@LIVE IN C@!

Hey all! It's the last Campus Alive meet of the year, and a truly eventful one. Our friends from KTT Fellowship will be here and it's going to be the last CA for many of our seniors (ACTP and ALM)...sobs!!! Pastor David of New Life will be speaking on that night on how we make our campus alive (no word pun intended...lol)! : )

But don't worry, CA's not going anywhere, because next next Thursday will be a farewell for the seniors. Location and time will be informed.

Happy Easter! Have a blessed day as we celebrate our risen Saviour Jesus and spread His love! See y'all!

- Larry : )

Update!

Hey people, I'm very proud to say that the new blog is very much nearly done. Now, there's pretty limited stuff as there's not much to say just yet. But the latest report shall be posted there! Now, how awesome is that? :D I'm very very excited, aren't you? Many new things, so take your time and read them all!

The new blog address is this: http://www.campusalive.wordpress.com/

I know that we're able to transfer every material here to there but we'd like to keep it this way. :)

And yes, there are those who have questioned our decision to shift to Wordpress. I understand that Wordpress isn't as friendly as Blogger, and the background is rigid, and we can't have a chatbox, etc.

Let's just say that God wanted a change. I was in a worship session during ACTs, when I prayed to God about what to do should I lead IT Ministry. And I believe that God spoke to me throughout the worship session and sermon. That day, both Pat and I felt strongly that everything shared by the Pastor was so inter-related to CA. Seriously. It's an awesome sermon by Pastor Kenneth.

He gave me insights, gave me new challenges. :) And one of them insights was to have new pages with more details. I can't quite explain it, but it's already been done up in Wordpress. The function doesn't exist for Blogger, which is why is was tough.

I also understand that I haven't been doing a good job sprucing up the place, but I realize that God being the centre of it all is most important. That a new blog is necessary for a new revival, coinciding with our new ministry in CA, and other important new things coming up. A change is coming, and we're trying to keep up with the massive awesomeness God is bringing forward for us to take charge. :)

I hope I make sense. Please do visit the new blog and give it a shot. :)

Nic.

The Fire Within

With the advent of third week of March, our ministry had managed yet another Camps Alive which falled on 11 March 2009. In the evening, those who were in-charge of transportation waited at the bus stops located at Cendana, Cemara and Akasia hostels. I was to wait at Cendana hostel whereas the other friend, Jonathan Wong had been waiting at Cemara and Akasia hostel for quite a long time that evening. So, we gathered around at around 6.00p.m. and set off to church after that.

The Campus Alive started at 8.00p.m. after everyone had had their dinners. That night, the number of attendees was not as many as usual. The cause for that was due to the fact that the seniors had exams and the ADFP students had their tests that day. All of us knew that attendance didn’t really matter. Campus Alive would still went on regardless of the number of people, and time will come to prove that Jesus can provide the number. Before the Campus Alive was officially started, we had a praying session. It was initiated by Larry and ended by Samantha. Next, Campus Alive was made alive by our emcees of the day, Graham Lai from AUSMAT and Fabiolla Lea from ALM. This was then followed by an opening prayer, led by Graham Lai.

After that, we proceeded to our next event, the gaming session. The game master of the day was Joy. She had proposed to us a game by which we all were separated into two groups and lined up. So, the first person of each group would have to think of and create some random yet so-called exaggerated movements to be imitated by the next person lining up behind. The condition here was that no one was supposed to look forward by turning around from each other from the front to the back. Therefore, the imitation was relayed from the first person to the next one till the last person. The last person would then be invited to come to the front for the performance of 'relayed movements'. They were Jonathan Wong and Jonathan Chua. (Quote: “The battle of the Jons’ begins!” Joy) Well, as what we had seen, the movements were prodigiously distorted to an extent that they hardly showed any similarities with the original one, causing the people around laughing out their heads off! Next, the first people, namely Esmond, Joshua and Karen were also asked to perform the original version of movements that really showed a great difference.

