brings gladness & joy to her. In the early days, when my parents found out I accepted Christ they were upset about the decision. The response wasn’t what I’d expected – instead of rejoicing with me, there were arguments & I remember the times where she & Chris stood by me – constantly comforting me & helping me to lean more on God & believing God will open my parents’ hearts.

True enough, now seeing how my parents allow & encourage me to be involved in church, and hearing them saying “God bless!” & asking me about church when I was in Melbourne, the testimony stands strongly that God has shifted my family’s heart to a new dimension. Sometime this year, at camp God gave me a personal vision of my family’s salvation, and I called her immediately, & hearing her say “I’ve been praying for your family since day 1” touched my heart immensely. I thank God for such a faithful & loving friend!

The feelings started early this year. In fact it was triggered by my friend saying “You want your best friend to be your partner” & having Chris saying “If you have a girlfriend in the future, both of you can’t be as close anymore.” I prayed about it, and said to myself, “I’ll wait till mid April to decide”… I spent time asking leaders & considering their advice, reading books about courtship, fasting & praying about this relationship. Throughout this period, we stayed in touch via the internet & phone, and somehow got even closer. At the same time, she mentioned that there’s someone in her heart & she has been praying about him. Inside me, I sorta “guess” it was me since she never wanted to reveal who this person really is (that’s really unlikely for her since we share a lot together) We agreed to reveal it to each other when we meet again… Come April, a friend advised me to wait till I go over to Adelaide in July. I decided to take that step & prayerfully hoped that God would groom us to complement each other and grow us to be mature enough to enter into a courtship. AND HE DID IT FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS!

The Now

Wen Hao - It is 7.30am as I land in Adelaide for the 2^nd time. It is Tuesday morning, and I can see many different people walking around – some rushing off for business meetings, some returning home from trips & others are like me, visiting! While waiting for her, my thoughts brought me to the phone call I made to KL the night before. I told my parents I was going to ask hers. Although mum said it’s unnecessary, since relationship only involves 2 parties, but I felt it was essential – knowing that her family loves her alot; and it matters to ask for their blessings. Thank God for the APPROVAL! – I passed the most difficult stage J (Chuen : Earning 100 brownie points from the parents in the process)

I never really came out with ideas or a “plan” as to how I was gonna ask her to be my girlfriend. In my heart, I knew the moment was gonna come naturally during my stay in Adelaide. I intended to ask her the following morning over breakfast, since she decided to make pancakes – by the way, it’s the BEST pancakes I’ve had! No doubt!!! (Chuen : HAH TAKE THAT CHUN PENG! HAHA ) It didn’t really work out (Chuen : for reasons that will remain between the Villagers and Chun Peng HAHA), but as I was flipping through the Adelaide map over breakfast, I realized there was a botanical garden over there. She suggested we should drop by after her hospital visit, and I felt that was it!!! So, while cruising along the evening lights at the garden, we brought up the commitment that we had & I told her the person that I’ve been praying about is her! And that’s how it started! A side bench at botanical gardens during a beautiful evening setting in Adelaide town!!! Something that she said stayed in my heart, “Even if you had asked me in April, I would have said “yes”, but I know it won’t be the same as this time. The wait was worth it!” Now I know the time is right! I am at peace about this decision, my leaders & our parents have given their blessings, & friends who know us well congratulate us… It tells me the time is right! Even as we reflect on our friendship over the years as we had breakfast along Torrens River, we agreed that God’s preparation & timing is perfect. It’s our core belief that God is gonna be in the centre of this relationship & we hope that our journey can be a compass that points our friends to Jesus – the Author & Perfector of our faith!

