Reflections. of. CEbu.

My first mission trip was over at Cebu. As much as it was a place whereby I could draw a number of life lessons for myself, being part of the entire mission trip meant it was a time to take a closer look at God.

Taking a deeper look into how God works, amazed at even though over at Philippines, we could be speaking different languages, we worshipped one God, with one voice, one body. Bearing similarities in the songs we sang, we all had a desire for God. The hunger to see more of God was evident. Knowing him more and for more people to get to know the one God and for them to establish the intimate relationship with Him.

However different we were in each other’s eyes, God still showed that He loved every single one of us. That was one of the things I learnt, I was touched time and again at the amount of love that God has. Whatever situations we were facing, God could just touch at that moment when you needed someone, give you the strength to tide through the difficulties or find peace and rest in Him.

It was a humbling experience to see how blessed I was, how much more I had and how much more we could do for the people over there. It gave me renewed strength in a way to hold on tighter to God. To be able to see God working and stirring other people’s hearts and lives, it does stir up my heart to want to be part of His plans.

For now, I hope to serve God in the ways I could, that I’ll continue walking on this journey with God through the good and bad times and that may I be living a life that will be pleasing to Him. May God continue to look after Cebu and give thanks to the rest of the team for making the trip a really great one and to everyone who made it possible!

-amen- "I am falling to my knees. I need you more to breathe in me. My prayer is still the same. My heart is calling out your name. Sweet annointing fills this place. I am found in your embrace. Rain down on me. Rain down on me. Here in your presence I am free. Pour down like rain. Come touch me again. Let your presence fall on me. I am longing just to see. Your power and your majesty. Sweet annointing fills this place. I am found in your embrace. Rain down on me. Rain down on me. Here in your presence I am free. Pour down like rain. Come touch me again... " - Raindown. Sonicflood.

Feel His glory. Feel his love. Your love. Your grace. Marvels me. I never felt that much of a Father's love. I ponder what it is to grow up with a loving father. To a moment I realised. I wasn't that much different with the children over there. To a time I could even think. They could be richer than me in various ways. You realised. You could lay everything down. give everything I had right now. the earthly riches down. If it was money one want. Take it. Possessions that you want. Go ahead and take it. You can take everything I owned. But for one thing you can never take away in my life. It is my God and that relationship that has stood by me. The renewed feeling of not throwing myself to a corner and sitting down in a corner and cry at my own situation. To not abandon yourself and give yourself up but the renewed strength to face each new day wuth joy and optimism. I felt you near. I never cried that hard. In your presence. I felt you speaking to me soOo strongly. I couldn't turn my back but fall on my knees. The peace you gave me. The touch that once again allowed me to find comfort in your midst. Hold on. and as it is to never let go of you.

ok. now I shall continue my previous post. Cause u noe wad happened. dat day when I was blogging. I was sending pictures to Glennie and to Ben. and den. Ben complained it was slow. SoOo i restarted my comp. but i ended up sleeping after restarting. SoOo where was I?

Arhahar. ouh. Internet mummy ask me to upload pics-y. sorrie I took soOo long. eh. Everynight watch handsome and I turn off to bed. hee. tonight got the energy to brag and blog now. and continue my story of Cebu. Choco cowboy [Paul] sent his regards to all da Cebu Mission trippers. I miss his green Isuzu. arharhar. I saw it outside my house. [A white one though] but i just smiled. thinking bout the sweet memories the team had and wif Ate Sally + Paul and da kids and ppl over at OM.

Lemme see. some pictures of da team =) [I ain't gonna load 2 big the photographs. cause rule on 45. It takes a lot of time. and rule 71. It takes a lot of space of da blog before someone complains i'm turining the blog into some photoalbum. ahhraar. [it is. wondered why i changed the layout to something this big? nannnanaa]

soOo this is the team. In OM [Operation Mission. an organisaton] there's 11 of us. Wif couple of OM-ers in there. and of course. "Papa" = Uncle in Cebuan Moses on the top right hand corner. Ben's not in there! Smile babies!

This is da fuller team.Wif Jacob aded. and Ben Chan. =) Fun-ner.

This is Pastor's Gerry's daughter =) Cute smile eh. I like da smile. soOo aiseh. Sweet. And Pastor Gerry was sweet toOo. stroking his other daughter as she was asleep. awWw. CoOL dad.

