Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Happy Birthday Gregory!

We celebrated our dear brother Gregory's Birthday last week during cellgroup meeting. It was a special day because it's the first time N116 celebrated for Gregory ever since he came over to this cellgroup. It was a celebration filled with gifts and surprises. Birthday speech giver Janice came prepared with an awesome 'presentation' and a touching speech.


Happy Birthday to you...God's Blessing you now...


Gregory absolutely loves the cake Daniel made for him!


Another super yummy Le Daniel's creation - pear birthday cake - Greg's fav!


And a very touched Gregory giving his biggest hug to Daniel.


Janice is so sweet and thoughful to spend time preparing this wonderful speech for Gregory.


Janice goes on to elaborate her encounter of Gregory on each character. S for being a Sage, W for your warm-heartedness, E for your experiences, E for your enchanting personality, T for your thoughtfulness and S for your spontaneity! One word to sum up Gregory - SWEETS!


The cost of this chart? Priceless...


The perfect gift for a wine lover...


Another gift for Gregory...


Its a nice black polo tee!


Thank you...I love you all! xoxo...

KTV Outing


ET zone had a KTV outing recently. As there are many humble people in our cellgroup who are rather shy to sing out loud, so the attendance from our cell was small. Although there's only 4.5 pax from our side (4 adults and 1 kid), we had fun crooning to all kinds of tunes and making a fool of ourselves occasionally. It was a cozy setting where we had a good time fellowshipping and listening to each other's beautiful vocals at the same time.


Very accurately-timed synchronised pose in this supposedly impromtu shot


Say cheese...


The cozy group


Peanut for you?



Posers wannabe...

Why so formal looking?


That's more like it man!

'Twin sisters' of N116


Meredith and Janice...donch we look alike? Kekeke.... :D

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Our dear Joshua is a year older, but also a year wiser! :)

The birthday 'boy'


The Birthday cake...


What's that?


Its a mini cake with a cute blue motorbike toy and a coconut tree on it! :D

Here's only our part 1 celebration for him, there's part 2 coming soon...so stay tuned..

Friday, May 1, 2009

Zone Outing at Botanical Gardens

We were off to the Botanical Gardens last Sunday after service for a great time of pinic cum telematch with other cellgroups within the zone. It started with a nice weather and some cool breeze. We also had a great pinic under a nice bamboo tree with delicious food from Botak Jones.


Lovely park, nice weather...


The huge bamboo tree we are sitting under...


and the rustling sound of bamboo tree leaves in the background...


Our yummy food from Botak Jones!





Enjoying the pinic...


The sleeping 'prince' (don't know why he's smiling to himself in sleep...)

What a nice environment and weather right? But then things took a turn suddenly and the sky was filled with dark clouds soon. We were getting ready to start our captain's ball when the rain started pouring, so we have no choice but to hurry and seek shelter at a pavillion. We didn't get to play any outdoor games because of this heavy and enduring rain, but we did however get to play an indoor 'telematch', praise God for creative response!

One of the games we played is a theme based one that can start with something like 'the smallest, the biggest or the fastest' and each cellgroup must anticipate what the challenge is and send a representative they think can fulfill it. The challenge is then being revealed after that, such as the smallest feet size, so the representative that has the smallest feet size wins. We won one of the rounds on 'the biggest' theme and guess who we sent? Of course none other than our tallest, hunkiest brother Gavriil! We place our stakes right because the challenge turned out to be 'the biggest biceps', which Gavriil won hands down...and without much effort. :)

Another round we won is with the theme 'the fastest' and so we sent our dear Joy to compete because we thought it's going to be the fastest sms. It turned out to be 'the fastest person to finish drinking a packet drink'! Joy was so 'zai' in this round, check out the cool video below:



Next we played charade, where we won two rounds. Check out a cute video of michele below acting out the phrase in which guessed correctly.



We also played a game where each team has to translate the word 'goodbye' and the team with the most number of translations in different languages wins.


Wrecking our brains to think of saying 'goodbye' in foreign languages.



Our work-in-progress...

Perhaps it's God's will for us that it rained because in the end our cellgroup won the 'indoor telematch'! :P And here's what we got for our prize:


Five $10 vouchers from Ben & Jerry's! Hallelujah!