The third event was the worshipping session, led by Larry. Larry himself was the guitarist and the vocal. The other members of the band comprised the drummer (Joshua), the keyboard player (Samantha) and two backup singers (Jonathan Chua and Hui Theng) So, Larry had brought to us a few worship songs, namely One Way, Praises (Everyone), For All You've Done, Amazed, Heart of Worship, Ku Mahu Cinta Yesus Selamanya. Certainly, it was clearly revealed that all people sang the worship songs with hearts for Jesus. The presence of His love has always been the avenue for us to love people and to be loved by people as well. The atmosphere was indeed teeming with all His love!

Then, this was followed by our next event, a speech by Elder Kien Yiak from Acts Church. He is truly a good and sophisticated speaker and all of us were greatly impressed by his talk. He preached to us about a lot of things in a humorous manner, and that was why the surrounding atmosphere was always full of laughter and cheering. In his preaching, we were told to behave in our real and sincere personality. We should act according to our characters and be debarred from becoming double-faced people. Besides that, he also told us that passion is all about giving, in accordance with what the bible has mentioned. He emphasized to us that Jesus Christ believes in us, and will always provide the clues and answers whenever we are confronted with problems. Therefore, faith is what we truly need and that is how we will be blessed. Apart from that, we were also being reminded that Jesus is able to give. If we can manage strong faith in Jesus, all our requests will be answered. He listens to our prayers and problems, and He does answer them. "God does answer us. He answers all our phone calls, SMS, and E-mails!!", he talked to us in a creative way.

It was really a long period of time before he finished his preaching. The talk was started at 9.00p.m. and ended at 10p.m. After that, there were announcements from the emcees, saying that there would be a prayer meeting in Cendana, Akasia and Cemara hostels at 8.00p.m. the next day. Also, a Post Mortem would also be held in Cemara's "Starbucks" on Friday.

Finally and practically, the Campus Alive was ended after the announcements, accompanied by the prayers led by Elder Kien Yiak. After that, we went to refreshment room for refreshment prepared by Amy while waiting for the transportation fetching us back to respective hostel. Usually, refreshment time is considered as the best time where the people can mix around and communicate with each others.

The report is done by Chong Tze Jun from ALM9.

The Fire Within

This flyer was awesomely done by Julius which was in colour but he deleted that soft copy from his computer. Give him a cheer anyways! :)


P/S: I'm sorry it's late and for being incompetent. ;__: I don't know why I can't seem to be able to handle this properly, but I'll promise I'll do better. Really. It's all my fault.

In Good Faith, We Come

It’s the third CA of the year. The ushers tonight include Qi Ying, Amy, Fabiolla, and Hui Ting. They welcomed us with grins on their faces and cheerful greetings of “welcome”s. The gathering kicked off with the jubilant shout of the emcees of the night, Boon Tung and Catherine. With their spontaneous speaking skills, the night was filled with laughters. After some greetings and shouts of “shalom”, an opening prayer was made, led by Boon Tung.

After the opening prayer is the game session. It’s a shoe game and the game master was Nicole. We were asked to form a circle. And next, we were asked to take off one of our shoe. We were then required to tap that one shoe on the floor according to a rhythm. After tapping according to the rhythms, we need to pass the shoe to the person next to us and the tapping and the passing of shoe continues until we were stopped. Then, we were asked to find the owner of the shoe which we got and asked five things about them. There was this funny situation where lots of the shoes end up at one place and some people don get any shoe at all. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves with the game.

Up next was the worship session, led by Chewie and Betty, with Joanne as the backup singer. A few songs of worships and praises were sung, accompanied by the lovely tunes played by the guitarist (Chewie), bassist(Daniel and Esmond), drummer(Anderson) and pianist(Theng Theng). We could definitely feel the presence of God and His love in our midst during the worship sessions.

Then it was the video-watching session. The video was made by Lisia, Charis and Samantha. The main focus of the video was to talk about missions in campus. We are invited to sign up for mission and spread the love of God to people around us.

And of course, there was also a talk. The speaker for that night was Audra Darshini from the Fellowship of Evangelical Students. The talk given was about missionaries in campus. First, a bible extract from Jeremiah 29:4-7 was read. From the bible extract, the speaker had outlined four main points which can be related to missionaries in campus.

