My Raya, Birthday Blessing!

Over the Raya Holidays, I spend the time up in Cameron Highlands with my Methodist College Kuala Lumpur College students along with my wife. It was also during my birthday and actually I was reluctant to go cause it was a 4 day 3 night CF camp and I wanted to spend it on myself cause public holiday to rest are hard to come by.

However I was told that if the CF Camp does not have a MCKL Full time staff going with them, then the MCKL CF cannot go for camp!

So I agree to go with them. The CF Committee made my wife the camp nurse and I was the "official photographer".

I must say that my wife and I has been blessed by going to the camp!

We see God working in the lives of these young people.

This group of CF members are one of the most passionate groups I have seen for some time.

The difference is that I see them praying very hard!

And the fruits of their labour?!?

4 of their friends accept Christ at camp!

and 1 more the next Monday!

I am bless to be able to see such love for God among so many young people in this day and age!

I hope they will be a blessing to their other friends who has not know their saviour yet!!

I have also been bless by God cause Joanne and I took time out from Camp to go back to

our favorite T Cafe in Cameron Highlands. We ordered our favorite dishes.

The owner said that she almost close the cafe early cause it was so busy that day but felt that God ask her to keep it open a little longer. And because of that we managed

to be her last customer.

Actually we cannot even be considered her customer cause she gave us the meal on the house!

She said she felt that God told her to give us a t

reat!

I guess I have God to thank for my birthday treat!! Praise God!

Oh and the Bonus is that I met Tian Chua on the way to Cameron Highlands!

Below are some video I made for the Camp!

Enjoy!

Racist Principals: Bless those who persecute you!

20 August 2010: Over the last 2 weeks there has been some racial tension created by a couple of secondary school principals from opposite ends of peninsular Malaysia.

The first on was from a principal in Kulai, Johor who had openly made racial slurs against her pupils by asking the "Chinese students to go back to China", and likening the Hindu prayer bracelet to a dog leash.

In her speech during the launch of the school's Merdeka celebration, she had also "reminded" the non-Malay students of their place in the country.

She had also allegedly given an example of owning a Proton Saga and then letting 'Munusamy' and 'Chong' in as passengers.

"Munusamy and Chong were only passengers. They cannot claim any right to the car. This is the same as Malaysia in which the non-Malay students are passengers," alleged a 16-year-old student in his police report on what she had said.

This was the remark allegedly made by SMK Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra principal Siti Inshah Mansor.

The second incident is from Sekolah Menegah Kebangsaan Bukit Selambau. The principal was reported to have allegedly told off several non-Muslim students to "balik negara asal China" at a national school in Bukit Selambau, Sungai Petani.

According to the report the school cafeteria had closed for the fasting month and non-Muslim students were left to their own devices to find food.

But the sight of a group of them having breakfast at the canteen - a common area - had apparently raised the principal's ire.

Later, at the school assembly, the principal was alleged to have said that the Chinese students - comprising 10 percent of the student population of 780 - had been disrespectful and that "they should go back to China".

It was claimed that when the assembly was over, another teacher approached the Chinese students to say sarcastically that they should take an AirAsia flight, since the fares were cheap now.

Not surprisingly these incidents were met with outrage from not just the non-Muslim parents of these schools, but also from many peace-loving Malaysian as well. As a result of these racial incidents, many sections of the Malaysian community have demanded various stern actions to be taken against these principals. These have range from sacking these principals to even imprisonment. However one must asked, how should we, (as Malaysian) react to these unfortunate incidents?

Thought I am not against the idea that tough action to be taken against these principals, we must consider if this course of action is effective in solving the problem of racism among teacher and principals of government schools?

We must as the question: when we punished these “principals”, will it help them change their attitude towards the other races? Or will it only create more hatred and contempt among the offenders and the offenders’ close family and friends?

Can the fear of punishment really triumph over racial intolerance or are we merely covering up this “wound” with a simple plaster.

I believe we cannot fight fire with fire. We cannot use punishment and fear to win over these principals. All we will do is to create more hatred and resentment in them.

Love covers over a multitude of sins! A soft answer turns away wrath; but a hash word stirs up anger. These are proverbs which we must turn to when we consider how best to face these racial abuse! We need to turn the other cheek when we are spat upon!

It is not an easy thing to do! And that is why we must commend highly those who did not over react during the cow-head incident and the church burning incident. We must break this vicious cycle of racisms and the only way to do it is to love those who hate you.

Then hopefully they will see the error of their ways and be a shame at their actions.

The other issue however is also to ask the question; how does a racist teacher rise through the ranks to become a principal of a secondary school?

