It sure been an eventful Christmas holidaysss! (MINI TRP Crusade gathering at WRPF Christmas play, Captivated by Love) (Made Killer brownies for our small grp with vyan and charles)
Monday- 1 DAY SMALL GRP RETREAT (lunch at this lunhc time 50% discount La Nona restaurant!)
Wedsnesday- TEAM MANASSEH OUTING! (BOWLING!)
Movie at CATHAY! Gulliver's Traveler!...
(Hangout at Ben & Jerry!)
Thurs
Morning... (10 km run around almost the entire singapore river with Janine & sean, the scenic marina bay sands skyline)
Afternoon...Crosstrainer Sec 1-3 Camp comm meeting (So proud of my mentoree max who is more than ready to lead this new bunch of crosstrainers!)
Evening...
Sports & Wellness Meeting at the Kunalan's hse, once Fastest man & women hse in Singapore!
The tiring yet pretty fun rock climbing adventure at SAFRA Yishun! (Good thing we had some rock climbing pros nearby to help us in the tiring of knots!) (We all finally manage to reach the top of this 5- 6 Storey high Safra rock wall!)
Over the past week I attended this Pre-Company Tactics Course (CTC), on coaching & facilitation from 15-21 Dec. It was a 5 days course, where we were exposed to skills on conversation coaching and facilitation. What made this whole course so insightful and memorable was the really experience facilitators that conducted the course. The course was experiential, enjoyable and very practical, experiencing first hand coaching our self, doing the various activities that helped us internalised the skills in coaching.
We were split between the NSF & Regular group and was the only Signal NSF there. As the course went by, we were allowed to very vulnerable with one another as we had many opportunities to just share our lives with one another. At the end of this week course, the friends we made here, just gave me an extra motivation as we reunited with one another again as the actual CTC begins come Jan 2011.
Reflections: One of the biggest take away I got from this course was that "Coaching is NOT telling, its how the coach ask leading questions to the coachee so that he will begin to find the answer within himself and take ownership of it."
John Whitmore define coaching as "unlocking a person's potential to maximize their own performance, it is helping them to learn rather than teaching them"
THE G.R.O.W MODEL (Adapted from john Whitmore book Coaching for performance):
It's about going through this 4 steps in a G.R.O.W chronologically with your coachee/mentoree...
THE GROW MODEL: GOAL -Positively stated -Evidence -Context -How Controllable (Scale from 1-10) -Worthiness (purpose, benefits)
REALITY -Past Success (what worked?) -Past Set Backs(What didn't work?) -sources for support - obstacles/challegnes -Our strengths & Weakness -Self Acknowledge
WAY FORWARD/ WHAT'S NEXT'S? -Taking the next step forward - One commitment that you want to take back -Actions, By When -Possible obstacles faced -Support request -Coachee to Sum up (The 2 certificates i got at the end of this 5 day course!)
December has past in a flash... with 2 key events of the year just over... with the recent crosstrainer retreat happening in early December where we have formally handed over to the new crosstrainer heads Glenn and Max and a whole new young XT comm.... And after serving in Crosstrainers for over 4 years, God has placed circumstances and opportunities which led me to move fully into the Ymove comm currently along with the sports & wellness comm under the main church. (The new XT heads Glenn and Max leading the 2011 Crosstrainer Planner!)
WESLEY YM CAMP 2010 @ PGP 16-19 DECEMBER This year came into ym camp back as a"HAPPY CAMPER" after going for 5 ym camps since 2005. This year i cldnt serve much as a GL or Mentor, or XT due to me going in and out of camp the first 2 days due to my pre-ctc course which I needed to attend. However, i know God place me with a particular grp of youths in TEAM MANASSEH for a purpose to enjoy the whole camp experience with as well as to minister too... sadly with Janice(GL) falling sick early in the camp and needed to go home to rest, and with bobby(Mentor) needed to spend most of the time in worship practice,which only left Liwei (AGL). So in the end i believed God has still intended me to serve in this area, by just helping them lead the grp.
TEAM MANASSEH!!!
This whole paragraph will be all out to you guys in manasseh! I really believed God has specifically place me to this grp to really share my life with! I really treasure the camp experience that we all go through together, going thru all the dirty messy games, playing all those Chinese games which i never imagine ever even learning to play "MAO ZHUA LAO SHU", "QI WA something something diao sui" , going thru all the sharings and devotions together,listening to God's Word thru the sermons preached, and just worshiping our Lord together will be memories which I will remember for a looooong time.
