Well, been a long while since I blogged. My last entry being on April, and well, now I'm back in Singapore. Well, came back since May 18... I'll slowly cover my SEP experience later, but for now, will blog the current things since I'm pretty tied down by projects, projects and more projects!
Today's service was an impactful one. Well, a guest speaker by the name of Nick Vujicic came to preach. He's an ordinary handicapped person, but God used him extraordinary. For the first time, I witnessed someone with no arms, no legs, being so joyful and being an encourager to many! Well, he certainly did encourage me and strengthened my faith. I may forget most of the things he said, but one very important statement struck me, and I guess I'll meditate and remember for life: "No one can steal your joy if your joy is placed at your salvation!" That sentence hit me in my heart like a double-edged sword! Tears started streaming in my eyes, as I finally found out what true, eternal joy is. All these while, I was joyful because of the blessings from God in the area of my finances and other aspects in life. However, I get unhappy easily, especially reviewing my sad college grades, and the depressing fear that I might not land up a decent high paying job after I graduate. Well, all these were my priorities in recent years, as I strive for the good reason: to be able to glorify God in all aspect of my life. Well, the thing is I did those on my own strength, and it is certainly IMpossible (another statement from Nick). Now I finally know how to maintain the joy, that is to take joy only one thing, and one thing alone, which really matters: my salvation. Thank God I'm saved! It sure give me optimistic overview of my life for now! For those curious of who is Nick Vujicic, I urge you to visit his website: www.lifewithoutlimbs.com. Nick Vujicic: Thank you so much! Your preaching and encouragement certainly placed my life back to the right track, as I walk through this narrow way with Christ!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Charleston Trip and Nor'easter
Moving on to a lighter note, I would like to write the account of the weekend trip at Charleston Trip last weekend. To be able to go to Charleston was kinda fortunate. As written previously, it was one of my friend who needed to stay back to do her work that enabled me to travel with the group, organised by Campus Crusade international ministry.
Charleston is really very nice! A historic town with a bad, tragic past, but clustered with many beautiful architecture and buildings. The blooming of flowers made the town even more aesthetically appealing!
As usual, I draw out my trusty camera and emerged out of the city with around 270 photos. It was a pity however not to be able to find a "Charleston City" Starbucks mug...
Well, on Sunday, the last day in Charleston, was rather experiential. For the first time I expereinced a strong gust! The gust was so strong, and only yesterday that I realised it was 70miles/hr, one of the strongest gust ever experienced. I was at the coast and felt a bit scared as i felt the wind literally blowing me away. Along the way back home, the car experienced some nudges by the strong wind conditions. In fact, the storm called the Nor'easter slammed the East Coast of America, flooding New Jersey and even the city of New York for the first time in a long time, delaying flights and wrecking several houses. I should count it bless that although Charleston was in the news of experiencing the strongest gust, it was not deadly and there's no mishap.
Back at Chapel Hill, it poured so heavily and winds were so strong that yesterday, trees started falling down and smashed several generators, shutting off the whole of Franklin Street (according to what I heard from friends) and making many homes off campus in total blackout...
Charleston is really very nice! A historic town with a bad, tragic past, but clustered with many beautiful architecture and buildings. The blooming of flowers made the town even more aesthetically appealing!
As usual, I draw out my trusty camera and emerged out of the city with around 270 photos. It was a pity however not to be able to find a "Charleston City" Starbucks mug...
Well, on Sunday, the last day in Charleston, was rather experiential. For the first time I expereinced a strong gust! The gust was so strong, and only yesterday that I realised it was 70miles/hr, one of the strongest gust ever experienced. I was at the coast and felt a bit scared as i felt the wind literally blowing me away. Along the way back home, the car experienced some nudges by the strong wind conditions. In fact, the storm called the Nor'easter slammed the East Coast of America, flooding New Jersey and even the city of New York for the first time in a long time, delaying flights and wrecking several houses. I should count it bless that although Charleston was in the news of experiencing the strongest gust, it was not deadly and there's no mishap.
Back at Chapel Hill, it poured so heavily and winds were so strong that yesterday, trees started falling down and smashed several generators, shutting off the whole of Franklin Street (according to what I heard from friends) and making many homes off campus in total blackout...
