HERE I COME, APYAC!

Tomorrow Youth Alive Malaysia (YAM) is hosting APYAC (Asia Pacific Youth Alive Conference)! All in all, more than 1400 young people have registered, coming from all over Asia Pacific including Africa and the UK! I am privileged and honoured to be involved, albeit a small part in this youth event of the year in Malaysia. All I can say today is, "Let's bring it on!"

The planning started last year and it got to a feverish phase especially last few days, with so many angles needed to be covered. I thank God for Glad Tidings PJ for their wonderful and able workers who literally work round the clock to make this event a success! They did an excellent preparatory work which helps tremendously when APYAC kicks off tomorrow!

What I expect from APYAC....

1. Jesus Christ will be magnified and glorified!

2. Youth will be challenged to stand for Jesus no matter what!

3. Leaders, missionaries will be raised up by God in this conference!

4. Youth will be set free from all kinds of distractions and bondages to serve God all the way!

5. All participants will be blessed by the ever-gracious God who will pour out His grace in abundance. Everyone will be touched in a personal and powerful way!

Hallelujah! Amen!

UNTIL THE WHOLE WORLD HEARS!

I heard this song in U tube from a blog I frequented and I was fascinated by the lyrics. The song has some elements of the visions of our Youth Ministry. Anyway, this song is timely as the end draws near!

Song sung by a top Christian band, Casting Crowns - The band is at US #1 Christian chart right now and the song below, #2! Congratulations!



Lord I want to feel your heart
and see the world through your eyes
I want to be your hands and feet
I want to live a life that leadsChorus

Ready yourselves
Ready yourselves
Let us shine the light of Jesus in the darkest night
Ready yourselves
Ready yourselves
May the powers of darkness tremble as our praises rise

Until the whole world hears Lord we are calling out
Lifting up Your name for all to hear the sound
Like voices in the wilderness
we're crying outas the day draws near
We'll sing until the whole world hears

Lord let your sleeping giant arise
Catch the demons by surprise
Holy nation sanctified
Let this be our battle cry

Chorus

We'll sing until the whole world hears
We'll sing until the whole world hears
Want to be your hands and feet
Want to be a life that leads
To see you set the captive free
Until the whole world hears and
I pray that they will see more of you and less of me
Lord I want my life to be the song
You sing

Until the whole world hears
Lord we are calling out
Lifting up your name up for all to hear the sound
Like voices in the wilderness we're crying out
as the day draws near

We'll sing until the whole world hears
We'll sing until the whole world hears
We'll sing until the whole world hears
We'll sing until the whole world hears
We'll sing until the whole world hears
We'll sing until the whole world hears

CNN HERO OF THE YEAR: Efren Peñaflorida

Last week, I chanced upon the CNN - Hero of the Year awards ceremony and I almost hit myself for not tuning in earlier. I have never cried so much while watching television as this one. It was so inspiring to watch men and women who unselfishly gave their all to serve others! If this is not what the world needed, I don't know what is! God must have been smiling!

There were ten recipients of the HERO award chosen all over the world and only one, the best of the best, would receive HERO of the Year. The HERO award got USD 25,000 each and the HERO of the Year got extra USD 100,000 to further help them to serve others.

The winner this year for the HERO of the year is Efren Peñaflorida from the Philippines. He started the "Kariton Klassroom" to bring education to poor children who are easily influenced or pressured by gangs who will recruit them.

As a child, Peñaflorida was beaten and bullied by gangsters but he chose education over gang life in Cavite City where he was born. He vowed to create a way for other children to make the same choice. He set a Dynamic Teen Company and with teenage co-workers brought books to children in slums and on the streets, and the Company's 10,000 volunteers have brought reading, writing and hygiene to 1,500 youngsters.

The group later launched the “Kariton Klassroom,” an innovative way of bringing the classroom to the children in the depressed areas. The pushcart classroom is now complete with teaching aids, blackboards and even folding tables and chairs to allow children to sit and read materials.

Peñaflorida recalled that he and other volunteers had to endure discrimination and even being branded as “trash collectors” with their pushcarts whenever they carry out their noble mission.

