Hear ye, hear ye!

Ahem ahem! The links and all are still in process! Chillax aight? Patience is a virtue! Peace OUUTTT!

- Soph :)

I tagged myself...

Because I'm so bored, I decided to take on Sophira Chong's tag to "everyone else"...TORY





Hi, my name is: Ong Mei Ling. But you can call me Catherine [or Miss Cath if you're my student]





Never in my life have I: eaten durians before! And nothing in this whole wide world can bribe me into it! NEVAH>......





The one person who can drive me nuts is: myself. Basically I don't like letting people bother me





My high school is: SMK Convent Bukit Nanas (we ROCK!!!)





When I'm nervous: I feel very helpless and I start praying





The last song I listened to was: Only Hope by Mandy Moore





If I were to get married right now, it would be to: someone that I know would love me for who I am and not for what I can do for him :)





My hair is: SHORT, quite short.





When I was 4: I had a photo of me taken where I was crying while holding an ice cream cone because my mom had the smart idea of putting me on a high spot to take a picture and she forgot I'M SCARED OF HEIGHTS!!!!





Last Christmas: celebrated it at a cell member's house. I want to do something different this year.





I should be: more committed to God's will for me.





When I look down, I see: my feet?!





The happiest recent event was: The drame put up by GRC PJ at Awards Night 07, it rocked!





The saddest recent event was: when I found out friendships can change even as we speak





If I were a character on 'Friends': I'd be Monica because she's pretty!





By this time next year: I hope to have achieved something so that I can give thanks to God





My current gripe is: between me and God. Sorry!





I have a hard time understanding: Christians. If you know what I mean.





There are these girls: named Sophira, Roanne and Grace who each have a special place in my heart for various reasons ;-)





If I won an award, the first person I would tell would be: my mother. Duh.





I want to buy: a digital camera so I can indulge in photo-blogging.





Where do you plan to visit: Scotland again. It's so pretty!





If you spent the night at my house: I'd bring you out to the famous mamak shops here and treat you to nice food. Then we'd watch a movie at my house and stay up all night talking about dreams and ambitions and...





The world could do without: sadness, depression, emo-ness, suicide and self-pity.





Most recent thing I've bought myself: a DiGi simpack





Most recent thing someone else bought for me: Evening lunch [thanks Mr. Fan]





My middle name is: Mei Ling





In the morning I: woke up to go to GRC to buff up my work place. Check out my table, it's like a mini office now!





Last night I: playing Scissors, Paper, Stone; Reversi and Checkers with Sophira Chong :p [and she beat me in all of it]





There's this guy I know: named Moses who plays the cello. Coooool...





If I were an animal, I'd be: a pig. NOT because of Sophira but because I love the movie Babe!





A better name for me would be: Awww... I like my name!





My birthday is: in 69 days time, that's less than 3 months *cough* ahem ahem...





I tag.... anyone who wants to do this post..heheeee






This is Jonathan Daniel Roberts... isn't he looking handsome in the coat? He's 15 and he's taller than me! He's the one who notices my moods the fastest in class. Granted that he's one of the cheekiest also, but he has a heart of gold. He's a great preacher too and is serious about what he does. One day, he's going to be a great leader and draw many to Christ!

GRC Awards Night 2007

Since I promised a certain someone to write about this while she embarks on a quest for me... I shall proceed to write a bit of my take on GRC Awards Night 2007.

For the PJ bunch, we arrived at Klang around 10 something in the morning and proceeded to practice until noon to break for lunch. When we came back, we practised again and then took a break so that USJ could take the stage and do their thing. I proceeded to chase all of the PJ students to the shower rooms so that they could take their baths and then eat at the Fellowship Hall. According to sources, the place was hot and black water spouted out of the taps! Yeck... thank God I wasn't there to witness that! Yours truly was somewhere else with Naomi Foong enjoying a scrumptious meal of Marmite Chicken and rice.

Finally, it was evening and I hurried for a shower and changed and put some light make up. As 7.15pm approached, the anticipation of Awards Night grew. After a month of gruelling practices, shouting, scolding, threatening, coaching and repeating myself... the time had come! As we sat there patiently watching the other performances, such as... Yong Khin who is 9 years old playing a Grade 5 or 6 piece on the piano when he is only Grade 1 by theory, Andrew Sanjay and his famous speech recitation, Klang's musical mime of Jesus, finally it came to Sher Wyn's poetry recitation and we were all making our way to the opposite sides of the stage... my heart fluttered as we stood behind the curtains waiting for Naomi to set up the microphones.

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PJ... are you R-E-A-D-Y?!!!