This lovely smiley pic is taken by Ben Chan [harhar. he took most of da pictures cause my cam was wif him =) wif his team. ouh. cause we were splilt into 2 teams sooo yeap =)] Its pics of kids from da slum areas. They had little but they really were really happy kids. They dun cry as much. They shared whatever they had with each other. some more pics - y. I leant humility and contentment from these kids. very touched by them. they're all soOo sweet. come by they'll put their smaller arms onto yours and say. "hello". they lurve cameras toOo and course. takin pictures. [but i have a lot of pictures. only putting some up =)]

Dat's all fer todae den. this uploading kills =)

I am back. hahar. after 10 days. It was awesome and the trip couldn't have been better. Fer it was the first time I was overseas. Without my omma. aharhar. Wif another bunch of 10 ppl. The awesome team consists of team leader. Jacob. Shaun Ho [Your mummy loves you. He has this cute shirt dat has dat writtenon it =)]. Jia Wei. Alvin. Andrew. Ben Chan. Pastor Edwin. Rachel. Glenda and Joyce [Ho] I mean. muahahar. ^^

Activities were loads. And seriously time passed soOo fast over there dat getting back to SG. Its back to da old routines usuals and time seemingly seems to be crawling. I miss Cebu. arhahar. And when I was over there. I honestly. hahar. Suprisingly. didn't miss much of da things at home. not my lappy. not the internet. not the handphone. not the television. but some of the cutest thing I missed was... arhhar! *argh* the water. Both drinking water and the warm nice shower i take dat many things that i have taken for granted.

*waves* and its been a long time since i last blogged. soOo many things has happened. seriously. and haven't been in da mood to sit down and just let my thoughts flow cause I was simply. tired. Yeap. Tired in sooo many ways.

Cebu Mission trip is drawing closer. faster den i expected and preparations are almost there i suppose. My first one. soOo yeah. be coOL. supposedly heading to somewhere where I've not been and its not on a holiday-ing purpose. but all fer the almighty God. He's proven himself again and again. I dun believe I'll be packing my bag soon and flying myself off to Cebu.

Cause of Lassie's disallocation of her leg. Her operation costed quite a bit. I blamed no one fer the entire accident. It was kind of what u call a fluke accident. And my love fer Golden Retrievers will not subside. I still lurve Echo before and after everything happened. dat cute doggie. Cause i just went to visit Echo yesterdae. He was all soOo cute alright. Up on his 2 paws wagging its tail. I just love patting retrivers. they're big and yeah. he put his paw on my belly right outside his gate. I stood. I just felt this doggie was sorrie ya noe. hee. he's cute. patted his head to tell him. My doggie's ok. Seems like he understood me. I dun wan Echo to worry toOo much ya noe. And yeah. THANK GOD Lassie was ok man. Cause when da accident happened. One thing replayed in my head as I related my experience to Lilik [my maid]. We never do tok as much as me and Indri [my previous maid] but harhar. I can't help it.

I just seem to just click to maids. She shared her side of her "findings" bout my family [which wasn't suprising. arharhar. i already knew wad she was gonna say. and like hearin a "repeated telecast". cause Indri has all told me everything. My respect fer maids still stands today. cause I've learnt a lot from Indri. She taught me soOo much soOo. I can never be ever more grateful to her. Humility was honestly taught from there. my faith grew from her. I mellowed my temper and learnt to seek advices and listen before i tok. and I shared my life living under this roof and as to Lassie. I told her. "saya sekarang mampus san". [i'm "dead"] Den related my story of da Lost Lassie. and da entire experience just got relived in my head. how ur entire family just in their spite of anger. sadness and loss. pointed their fingers at me. dat da entire accident was my fault. i dun point da finger at my aunt. but hey. fairness someone. I trusted her toOo wor. oh well. its over. arharhar. i remmebered da only person who stood by me. Was my maid wor. Indri stood there. Shared bout faith. Seek strength in da Lord and you'll find comfort there. wif her hugs. awWw. I miss her. i noe when she was around. in times of wad i am feeling now. I'll run down. knock on her room door and she'll open it. no matter how late. i'll just sleep wif her cuddle up wif her. during those times everyone in da house was against me.