Tragic Bloodbath
Today is a day for mourning in America, in the campus here at the pit, and especially in Virginia Tech. Yesterday, a loner, aparantly having twisted mentality, decided to go around the campus shooting innocent people. To watch the news report from CBS made it hard to comprehend why such madness should occur? In my Global Marketing class, there's some discussion about a twisted link to Adolf Hitler's Birthday, which so coincidentally falls this Friday... Whatever links created to this mass killing, one thing for sure, it reinforces that life is so unpredictable. Who would ever think that a college student, full of hope, aspiration and future, could become a mad gunman. Millions of dreams are destroyed as a result. The world is discounted from the contribution of bright minds, not only of Americans, but also of other international students who were victims to the deadliest campus shooting in US history. This is a day to grief with America, with Virginia Tech and with the friends and family members of the victims. May God bless them and may God receive the deceased with loving arms.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Awesome! Simply Awesome!
Haha, have not been blogging lately. Is either too lazy or no mood to do so... I am yet to "journalise" my spring break trip man...
Well, today would be one of the best days I've had @ UNC! First of all, I woke up with a bad hair day as the night before, I slept immediately after showering... Well, although it ain't a good start, things starts to be better! Firstly, Kim, a nice lady who's taking over duties from Erin, my supervisor in the business school over here @ UNC, told me great news! Actually I have this class which I dropped it in time, well, at least I was told by Erin that I'm in time to drop the class. Is just that she cud not do it on her computer, and had to use the paper format. Well, the paper procedures is so slow, and it's only reflected that I dropped the class a week later. Hence, my transcript reflected the class with a "W" grade! I was so pissed. That was last Tuesday. I dropped by the office and Kim took note and went to the right person to get it rectified. I must applaud for her effectiveness, as this morning when I go to her office, she told me it's in the process of rectifying and I would see the class erased from my transcript in no time.
That was pretty good news, but something greater greeted me when I went back to my dorm, after a super early class @ 8am, and checked my email. I wanted to go to Charleston with a group, but I was too late to register and sign up. However, I received the email from this lady whom I expressed my interest in going that someone backed out from the trip and I could take the slot! I was overjoyed as I finally can travel, during a normal weekend, again after travelling once to Atlanta during my 24th birthday on the 24th Feb. Well, I was particularly desperate to travel especially after not being able to join the group of friends to Washington DC during the easter weekend last week due to overcapacity of the car which is taking the 9 of them there, and being left somewhat alone with another guy, who has already been to DC, in campus... Can't wait to go Charleston tomorrow and take many pictures! haHA!
The ultimate good news came when I come back from the afternoon class. I was aware that I have 2 packages waiting for me at my dorm's front desk, but had no idea what are they from. Well, I've been online shopping, so I was thinking it should be one of the products which I've ordered online that has finally arrived. But guess what! One of the package wasn't familiar and was not a product I've purchased online sent to my dorm! Well, I suspected that especially when I saw my family name in front of my name! well, in america, I've been writing my name as: Li Hao Wong. In Singapore, the last name is placed in front. So when I saw Wong Li Hao James, I felt quite strange. When I scrutinised the sender of the package, I realised it's from my Attributes member back at Singapore. And when I see the content listed down on the paper, I was so surprised! Soon, I realised that my fellow beloved Attributes members didn't forget me and sent me goodies from Singapore all the way to America! I felt so touched and so loved! They sent bak ku teh, laksa sauces, packaged bak gua, pineapple tarts and other goodies from CNY! Also they sent jars of sauces! Just in time for this special cooking dinner in Shannon's (a Singaporean doing and exchange here from her Australian University) odum village apartment next week! I was so surprised and delighted! Well, frankly, during my stay here in America, which is close to 5 months, I kinda missed serving side-by-side with the Attributes members before, during and after church services! I missed pulling out the heavy mobile cupboards, running from one side of the expo hall to the other side to set up the kidszone, bring stocks in and out for the retail to display on the cupboards and such. Those activities, albeit tiring and sometimes stressful, are very rewarding and enriching and I had a great time serving the Lord! Praise the Lord! Thank you guys in Attributes! Thank you Robin, Jayson, Cherry, Sue, Cheryl, Altona, Morgan, Thomas, Fi, Wenyi, Jingyi, Min Min and the rest of the great ministry team for this special package! Thank you Altona, Morgan, Thomas, Alvin and the rest of the Log section for standing in the gap and covering for me in the area of Logistics! I can't wait to come back and to sweat it out side-by-side along with you guys!