Jeremiah 29:5-7- “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.

The speaker asked us to get involved in the missionaries and be concerned to the people who need our helps beside us. We are also called to start our mission in campus starting now. We should be Christian witness for people around us to spread the word of God and God’s love. Truly like what the speaker said, we might only have 2 years in our campus but we should make full use of the 2 years to be involved in missionaries because if we are to wait till after 2 years, it would be another 2 years in another campus and another 2 years in another place again.

As usual, after the talk, the emcees will give some announcements regarding the cell groups and post mortems. After that, Beatrice came up and invited us to join Ops Gegar, a conference with the theme “Kerinduanku Penglibatanmu”, which is going to be held on 7th of March.

Finally, CA ended with refreshments at the refreshment room. Refreshments was made by J-Cyn and Siaw Hui. It was hotdogs, and coco de nata drinks. While taking the refreshment, we had the opportunity to mix around with friends and do so chit-chatting. There is an atmosphere of friendship and God’s love. It had been a very meaningful gathering. We can be refreshed and gain new strength in God. So, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all called to be a part in God’s mission to preach His good news and love to the people around us. In short, this CA had been a great success. Glory and praise the Lord!

P/S: Pictures coming soon. :)

P/P/S: This report was written by Peter. Much thanks and applause!

In Good Faith, We Come - 26 February 2009

Hey everyone, really sorry about the delay in putting up the flyer. Let's just leave it at me not being competent enough. :) CA is still going on this Thursday, please be there!

When You Fall In Love

CA started off with LOVE!! As cliché as it might sounds, love was definitely in the air on that fateful night. Without a doubt, God’s love was felt everywhere in the church compound and in fact, it is the only LOVE which matters most in our lives.






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When first entering the room, ushers dressed adorably in either pink or red with white wings on their backs would throw confetti above our heads. Particularly cheeky guests had even more confetti thrown to their faces. The ushers for that night were Fabiolla, Esmond, Chee Huat, and Catherine.






We were all welcomed by the loveliest emcees of the night, Daniel and Winnie. With their quirk enthusiasm, everyone was humored by this lovely pair. Then, we heated up the environment with the worship session, led by Pei Ling and Zoe. The drummer was Dian Han, guitarist was Chewie, and bassist was Bryan. We were all captured by God’s faithfulness and love. The worship team was fabulous and of course, all the credits went to our Maker of heaven and earth.





Games session was next. Led by Miriam, we were divided in pairs and engrossed ourselves totally in this game called Marriage-Proposal-Divorce. When Miryam called out Marriage, the pair were supposed to hook arms together, as if going down the aisle together. And when she called out Propose, the guy was to kneel on one knee and take the hand of the girl as if to propose. And when Divorce was yelled out, the girl and guy was supposed to turn back to back with each other, and cross their arms, as if angry with each other.








A gift exchange took place after that. And each pair exchanged gifts with each other. Interesting gifts in particular was a honeydew, and a loaf of bread.







A sketch was performed after the games. Participated by Joy, Cedric, J-Cyn, Sze Yin and Samuel, it was a great reminder to us that God’s love is what matters the most in our lives. The basic plot of the sketch was a girl – portrayed by Joy who found her boyfriend (Cedric as ah Boy) with another girl, J-Cyn. She then goes home to find her parents fighting, Mummy being Sze Yin, and Daddy being Samuel. A particularly interesting line said by Samuel was, “I love you! (Pause) But I love your best friend too.”







Disappointed and hurt by her father’s infidelity, Joy then leaves home. She tears a red paper heart each time she is hurt by the people she loves, and indication of her own broken heart. She receives a birthday card, but doesn’t care anymore. “It doesn’t matter anymore,” Joy said. But in the card is a verse, John 3: 16 and she finds a huge white heart with the words, “Never have I abandoned you.” The lights dim. This is a sketch to show just how much God loves us still, even when we face our earthly troubles, He is always there was us.

