Camp cameron 2013

"Give me life in Thy ways" Ps119:37 is the theme verse for this 20-days camp at Chefoo, Brinchang. Although everyone was far away from home, but in this camp, we were all given a family of our own. and My family is Judah ^^ so we Roarrr~~

Introducing the Yudites : Grandma EuPui, Grandma Fredda, Uncle GohKeatPeng, Uncle Andrew, Papa Wye Hon, Mama Emily, WaiKit, WaiQuan, ChienLi, GraceAng, Melinie, JiaHui, WernJun, JoyceLing, Jo'Anne, Candice, KeLin and Nicholas~ I really thank God for this awesome family. Every imperfection was made perfect as a family ^ ^ Together, we laughed, cried, played, and grew stronger in the Lord!

The 1st week, we learned about redeeming self with God, followed by redeeming relationship with friends, courtship, gender and family, and finally, redeeming relationship with the world. As Darren once said, the currency of heaven is our personal relationship with our surrounding people.

This year IKUPM managed to send 6 of us to be better equipped and I believed each of us has our own personal encounter with Him that last a life time.

As for me, I experienced His ever-presence during the 1st week. Before the camp, I was wondering why I lost God's presence, and I could not find Him anymore. At the same time, we learn about the book of Genesis where God's presence was so tangible and He can talk to Abraham personally, as goes with Isaac and even Jacob, the deceiver...but not me. So for that few days, it got me very jealous. But I persisted and still ask and ask God to reveal Himself to me.

Then, until a session called Chapel, and as I sat in this Holy ground,just as Moses encounter the burning bush, I finally found Him; A thought came to me while I was half awake, that all these while, I have always been looking forward, searching ahead, keeping my focus on the future, but forgot to look who is at side me...How silly of me! and that all these while, God has always always been besides me, watching over me...

Then came 2nd week; unbelievable I finally fall sick after a year. Papa Wye Hon diagnosed me with tonsil infection, and it got me to have a very bad flu with headache that kills my concentration. However, the encounter continues even in such difficulties. This week sessions was more of knowing that He knows me, in n out, all my past, just as Psalms 139 said:

As He starts to reveal who I was, whom I have met and how has my past shapes me, I recalled that there is a certain close friend of mine that I needed to get in contact with..and I was filled with guilt for neglecting her. But Thank God that things got better in my friend's life. And at the 3rd week, my sickness got better, despite the super cold water for mandi and rainy weather. It kinda freaked me out when I was reminded of how powerful is God. Yes, we always hear and know that He is all gracious and merciful and full of love, but do we know the other side of God? remember that He is also Holy and hate sins, which is why He destroyed Sodom and Gomorah.

In the old testament, the fear of the Lord lives in the people of Israel, and they have to follow so many laws and everything was "do this when...", "do not do...when..."; most importantly, sacrificing blamishless animals (without defect,flaw, taint, imperfection,blot, stain,damage, spoil,mar) was necessary for the forgiveness of sins. But God knows, it would still be impossible for man to be with God. So how? Is there any other way to go to heaven? Yes, only when someone,a person without sin/ blamish, take the place of the animal and died on behalf of man. so the question is who then? 

So yes, more than 2000 years ago, a child was born, willingly come to this tainted world and teach the ways of God, and because of Him, salvation through grace was freely given to every man. Everyone don't have to fear God anymore cause we are saved through His son, Jesus, who died at the cross and was resurrected after 3 days.

Today, it is so common for Christians to live life as we pleased, took things for granted. But what IF, we really understood the situation WITHOUT Jesus Christ? would we then know how to appreciate and cherish this salvation now? ...maybe human life is like a journey of experiencing certain things in order to experience another thing. So the question came to me on that 3rd week was: If one day, I were to stand in front of God, and God were to ask me: "Li Na, why have u taken my Son's blood for granted?" I pray this would not come true for anyone...

 ~ Camp Cameron 2013: Let's live life in God's way~ 

Li Na

8 Aug 2013

Mothers' Day special 2013

Blessed Mother's day ^^ to my wonderful mother who is a teacher, driver, cook, dobi, finance manager, market manager, counselor, best friend...which also can be a weather and an aeroplane (quote from brothers)..many times, things were taken for granted but the Lord sees the many suffering and sacrifices made. so, Thank you much much and sorry~ May the Lord bless all mothers too (or yet to be mums)! ^ ^

Sunday school teaching of genuine pearls was really an eye-opening moment. A real pearl takes years to form and is of high value compared to cultured pearls. The process is due to the secretion of calcium carbonate and conchiolin of a mollusk. This illustration by Teacher Michelle is used to relate how mothers prayed and cried with flowing tears so that her children would grow up to be great man and women of God.