As shared to the grp on the final night, i really hope from the bottom of my heart, that we will all continue to pursue the Holiness that God has called each and everyone of us to be. To be THAT KING IN THE MAKING. And i really hope that we will really keep that daily Surrender to our Lord and keep our commitments at Camp! Will strongly urge each of you all to continue to do your daily quiet time with the Lord, those post devotional materials are a good follow up, so pleaseee do them! And remember when camps all over, and when you get back to daily life, the challenge comes when we are away from likeminded Christians, So how do we keep the Faith going? And that's by really keeping the spiritual discipline of reading His Word each day and spending time with Him. And all i ask, is for each of you reading this to start small. Just 5mins a day first...and slowly but surely increase the time.... Remember this"We Walk By Faith, Not By Sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7 "
The Vision from God Anyways the other thing that i really want to share was a vision which God impressed on my heart during the 2nd night rally worship time. It all started when yangshen approach me to pray for him after the pre-service prayer as he will be leading the worship session during ministry time. And I rmb as i prayed for him during worship, God showed me a picture of him, leading worship on stage with the rest of the phileos team and the youths kneeling down in a posture of Surrender to our Lord. I just took that impression by Faith and text yangshen after the worship session before the sermon that he not need to worry as I sense strongly that God will be leading him when he leads worship during the ministry time later, and all he needed was to let God do His work.
And then... after the sermon Pastor Terrence ask the youths to response to God by kneeling in a form of Surrender to God. And when i stood up to the side.. i saw the almost exact same vision i saw happening in reality! I was just standing in amazement at the side of what God was doing... And as i stood up,I was strongly led to pray specifically for couple of my youths kesley and robin... where i found out later from kes that he actually prayed for me to go to him. And i believe it's really was the Holy Spirit that prompted me to the both of them in the midst of the 300 over youths there. (This picture was similar to what was impressed on my heart, with Yangshen at the centre of the stage leading the worship in the ministry time and the youths actually kneeling down in surrender before our Lord... still looking for a clearer picture which shows the full image i saw)
I woke up on a Sunday morning in camp today (where normally i wld be in church), I went ahead to do my usual routine on a weekend morning in camp, by boiling 2 eggs in my mess tin, and waited for it to boil. I open up my daily devotion and spend a nice 30 mins or so doing a personal quiet time with God. And today's message seemingly reminded me of an exciting treasure hunt we go through each day we open His Word...
I remembered once, God taught my how we sld open our bibles with ANTICIPATION, imagine if you know God is going to speaking to you, you will definitely be on ALL HEARS and be ATTENTIVE to it! And is so like when we open the bible, HIS WORD, as we know that what you are about to read is DIRECTLY WORDS from GOD to us... and today it sure was...
Below is an extract from my daily devotion- Selwyn Hughes 12 December 2010
"My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. Colossians 2:2-5"
There is enough truth in these glowing words to feed our minds and hearts for a whole year. The point Paul has been making is that no essential truths are withheld from anyone who belongs to Christ.
"All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" are hidden in Him. But it is hidden truth. Our Lord conceals as well as reveals. You know and you don't know. But what you don't see spurs you on to continuous discovery.
This perpetual discovery has become the most thrilling thing in my life. Every day I feel there is some new surprise to be found up ahead. Christians who go from week to week without ever opening up their Bibles and focusing on some aspect of God's message to them must live dull lives. I fail to understand how they can exist without delving into the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are found in Christ and revealed to us in the Scriptures.
"This unfolding revelation of Christ," says one writer, "puts a surprise around every corner, makes life pop with novelty and discovery, makes life well worth the living." The Christian life is dynamic, not static. The more you know the more you don't know, and what you know sets you on fire to know more. The more we know of Christ the more we want to know, and this discovery will go on forever. We will never go beyond Him. Never.
5 December 2010 NACLI Woke up at 3.10 am in my room in NACLI! (in the middle of the last night of the sub-ministry retreat) Just timely, as I woke up Kheng and Hans just entered my room. With Kheng kindly helped me with a some tapping on my sprain left ankle and led me to some full leg stretching. Abt 4am...head of the the common area seeing some of the youths still hanging out late in the wee hrs of the morning. Before I met up with steph as we drove off to orchard road... ION ORCHARD Met up with Chuen kiat at the entrance of ION orchard. He has been my running buddy since SOCC days, also for AHM and now this stand charted run!