Or how does a teacher/principal turn racist? How or who evaluated these teachers and promoted them to become heads of government schools.

We must look carefully at their training and the appraisal system of the Ministry of Education.

This is where I believe the Ministry of Education and Biro Tata Negara must bear some responsibility for these racial incidents.

A person does not usually become a racist overnight. A person perception and values are usually molded over the year through his/her education, training, family or religious influences.

Thus one must ask the question to the Ministry of Education and Biro Tata Negara on what steps have they taken to promote the unity of this country to the public school teachers and principal. Or have the actually been the real culprits in influencing the teacher to become racist bigots in the hopes that they in turn will influence their young charges to be racist as well.

Thus while we must love back those who are racist against us but we must also question and challenge the system in which these principals were trained to become racist in the first place in order to stamp out future racist incidents in our Malaysian schools.

1st Mile Stone in hopefully a very long and wonderful marriage!

Exactly 1 year ago, Joanne and I committed ourselves to each other in front of all our family and friends!

We would like to give thanks and praise to God for all His protection, blessing and provision upon our lives. This past year has been really wonderful. Though we needed to adjust our own personel habits, interests, and lives, the trade off has really been worth it!

It's not that we do not fight or argue or etc, but by putting God in the middle of our relationship, we have managed to overcome the obstacle in front of us...so far.

And it is our hope that we will continue to enjoy many wonderful years to come...by God's grace and mercy!
This was the present Joanne and I got for each other. Being practical people that we are, we decided to buy 1 gift that both of us would use and enjoy!
And I must say that taking beautiful pictures like this is certainly worth it!
We decided to treat ourselves to a nice but extremely expensive Japanese Buffet at the Grand Dorsett! (cost RM85++ per pax)
Joanne really enjoyed herself!
I must admit that the food there was nice!
And I did enjoy myself pigging out for the first time in a very long while!
My fav dish has to be the Butter Garlic Crabs!
The teriyakki chicken is also very nice
The Cod Fish was good too.
And the sashimi was fresh!
I had Paul the octopus!!
Too bad Joanne didn't like it too much!
We definitely try our best to eat our money's worth


Oh and the fried dumplings were nice too!
The dessert was not great though!

Too bad they didn't have Unagi cause they say that lunch is cheaper than dinner so things like Unagi is only for Dinner. (I think Dinner is something like RM98++ per pax)

Anyway I am glad to spend the rest of my life with this beautiful lady!

Thank God for giving her to me!

Also I would like to remember and thank all my family and friends for their help and support during our Wedding last year!

Thanks to our parents, our sisters and bro and their families, our close relatives, Rev Ling Kee Vun, Jeff Mun, Soo Teng, Yvonne, Richard Tong, Tairven, Benjamin, Zong Yen, Rasween, Reyhan, Michael, U.Allan, David, Timothy and gang, Victor Lee, Steven, Evelyn, Parisa, Mary, Ket Weng, Ivy, Esther, Wilson, Albert, Pei Pei, Shuen Ling, Hui Ming, Alvin, Quinton, Ravi, Matthew and all those who came and help or attended our Special day!

Our special day would not be as special without all of you!!

Thanks!

A tribute to my upcoming 1 year anniversary!

How to keep your marriage sane!

My part time job for fun!

This is what I do when I am free on weekends!

My charges are RM350.00 hour.

You can contact me at 016-4190945

We need more Christian Teachers!

This was taken from Malaysiakini recently!

Vasugi Supramaniam and Richard Loo Wai Hoong
Jul 23, 10

The Education Ministry has been urged to quickly resolve the ban imposed on the formation of non-Muslim religious societies in national schools once and for all.

"This is not an isolated issue. The matter is getting worse. Schools in Penang as well are facing this problem," MCA central committee member Loh Seng Kok told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said the situation was made known to him by various religious society representatives who had received complaints on the matter.

The state Education Department was aware of the matter, he said, adding not only Pakatan Rakyat states were affected but also BN-ruled states.

"Why can't the matter be resolved as quickly, as was done at Klang High School?" he asked.

Loh also called for fairer treatment by including non-Muslim associations in the co-curricular activities listed in the co-curriculum management guidelines issued to schools.

"As for now, only Islamic religious societies are listed in the guidelines," he said.

He also called for a stop to conflicting interpretations and decisions that went against the co-curriculum implementation policy.

The issue was brought to light when an English tabloid earlier this month reported the closure of Klang High School's Buddhist, Hindu and Christian associations.

Content of ministry circular 'misunderstood'

Certain quarters have argued that this was a misunderstanding of the circular Bil.20/2000 issued by the Education Ministry in 2000, which said all school societies must be registered with the state education departments.

