Youth Alpha weekend

Just finished a weekend with the students of Maktab Nasional on the Holy Spirit weekend of their Youth Alpha programme. Derek has been involved in their weekly meeting on Friday afternoons. He and the team, led by Josephine, organised a weekend away for their Holy Spirit weekend.

Again it was a weekend filled with God's anointing. We prayed with them for the infilling of the holy spirit and it was amazing to see their openness in receiving God's gifts through the Holy Spirit.

Not only after the praying session did it dawn on me that they are not regular church goers and do not belong to a community that practices the gifts of the spirit. Nevertheless, their openness was amazing as we listened to their sharings on their experience in the weekend.

...and so that was the highlight of my school holidays. Back to school now...

Trinity

It has been a jam-packed weekend, not in terms of activities but of reflection of who God is and how He created us to be...

We attended the Parish's Family conference yesterday, or actually part of it since we had another appointment at Pace Bene in Papar with the Lifeteen in the afternoon... It was one of the 1st events in our parish which we participated in. A bit concerned to see we were among the younger people in the room...

Listening to Dr Pauline brought many things to mind. Her comment on roles in families had struck me to think about women today. As I was looking through the various articles on Zenit this morning, I came accross this one from Father Chavez...

VATICAN CITY, MAY 21, 2009 Father Phillip Chavez, an American priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity writes... women ....intuitively want men to lead, but in the Christian sense of leadership, as one "who lays it down, who sacrifices." Everyone knows, he said, that "a true leader is one who sacrifices, who dies to himself" rather than someone who bossily pushes his weight around. But he also believes that women, too, are victims of contemporary society in the sense that they're being wrongly trained to be leaders, protectors and providers -- to be independent and self-sufficient. That brings them inner tension and conflict, he said.

As I recall my conversation with some of the teenagers yesterday at the Lifeteen camp (we were caled in as counsellors for the afternoon), their issues were mainly about their parents, more specifically, their mothers. Without realising the reality in the eyes of teenagers these days, the tension of their mothers are felt and internalised by their sensitive children. In turn, their children carry their emotional burdens since their nature of being human does not allow them to simply close their eyes to the pain of their mothers...

Something to ponder about...

This morning at mass, Fr Cosmas Lee used his dogs as an intro to start sharing about the Trinity. I was pondering on that for a while and thought, well, he probably met the hearts of many this morning since having pets to share love and care these days is really the in thing... We have forgotten about the importance of relationship; of giving and receiving love with known choices. Pets are pets... they are merciful creatures even when you reject them... somehow...

Sometimes, our coldness just drives us away from working on relationships. I am faced with this reality today. We have just become too sophisticated, or complicated to be exact!

We are made for relationships. We are made for community. We are made for one another, in the image of God... So, somehow, there must be a place in our hearts to reach out and make this happen, for ourselves...

Mother's Day cum Teachers' Day Celebration

An awesome day of celebration!! As a family, we celebrated mother's day with mum at Cafe Boleh, Sutera Harbour. Grateful to God for blessing us with mum who has instilled in us her values, in very way possible...


Apart from having a sumptuous meal, we also had great fun together as a family


Everyone was having a great time trying out the wonderful array of food served. Since it was also teachers' day, we also included that in the celebration as there are so many of us teachers in the family.


My brother Fred and his wife to be, Gloria, getting married in November this year...
O... can't believe my "baby brother" is getting married!!


The site of our table, contantly filled with the variety of food available... didn't matter if one starts with the soup or the dessert first...


..and of course, Derek enjoyed the food tremendously!!! Showing off an octopus there...


..and here we are... brothers and sisters... the Wong Family...

Sunset Reflection

It's one of those days when we take a moment to "waste" time together, sitting on our balcony and looking out to the beautiful sunset (and the millionaire's house opposite...). Take note, Trish, the most beautiful sunset in the world!!

Just reflecting on life and where that has led us today. Grateful to God that we are able to enjoy the luxury of having a car, a (nice) place to stay, a new laptop (so much more reasons to celebrate!!), a job and the list goes on...

We landed in KK only 5 months ago, having been full time missionaries for 13 years (Bea)/19 years (Derek) with the ICPE Mission. God has surely taken care of all our needs and more...

Derek has a passion taking pictures of the sunset... As teenagers, we used to listen to a song that goes something like this...

...after the sunset, after the colours have faded into the night;
He'll bring the stars in, shining in full and we'll know that it's not just the night...

Sunsets have spoken to us of a hopeful new day ahead of us. The end of something beautiful does not necessarily mean that it is completely over. Instead, it brings hope, through the flickering light of the stars, that dreams can be fulfilled even more, when the sun rises again.

We are at that place today. Don't feel like that everyday... and so, we're taking a moment to thank God for loving us by showing us the flickering lights of the stars in many beautiful ways.

Waffle Party at Easter - 12th April

We got a Waffle machine from Germany as a going away souvenir and finally got to use it at Easter. Took us 2 weeks to clean the new flat, move and unpack.... So, on hot and sunny Easter afternoon, our families joined us for waffles at our new home.

My brother, Fred, choosing the topping for his waffle

A very different Easter from what we normally know for the past 13 years (for me) and 19 years (for Derek)... It's not snowing outside and we had our Easter brunch at a hotel!

Derek's family

Derek's mum has been our main cook since we came back from Germany. Really enjoyed her creative cooking!! Now, we have to cook on our own since we don't live just accross the road anymore. Well, nevertheless, we go at least once a week to enjoy her cooking... plus visit the family...

Oops... short of furniture. Well, lets eat the Sabahan way!

We adjourned to the swimming to lose some calories after a whole day of eating...

Our New Home

We have been renting a house opposite Derek's parents place for 3 months. Ideal for us since we literally only sleep in our house and do everything else at Derek's parents place - eat, watch tv, internet... you name it! Nevertheless it has become a bit tiring living in a house that needed a lot of maintenance and our landlord was not willing to do anything about it.

So our search for another place started. Derek has become an expert in house hunting since he took time to look at many houses and apartments advertised for sale or rent. We came across one which we both really like. The bonus, it comes with a swimming pool!!



Grateful to God for His blessing in this way!! We moved to a duplex apartment on the 3rd floor of Seri Borneo Kondominium in April. Well, that's part of the reason why this long silence... After 3 weeks, we have finally settled and had a chance to dip into the pool, host family and friends at our place and have internet & phone connection.



We are spoilt children of God, getting whatever we ask for, in abundance!

Blogging Resumes.... Holy Spirit Camp with RAY

After a long silence, here's us again with our news and updates...

Sorry for the long silence and the boring old stories if you have been expecting some news from us here.

Nothing much happened in February and when March came, there were too many things to write about and no internet!!!

So, we'll be posting our news soon...


Holy Spirit Camp, 20th - 22nd March

We spent a few Saturdays training a group of people who were organising a youth camp for teenagers aged between 13 and 17. It was a joy to get to know this great group of people who are mostly the kids of the members of Light of Jesus Christ Covenant community here in KK.



Derek & I were convinced that the camp can be run by these teenagers themselves and therefore offered them some time to train them in leading small groups and in using their prophetic gifts. It was a joy to see their openness and maturity at that age.



The theme of the weekend was F.R.O.G. (Forever Relying On God) based on the scripture from Jer 29: 11 - 14. The sharings were basically leading the teenagers to trust God because He is a God who loves us without limits.



Some of the kids of the RA shared their testimonies during the weekend. They also organised the games and various activities which added more fun to the camp!



The youth camp was attended by more than 200 teenagers. Many were touched by God's love as we prayed with them for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.