splash of colours!
[8:54 PM]

2 papers down and 2 more to go(:
super excited that i'll be going home soonnnnnnn!
maybe 'cause it's been 9months!
days home are countable with fingers and toes! yay(:

a sharing by a friend(:

(a reflection that I did for Taize night. just thought I'd share it.)

In today's Gospel (Luke 15:1-10), we are presented with a familiar image of God the Extravagant Lover who leaves behind 99 sheep just to find 1. A familiar image, but maybe one that doesn't seem entirely coherent.

This afternoon, as I sat in front of my computer trying to write my Literature Review, I found myself doing what all good university students do when they're trying to study or do work with the computer in front of them - facebook surf. I was clicking distractedly through all the various functions on FB in the hope finding something, anything, that would grab my interest. And God, being the humorous God that He is, decided to give me just that - a picture of a small boy dressed in a dragon suit.

When I saw that image, the first though that came to my mind was, "now why in the world would she (my friend) put that up? what's so special about this particular article?" As it turns out, it's no article but a journal entry - the link of which I put up this afternoon (here for convenience: http://www.superherodesigns.com/journal/). In the journal entry, a mother was writing about her experience of bringing her little son, Ben, for his first trick or treating trip. Now being the mature, sophisticated and efficient people that adults are, she and her husband dressed Ben up in his cute little dragon suit and proceeded to bring him to a Halloween party. But being the mature, sophisticated and efficient people that adults are, she began to worry about whether they would get there on time for a toddler can only walk so fast. So she and her husband decided to try and bribe him with chocolates to make him walk faster. But that didn't seem to work. And she began to get worried and frustrated. She thought maybe she should have brought the stroller along. And so she worried and fretted.

But something wise spoke within her.

"This moment right here might be as good as it gets."

And she realised that she had been placing too much emphasis on the destination, treating the journey there as something pesky that had to be done and gotten over with in order to get to the real stuff.

So, in her wisdom, she turned to her husband and said, "Matt, the street party might not be as fun as this. This might be as good as it gets for tonight - and this is pretty darn good. Let's not miss this."

And as it turned out, as they continued onwards to the party, they met some friends who were coming back from the party - it had ended.

I'm relating this story because far too often, we are fixated on the future, on our goals and dreams, on getting more and more, that we forget to enjoy the present and what we already have.

And yet, interestingly enough, in the Gospel today, we are seemingly presented with a totally different message. We get an image of a God who seems to be doing just what we should not be doing - leaving everything behind just to find that one thing that He lost. Why not just treasure the 99 sheep there already? Why go after 1 lost sheep? How do we reconcile this seeming contradiction?

My thought is this: yes, we do need to embrace the moment and not let our over-fixation on the future, on what more we can have, distract us from what we already have. We need to let go and let God be God, letting Him take control and not be overly focused on planning the future.

But when it comes to something as important as the human soul, for God, what He has already is not enough. He wants more. But not because He is a greedy God. But because He loves us so much that He wants all of us to be with Him. And in His wisdom, He knows that we are only truly happy when we are with Him. And this doesn't just mean that He wants numbers per se. No, He is also interested in quality. He wants our entire selves to be with Him, faults and all. Here is the image of an Extravagant Lover who loves us with all His heart, regardless of what we have done or failed to do.

Can we respond in love and allow Him to love all of us, even those areas where we fear that He will find repulsive and disgusting? Can we not trust in His unconditional love for us, the love that saw Him on the cross even though it gave Him much hurt and pain?

Perhaps today we can invite the Lord into our hearts, not just to those areas where are full of light, but also those deep, dark areas within that is so full of death, and allow the Lord of Life and Love to bring life back into our lives.

"Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18)

splash of colours!
[3:31 PM]

"时间真的过得很快很快。
感觉老了不止一岁。
其实，
不知觉中，
自己也改变了。
想法、观念、心态
多了一些看开和冷静。"

i feel the same.

splash of colours!
[4:18 PM]

splash of colours!
[8:52 PM]

i went somewhere for a visit yesterday and spoke with a teacher working there. it wasnt a long chat but the short meeting with her brought me near to tears.

she said that the kids here are almost always happy. there's no teasing or mocking among them. she said that it was natural to feel scared initially because you may be so overwhelmed by their disabilities. but afterawhile you see every kid as a person and their disabilities become secondary. she said that it may be tempting to rush forward to help if we see them struggling with simple tasks but that's not our ultimate goal of having them in the school. the ultimate goals are to allow them to take steps towards independence, towards greater confidence of being able to do as many things by themselves as possible and towards better lives after they graduate.

it must have been great hardwork for you teachers, isnt it. i asked.

yes, bloody hardwork! and i almost laughed at her 'BLOODY HARDWORK'. she said 'i may be biased but i can say that at least 95% of our staffs here are very happy to be here'.

she almost moved me to tears when she talked about the kids' small incremental improvements. she said that these kids here are different from those kids in the mainstream who will probably achieve so much if you teach them very well but the kids here show tiny improvements.

it is a very challenging job, she said.

i can tell that every single improvement from every kid is priceless to her. a very passionate, beautiful and dedicated lady. i can tell just from her eyes, sparkling with warmth. admirable and respectable truly.

i really like the environment there and i love passionate people. they're highly inspiring and motivating and the buring passion within them just touches me a lot. it's a place of love and sincerity that's not always easy to be found. it's a blessing to discover(:

thanks to these lovely people, the world's awesome!

splash of colours!
[6:22 AM]

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues form the decisions, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

splash of colours!
[5:58 PM]

went to hogs breath cafe for lunch
our food(:



at cream for desserts(:




yes, my dear cute wife!

splash of colours!
[12:52 PM]