On July 13, it was reported that Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong claimed that the Klang High School administration had misinterpreted the content of the circular.

The circular stated that non-Muslim religious societies formed before the year 2000 did not have to be dissolved.

However, Loh (left) argued that all societies, regardless of the year in which they were formed, should be given fair and equal treatment.

"This issue is very serious, to the extent that some teachers have been transferred to other schools because they were active in Christian fellowship activities in their schools," said a now retired teacher who had been in the field for about 30 years.

The teacher, who did not want to be named, claimed that no reason was given for the transfers.

"In 1998, I personally received a directive from my former superior to cease all Christian fellowship activities in the school. When I asked for a reason, I wasn't given one," she added.

Also present were Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia vice-president Loh Yit Phing, Subang Jaya Buddhist Association president Chim Siew Choon, MCA Religious Affairs deputy chief Raymond Low and Christian Federation of Malaysia executive secretary Tan Kong Beng.

I appeal to Christian Parents in Malaysia!
Encourage your children to be teachers!

THE SITUATION IN MALAYSIA IS CRITICAL!!

We need MORE CHRISTIAN TEACHERS!

If you want to be a teacher visit this website!

Our Prime Minister says we can be a develop nation by 2020! Unfortunately we will probably go bankrupt by 2019!

Last Thursday (27May 2010) The Star reported that Malaysia will be bankrupt by 2019 if it does not cut subsidies and rein in borrowings, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala on Thursday.

BUT!!!

3 days later Our Prime Minister says that Malaysia can be a developed nation by 2020, if the country registers a continuous six per cent annual growth.

Oh wow! This means that our Country will be a develop, bankrupt nation in 10 years time!

To be fair to the PM, he did say that...

"To achieve this goal, we need to enhance economic growth. We must achieve the six per cent annual growth and God willing, by 2020, we can achieve the status of a developed nation,” he said at the closing ceremony of the Bumiputera Economic Congress: New Economic Model 2010, here yesterday.

I wonder what Najib means by "developed nation"?

Instead of just looking at the GDP figures, the govt should actually look at things such as...

1. Distribution of wealth
2. Quality of Education
3. Standard/Quality of Living
4. Government Department Service Standard.
5. Medical Care
6. Minimum Wage rate
7. Welfare Support
8. Freedom of Religion/Speech
9. Cost of living
10. Quality of basic utilities and services (such as roads, telekom/TM, and etc.)

And so much more!!

Lets be honest! If the PM were to evaluate a develop nation status base on those requirements, I don't think we are anywhere near develop status!!

I think the scary question should be what happen to all our money??

Malaysia is a very bless country with a lot of natural resource such as petroleum, rubber, tin, oil palm, and etc!

BUT!

Idris Jala reported that Malaysia's debt has increased steadily from RM 90 bill in 1997 to over 407 in 2010

That's RM317billion in 13 years!

This means that the government has spend and average of RM24.35billion more than their income every year for the past 13 years!!!

I wonder what was Malaysia's income figures like over the past 13 years!
Was that during an economic boom period??

Oh man! And now the govt wants us normal Malaysian to pay for their mistakes!

I guess what makes me most mad at is when I read reports like...
1. Auditor General reported that the govt paid RM5700 for a CAR JACK worth RM50!

2. Or our PM spending 3.7billion on a submarine. (that does not work!)

3. Or our PM simply promising people money with out proper consultation or budgeting!

4. Or the new Istana negara worth RM1.1billion

5. How our politician have looted Malaysia or RM100billion!

May God have mercy upon us and remove all corrupt government leaders from their position!!

A night out with Juwita Suwito

Last Saturday night my wife and I was helping out at the Stedfast Association KL 15th Anniversary Dinner at Bukid Jalil Golf and Country Club.


First time we went back there since out wedding dinner almost a year ago!
And Ironically I was in a suit again playing the guitar!!
And YES! I did sing the same song to my wife during the sound check!
(Oh my Darling you've rescued me, from a life of loneliness!...)

Joanne was there to help Juwita Suwito sell her CDs! She was our guest star, entertaining us that night! I must say I think she is even better than this year's American Idol finalist!
Juwita, her mom and my parents go way back! Both our dad's were Methodist Church Pastors!
I admire Juwita's humility even through they have found fame and success in her singing career!

1st thing she told me when we met that night was that she was doing some cleaning and found and old YLDP Camp handbook and found out that she, me and Jaclyn Victor were in the same camp together and that we were in the same group.

So anyway Joanne's was busy helping Juwita sell her CDs while Juwita sign autographs.

Later Juwita was very sweet to give one of her flower bouquet that was given to her to Joanne.