After the teaching, all students will proceed to their respective classes for art and craft. Today, my class (age 4-5) made paper flowers. All was well until photo session, one of my student (still having fever since yesterday) did not want to participant and wanted to run out from the class but was held up until we end the class without the session. Then, he came back because he wanted to stick up his attendance on the scoring board (proudly to say, he has the highest scores). At the same time, he threw his flower into the classroom's dustbin, which I picked up without him knowing. He then stares at the scoring board for a long time until his parents came to see him. Not wanting to move his hand to stick up, I helped him to stick, and surprised him by passing him back his flower to give to his mother. Stubbornly, He rejected when I asked him to give, but his mum looked at it and stretched out her hands to accept the flower instead. Then, that little boy started to cry. Although I may not know what is he thinking or feeling, but it took me a while to remember a song "Above All":

Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

Human as fail as rose, being thrown, damaged, trampled, not in a good condition, unworthy etc...still there is a God who looked at us and smile, saying: "It does not matter. I still want you because I love you".
 

ps: No wonder the Lucifer got jealous...if only Lucifer remembers God too, loved him because He created him.

A Letter to Dr Salfarina

Good day Dr,

First of all, I would like to take this chance to thank you for the opportunity given. May my personal  opinion about your class SIM4208 E-commerce be of help in the time to come.

After the passing of week 10, I am literally half alive because it was not easy to develop a full e-commerce system in less than 10 weeks with maximum involvement of members. However, I recalled back my previous semesters where I did three dynamic websites with zero knowledge of html, and I finished it in time!

Technically speaking, developing this e-commerce website should not be a big deal since I have experienced the worst. Still, I wonder why was it so hard? Now that my thoughts are clearer, I guess most of the challenges are mainly my personal problems. Despite having the least credit hours compared to my previous semesters, I realized my final semester has been very messed up. I am sort of losing my momentum of doing things efficiently and finding it hard to maintain my focus on my studies. Last time during my free time, I was able to focus on getting things done, but now, I tend to take things slowly and less productive in what I do. I would not denial that there are times I kinda dozed off in class and unaware of the lecture given.Sorry XD... At the same time, as time passes, I guess my learning capabilities seems to be reducing too? Guess that's the sign of aging catching up on me...?


In reality, I realized the performance drop myself and it is a very scary thought to face. However, with God's help, I believe anything in life (ups or downs, good or bad) has a good reason why it happens, only God knows. ^ ^

As a human development student, I am really enjoyed interactive classes where lecturers are trying their best to make teaching and learning interesting. There are also times where such effort and sacrifices are not appreciated and I can't do anything about it. Without real experience or putting ourselves into your shoes, I guess we, students will not really understand how is the life of a lecturer; taking up multiple roles such as mother, daughter, wife, educator and many others. Therefore, I apologies for the times where I became insensitive to your condition or situation. Nevertheless, thank you very much for all the unseen effort and time you made for the class. May the Lord bless you and your family! ^ ^

my story

Greetings to Dr Salfarina , my SIM4208 E-commerce Lecturer.

Thank you for this opportunity to restart my blog after 3 years. Let me introduce myself.

My given name is Li Na. Born on the ninth month of year 1989 in The Land Below The Wind. Years ago, my dad flew from Kuching, Sarawak to meet my mum at Kota Kinabalu. It is in a company named Articargo, where they first met each other and was deeply in love with one another. <3 That is how I came about~ along with two other "monkeys".

So after i was born, my parents moved from a small shop-house to a double-story corner house besides the hill. During my early childhood, I remember running around half naked with the chickens and dogs, watching how the black chicken laid her egg standing, listening to the shout of my mum chasing after the horses of the hillside from eating up all her vegetables on the fence. Occasionally, there will be rare animals such as baby mountain piglets and huge snakes appear in the yard, ready to be cook by mum...yummy~ During rainy days, I will be looking out of the balcony glass door into the flooded pouch, hoping that the rain would stop to allow my dad to come home safely. After my first brother was born, my dad was suddenly diagnosed with a tumor in between the brain and the eyes and was send to KL hospital for operation.

