The Parable of the Rich Fool

Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

Above passage is extracted from the Bible, Luke 12:13-21 (New International Version). It is a reality that most of us toiled day and night to gather riches on earth, some for basic livelihood some for more. We all know that life is so fragile; we could be here today and gone the next minute. We often hear this “life is short, live to the fullness, be happy and merry”.

To me, it is really amazing that God’s word is so relevant yesterday, today and in the days to come, that proofs God understands human so much that nothing that we say, think or do is beyond His comprehension. He even knows what we are about to think, say and do. In the above passage God warns us not to store up material richness for ourselves but instead be rich toward God, in other words we are to store up richness in heaven where no thieves can steal away from us. The richness in heaven is in the form of saved souls and everything that pleases God, now you may ask what pleases the Almighty God? It’s all written in the word of Life….

As a Christian it’s so important to feed upon our daily bread (God’s word) for it is the source of all the nutrients required for our soul, for those who have a Bible and it has been keeping dust, maybe it’s time to get it out and see what God has to say to you, for those who are reading the Bible daily, God continue to speak to you….I attached here a link to get you started, come taste and see that the Lord is good, it’s my daily dose of God’s word to get my day going. God bless you as you discover His richness.

Mama Lunch Outing

I planned a “mama lunch” last Saturday contrary to the “mama dinner” last year. The setting is quite similar, get all mama out, away from the kids and hubby, just have a good peaceful lunch (young mothers would know what I mean, not being mean to the daddies out there ya!), chat and chart the course of our “mama group” next milestone. This time we went to OXO restaurant near Queensbay Mall. I’ve been there once, the setting is quite comfortable with couches set up as seats, smooth background music and pretty lamps hanging from the ceiling. We ordered set-lunch from the menus recommended by the chef, the portion was just nice and most importantly we had a fruitful session.

We decided to start a prayer partner group, plan to meat twice a month with some family activities in between that involved the whole family and topical discussions. The ultimate purpose is to support one another in love and in truth with God’s word as our foundation for knowledge and wisdom. We hope to build closer relationship through the prayer partner activity and support each other through the word of God.

Though our membership/attendance is not very consistent (mainly due to family commitments), we thank God for supportive husbands and sure we did talked about our kids and hubbies, it’s true politics and careers are not our cup of tea but rest assured they are not gossips but means to share a part of our lives. I still remember clearly our Pastor’s wife advice to all mothers the last time we met which I think it’s very true… “God does not give us a perfect husband but He gives us the man just right for each of us” How profound…. In the same way we are not perfect mothers and wives but just the right mothers and wives for our children and husband.

Thumbs up for mothers ya! And not forgetting for daddies too…

Lil Isaac, a blessing and channel of worship

How can a bedridden boy who don't even know how to exercise his own body muscle be a channel of worship and glorified our Lord. Little Isaac is hospitalised for uncontrolled fits again and being a parent it is very heartbreaking to see a child lying on the bed and being helpless about it. We could hardly understand how the parents feel BUT I know for sure how Isaac in his condition right now serve to be an instrument of worship that glorifies our Lord.

His life taught us that men has limits, God is all powerful and able,
His life taught us the power of prayer, the power of unity through prayer,
His life taught us that life is so precious, God give us life to enjoy things around us,
His life taught us how beautiful each of us are wonderfully made,
His life taught us about patience, dependence and unconditional love,
His life taught us to be humble, thankful and hopeful,
His life taught us about things we could not have learnt in any other way,
His life is truly a channel of worship that glorifies our Lord.
So lil Isaac, I believe you are in good hands, the battle belongs to our Lord.

Oh ooh........

A friend of mine is pregnant for the fourth time and a bunch of us mothers of three and two were like “ooh and ahh..” over her courage. We congratulated her and at the same time expressed our admiration of her courage to go for four. She’s the second family in our church that has gone this far, most of us stopped at two and three.

After spoken to her, she shared that it took her a few weeks to come to the realization that the baby is real and that she’s having another baby and also to accept the fact that whatever God chooses to do, no man can stopped (no matter what type of family planning methods you are using!)

Ha… so there we were a bunch of mothers of two, sharing our tales on how we dreaded late periods, anticipating yet-to-come menses at the end of every month, fearing of another baby in our late 30s or 40s and discussing the reliability of our current birth-control techniques!