I signalled the other side and after an OK and thumbs-up, we started! And the rest... is history... the cast did fantastically well... we managed to get a few laughs from the crowd at the right parts. A few scenes I liked a lot were (in random order) :

i. Shoon Fai and his "children"
Little Celine and Shr Hao played the children of a busy businessman (Shoon Fai) and as they vied for attention the father ignored the children and was too busy to walk them across the road. The children crossed themselves and *tires screech, children scream* And behold, ze children die and the father gasps in horror and goes "NO!!!"

Shoon Fai did an awesome job acting as the sad father. He even managed to sob without laughing! I actually feel like bashing him a bit because during practice, the fella did horrible in emotion and expression. Must be the magic of the stage or something, he didn't laugh while reciting his lines and he was seriously into his role! Go Fai Fai!

ii. Raquel as the angry Israelite slave
As the slave masters taunted and taunted the Israelite slaves and mocked them.. one brave one stood her ground and stood up to her enemies!

"Yes!!! We might be slaves for now! But one day, ONE DAY... the Saviour will be born! And He will come and take us out of your hands! When that day comes, you will BEG for mercy! For then you will know He is the Almighty God, the Lord of the Heavens!!!"

Like Mr. Fan said, she's a tough lady to handle! I like the fire and spirit she put in for her role. Well done!

iii. Jonathan Roberts as Jesus
I don't know about you, but Roberts rocked the stage! When he portrayed Jesus emptying the world's garbage on him, he did it to his best. You should see him cough, groan in pain and wheeze (a bit asthmatic). It was real. It was painful to watch him die.

iv. The Jesus and Lonely Woman scene
THIS is the one I like best. It has so much potential to become a plot for another story! Before Jesus died, everyone had surrendered their garbage except for the Lonely / Suicidal Woman (aka Sophira Chong Yu Fun) so in she came dragging her garbage and Jesus was crawling towards her...

Jesus: Pleeease... *coughs* Give me your bag....
Lonely Woman hesitates and turns to leave
Jesus: Please! (she turns) It's... It's the only way... You've spent your whole life looking for love in the wrong places... I need to take it away from you... Pleeease *coughs*
Lonely Woman drops the bag to the ground and gives it to Jesus, drops to the floor and covers her face with hands.

In the famous words of Lydia Chang, "It's so romantic!!! If Roberts were to hug her then and there! It'd be so romantic!!!"

Haha... I agree. Maybe next year if there's a drama I'll do a Romeo and Juliet.. *evil cackle*
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Well, the rest of the night went really fast... everyone rushed to dress up in their evening wear and rush on stage to get their awards. I must say, all the children and youth were more well dressed than myself! The dresses they wore! The makeup they had on! I guess they grow up faster nowadays too!

Of course one of the other highlights is the graduates coming up to make their speech - our very own Grace Goh graduated this year. I'm still a bit sad about it but definitely I'm glad she's moving on to study in HELP :) Shall dedicate a post to her another time.

Pictures and captions in next post, watch out!!!

I just want to thank my beloved drama team...

To Chanelle, Sophira, Grace and Jonathan Roberts, who were the main people to help keep the order in the drama team when I was away, thank you so much for staying committed to the drama and coaching the others in saying their lines. I know it was tough to be strict and manage a cast of almost 40 people, but you guys did great and it paid off because everyone was praising the drama that night!

To Jinn Yee, my makeup queen! Thank you so much for taking the time to help do the make up for all the cast. Of course to those who helped out as well thank you so much! I know that night Jinn Yee was the last to come into the whole because she was busy make-up-ing the rest. You're awesome! Not to mention she made some nice props as well... She made the apparel for the angels (Jared and Jeremy) to wear around their waist!

To Naomi Foong, the sound person. A million thanks for being patient with the cast for mixing up the microphones and forgetting to put them back. Without your planning and coaching, we would have been lost of stage. That night your efforts paid off as no one fumbled with their microphones. To put out about 10 microphones on stage and set up the mike stands at the end was an enormous effort and we wouldn't have been able to do it without your help.

To Sophira, Grace and Kelvin, the pianists. Thank you so much for playing the background music for the whole drama. The pieces were beautiful! Kelvin Wong... you did a great job!

To Mr. Fan and Uncle Kevin, our drivers and mentors. Thank you SO much for always ferrying us using the church vans. It's tiring to drive us up and down but you never complained. Moreoever you were there to give advice and calm things down when things were a bit out of hand. Mr. Fan, thank you for being so supportive of the drama and allowing us to practice at the Youth Hall, Main Sanctuary and Music Room.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST... God I give You all the glory and all the praise. We pulled this off not because of our own abilities, but God it was through Your divine enabling. Come to think of it, we pulled off a big production in less than a month! If it wasn't for You, Jesus... we wouldn't have done so well! Thanks, Jesus :)

OK, I'm done. Now lets see if my friend has returned from her quest yet...