Needless to say I was very naughty, and wanted the flowers all to myself!!! Hehehehehe!!!

Joanne and I would like to thank Juwita for the flowers and we would like to wish her and her mom all the success and blessing of God upon their lives!

She is indeed a very talented local artist that deserve our support!

For more pictures please visit my picture gallery here!

Chuck's Fans!

My friend taught me to download Chuck show here
and here.

I am going to try it! You can too if you are a fan!

It's not politics! It's my conviction!

I don't really want to blog about politics here, but my feelings on this issue is so strong that I cannot ignore it.

As a Christian with my roots in the Methodist Church I feel strongly that I have an obligation to highlight this issue to all my friends and family!

So what is the issue?
It was reported in Malaysia Insiders that “special grants” of RM1.75 million were given to four Methodist churches on the eve of polling day.

While some Christian may say that it is ok to take the money as long as you vote for the opposition after that. After all it is our money (from taxes) in the first place.

I strongly believe that we should set an example to show that the Methodist Church cannot be bought or accept any money that may be construe as a bribe.

Whole Malaysia is watching us!

Muslim, Hindu, Buddist and etc are all watching!

Most importantly God is watching!
I would like to have a word with our Bishop on this issue the first opportunity I get!

We must not let the good name of Methodist be tarnish by this issue!

Please take time to read a great article on this issue below!
We don’t take such money — Goh Keat Peng

While I am on this topic, I just want to shoot MCA for saying that DAP played dirty by bring up sensitive issue to the Sibu buy-election (NO! I did not misspelled buy-election)

1. Pot calling the kettle black! MCA, (using their Star newspaper) tried to scare the Chinese votes with the PAS Islamic state agenda!

2. Those "sensitive" issue are really relevant to the Christian community and ignoring this issue only makes it worst! Especially issues on Malay Bible being seized by the Home Ministry!

3. Speaking of playing dirty, I think the dirtiest player here is non-other than our very own Prime Minister! Just watch his speech below and come to a conclusion yourself on who is playing dirty!

If you can't watch You Tube, you can read the script here!

Our Second Honey Moon!

Joanne and I just had our "second Honeymoon" at Legend International Water Homes in PD.
We got some special package for this hotel last year during the Matta Fair so we decided to use it before the voucher expires.

I must say that this is an interesting concept for a hotel.

The main attraction was of course your personal indoor swimming pool!
(They even have swimming pool on the upstairs rooms)
The pool is right next to the bedroom and the extremely huge bathroom
The bedroom itself is also very nice and big.

IT HAS 2 KING size bed! So actually it was kind of big for
just the two of us!This place is actually very nice for families with at least 2 kids or a guy with his 3 wives!

There are good things and lousy things about this hotel!

First the good things!

I love the beds and the deco of the room!

Oh! and they have a lot of Astro channels (including Disney Channel)

The bathroom here is huge and nice!

They even give you a full complimentary range of toiletries

There is also a kitchen here which is a good thing cause the food sold here in their restaurant is ridiculously expensive!

This brings me to the bad part!

This indoor pool is over rated! It is not big enough to swim in it (only 4 feet deep). It is vert cold and does not even have jacuzzi in it. Young kids will enjoy splashing water in it or maybe bring your toy boat or rubber ducky to float in it but for adults....there is nothing much you can do in it! So again, it is a nice place if you have kids or 3 wives to entertain!

Outside the room is the swimming pool area. Very nice to see but that was about it for us!

The whole swimming pool was only 4 FEET deep!!

How to swim in 4 feet deep pool???

I was actually quite annoyed that all the facilities are chargeable!

Ok charging RM10 per hour for the bicycle was ok but they also charge RM10 for the use of their very tiny gym and lousy ping-pong bats and plastic children's ping-pong ball was totally unreasonable!So again, this is a nice place to bring your kids but you got to remember to bring your own ping-pong bats, balls and etc.

(at least the playground was free! but it was for 12 years and below)

They should have an our door gym!

Oh and remember to bring food that can be microwave cause the restaurant here is unreasonably expensive.

Since we didn't know and didn't bring any food, we decided to go to town to have dinner!

Not knowing what to eat, we ended up in Secret Recipe

For to take picture until after eating all the food.

Funny thing about eating there was that somehow our bill came exactly to RM40.00 and that entitled me to a free piece of cake! Cool!

So having nothing to do here in Legend Int Water Homes, Joanne and I just went jogging around the place and took pictures and the rest of our time we stayed in the room sleeping and watching TV!

Nonetheless it was a great weekend having to do nothing except spending time with my wife and worry about nothing else!

I thank God for His provision and blessing that I am able to spend a short holiday like this with my wife!

PRAISE GOD!