The public, however, took notice of Peñaflorida’s ingenious way of bring education to poor children by nominating him to the CNN’s list of heroes for this year.

Peñaflorida urged the crowd to “be the hero to the next one in need.” He also called on them to “serve well, serve others above yourself and be happy to serve.”

“As I always tell to my co-volunteers... you are the change that you dream as I am the change that I dream and collectively we are the change that this world needs to be,” Peñaflorida said.

Peñaflorida created a program that “My message to children of all races, please, to embrace learning and love it for it will embrace and love you back and enable you to change your world,” Peñaflorida said.

Efren Peñaflorida, I salute you as I salute the rest of the nine CNN heroes and many million unsung heroes all over the world who helped to make this world a better place!

PS: What is your dream of serving others? Unleash what God has put inside you and with God, nothing is impossible!

STOP HARASSING YOURSELF!

Last week, twenty year old supermodel from South Korea was found hanged in a Paris apartment. Kim Daul had great potential to make it really big and was already pretty hot for leading fashion brand like Channel. People said the fashion glamorous world is full of hellish challenges and super competitive; some models even took drugs and some not eating at all just to keep slim!

20 years old, just a year after her teenage years and already being thrown into the troubled and chaotic world of GLAM! Where's her mom and dad?

According to report, South Korea ranked third in terms of suicides per head of population among the 30 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development member nations in 2007, with 18.7 in every 100,000 people killing themselves.

Kim Daul before she committed suicide had written in her blog about how she harassed herself in order to be successful! In other words, she was overly harsh on herself! She might be smiling for the camera or being nice to her friends and audiences but could be hating herself to the point of killing herself!

Are you harsh on yourself today? Sometimes I admit I am! God may have forgiven all of us but sometimes we cannot forgive ourselves! We make a mistake and we jump! When we did not meet our expectations, we hit ourselves until blue black with our words! Worse, sometimes we even think of suicide..woooooa.....!

I think it's time you give yourself a break! I know we want to do our best but more often than not, it is for our ego! I want others to see my best and not my mistakes! Be real lah! Life is not fair and we make mistakes! Stop living in a make believe world and stop letting others dictate what you need to do! God knows you and He knows your name! Ask him to give you direction for your life! Don't depend too much on other people for your life!

When we moan and groan because we made a mistake because we felt we have let others down! Others again! You know what, others would have forgotten what you did and they have their own life to live and own problems to take care of!

Most importantly, God loves you and He knows your weaknesses! And God will never ever say, "Hey, how come you so stupid one!"

PS: Caution: Don't use your weakness as an excuse too (I don't care you like it or not, I am like that loh)

WE WERE WARNED, AND WARNED, AND WARNED, AGAIN!

2012 - the movie that shot up to #1 spot when it was opened in the States! People love to see how the world is being destroyed but crossed their fingers that it won't happen in their life time.

The young ones said, "Hey, I am not married yet", "Wei, I don't want to die young", "Yo, I have not really enjoyed life just yet," and many other things in view of the coming disaster!

The idea of doomsday haS been in existence since who knows when! Thousands of years ago, a prophet by the name of Joel (from the Bible) predicted of the coming world disaster - which was then carried along into the New Testament where Jesus confirmed it. By then, there was no turning back, the world has been bombarded by doomsday prediction right until the present day. Hollywood added another dimension to it by coming out with various ways of earth's breaking apart.

The Bible has been most consistent when it come to earth's breaking apart. From the OT to the NT, it was saying the same thing without contradicting each other.

(Joel 3:14-15) Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine.

(Isa 13:9-10) See, the day of the LORD is coming --a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger-- to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

(Mat 24:29-30) "Immediately after the distress of those days "'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.

(Rev 9:1-2) The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.

There are some religious people who predicted dates that attached to doomsday. Jehovah Witnesses is the most frequent date predicters for Jesus' Second Coming and end of the world and every single time, they were wrong! And the recent 2012 would be another date to watch out for! Albert Einstein predicted (no one knows why) that when bees disappeared from the world, we would have 4 more years before the end! Strangely, by 2006, bees started to disappear in large areas of the world! Scary!

