Latest Trip Updates... FINAL FINAL...

Alrighties... so I have been switching to and fro on my trip.... but this is absolutely, definitely the final one....

26 Jan (Fri) --> leaving SIN at 3.45pm and arriving HKG at 7.25pm

28 Jan (Sun) --> heading off for day trip to Macau

29 Jan (Mon) --> leaving HKG at 9.55pm and arriving SFO at 5.55pm

2 Feb (Fri) --> leaving SFO at 11am and arriving ORD at 4:58pm

3 Feb (Sat) --> after spending a day at downtown Chicago, driving down to Lafayette (Purdue)

(driving back to ORD on 8/9 Feb)

9 Feb (Fri) --> leaving ORD at 11am and arriving NYC at 2:18pm

11 Feb (Sun) --> leaving NYC at 8:15pm and arriving SFO at 11:31pm

12 Feb (Mon) --> leaving SFO at 12:30pm and arriving Seoul at 6:15pm (13 Feb)

13 Feb (Tues) --> leaving Seoul at 8pm and arriving HKG at 10:45pm

14 Feb (Weds) --> leaving HKG at 11.05am and arriving SIN at 2:40pm

Yupps, am cancelling out trip to Korea, not sure why, but just felt that I need to be back before Feb 17th... guess to spend CNY with family... =) at least can have reunion dinner together...

Am really looking forward to all the flying.... absolutely love it!

Words in season...

God has been speaking through sermons and messages and I just wanted to share some that really ministered to me....

Pastor Benny Ho's sermon on "Habits"...
--> he spoke of the need to demolish old habits that lead to unrighteousness and build new habits that lead to righteousness with the help of the Holy Spirit (Romans 6:17-19) --
"without God we cannot but without us, God WILL not"

--> after deciding to change, we must take action to change --
"motivation = motive + action"

--> HABIT, take away the H, still have A BIT, take away A little bit, still have BIT, take away the B, still have IT --> all of IT, the old habit, must be demolished in its entirety by crucifying it on the cross

--> he also spoke abt the need to Demonstrate Accountability by staying in a community of believers (church / cell group)
"the banana that leaves the bunch gets eaten!!"

He also shared an analogy that really blessed me.....

Sugar in a cup of TEA
"When we are saved, we are being baptised into Christ by the Holy Spirit... we are like a teaspoon of granulated sugar placed in a cup of tea, Initially, you can still see the sugar (the ME / old self) at the bottom of the cup of tea, but as the Holy Spirit starts to stir, with each sugar grain representing areas of our lives that needs to be brought before the Lord, each grain starts to melt and soon enough u no longer see the sugar grains but a cup of tea... You no longer see ME but CHRIST in me"

the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit will continue to work in us until Christ is formed in each and everyone of us...


Another preacher that has blessed me with words for the season...Rev. Paulette Reed

--> "we don't have to be right in the eyes of man but we must be MEEK in the eyes of God"

--> "the world's way of lowliness may appear a bad thing but God's way of lowliness is a GREAT thing"

--> in her latest newsletter (link below), she spoke abt believers being as arrows in a quiver (covering /protection in Christ) which is what describes the season that I am going through right now... truly, a word in season... paraphrasing a thought that really spoke to me...

"it matters not how often or how long an arrow is out of the quiver, but it is absolutely critical that it hits the bull's eye when it is released"

http://dotmm.org/dotmmnewsletter/dotmm_nl_jan11_07.htm

Trip Updates....

Alrighties... so the latest is ... we are adding one more city to the trip.... =)... Macau.... so it's a total of 7 cities in 3 countries (China, USA, S. Korea).... gonna be making a 2D1N trip from 26-27 Jan...

and...

am already planning for next holiday... so exciting... hopefully i have enough leave for the rest of the year... =)

So far, the details are as such:

Date: 27Apr - 10/11 May
Destination: Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Warsaw and London!!
Travellers: Moi, Arati, Satomi and xxx (we are still identifying this special individual.... could it be you??... =) )

yoo-hoo.... it would be cools!!!

GOODness of GOD ... Part 2

So my friends... God is really blessing me in acquiring material things these days... I really am just in awe at how practical the blessings can be to walk with Him, to be led by the Spirit...

again, without sounding like a broken record, I need to just recap that God blesses all the time in different ways, though at times more materially than others but He is always good... it is times as these that builds faith to trust Him in the bigger things... too often though we come to Him for the big things and realise we don't really have enough faith to trust Him or have enough experience in discerning His voice in the big things for we have not sought Him out in the small things.

So after the pow-wow handphone incident.... 2 more amazing things happened....

