A Day in DUMC with the Gans

And so we went to DUMC at the appointed hour.

After introducing the Gans to Senior Pastor Dr. Daniel Ho at the church doorway, we all sat in one of the front rows. The celebration then started with Stephanie Ong leading off with some new songs. Gan told me she has the look at a person who has just got up from bed. As usual, there was the dancing and the harmonious singing. Three professional singers, Patrick, Steven and Juwita Suwito then showed off their singing prowess.

The it was prayer time by Pastor Foo Yong Chan and all of us gave our tithes and offerings.

Pastor Daniel then spoke of the main issues currently facing the country. Leading these were the economic downturn from the US meltdown,the political tsunami that swept Malaysia and continued to have its reverberations and the power wielded in cyberspace. He then spoke of an opportunity-a confused and upset population that has now become more receptive of the gospel. Another observable trend was that the church as an institution has become more courageous and willing to speak as a moral bulwark on national issues such as reaching out to the community, and as an agent of love, compassion and justice to migrant workers and foreigners. He also mentioned on the necessity of churches to network with like-minded churches to meet common ends.

He informed the congregation of the growth of the Christian community; currently at 10% of the Malaysian population of 28 million, which is more than the total number of Hindus.

After the sermon, we brought Gan and Aileen to the Visitor's Lounge to register as guests and to have tea. We had cakes and biscuits.

Gan seems to be more aloof but I guess God will speak to him in his own time. Aileen seems more acceptable to the good news.

After that, we went to PJ new town and had Kon Loh Mein. Not too good.

We hope the Gans will go to DUMC on their own in the following weeks.

To Thrift is to Grieve!

Whatever happened to the time-honoured divine tenet of savings?

How about such saying like-A dollar save is a dollar earn?

In these troubled times, the evils unleashed from Pandora's Box have come back to roost on all of us!

The first evil is the crazy runaway inflation that smacks you in the face as you wake up daily. The price of food keeps going up. One day, economy noodles is RM1.80; the next day it has scaled a new height of RM2.00. Last month, iced tea without milk went for RM1.40. Today, it is RM1.60. Only god knows what is happening all around us in Malaysia. Go to any supermarkets and you can see the difference in January and June prices.

The second evil obviously is the low interest rate regime. Imagine to keep RM1 in the bank, you get less than a sen after 365 days. If you have a million ringgit stashed away in a fixed deposit account, you will get only below RM660 to spend per month. Definitely, not enough to keep body and soul together in the Klang Valley!

So as the ringgit shrinks in value and the low interest regime laughs you to the poor house, what can one do?

Take more risks-play good stocks on the Bursa when the market weakens and try to buy a property to maintain the value of your ringgit. Believe me, rentals are higher than interest returns if you buy property assets in choice locations that can easily be rented out.

To thrift is to grieve! How true!

Such Gungho!

Yes, it is true. Steven Seagal surely cuts a macho character in all his movies.

And it is so true in Under Siege where we can see him single-handedly save the USS Missouri from the hands of hijackers.

This man is good in self-defence and his uncanny dexterity in the use of knives in one-on-one combat.

Great movie. No waste of time and you have Elena Eleniak to be eye candy here in this movie.

A 1990's movie, it is still as fresh as ever in terms of thrills and spills.

Great movie!

Spreading the Good News

This morning we will be bringing the Gans, Eng Thai and Aileen to DUMC.

They have been in search of a church and we hope they can find a home in DUMC.

Today, Senior Pastor Dr. Daniel Ho will speak to the congregation and I hope God's message through Pastor Daniel will inspire the Gans to call DUMC home.

I will write more on this wonderful occasion soon.

Escape from Reality

Another film that I revisited tonight-Escape from Alcatraz.

Yes,it is also slow going and reminiscent of the late 80s type of films. They should have better editing to give more punch to the plot. Rather draggy at times.

Yes Clint Eastwood and Patrick McGoohan gave good performances and carried the movie through. Otherwise, it would not had been a box-office those days.

Some nostalgia, though.

Learning English

What is the best way to learn any language?

Simple-by speaking it; by using it. Practice makes perfect.

The same goes for the acquisition of the English language.

Read as much as you can; listen to native speakers speak, speak in class if you are attending classes; see English movies and TV programmes and hear how the actors pronounce words. Read the English subtitles at the bottom of the screen. Consult your dictionary when you come across words you do not know. Get a speaking buddy 'to spar with' so that you can practise asking questions and giving responses.

These are some of the ways you can slowly absorb the language.

Remember always-Speak at every opportunity and slowly confidence will come to you.

Tangled on TAGGED

I really cannot recall how and why I got involved in TAGGED.

What is TAGGED? That I have yet to know. One thing is for sure-it comes onto your email, prompting you to open it,on curiosity, to discover a bunch of people that have similarly put themselves on the TAGGED portal, hoping, I guess to get to know people of similar interests or in similar plights.

So what do you do when you get personal emails from those you ticked on as people of potential compatibility. Are these people for real when they show their photos to be sexy Angelina Jolie,scenery and cartoons?

From the top of my head, I believe in the 95-5% model. Meaning? That 95% are fakes and are to be plonked into the refuse heap.

What about the remaining 5%? This you will have to do much winnowing and combed through with a fine tooth comb. Believe me, you may get nothing worthy at the end of the day.

This model can work only if these people who registered on it are genuine and not up to no good.

Sincerely, I would believe it takes hard work and a lot of faith to grow even one good friendship on TAGGED and its close cousin portals.

I am still on TAGGED and am ticking on photographs that may look genuine.

Do you think I am wasting my time?

A Clan's Lunch Getogether

With James, Iriene, Jemsen and Shaline, we reached the Boulevard Hotel in MidValley City after sometime, after having got lost and had to doubleback using the Taman Desa route. I was glad that Shaline had made time to come along with us.

We met the others at the restaurant and started having lunch by noon. The buffet spread was quite good at RM44++ which my brother-in-law generously paid in kind with his newly acquired AGM door gift food coupons.

On my first round, I had some rice with curry tenggiri fish,a cold cut,a prawn,a brinjal slice, a chicken drummat and two flaky papadams. Next, I had a bowl of delicious chendol with gula melaka. I followed with a dollop of egg custard, a slice of thin chocolate and a scoop of ice-cream. I finished off the meal with a bowl of mutton soup and a cup of cappucino.

Good meal and had a good time socializing with my elder brother and elder sister's family members.

We should do this more often.