Tsunami Aid Day

Dear all,

We are organizing a ‘Tsunami Aid Day’ to collect Tsunami Relief Funds. This event will be held at Grace Methodist Church Sentul basketball court next Saturday, January 8, 2004, from 3pm till 7pm. This drive will be done up with a bazaar/carnival/flea market type of setting but its motives are strictly for raising awareness and collecting funds, clothing, food, toys etc. for victims of the Tsunami in Myanmar and Thailand. There will be food and music during the event, a powerpoint presentation on the tragedy that has taken place and other activities as well. With the recent tsunami event, they are calling out for funds from all over the world, so we are given the opportunity to do our bit as well, it may not be much, but every little effort at this moment counts.

We invite and encourage you to come and play a part in making this happen. We hope to invite you, as you represent someone from our social circle of family, relatives, friends, church members etc. We hope this email finds you well and hope that you will come join us next Saturday as well as spread the word and encourage others to join you as well. Although both Bangsar Lutheran Church and Grace Methodist Church are collaborating on this project in conjunction with World Vision, we do assure you that this isn’t a church event but is open to anyone and everyone. At this point when life is so fragile, there should not be racial or religious barriers but we should celebrate life together. We already have friends who are of different races and religions joining us and we hope you do too.

Thank you for your time reading this email. We hope this initiative can be shared with you and your family and friends too. The reason we are conducting this event is so all of us can dedicate a few hours of our time to the victims and survivors of this incident. Rather than just giving the money or dropping of clothes, we hope to go a bit further to acknowledge this tragedy and the lives lost. Also, it is a time to appreciate our lives and the fact that we were not the ones directly affected.

This has been our call to action and we hope it spurs you to do your part as well. Thank you again and hope to hear from you! If you need more information and details, feel free to email us for it!

Best regards,
Wong Chin Hor & Jochebed Jayasooria - chinhor@gmail.com

End of 2004 (Taken from Flowerpot John)

As we go through the last day of 2004, I look back at the year and smile and sigh at the same time... there were good times, and bad times..... for me the best and the worst happened in December.... my wedding to SS was in December.... and the biggest natural disaster in South East Asia in 40 years happened in the form of an earthquake off the western Sumatran coast, causing tsunami tidal waves crashing into coastal cities and islands, killing, to date, almost a hundred thousand lives..... happiness and sadness, opposites ... yet the existance of one causes the other to be less impactful.....

One thing I learn from all these..... life cannot be taken for granted or taken too lightly.... there is meaning in life... we have to find it quick, lest you feel that life is not worth living.... as for me, I found meaning in being a family member of Jesus Christ, whom have called me to be adopted into His family... and I thank God I found the purpose of life.... or else, I will be questioning very harshly "how can all these happen?"

So go, look for the meaning in life, I have found it, you may want to look in the same direction... it's up to you..... God bless you in your search....Happy New Year!!!

LIFE Group Evaluation

Last Wednesday was interesting for Giving Tree LIFE Group..... we had our annual evaluation. Basically, we did a lot of sharing about the experiences we had in the LIFE Group and in BLC in the year 2004. As we come to a close for the year, we thank God that He has brought us this far... and we look forward to many more exciting adventures!!!

We met for dinner and discussion (D&D) at the Bangsar McDonald's.

Don't know if it's premature to share, so I'll stick to my personal impressions of the meeting....

As we look back at how far we've come throughout the year, I realise that at the beginning of the year (1st Q), I was very into Bible Study...

1. Did a Long Distance course on the Old Testament with London School of Theology (stopped due to no time);
2. Did "See Through the Scriptures" by Harry Wendt with BLC;
3. Went on a Bible study with Giving Tree from Genesis to Deuteronomy.....

That made me grow a lot personally in my Bible knowledge and my personal walk with God as I go through His Word....

"GROWTH" - that's how I would characterise my Q1;

Secondly, as we continued into Q2 and Q3, I realise that I have become closer to my fellow LG members as we continued to share our thoughts and experiences with one another on issues we discussed or on topics covered by our Bible studies......

Q4 was very busy for me and SS as we prepared for our last minute stuff for our wedding in December. We had so much help from our LG members and from BLC members.... I felt that we were ONE BIG FAMILY preparing for a happy occassion .... I felt very blessed indeed as I saw how everyone helped with enthusiasm and joy in their eyes..... thank you so much, BLC for all your help and prayer support.... SS and I thank you soooo much!

That is an overview of how the LG evaluation made me reflect on my own life as well.....

Christmas @ the Father's House 2004

the Father's House Door Xmas 2004

A big round of applause for those who set the atmosphere for BLC's Christmas season. We'll kind of wrap up the year this Saturday 25th December at 6pm at the Father's House. Much to give thanks to God for!

Let's imagine we're wrapping up the whole year into a present and offer it to God as our gift.

Dress code: if possible .. anything red, green and white.

Bringing hopeful joy

To round off a wonderful Sunday, BLC-ians, in greater force, flocked to Rumah Hope, a home for abused and abandoned children, for a Christmas party organized by Rev. Augustine Mutusamy. The buzz in the Good Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church was electric to say the least. The kids there were up and jumping, bubbling with enthusiasm and generated more energy than us adults! :) I'm not gonna blog here saying the usual things people say after a 'feel good' experience. However, I must say after observing some of these children, that they were very very mature kids. There were those among them who had this certain glow about them, a certain look or talk. It was just amazing to see that in them at that age. Made me feel proud of them even! This one was truly for the children. Hope, we did not have to bring. These children have that in them, along with other great attributes. What we as a church were thankful to be given the opportunity to give back to them was - JOY. Amen to that.


BLC goof-offs and our very own Indiana Santa! ;)


BLC-ian Indiana Joo, our Santa for the Xmas season, bringing out smiles and instilling excitement all around!


The boys couldn't wait for what was in store for them.


Neither could the girls!


Kar Kit and his fellow chaps.


BLC's very own kiddies - Kirsten and Adam joining in the fun with the Hope kids.

Christmas Caroling @ MPH Midvalley

BLC was invited by MPH to carol at 2 of their outlets - Midvalley last Sunday and Bangsar Village this coming Sunday. It was a very nice gesture and a wonderful opportunity for BLC to go out in the open and sing carols in public, at a place where people are more concerned about earthly desires and materials. Although traffic on Sundays are chaotic and nearly hindered 2 BLC-ians from joining the caroling, the show did go on just 15 mins later than scheduled :) The response was good and it was nice to see all those practices we put in bear fruit! Portions of the curious watching crowd responded by singing along, a few clapped but the most important thing was the seed we planted that evening. We pray God will sow that seed. Here are some of the better photos from that evening (my camera was not set at the right ISO, so the pics taken by the photographer were a lil blur safe for these few).


This is the best picture I have from that evening, Kirsten, daughter of our resident Aussies, the Berrys, leading our caroling and actions.


BLC-ians in action! :)


Spreading the joy and true Christmas spirit!


Me and James nearly missed it! *phew* We made it just on time. Rev. Sivin led us that evening, and led us well he did! ;)