Bullied and Bludgeoned

These few days have been difficult. Some things have been happening that dragged my spirit down, and made me ask why this world is so unfair...
but then, I know the answer..
In our weakness He is made known.In our sorrow, The Truth will shine brighter.
That the answer. So simple. Should have known it at once.

Yaa..2 weeks ago UPM CG from Tertiary Students Fellowship went to Golden Sands PD for a retreat. I hope to post pictures soon (Yune is hording all of them). We also took some crazy videos on Sat night. They're being edited by Jasmine at the moment.

Also right now I'm plodding through the book "Why I am A Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe" edited by Norman Geisler.deals with difficult questions in our lives(e.g. is there a God? Why do Christians claim to have the ONLY truth? What about evolution, isn't it proof that there's no GOD?)It's very profound, deep and makes me think all the more harder.Basically, its a collection of testimonies, but like I've never seen before. The contributers are academicians, and therefore there is Philosophy strewn all over the place. I've never been a humanities student, so the terms they use makes reading really hard. My only comfort is that the rest of the TSF leaders are also plodding through the book with me. CG for the coming 3 months will be based on this book.Already there has been many theoretical,difficult questions coming up among the students last Sat when we did our sneak peek CG session.

Currently reading:
Chapter4-Why I'm not an atheist.(the most difficult chapter. What are plausibility gambits?)
Chapter 5- Why I believe God exists.


I'm personally glad that TSF has adopted the vision of going deeper into the word, and not stick to all the superficial stuff. Here is something really solid. I'm really into the idea of not practicing dependant religion (where we only listen to the Pastor preach and accept everything he says). We must begin to educate ourselves and start to think.

Fighting! Gambate! Lets complete this!

Something interesting:
My favourite ~YUI is sometimes a real punk rocker chick. Check her out having fun on stage (At her tour concert last year)



She's getting more comfortable and better at live shows.Her voice used to shake and go out of pitch all the time. This is Highway chance( Isn't she cute when she screams?) Haha.



However, most of the time she sounds more like this:( She only goes into the punk thingee once in while, when the inspiration hits her.)

Listen: Can you hear her say "I want to fry whale?"
Hahaha
Its actually "I want to fly well". It's a YUI habit to scatter english phrases all over her songs. But the thing I like about asian artists, and why I like her particularly is because her lyrics are so encouraging. It's always " I wanna move forward" " I won't give up" " From here on its a straight road" " I can change my life".
You hardly ever find that in western artists today. I find a lot of them very self-absorbed and pessimistic.
One of the most emotionally honest things Yui has sung is "TOKYO" ,written when she had to leave her hometown of Fukuoka for the big city after she signed a deal with SONY Japan.(ps-She grew up in a single parent home like me. Maybe dat's why I can relate. She had to drop out of High school due to finances and signed herself up for guitar and song-writing classes before she auditioned for Sony)

Favourites

Helloo.. Here is Michelle's picks for favourite songs over the past year(in no particular order)

1) Songs by YUI (~Life is my no1, but here's another nice one as well)


YUIs' rather versatile.The following one is an instrumental she wrote.


2) Songs by Uverworld(not all, but D'Technolife and Colors of the heart particularly)



3) From the Inside out (Hillsongs, Australia)


4) Lingkupiku (Indon version of Hide me now)

As for the best stuff I've seen this past year:

- Nodame Cantabile

-Coffee Prince

- Bleach

Ha.. Yes, that's THE list of best pastime killers.

What 'bout you?

True beauty.

Its a new year, time to leave the past behind.Stand up, brush away the dust and get on with life. Yes, Father, I know its not going to be easy.Your love keeps me going. I thank you because you've kept me even though I've dissappointed You time and again.
Who am I, that you take time to invest in my life? But You do it anyway. You are God. You could easily do anything for yourself.You can raise up rocks to sing your praises if you like. You don't need me at all. Nothing I can do for you is of any value, and nothing I can give you, you cannot create by yourself.

Yet You choose to keep me. You're awesome.

On a lighter note:
I'm currently listening to Han Hong, a chinese tibetan singer. She's not your typical slim, pretty little thing. But her voice is like drops of gold. The first time I heard this, my eyes were wet.



In celebration of the truly beautiful, this woman is an original.



The TSF leadership's getting bigger becuse of all the little additions last year.
Top: l-R, Soon yen holding Joshua Rohan Zhu-tian, Mel holding Charis, Ellen holding Tiffany and Q(arlene)








Bottom: my god-daughter Charis Selvyna Raj