Fifty-Fifty

 Wednesday, 20th November 2024

The title of this post is not named after that K-Pop band that was in the news for all the right and wrong reasons. (right reason = they made it to the top 10 mainstream charts of both US and UK with their song Cupid; wrong reason = they attempted to sign a deal with Warner Music but had previously signed a watertight long-term one with a local Korean company and finally had to disband prematurely).

Rather, 50-50 describes 2 events that took place yesterday.

[1] Chelsea's survivability - nope, not referring to the football club in the premier league, so read on

Firstly, that was what the vet said of the chances of our pet chinchilla, Chelsea, surviving the general anaesthetic ("GA") given to her in order to perform teeth-trimming surgery.  We have had her since 20 July 2012, and she has been a relatively low-maintenance animal.  Once a year, we would send her to have her fur de-matted and there was an occasion when she needed eye drops because the sand we used for her bath caused some minor irritation.  But in recent weeks, her appetite and level of activity dropped significantly, and when we brought her to the vet, she was found to have overgrown teeth that poked into her cheek, which led to the loss of appetite, and the build-up of gas and bacteria in her gut.

Long story short, she had to be syringe-fed food and medication prior to her surgery, and on the day of her surgery, the vet told us frankly that some pocket animals "do not wake up" after being given GA because it slows down the organs, and Chelsea's survivability was 50/50.

Both my son and I were mentally-prepared for the worst eventuality. Thankfully, Chelsea is a fighter. She got up shortly after her surgery and the nurse sent us this video of her moving around and even standing up!

Post-op, Chelsea has been responding tremendously well to the treatment of antibiotics, sodium chloride and semi-solid food.  Her recovery has been so miraculous that she has even started jumping around inside the cage and eating the hay on her own.  Hallelujah!

[2] Meet El Presidente - nope, not referring to the 45th/47th POTUS, Donald J. Trump, so read on

Regular readers of my blog know about my journey of discovering the grace gospel.  Well, my wife and I finally made the decision to change church in 2018.  You can read about that in the link found below.

My Journey of Grace Through Faith (aka How I Ended Up Changing Church)

At the lowest point of my journey in 2007, after being made to step down as both Treasurer and CG Leader (and having my CG disbanded without the decency of channelling me into another CG), God brought a wonderful fellow new-covenant believer into my life - the then-Pastor (now-Rev and soon to be President) Reuben Ng. He was the sole reason I stayed on in PLMC, with my wife and I choosing to only listen to his sermons and attending the youth service whenever he preached there.  When he was posted out to Toa Payoh Methodist Church ("TPMC") at the end of 2012,  we would look out for when he would be preaching and attend services there.  On one particular occasion in 2014, he even invited Ps Lian to preach at TPMC!

His own upward journey has been nothing short of spectacular, the only equivalent I can think of in the Bible is that of Joseph).  Very soon after becoming the Pastor-in-Charge ("PIC") of TPMC, he was appointed a District Superintendent ("DS"), of which there are only 4.  And that is only one step away from becoming President, and 2 steps from becoming the Bishop.

I happened to lunch with Rev Reuben two weeks ago, I asked him how high were the chances of him being appointed President. He said theoretically, it was 25%, because typically one of the 4 DS would be put up for the post. But history has shown that only a DS who had also been the PIC of a large church (ie. Wesley, PL, Faith and Barker) would get the job. That effectively reduced the odds to yes, 50/50, because 2 of the current DSes has never been PIC of those 4 aforementioned churches.

Well, at the 49th Annual Session yesterday, Rev Reuben was voted to become the next TRAC President after 6 rounds of ballot.  He assumes office on 1 January 2025.  Congratulations dear Sir!

In our earlier interactions, we would meet up for meals regularly (at least once a month) for a time of fellowship.  In recent times, we only meet maybe at most four times a year because of his extremely busy schedule.  Yet, he remains the same humble brother-in-Christ I first met 17 years ago.  He told me that he just wants to preach, has never had ambitions of becoming a PIC or DS, let alone President.  I replied that it is not what he wants, but what God wants of him haha.

I golfed with several ex-churchmates some time last year and was asked when I would return to PL.  I told them when I walk my daughter down the aisle (which I did on 21 September 2024) or when Rev Reuben gets posted back.  Now with him as President, the latter will definitely not happen because it represents a demotion.  God has greater things in store for him, and if (or dare I say when) the day comes of him being made Bishop, you read it here first. Praise the Lord!

The Awarder and The Awardee Shall Meet

Saturday, 9th November 2024

PLMC will be hosting the 49th session of TRAC's Annual Conference from 18 to 21 November 2024.

