They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. [Psalm 145:7]

CONGRATULATIONS~ to Mr Lee and his beautiful bride Maggie!

You both have blessed Hope Ipoh tremendously…

May our Lord’s goodness follow you both for the rest of your lives together!

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.     Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. [Psalm 3:3]

Just like how Dory from the 3D animation movie “Finding Nemo” sings:

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming swimming~~

We all need to keep swimming too. In this deep and dark ocean, surrounded by fear and dangers, keep swimming.

Famous American leader Winston Churchill said:

When going through hell, keep going.

From Ephesians 3:20

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us,
he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.

I am positively sure that EVERYONE is facing some sort of hell now. Brothers and sisters.

Keep going.

=)

This is the lovely common room where we have our prayer meetings and even care groups~quiet and serene…

But guess what we did yesterday….ehehehehehehehehehe~ gives off evil laugh  xD

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look at their faces, tsk tsk tsk…

Buka Buka!!

Aaam~ 

“In UTP also can eat durian, not bad arh!”

All smiles~

 11^th Oct 2009 marked one of the most anticipated celebrations in Hope Ipoh for the year- Hope Ipoh 11^th Anniversary.

Reached church at around 8.45am and the first thing I saw when I open the church door was Alexis’ bright smile saying ‘Yellow! Good morning~’ Then saw Verny’s smile also… haha! It felt good, it was, indeed a good morning People slowly started to pour in. Behind the scene, the Praise and Worship team was praying, the ushers busy pinning the sweet pink ribbon on their shirt and preparing the door gifts, some just bustling around trying to help out here and there…what a scene~

Started with heart preparation, then welcomed heartily by the most amusing chairing partners, Teck Kiong and Vern. Kinda funny I have to say, the both of them… a lot of confusion~ xD In fact, there was one point someone asked me (Jessie I think), ‘isn’t Teck Kiong supposed to be the one translating for Vern? Why is it the other way round now?’ I was like, ‘LOL’ Nonetheless, it created all the fun and uplifting spirit that we needed for the celebration, so well done! Haha you both were just awesome!

Then there was Praise and Worship, though a lil technical glitch at the beginning but it’s ok! Cuz all we knew then, was to praise and worship the Lord, thank you for the music! It definitely set our hearts further prepared to see what God has set for us for the day~ J After that, of course, testimony time, a very nervous brother SK aka Jack aka Sze Kiat, who spoke like a bullet train shared about his Holy Spirit baptism during Bible Conference xD and then another testimony from sis Joanne who testified how God actually miraculously healed her eyes. Very faith-lifting! All glory to God!

Following was a preaching by Pastor Willie from Hope KL, translated by Bro Yun Kiat, on the topic of Tearing Down the Walls from John 4:4-26.

Just wanna highlight the theme of the Anniversary for this year, which was Tearing Down the Walls. I think all of us can identify with it huh… whether you admit or not, such barriers exist. They are holding us back in progressing in our faith and stopping us from receiving a full and abundant life. Anger, jealousy, pride, sorrow…like what Pastor shared, walls build up to protect ourselves, there’s wall of isolation, wall of prejudice… but how to break it? Finding the origin is crucial, and then come with a humble heart before God to acknowledge your problem. I find it real to my heart. Thank God really, for inspiring us with this theme, God’s Spirit indeed moved amidst of us yesterday. The time of prayer of confession and determination to break down the walls is just so Spirit-filled. Then of course, the most exciting part of actually tearing the walls physically, haha really gave some serious satisfaction, it’s like saying ‘hey you devil, get behind me! really sick of you..’ ah. When vern and bro chee lim carry the colours out, everyone just cant stop making their mark and painting their decision and determination to break the walls on the new found HOPE. Good fun! In fact, well done HOPE IPOH! Haha!

Last but not least, the very interesting part was none other than the video our brothers and sisters actually made for Tearing Down the Walls. The sentence ‘WHAT’S HOLDING YOU BACK?’ was just held me…speechless… Besides a good laugh on how our brothers and sisters actually acted out the scenes, it actually brought tears cuz it is all just so real, the emotions and walls… What matters most is the greater message behind all those scenes- the One calling for us to ditch our old sinful self, work to step over the barriers and to start giving to God’s Kingdom and to experience God’s blessings. Just. Overwhelming.