Alone in the hospital wad, he made friends with people with the same kind of diseases. Some stayed for years, waiting for their turn for doctors to operate, others just wouldn't last even a night, a shriek shout of pain and you know you wont be seeing him anymore...Angel of death was roaming the place I guess. When all hope seems lost, my dad remembers a god named Jesus, who can do ALL THINGS, even raise people from the dead! so he prayed a simple prayer, saying if this Jesus does exist and can save him from this suffering, he will follow and believe in Him for the rest of his life. Truly, the next day, a doctor arrived from US came towards my dad and choose to perform his surgery on him. Praise God! Now my dad no longer felt any excruciating headaches, and is pink in health ever since. With that, our lives was never the same; going to church every week, meeting new people, care of one another, learn how to see things through God's eyes in hard times..etc, was a whole new perspective of life.

Little did I know God has amazing plan for us. In 1996,  my dad's company relocated us from Land Below The Wind to the Land of the Hornbills and on the same year, my youngest brother was born. As we stayed there for 4 years, i get to know more of my father's family. Dad has a twin sister, an elder brother, a younger sister and two more bothers. my cousins are basically almost the same age as me and we grew up having many memories together, even until now. Kuching is a wonderful, serene place to be. Time moves slow and steady as the people woke up early to prepare breakfast and go for work. School was awesome, my first school was SJK(C)4th 1/2 mile, then it got burn down, so they relocate the students to SJK(C)7th mile. Then, my dad found another house next to grandpa's house, so again, I was relocated to SJK(C)Chung Hua 6. The best thing about moving schools is having your friends to give u gifts to remember them. But slowly I understood that it was more than just gifts, its the good memories of playing A,E,I,O,U, going to the dentist or taking jab together in the nurse's office, compete who can write the fastest with the person sitting besides u...so i learn how to read and write better and wrote many letters to some of my close friends classmate. However, the hope to keep in touch never lasted...

In mid 2000, I was in primary 5 when i got another news to migrate to a school SJK(C)Han Ming at Puchong, KL. My last primary school where pokemon seems to be the school's syllabus. Everyone was so into it; bags, stickers, eraser, pencil, games etc, everywhere! I remember a friend who sat next to me in class, and bully me whenever he can so i will chase him all around the school. Then, when my teacher asked why am i so sweaty, my other classmate will explain and nicknamed us to a couple's name, but that teacher was kind, she defended me...that's where I realized I have to stop playing as my result was not improving. Then, in primary 6, I got into the first class, no more fooling around. UPSR was just around the corner and at the end, i only got an A for English.

Moving to secondary school, SMK BandarKinrara1 is where i made 3 good friends. We laughed and played, and shared each others life. Catherine's and Pui Mun house was very near the school, so staying back seems to be my hobby. Uncle bus was very kind too, he became my only god-father who chat and asked me about my religion. There is once I was late and the bus was no longer there. I almost cried when he came back after realizing I was missing. but slowly his business grew big and i seldom sees him anymore. Wonder how is he...

The hardest part for a kid at that age is adaptation, and it seems that my migrating life has not stop. During my Form 2, my dad received news that DHL is placing my dad to Penang gateway. So, my Form 3 years was spend in SMK Bukit Gambir. It was a shock to be in that school. Learning to let go my friendship was very hard but my Form 3 was fun because a no-straight A's student like me, get to experience to be the top student for the school! And they reward well too~ At the same time, participating in a Young Enterprise with the Form 4 people. Moving to Form 4, I was known as anjing laut, and we have many other animals in the class...Ajeerah is the landak, Hibri as Pingu, Azri the jin, Liyana as lalat, Atikah as tikus, Mirosha as the sheep, Amirul as primate, Daniel as the frog etc...4 Satria was a zoo! haha...we learn to mixed around and learn from each other in class thats where we got closer in Form 5.

After Form 5, everyone went on to their separate ways. I choose to continue my Form 6 at Penang Free School alone, enrolled into biology class, meeting and making new friends again. I got to know a Ciṟiya paiyaṉ named Mahendra. A talkative guy, Chong Ken, Gana the tigger, Kenneth, my admire, Chiew Tyinn the panda, China the scarry, WanTing and TTN, Christopher, Moses, QiWei, Kyle and Debby and others more...Form 6 was filled with excitement; drove out for movies, played in the beach, played badminton in class etc..STPM seems so far and distanced from our final years of school...but we give our 101% when it comes to tuition.LOL...I just love Mr Sim's chemistry class. He used to work in the forensic department and now choose to follow his passion to teach form 6. Effective teaching materials, and the fee is very affordable, therefore his class is always full. Most important, he teaches using his heart and he remembers EVERY STUDENT'S name! Really thank God for him and for helping getting a B+ in my STPM.