A short testimonial by Nicole followed next. She quoted Romans 8 and her testimonial was a strong, powerful testimonial. Coming from a broken family, God’s love has sustained her and pulled her through all the difficult times. It really served as a reminder of how wonderful is our faithful God.

Romans 8: 38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As the CA was held in conjunction with Valentine’s Day, a short video entitled A Father’s love was aired.

(video)




For all that our Father has done for us, all that he asks is just a simple question, “Would you be my child?”

Touched by the video, we were then introduced to Pastor Ron from Newlife PJ. A man full of faith and good nature, he talked about how God’s love has changed him from the inside out. He agreed with the lot of us that finding a life partner is indeed important, but if we just let our hearts be filled with His love, God will let the right person come our way. He testified of how God has been good to provide him the greatest gift of His life-his wife.





Truly, if we love Him with all our hearts, He will give us the miracle of finding the other half who will complete our lives. By loving God, we give our whole heart to Him because He loved us first. He loves us by showing His ultimate gift of grace-Jesus Christ to die for us. He died so that we can have an abundant and fulfilling life which the world could not give. Many people in the world are crying out for something that will fill the holes in their hearts.

We need to love and be loved, as this is part of human nature. Too often this desire will keep us searching everywhere and get love from people whom we think will fill up the emptiness in our hearts. If you are still searching today, God is telling you to embrace His unconditional love, which will make you whole again. How should we respond to His love? Let us start serving out of love, as 1 Corinthians 13 reveals that love is the most important motivation in Christian living. Let us start loving our brothers and sisters, as Jesus loves them too.

CA ended with refreshments. Refreshments were prepared by Nicole, Samantha, Amy, Miryam and Theng Theng. Laughter and chatters echoed throughout the church compound on that day. In short, CA was a great success. Everyone joyfully went back with an extra portion of love in their heart, all thanks to our loving heavenly Father.


P/S: One of the interesting addition to CA that night was a Love Shout Out Board where anyone could write messages to whomeever they want to. :) More pictures shall be put up real soon. :)


P/P/S: This report was written by the ever lovely Sze Yin. :)

Sorry!

Much apologies for not having the details of the last CA until now. We're trying to get the new blog up and running, and because there were tons of wonderful pictures for the last CA, we might put up the latest report in the new blog.

Much editing, and writing to do, and we're terribly sorry for the delay. :(

When You Fall In Love - 12 February 2009

Please Bring A Gift!

(need not be too costly,
something nice and simple)

This Thursday, Campus Alive is celebrating Valentine's Day! It's two days early, but it's the fun we have together that matters. And that will leave your Saturday free!

Please do come to be refreshed with God's word with our speaker, Pastor Ron from New Life PJ, after that wonderful one week holiday.

Don't forget the gift for exchange!! : )

Faith, Our Vision

Dated 15th January 2009, a historical moment in New Life Restoration Centre with the presence of our beloved God, the new committee of Campus Alive 2009 have successfully organized the first CA meeting in the new year!

This year we have set a new vision and mission. The mission for our movement this year is to spread the good news until the end of the Earth and to have faith in God and with great love among each other in Christ.

There were a total number of 100 people present that night. We were very blessed, and had indeed, not worried about the number as we truly know that God will provide us with the people. The only thing that is obvious is the Atmosphere at that moment is packed with lots of people and of course, with many new faces! Praise the Lord!

Among the crowd, we had special guests too. Two of them were not from Malaysia, and they were Amy and Heaven from Korea. They had come to Malaysia to learn English for one month and I guess they are visiting around Malaysia too during their study period here.

Other special guests include the vibrant, and wonderful people from ACTS Church Subang Jaya! Not forgetting about our speaker: our speaker of the night is Brother David from ACTS Church Subang Jaya whom had been described as a charming and enthusiastic guy by Samantha!! :)

Concentrating on the humorous and nostalgic slide show.

Our very much loved Sam, and Steffie.

