Christmas Cantata 2008

The Sanctuary choir of Trinity Methodist Church PJ will be presenting a cantata titled "Christmas is Jesus" next weekend.

The music and lyrics are contemporary and would appeal to all ages, so do come and celebrate with us as we remember and celebrate the true meaning of this season:- Jesus. In the spirit of the season and as part of our outreach program, we will also be collecting a love gift that will be chanelled towards our streetfeeding ministry in Brickfields and our Myanmar refugees assistance program.

Come and join us as we celebrate the reason for the season, and do support us as we continue our work in helping those in our community who are less fortunate than us.

Dates : 20th & 21st December, 2008

Time : 8:30pm

Place : Trinity Methodist Church PJ

No. 6, Jalan 5/37 (beside EPF Building)

Admission is Free

Secrets of good relationship

I received a mail on the above some time ago and I thought it was interesting. TRUST is a very important factor for all relationships. When trust is broken, it is the end of the relationship. Lack of trust leads to suspicion, suspicion generates anger, anger causes enmity and enmity may result in separation.
It provided a few examples.

PUB
A telephone operator told me that one day she received a phone call. She answered, "Public Utilities Board." There was silence. She repeated, "PUB." There was still no answer. When she was going to cut off the line, she Heard a lady's voice, "Oh, so this is PUB. Sorry, I got the number from my Husband's pocket but I do not know whose number it is."
Without mutual trust, just imagine what will happen to the couple if the telephone operator answered with just "hello" instead of "PUB".

No pointing fingers
A man asked his father-in-law, "Many people praised you for a successful marriage. Could you please share with me your secret?" The father-in-law answered in a smile, "Never criticize your wife for her shortcomings or when she does something wrong. Always bear in mind that because of her shortcomings and weaknesses, she could not find a better husband than you." We all look forward to being loved and respected. Many people are afraid of losing face. Generally, when a person makes a mistake, he would look around to find a scapegoat to point the finger at. This is the start of a war. We should always remember that when we point one finger at a person, the other four fingers are pointing at ourselves.

Creating Perfect Relationships?
A person visited the government matchmaker for marriage, SDU, and requested "I am looking for a spouse. Please help me to find a suitable one." The SDU officer said, "Your requirements, please." "Oh, good looking, polite, humorous , sporty, knowledgeable, good in singing and dancing. Willing to accompany me the whole day at home during my leisure hour, if I don't go out. Telling me interesting stories when I need companion for conversation and be silent when I want to rest." The officer listened carefully and replied, "I understand you need television."
There is a saying that a perfect match can only be found between a blind wife and a deaf husband, because the blind wife cannot see the faults of the husband and the deaf husband cannot hear the nagging of the wife. Many couples are blind and deaf at the courting stage and dream of perpetual perfect relationship. Unfortunately, when the excitement of love wears off, they wake up and discover that marriage is not a bed of roses. The nightmare begins.

No Overpowering
Many relationships fail because one party tries to overpower another, or demands too much. People in love tend to think that love will conquer all and their spouses will change the bad habits after marriage. Actually, this is not the case. There is a Chinese saying which carries the meaning that "It is easier to reshape a mountain or a river than a person's character."
It is not easy to change. Thus, having high expectation on changing the spouse character will cause disappointment and unpleasantness.
It would be less painful to change ourselves and lower our expectations.

Right Speech
There is a Chinese saying which carries the meaning that "A speech will either prosper or ruin a nation." Many relationships break off because of wrong speech. When a couple is too close with each other, we always forget mutual respect and courtesy. We may say anything without considering if it would hurt the other party.
A friend and her millionaire husband visited their construction site. A worker who wore a helmet saw her and shouted, "Hi, Emily! Remember me? We used to date in the secondary school." On the way home, her millionaire husband teased her, "Luckily you married me. Otherwise you will be the wife of a construction worker." She answered,"You should appreciate that you married me. Other wise, he will be the millionaire and not you."
Frequently exchanging these remarks plants the seed for a bad relationship. It's like a broken egg - cannot be reversed.

Be Patient
This is a true story which happened in the States. A man came out of his home to admire his new truck. To his puzzlement, his three-year-old son was happily hammering dents into the shiny paint of the truck. The man ran to his son, knocked him away, hammered the little boy's hands into pulp as punishment. When the father calmed down, he rushed his son to the hospital.
Although the doctor tried desperately to save the crushed bones, he finally had to amputate the fingers from both the boy's hands. When the boy woke up from the surgery & saw his bandaged stubs, he innocently said, "Daddy, I'm sorry about your truck." Then he asked, "but when are my fingers going to grow back?" The father went home & committed suicide.
Think about this story the next time someone steps on your feet or u wish to take revenge. Think first before u lose your patience with someone u love. Trucks can be repaired.. Broken bones & hurt feelings often can't. Too often we fail to recognize the difference between the person and the performance. We forget that forgiveness is greater than revenge.
People make mistakes. We are allowed to make mistakes. But the actions we take while in a rage will haunt us forever.

Good Life starts only when you stop wanting a better one.

Mussorie - Part 3

This day 3 is delayed in coming. For the 3rd day, we took a stroll through the town proper. As with most cities in India, there is a relatively large crowd around. The streets are quie narrow and there are not many cars around. Most people will walk and there is also some horses for hire to ride.

Along one of the streets. Trishaws are waiting for customers.

Someone riding on a horse

A street where peddlars set up store to sell almost anything.

The town library.