I jokingly suggested that let’s go for our 3rd one, then terminate our ability to conceive once and for all, have peace of mind as it seems that doctors only agreed or recommend to the procedure of tubal ligation (on female) and vasectomy (on male)….. when we have reached 40s with at least 3 kids. At the mean time whatever birth control we are taking is not 100%. On another hand, there’s a voice speaking inside of me and sort of reprimanding me which sounds like this “Tsk tsk tsk, why are you so afraid of receiving God’s blessings, didn’t God says children are a blessing from Him?”

You see, women in 30s are in a dilemma stage when it comes to child bearing, we are not young anymore to bear more children as some of us would gladly testifies how our body changed and “suffered” during those times, at the same time not too old to have one also. Haiz…. At the mean time, let everything be status quo and let the Master decides.

God is great!

I attended an appeal "court" session last 2 days. A case between my church and MPPP (Penang local council), my church applied to convert our existing single storey semi-D building into a double storey building to meet the needs of our growing church. Mind you the case had been buried and delayed 4 times over a period of more than 10 years. This really communicate our local council efficiency eh..

A few of us went there to support our last appeal (do or die kind of situation), so here we were in the "court" with about 20 so call officials and 20 of us (the supporters). We listened to our representative's argument and the council's lawyers' debate and vice versa....

After nearly 4 hours battling, God allowed His will to be done, eventhough the chairman (decision maker) is a Muslim and this kind of issue is quite sensitive, God use him to do justice for us, for the very first time I can see an efficient, unbiased, objective civil servant at work through the hands of God. Our application has faced opposition mainly from one of the political party in the area and now after 10 years of battling, finally God's will is done.

It's indeed great to see God at work, even if it takes 10 years, 20 or more. He is faithful and those who trust and wait upon Him will soar like eagles.... God is good all the time!

As I drove passed our existing building that evening, I can imagine our new building standing glorious not because of its physical attribute but God standing tall in the community of BB.

Reaching out to the youth...

A church sister approached me one Sunday and asked if I could gave a short talk on dressing for a group of 13-18 year old (the teenage group in my church). Hmm... I'm certainly not an expert in this field, but on the other hand why not. If we don't teach our young generation to dress appropriately, the TV, magazine, media and especially their peers are going to do that.

For me any teaching should be coming from the Bible as it is the source of knowledge and wisdom, well did God say anything about our dressings? Sure He did... especially to ladies, it is recorded clearly that we should dress modestly..... I searched the dictionary, modest means humble, unpretentious, simple, reserved in our speech, dress and behavior. Wow... it's indeed a big word.. now how do you communicate this to a group of teenagers who advocate style, fashion, brands, individuality....

I do not want them to have an impression that being modest is to dress like their grandmothers, pale looking, old fashion, unattractive and boring, in fact being modest is being ourself (unpretentious, genuine), simple and humble and that's perfectly nothing wrong with it.

Well, I got to know that this creative lot plans to organize a fashion show kind of session, they welcome feedbacks on the dos and donts which I think is good and serve as a good entry point for me to speak to them. God helps me to be an influencer to our future leaders in church and society and most importantly to teach me to be modest in my dressings as well...

What we've been doing...

Belated blessed Christmas... I was too busy over the holidays so all these are back dated post. We were busy preparing for Christmas celebration, followed by a 2 day/1 night trip with a few families, back to work for 3 days and passing the baton to the next person taking over my position. Today is my last working day at my second manufacturing job.... two resignations in a year. I broke many records indeed this year. Tomorrow is a brand new beginning for me, what a nice way to start the new year ahead.... I'm looking forward spending more time at home, hopefully the kids do not drive me nuts.

So here are a glimpse of what has been happening to us:

25th Dec morning, the kids woke up and start searching for their presents under the Christmas tree, tearing the wrappers and unveiling our surprises for them... see their messy hair...

The day followed by Christmas celebration at Vistana hotel with loved ones and close friends... here is a family portrait...


26th Dec
The kids went over to a friend's house to share their Christmas presents... they played make-up and barbie dolls... The mummies cooked lunch..

27th Dec morning
I decided to surprise them with a special homemade breakfast, button mushroom with egg, toasted bread spread richly in butter, peach, tomatoes served with a glass of fresh milk... hmm... delicious indeed


27th Dec - 28th Dec
We went to Cinta Sayang Golf Resort in SP for a night stay, we went to the Carnival, a waterpark for some water fun...

Michelle with Chloe and Kenneth koko


29th Dec - 31st Dec
Back to work, I'll be staying away from manufacturing environment for now.... ha what a relief!!

