Tuesday, July 28, 2009

pre-Mission Trip

2 days to go before I'm leaving for Darwin for the mission trip, honestly I was so ready to go last week but this week was just a bit meh for me. I don't feel ready, I don't feel confident and prepared. Many stuffs has happened to my friends and myself personally which just sucks. I'm okay, just need some time seeking God and praying. I think not just me but I reckon most of the team aren't ready as we should be but I hope that we won't go there for nothing but really expect God to move because it is a very important mission trip as we're going to break new ground in just 4 days. I know its definately the enemy trying to bring us down but we're not going down because we're going to stand firm on our faith and moving forward in Faith. It's not easy but when we come to the place of surrendering and being broken to God, that's where we find times of refreshing and our spirit filled again.

I'm actually writing this at work haha. Just got back with helping a lady clean up a dirty mess her husband just did. HE PUKED ON THE CORRIDOR!! ewww me and my manager were all dry reaching and it was just so hard for us to even get close, the smell was so bad, the tomatoes and rice were all over the floor...... I'm not sure if I can go have my dinner later -_-

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The One with the Promotion

I got a call from my manager at work today and she said she needs to have a chat with me. I began thinking 'uh-oh' was it because of the request I've asked for the past week on not being able to work on Wed and Sunday because of Church and about the Mission Trip stuffs I'm going to have? Bad thoughts begin to hit me and I just thought 'okok, God if I do get scolded or told off, pls give me strength to not cry but accept it.' *took a deep breath* went in and see her, and she told me to sit down.

'Jason you're not supposed to wear necklaces at work, pls take it off.'

In my head I was thinking of phew, just that.

'also.... as you know Julia is promoted to Guest Service Manager, and there's an empty slot in Front Office Receptionist, I was thinking you'll do well in that role and was wondering if you would like to work in the front office.' Man! without thinking, I said YES!!! haha.

Honestly, I wouldn't expect to get promoted so quickly, considering I just worked here for 3 weeks and had one accident in valet parking last week. It's pretty exciting that I can work in front office because that has been my goal and prayer even before I got landed a job here. I told God "I don't want housekeeping or food and beverage, I want to work in the front office' and I know its hard seeing most of the Front office people are always women and I don't know I feel like I'm the first guy ever to be in the front office in this resort I'm working in!

I know at the end of the day it was God's favor, His provision and blessings. One thing I would like to share was how in the 5 months of not being able to get a job and working on a measely 9 hours a week in McD, I had just enough to cover for food and rent but not enough for life. I was struggling, my bank acc was running low and people would ask me to go out and I would say no because I don't have money. Even tithing and giving my 10% was a big challenge, I did give my 10% every week but one Sunday all I had was $20 in my wallet and my 10% was $10. I tried asking people if they had change but none of them did and during tithing ,I was still deciding if I wanted to give all I had which was my $20 in my wallet, but God reminded me of the verse

“‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Mal. 3:10-11).

I took a deep breath and prayed to God that I won't give my tithe just because I had to give, but I want to give with a good heart, knowing that the money will be used for His kingdom and knowing God will provide. True enough a week later I got my concierge job and 3 weeks later, I have this promotion :D I mean c-mon!! Here I am all new to the workplace, and there are people who has worked here for years and I got it? It's definately God and I believe its the same in workplace as church when you have a willing heart to serve and learn and grow then God will definately raise you up.

I believe that tithing our 10% is really important, it's God testing our faithfulness and how we are stewards with our money, and I like how Kong hee puts it that tithing qualifies or disqualifies us from God's wealth and abundance. Its amazing how God says that the Devourer will be rubuked and God will protect our finances from being 'eaten away'.

Is this a prosperity message? *gasps* jeng jeng jeng. I guess it is, because I was never a strong and firm believer in God blessing me abundantly, I was afraid to ask, I was thinking that I would be selfish and God would get angry. God had to break my heart and get me out of my shell to believe God for greater things. God does want to bless us, but there must be a balance as well, because its not all about blessing me me me but with God blessing us, we can be a blessing to the Church and the people we have in our lives, thus I want to encourage you to 'Try God' now and believe for God's blessings in your life!

Well I'm not offically promoted yet, because they have to find somebody to cover my spot but Praise God ey?!! =P

World of Warcraft movie!!

From correspondents in Los Angeles, Reuters

ACCLAIMED director Sam Raimi has been hired to make a movie based on the role-playing fantasy video game World of Warcraft, entertainment industry press reports said today.
Raimi, best known for directing the trilogy of blockbuster Spider-Man superhero movies as well as classic 1981 horror film The Evil Dead, will shoot the film after completing work on Spider-Man 4, Daily Variety said. World of Warcraft is a multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Southern California company Blizzard Entertainment and set in a fantasy world featuring monsters, humans, zombies and magical lands. The franchise was first launched in 1994 and currently has more than 11 million monthly subscribers worldwide, holding the Guinness World Record for most-subscribed multiplayer online game.

