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Sunday, August 10, 2008

7:47 PM

Festival of Praise 2008

Hey all! Long time no update... These few days I have been busying with my own stuff, mainly school and church stuff, and with things going on especially for weekends which packed my day..

Last Friday to Sunday (1st - 3rd August 2008), I went for FOP (Festival of Praise) with my bus enthusiast and my E447 cell group friends.. This year, we have Reuben Morgan from Hillsong Australia and Parachute Band from New Zealand who led us for praise & worship, and Pastor Mark Conner from CityLife Church who led us for sermon..

First night of FOP 2008, I went with 2 of my bus enthusiast friends (Reuben and XY) and 2 of my E447 cell group friends (Quanhan and Ben). KP was invited by his friend, Ming Wei, for the 1st night of FOP 2008.. Everything was great there, especially the sermon part which really impact my heart a lot. The sermon is about building a strong spiritual atmosphere and there are 4 ingredients that are important for creating an atmosphere of power and growth which consist of "Peace", "Encouragement", "Comfort" and "Fear of the Lord". Won't elaborate it here ba, probably in my spiritual blog I will talk more about it.. After the whole service finished, XY went home while Reuben and myself went to Plaza Singapura for late night dinner cum supper inside MacDonald.. Took SBS1936U (crossover from Service 506) of Niteowl 3N back home after that.. Super chiongster like Singapore version of Tokyo Drift..

Second night of FOP 2008, I went with 3 of my bus enthusiast friends (Reuben, Wilcent and Isaac) and some of my E447 cell group friends after cell group meeting.. Inside there, Wilcent sat right beside my E447 cell group leader (Quanhan), and he was quite shocked at first when he saw my cell group leader using laptop during sermon to take down sermon notes.. Lolx.. Sermon was about growing old or growing up.. Also won't elaborate much down here... After the whole service finished, I went with my bus enthusiast friends to the MacDonald at Plaza Singapura for late night dinner cum supper again.. After that rush out to the bus stop at Dohby Ghaut MRT Station there to wait for our night buses back home.. Praise the LORD!! The main entrance door wasn't lock unlike the previous night when Reuben and myself had to walk a big round via Carrefour there to the bus stop, hence after that, we stop rushing and take our time to walk to the bus stop and waited.. Wilcent took Niteowl 4N (At after 1am when his bus came and I have finished bathing at home liao..), Reuben and myself took Niteowl 3N (SBS2607M, Service 506 crossover also but this time never chiong as there were a lot of cars along the way), and Isaac went to the bus stop further down towards MacDonald's house and took the 2nd last Service 65 bus back home (which is around 12:25am, lucky him that the last bus from Harbourfront bus interchange is 12am).

Third day of FOP 2008, instead of joining my friends for the whole service, I was serving in Zone A2 along the North Sector instead.. Helped Reuben and Wilcent to book seats for them also, and I supposed that they can see how stressed and worried I am at the point of time of serving (usher), especially after offering and sermon, during the praise and worship after that, when I was already broke down but I managed to resist my tears until I reached back home and doing my quiet time before I slept.. Felt so discouraged and shag especially when the gates inside towards the stage area were opened and I saw a lot of youngster who were very on fire with the LORD when it comes to praise.. (More about that can be found on my spiritual blog..) Btw, the sermon was about "Living in the Light of Eternity" which I will also elaborate more in my spiritual blog as well.. Went home after service immediately because next day I still got lesson, and really I wanna thank God for the SMB1H (bus enthusiasts you should know what is this bus) on Service 190 when I transferred to it from Service 14, which managed to cheer my mood up at least by a bit..

I remembered that I 1st stepped into church atmosphere during last year's FOP (Year 2007) when Raymond (1 of my E447 cell group friends) invited and brought me over, and I accepted Christ in 1 month++ after that in September 2007.. Hence I was so looking forward to this year's FOP and for once, my burning passion for the LORD became stronger and stronger.. (Except the third day when I was serving in my allocated zone). It's from this point of time last year that I experienced my turning point of life to a better one.. I realised that my life really changed a lot from the point of time when I accepted Christ as my LORD and saviour... Till now, I never regret my decision to believe in Christianity despite the numerous setbacks and difficulties that I have faced. In fact, it is through all these setbacks and difficulties that increase my faith level over time..

I will stop blogging here for now, and I will blog about the rest of it (such as national day and etc etc probably after a few days when my semester break starts..) God bless everyone! Take care!

2 more days to my 3 weeks (only) semester break...

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Night 1: Myself, Reuben, XY