A new mission trip in OCS!

I'm all prepared and excited for my new phrase in my life as a soldier! Will be embarking for a 9 mths training at Officer Cadet School (OCS) in SAFTI from tmr onwards! And that will be my new home and mission trip for the LORD!!!

Below is a verse that Pastor Ivan shared with me yesterday that he kept to & memorise in his days in OCS,
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."Joshua 1:9

Please keep me in prayer! =)
1) Pray for me to meet likeminded christian brothers there!
2) Opportunities to share the gospel!
3) For me to keep my focus on the LORD ALL THE TIME! =)

Will seeyall again after my first 3 weeks confinement at SAFTI! =)

"to lead, to excel, to overcome"

Events in my block leave after tekong!

This last 2 weeks of block leave sure has been quite fruitful & good break for me! I'm really thankful for the many people i got to catch up with! From my platoon mates, to my st.gabs friends, to church friends, to crusaders!

(LEOPARD 03/09 platoon 2 section 2 @ ISLAND CREMERY!)

Thurs

(BBQ with TRP crusaders! Its really been a looooooong time since saw this guys!)

Friday
Visited Tung ling bible college to attend a day session on a awesome module on Apologetics!

Saturday

(The crosstrainer food rally! The AWESOMEEEE Horfan at Geylang Lorong 9!)

The ultimate friendly match between Wesley YM as we visited the home ground of Crystallite methodist for a trilling match up! =)

(Planning our tactics!)

(Prayer from the Crystallite methodist pastor before the game start!)

(The huge supporters from the home crowd!...and with a small bunch from wesley!)

(WESLEY...WHOOO HAAAA!)



(videos of match match!)



Besides all this.... now mentally preparing myself for the loooooooooong 9 mths ahead as i got my posting to Officer Cadet School (OCS), army wing. Really appreciate all the prayers from my church mates! Especially today, when Pastor Ivan had a chat with me, which really encouraged and inspired me to give my best for the Lord in OCS! its going to be a new exciting mission trip there!

DREAMS or REALITY of the future?

It's strange whenever i sit down & to actually think that i could recall my dreams of the night before! Wells, what i said actually did happened as i wrote this on my facebook status when that thought came...

And yes i really hope what i dreamt of won't happened! Its not like a life or death kind of dream or something very bad! But it was just 3 particular upcoming events that didn't turn out the way i expected. One that will be coming up on Friday, another on Sunday & a third dream which was a bit too weird as I have no idea & connection of how it cld possibly happened, actually a forth event but that was like of the past which was quite twisted too.

It was like i was the observer in those dreams & i could still recall vividly of what happened. The dream on sunday had people i know inside, the dream on Friday was abt my NS posting, which was strangeeee? Hard to describe actually as my posting type or rather TYPES didn't really exists in reality too? But i believed maybe, just maybe those dreams were a way of God teaching me something?

Thinking back DREAMS sure are strangeee , weird, bizzare & always seemingly impossible to comprehend that it would actually happened, but it's such a perplexing phenomena that its always just nice talking about it! =)

My BMTC life in Tekong!!!

I have actually COMPLETED my Basic Military Training!!! 9 weeks just past like that! And looking back at the many events that happened, i definitely believe i have gain a lot! And i can say i definitely have change a bit too! BMT certainly make you more fitter, rugged, tougher and definitely train one to step up as a leader! And being in probably the largest company ever in bmtc and the only Enhance leadership batch in school 2, certainly makes one more competitive too as everyone here are trained to be future commanders to be posted either to SISPEC or OCS!

Belows a quick glance of the events that happened till my 24 km route march to my Graduation parade (GP)... no more called P.O.P...


(LEOPARD at GAMES DAY!!! ... we were the reigning champions for 12 times in the past! the most in sch 2!)

(The Leopard handball team of 03/09... we had the company best & best PT in our team, and we were actually the early favourites, as we came together a really strong team after 8 of us being short listed from abt 100 odd ppl trying out for handball! We dominated all our friendlies beating 4 other companies with convincing victories! but sadly...in the actually competition we only made it to the second round and lost to the eventual winner Raven which defintely was a really strong team too!)