Here wishing all of you out there a very Happy New Year 2009, may the year ahead brings good health, joy, contentment to your family...

Mamas meet again

Mamas group will be meeting again this Sunday, while preparing for the session yesterday night, below are some discussion points that we are going to go through, I invite mamas out there to share your precious thoughts:

1) What are practical ways that mothers can support one another?
2) Why contentment is so important for mothers?
3) What are the impacts if contentment is not present?
4) How do you help other mothers to find fulfilment being a full time stay at home mom or full time working mom?

That's all I can remember.....

Good or bad choice

Remember I shared hubby bought a children bible story book for Michelle? Well, we are having a good time with it, the girls love the book, the story is pretty simple to understand and what the girls love most is the question time. At the end of the story there are some questions that you could ask to help the children recap what had been told earlier. What I like is the moral of the story..... "Did who and who make the right choice?" I asked. The children will answered "Yes/No".... and I will start asking why... and they answered, then I try to relate the story to their everyday life's little incidences... A great book, I google it and found it, strongly recommended to Christian parents... hubby got it for about RM45 from Baptist bookstore.....

Serve one another...

One of the lesson learnt out of my church camp that I attended was service evangelism.... As Christians, we are to share about God's goodness and this sharing should be a product out of our love for God rather than a burdensome responsibility. The speaker shared many practical ways that we could expressed God's love to people around us.

So deep inside me, there is something that I wanted to really do for one of my neighbors... Some background first... we got to know this neighbor 2 years ago when they were searching for someone to take care of their 2 months old baby girl (they wanted to change the baby sitter then), hubby offered MIL and MIL helped to take care the baby for close to 3 weeks....

Occasionally I brought my kids to visit the daughter (now 3) and they will play together, the mother is heavily pregnant now and expecting anytime from now.... due to fatigue and the family has just ventured into a small business, all attention is on the business now, leaving the house pretty unkept..... hmm...so there's this thought in my mind.... when the wife go for confinement in the confinement center later, we will get the house cleaned up and organized again to welcome the arrival of the mother and new baby back home....

My hubby commented, "Well OK, the problem is would they let you in?", then I say "that's your job, discussed with the husband (hubby knows him and he's quite a nice and open guy)".... hubby said... "err......we'll see".

So you think our plan will work? Have you serve your neighbors before???

Weekend getaway

Our whole church went for a 3 days 2 nights retreat at Clear Water Sanctuary Golf Resort, Ipoh. Altogether there were 90 of us, primary objective is to set apart our daily routine lifes and to hear what God has to say to each of us, I'm indeed blessed and glad that our family signed up for this camp, will write more under my spiritual journal soon.

Below are some pictures captured:

The chalet that we stayed in... real comfortable..


Greeneries outside the chalet..


Lake view from the chalet balcony...




The girls posing for mummy



Well for those who are captivated by the pictures and wanted to try this place out, from the north south highway (PLUS), exit from Simpang Pulai, turn left. Drive for about 3-4km, you will see a signage to Kellies Castle, Batu Gajah, at the traffic light junction turn right, drive another 6-7 km you will see a signage direct you to the resort.

Recommended activities:
Fishing, rent a bicycle and ride along the lake, swimming, boating, golfing, simply take a stroll around the lake or drive out and visit the historical Kellies Castle in which we did (on our way back to Penang).


"Bear" face look-a-like tree trunk..


Hubby and I


The magnificent castle....

Support Group

I lead a mama group in church; we make the effort to meet at least once a month. This month we planned a visitation to our Pastor’s wife, she’s suppose to lead this mama group but due to her son’s complication, she is now tied down at home to care for little angel apart from teaching. She has not been able to attend church for a year plus, so we were thinking of visiting her and little angel to show her that we have her in our hearts, to encourage her in this difficult journey and times she is going through and to pray with her.

So all of us, 7 mothers altogether made a trip to her place last Sunday. We chatted and learned more about angel’s condition, how he is progressing and to also find out how is she coping. I also get to play with little angel, calling out to him hoping to get positive response from him. I observed that he has improved since the last time I saw him, he is growing up fast physically, able to feed on syringes (previously with tubes), he cried last two weeks (he has not been able to for many months), he moved quite a bit (he used to be less mobile).