And to Jessica and to Joyce Ho. No worries dearies. I'm just really thankful fer ur parents dat dae fer willing to fetch da doggie to da hospital. honestly. if u wanna know y no one else in my family will do it. da only person who currently drives in da house now is dad. mom dun drive. neither do i. but my sis does. but she's teaching and yeah. she's wif Jarrett and duh. if u ever wondered y dad didn't fetch da doggie. He never fetches me to skool from young and till he upgraded to da "S class" of da mercs. nothing has changed a single fact dat from young till now. i can still count da times i sat in his car. not more den wad ur 10 fingers can count as to how many times i sat in his car. harhar. there's a really sad fact bout da cars that dad has. ask Mr Bus Driver. [i usually sit this 2 uncles bus to skool last time] even them. always wonder. how come i dun get to hitch a ride from dad to skool. harhar. they noe how far i walk from my house to da bus stop. and den waking up early and all. they noe! harhar. to put it simply. they wondered 2 and cared. sweet lar these ppl.

looking back at how Uncle Choy Hoi and family [Joyce's Ho's family] helped. and esp. to Uncle Choy Hoi who was soOo sweet to give me a ride to da Harborfront MRT station. that act just touched me totally. den i just thought about my dad. harhar. forget it. its worlds apart. Uncle Choy Hoi's my fren's dad. hoo hoo. willing to give me a ride. i felt soOo honoured. =)

[i dun wanna sound like i'm bashing my dad] but i really am thankful fer God putting all these lovely ppl into my life. I'm thankful den i dun moan and sulk and cry bout da happenings and facts that stare at me at my face. Dat I still ever remain joyful and miss positive as much as i can. I just wanna say. I just thank God fer bringing me where I am today. There ain't Him. there ain't da Joyce that u see today. Honestly. I won't be where I am. I won't be that good girl as to wad ppl has been calling me. To all of u who's got lovely dads. hey hey. treasure them alright. [I still wonder wad's it like to have a sweet dad] Fer me. harhar. I got an awesome mom. My Father. arharhar. who looked after me from day 1. is da one up there. Fer all i noe. Disciplines and loves me. God rocks. hee.

I dunnoe why am i babbling all these here. but i thought i just want to share how much God has just done fer me these weeks. It has been trying on a part. cause of Lassie. I noe i chose da hard way of doing things. but i dun wan hate. or dislike to happen between anyone. Echo's master had been soOo sweet. wanted to compensate and Jessie 2. But I turned them all down. [i dun wanna sound like a saint] but i hope Mom understands. Its not about money but its about forgiveness. I promised to pay da entire fees when i get to work again. since God has been gracious enough to heal Lassie real fast! Bottomline. If it was anyone's fault. its no one but yeah. should be mine. It was quite an earful i received from mom but its ok. Vent her anger on me is a-ok. not on anyone else will be great. but i guess she's chilled. but da entire incident just became a deja-vu reminder of wad happened before.

I am thankful fer the fund raising. and the graciousness of da ppl in church. U just wowed me to see how much u all give. to da great team who's heading out to cebu. I think we'll have a great time together getting to noe each other. and chill man any hard feelings. harhar. [i see it risin between da 2 guys.] =X amen to God. fer providing everything and most importantly. making my mom first say "yes." to da trip. [she never let me go anywhere. outside SG. unless its wif her?] and second. fer being all soOo sweet to pay fer da trip. I paid half I guess. she paid da rest. I was just soOo darn worried she'll just not pay fer the rest after Lassie's incident. but she was coOL. Harhar. course if I've worked more i wouldn't have asked her but time wasn't on my side. amen amen amen. hahar.

For drawing closer to God once again after all what He did. and a constant reminder to myself once again. to focus on the eternal stuff rather as to the earthly stuff. caught up wif my own time dat i say. "oops God. sleepy today. tml QT?' harhar. and da tml goes on and on. it never gets done. harhar. till soOo manie things happened whereby u just gotta start talking to God all over. harhar. He's coOL. never say. "ShOo. Go away". Listens and listens and He'll use his actions to work. and let u see "U'll be ok". Now dat's y I said his my "aboji".. = father lar. ^^ To lean and to read his word more often. Been following da book of Luke and yeah. Its awesome as to wad God does. hahar.

Bunch of thank u to everyone who has made da trip possible. I hope to go in faith. to grow in faith. spread the message and to see how God will work in others lives as he has done in mine. and to be an instrument fer God. =) [har. feel soOo much better after all da rantling]. i think its one of da deeper insight of me. i dun blog these except writing it in da big yellow book i got. harhra. but oh wells. =) Its not dat bad either. and God is good (=^^,) Luv u all and will miss u.