(LEOPARD!!!!!!!!!!!!)

8 sep 2009!
A day i will never forget! As this was the day of our 24 km route march to our graduation parade! Looking back as we woke up at 3am, and prepared our gears, bandaging of toes,wore toe socks, extra socks, boots tighten and a good breakfast & warm up before we kick off by 5am! And the long march thru tekong certainly was very mentally and physically challenging, as your legs will automatically move after awhile, and ur mind just keep focusing on Graduating! And wow...after abt 9 hrs ... we finally reachhhhh our destination abt 2pm! It was a really huge achievement for all of us...feeling a great sense of joy that we are 3/4 done of our GP!!!!

The Graduation Parade! 2.45pm...

(after the march in!)


(The cool down exercise! I'm the fifth person of the front row)

(the march past!)

(the march past)

The re-entry!

(the re-entry .... Watch how as the 8 companies of BMTC sch 2 do a run in singing the song "Training to be soldiers"... and followed by an unrehearsed "LEOPARD HENTAKAKI SONG" led by our company best.. as LEOPARD COY probably the Largest company in BMTC history was the only one to show off our trademark song to the whole of sch 2!!!! We were all shocked he did that as by right we wld have stopped normally like in all our rehearsals!... but WOW at that point all eyes were on LEOPARD so we gave the best Hentakaki we cld!!! What a way to end our parade!!!!)

The putting on of caps on the recruits...


After that...

(THE BMTC ROAR!)

And FINALLYY!!!!!


(We have GRADUATED!!!!!!! It was a veryyy SURREAL EXPERIENCE as we threw our caps up in great JOY!!!! And we are actually finally officially graduated from BMTC and we are now trained soldiers!!! no more recruit... now a PRIVATE!!!)

Photos after the parade...


(the 200 push ups that Jeramy our company best shot owed our platoon sergeant! =) )

(PLATOON 2!!!!!!!!!!!)

(More photos of LEOPARD PLATOON 2!!!!!!!!!!!)

(My awesome buddy!!!)

(The Melvin,Melvin,Melvin, Darren,Darren, Ben,Ben team of PLATOON 2!!!!)


(This are really life long friends made! LEOPARD PLATOON 2!!! And the great memories that i will cherish with this people for life!)

The"sort of" last week in Tekong!

It sure was pretty an exciting last week! With GAMES DAY, RECRUIT's Night and all the Graduation day rehearsals left me pretty BURNT!
Wells looking back i'm sure gonna miss all my section & platoon mates, and all the wonderful times we had together,from field camps, to trainings, to all those physical trainings and even having fun during admin times too!

Especially in our bunks! The platoon 2 ,3 v 3 soccer tournament! Where we had a make shift soccer "stadium" in our bunk! And the make shift ball that was made with a small rubber ball wrapped with newspaper, FAD gauze & black tape! And i attached a paper with all the platoon 2 soccer players signature for rememberance!

(The make shift platoon 2 ball with the signatures of the players who was part of this!)

Oh wells now preparing for my 24km route march around tekong towards my GRADUATION PARADE from BMTC on 8 Sep!!! =)

FINALLYYY GOLD IN IPPT!!!

Finallyyyy manage to get GOLD for my ippt on monday as for the first time in my entire life got my 2.4km run to 9.34mins to secure the gold! It was quite a huge accomplishment for me as i have never ran under 10mins for the past 4 years! Seems like all those army runs help you a lot in your fitness! =)

Besides that... most of the times we were having preparation for our GAMES day next week! One of it was HANDBALL! Which i manage to get selected for the all stars team for the company! Tchoukball background certainly did aid me a lot in my shooting! Wellsss pretty excited for the Handball team as we played 3 friendly matches against other companies and won all so far! So quite confident of our team winning the title at games day! =)

Anywaysss just came back from a really refreshing time with the YM COMM at our retreat at orchid country club! Its really nice to spend a day with really likeminded christians just fellowshipping, worshipping and praying together! =) What a good day!

Ministry in the outfield!