I think this is the youth hostel.

We left Mussoorie at about 2pm to be in time to catch the 5pm train back to Delhi. The ride back is similar, with dinner and tea being served. Reached Delhi at about 11pm. The ride back was relatively quieter, which is quite common for such trips. I guess all out batteries have run down.

India has much to offer and I hope I can make one more vacation trip before my current stint there is over.

Mussoorie - part 2

Day 2 of our stay (10th May), we took a trip through the town and a 2 hour journey to Yamuna camp, a sort of a training camp with white water rafting, river crossing, essentially a place to chill out.

This is a view of the buildings which are on the hillside amidst the lush greenery

On the way to Yamuna camp, we pass Kempti falls, one of the main attractions of Mussoorie. The buildings and the attractions are at the bottom of the falls. To get from the road to the bottom of the fall, you need to get into a cable car.

Kempti falls from the road

After a 2 hours bus ride, we arrived at Yamuna camp. This is quite similar to some of the camps that are operated in Malaysia for management training which I had attended in Jeram Besu.

The entrance to Yamuna camp

The main attraction to the people in my group is the rafting for 10km downstream. It will go through some white water which is a first for many of them. A SUV will pick them up at the end of the journey and bring them back to camp.

The first batch of people on the raft. Can only take 6 at one go

This the path the raft will take, for next 10 km

The Y class tents for those who are staying

The J class tents. Notice the cement floor. They also have attached bathroom

India is cricket crazy. They can play cricket anywhere

Picture rather small. Just to show how a vehicle navigates along the hill roads

The other popular pastime is dancing. All Bollywood stars in the making

We finally left Yamuna camp (after dinner and the dancing) at 9:30pm. However, on reaching Kempti falls, we realised that the road was closed to traffic. In fact, it closes at 7:30pm everyday. There was a fair bit of negotiation with the guard there before they will let us through. They finally let us through after about 15 mins and we reached back just before midnight. I think everyone had a good time. Tomorrow will be an outing around the town and the trip back.

Mussoorie

On 9th May, 2008, I had the opportunity to go with my colleagues in India to an off-site meeting in Mussoorie, a hill station started by the British with its history dating back to 1825. We were there over the weekend and the journey itselsf was quite interesting.

We had decided to via surface transport which means rail and road. The train leaves Delhi at 6:50am so that means waking up very early so that we can be at the station by 6:15am. Crowd and traffic can be unpredictable so we wanted to be there with sufficient time to spare.

This is the entrance to the train station where we congregated

The train journey took exactly 6 hours for a journey of some 250km. Part of the reason is that it has to stop in all the stations in between to drop off and pick up passengers.

This is the train that took us to and from Dehradun, the nearest town

The coach we were in was air-conditioned. In fact, some seats are very cold, those in the middle of the coach which could probably be near where the air is coming out.

The coach we were in

The tickets we bought are for full service. So along the way, we got served tea and breakfast. However, need to set expectations right. They have a person who comes around and give you the necessary teapots and trays for the meals. Not the same as airlines but passable.

This is the morning tea. The thermos has enough water for just 1 cup

This is the breakfast. I asked for non-veg which was omelette

On arrival at Dehradun, the nearest town which is also the last stop for the train, there was a bus and a car waiting to take us to Mussoorie. The train arrived at 12:50pm (exactly 6 hours since leaving Delhi). The journey to Mussoorie is about 30km but will take about 1 hour.

This is one of the views from the road that we were taking to Mussoorie

This is a hindu temple on the way up and is next to a buddhist temple

We stayed at the Jaypee hotel in Mussoorie. The hotel is very nice, probably one of the better hotels in Mussoorie. I was assigned a room that walks out to the garden.

This is the garden that is outside my room

The area where we had our dinner in the same garden

A view of the hotel from the terrace

The journey in itself was an experience. The road is along the hillside and in some spots, it gets quite narrow that the vehicles have to slow down to inch pass each other. Total time for the journey from Delhi railway station to the hotel, about 7 hours. I shall post more later on the area and the town.

The Wondrous Cross

Easter is early this year and my church had a very short time to practise and put together a cantata presentation. Nevertheless, with the dedication of the people involved, and a never say die spirit, a group of some 40 of us have been putting in the hours to get the cantata ready. It will be over 2 sundays starting from this sunday. So come on over and listen to the message in songs.

Hallelujah for the Cross

Hallelujah for the Lamb

The Lamb of God for sinners slain

Would bear my suffering and my shame

Date : 23rd & 30th March, 2008

Time : 8:30pm

Venue : Trinity Methodist Church, Petaling Jaya (behind EPF building on Jalan Gasing)

The news coverage for the cantata also came out in the Metro section of the Star newspaper today. Rather than reproducing the news report here, below is the link which will take you there.

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/3/17/central/20666449&sec=central

Touch n Go card has a life span

I received a mail from a friend asking to confirm if a mail circulating in the internet that there is a 10 year life span on the TNG card is true. I decided to write to PLUS through their website to get confirmation. Below is the reply I got from them.

Dear Sir,

We would like to apologize for delay in responding to your enquiry. We wish to confirm that TNG has a life span of 10 years from the date of issuance. Replacement of card can be made at any of our counter with no cost. Should you wish to know your expiry date, please furnish us with your TNG Mfg No. We will revert to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for traveling with PLUS.

So, if you want to check on the expiry of your TNG card, you can write to CRMD@plus.com.my and give them the No. Siri on your card.