Big Church

I went to Hall 8 in the expo today for a church service - one and a half in fact, cause I arrived late for the first service where a special speaker preached on deliverance and a second service where the deliverances were actually conducted. Briefly, deliverance is the banishing of evil spirits who're believed to be residing in some of us.

It sounds pretty exciting actually, and although Jesus says not to seek out signs and wonders, that was exactly why I was there.

As I was brought into the church, some handsome chap befriended me and, to me, condescendingly placed his arm around my shoulder as he guided me into the church like some lost sheep finding its way back to the farm. During the alter call he asked if I feel the need to rededicate my life to God.

Ok, sub note again: Alter calls are usually designed in such a way that almost everybody has a reason to go up; everybody from non-believers, to backsliders, to strong christians who want to reaffirm their faith or seek more spiritual strength to do God's work.

Anyway, back to our handsome chap. I replied saying yes, I do feel the need to dedicate my life to God again, but not at that moment. He asked why, and I said I need to feel convicted, if not it would just be an empty gesture. Handsome chap gave a rather convincing argument against my reasoning saying that it's the act of faith, going up to the alter, that's the beginning of my repentance and my getting right with God. I told him there're several doubts and discrepancies that I find in our faith that I need to get sorted out before I can honestly seek God again.

Without asking for details, he launched into a nice speech about how he used to be like me, and that now he's different etc etc. It was pretty good, except that it made me feel that people like him categorise newcomers to their church only into 2 categories : 1) unbelievers and 2) backsliders, and they take a fixed approach for each of the categories without taking time to understand WHY the person backslidded or why a person isn't a believer. People seemed rushed into the Sinner's Prayer, much like getting married before getting to know your spouse. Shoes before socks, I would say.

Moving on, we're now into the deliverance service. According to the speaker, people sometimes engage in certain activities that open the door for evil spirits to gain access and to reside in our hearts. In fact, there's something he terms as generational curses or something along that line, where the sins of our fathers are passed down the family tree. Examples he gave were stuff ranging from idolatry and gambling to strangely, financial carelessness and poverty. Evil spirits strive to ruin our lives immediately after gaining a foothold in our hearts, and the affected people have to be delivered.

Fine. I accept that, with some reservations, but I accept that. But how bout believers who already have Christ residing in their hearts. I'm not exactly sure, but I believe I read somewhere in the bible that once Christ lives in us, no other evil spirit can invade our heart. Demons and spirits might perch themselves on our shoulders and whisper temptations into our ears but they can never gain access into our hearts. Am i wrong? Furthermore, let's say they DO gain access into our hearts, the possessed people would be unable to declare that Jesus is Lord and to admit vocally that Jesus is our savior and the only true way to God. They would be unable to lift their hands and sing praises to God. No?

The speaker proceeded to issue the first alter call for deliverance, asking for people who have dabbled in the occult, martial arts(huh?!), yoga, hooked to horror movies(wtf?), or people who have been dedicated to temples, whose parents engage in idolatry etc etc to come forth and be prayed for, to be delivered and to have the evil spirits residing in them cast out.

Throngs of people responded to that call, and soon the front of the church was filled. "Say out loud after me," the speaker commanded, and proceeded to say stuff like "I acknowledge Jesus Christ alone is Lord and Savior" etc etc, and everybody followed. No manifestations of demons as of yet. The band and choir on stage burst into song and everybody started praising God.

This other chap came beside me and asked if I wanted to go down to get delivered. I told him no, obviously and expressed my doubts about demonic possession of believers. He said sometimes people only profess to be christians but are in fact not. Fair enough, I said. I humbly and politely told him that I thought people possessed by demons can't proclaim the Lordship of Jesus, at least not without manifesting. "Look," I pointed at the crowd in front, "everybody's fine and praising God. How are they demon possessed?". His response was that not every demon possessed person manifest violently. Well .. okay.

It's interesting, demons nowadays. Or at least the demons who possessed the people who end up in that particular church. They all manifest in exactly the same ways! So much so that the church workers are prepared with tons of plastic bags because well, the demon possessed usually end up vomiting, and so they're prepared. The manifestations include screaming and yelling and a general convulsing but no obvious signs of the demon inflicting bodily hurt on the host such as gorging their own eyes out, or biting their tongues. Maybe in these end days the demons have gotten lazy; or I'm possessed by a spirit of sarcasm. Funny how the spirits in Jesus' time were a lot fiercer.

Forgive me if I have blasphemed in any way. I am foolish, and know not what I say. I do not judge, I merely observe.

Oh and I think it rocks that a church has an impressive security force clad in black polo tees with the word SECURITY printed in bold yellow font at the back. Sort of like Zouk don't you think? And some of the girls were dressed for clubbing .. not that I'm complaining or anything of course..

yawn

I tried to sneak past the guy on duty to use free internet like my friends but as all would know, I have rotten luck, and thus ... am paying to use the net .. AGAIN.