Just back from 2 weeks in the outfield! Although i'm booking back in pretty soon in a while, just want to say the past 2 weeks sure has been quite a huge impact on my life in someway, and the only thing i wanna say is, i really thank God for many opportunities to continue to share things that are close to my heart with my sections mates. I know one of them will be reading this now! hee! you know who you are... but i want to say that... i believe those nights in the basha tents and the long sharings we all had at night abt life, our worldviews are definitely something i believed was planned by the Soverign Lord, its encouraging to hear that a couple of my section mates really like hearing to the Word each day, when they actively ask me before nights off abt my devotion sharing of the day, and of course i would gladly share with them bcoz this are teachings that are directly from God and im just that instrument to share it. =)

oh wells... going of now! FINAL IPPT tmr!!!!

The start of a movement!!!

I'm just so excited to share what has happened the past week in my life in Tekong! One of the cool highlights that our platoon has been hooked too is, the army version of "polar bear" which i shared to a few ppl in my platoon, it soon spread on to more ppl in our platoon and we started to call it "wild boar"! Where we are the soldiers, the wild boar is the polar bear, guru the "encik", healer the "medic" and an additional character the poison fish. With whatever breaktimes we had, this was our key entertainment as we bonded together as a platoon! =)

Wells actually the main thing that i wanted to share is what my blog title says...Many people serving their life in national service, will probably talk abt the stuff they do in their trainings and all, but i would rather share it in a different perspective from where God has take me!

Ever since Monday, God led me to couple more like minded Christians in my platoon and we all felt the need to start a bible study/ prayer grp so we can be accountable with one another & continue to encourage one another in the Faith!!! And soooo ...amazingly we had a long admin time on monday night to actually start our FIRST ever meet up at a quiet corridor at our level, started with 4 of us sharing a bit of our lives & we had our bibles with us, thus 2 more came later noticing that we were doing like some bible study together so their curiosity actually came to us knowing they were fellow believers too and they were interested to join too! So it expanded to 6!

So each of us started to share our hearts abt our purpose in this place, and we all had this common mutual heartfelt prayer before NS, which was to find fellow likeminded chrsitian brothers! AND WOW! God made our paths crossed for all our prayers to be ANSWERED! You know at that point that JOYOUS FEELING was so intrinsic to just know that theres others who feels the exact same way!

So we than spend some time of readin the Word & sharing together & even spend a time of prayer! We cld really sense God with us! And soon more than an hr just past like that! And it didnt stop there, we started to have such regular meet up, every single night! SOMEHOW GOD provided some time! With diff grps each day, once a couple of pre-believers sat in too! And thinking back abt that one time where we sang some songs & just worship together was simply amazing!!! =D...

We really believe that this really is a start of a great MOVEMENT in our company to come as we are forseeing it to expand to the believers to other platoons too!! And you know each time we meet up we just feel SO EXCITED!!! I recalled one night that one of my new christian buddy and me cldnt slp bcoz of the excitement of what God has showed us! AMAZING RIGHT! That was my motivation each day! But with all this going on, the SPIRITUAL WARFARE was at its peak! As the devil indeed tried to bring us down as we went closer to the Lord! A few of us started to get sick with diff problems started to happen! I got a sore throat the next day on tues & ran a slight fever from weds to fri! But THANK GOD that he kept me going till today! =)

Anyways I really want to SAY THANKS AGAIN to everyone out there who has been praying for me! This movement wont have started to happened if not for your prayers! =)

Excited to see where God can take this TEKONG ministry from here on =)

Will be stuck in camp for the next 2 weeks straight! At Field camp & Sit test! Continue to keep us in prayers! =)

God you answered my prayers again!