Of course, credits to the most talented and super duper hardworking Kooky who has been working behind the scene, preparing, directing, recording, editing! You name it, she did it *GIVES HUGE APPLAUSES~ Not forgetting the awesome casts and crews also haha, BRAVO! Haaa Hope Ipoh ppl all very gifted mar~~ And ooh, almost forgotten the very nice lunch prepared by (dunno who.. xD ahaha) at the end of the service…it was real nice! Thanks!!! One more thing, a brother accepted Christ too! (sorry i’m not sure what is his name hehe ><) But Praise God! One more soul saved and added to His Kingdom! Hallelujah~

Wow, looking back, Hope Ipoh has already been through so many years! Good ones, bad ones, you name them… in fact, two days ago was in ministry house and happen to came across some very old photos of the core team leaders like Ernest, Pik Wan and how Hope Ipoh and the student group used to be years ago before I (we) came to join this small yet pleasant church, and I cant help but feel amazed with what God has done to protect and nurture this church to be who she is today. What a family~

Brothers and sisters, let us not forget the promise we made to God on 11th oct 2009, to break down the barriers in our life and to progress in faith. Cuz we know we’ll always have God and our brothers and sisters supporting us in everything. Let us live by the Spirit, Amen?

 Galatians 5:19-25 “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

Thanks, everyone.  Thanks for making this work.  Can’t do it without all of you.  =)

Some call it “crazy”. Some call it “stupid”. Some call it “wastage”. Some call it “pointless”.

But we call it “fun”. We call it “worthwhile”. We call it “love”. We call it “hope”. We call it “church”. We call it “family”.

Slim River "Sabo" Team

My roommate is going to be shocked when she returns to campus. Because  the lock of our room door has been broken. By me.  Waha.

I was on my way back from a game of Monopoly with friends, just to realize that I brought the wrong set of keys! The keys I had with me were from my previous room last semester, so they sort of have the same kind of keychain, except a different color, so I just grabbed it without looking twice.

I tried calling the Fellow (person in charge of our block) but who was I kidding – it’s the Raya holidays and that guy is probably still back home enjoying his kuih raya. I had a crazy idea of climbing through the window, from the window of the room next door. Alas, my dear neighbour (she’s an international student so she was around) had her movie played on so loud she didn’t hear the gazillion knocks on her door!

Then I tried picking the lock. Tak jadi. My skills not good enough. So I did the next best, barbaric thing. I kicked, and tried to ram the door down.

First try. Not even close. After my second, third, fourth tries I was ready to give up. The left side of my arm was sore already from all the impact! One of my good friends was already back too so I thought I could just bunk at her place and wait til… gee, I wasn’t even sure for how long.

I don’t care, I wanted to go to church the next day. I wanted my sleep, my bath, and I had some power point slides to finish for my assignments! Hello!!!

I took a few steps back, took a deep breath, and prayed. As though performing exorcism on my door, I muttered a loud “Amen” and rammed the door as hard as I can. It would have been a very funny scene if anyone actually saw me.

*crack*

Oh joy! I was almost there! One more time!

*wham!*

The door flung open. So did the lock. Whoa. Power.

Even though the lock was broken, I was still able to lock the door because we have a second lock on the inside and a padlock lock on the outside. I never thought we’d actually use them, but I thank God that the previous occupants of the room were once paranoid enough to install a second lock inside. And the funny thing is, the wrong set of keys, actually contained the right key to the padlock that I was going to use. It’s so bizarre that I did not know what to make of it.

As I sat on my chair thinking about what just happened, I realized that, throughout the process of breaking the door, I had an amount of physical strength and determination I didn’t know of! It’s funny, yet pretty amazing at the same time that when our entire focus is onto something that we really want, our mind automatically brings out the best (or worst, depending on the situation) in us to achieve that goal.

And then I thought, if I had even half that determination in studying… Hehe.

But it’s never too late to try. Paul’s a great example of a man who puts his entire focus to achieve something. From the time he persecuted Christians to the time he bravely fought for Christ.

In conjunction with our little anniversary that’s coming up, apart from asking ourselves, what are the walls that are in our way, we should also reflect on how much do we want to tear them down. I’m still in the midst of figuring it out myself.

Yen Pinng drew up an amazing list of prayer points for us. Let’s not take them for granted, but let’s take the opportunity to check our hearts and ponder about what it is that matters.

I told one of my friends about my “Incredible Hulk” stunt after that and she was laughing as though that was the stupidest thing she’s ever heard.

By then I was already sweating like a pig.

Took that long awaited shower, did my work, and had a good night’s sleep and woke up for church. =)

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Yeah it’s just the mid-semester break but make it a fruitful one!

Recharge, refresh and renew!  =)

Yes sir! Many of you are battling tests and exams, either now or coming sooooooooon. Add oil!! Keeping you all in prayers.

Enter the hall with Jesus Christ.

God bless