The night started rolling, literally with a slideshow of photos of the previous committee, along with pictures taken during many previous CA meetings last year. It had been done up by our nice and cute Masters of ceremony, Mr Samuel and Ms Steffie. Samuel started CA after that with a prayer. Steffie had even learned uttered ‘good evening’ in Korean to further welcome our Korean guests to CA.

This was then followed by the happy-go-lucky game master, Mr Graham from AUSMAT program leading and guiding the crowd through a game involving much animal antics. Everyone was separated according to their birthdays. So the crowd was separated into 4 groups with each group consisting of members who had their birthday on every three consecutive months starting from January. The game is simply about imitating animals. However, that was not it. The leader of each group had to start by imitating an elephant. The second person in that circle had to follow what the group leader had done, and subsequently imitating another animal of their own. And the third had to imitate both animals, and add their own as well. Thus some groups started with an elephant, then a dog, cat, and various other animals came into play. The game would continue until the last person imitated all the other animals correctly.

Darsh having fun imitating the elephant.

The winners of the game. I think. :P

The game ended in enjoyment and it was for certain that everyone had an enjoyable moment playing and cheering others along. After the happy moment together, it was the time to worship our beloved Father in the heaven. We sang four beautiful songs (Hari Ini, We Will Sing, I Am Free, and Amazing Love) and shouted to the Lord in our praises, committing ourselves fully to God in midst of worshipping our mighty Father. Larry lead the worship, with Anderson on drums, Esmond on bass, Chewie on the guitar, and Joanne, Sam, and Nicole as the backup singers.

Larry and Sam introduced the new mission and vision for the year. A new ministry that had been set up was then formally introduced to the CA crowd. A Missions Ministry is now part of CA, and anyone who is willing to serve can contact Larry or Sam. Li Sia, who leads this new ministry had spoken about it as well, during CA that night.

Samantha, explaining the mission and vision of the year Faith, and Love.
(More about this soon.)

That night we had invited ACTS Church Subang Jaya to deliver a wonderful speech about faith. It is indeed a wonderful and fruitful sharing to everyone by Bro. David. He told us about his wonderful story in his life, sharing his story about becoming a Christian 15 years ago. He originated from Penang and shared about his humble life there where he had to struggle hard to live. There were even a few moments in his life when he had thought of committing suicide to end his life as his didn’t really like what was given to him in his life during those days. He suffered from great tension since his young age till one day he came to Christ through a movie “The Story of Jesus”. He said that this movie had greatly inspired him to receive Christ and this was what that had brought such a big change in his life.

As for the students in INTEC UiTM, he convinced us by asking us to think about things positively. In the Malay language, the word “Shah Alam” came from the root word “shah” which means Sultan or king and another “alam” which means realm. In full, it means that Shah Alam is the land of the King or a kingdom and all those who live or rather students who are arranged to study in UiTM should be thankful to have been able to enrolled into such prestigious university in Malaysia. And if the students feel that Shah Alam is such a boring place, we should claim back this land, as the land of the King. Bro. David inspired us to make a change in this place. He told us that the students of INTEC must start doing something. And when we leave, we will not have regrets, and be able to say, “At least I have done something here.” He is indeed a very great speaker, having been thoroughly convincing and with his wide smile on the face, he created laughter among the youngsters.

Brother David inspiring us with what he had shared.

The talk ended in about one and half hour. It was then followed by a few announcements by the MCs who reminded us that cell group would commence as usual this Thursday. The former president of the CF of KDU, Brother Jason, too, shared a few words with us. He introduced us to a certain program organized named Malaysian Youth Prayer meeting which was first held in Kluang, Johor.

Finally, everyone broke up for refreshment and fellowship in the refreshment corner. Some mingled around, chatting together, and had enjoyable moments together in laughter and friendship. At the same time, what was happening in the Atmosphere is that some grouped together to pray for the AUSMAT seniors who are going to set flight to Australia and New Zealand very soon. I sincerely wish them all the best here and hope that they will have great moments with God there too! After that, it is the time for everyone to go back home. It was late when CA ended and the NLRC resumed back in its normal quietness, but indeed it is still burning hot in the Holy Spirit flame. Whatever, that ended the first CA of the year!! Yahoo!! Bravo to all the organizing committees!!