Okay.... most of us knows most movies that based on novels or games tend to suck, however this director had a lot of good movies in his repertoire. Finger cross that he won't mess up this movie... seriously. I'm a big fan of Warcraft (although I've quitted DOTA) I still would like to watch a movie based on it so its gonna be interesting >=)

Monday, July 20, 2009

Getaway

I have a problem that is very unhealthy and that is comparing myself to other people. When I see what others that are close to me are achieving it, and how they are changing and moving forward, I would look at myself and see what a rotten scum I am. I know its very unhealthy and we all have our own individual races thus there’s no particular reason why I have to compare myself to others, I know I should be happy when my brothers and sisters are growing and thank God for His work at their lives. I guess it’s the ‘kiasu’ person in me to want to be the best, to want to be better than other people but that’s stupid because there’s always someone better than you/me. Okay, i’ve identified the problem now I need God grace to work in this area of my life...

On a brighter note, we had our Joshua Generation life group getaway 2 days ago. It was just a day to celebrate and thank God for what He has done in Acts29 and planning for the next 6 months. We also set a time just to thank and appreciate everyone individually which is good because we don’t really get to do that much. I was blown away, touched and really humbled what the ppl in my group were thanking me for. I just never knew the little or big stuffs that I did had made some sort of an impact in their lives. I never knew how my passion for God is that contagious and ppl are encouraged by it, I never knew (and still don’t understand) how I’m a trailblazer, I was also encouraged when they say I’ve taken the transition for a boy to becoming a Man hahah, I was encouraged that they can see how I’ve grown spiritually as well ,although that is still a learning and growing process. There were a lot more but I really can’t remember all of them -.-

Honestly though, I’ve never given much thought on what I did will have an impact in ppl’s lives, Maybe because I just don’t spend so much time reflecting on what I do but I just do it and not dwell on it. I really really appreciate and thank for the wonderful people I have in x29 because at the end of the day its them that has made a difference in my life J

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Take all of me....

One thing that Belle preached last Sunday really strucked me was how when she first became a Christian, she was so on fire for God that she would do Anything at all for God! She then begin to start a prayer meeting in her workplace immediately, the top people from management would even come for the prayer meeting!! How cool is that? Funny thing was she said looking back now it was kinda embarassing but aren't we like that?

I became a Christian when I was a youth at a youth camp, I remembered the time when I first felt the Love of God and gave my life to him. I would then walk about 40min under the hot sun every saturday to youth group B because my parents was working. That was how hungry and thirsty I was to encounter God. I remembered to want to preach in my own youth group A right away, and want to inspire and impact the lives of the youth because of what we encountered during camp. I even wrote it down ready to preach and asked the person in charge if I could do it.. obviously he said no because I was still a 'youth' and 'young'. I remembered I would do anything as well! I would tell off my parents that God can Heal and you dont need to buy medicines, I would then always find opportunity to tell my friends about Jesus.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still doing that but God is reminding me again my first love, my first passion for Him and to live a different life from who I was. God was convicting me that we would do those because we had childlike faith, we believe that God can do anything through us, because as we are more mature in age we would tend to give reasons like 'ooh, that person has a very hard heart, oh... I can't speak to someone not from my culture, oooh I'm afraid to go and ask that person if I can pray for healing for him' where was that? I would do that when I was a youth "not saying I'm old =P " but yea God was reminding me that passion I had for him and wants to stir that fire in me again.
Lord take all of me for all of you.
Give me a childlike faith..
One that will believe your word , never doubts and questions but would obey wholeheartedly
The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. —Luke 18:27

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

2 (mini) miracles at work today!

It might seem little to you guys but this miracle is huge for me.

First miracle was before I started work. My boss called me to see if I can swap my shift on Saturday to Friday and that itself was a miracle because we have prayer meeting on Saturday (Never ever gonna miss that) and we have our Acts29 JG getaway which I really want to attend because we'll be talking and planning for our life group for the next 5 months and I wanted to be part of it. It has been in my heart to really want to go but I never did pray for it but my heart did desire for i. Praise God that He moved and turned the whole situation around so I could go for prayer meeting and our getaway!

Anyway... going back to work, it was the first time I really screwed up in my job. I had to do a valet park and this wasn't a car, it was a van and its really high because it has this bag holder thing on top of the van. I didn't notice it at first until I went to the second level and I started to hear scrapping noise. Got out of the car quickly and found out that I made a hole to the bag holder thing O_O Last I heard, a concierge at my workplace scrapped the paint of the side door of a car and the customer wasn't impressed.. I can imagine what I'll get for this. I was like omgoshhh what am I going to do... but then the Holy Spirit quickly reminded me that I always break down when bad situation comes and I'm not acting how a Christian should live. I then took a deep breath, said a short prayer and know that what done is done , I know the large hole won't miraculously fix itself so I just trusted God that His grace will be with me and I'll not get yelled at.

