Sunday, January 6, 2008
A Beautiful Fullstop to my Holiday!!!
Yup, my holiday's ending soon, and it ended with lots of organ practices for christmas and year-end service, choir practices, and a sumptous dinner in celebration of our church's 35th anniversary!!! And i tot it was a nice way to end my holiday, because, through these events, i saw and appreciated church unity better. Could sense that we were all united in gratitude to God for preserving our church for 35 years =))
Firstly, I was kinda surprised tat most of the choir members turned up for the extra choir practices for church anniversary =)) Thank God for the sense of commitment He has given to us in our service to Him! Despite the late hours of extra practices, we still made an effort to attend them. Thank God for preserving our voices too. (Got once i ate laksa juz b4 a choir prac...haha) Hope that our items sounded fine, but more importantly, hope that we have sung with the right heart to praise and glorify God, that He may find our service acceptable and glorifying in His sight. 1 Corinthians 10:31 =))
On top of that, the 35th anniversary celebrations were even more meaningful as it was also for Rev Chan's retirement from pastoring the church to do mission work in Thailand. Last Tuesday during prayer meeting, when Rev Chan went up to request prayer for his travels to Thailand for a month, it somehow felt different to me frm the times before when he requested prayer for safety in his travels. This time, although it's only for a month, it felt like he's goin to be gone for a long time before we can meet him again...Maybe it's juz a psychological effect on knowing that he's retiring from being our pastor... His "last words" as our pastor during his sermon at year-end service was especially meaningful, particularly the part where he advised Sunday School teachers. (I guess one's "last words" are usually meaningful and impressionable...) He was saying that bible teachers should dig deep into the Bible to search for quality materials like gold, silver and precious stones to use as the materials to build the foundation based on God's word in the children's lives, instead of using only wood, hay and stubble which can be easily found anywhere (metaphorically). It made me realise that more often than not, I do not spend enough time searching the Scriptures when I prepare to teach in Awana. It's rather last min, and i tend to use a "quick-fix" of juz reading the teaching materials given, instead of looking into the Bible. Perhaps I shd make it one of my resolutions tis year to be more focused in preparing for Awana story-telling, such that the children may learn of the life-changing truths frm God's word, to build the foundation of their lives and character based on God's standards.
As a teacher-to-be in NIE, I have been taught the importance of treating and preparing each lesson seriously (like writing a very super detailed lesson plan). Since school textbook teaching has to be dealt with seriously, what more the teaching of God's truths in the Bible which can change lives? Consider the amount of time and effort that goes into preparing a single 35 min classroon lesson in school, should the preparation in teaching children from the Word of Life and it's far more precious and unchanging truths be any lesser? Furthermore, a lecturer in NIE likes to talk bout this thing called the "multiplier effect". It goes something like, "Every year, about 240 chemistry students go thru you, and if u teach a concept wrongly, 240 students will live in misconception. And what will happen if these 240 students become teachers in future too? How many ppl will now live in misconception? The multiplier effect will apply in the propagation of the misconception....." Since, it is a rather serious matter to teach wrong concepts in school, what more in the teaching of the Bible? Tis might just give heresies the chance to creep in subtly. So, I should dig deeper into the Bible each time instead of juz relying solely on the teaching materials given to prevent myself frm teaching wrong things. Afterall, the teaching materials are written by man and subject to fallibility, but the Bible is written by God, who is infallible! Psalm 19:7, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 =))
Okay, and the anniversary dinner was great too! Had yummy food to end the day of our church's birthday. I remembered someone once preaching on what is the best birthday present to give to the church. And it's undeniably bringing in lost souls since the purpose of starting a church is to win souls to Christ. And if x people each bring a lost soul to Christ as an anniversary bday present for the church, then there'll now be 2x ppl. And during the anniversary next year, if each of the 2x ppl bring a lost soul to Christ as their present to the church, there'll be 4x ppl... and so on.. and the multiplier effect will now apply too, but in a good way. =))
Yup, and it's not impossible to accomplish, if only we all try. Ok, and it's time to sleep now, so good nitey!
(dun ask me why i put Mickey Mouse pic ok??? Reason is bcuz i like Mickey Mouse lor...haha)12:28 AM
Lyna