God is good, it is our prayers that He will continue to speed up little angel’s recovery and restore him to full health. Lastly we prayed together, as we prayed and agreed in unison the prayers of the leader, tears flowing from each of the mothers, tears of concern and worries, tears of hope in the Lord. I believe our Pastor and wife are going through a very difficult time of their life; not many of us (I hope none of us) are being put in the circumstances where we have to deal with our child’s life threatening situation. The only thing that keeps them going is their faith in God. It is written in the book of life that our faith shall be tested, just like gold being tested under the fiery test of fire. Trials in life are place in our lives in order to purify and refine us into the finest. May God bless their journey of faith.

Pot Luck - Mamas meet again

For those who followed my blog, some know that I am leading a mama group and yesterday we went to one of the couple's new home, had pot luck (I brought spagetti and brocollis), shared marvelous food, plenty of kids and hubbies around, had our sharing session and a great night out. There were around 40 of us and turned out more like a house warming and tearing down session. We make sure we cleaned the place also, so not bad at all because we are thinking of coming back again. It was so nice for the couple to open up their home for us, we really need the space for the families to get together. The mamas managed to cover some topics for discussion, below is what we discussed:

1) What are the social pressure/social norms that mothers most often are subjected to?
2) How to not conform to the standards of the world?
2) How do we renew our minds so that we know what God's wills are?
3) In what ways we are unique?
4) In what ways we could be thinking ourselves more highly than we ought to...
5) Individual needs

By God's grace, it was a good session for all of us.

For those who like my version of spaghetti, checked my previous posts on recipe....

Strong Wino

When one became a parent, we learned the lessons of love in an exponential way (mathematically it means - way beyond the usual rate or pattern). I was working with one of my colleague in Philippines here where his wife just gave birth to their third baby boy. I met him and asked about the wife's and baby's condition. He shared with me that baby Wino is experiencing a complication that happens only in 1/2000babies borned. He explained that the baby's liver and intestines was pushed up to the lungs area which causes a lot of complication to the whole system, baby Wino went through a major operation to get it corrected, the doctor shared that the survival rate is basically zero and even if he survived the baby will not grow normally and will be put on ventilator for at least a month, stayed in the hospital for months.

I believe if we were in his situation, we would have prepared for the worst but the family has so much faith in God that they put little Wino in His mighty hands in prayers. He shared that the whole experience was a test of faith, through the whole incident he got the opportunity to even share gospel to people in the hospital and their faith strengtened... so what is the outcome of the operation for little Wino?

- He survived the operation
- He was in the ventilator for only 3 days
- He is going to be fine
- He has been discharged

Please pray for Wino, for him to be able to feed better and his organs to develop normally.... to me he is a fighter, I hope to visit him in my next trip... God is good all the time. Amen

Matthew 7:7 - Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door shall be opened to you.

God is not dead, He is alive!

The girls' dance item - "God is not dead, He is alive!!" Very blur, I know, the girls are the third and fourth kiddo from the left (front row), you can see my small cutie got a little bit disoriented at the beginning and jeh jeh is next to her in the pink blouse and yellow skirt. Enjoy

Happy Easter

Easter had just passed, a recollection of what I did:

Sat morning, 6.50am, I woke up early because hubby and I supposed to spend an hour (7 - 8am) slot for our church prayer chain day. I washed up and then hubby took his turn. I made 2 glasses of warm honey drink and then off we went meditating on God's word, praising, meditating, giving thanks for Easter. I took below shot from our bedroom's window.


Around 7.25am, Emily woke up and came over to join us, we sang more songs and read the Bible

Next came Michelle, she too woke up and four of us on the bed, taking turns to pray for our church, ourself, our family, our country.....
I took this, the glorious sun is coming out.


We closed with a prayer, by now the sun is fully seen, like Easter a day to commemmorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God's promises is fulfilled by the triumphant raising of Jesus from death:


Sunday, 8.00am, we reached Vistana Hotel for Easter celebration, we dressed in our best, I sang in the choir, the girls performed a dance, I'll try to upload in Youtube (new to this), they were so cute, so innocent and pure praising God with their little body. Easter was simple, meaningful and joyous.

One good news! Emily reconciled with Irene (the girl she bullied last week):



Happy Belated Easter!

Mamas rock (2)

Well, did mamas rock yesterday? Yes indeed, there were 7 of us and we rocked till about 10pm. As planned the kiddos (2+2+2+2+2+2+2=14) rocked with the papas, so yesterday there were altogether, 28 of us who rocked the whole house down. We had fun, the kids had fun, papas had fun and mamas had a great time sharing and be away from the kids at least for 2 hours, yay!