Chuen - So yea, fast forward a few months and here we are. We look back and rejoice over what we have now and all that we have learnt and grown into in the process. Our journeys individual and together are far from over and just like how we surrendered our lives to God the day we made the decision to live for Him and not ourselves, we surrender this too. We may not know what the future holds, but we know and fully trust in the One who does. So at this juncture, what do we do knowing that we’ve only just begun, believing that greater things are yet to come yet acknowledging that our future lies not in our hands? We stick to what we know to do – to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We entrust and surrender our lives daily to the One who knows our inmost being and loved us enough to suffer for our sins, loving us still today and we try as best we can to live our lives according to the purposes of God hoping that in the process, people may look at us individually and together as living testimonies of God’s love and grace. Because we’ve had a taste of how God has touched and changed our lives and believe that in the same way, God can turn your world around too.

So this is our story, this is our song. We’re praising our Saviour, all the day long!

Blessed 40th!!!

The discipleship (L to R):- Me, Aaron, Ian, Pa, Bern, Jeremy, Victor
Aaron's touch on behalf of us!
The leaders (L to R):- Mark, Kelvin, Ps Shawn, Pa, Si Peng, Ps Tim
Hope he likes the cake :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

A blessed holidays!

I think it’s about time I drop a post before the blog master starts emailing me and ask if I wanna continue on with my blog. 5 weeks seemed like a dream. It ended so fast and felt like it had never happened. I’m back in Melbourne and started my clinical school in Austin Hospital this week. The taste and joy of holiday has faded away, consumed by the tiredness of my daily schedule in Austin Hospital.

Nevertheless, I really praise God for such a blessed 5 weeks. I remember the 3 weeks back in KL was totally amazing. Praise Him for an opportunity of time and blessing me with cheap tickets back home. The joy of seeing my family and spending time with them like usual, hanging out in the living room and having meals together like good old times. Seeing friends that soon going to UK, my high school buddies, and spending time with the leaders in church just made my holidays back in KL more fulfilling. Driving in KL, hanging out in KLCC, eating my favourite food and spending ringgit completed everything!

I remembered the time in KLIA when I was leaving for Sydney, Jessica asked me “Are you the only child in your family?” & of course I answered “No. & why do you say so?” She said, “Coz you look like one.” I began to realize why she had that impression. I’m so loved and blessed by my family & I know they were sad to see me leave so early. Some of my friends might think I’m a “brat”, well in a way, I’m glad I was treated as one. This magnifies my parents’ love for me, and I truly thank God for blessing me with such an awesome family.

I flew to Sydney & spent 2 days touring the city with my church members. It was great fun. I enjoyed Fish Market the most since the food is so cheap, and it was top-class fresh seafood! But the highlight was Hillsong Conference! About 30, 000 people from different nations gathered under one roof, united as His body, worshiped Him and encountered Him for a week! Was so blessed to be part of it! I remember a statement was made which really ministered to me:

“The church is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church!”

Amazing eh? Will blog more about the things God spoke to me in Hillsong.

After that week, I spent another week in Adelaide with my friends. I must somehow say that Adelaide looks better than Sydney, I sorta like the place more than Sydney. Anyhow, Melbourne is still better. But the best part is not about the city, but it’s about spending time with my friends. Se Yin, Lay In & Chun Peng were there too. Sneaking into Village, visiting Handoff together, feed kangaroos, preparing steamboat and cooking together, play boggle & boggal (Malay version of boggle), catching up with each others’ lives... it’s such a good time spent together. Was really sad on my last night in Chris’ place. The thought of having to return to Melbourne didn’t excite me. Chris & Chuen kept saying, “You’ll enjoy clinical much more. It’s so relevant and makes so much more sense” but in me, I longed to remain in holidays. I know that once I get back here, I’ll miss home & friends & church more and more, I’ll be so exhausted by the clinical school schedule & rotation, I’ll be loaded by the amount of studies I needed to do & I’ve to go for my country rotation for 6 weeks.

In 5 weeks, I mourned 3 times for 3 departures. But during my stay in Adelaide, Wai Meng’s brother had an accident. What amazed me was, when we heard how serious his brother’s condition was, we sat down and prayed for his brother… and after we prayed for him, the very next day when CP contacted Wai Meng, he told CP that the brother responded and was conscious!!! Really praise God for His healing power. Really awesome to see the power of prayer as we come together as one accord!

