My Blog

Tagged

Got tagged by Xin Wei…

Seven things to be done before my death.
1. Be a teacher and inspire “eager young minds” (John Nash)
2. Be a pastor in a church
3. Go to

Jerusalem

for pilgrimage
4. Be a missionary, full time or part time
5. Touch lives with the love of Jesus Christ
6. Get married… two to three kids… up to wife mostly
7. Live for God above all else

Seven things I will NOT do even if it kills me.
1. Gamble
2. Smoke
3. Misuse drugs
4. Say I’m not Christian
5. Commit suicide
6. Over-drink
7. Cheat on my wife/girlfriend

Seven things I do when I’m away from the public.
1. Pray
2. Write stuff to share or even preach
3. Read
4. Worship God on my own
5. Indulge in books
6. Do assignments?
7. Walkabout (as in walk to discover new experiences)

Seven fav sentences/quotes. (/expressions)
1. Get there before I do!!!
2. Make haste, at the double!!
3. Holy Helen of

Troy

!!
4. Harrr…
5. Whaliao..
6. Dunno.
7. What are you guys talking about?

Seven favourite songs from all time
1. Underneath the Banner
2. Will Your Anchor Hold
3. Planet Shakers
4. Hillsongs
5. Live Like You Were Dying
6. Where is the Love (Black Eyed Peas)
7. Classics and Opera like those of Domingo, Pavarotti, Hayley Westenra, Charlotte Church, etc…

Seven things I’ll make you wish you didn’t do if you did.
1. Screw up my assignments before I hand them in
2. Anything that goes against God
3. Harm my family and friends
4. Work in an office all day long forever
5. Take any mathematical subjects for an elective
6. Wear a pink shirt
7. Overindulge in anything pleasurable

Seven people to tag.
1. Glorie
2. Becky
3. Hannah/ Heather (Becky’s sister… forgot which name… :-p )
4. Kenny
5. Seki
6. Ian
7. You reading my blog…

Sigh…. recently a few small, but memory-flashback worthy stuff has happened to me.

U see, it’s mid-september, and this means a few things:

1. It’ been over a year since i last saw my Douloid frens, including the Malaysian ones.
2. My ‘bosses’ when i was onboard Doulos has finished their term onboard and now back in their hometowns (except for one, who i will definitely talk about later)
3. It’s almost the time for my best friend went back and had to go back to Jolly Old England
4. It’s almost exactly a month since another fren and i haven’t been in talking terms, though i suppose now we’re back to our "mute" time like we were before i went aboard Doulos.

All these things are somewhat related because it’s occured around now, and they all evolve around a little, old, WONDERFUL home called Doulos.

I believe it was Chris Le Roux, my "Daddy" on Doulos, who said that our group was one of the most closely-knitted groups he has ever taken care of… and now i understand. We actually MISS each other, all our experiences and fellowship together. I miss the work, I miss the fellowship, I miss full-time ministry.

Chris Le Roux was in India helping out a Healing Ministry… He’s now back in South Africa praying and waiting for his next calling. I pray for him frequently, and I hope to see him again and be like him one day… life in the hands of God, allowing Him to do what He pleases without a worry in the world.

Another man I should mention is my Bosun (similar to Sergeant Major on the ship), James Seychelles from Malta. He brought his young family with him and I can say that I have never met a more God centered man and family in my life. He’s back in Malta… now “lengthening his tents and strengthening his poles”… He’s studying again… to be a teacher and a first-aid personnel… he used to be a nurse in the army, but he doesn’t want to go back to the service… doesn’t want to be tied down to a contract… he wants to go back into the mission field… to save lives, one by one… He’s another person I hope to meet again and become like someday… With wife and kids serving God, yet have enough to live comfortably.

In a few days I’ll be sending off my best friend who’s going back to England to continue his studies. Sigh… last time I couldn’t send him off as I was onboard the ship before he left… he’s been back for about a month, and on the days I’m on holiday, the only thing I can do with him now is send him to KLIA… how ironic and heartbreaking is that? Well, praise God for easy communication, so we stay in touch when we can… But I do miss him being here in person. Come back soon.