After STPM, I managed to work as a kindergarten teacher near my brother's school and was able to arrange transport according to our time perfectly; saving two birds with one stone! Then after 3 months, I was accepted into UPM in a double major course: Human Development and IT. Now, I'm in my final year, final semester. Looking back to my university life, God had it all planned; to be part of KMR's MTM, participated in ICED, Minggu Akademik, taking part as UPM's Facilitator to impact juniors' live, being the EXCO of IKUPM for 3 years (P&C, CGC and Secretary)...all the wonderful memories will forever stays in my heart. Although it is sad to let go, but at the same time, i am looking forward for my next adventure ahead with God! ^ ^

Life

Looking at all the smiles made me realized how precious each and every moment of life is. Once in Ambassador For Christ,serumpun CG, Sheryl Chong Sook Ann,the CGL, asked:"what is life?" and my answer is : life is what you make of it. Ponder upon those word, I looked back of how God has lead me since 2009. I entered UPM with the new and fresh expectation. Many USM graduates i know from Excel Point Community Church told me that University life is the best! I was very excited and prayed for the plans God has for me. Selecting of course wasn't easy then, at the same time, i was involve in a Youth Leadership Advance Program for Sabah Mission trip 2009. so i placed teaching as the top few and UPM was 6 out of 8 of my choice. Then the offer letter came and i didn't get what i expected, despite attended the interview at USM.But im glad to be in Universiti Putra Malaysia ^^

a flight to remember...

26th Feb 2011.
The day of excitement as i'm skipping 7 classes and taking my flight to KUCHING,SARAWAK!!!again!
After programing class,11.30am my parents came and picked me up.
We arrived at the airport around 12.10pm. LCCT is huge now, and dad drove off to park the car. At 12.30pm, me, my mum and bro finally found the check-in counter. While waiting for my dad to come,i went and look around. i realized there weren't many place to sit, and the place is filled with people rushing with luggage and baggages. For me, taking airplane has been a routine kind of thing that i faced every CNY. as routine can cause us to loss our guard and unaware of the time i wasted rooming around, i checked my watch, 1.25pm...
"Flight AK5220 departure 1350pm. OPss? still have less than an hour! and where is dad??? he hasn't check-in YET! should we leave without him?? Mum wants to stay behind to wait 4 him?! I have to bring my bros to broad? Mum! Dad! Oh GOD! 1.40pm. ~dong dong dong dong~Paging for Alexandrea Sim Li Na................Please be at gate 11 as ur flight to kuching is leaving in 2 mins. 1.45pm...tick tock...

What should i do?go aboard without mum and dad? or wait...?hoW!!? Lord! help us!!! " what will u do?....
i plead with the officer. but she was heartless. The gate was closed, that indian lady locked it! leaving 3 little hopeless students standing around aimlessly.
When faith starts to say 'just believe in Me', i saw just the hope i need. 2 old couple running! without thinking much, we took our things and start calling the officer! Thank God, she helped us. Using all the strength, all 7 of us (including another 2 late comer ) ran to the big plane. We find our spots and sat down. after discussing what took my dad so long, we praise God for the arrangement and what had just happened. Supposedly the bus driver ignored my dad's request and did not make the early stop, we would surely miss the flight. First time ever, the latter silent in the comfortably small cabin, only God knows how grateful we are for the blessing He poured in our life.

Wishing upon the stars

…as I looked upon the stars, it reminds me that how awesome is He who never leave me nor forsake me.

Thursday 2^nd Sept 2010

To be honest, no one wants feel lonely. This temptation attacked when most of my course mate went home for the Raya break on Thursday (2^nd Sept 2010) and I was forced to stay back for IK EXCO retreat on next Monday (6^th). After receiving a message from Ming Luan that she wanted to meet up to check out Sanggar 12 for our KMR Pesta TangLung, Chris offered us my ticket out for the night; Dinner at Cheras Pasar Malam along with MeiYin, Susan, Jake, ChuanYi. The place was filled with various food and snacks. Me n Ming budgeted rm20 each to spend for the night and we shared and ate to our hearts content. Little did I know, there are consequences to bear. After the wonderful fellowship with my juniors, I went back to have my bath at11pm. That’s where I saw the writing ‘Ada tangan dari lubang’… A few hours later, I began to feel uneasy and my stomach started to bloat. Ignoring the symptoms, I went to sleep. Until 4am in the morning, I rushed to the toilet to empty my stomach content. Then, I know I’m facing my worst nightmare- food poisoning.