Well, today would be one of the best days I've had @ UNC! First of all, I woke up with a bad hair day as the night before, I slept immediately after showering... Well, although it ain't a good start, things starts to be better! Firstly, Kim, a nice lady who's taking over duties from Erin, my supervisor in the business school over here @ UNC, told me great news! Actually I have this class which I dropped it in time, well, at least I was told by Erin that I'm in time to drop the class. Is just that she cud not do it on her computer, and had to use the paper format. Well, the paper procedures is so slow, and it's only reflected that I dropped the class a week later. Hence, my transcript reflected the class with a "W" grade! I was so pissed. That was last Tuesday. I dropped by the office and Kim took note and went to the right person to get it rectified. I must applaud for her effectiveness, as this morning when I go to her office, she told me it's in the process of rectifying and I would see the class erased from my transcript in no time.
That was pretty good news, but something greater greeted me when I went back to my dorm, after a super early class @ 8am, and checked my email. I wanted to go to Charleston with a group, but I was too late to register and sign up. However, I received the email from this lady whom I expressed my interest in going that someone backed out from the trip and I could take the slot! I was overjoyed as I finally can travel, during a normal weekend, again after travelling once to Atlanta during my 24th birthday on the 24th Feb. Well, I was particularly desperate to travel especially after not being able to join the group of friends to Washington DC during the easter weekend last week due to overcapacity of the car which is taking the 9 of them there, and being left somewhat alone with another guy, who has already been to DC, in campus... Can't wait to go Charleston tomorrow and take many pictures! haHA!
The ultimate good news came when I come back from the afternoon class. I was aware that I have 2 packages waiting for me at my dorm's front desk, but had no idea what are they from. Well, I've been online shopping, so I was thinking it should be one of the products which I've ordered online that has finally arrived. But guess what! One of the package wasn't familiar and was not a product I've purchased online sent to my dorm! Well, I suspected that especially when I saw my family name in front of my name! well, in america, I've been writing my name as: Li Hao Wong. In Singapore, the last name is placed in front. So when I saw Wong Li Hao James, I felt quite strange. When I scrutinised the sender of the package, I realised it's from my Attributes member back at Singapore. And when I see the content listed down on the paper, I was so surprised! Soon, I realised that my fellow beloved Attributes members didn't forget me and sent me goodies from Singapore all the way to America! I felt so touched and so loved! They sent bak ku teh, laksa sauces, packaged bak gua, pineapple tarts and other goodies from CNY! Also they sent jars of sauces! Just in time for this special cooking dinner in Shannon's (a Singaporean doing and exchange here from her Australian University) odum village apartment next week! I was so surprised and delighted! Well, frankly, during my stay here in America, which is close to 5 months, I kinda missed serving side-by-side with the Attributes members before, during and after church services! I missed pulling out the heavy mobile cupboards, running from one side of the expo hall to the other side to set up the kidszone, bring stocks in and out for the retail to display on the cupboards and such. Those activities, albeit tiring and sometimes stressful, are very rewarding and enriching and I had a great time serving the Lord! Praise the Lord! Thank you guys in Attributes! Thank you Robin, Jayson, Cherry, Sue, Cheryl, Altona, Morgan, Thomas, Fi, Wenyi, Jingyi, Min Min and the rest of the great ministry team for this special package! Thank you Altona, Morgan, Thomas, Alvin and the rest of the Log section for standing in the gap and covering for me in the area of Logistics! I can't wait to come back and to sweat it out side-by-side along with you guys!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Life is unpredictable!
Well, this morning I checked my email and to my horror, the student who got hit by a car in New Jersey from Kenan-flagler business school (the school i'm currently in for an exchange program) has died. This is the 2nd case for this year alone that one of my school mate fall victim to the reckless drivers on the road. The first case was earlier on February where a student from NUS business school (my university). The NUS business school created a memorial website and video in rememberance of this great guy who unfortunately could not fulfill his dreams and destiny. I suggested this idea to the school I'm in to the student body's president to remember Jason Ray, who was a great guy and participated as the Rams mascot of UNC during basketball matches, cheering the team and drawing crowds of supporters to cheer loudly.
It's rather shocking that life is so unpredictable and this reminds me of a Steve Jobs message in which he told college students to live as if there will be no tomorrow. I guess everyone will know that life is very unpredictable, especially being in this post terrorism era. However, with people who are in close proximity to my life dying at such a young age, this notion that life is unpredictable is reinforced in my mind.
Let's keep these 2 young guys, and the rest of the victims to road accidents, in our prayer. And to all drivers: please use your vehicles responsibly...