GRC Awards Night 2007

Worship

I can't believe I'm still awake now at 4:20a.m. in the morning! That's due to the fact that I took a Cath-nap (get the pun?) from 6pm until 10.30pm because I had a bad migraine thanks to only having two hours of proper sleep before that.

Despite the headache, I still dragged myself to PJ to attend a worship workshop by LIFE Church from Melbourne, Australia. The senior pastor and his worship team were down and gave a workshop at Grace Assembly, PJ. Although I was tired, I managed to stay alert and it was a worthwhile day spent there from 10am until 3pm. I skipped lunch and took a nap down at GRC.

At the workshop, the team members shared from their hearts about what worship means to them, and the importance of worship as a lifestyle and not a performance on Sunday on the stage. In the afternoon, we had more practical sessions where the vocalists demonstrated how to sing in parts and the band members showed us how a song was created and "flavoured" to make it more appealing. Those who attended the workshop were also given a chance to sing with the team and try out the instruments and attempt a four-movement chord progression used during free worship. Yours truly, had the opportunity to try the electric guitar and jam for about 2 minutes! Totally awesome!

But what I remember most was something that the senior pastor - Pastor Nicholas - said. He said...

"Your gifts won't carry you as far as your character will."

Wow. Did you get see that the Spirit of God was talking behind Pastor Nick's statement? The moment I heard it, my heart just stirred up within me with conviction! What a revelation! Isn't it true that no matter how gifted we are in various areas in our lives - music, leadership, vocal, intelligence, etc - if our character doesn't reflect God, or our character doesn't reflect maturity and stewardship, our gifts will not be carried forth into full completion.

To be more blunt on this point is to say...

If we don't work on our characters, the gifts that God has placed within us will never surface because we haven't grown to that level of releasing those gifts.

Our God is a God of faithfulness and stewardship. If we don't work on our lives first, but constantly look at our gifts, our gifts, our gifts AND our gifts... we neglect on working out our salvation with fear and trembling. We forget to become Christ-like. We neglect working on overcoming character flaws. Instead, we become full of pride, and rely on our talents and think we know it all. We think we can just press the "Play" button on our talents and the show can go on.

No. The show will not go on and will fail because God won't show up. The whole idea of worship isn't about displaying our talents, but its how much of God can flow through our lives as we minister to the congregation and lead them into worshipping the Lord. It's never about talent. But it's about Christ. When people look at you play or sing, do they see someone who reflects the image of God? Do we bring God the glory as we serve in the worship team? Or have we become puppets and look at our serving as a mechanical response as automatic as just pressing the "play" button as I mentioned earlier?

I am not on the worship team in my own church. I believe if I were to compare to many, my experience on stage is so little compared to some who have been serving for years in a worship team. I have only just learnt to serve and lead in worship since last year when I first joined GRC. Ever since then, God has been speaking to me time and again, and again and again...over and over again...

That the time has come, when those who worship Me will no longer worship Me at Jerusalem, but will worship Me in spirit and in truth.






What is the heart of worship? It's not about the venue you choose, the instruments you own or the voice you have. It's about God. It's about deciding to respond to God and obey Him. It's time to tidy up our lifestyles and use them to worship God instead of putting God on the side and conveniently picking Him up again when we need Him to move among the congregation. God cannot be used like a puppet. He will never allow that. In fact, to do that would be to hold our Lord Almighty in contempt!

I've said it many times. Perhaps too many. But we need to rise up! We need to get serious with the things of God. It's a high calling to be a Levite, to be a priest and serve God so closely. We need to hunger for God like we've never before. We need to run to that secret place and search for God's heartbeat. And when you do hear God's heartbeat and know what He wants you to do, the response is to obey and to be available. No more excuses, no more saying "Not me, ask someone else."

It's not about how talented or amazing we are. It's about how awesome and amazing God is. So why look at ourselves when God calls us? Look to Jesus, He sustains us, guides us! When God corners us and tells us to change, we must. If not, He will just stand there and wait. That's dangerous. Because when God waits and doesn't move...no one else can move ahead of God. Those who try to move ahead of God, end up paying a heavy price because God's protection and blessing are not upon them.

Are you ready to pay the price? Worship isn't just about adoring God alone... sometimes... your worship will cost you.

Will you pay the price for your generation?