For more details: http://stemi.ws/kkr/natal-singapura-2009

Be there.

Sunday was even a longer day. I woke up at 6 AM, reached GRII church at Kemayoran for 7 AM Sunday service. After the service, I went to Bakmi GM for breakfast with Evie‘s family. The breakfast was soon followed by me and Evie visiting my grandma and my parents for mango dessert and Hokkien Mee lunch. After lunch, we quickly dashed to Vivien’s holy matrimony in a church in Sunter. With me having no clue on where the church was, I drove around Sunter area with Evie’s holding my phone with GPS on. We got lost for a while before we finally found the church half hour later.

Evie and Me

After the holy matrimony, we drove back to Mall Kelapa Gading to meet my high school friends for a mini-reunion between 3-5 PM. We walked around the mall for an hour, then we went to Mangga Dua Square for Vivien’s wedding dinner. After Evie went home, I drove home, getting lost in Kemayoran area, but found my way back home safely.

Me, Evie, Tung2, Meli, Wylma, and Sara

With a draining Sunday, no wonder I only woke up at 12 PM on Monday, a novelty, haha… I went to optical shop to buy a new glasses for myself. This one I wear is more than 6 years old now. The good thing is, the power of my right eye has reduced though the power of my left eye has increased a bit. The cylinder power in both eyes have magically disappear, so after 6 years, it seems like my eyes have actually gotten better. Me and family went for dinner at Duck King, and ended the day at bowling’s alley. I took 431 photos that day, and spent the night editing photos *again*.

Me at bowling alley

My youngest niece

Tuesday was not much different. I went to my dad’s office, helped to digitize handwritten notes I found there, and finished up a product brochure’s design. After dinner, I browsed the net for images for my next product’s brochure’s design.

No doubt, tomorrow will be a long day again, I’ll update again in a few days

The main event started at 10.30pm, but there are fringe shows nearby which started at 7.30pm. After I had my dinner in Asian Kitchen, City Link (which has better noodle than Din Tai Fung), I went straight to the park nearby the museum with Evie and Rafi. The other folks later joined us there. One thing you know when you go there is you gotta bring your camera, and so I went with full gear, Canon EOS 450D with 17-55mm IS f/2.8 lens borrowed from Jowena.

The fringe shows started at 7.30pm, and these are the performances which I bothered to take picture of.

They call themselves "Deng"

Some dance

At around 9pm, we started walking towards the museum so we could get a better spot to take picture from. Unsurprisingly, there are already LOTS of people setting up their tripod around the museum, so we tried to find the best available spot from whatever empty spaces available.

The Loop of Fortune

The show started with some lady walking around, dancing, but I couldn’t see much as she was too far away, then it was these two men who continued playing drums in rotations, upside down.

Men playing drums

Then, the real loop of fortune show started in front of really cool backdrops of various decorations to the museum’s face.

Loop of Fortune in action

Finally, it was fireworks galore. Not as great as those National Day fireworks, but these are stage fireworks, so it was so close to you, you can feel it.

Fireworks

They ended the fireworks show with this great fireworks coming down from the museum’s building, really good stuff.

I love these fireworks the most !!

The crowds who were there soon left after the whole show ended. We waited for a while to wait for the crowd to clear up a bit before we head our way back home.

The crowds

On our way back to the MRT, I saw this poster.

The Cross of Christ

In the midst of Great Singapore Sale, it reminded us one most precious thing, human salvation through Christ, though free, is not for sale coz it ain’t cheap.

A short movie created by Creative Team from MRII Melbourne in 2005.

1. More regular Quiet Time and Prayers. This one has always been a struggle over the years, but it is not something that one can give up trying. Target: 80%.

2. Finish reading FOUR books this year that are at least 100 pages-thick. Not comics, not Reader’s Digest, but proper books.

3. Keep serving in young adults fellowship and start serving in church’s adults service. I think can start from usher. Not sure if choir will accept this croaked voice of mine.

4. Learn evangelizing other non-believers. The Word I listened yesterday was: If I don’t spread the Gospel, I am more cruel than people in hell !! (Luke 16:19-31)

5. To attend a service in GRII main church, Katedral Mesias (Messiah Cathedral), in Kemayoran, Jakarta, every single Sunday I will be in Jakarta. Hope to get my whole family together as well when I go.

6. Double up my investment portfolios while keeping six-month expenses in cash. Depending on travel plans and gadgets expenses this year, this goal could be in jeopardy. So far, there has been potential trip to Europe, potential for a new LCD monitor and potential for a new digital camera.

7. Call back home at least twice a month.

What do you think of mine? Have you set what you would like to achieve this year?

The answer? To make some sheep

Finally, the D-day for Reformed Evangelical Church (Singapore) Gospel Rally. Church choir prayed for God’s grace for the day while singing some songs from Handel’s Messiah.

Sunday school choir.

For unto us a Child is born from Handel’s Messiah.

Everyone stood up for the final song, Hallelujah. A praise for the King of kings and Lord of lords.

And the climax, sermon from Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong.

I was so glad that my brother dropped by Singapore at the time of this Gospel Rally, so he could attend.

I was so glad, a lot of people responded to the call to believe in Jesus, and I knew God Himself will continue to support and build their faith in Christ Soli deo Gloria.

There were seven of us who went to NUH to sing and played violin.

The experience I had when I was there was not something I could get elsewhere. It was so sad seeing kids who can’t run around. Instead, they were connected to their devices while walking around. Some of them were there for days, but some were already there for months.

Despite being in extreme pain, it brought joy to ourselves to see those kids who were still very cheerful. We hoped those songs we sung brought joy and hope for the children and parents. We wished to be given more opportunities to share the joy of Christmas during many more Christmases to come

PS. Due to sensitivity and privacy issues of the patients, we were not allowed to take any photos of or with the patients.

Everyone are invited to the rally, do come, and bring your friends along, so they’ll find out the ONLY way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. The speaker will be Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong himself for both sessions.

There’ll be two sessions, first session details in Indonesian language as below, Tuhan yang masuk kedalam sejarah.

KKR Natal 2008 dalam bahasa Indonesia

The second one, titled “The Lord who entered history” will be in Mandarin, translated to English, details below.

Christmas Gospel Rally 2008 in Mandarin and English

Both will be held at Singapore Polytechnic Convention Centre, just next to Dover MRT.

Dover MRT to Singapore Polytechnic Convention Centre

Do come, bring your friends along and don’t miss the opportunity to bring people to Christ.

keywords: grii, griis, grii singapore, singapura, kkr natal, stemi, gospel rally, 2008, stephen tong, steven tong, december, desember, christmas.

I went to both sessions on Thursday and Friday as well as thousands of people who came to the stadium. Before the sermon started, we are presented with a wonderful song sang by 600-person choir. Every night, they’ll sing three different songs, so if you attend all four nights, you’ll have the opportunity to listen to 12 songs.

Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong will speak in Mandarin, and Elder Yong will help to translate to English for the benefit of those who don’t quite understand Mandarin (like me).

If you so happen to read my blog post before end of Sunday, 14th, do drag yourself to come to Indoor Stadium, and I promise a few hours you spent here will be very well spent.

Those in Singapore: 11-14 September 2008 7.00pm at Singapore Indoor Stadium. Visit http://www.stemi.org.sg/whoisjesus/ for more details.

Those in Jakarta: 19-21 September 2008 18.30 WIB at Stadion Utama Gelora Bung Karno. Visit http://jakarta2008.com/ for more details.