It's rather shocking that life is so unpredictable and this reminds me of a Steve Jobs message in which he told college students to live as if there will be no tomorrow. I guess everyone will know that life is very unpredictable, especially being in this post terrorism era. However, with people who are in close proximity to my life dying at such a young age, this notion that life is unpredictable is reinforced in my mind.
Let's keep these 2 young guys, and the rest of the victims to road accidents, in our prayer. And to all drivers: please use your vehicles responsibly...
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Campus Harvest 2007
Had a wonderful time during the last 2 days @ Campus Harvest 2007 in Kings Park Internation Church down at North Carolina! It's a youth conference where Every Nations Campus ministry of colleges and high schools throughout the whole United States gather together in on place, listening the word of God, praising and worshipping together. My key take-aways is that praising God should be so free! I was so amazed seeing the American students grooving and dancing to the beat! While I've seen the setting before in my local church @ Singapore (CHC), the participative audience, who are awesome and brought up the atmosphere of happiness and delight, is something which made me stood in awe!
The messages were awesome too! The senior pastor's wife, Lynette Lewis, shared a brilliant message of sealing and securing your calling. Also, in a seminar entitled "Career Minded, Kingdom Focused", she reminded me that everything is about the people. She inspired me to engage with the people I work with, be really interested in their life (something which is lacking in this "self-centered" world). Also she taught some tips of staying motivated, and also urged us to be excellent in everything we do, even though the work might not be what we expect from the calling.
She defines kingdom focused as 1) royalty: we are all leaders and people are watching us and following our lead; leadership is not a destination but a journey and God will impart skills along the way. 2)People is the bottom-line to everything. She describes how she engage with her fellow collegues in her workplace. It's all about sowing seeds to people, listening them talk their problems, empathising together with them and just be a friend.
Career minded is defined as being excellent, having a strong prayer life and being a producer.
She has an awesome book called "Climbing the ladder in stilettos" which many had recommended for the working ladies out there to grab hold of it.
Another message from Pastor Jim Laffoon was inspiring too! He taught us that while we bring the lost into the Kingdom of God, we ought to be open to them, open up our lives to them so that Jesus can come into their lives. (Matt 21:5-9) This verse shows that the disciples of Jesus took the donkey (a symbol of the lost and broken) and place their cloaks (symbol of opening up of the believers life to the new converts) before Jesus ride on the donkey. Also, he urges us to let Jesus have 100% control of the "reins" of our lives.
The message of prayer and loving the Word of God is echoed thoughout all the seminars from the various speakers. I also learnt interesting and creative ways of how campuses reach out to the lost. There was one initiative done about "Playing it forward" and the best student will get his/her tuition fees paid! Awesome! How it works is putting others first and get them do the same. Issues of life such as pornography and other social issues are raised. A classic example is the person ask a guy is pornography acceptable, then ask would he like his daughter to be a pornstar. This is the website for this initiative: Every Nations Campus Ministry of UT . How did the ministry have the funding is that a rich tycoon's daughter got touched by the ministry and the dad simply gave them a yacht, which they sold it and used it to do such creative things to preach the gospel to the students in UT.
The messages were awesome too! The senior pastor's wife, Lynette Lewis, shared a brilliant message of sealing and securing your calling. Also, in a seminar entitled "Career Minded, Kingdom Focused", she reminded me that everything is about the people. She inspired me to engage with the people I work with, be really interested in their life (something which is lacking in this "self-centered" world). Also she taught some tips of staying motivated, and also urged us to be excellent in everything we do, even though the work might not be what we expect from the calling.
She defines kingdom focused as 1) royalty: we are all leaders and people are watching us and following our lead; leadership is not a destination but a journey and God will impart skills along the way. 2)People is the bottom-line to everything. She describes how she engage with her fellow collegues in her workplace. It's all about sowing seeds to people, listening them talk their problems, empathising together with them and just be a friend.
Career minded is defined as being excellent, having a strong prayer life and being a producer.
She has an awesome book called "Climbing the ladder in stilettos" which many had recommended for the working ladies out there to grab hold of it.
Another message from Pastor Jim Laffoon was inspiring too! He taught us that while we bring the lost into the Kingdom of God, we ought to be open to them, open up our lives to them so that Jesus can come into their lives. (Matt 21:5-9) This verse shows that the disciples of Jesus took the donkey (a symbol of the lost and broken) and place their cloaks (symbol of opening up of the believers life to the new converts) before Jesus ride on the donkey. Also, he urges us to let Jesus have 100% control of the "reins" of our lives.