¹⁷ But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the Good News in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death.¹⁸ Yes, and the Lord will deliver me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into his heavenly Kingdom. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen." 2 Timothy 17-18

The above is my quiet time devotion today! And its amazing at how God has been ever so faithful! Even on weds,thurs... when my morale somehow went a bit lower than normal... and i tried not to show it but somehow my section mates cld tell... its times like this when i allowed the "fiery darts" of the devil to bring me down mentally! And it happened! So i sent an sms out to a couple of friends! And AMAZINGLY my prayers were all answered on friday it self! Theres so much that happened on friday but due to the classfied info of our trainings i can't mention. But i wld say...the long time we had then gave me opportunities from God to share the closet thing to my heart to a couple of my platoon mates! Even got to meet a fellow likeminded christian brother there! And wow! THANK GOD for HIM! =) Its nice to know there are others out there who really understand you bcoz of the similar Faith we hold in our Almight Lord! Felt so good encouraged after the whole of friday night! =)

THANK YOU everyone who prayed for me! =)

Going back to church tmr for the first time in 3 weeks! Miss my sec 1 GELs! And wellsss got to book in right after that! =/... wells! back to my lovely bunk again with my lovely section mates! =)

Back from my 2 Weeks in TEKONG!!!

It sure was quite a memorable 2 weeks confine in Tekong!!! Can't really say much of the happenings there as was told that all army trainings are restricted! So will just share about the awesome sections mates i got to know in this 2 weeks!

Anyways first of all, i really want to THANK everyone who have been praying for me ever since i enlisted to NS! God certainly has been faithful! Protecting my section mates and me! A lot has happened oever the last 2 weeks but wld share personally only as i'm not allowed to reveal too much here!

Was enlisted to Leopard company platoon 2, section 2 the only enhance Leadership batch in sch 2! And i would say this 14 guys which i got to know here sure did help in my enjoyment in going through the tough trainings together with them! The camaraderie between us is building up! And the cheers and songs we sang together during our admin times and marches sure kept me going! Its also quite funny as i related some of the events to the Singapore classic show Army Daze in some of the trainings we gone thru and the personalities we see in army!

I really Thank God for my section mates! We really have 14 guys who have so diverse
personalities and talents living together! We all are starting to get our own nicknames already! Let me try to name some of them!

Starting from bed order...
1) Jeremy Sng (Holds the Guiness Record for the Fastest SMS in the World)
2) Kok Rui (aka Xiao Bai lian, is a Personal relation man at a ladies night club)
3) Boyce (the big strong guy who really has one LOUD voice!)
4) Louis loo (The avid liverpool fan who has watch all their matches for dunno how
long in a row!
5) Kang yang (the veggie man!)
6) Cheng Qian (WUSHU MAN!)
7) Raymond Lee (My awesome BUDDY!!!!...a Great singer! he got 2nd place in his sch singing contest!)
8) Ben Lau (mee! hhahas! wells they call me "Father or Pastor")
9) Desmond (aka Ah pui...the future "inche")
10) Ryan
11) Seng
12) Duane
13) Mark (If i'm not wrong he is the 13th place in the CS cybergames ranking in Singapore!)
14) Darren Teo (The recourse-cee who if not for him, our section wld be a little off track, as he had experience in BMT before! , he was also a regular emcee for his sch and supposedly quite high profile in his sch days)


A side note... SINGAPORE are 3rd in the WORLD in TCHOUKBALL, after narrowing beating Great britan at the WORLD GAMES in Taiwan! GOOD JOB GUYS!!!

G.E.L gathering @ kesley house!

This will probably be my last blog post for quite awhile... as you all will know by now...that few hours time i will be enlisting to Pulau Tekong BMTC sch 2!!! And as im going in on a monday! Most likely i will be missing 2 weekends which means 3 weeks later than i will booked out!

But i would say its a nice last day to spend as a civilian...today was YM@Church today! First led the time of corporate prayer, then said a few more goodbyes to the ymers i met there... and then met my sec 1 grp GEL for 1130 service before we left right after for Kesley house in novena!


(The crosstrainer booth!)

@Kesley BIG PAVILION HOUSE!

Was really in awe as we all step into his house! It sure was a very open concept double volume architecture pavilion!!! It was really cosy and spacious as we hangout at his place the whole afternoon! Anyways THANKS KESLEY for opening out your house! And GELs really appreciate this "farewell" party for me! Anyways i may be in NS! But you all are one of my key motivation to be back on sundays each time!!! Seeyall sooon! =)

(His swimming pool!!!!)


(ROCK BAND! .... played some mini pool!)


