i'm a woman of destiny!

Are you? :)

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Here I stand forever in Your mighty hand . Living with Your promise written on my heart . I am Yours . Surrendered wholly to You . You set me in Your family . Calling me Your own

Now I... I belong to You . All I need . Your Spirit Your word Your truth . Hear my cry... my deep desire . To Know You more . In Your name . I will lift my hands To the King . This anthem of praise I bring . Heaven knows I long to love You . With all I am . I belong to You . (To You - Hillsongs)

one. flaw in women

music for the soul-searching

If you are looking for an authentic eclecticism of some narrative, minimalistic, and sometimes chirpy modern classics, click on
http://www.elizabethtown.com/home.html or http://myspace.com/elizabethtown

to hear the soundtrack musician/director Cameron Crowe has put together for his latest movie Elizabethtown (my present fav). It's perfect for any soul-searching road trip.

(oooohh....i miss road trips........)

I am impossible to forget, but hard to remember. ~Claire Colburn (character in Elizabethtown)

Highlight of Night Safari tour

Have you already been bong-ed too?

diary entry _2202.06 : sisterhood

My righteous one will live by faith.

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith." (Hebrews 10:35-38)

Thanks Rachel. You are really a thumbs-up! mighty woman! :) This verse that you gave spoke right into my mind, and brought a certain ray of light!

So true.

Behind every of this precious girl, are uncountable stories of incidents and experiences that have exhilarated, lifted, and also saddened and broken parts of each of them; spelling lives which God has never forsaken through all circumstances.

And just like what i described to some of you, indeed their life pieces form imaginary subfolders in my mind - Meiqi's folder, Amanda's folder, Sharlene's folder..... Not just because i am accountable to God for their lives, but because they mean a lot to me, from the moment each of them became my spiritual daughter. Today i read in the book 'The Master Plan of Evangelism', under the heading 'Carry their burdens for them', this line '..this means you will not be able to get them out of your mind', and i thought....it is exactly like this.

There were also many other 'folders' that i made myself and struggled to diminish them, put them on hold, or even stamp a 'Case closed', not a victorious closure though. When sin, disobedience and non-submission stand in the way between God and man, as much as i still love the girls, God's divine love cannot flow through to the persons anyway cos' they shut the door. True repentance is then the only key.

And i have to quote from Ruth Graham again: Mothers must take care of the possible and trust God for the impossible. ...Love, affirm, encourage, teach, listen, and care for...the family. We cannot convict of sin, create thirst...after God, or convert... Miracles are not in our department.

As i was lying on my bed late last night and sobbing quietly to my dear Lord, i nearly thought i could just tire myself out in giving to the people around me. And it is not because i wanted anything in return from anyone; it saddened me so when i felt that any person was not even glad or willing to receive. Well, Jesus knows that feeling a zillion times more.

On my bed, God told me He was going to talk about spiritual family and parenting at service today, and our beloved father Ps Lawrence Khong delievered a marvellous sermon on 'Celebrating the Lord through family loyalty'. (Scripture text: Haggai 4:4-6)
There must be loyalty from the father to the children. There must be loyalty from the children to the father. True sons will be tested. True sons may not agree, but they submit always.

My dear daughters, near and far... i am always committed to loving each and every of you. Not for what you have done or not done, not for what you have shown or not. Committed is the word. When i chose not to go for my Masters in Architecture in Melbourne two years back, those who were with me then would know, the utmost reason was cos' a mother cannot conceive her newborns only to leave them straight after delivery. Everyone knows how important a mother's touch and affection is especially for the newborn baby.

And Ps Khong holds a father's heart towards the church. A father means he can never choose to not care for you. What is your heart to me, him.... and God?

Do you dare to call yourself a true daughter?

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diary entry _1602.06 : sisterhood

(background from www.bethanydillon.com)

Have you seen this?

Any guess for what this sight is, and where in Singapore? *winks*
Correct answers get a free _______________. : P

like mother like daughter

As i was browsing thru the digital shots my mum took on her own cam during the trip, i was (seriously) surprised to find these two awesome shots.


On a non-condescending note, i believe these were incidental shots, cos' my mum was never into photography. Yet...there was something so alluring in both of them. Like in this one, there is an elegant symbiosis between the inside (droplets) and outside (the scene, the church) of the glass pane.

(you can click on the pictures to get a larger and clearer view)
outside mum's window

scene of Obihiro from hotel room

And this one....it looks like it came out of a fantasy storybook called "winter wonderland"! The intersection of the line of pine trees is a clever adornment of the shot, giving it perspective, and colors in harmony.

i think my mum and i really enjoy this little magical touch of photography, especially when we are travelling. :)

Come to think of it, we do share quite a few interests. My mum loves dancing too; she was actually the one who exposed me to dancing. Even though it was a passion which she only fervently pursues later on after her marriage, this little dream seed was sown right from her teenage days, and took root in my heart as well. Just like how the seed in each of us sprouted and grew into a little greenie that loves to swing, swirl and sway in the winds of our passion, my mum and i enjoy wholeheartedly, the little jaunts to many tunes that lift our spirits so high. *winks*

i've been hokk-ed and tok-ed!

A recent family vacation to japan added to my personal vocabulary chest two verbs - 'hokk' and 'tok'.

Before you start thinking these are from the disputably rojak singaporean singlish, let me tell you 'hokk' means freeze, and 'tok' refers to a (un)cacophonic movement.

Indeed Hokk-aido froze me, and Tok-yo sucked me into its wave of madrush motion, with everyone gliding in a dissonant fashion, yet of the same frequency, wavelength and velocity.

~~~~~~~~

But generally it was a good trip. : ) Family vacations are therapeutic - you talk, bond and snuggle more with your loved ones, after each is freed from his or her own cycle of commitments back home, each of different frequency, wavelength and velocity.

Some picts, especially for those who were asking! :P

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This is not a toy. This was the plane what brought us from Haneda Airport (Tokyo) to Chitose Aiport (Hokkaido)!

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the wedding chapel at my first hotel in Obihiro has got an exquisite cross in pure white snow, with a subtly majestic backdrop. Not being able to take my eyes off this beautiful contrast with the interior warm curved brickwalls, i was indeed enticed to walk towards the cross, where light (and warmth) dawned in, and suffused the chapel and my soul.

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cruising along sea floes of icy Okhotsk Sea

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After hours of travelling westward from the northeast Okhotsk coast, we reached the romantic harbour city of Otaru which is fronted by Sea of Japan, and we were truly capped by snow!

phin-chimes throughout the whole Otaru Musical Box Museum...

where's my car?????

__________________________________________________care for a glass of cold Sapporo?

eating ramen (la-mee) with mummy!

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"'Being' japanese'..... "

Ooh yes, we always had a lot to eat each day in Japan. *slurps* :p

The beautiful lady in cyan is our tour guide. Always ready with a hilarious joke, that's Monica for you! :)

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From moist snowflakes in Obihiro, to fluffly spherical snowballs in Otaru, to sweeping snow drizzle in Sapporo..... this snow-perience was enough to send a cheeky chill down our spines!

(You can click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/mirabop/sets/72057594061644640/show/ to view more peeks!)

my lil' zngs

my cousins who can all pass off as my kids! haa sweats :P