Anyways, we did some stretching before the run, as we head of to the starting line from the back of the sub-6 area. 4.50am The starting line outside ION Orchard! As everyone prepares mentally for the long 42.195 km marathon! For the first few km i was telling chuen kiat not to go to fast as i didn't want to aggravate my left sprain ankle, where previously I felt this extreme pain when I did my own tapping on my preparation runs 2 weeks before this marathon. But in the end, I really THANK GOD for everyone who prayed for my left ankle, as MIRACULOUSLY it did not ache up at all through out the run! This is really the power of prayers as normally any old pains will ache up especially in such a long marathon! We started of with a pretty decently good pace as we hit our targeted time by the 10km mark of 1 hr 10mins... 10km- 1 hr 10 mins By the 17km mark, chuen kiat decided to run ahead instead of running at my pace. As I really wanted to conserve all the energy I cld as I strategies of having a short walk at every 100 plus or banana break.
21km- 2 Hrs 26 Mins At this stage I was thinking that it's as though i've completed an Army half marathon and now need to do another 2 X of this half marathon!! (Bad thought!) By the 30 Km mark the extreme fatigue sets in! And you can sense your legs aching up and you get so tempted to just walk!.. by this time... i took a longer walk at my usual favourite 100plus break... and sprayed my legs with the salon pas spray! 32.5km- 3 Hr 30mins 36km- A special MOMENT that hit me! Around the 36 km mark towards to marina barrage i had this 1 second vision of a scene inHebrews 12:1-2 hit me....1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith... When I entered the underground sheltered area of the barraged, and there were people cheering you on inside. It suddenly felt like the great cloud of witnesses cheering us from heaven! As we ran the race for God! And in a moment, i just felt so touch by God that i almost felt like crying just thinking about that... in that instant i suddenly felt so much more motivated as I thought of the many more life lessons in this marathon... 38Km- THE TORTUROUS last 4km! Around the 38 km mark towards uphill of the sheares bridge... I encountered the worst EXTREME cramping's of my life! I could feel from ankle up to my thighs this super super tightness when I move my legs in a certain direction. I was suddenly spamming my salon pas spray until it was totally empty and rubbing it like some "gundu" trying to shake of the cramps. I knew if I stop to walk the cramps wld just collapse fully on my leg and i might never ever complete the rest of the run... The last 2 km more to go!... this was where I grabbed the counter-pain creams from the volunteers from the side when I finished my own bottle of spray and spammed it on my legs for the last part! As i so wanted to complete it and i had like 20mins more to complete the last 2km to get a sub-5 which was my personal target. In the end, on the running chip it clocked 5:01:52 Hrs. My cramps was so bad that i had to limp back the last 100 m to the finishing line The race result 2257 out of abt 19000 runners and 1540 position for the Singapore ranking... The emotion on my face was literally showing the insane cramping pain I felt in the last 4km! It was so bad, I literally limped to the finishing line for the last 100m. And from the looks of the photos, it seems im the only one who was not smiling in this photo finish.
The Full marathon finisher shirt was worth the torture! But I doubt I wld run another 42.195km run again unless I feel a good purpose for it! My conclusions of this marathon, felt the strain on my knees once I reached the 30km plus mark and i won't want to experience such extreme cramps again. And when your legs starts aching together with the sun scorching over you adding on with the demoralising construction site area after the 30 km mark... it dampened my mood for awhile. Besides the torturous part of the marathon , looking back 2010, I would never have thought I would actually signed up for this Full marathon. This crazy thought came in the midst of walking in full battle order for 72km in taiwan in march, and thinking to myself if I cld do this now, won't a 42km run in just a singlet and shorts be so much easier, and only just 5hrs of torture. And just timely with the 21km AHM in Sep, and the peer pressure from my friends to sign up for this race during my joint term in ocs, I just thought! Let's do it! :) Well at least i can say, "my childhood dream of completing a full 42.195km run in my life is fulfilled!"
Today had one of the best breaks I had at home in a long while, just doing all the things i needed to get done before i leave for my the sub-ministry retreat this weekend at NACLI followed by my first ever 42.125km Marathon!!! -Finish the 4000 words Pre-CTC essays! -Finish preparation for my sharing at the Crosstrainer retreat -Manage to settle the necessary budgeting for the Tchoukball ministry/ Crossroad tournament! -Manage to prepare the bible study session with my Sec 2 grp on sunday! -And most of all got a well deserve rest for my ankle, which i'm still nursing to recover by sunday! Pls pray for my ankle to heal! =)
Preparation for the big race!!!! And my race bib with the verse that i wrote for the back of my tee!
11-12 Nov and 19 Nov, we had our annual Mah bow Tan Tchoukball competition, held at Tampines East CC. This was the second year since i first join my first ever tchoukball tournament also in this tournament one year ago where we got the runner up place.
This year we sent a couple of teams Represented by THE CROSSRUNNERS 1 & 2...as we coincidently met in the 3/4 placing, and CROSSRUNNER 2 where i was playing end up with 3rd place after a close intense match up!