On Friday morning, toilet break woke me up at 10am. As planned, I need to go K12 office to pass up my booking form for Sanggar 12. At the same time I needed to go PKU to get some medicines. But later I found out that I still need to go back KMR to get another letter for Pengetua K12 if I were to settle the booking b4 the holidays. What a mess! Thankfully, the Lord provided me the necessary hope and strength. I was able to settle the letter b4 1pm. Next I went to PKU. Caring little Chris was there with his whole gang to check on me before they take their bus to go home. May God repay and bless you all^^. After the check up, Chris brought me back to hostel and I slept silently. At 8pm, I woke up to finish up my left over lunch. Making my way to the toilet again, I locked my room and suddenly, cold sweat rush to my head and losing my vision, I struggle to stand. I had this once in form 5 but this time I’m all alone. As I struggled to standup, a thought came to me and told to lift my leg to lead on the wall to allow blood flow into my brain. I did what was said and, Instantly, I regain my vision. Throughout the night I tried to occupy my mind with things such as movies to help reduce the loneliness. Later, I called home but my mom was at children’s retreat. I chatted with Bryon and hang up.

On Saturday, I was much better. To my surprise, the fan is not working! My laptop can’t turn on! NO ELECTRICITY! Oh God! What a good technique to chase students out of campus.

Until 2pm I endure the heat. And finally God answered my prayer! Later that night, I attended ChangeYourWorld at 6pm in Sunway Conventional with ChengYee, WanYen, SiaoErn and her sis. Y.B. Hannah Yeoh was with us that night. I was inspired of how she can continue to shine for Christ even in politic. To know there is hope is life. I learned that we as Christian should speak life into others, parents shouldn’t discourage their children to join politic, and they can just be our future prime minister! There is opportunity to still change our country, so don’t leave Malaysia just yet…

Sunday I felt bad again. The nausea and diarrhea came back after having milk. I was physically weak and it affects my spiritual walk with God too. Later then, my mum called me and checked on me. She told and advised me on what I should do. Never thought how much I missed her and eventually forgot the remedy to cure my sickness. I thank God for my mother. Love you so so much!!! After hanging up with her, I felt the loneliness again. Knowing I need to do something before bed, I decided to write down the promises of God to remind me of His greatness.

It’s MONDAY! 8am I was all ready to go. Joanne smsed and offered my ride to FBMK so I no need to take UPM bus. I enjoyed the time with Joanne, Stephanie, Christine and Ian. They are so much fun to be with. At 1030am we left UPM and set off to GohTong Jaya. I get to know that it is not easy for Yoke Ling, who starts to serve in FES after her studies in Australia with her sister, as her parents was against it. She has been a blessing to many and I’m glad that she responded to God’s call and is here in IKUPM. Blessings!

We arrived at noon at our destination for lunch. It’s the same place I came for EaglePoint retreat last year around the same season. What a coincidence! We had durian ice cream and cakes but I only took 2 pieces of cold, sweet durian cakes even in my unrecovered condition! Haha! Next, we check-in in Dominic Villa which is a beautiful house of God. It is comfortable and just nice for a retreat. There were a total of 17 of us. 13 girls (Step, Sherly, Joanne, WanMei, MeiYee, Grace, SweShyan, YL, Christine, HeuyLin, Me, ChiowYin n Eliza) and 4 guys(Peter,Ian,CM,Eugene). And it is only RM10 per night. (Excluding meals; vary from RM3 to RM10.) Overall, from the retreat I realized God wanted me to let go of my parents. You may be wondering what I meant by letting go. It means not putting them as first in my life. How do I know it’s from God? Well, it took me some time to recall the verse from

Luke 14:26-27 (New International Version)
²⁶"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Knowing I have God who gave me everything (including my parents) while I’m nothing, I will learn to do as told! As long as I have Him, there is nothing to worry. My favourite promises is in Proverbs 3

- ⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

That evening, while I was sitting with SweShyan on the bus back to Penang, I looked upon the dark sky filled with millions of bright lights. Thinking to myself, God is awesome as He made the earth so wonderful, and I’m alive now because He saved me from that blackout! I am home now because I still have a home. I was alone and He sent me wonderful people. How little lights can make such a big difference... as I looked upon the stars, it will reminds me forever that how awesome is He who never leave me nor forsake me EVER!