Fruitful Days and Fruitful Nights

Monday, 15th February 2010

The past couple of days have been quite eventful.

Yesterday (which was Day 1 of CNY), we started off the day by attending the 10am service at Paya Lebar Methodist Church.  After that, we went to visit one of my bosses, whose house is located in the east. 

Last year, we had visited him (for the first time) just after having lunch at my in-laws' place, and noticed that he had prepared Peranakan food that could feed a hundred people!!! 

And so this year, we "thickened our skins" and decided to have lunch at his place. 

At the porch, he sets up something that resembles a bar counter, and so I had myself a glass of root beer, as you can see in the picture on the left.  (As a true blue Methodist, I do not drink alcohol.  I'm holding the bottle of Jack Daniels in the picture on the right to spoof what Ke$ha did in her video of the song "Tik Tok" where she sings, "Before I leave brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack".)

Having eaten our fill, it was off to another house in the east -- that of my wife's ex-colleague.  This is a friend of hers that she can spend hours on the phone talking about anything under the sun.

And then, it was off to my inlaws' place to catch up with all her siblings and nephews and nieces.  Including my kids, there are altogether 10 children and it was wonderful to see the next generation mingling.  This is indeed a wonderful testimony to Acts 16:31.  Back in the late 1970s, my wife was the first to come to know the Lord at the age of 10 through a classmate.  Soon thereafter, her siblings became Christians and then her parents followed suit at Easter 2007.  Thank you Lord that the Phuah clan (that's my wife's maiden name, by the way) are now part of your kingdom.

Oh ya, I did not mention this before but I just bought a portable karaoke set for $888 last Thursday.  It is the latest release by a Korean company called Enter-Tech, and is called Magic Sing ET-19KV.  It will only be officially released after CNY, so I got it from the agent directly.

It contains hundreds of English and Chinese songs and just need to be plugged into a TV set via RCA cables to work. 

Needless to say, the Phuah clan enjoyed a 3-hour karaoke session which ended just in time for dinner.

As usual, dinner started with a time of lo-hei, whereby we declared God's unmerited favour upon our lives and the lives of our children.  May the year 2010 be one of restful increase.  Amen? 

Here's a picture of the Phuah clan tossing the yu sheng :-)

After dinner, it was time for one last visit before calling it a night.   I have not mentioned this before on my blog because of the precarious situation previously with Rev Peter Koh, the former senior pastor of my church.  But now that he has been posted out to the smallest Methodist church in Singapore, it is safe to talk about this.  Rev Reuben Ng stays just 5 minutes away from my inlaws' place!!!  I believe it is no coincidence that he does, but all part of God's divine plan. 

And so, I have visited him very discreetly (the way Nicodemus visited Jesus in the stealth of the night) on quite a number of occasions, including every Lunar New Year since he was posted to PLMC.  My kids enjoy the CNY goodies that he has at his place, which is different from the typical goodies you find at other people's houses. 

Rev Reuben has indeed been a Godsend to PLMC.  Even though there were dark clouds of performance-based legalism looming over my church in the past 4 years or so, the silver lining was President Rev Dr Wee Boon Hup assigning him to us in August 2007 to replace Rev Barnabas Chong.  May God continue to use Rev Reuben mightily.  Amen?

Today (which is Day 2 of CNY), it was another day of visitations.  First up, it was a reunion of sorts whereby the members of the now-defunct 3L7 gather together for a late breakfast.  [For the benefit of those who have only recently been following my blog, 3L7 was the cell that was formed in Jan 2007 and shut down abruptly in Nov 2007 by Rev Peter Koh.   Notwithstanding that, the 6 members remain very, very good friends and often meet up for a game of bowling and definitely during CNY.  Mortal man may have tried to artificially separate us, but God prevails and has kept us together all these years.]

Then, it was off to my cousin's place for lunch.  He is an extremely successful businessman who owns 2 BMWs and a Porsche.  Here are my wfie and I standing next to his Porsche and declaring "my turn is next" :-)

After that, it was time for the Tay clan to visit my place for another karaoke session.  For dinner, my sis brought some prata and murtabak from the famous stall located near her house in Nee Soon.

In the evening, my daughter exclaimed that even though she had collected lesser angpows than she did last year, the overall quantity was much higher.  My son wrote on his Facebook status, "Chinese new year is the celebration when money is received because you ARE NOT MARRIED."  LOL.  God bless them for experiencing "restful increase" in their own way.

And so, it has been 2 fruitful days and nights in catching up with relatives and good friends.  Thank you Lord for our oikos.