TNT-Cell

Saturday, March 31, 2007

2:38 PM

G'day mates! Haha. I just got back from Downunder! It was a fantastic holiday and I'm missing Gold Coast already!

Actually, I just want to share with you guys about an experience I had in Brisbane the first day I arrived. I actually flew to Brisbane 2 days earlier than my friends so that I could visit and bunk in with an old secondary schoolmate who's currently studying there. Her name's Lena, by the way.

So anyway, before I fill you in with the details on what happened, I'll share with you some of my prayers for this holiday. Like most of you would, I prayed for journey mercy, God's hand of protection to be upon me, and for my friends and I to have a wonderful first-time vacation without any parents there with us.

So now to cut the long story short, when I arrived, Lena met me at the airport and told me that that night, she'd be going clubbing with her friends to celebrate one of their birthdays, and invited me to come along. I met several of her friends throughout the day, and found that they weren't the kind of people I would usually hang around with - so interacting with them was a little difficult. For starters, they were a pretty wild bunch (or what we call 'happening'), and I also soon found out that all of them smoke. It was really hard for me to get along well with them, and constantly breathing in second-hand smoke didn't make things any easier either.

That night, after an entire day of persistent persuasion from everyone, I agreed on joining them for their clubbing session. By this time, I was already feeling way out of my comfort zone since I didn't know anyone and clubbing wasn't my kind of scene. I was already on the brink of tears! Silently, I kept asking God why did my vacation start off like this, and I started questioning whether or not He was really protecting me and keeping me safe.

At around 11pm, we headed for our first club of the night. It was called Friday's, and when we arrived there, I felt like a fish out of water. If any of you have been to clubs in Singapore, nightlife in Brisbane is way wilder in every sense - their dressing, language, actions, everything you could think of. All her friends seemed to fit in really well, and started drinking, downing shooter after shooter, and bopping to the music. I tried to enjoy myself and act as though everything was fine, and had a couple of drinks with them, thinking that it would be all over before I knew it.

But NO. At around 1am, we headed to a second nightclub, and they had even more drinks. By that time, I was feeling really terrible. I didn't like what I was experiencing at all. I kept uttering short prayers under my breath, but deep inside I was still doubtful to whether God was really there with me.

We soon headed to our third nightclub called The Family. This club was by far the worse of all. Picture a nightclub located in a dingy alley in the red light district, walls made of bricks - exposed and unpainted, and the entrance dimly lit with a couple of spotlights. Then you see a stream of people outside the club, some waiting to get in, some drunk and staggering about, some vomiting at the sidewalk. Yeah, that was exactly what I saw. I thought it could not get any worse, but the moment I entered the club, it was nothing like I ever felt or imagined. The club was horribly dark, and the only source of light was from the strobe lights coming from the dance floor. The music was deafening and the inside was crammed full of people, and everyone was touching me and pushing me aside as they squeezed past to get in and around. At that moment, I lost Lena and her group of friends, and frantically walked around to find them. And to add to my moment of misery, the nightclub was 3 storeys high. Thankfully, I found them downstairs near the bar. I sat myself down on one of the chairs and by then, I felt too scared and miserable to even breathe a prayer. I started crying and soon Lena realized it. I told her I wanted to go back first, so she brought me out, got a cab for me, and gave me the keys to her apartment.

Inside the cab, I kept crying and sniffling, and thinking about how awful the night was. I was upset that God didn't seem to intervene and make the situation better. The cab driver then turned around to ask me whether I was hurt, and I told him I wasn't. He started consoling me and assuring me that he'd take care of me and get me home safely. When we arrived outside Lena's apartment, he stopped his cab and told me he'd chat with me for awhile to make sure I was alright. While he spoke, I absentmindedly touched the back of my blouse. When I looked at my hand, I saw brown disgusting vomit smeared all over my palm and fingers. I started wailing and crying and I told him that someone puked on my back without me realizing it. He hushed me and cleaned my blouse, then walked me up to my apartment, went inside, and waited while I got changed. He sat me down and told me that the nightclub I went into was one of the worst in the area - it's located in the red light district, and they even had gay nights on certain sundays. They sold alcohol and DRUGS at dirt cheap prices and he said he wouldn't be surprised if my friends were into drugs. Before he left, he told me never to go back there again and even left me his email address so that I can contact him when I return back to Singapore.