I quickly told the manager so she could take care of it, then went for a break (and so I can hide away, just in case) came back 30min later, my manager told me
'It was okay, everyone makes mistakes, we're all human :)
....and you're really lucky because the guest SPECIFICALLY told us not give you a hard time because everyone makes mistakes. The guest was pretty nice about it, you're very lucky because 9 out of 10 guest would get mad.' I'm like 'WOW!' Thank You GOD!!! How great and awesome is He?? Amazingly the guest is okay with it and that's all that matters. My manager understood the situation and she was pretty cool about it as well. I'm really thankful to have a good manager as well because usually when things go sour, most supervisors I work with will start to swear and go haywire lol. Actually I think my manager couldn't even believe the guest was okay with it especially when I heard this was the 3rd time this has happened.... I wanted to share that it was God's grace but I was abit emmm... not comfortable and abit scared at the mometn because its just my 2nd week, but I do hope that they can see that God's Favor is in me.

So yeah, in the end I don't have to pay the damages because luckily enough the hotel covers for all the damages.... phew.

Work has been good so far, got commented by my manager that I'm doing 'exceptionally well' and when I asked for any improvements she said 'nope, you're doing good, its a learning process where we learn as we do things and you handled all the pressures well, good job!'

Apologies if this post seems a bit messy, I just got back from work and I need to go sleep now because in 8 hours I'll be working again lol.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Jesus Culture.....

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors......

I got this revelation from God a week ago when this came up from a conversation with a friend, and from this revelation came with another awesome revelation. So what was it?

It's culture.... it's the way we speak, act and behave. Its taking a transition from our culture to Jesus Culture.
As a Malaysian one of our favorite quote is 'DIE LAHH' Whenever something bad happens our first reaction is 'DIE LAHHHH'
or when when someone offended us we go 'That person ahh.... He @#$# this and that....... you know what he say....&^%&^ I cannot tahan him you know'
or how about driving and parking?
'waaaa tat $%# took my car park!!!! *&^*&^ tat driver so lousy'
Well that's one of the few of malaysian culture..
Maybe for the Western culture is that they love being sarcasatic? (I'm guessing)

I think you get what I'm trying to say here. Point is... God was challening me that
If I'm representing Christ...
If I'm called to be salt and light and to make an influence of the world then there has to be a standard. That standard is not of the worlds but of God. We stand on our convictions knowing what we believe in. Standard of convictions, standard of truths all from the Bible. Even also not following what other Christians are doing, because not all the time what they're doing are beneficial... its not wrong but not beneficial. So God was challenging me to get into His word, know the truth, get the convictions in and defend it, because those are the foundations that will help build me up and help build others.

So when bad circumstances happens instead of going what us Malaysians would always do like 'Die lahhh, no chance' we bring in the Jesus Culture and go 'Its ok, God is in control.. I trust Him' Imagine what your friends would think with those two different reactions?? Because AT THAT MOMENT.... you can either influence or be the same as the world and not make a difference. Which is it going to be? Thats an opportunity right there.

Prayer Meeting was so awesome yesterday and God was just confirming it through what Pastor Lance was sharing... He was giving the same example like 'When someone badmouthes a person, then are you going to join in and go 'Yeah!! That person is like a cow, He cant do his work well ...etcetcetc' or you can go 'Mmmm I know his like that but I want to pray for him and believe he can change' WOW!!! Is that awesome or what? Lance was then sharing about being imitators of God.. in our speech, in our character... its just basically what God was sharing with me for the past week bringing Jesus Culture in!!

Man, I'm so convicted and challenged to live in a whole notha' level......

Jesus help me then to develop Godly Biblical standards in my life for your glory

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

The One with the Job

After 5 months of praying, fasting, moulding my character, breaking and guidance from God, God finally provided me with a permanent part-time job in a 4.5 star resort. It really took a lot of perseverance and in the mean time God was providing weekly with just enough to survive with rent, groceries and fuel.. just barely. It was my first ever interview and I nailed it!

When I told Cheryl that I had an interview she literally screamed happily as if I just got engaged....and when I announced it in life group today it was the same reacion.. man I'm so blessed to have people around me that really supports and encourage you.

One thing I learnt a lot through this journey of getting this job but one thing I would like to share was not to settle for second best and believe that God has something bigger planned for you. I was actually complaining to God that I know I deserve something more, Im not meant to be in Maccas (not that its a bad thing) but I know I'm meant for something greater and true enough God confirmed to me when he showed me how Joseph was called to be someone great but he was in Prison, but God then took him from being in Prison to becoming a great man in Egpyt. So I was like.. wow! Ok I claim that promise along with the verse he gave me in Mark 10:24 '.....Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have recieved it and it will be yours' Revelation I got was the moment you stop praying for something, you have lost your faith in it, So time to time God has been strengthening me and growing me to be ready for the job.

So it's a Concierge Job and tomorrow's my first day at work, hopefully it'll go well. Will update more soon ,gotta go to bed now cos I have to wake up at 4.45 am to get ready for work at 6 -.-

It's a miracle how I got the job (even in the midst of recession) and its truly by God's grace...
Interviewer: 'In your resume I see that you wrote you've worked as a Porter before, tell me more about that'
Me: 'Oh nothing much, just carrying and unloading bags thats all'