Tried going to Zouk too, but the main room's closed on wednesday(huh!?) leaving only Velvet open , and I'm underaged for that. Ended up at some half-seedy pub along KL's version of mhd sultan and got chatted up by a 20 year old male waiter who didn't look very gay so I guess he was just being friendly. Asked for my number in the toilet though.

Camp 5's awesome. Love the shirts their employees wear but it isn't for sale. Oh and sorry for the rotten sentence structure ya, it's late and I'm tired; just an internet addict.

Tomorrow's shopping day, but if today's mini shopping was anything to go by - zara's more expensive here than back home - there's nothing much to look forward to. I'd much rather go to Camp 5 again, raw fingers and all. I successfully led a simple route and a slightly harder route. Attempted something more challenging but freaked out 2 clips from the top when I shivered while clipping in with a hand on a slopper. Balls of steel I do not have.

Tomorrow .. as in .. when i wake up, will be my last full day here. Be back home on fri. See yaa

Eight

I'm sitting in a communal hall using the communal computer and internet connection at 2RM per 20 minutes block. It's my first day in KL. Arrived here at Guesthouse Eight at approximately 4am and realised we did not have a room booked for that night.

Check in was at 11am and so we rotted in the very lounge I'm in now till it was time to check in, went for a quick shower, and headed to Camp 5, the biggest indoor climbing centre in ASIA(edit: okok typo when i made this post). As much as I love Singapore's ClimbAsia, their standard is no where near Camp 5's. True, Camp 5 is super anal about stuff like "no loose chalk" and "no belongings apart from gear near climbing area" but still the service rocked and the walls...the beautiful and damn bloody huge walls.

Taxis here don't believe in meters.

The food's great.

The water pressure at Guesthouse Eight is pathetic.

My handphone's dead and I didn't bring a charger ... so don't text me ya.

I'll be back Friday night =)

Tag on my board ya?

Mi Lu Bing

I am extremely tired now. I have a dental appointment at 10am later for my first scaling and polishing in .. 5 years, more or less. After that it's off to the $2 Harry Potter screening kindly subsidised by NUSSU, then rush back home to pack my bags for a week in KL for climbing.

Meanwhile, buy Mi Lu Bing's album! I bought one, the only CD I bought since I bought Taufik's for Jun. Watch out for Shi Ying, written and composed by Sam. You guys should have seen him in his dorky days; hard to imagine then that he'll have such a huge fan base now. Way to go, bro.

Photoshopped

Double 0 makes lousy drinks. These are badly done B-52s. Yes I realise I made a typo

Indulge me, I don't have many years left to take such photos. Haha.

Part of V5, my orientation group in Union Camp

Superficiality

Ugliness in my books is the lack of physical attractiveness. A friend recently told me that to her, "nobody is ugly". I refuted her with a spontaneous definition of Ugly which I shall reiterate here. To some, this is simply common sense, but maybe others might find it interesting, so here goes.

Ugliness is the lack of physical attractiveness. Ugliness, is also relative; one man's meat is another man's poison, ya? Which means that when I say a person is Ugly, it simply means that I do not find her physically attractive - that her looks do not appeal to me. Is this in any way superficial? No, right?

Along these lines, everybody finds some people ugly. Sometimes they don't admit it. I do, and I get branded as being superficial. Not that I really mind, but I just thought I should defend myself a little =)

The problem is when people's criteria for a partner stops only at physical attractiveness. I go a little further than that ..

Balestier Bak Kut Teh

2am supper of bak kut teh at Balestier Road after Hoegaarden at Midsummers. Great booze followed by awesome food and cherished friends. Now, that's life, no? =)

Zoukture

I shalln't complain about the crowd in Phuture and Zouk. I have to say the ratio of guys to girls in Phuture is about 10 is to 1 and the ratio of pleasant looking girls to the others is about .. wait, the prettiest girls in the dance floor were in my group.

There seems to be a phenomenon observable in most clubs - babes tend not to hit the dance floor. Strange. Maybe they attract guys rich or stupid enough to get tables and open bottles of alcohol. Shrug.

Million thanks to Sze hui for signing me in though =) =)

And here are pics:

Guang hong in blazer, Boyan the handsome guy in tee, Gwen with the small eyes and Hui xia with the slightly bigger eyes.

V5 for glory

I managed to survive the entire camp without memorising a single cheer. Some councillor. Haha.

The new Climb Asia

It's damn stuffy. It's has also been a long time since Weeli, Japheth, Jeryd and I came together to climb. As usual, we monkeyed around more than we climb and generally made nuisances of ourselves. But we had fun, and that's all that matters to me =)

I completed the route but Jeryd didn't take a single photo. @*()##@!@!

Pretty artistic eh.

Brilliant

There was a blood donation drive in my church recently. Personally, I think it's brilliant having it in a church where people are more or less morally obliged to do the "right thing" and to give blood.

Of course there were still people who disappeared without a trace after service or stand around with a mildly regretful look and exclaimed that if they had known how strict they were about medication, they would not have taken their cough medication. Haha.