(The music room where there is a drum set, few guitars, piano etc.)

(the lovely cards that my lovely GELs gave me...and this cake which max,walter & nick got me!)


(I will miss this bunch of lovely G.E.Ls!)

SEEYALL PEOPLE! For now i dunno when my next book out is going to be! but i guess it will be 3-4weeks time! but wellsss.... Please pray that i will meet like-minded christians there! For my Shin splint which i hope will not get worst at BMT! And wells! Most of all, really need ur prayers for me to keep my focus on the LORD all the time! Its going to be one memorable MISSION TRIP TO PULAU TEKONG!!!! =)

A memorable weekend with God's Clay!

It was a nice time gathering at Chin Ee's & Mark place today, as she open up her hse for our small grp to come by for some high tea! =)



(The yummy foooood! And the chocolate fondue we bought for her wedding!)

(And we saw this rainbow! Its like everytime we gathered together God shows us this rainbow of His promise of our grp! The last i remembered was our small grp retreat last year!)

And indeed the time after the gathering@ Chin Ee's hse was indeed very memorable! We decided to actually spend some intentional time of really HONEST sharing with one another on how our grp has come & actually to really catched up with each other spiritual life! It was quite funny how we actually took away macs and actually sat down in a circle at some random void deck to do this heartfelt sharing! And i was truly encourage by the maturity of how each of us viewed & shared our honest thoughts on the grp! And all this sure did take our grp a step even closer to each other & im sure this is a new milestone for our future as we continue to strive to support each other in Love & share our lives each day!

Many last goodbyesss =)
Willl also miss all the wesley ymers too! As i spent a "Last supper" with them after GAP yesterday! And today was the last Tchoukball session with the Kovan team for awhile too! So was also given the opportunity to share my testimony to them during the devotion before training!
And of course i'm sure gonna miss God's Clay when im in NS!!!!!!!!!! I'm my beloved sec 1, G.E.Ls who is organising a farewell party for me tmr in my LAST day as a civilian!

Tchoukballll!!!!!!!

As usual have been really active playing a lot of Tchoukball and trying to start a tchoukball ministry in wesley before i leave for NS!

Tuesday night...

Paya Lebar Kovan played a friendly match against the National World Games Girl's & Men's team back to back! It sure was quite an experience playing with both teams! As they were really wayyyyy better than all of us! Manage to be in a game at one of the highest level of Tchoukball!

After the match was left with a sprain left thumb, strain 2 fingers & a pull hamstring!

(the first friendly against the Girl's national team!)


(A short video of the first friendly against the Girl's national team!)

Wednesday!

(Wesley Tchoukball Pick up game 3@ Fort Canning Park!)

4 days time to FREE ACCOMMODATION! FREE FOOD! $2 hair cut! Paid for doing exercises,going for field camps, holding a gun! And of course lots of new friends to be made at the best adventure camp ever in pulau tekong! =) Can't waitttttttt for this 2 years mission trip! =)

Sharing at AGAPE CUP!, Running! Tchoukball! Soccer!