My other friend… this one… is special to me… in a corner of my heart who I didn’t know was there till I was actually going off… so when I got back I appreciated our friendship a lot more, making us better friends lil by lil… but my bad mouth of saying wrong things at the wrong times (that’s right people… PLURAL… I’m such an idiot) got us back to the quiet stage as we were before I got back from the ship, now harder to meet eye to eye… well it was a while before we talked like that… I suppose I can wait again… but the life sharing we had… i dunno, but to me it makes it a bit harder to stay away or stop talking to each other again. But I’ll be patient. God as my witness I only hope to be friendly again to my friend… but I’ll have to stop using shooting my mouth so much. Bad for health.

Finally I’m growing a bit tired… must take the opportunity to sleep…

Ciao guys, The Lord lifts up His countenance towards you and give u peace… Amen

Had Enrolment and Awards Day today… it was a rather simple service, was so glad that the people that i so admire came…Madam Angie, Dato Liew, Mrs Koh, Elder Ang and Mrs Ang, Mr Eric Tan, Mr Terence Tay, Captains Tan CK and Koh… the crowd was rather small, but the spirits within all of us were big… having great expectiations of this year’s humble E&A…

After the Color Party March in, Praise and Worship was led by SSGT Alvin and gang (great job guys). Then came the Commision of New Colors. 10KUL is a rather unique Coy in a sense that for 10 years we’ve been using the flag as a color. Normally as a new color replaces the old one, the old one get de-commisioned, and the new one take it’s place… But since the flag needs to continue to have it’s commision as a flag, we had to do something special, whereby the new Color is Commisioned, but it’s then placed on the right side of the flag. However, it’ll be the last time the flag will be used as a Color… How memorious… I’ve grown fond of that flag.

After that comes the enrolment service, then a series of presentations including Senior Section’s drama presentation "Charcoal Black" (fantastic), Junior Section Silent Drill Team (coool) and Pre Junior sing and dance piece. In between, awards were presented from botttom up… Congratulations to all those who achieved well.

The highlight of the event was of course, the promotions. Heartiest Congratulations to:

CPL to SSGT:
Tommy Chan Ka Weng

LCPL to SGT:
Tai Xin Wei

CPL to SGT:
Debbie, Ian and Makarios

LCPL to CPL:
Galen, Hanley, Ivan, Joseph Wong and Matthias Lu

PTE to LCPL:
Aaron Chong, Aaron Heng, Amanda Wong, Sean Joel,Leonard Lee, Benjamin Yap and Ashley Tan (thanks Xin Wei and Ian, for reminder)

But the most unexpected thing was when suddenly there was this thing on the slides below "Promotions of NCOs". It said: Appointment of new Warrant Officers…

….from Staff-Sergeant to Warrant Officer… MARK TAN!

I was speechless… I was and still am having mixed feelings about my appointment… It feels so surreal… I mean, I’m honored to be given the appointment… but… I’m gonna miss being in Blues… I mean, today was the last day i’ll wear blues. After seven years of serving and be served in Blues, it’s time for me to hang it, and put on the humble yet honorific whites. What am i going to do with all my uniform parts?

Congratulations to Pui Kuan, Ben Gan and Daniel who got appointed WOs with me as well.

It’s so weird:
I don’t have to get up early to polish ever again.
I don’t get to participate in any competition or presentation
I’ll have to attend Officer Council Meeting AND NCO Council Meeting as a fixed detail
I won’t be practicing drill so vigorously… Oh God…
People will actually SALUTE me

I hope to be a living example of God’s Glory to my Boys and Girls, and I hope to never fail my dearest Officers… Captain Tan, Madam Angie, Madam Mag… so many to name… but to all who know me well… know that I won’t let you down, with God as my Helper.