And we have Jasmin who bravely joined the queue, filled in the questionnaire, got her blood tested, sat on the bed, only to have the nurse tell her that she can't find her vein and she should do more housework. I nearly died laughing.

Anyway, here's Weeli, I, and Blood.

It's Over

Union Camp 2007 is over, and my souvenir is a yellowish and swollen left eye. Need to see a doctor.

My guess is that this is the reason:

double o

Double O is the worst club I've ever been to. The drinks take almost half an hour to arrive, the waiter forgets your subsequent order and after checking and re-ordering half an hour later, your order of ONE shooter comes 20 minutes later.

The five B-B2 shots I got tasted crappy and looked weird. The 2 BlowJobs my friend bought looked sloppily done up, the music was mediocre and the dance floor filled with fat and/or ugly girls and bengs. Yes, there was even the classic long haired monkey.

Anyway, in case you're wondering what the heck I was doing there in the first place, I'll like to state that I was there for union camp's "chiong night" and that it was free.

Horrible, horrible place. Their one-for-one is ridiculous; only beer and shooters(excluding vodka, tequilia, etc).

Wtf. I'd rather Cafe Iguana anytime. Zouk is a million times better. Heck, even MoMo was better. No, even CUBE, which closed down less than six months after opening was better.

Boo, double o, Boo.

Union Camp

Despite my assertions that I'm a nice, decent young man who's friendly, honest, and probably the nicest guy around, nobody seems to be buying my crap. I identified correctly the skirt chasers in my group and had some fun exposing their sets before they turned on me and called me Grand Master. Perfect. And during SP night when some joker flirted outrageously with a girl in our group, a wise-ass labeled him "Shaun No. 2".

Willie, a fellow counciller, happily told a few freshie girls to "stay away from this guy" while pointing at me. Great.

I'm having fun though :)

Ira

Ira, wrath. There are, of course, vastly different manifestations of anger, and they affect us in various ways. The particular one I'm feeling now is a dull, distant anger. It's almost like I'm standing on the edge of a pit and feeling the wrath radiating from the angry beast imprisoned within.

I had chosen not to face the beast, and left it thrashing wildly around in some corner of my soul. Every now and then something will remind me of my, stupidity.

Looks, my dear self, aren't everything. Knowing me, I'll probably fall into the same shit when the right set of circumstances present themselves.

Some people never learn, and unfortunately where this is concerned, I am probably chief among them.

Yes, I am.

Sanctus James

I've always thought that St James Power House is the name of the building, and that within the building there are many clubs. Turned out that Power House is one of many clubs, and the building itself is St James Power Station. Ah, I learn something new every day.

Power House gives International Students free entry. Maybe they think international students look better/club better/drink more/spend more, I don't know. Anyway James brought us in through some sort of priority entry so we didn't have to queue, thats something at least.

The first thing I noticed once inside is that the place is huge, and there're a lot more tables than usual clubs. On many of tables I saw big-ass bottles of Hennessy. The diverse crowd ranged from youngish looking lians to caucasian students in vest and jackets to men who looked like they should be home with their primary school kids.

The dance floor though, was retarded. It made me feel like I was grooving in some corridor while people walk pass me all the time, not the usual dance pit ala Zouk.

Enough talk, pics!

Me, Kiat, Joey.

Lucky girl eh, Vanessa?

James who finds baby Shaun cute. Some things I'm sure, never change =D

And, everybody =)

renew my life, lord jesus
i never want to be the same
renew my life, lord jesus
place your heart inside of me

in my life and thoughts
there are so many things
that need the change
that only your love can bring
and i need to be transformed
into your likeness oh lord
change this heart inside of me

Zara Shoes and more

As I was telling James a couple of minutes ago, there's this pair of white Zara shoes I've been eying for the past few days. Everyday I popped by to say "hi" to it and gawk at the $115 price tag. The shoes are already 30% discounted but as all Zara sales go, the prices usually drops further as the sale progresses. Keep your fingers crossed guys. Everybody wants to see me in nice shoes right.

I went to Kenny Rogers with Jeryd today. They increased the price of the quarter chicken and decreased the size. Added a 10% service charge and yet not serve ice water. Basically the only thing that improved is that you no longer have to grab your own cutlery nor queue to order from the counter. The chicken was so small I felt robbed. Had half a mind to flee the scene and not pay but Jeryd's conscience got in the way. Tsk.


Got hungry later at night and Jeryd was kind enough to accompany me for Nasi Lemak, having only milo-peng while he watched me eat. Friends like this, hard to find eh. Only when he's single though. Sorry bro, I tell only the truth. Haha.



Oh and I saw a buildyourownbear shop in Suntec. First time seeing it. Pretty neat.

Sha

I finally met up with the extremely busy Miss Jin(yes roll your eyes) and over Japanese food at Waraku and beer at Brewerkz got updated on her exciting life. It amazes me how some of my friends have lives that are a hell lot more happening than mine. I'm too boring, need to get out more!

Come to think of it, the last time we took photos together we were 17. Gosh. She says I should do less with my hair, and not wear berms. Thanks Sha.