I will avail myself for the event, since it is open to the public.

I will also be wearing this beautiful tshirt, which was custom-made to celebrate the accolade bestowed upon this blog by someone I will only refer to as Pastor B.

I have not met Pastor B in ages, so I look forward to doing so at the Conference, and to get him to autograph the shirt, and then for both awarder and awardee to take a selfie together, and for our brotherly photo to be uploaded onto this blog.

Someone once said "never the twain shall meet", but may God allow the awarder and awardee to meet.  Amen?

ROOTSS Resurrection

Friday, 8th November 2024

Just like how Donald J Trump will be making a return to the White House after 4 years, ROOTSS has been resurrected and is making a return to blogosphere after 2 sabbath cycles (ie. 14 years).

For a start, this blog which was made private due to "controversial" topics, will be made public again. As for new content, I will publish them as the Lord leads.

And just as the Bible records events concerning the patriarchs as they took place, warts and all, so too this blog will not hunker down on nor water down what happened in those formative years when yours truly was on his journey of discovering the grace gospel.

Bon Appetite!

Taking a Breather

Wednesday, 1st September 2010

Dear friends

ROOTTSS will be taking an indefinite breather

Meanwhile, do check out the following:

(1) Progressive Revelations -- an archive of God's amazing and awesome revelations that were made over the past few years

(2) Anointed Sermons by Rev Reuben Ng of Paya Lebar Methodist Church

(3) Tough Questions Seekers Have - questions you always had about the Bible but never dared to ask

God's Timing is Always Perfect

Saturday, 21st August 2010

One of the biggest events in the history of the Loh family takes place tomorrow, and it's none other than the celebration of my dad's 75th birthday.

The idea of this party was mooted about as early as three years ago in March 2007, when we celebrated my mom's 70th birthday.  However, given that my dad is a doctor and a prominent church leader, the scale was expected to be different.  Whereas my mom's was a cosy affair with just 11 tables, it was anticipated that my dad's would be at least 25 to 30 tables.

I am therefore very grateful and thankful to God for His wonderful and perfect timing.  He had arranged such that I would Chair my company's Dinner and Dance in Feb 2010 and also co-Chair my company's Teambuilding event in May 2010 (of which I was put in charge of the gala dinner).  The experience He gave me from those two events in terms of coordinating with the keyboardist, photographer, banquet manager, sound engineer, cake delivery person, table arrangements, etc has come in extremely handy.  Thank you Lord Jesus!

I am also thankful that at the workplace, the annual audits for the countries that I have been put in charge have been completed, so I could take some days of leave off work in the past 2 weeks to put together the program for the evening.  This has been the most challenging but at the same time most rewarding part of organising this event. 

At first, I was thinking of doing a video montage, similar to the ones I did for my mom's 70th in 2007 and my wifey's 40th last year.  However, given the scale and significance of this party, the Lord impressed upon me that it should be more interactive in nature.  Hence, what has resulted is 75 powerpoint slides showcasing the various facets and interests of my dad, of which audience participation is going to be a key and integral part. You can imagine that there were hundreds upon hundreds of photos to sieve through and choose from, and I had to narrow it down to only 75 :-)

I am by nature quiet and conservative, so a video montage would have been the safer option.  However, God has been putting in me quite a bit of creative juices of late, and I have even started to enjoy speaking in public (thanks to the numerous opportunities given to me at my workplace where I have had to speak to an audience of 150-200, so addressing about 275 guests tomorrow night will be an incremental step up rather than a quantum leap).  Once again, God's timing is perfect!!!  Amen?

Anyway, some of the 75 slides (slides 1 through 11 and slides 69 to 75 to be more precise) have been put up on Facebook as a sneak peek into what is in store.  You can view them here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=195093&id=751059341&l=40d3ac27ad

The highlight of the program is called "75 Revelations about My Dad" and the 75 selected photographs as mentioned above will be used to unveil to the audience what my dad is to each of them. That's all I can reveal for now.  I will only upload the rest of the slides after the party so as not to spoil the surprise for the guests.

[Afternote: all 75 slides have now been uploaded to Facebook for your viewing pleasure]

Oh ya, and just in case you are wondering why there is a slide with a picture of my car in it (slide 69), this is because I intend to preach a "mini-sermon" on the significance of the numbers 7 and 5.  Heheh :-)

Thank you Lord for causing everything to settle nicely in place in time for the grand event tomorrow night.  I want to give all glory and honour to You, because unless You build the house, we labour in vain.  Praise you, Jesus!

Will blog about the party, so stay tuned :-)