The message of prayer and loving the Word of God is echoed thoughout all the seminars from the various speakers. I also learnt interesting and creative ways of how campuses reach out to the lost. There was one initiative done about "Playing it forward" and the best student will get his/her tuition fees paid! Awesome! How it works is putting others first and get them do the same. Issues of life such as pornography and other social issues are raised. A classic example is the person ask a guy is pornography acceptable, then ask would he like his daughter to be a pornstar. This is the website for this initiative: Every Nations Campus Ministry of UT . How did the ministry have the funding is that a rich tycoon's daughter got touched by the ministry and the dad simply gave them a yacht, which they sold it and used it to do such creative things to preach the gospel to the students in UT.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Books and decisions
Never blog yesterday cos I was preparing for my Consumer Behavior (CB) exam which ended in the morning today. Yesterday, my indoor soccer team finally registered our first win in the intermural indoor soccer tournament, but without playing.. We walked over. It was bad as I could not practise my goalkeeping before the actual knock-out tournament begins next week...
The exam today was pretty tough as I didn't memorise those theories.. But who knows. The other time I never remember the definitions of key concepts and yet I scored 95%. I think the lecturers here are quite lenient and love insights rather than pure memorisation and reiteration of the text book...
Well, today I've had 4 classes (as all tues and thurs). Started my day @ 8am and ended @ 3:15pm. I'm considering to drop a class which I recently added though: Mergers and Acquisition. I love the class and the lecture, but it just had too much workload for me to enjoy carrying on with it. Well, I've taken similar classes back in NUS but only touched the surface, while this class really goes deep into the core of M&A. However after seeking advice from my friend Alvin, I decided to drop it, but will sit in for the class just to listen to the professor talk about the latest news of M&A.
Well, I've learnt a lot about Immunization for Investments class. Passive strategy of equating the duration of the portfolio with the time left to maturity of the investment horizon will allow one to be immunized from interest rates fluctuation. Well, the class of Investments is getting interesting as I learn new things. The previous classes were so repetitive as I learnt the concepts taught in my other module I've taken back in NUS. Well, guess this class is getting challenging as it goes deeper into serious issues of investments.
Global marketing by Prof Didow always allow me to take home a lot of new insights. It was amazing to find out that Nike's policies on their subcontracted manufacturers who uses sweatshops were results of a class in the school which I am currently in, Kenan Flagler business school, UNC! Mr Knight actually came into the class, sat in the lecture whilst ordinary students gave recommendations to Nike in this "Nike Class" which was taught by Prof Didow! Amazing! I never see or heard Jackson Tai sit in one of NUS Business School classes before... (or perhaps there were other big shot CEO who came into the class to listen to students' work presentation.)
Well, going for dinner at the dining hall in where else but Rams Head. I hope I won't gain too much weight here in the states!
The exam today was pretty tough as I didn't memorise those theories.. But who knows. The other time I never remember the definitions of key concepts and yet I scored 95%. I think the lecturers here are quite lenient and love insights rather than pure memorisation and reiteration of the text book...
Well, today I've had 4 classes (as all tues and thurs). Started my day @ 8am and ended @ 3:15pm. I'm considering to drop a class which I recently added though: Mergers and Acquisition. I love the class and the lecture, but it just had too much workload for me to enjoy carrying on with it. Well, I've taken similar classes back in NUS but only touched the surface, while this class really goes deep into the core of M&A. However after seeking advice from my friend Alvin, I decided to drop it, but will sit in for the class just to listen to the professor talk about the latest news of M&A.
Well, I've learnt a lot about Immunization for Investments class. Passive strategy of equating the duration of the portfolio with the time left to maturity of the investment horizon will allow one to be immunized from interest rates fluctuation. Well, the class of Investments is getting interesting as I learn new things. The previous classes were so repetitive as I learnt the concepts taught in my other module I've taken back in NUS. Well, guess this class is getting challenging as it goes deeper into serious issues of investments.
Global marketing by Prof Didow always allow me to take home a lot of new insights. It was amazing to find out that Nike's policies on their subcontracted manufacturers who uses sweatshops were results of a class in the school which I am currently in, Kenan Flagler business school, UNC! Mr Knight actually came into the class, sat in the lecture whilst ordinary students gave recommendations to Nike in this "Nike Class" which was taught by Prof Didow! Amazing! I never see or heard Jackson Tai sit in one of NUS Business School classes before... (or perhaps there were other big shot CEO who came into the class to listen to students' work presentation.)
Well, going for dinner at the dining hall in where else but Rams Head. I hope I won't gain too much weight here in the states!
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