Last but not least, our next meeting will be on the 12th February 2009 which is two days before the well-known Valentine Day. In conjunction with the soon-to-come Valentine Day, the theme of the sharing of our next meeting will focus mainly on the contexts of LOVE. Either it is about a boy-girl relationship or it is about love from our heavenly Father, it is for you to find it up the next CA meeting!! See you!!

We are one in Christ.

Faith in God,
Julius Tan Jin Soon

p/s As Chinese new year is drawing near, I sincerely hope that everyone will have an enjoyable moment in the fun of the Lunar New Year! Enjoy yourselves and of course together with the presence of God! I hope that everyone will have a safe journey back to the hometown, including those Koreans who are going to depart back to their own country on the 31st of January 2009! All the best to all! Have a joyous Chinese New Year!! :)

Faith, Our Vision - 15 January 2009

It has been a while since we have had a Campus Alive meeting, due to the holidays. I hope that all of you were still faithful to Him during the holidays and have made the holidays an enjoyable and fulfilling one. If not, it was still relaxing and refreshing, no?

Anyway, this will be the very first CA meet of the year. And we're all very very excited, whee! The theme for this meeting is, Faith. More about the vision and mission for this year, and all about the new commitee will be talked about later during the meeting. :)

Please be there!

Race of Faith

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE JOURNEY BEYOND
On the 23rd of October 2008, CA was held for the last time in year 2008. This special meeting was highlighted by the presence of many ex-CA committee members, including Joash, Erin, Mandy and Si Han.

The emcees of the night, Jonathan Wong and Elsha Liew introduced themselves and warmly welcomed many newcomers who were present. After the opening prayer, Miriam led the people into a fun-filled time of games. The people were grouped into different numbers and tagged with different colours which indicate their respective monetary values. The mechanism of the game is that the members had to form certain values indicated by the games master in the shortest time.

After a bustling atmosphere of fun, an inspiring and heart-warming worship session ensued. The worship team comprised of an all-senior team of 11 people. They were Bryan and Pei Ling ( worship leaders),Amanda and Shalisha( keyboardists), Dian Han (bassist), Anderson (drummer), Ming Joun( guitarist), Chewie( electric guitarist), Steffie, Betty, and Eliza( backup singers).The worship team led the people into the awesome presence of God .





Special programmes were arranged for the night, including a time of testimony from two very special people, Yen Mii and Helen. They basically shared about their experiences in CA and how the hand of God has helped them through the many stormy days when serving in CA. All in all, they inspired us to believe and trust that God will honour His servants who faithfully serve Him. Yen Mii and Helen, we salute you for your step of faith which encouraged the many people who are serving in CA. Above all, we salute Jesus Christ who is behind your beautiful testimonies!






Then, the moment of shock has arrived. Three very comical clowns stepped into the hall with outrageous costumes and make-ups. What a start for a humorous drama! This drama was directed by Eliza and involved a total of 19 people, who were Sam, Steffie, Ken, Dian Han, Larry, Zoe, Nicole, Pei Ling, Bryan, Mary, Rachel, Ji Yi,Andersen, Chieng Loo, Chewie, Derrick, Shalisha and Betty. After a jaw-dropping moment of seeing Bryan wearing a short skirt and singlet, a song entitled “Sing of Your Love” was presented. This drama spoke of the many challenges that Christians face while running the race. Nevertheless, the unshakable Rock of our faith has never ceased to see us those seasons. For the seniors who are leaving soon, let us be reminded that wherever we may be, The Potter’s plan for our lives will never change. He is going to bring us into new territories, where He can use us to touch lives and change hearts. Let’s expect great things, for HE IS GREAT.










Soon after, another unexpected treat came up. Without introduction, the ever-enthusiastic speaker strode purposefully to the front and started to share on the verse Hebrews 12:2.

“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God."