Ultimately, the most important thing is that everyone had fun despite the heavy rain and we did not let it dampened our spirits. Indeed, we have all obeyed the verse "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24)



N116 group photo...with someone trying to make a funny face :P


The kids had fun too.


Who are they 'bio-ing'?




The loving couple of N116 - Daniel & Shaoqing

Friday, April 24, 2009

Susan Boyle - the hope and courage that the world needs now.



Susan Boyle - one of the 'Britian's Got Talent' contestants (a spinoff from 'America's Got Talent') - is making headline news around the world with her singing; and she's also one of the hottest topics buzzing in the internet space lately. Just what is Susan Boyle about? Why is this frumpy and granny looking woman causing such a big sensation in the world? I mean how did she even get herself on the contest??

After seeing her interview reports in the newspapers and on cable TV a few times, I decided to check it out online. So I caught her video and boy I was blown away! I know why she's causing such a big hoo-ha now, simply put she is someone who can melt away every hardness in people and cause them to reflect on themselves.

I can't believe how this video is so brillantly captured, everything from the audience's reactions and judges' comments, to Susan's image, the way she talks, her chosen song, singing and the lyrics, it all fall in place perfectly. It speaks loud of our superficial world and how shallow we are. But it also captures many facade of a human being - from the good, the bad, the ugly to the hopeful, the courageous and the inspirational - the latter are just what the world needs now.

If you not have seen this, you really ought to, check it out below:


Friday, April 17, 2009

The winner of Berlin short film festival 2006 - Chicken a la Carte

In February 2006 at the Berlin International Film Festival, film-makers were invited to join a short film competition on the theme: Food, Taste and Hunger. 3600 filmmakers around the world participated, but only 32 were short-listed. This particular film came in first and won the most popular short film award. (extracted from http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a-la-Carte#videoDetail)

This video was forwarded to Dith by her previous cellgroup member. The first 2 minutes of this film will make you wonder why it is a winner, but watch on and you will know the reason...may we always be reminded of how blessed we are and also be a blessing to others.


Saturday, April 11, 2009

Cellgroup Drama Night

Our dear cellgroup leader Chee Foo prepared a special word for cellgroup last week on 'How to succeed in your career'. What's special is that he and some of our cellgroup members also prepared a mini drama to complement with his preaching! The first half of the drama is about how to ace an interview, the what-to-dos and what-not. The second half is about good and bad working attitude in workplace. Of course, this drama could not be made possible without our exemplary cast:

1. Joshua - as Caleb, who is a fresh graduate with good EQ and is very well prepared for the interview, and later as a good worker who displays excellent work attitude.
2. Grace - as Sharon, a blur and sloppy candidate with low EQ and is very ill-prepared for the interview, and later as a sloppy worker who displays lousy work attitude.
3. Benny - as the boss who interviewed the two candidates, and later as their superior in the workplace.

(also not forgetting Shao Qin who is helping out as the narrater in describing the scenerio details to the audience.)

Want to see them in action? Check out these video snippets below...


Scene 1: Ms Sharon's disaster interview


Scene 2: Mr. Caleb's winning interview


Scene 3: Ms. Sharon's sloppy work attitude


The last scene, which is about Mr. Caleb and his excellent work attitude, was not recorded as the camera-lady ran out of memory space in her camera. Anyway, the moral of the story is to have a successful career, one got to be well-prepared in every situation and have good and winning attitude even right from the start from interview stage to the workplace itself.

Sounds easy but hard to follow right? The fact is a winning attitude does not come naturally, it needs to be developed and requires much effort, change, discipline and willingness. The bible says 'Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth (Proverbs 10:4).' So every time we feel like compromising, we only need to remind ourselves with this verse to get back on track.

Most importantly, we can't have true and lasting career success without good work-life balance! If we work hard, we need to play hard too. So remember to take time to smell the roses, spend time with God and your family, pursue your hobbies and exercise. (Tip: If you don't have time, pray to God and ask him to help you come out with more time!) :)

Anyway, below are some shots taken that day....enjoy!


The 'human knot' game forfeiters


And their forfeit is...eat lime! Lime is good ar...can help to slim down! :)


Yummy spread - courtesy of CF after getting his bonus.


Getting the food ready...


Our 3 colorful bottles of 'wine'


Enjoying the yummy spread...


Boy boy...our doggie host of the house


Michele...trying to feed the dog with lemon!? :P


Fellowshipping...


More fellowshipping...


And more....