Its been one busy week playing a lot of sports from running,to exercises to tchoukball(ALOT of it), to Soccer every singleday!! But before that would like to share what i shared before our soccer AGAPE CUP match today! AGAPE CUP – 5 July 2009 Testimony Sharing- Ben Lau I’m honored to be given this opportunity to be sharing something really close to my heart to you all today! I’m not here to preach a sermon, but to just share a short story of my life! I’m just like all of you all here! Soccer is one of my greatest passions, been exposed to this sport ever since my primary school days! A short background of my life first, I was born in a Christian family, but I would say I was not really a true Christian in my first 16 years of my life, I would actually call myself a “Sunday Christian” . I was just this shy quiet boy whose life everyday than was really just about soccer! Looking back at my secondary school days, I’m really grateful of being given the chance to play for my school which is known for its good soccer record, even had the privileged to train with some of Singapore brightest stars than; many of them are now active in the Singapore soccer scene. And when I actually looked back at my secondary school life 4 years ago, God actually place a particular soccer coach that inspired us all, I still remember vividly before a key school B division national match up when he shared to us a challenging time in his life, and how God saw him through it. He then shared with us the importance of winning in the ‘game’ of life and not just the game of soccer. And somehow what he said actually sipped into my mind in a very subtle way. At the end of my sec 4 year, I went for a youth camp in my church where for the first time in my entire life, I actually had an experience with God! And that change my entire life totally! And I really mean totally! From that shy quiet boy, I suddenly gain the confidence in Christ! And looking back, I would NEVER EVER imagine myself than having the courage to share all this right now! Even in my perspective of how I lead my life now! Now I realised that it’s so true of what my coach said to us than! That there’s more to life than just winning every game in soccer! It’s actually knowing that God is the centre of my life, and I want to give my best for Him in everything I do! Be it in study, NS (which I’m going in next week) or in soccer! And you know, recently I came across this article on this Famous player Kaka! I’m sure all of you have heard of him right? For those who don’t know, Kaka was born in the Brazilian capital Brasilia on April 22, 1982, he once shared this… “When I was young, I dreamt of becoming a professional player for Sao Paolo and to play a match with the national team. But the Bible tells us that life gives you more than what you ask for and that’s what has happened to me.” What happened was… In October 2000, at the age of 18, Kaka suffered an accident that was a milestone in his faith. Coming down a water slide, he hit his head at the bottom of the pool and fractured the spine in his neck. He risked being paralyzed and bedridden, unable to play soccer any more. This was a career-threatening accident. But his injury healed and the worst did not happen. He was able to return to soccer. Kaka believes that it was God in His grace who saved him from paralysis and allowed him to play soccer again. In his thankfulness for God’s grace, Kaka raises his arms to the sky whenever he scores a goal. And whenever he plays a match, he always wears his T-shirt “I belong to God” under his team shirt. He also tithes a part of his income to his church. And now a key member of the Brazilian national soccer team, and recently moving to Real Madrid for a World Record Signing of €59 Million pounds from AC milan, Kaka is famous throughout the world. Kaka is the poster boy of today’s soccer throughout the world. His imaginative soccer play and deep Christian faith is making an impact on millions of young men and women. But Kaka always remembers God. “I don’t win alone,” he said last December. “I want to thank God for all the victories and achievements I had this year as a player.” To end off, I just want to say that ever since I came to know Christ there’s this inner joy in me that I can’t describe in words, that missing thing in my heart was filled by Christ Love for me! And it’s so great in my life that I just want to take an opportunity like this to share this Love with you all. Like what my soccer coach once said…”it’s about the importance of winning in the ‘game’ of life and not just the game of soccer.” Thank You! =) (That's my coach who shared his inspiring story to us during the national rounds.. we won the B'div South Zone title that year!) Monday Had a nice run at macritchie!... did those exercise circuit in between & after! And wow sure had a nice time reflecting a lot in those time of solitude! Caught up with some crusade mates! Tuesday Tchoukball at Kovan CC at night! Caught up with st.gabs mates! Weds Tchoukball training session with wesley ym at Fort Canning! ( Wesley Ym Tchoukball training session@Fort Canning) Thurs Precept classes... Friday The Tchoukball friendly matches between Wesley Ym & YDC for both the boy's and girls!

TcTch

(the guys match up! we lost 19-40... but i think we did pretty well for the first time playing together & going thru like 1 training only against a slightly more experience team)



(Videos of the girls match!-The wesley ym girls actually did quite well, even though they were playing together for the first time with some only going thru 1 training session! And at one end of the court for a moment they were up against 3 of the top national girl players and they even scored a couple goals past them! GOOD JOB team! =)
Saturday

(Training at Kovan CC in the morning)

Rush to Marcus wedding@ Church! met up with aysgls and than met up with ethel,jem,wenhao!...

Sunday
Last bible session with GEL for quite a while before i enlist! also the last crosstrainer comm session with them, and also possibly my last agape cup match for wesley! And finally got my first goal in this agape cup match,was pretty surprise that the ball went in when i just tried a long range shot from the right flank!

7 more days till my hair is gone! This last week sure is going to be so busy, alot of unfinished buisness & catching up before my hair is gone! =)