During the session, mamas shared it was a great plan to call papas to come, at the end of the session some papas were asking about our next meeting because some of them were thinking of making "escape" plan, so bad of them. Anyway I believe they were just kidding, one papa commented "Wow, need to cut, paste and at the same time take care of the kids, tough job", some jokingly said that the next session papas will bring tea set, the kids will play on their own and those with maids suppose to bring them along too, hmm..... that's how they showed support to the mamas eh?

Nevertheless, this does not stop mama from planning the next meeting, we were so excited and can't wait for the next one, so to the papas, it is just the beginning, so you all better learn and learn it fast. Ke ke ke

Mamas rock

I’m planning for “mama” cell group this coming Sunday night at my home. The previous meetings were held at church, every time only four of us attended, and the four is not always the same four, we joked that it was always enough to start a mahjung game, of course we did not start one.

Mama cell group was initiated especially for mothers in church who do not belong to any small group yet, often mama need to take care of their kids during our weekly service, thus do not get to listen to Pastor’s whole sermon, thus spiritual food intake is affected, so this group was formed with the objective that mamas get together firstly to feed on God’s word and secondly as a support group.

So we are gathering all mamas this Sunday, whether young mamas, old mamas and mamas to be. Not just that, we are also inviting papas and the kids along so that all concerned mamas who can’t leave their family behind will get to join too. Hmm… a daunting task indeed eh. Last year, we banned all papas and kids, this year; we try a new strategy and are more papas and kiddos friendly.

What is our plan?

7.30pm – 7.45pm – Arrival of all mamas, papas and kiddos
7.45pm – 8.00pm – Briefing for the gang
8.00pm – 9.00pm – Papas and kiddos activity at the living hall (they are going to do pop-up cards for mamas, if they finished earlier, back-up plan is cut and paste activity);
Mamas go into 2nd room and start our session (Bible reading cum re-alignment of 2008 objectives)
9.00 – 9.30pm – Supper, art work sharing session and fellowship time (maybe I’ll bake the carrot butter cake again, mom in-law make fresh soya bean milk and some jellies for the kiddos)
9.30pm – Dismissal, an early one because it’s a school day the next day

I’m hoping for a good and blessed night. Wait for the updates next week ya.

Michelle & Emily prayed to accept Christ!

Yeah want to share something real meaningful, on Wednesday I called my sis to check on my mom, not much of improvement, so the girls and I prayed for her, each taking turns to say a prayer for "poh poh". After the prayer, I shared with them the message of salvation, how Jesus came to die for us on the cross to pay for the penalty of our sins. I asked them if they wanted to invite Jesus into their life and let Him be our guide, acknowledge that we all have sinned and need God to forgive us. They answered yes and to be sure I clarified with them, they fully understood and I lead them to prayer.

Michelle and Emily has accepted the Lord as their personal Savior! I taught them that they will need to let Jesus help them to be the kind of children that God desired and that the Holy Spirit is in them right now. We should not sin willingly but desired to become light of the world.

It's such a joyful event, we will need to pray hard for poh poh and kung kung to have the privilege to accept Jesus into their life. Amen

On another note, Phillipines, here I come, I'll be away for a 4 days trip starting from next Monday. The beginning of my "Quality Journey Program" at our Phillipines subsidiary. Will be staying in the heart of Manila this time, journey to the company will take 1-2 hours on a single trip depending on the traffic. I'm going to miss my family and will be back on time to celebrate little Emily's birthday on the 22nd Feb, my angel is turning four. She's such a darling, no more baby look, more like a little sweet growing girl finding her own identity, boundary..... she's asking for a pink tricycle in which we gladly fulfilled.....

Christmas '07

Our family celebrated Christmas in Vistana Hotel this year, it was a combine service with Century Methodist Church, more than 500 turned up for the celebration, Christians and invited friends joined in the celebration, the message we want to spread is, God with us. We are blessed with the message, the choir and the testimonies on how God worked in each of our life. God has been gracious and good to our family and I believed for many families who came to trust and hope in the Lord. The children were jumping with joy and the girls all looked like angels, hope they learned to understand the true meaning of Christmas as they grew in the grace of the Lord. My hope is next year my parents and other family members will get to celebrate with us.

4 close families with our blessed angels (all girls!!) and one potential boy (we will be sure in Jan '08)


Angels from heaven - Michelle, Chloe, Emily, Dorcas & Nicole


Sweet Emily with the Christmas tree


Michelle and Crystal jeh jeh


A family portrait, taken by Dorene.. thanks..