This week is ending soon. PC, Kelvin & Sharon just left few days ago. Good to have them here in Melbourne. Gonna miss my IH Shakers & my UL members! Will miss the time we go to the park at midnight and hang out there. Well, just pray that God will prepare me greatly for clinical, not just in studies, but in influence, in being the salt & the light!

Adelaide sweet moments

Down Memory Lane

The front view of my school

It was a good Wednesday night outing with my high school friends. I’ve been spending lots of time with them these holidays. We decided to meet at our high school (St. John’s Institution) and start off our night from there.
We had dinner at Pizza Hut, went to Luna Bar for a drink, then mamak and finally went back to our school to collect my friend’s car. It was that moment Ken suggested “Let’s go in for a walk!” As we were walking towards the entrance, Ken was like saying, “Everywhere you go, there’s a Johannian. In my office there’s one.” Sern Liang added, “Yah, my first interviewer, he is a Johannian.” In my mind, I was thinking, that’s kinda true. I was checking out who’re the notable people these days that were brought up from the same background as I am.

-Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Al- Haj, Sultan of Selangor
-Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, Raja Muda (Crown Prince) of Perak
-Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
-Datuk Hishammuddin Tun Hussein Onn, Education Minister of Malaysia
-Harith Iskandar, Actor, Comedian
-Hans Isaac, Actor

A year ago, the local newspaper has the habit of publishing successful Malaysians throughout the world, and when I was reading their education background, significant amount came from St. John. I feel proud to be brought up by a school so rich in its heritage. Most Johannians are all rounder. We are not known for our academic excellence, not these days at least, but one thing for sure, we are equipped in all areas, from studies to leadership, sports to societies; we are all rounder students!

As we were walking through the famous portico, I saw this sign:

We come with hope, we return with glory!

This statement is so true. Whenever someone asked me which school I am from, I’ll say it with pride “St. John’s Institution” I had such an amazing experience during my high school days, with a bunch of friends that still in touch, who I know still stand with me if I ever need help, and joyfully enjoy and love our school, I guess mainly for its heritage!

Menara KL from my school

Being back in KL this time made me appreciate my school days even more, especially my friends. I must admit that sometimes, I am too caught up with my schedule that I hardly keep in touch with them, or keep canceling appointments. But this time, God really reminded me of my friends, and how much I have to be there for them, and how much they need me. I’ll try my best to stay in touch with them, and to meet them whenever possible. Really thank them for their unfailing friendship all these years.

4 of us left-From R-L:-Ken, Iqram, SL & I

The end of the field where i used to play "Kejar-kejar"

Like old days!

6 hours seemed forever! It all started when I fetched Chris from LCCT (Air Asia Terminal Airport) and head straight to KLIA main terminal. It was great seeing him since January this year. We talked about life, church, spiritual growth, friends, practically anything and everything that came through our mind.

Told him about what Carolyn said to me, “You and Chris always argue about stuff. Last time was KL (which I so think it rocks like nobody’s business) & KK, now when you guys are in Australia it’s between Melbourne & Adelaide. It hasn’t stop!” As I continued by saying, “Maybe I future, we’re gonna compare between which hospital that we work in is the best, or what sorta specialization is better, or maybe who knows, who’s son is much more brilliant & handsome”

It’s never easy to find a like-minded friend, what more a like-minded friend who you can put down all your guards and share everything with him. It’s just amazing how God cross our paths. From acquaintance to close friends to spiritual brothers & now, best buddies!! Now that we are in different places in Australia, I really thank God that the distance didn’t nullify our friendship. We still keep in touch, we are as close as ever, we talk crap like before, we share faith & edify one another more, & of course never cease teasing one another! Can’t wait for the week that I’m gonna spend in Adelaide. Finally, we sorta can hang out together like old days.

Prov17: 17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity

YOU'RE DEFINITELY ONE!