#1 21/12/06... Dad's birthday and we went to Hua Ting for yummylicious, though ex, Chinese food... then decided that we would talk a walk down to Orchard Road to aid digestion... that took us to Isetan Scotts...

alrighties, some background, since I've been back from the US, which is now 3.5 years, I have failed to find the right kind of skincare products for my skin and have spent at least a couple of thousands on buying products but they all didn't work... about 1 month ago, I came to the Lord and plainly laid out my case, "God, I really don't want to keep hunting around for the right products and getting frustrated along the way, plus money is going down the drain, I know that You can help and I will trust that You will lead me to the right products" So I started praying and listening to hear what the HOly SPirit was revealing to my spirit about which products to buy... somehow I felt a prompting in my spirit to buy Origins....

ok, so back to 21/12, we are all now at Isetan Scotts and I was like, let's check out Origins... I went to the counter and asked the salesgal for her recommendations...

Salesgal 1: "wait, I'll ask my colleague to come and help you"
Me:"ok" (waiting around and looking at products)
Salesgal 2:"Hello miss, are you looking for products"
Me: "yeah, I have sensitive skin but have not been able to find the right kind of products, do you have any recommendations"
Salesgal 2: (looks at my skin) "Actually I also have sensitive skin, and I don't think that any of the products will work for you"...

I was like... "WHAT???" (ok this was again inside, not blurted out) I mean normal sales ppl will just be pushing products for u right? but not when u have the favor of GOd man... Turns out that she uses products from this clinic and recommended that I go there too...

and my frens, I visited that clinic last Friday and purchased very affordable skincare products (consultation plus facial wash + toner + gel + sunblock = $170... super good deal considering that I sometimes pay 100+ for one product) and am very proud of GOd to say that they are working quite fine... YEAH GOD!!!

so to recap...
1) Got the products for cheaper than I expected
2) they WORK!!!!
3) most importantly... i don't have to be frustrated "shopping" around again....

p.s. if u want the name of the clinic... sms me, my blog not an advertising site.... =)

#2 27/12/06
so... I think i caught a little chill over Christmas... and felt like resting on Weds, i.e., go take MC and stay home.... but somehow there was just no peace in the spirit... so ok... dragged myself to work... there really isn't much going on at work now, so I was just clearing up some loose ends and planning for my upcoming trip...

Alrighties, for those that still do not know... I am going on a much anticipated 3 week holiday that will take me to 6 cities in 3 countries... yeah it's exciting.... (wait a minute, have I already blogged the itinerary?... nvm, one more time is ok...)

26th Jan - SIN - HKG
29th Jan - HKG - SFO
2 Feb - SFO - ORD (then will be driving down to Lafayette (where I did my Bachelors) on the 3rd evening and returning back to Chicago on 8th Feb evening)
9 Feb - ORD - NYC
11 Feb - NYC - SFO
12 Feb - SFO - Seoul
17 Feb - Seoul - HKG
18th Feb - HKG SIN (just in time for CNY)

okay, so except for Seoul, everywhere else really is to visit friends... yes, I am going to Seoul alone (am excited that I will be spending one night at the prayer mountain) and am rather clueless as to what I really should do when I am there... and had decided that instead of looking through throngs of websites to get free advice... I was gonna invest in a lonely planet guidebook.

and that day, I just felt like I wanna go buy the guidebook.... so I first went to a 2nd bookstore... no luck there, they don't carry guide books... there was a Times bookstore nearby and I went there... turns out that they were out of stock. While the salesgal was checking stock, she kind of mentioned that actually they took stock from MPH... but nonetheless she was gonna give me a call to let me know when the new stocks arrive... the book was going for $35.70.

went back to office and somehow felt that I should give MPH a call...

Me: "Hello, do you carry the Lonely PLanet's Guide to Seoul, 5th edition"
Salesgal: "wait a minute, I'll check for you" (quite a long while later)
Salesgal:"yeah, we have and it comes with a dvd as well"
Me:"oh, really? how much does it cost?"
Salesgal: "it's going for $31.70, and if you come down today there's a storewide 20% "

I was just super psyched in my spirit at this point, also due to the accumulation of such surprises that have been happening recently....!!! turns out that mph was having a christmas storewide 20% from 25 to 27th Dec... that day was the last day... I kind of felt that that's the only reason why God led me to go to work... coz I was on MC on thursday...

neways... so here's the deal:
1) the guidebook was already cheaper at MPH
2) became even cheaper coz of the storewide discount
3) .... and it came with a free dvd introducing 6 cities in Asean....

GOD IS VERY, VERY THE GOOD... VERY VERY THE AWESOME!!!!