So that was how my first night in Brisbane went. Awfully thrilling, isn't it? Actually, apart from sharing this experience with you guys, I also wanted to share some of my thoughts on it. Remember I told you what I prayed for before arriving in Brisbane? I asked God to keep me safe. And praise God that He did. Somehow, inspite of whatever that has happened, I've realized that God was in the midst of it all. He was there to protect me, keep me safe from harm, and make sure I wasn't hurt, I wasn't drugged, and best of all, He sent me such a sincere and compassionate cabbie to encourage and take care of me when I was at my lowest. I could have been picked up by any cab driver, and anything could have happened to me in the cab since I was alone in a foreign land. But God didn't allow it to happen. This is truly a testimony of thanksgiving and praise, and an assurance that surely He keeps His promise, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

Praise Him!

~ Victoria.

+ AMEN

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

3:43 PM

Hi all,

some of you may be in the midst of having to make a certain decision/s right now and I do hope the following will be of use to you. You do not have to attend all the sessions; I will be attending the first session this sat. It should take place at about 2pm. Do get back to me asap if you are interested in attending the workshop.

Love in Christ

Rachel

Content

Session 1: Sorting Out the Majors
A. What are your talents and gifts? How can you utilise them in church and at work/school?
B. How can you find out God's Will for your life?
C. How can you identify job scopes/courses of study that capture you?

Session 2 (bring your laptop): Practical Tips to Beat the Crowd
A. Timelines to getting a job
B. Resume clinic
C. Consulting someone about your job

Session 3: Spiritual Impacts of Your Transition
A. How transitions affect your spiritual landscape.
B. Establishing your connectedness

Session 4: Entering the Workplace
A. Interviewing skills
B. Rebels with a cause - How Christians should behave at work
C. Workplace Evangelism

+ AMEN

Thursday, March 15, 2007

10:20 AM

+ AMEN

Thursday, March 08, 2007

9:25 AM

dear all

do hope all's been well! would like to share my favourite verse with you this week, Lamentations 3:21. it has been a great source of comfort and refreshing and everytime I re-read it, it speaks of something different, addresses yet another need on the inside and I find hope and strength to move on. This Sunday, lets look to God with thanks and gratitude - by this I find it relevant given the release of the As, coping in camp and in school... As you read this, think about the things you are grateful and thankful for in this life and how it relates to a certain verse in the Bible. It is my prayer that you will meditate on that verse for the rest of this week and that God will speak to you through it as you share on Sunday.

I look forward to seeing you this week :)

in Him
Rachel

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. - Psalm 61:2

+ AMEN

Thursday, March 01, 2007

4:44 PM

hello everybody!

Do hope your week's been good. This week has been an awfully long one for me, or so it feels. Work has been piling both in and out of school and I never like lagging behind schduele. So I was struggling to keep up with work and all and really getting so tired that one evening I broke down during prayer. and then I kept quiet. It is good to be still for the realization hit me almost instantly; the very fact is this, I do not live to work, I do not live for work. I live for Christ.

Thank God for His grace and mercy. While preparing for cell later that day, I came across 1 John 2:28-3:3,

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that every one who does right is born of him. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

One of the overriding concerns that John has in this letter is for Christians to be confident that God is for them now and will be for them forever. God hears our prayers and He listens to our most innermost cries. And through it all, He is working in and through us, all for a greater glory, for His glory. It is tiring when we live for the world, when we look to the world for recognition and love but how different is it when we live for Christ!

There are moments when I question God, moments when I feel I cannot trust. But when I return to Him in prayer, in praise, regardless of my feelings - however depress I am, however frustrated I may be - He is always there. When I abide in Him, I have the confidence to live this life. But our doing what is right and our abiding is Jesus is not the ultimate ground of our confidence—it's an essential signal but it is not the foundation of our confidence. Thank God that the foundation of our confidence is not what we do, but rather the ultimate ground of our confidence is in what God has done for us. When I think of all that God has done for me and what He is planning to achieve in me, I find strength to carry on. I cannot be perfected through the works of my own hand, I cannot be made whole even if the world redeems me. Only in Christ do I find that saving grace and therein is hope for the future.

As you prepare for your exams or await your results or camp out in the fields, may you find strength in this faith we share. It is real and it is powerful for our God is real and powerful. The life we lead as Christian is just as any other life on earth; life is like a sea of bobbing crescents but at the end of the day, we have hope everlasting, a God unchanging, His love unfailing. With these we have more than enough to keep us going until the very end.

And this is my prayer for us : that we who abide in Jesus will experience the confidence that John is writing about; that it will be more than words on a page; that it will be a real experience of the heart.

In His Love
Rachel

+ AMEN