Jesus was asked about dates too whether at what time he would come again. Thank God Jesus did not tell us the date or else the world will shut down!

Because of the wrong predictions of dates leading to the end of the world, people today seem to relax and deep in their minds, they will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."

That saying above comes from a verse in the Bible (2 Peter 3:4).

If we will live beyond 2012 and I believe we will, then more people will get disillusioned.

Yes, we have to warn people of Doomsday but don't tell them dates. Just tell them be ready because it could be anytime! Maybe, even before 2012 - there I go again, dates!

(Mat 24:44) So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

(Mat 24:50) The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of.

TATTOO ME, I AM DEPRESSED!

I read from a newspaper the other day of a guy, about 30 years old, tattooed all over his body words like, "Hell", "Death", "Devil" and many other hellish words. The reason, his wife left him for another man. Psychologists said that this depressed man actually longed to die or perhaps didn't want to bother about life anymore. What a depressing story, worse than Liverpool's defeats. Some are now calling Liverpool, Loserpool, grrrrrrrrrr!

What makes this man so depressed that he couldn't live anymore?

1. He puts his whole hope and life on his wife.

I believe in romance and I loved my wife very dearly. But there is one more thing in life much more than my wife, that is my God! God is the reason why I exist and the reason I have my purpose in life, that includes loving my wife, a major part of my life. But if your only hope is your wife or gf or bf, then watch out, you may have to tattoo yourself too!

2. He doesn't take advice from anyone.

I believe many have talked, counselled, pleaded with him, take him to watch football matches, movies, comedy shows, introduced him pretty girls. I don't think he listened well. His heart has taken over his mind.

3. He wants to gain attention so that maybe to hurt his wife or to have her back.

People resort to all kinds of actions when they are depressed. Most people would drink out their sorrows. But there will be double pain the next morning, the heart plus the head. Some people go for rebounds, getting involved in relationships unnecessarily, hurting more people in the process. Some even plunge into homosexuality. But this guy chose tattoo to show the world he is hurt. "See, wife, this is what you have caused me!" or "Now come back to me and I will rub off these tattooes, no matter how hurting it would be."

But the more weird things you do, the further the wife would go! That's the reality!

Depression can hit anyone, including Christians and it is normal. So, don't go around and tell people not to grief, or cry or feel heartsick. But Christians have one avenue which many non Christians do not have and that is our Father in heaven. The grace of God can help us to forgive others and move on. It does take time to heal (how long depends on the person) but with good supporting Christian friends, we can pull through.

1. Put our trust in our heavenly Father

2. Listen to counsel and go to friends for help.

3. Don't do weird things. It'll get worse!

A FUNERAL FOR YOU WHILE ALIVE, ANYONE?

David Tseng is 25 years old and terminally ill with genetic muscular disease. What's not normal for this suffering man is that he held his own funeral when he was still alive! That day, he was uplifted by eulogies and songs during this living funeral, witnessed by few hundred people including 100 doctors where he would donate his body for them for experiment.

"Live funeral" is not new concept. They were done before and strongly advocated by a Catholic priest who is suffering from lung cancer and launched a "goodbye tour" in late 2007 with a series of speeches to share his fight against lung cancer.

Living funeral. Is it a good idea?

I have mix feelings about it. As Christians, funerals are NOT about the dying person but more for the loved ones of the beloved who died. The services and eulogies are to encourage the living and not the dead. Let God take care of the dead and let humans love the living! (That doesn't mean we simply just get over with the dead person!)

However, one thing good about live funeral is that the dying person can speak his last message/s to all those who are not dying. Anyway, the dying person can speak lah, even not holding a funeral.

I am surprised to see a Taiwanese doing this because Chinese people are very superstitious. They will by all means avoid the word, 'Die!" Eeiyeh!

Last words, do not wait before you are about to die to do something for society and to glorify God. Do it NOW while you are still alive and kicking!

Is someone in the family needed your encouragement? Is a friend of yours wanted help? Is the church needed volunteers for a ministry?