Find Rest O My Soul In God Alone

The passage allocated for our prayer slot tmr night is Psalm 62. "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him... Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation;..." Amazing passage with promises of God's dependency and love. Little did I know that God had more in store for me... I have been singing my current favourite song from the new album by NCC.

My soul finds rest in You my Jesus
My hiding place amid the storm
In pastures green You lead me down to lie
By waters still I shall abide
By waters still I shall abide

I shall not fear in times uncertain
I shall not look to my own strength
Into Your hands I place my hopes and plans
My trust is in the blood of the Lamb
My trust is in the blood of the Lamb

A crown of thorns pierced through Your temple
The blood that flowed took all my cares
What price You paid, what sacrifice You made
My life in Yours, Jesus my rest
My life in Yours, Jesus my rest

Just realised that the title of the above song is no other than "My Rest". Have been looking to God for a particular focus for the new year, and it is by no coincidence that this word "rest" kept recurring. At first, I rationalised that it would be difficult to rest in 2007, especially at Hope, since our rest period is only for 2006. I thought that I should instead gear up for much hard work again. Upon deeper pondering, I realised that it's precisely because of many activities that I need to be reminded constantly to rest assured in God alone. The verses in Psalm 62 echo my heart cries to God and I so desire to trust in Him at all times and not fret about things. God knows me so well, and He is drawing my attention to Him.

Gifts_Worship

Received many, many presents from my friends this Christmas. Feeling so blessed and loved. Hee. =)
Actually, there are a couple more gifts that are still in office.

One of the gifts I received is NCC's latest worship CD, from Jing. Love it very much and have been playing the CD over and over again over the past few days. Already found some favourites from that 1 album =) Meaningful, worshipful, crooning songs that express our heartcries to God. Definitely recommend it to anyone who's game to listen.

Still on topic of worhip, today, had our worship practice with Ian, Ken and Ben. It is in preparation for PL's 75-hr worship and prayer which will commence on 29Dec and stretch into the new year. Hope's scheduled 1-hr slot is at 0000-0100hrs on 30Dec. Unearthly hour, but definitely gonna be exciting. Ian chose many "power" worship songs and we had such a great time practising and worshipping just now. Indeed we can expect such a close encounter with the Lord on 30Dec!

Of Compassionate and Vacation Leaves

Was just reading e various blogs of friends to keep abreast of what's happening in their lives. Have been rather out of touch with everyone the past weeks. Some happenings on the homefront.

My Ah Gong was admitted to hospital 2 Sats back due to lung infection and he passed on the next day. My family was therefore very busy with the wake and the various arrangements to be made. We also took turns to stay over for the nights. I was there most of the day and till late at nights. Very tiring period. However, I was very touched that many friends came, especially the many Hope friends. Frankly, I wasn't expecting so many many of you! Thank you :) Pastor KL also came after WIN on Tue.

The timing couldn't be more inopportune as my family, together with my aunt and uncle had booked a tour to depart on Tue! Although we had bought our travel insurance, I did not know that the insurance covered for such cancellation. So I was very busy contacting the travel agency to postpone the trip, and checking with all involved on their available dates, penalty charges etc. A lot of uncertainty loomed over us for a few days as we tried to settle the trip and stuff. Was indeed a very trying period for me as I did most of the coordination. Then we found out that insurance could actually be claimed for the cancellation charages we faced, but alas, we had changed the insurance date based on the new travel dates! And it was too late to cancel the trip totally with the travel agency. So more calls to make to the insurance company to request to revert the dates etc. Were asked to write in for case-by-case consideration. So gotta get down to doing this now. All the admin coordination was a nightmare and I felt that I was shouldering most of these responsibilities for the family.

After the funeral proceeding was over, we had to quickly prepare for the trip and we were off on Sun morning. Although it was only a 5 day tour, it felt like a very long trip. Not sure why, but was glad to be back this morning. Maybe it felt like an "obligation" trip since we had not known that we could be covered by the original insurance. But I thank God that we had gone ahead cos it was a time to spend with family, despite the little bickers and annoyance that we sometimes felt with each other.

We went to Central Japan - Tokyo. Itinery consisted of Tokyo Disneyland, Mt Fuji, Hotspring among other things. One of the highlights for me was experiencing the onsen (hotspring) where everyone had to strip naked to enjoy the onsen (of course, guys and gals separate lah). Nevertheless, being chinese ah, we were rather shy about this. Was wondering how to get round this, and my sis-in-law and I had this brilliant idea to rush to the onsen the moment we arrived at the hotel, just 30mins before dinner. We figured that few pp will choose to go at that time. And we were right! :) We had the whole place to ourselves. Ha, just the 2 of us. Indeed its an experience worth having, the water was really hot and it felt relaxing in the pool. I heard from my mom that the place was super crowded after dinner when all the hotel guests thronged there after dinner.







At a plush expressway toilet

At Mt Fuji 5th station

In the Yukata garb

I was a little uptight at the Disneyland cos we had 4 grownups (parents + uncle and aunt) who probably did not enjoy the rides fully. And it didn't feel right to leave them to their own device while my bro, sis-in-law and I went around, so gotta compromise, and they tagged along with us, though at a slower pace. We spent much time queuing and by the time we figured to use the fastpass facility, the fastpass timing that was allocated was too late in the night and we couldn't stay till then. Oh well, I took about 9 rides, including the really kiddy ones like Jumbo, teacup etc. =) Deprived childhood, they say. Oh, another thing I noticed about the Japs, they really do bother to dress up to enjoy their day out at Disneyland. The Disney character hair clips and head gear was a sellout! Many youngsters had on something on their head. I finally gave in to temptation to join in. Got myself and sis-in-law 2 pairs of hair clips. And I started to relax after putting on the clips! =O And the clips stayed on for the whole night!

Actually, there are many other things to thank God for:
1. group size was comfortable (28 of us as opposed to 35+ in the original tour group)
2. nice, friendly, personable tour guide
3. tour was conducted in both english and mandarin such that my relatives could comprehend
4. good weather so that we could go to the 5th station at Mt Fuji
5. good meals, nice accomodation
6.5day instead of 7day trip cos I was beginning to feel unwell at the end of the stay
7.opportunity to interact with sis-in-law and to know her better
8. family time, especially with uncle and aunt
9. safe trip

On comparing this trip with the Shanghai one last year, think I prefer the China one as there were many scenic spots covered, and the history is soooo rich. I remember blogging that I begin to appreciate Chinese idioms a lot more during that trip, whereas in Japan, we learn more about the culture and practices. Of course, the tradeoff is that for China tour, we were brought to many factories to listen to salesman talks. Also, Japan is a much cleaner country. You know what, Japanese are trained from young not to litter. They are taught to bring their rubbish home to throw since dustbins are not so commonly found. Sgp has much to learn!

Touched down at 1+am this morning and slept only at 3am. Am now unpacking and downloading the pics. Thank God for 1 more day of leave today cos I wouldn't have survived in office with the little sleep. Okay now, got to spend the weekend preparing for work next week. Sigh. But of course, there is Christmas to look forward to :) Our cell is combining with Aihui's to organise a Christmas party. Yes, gotta start inviting colleagues to come...