He was none other than the very familiar Joash Tan. The core of his message centred on the fact that each of us had a race and journey to run. The race we run will be the story of our lives. What story or legacy do we want to leave behind? He highlighted the example of Jesus Christ, who has the greatest faith of all; faith to bring heaven down on earth and to accomplish God’s will, even though this cost Him everything, including His life. That brings up the question of the choices we make in our lives. Are we choosing to run a race of faith, or are we choosing other things like FAME instead? Secondly, in this race, we have to put our faith into action. The Bible says “Faith without action is dead”. Lastly, he talked about the rewards that we will reap in heaven, just as Jesus sat down on the right hand of God’s throne after accomplishing His mission on earth.





Then, he opened up the altar and invited those who had regrets over the race they had run for the past years. Many people stepped forward and was ministered to by the presence of God. Sam also invited the speaker to pray for the Ausmat and IMU express class seniors who are going to leave soon.

The meeting ended with people fellowshipping over sandwiches and drinks, which were prepared by J-cyn and Siaw Hui.

Many left with smiles that day, including me. Above all, I smiled because I know God did.

“ Bless the Lord, o my soul, all that is within me, Bless His holy name!”



In His service.

Samantha

Race of Faith 23rd Oct 2008

hi!! we will be having the last CA 4 this sem on this coming thursday =( unfortunately this will also be the last for the ausmatians. therefore the title Race of Faith was chosen as the topic to encourage us to finish the race with HIM no matter where we are... this flyer is done by the junoir as well, Chee huat. thanks man for the wonderful job!! continue running and finish the race in Christ!! hope 2 see u all this thursday =)

CAN YOU HEAR ME?

A CA was held last Thursday right after everyone had a wonderful Raya break. We were first ushered in with radiant smiles from the adorable Ee Heng and Cassandra. CA then kicked off with emcees Joanne and MJ which humored us with their small banter on stage. A newcomer was introduced, before we led into an opening prayer by MJ.
Games soon followed, and Li Sia made us get into a big circle to be easily divided into two groups. The two groups then settled in a long line facing one another, and we held one another’s hand. The game resembled an electric current and one was supposed to squeeze the person on their left’s hand once they felt the squeeze from the person on their right. The first person from each line can only start squeezing after a coin was flipped. The last person of the line must then dash to grab the bottle placed between the two groups before the other group. After seven rounds, it was announced that Group 2 had won.

Praise and worship was then co-led by Zoe and Larry (guitar). The rest of the team members were Dian Han on the drums, Samantha on the piano, and Nicole and Elsha as the backup singers. Chewie played bass for one song, “One Way”. The songs included in the worship were “I’ve Got The Joy”, “One Way”, “Through It All” and “Above All”. Siew Wee was in charge of the projector.

It was a really inspirational time as the worship team was all set on fire for Jesus, and Zoe really led us to Him with her spirit and passion. It was her first time leading and she gave it her all. The rest of the team had given it their best to the Lord as well, and everyone could feel their fire.

After the worship session, it was time for a testimony from Samantha and Elsha. It was about the recent annual debate competition held by INTEC. (Battle of Minds). Sam and Elsha were the champions for this year's competition and they felt the need to share with us their experience with God through debate. Sam said that God brought them through it as both Elsha and Sam have had bad experiences with debate during high school. God gave them a chance to heal and to have strong faith in Him that He will bring them through it, through this debate competition.

It is amazing how God works, and as He is an amazing God, just as Elsha had said, He brought them both to victory, for they had done their very best for Him and held His name up high through debate.

Afterwards, we had a sermon by Pastor Joshua entitled Listening To God. The first step to listening to God, as Pastor Joshua said, is that we must prepare our heart. Before we can hear Him, we must be ready to listen. We wouldn’t be able to hear Him if we are not prepared to listen to Him just yet.

Pastor Joshua shared with us a story of his personal experience of listening to God in a particular garden that he had been with his son before. He told us that when he was bogged down with troubles about his job, he had went to that exact same spot where he had heard God speak in order to listen to Him again, and true enough, God did speak to him. Pastor Joshua was given another job just two days after God spoke to Him. Though, Pastor Joshua mentioned that the same problems occurred and after a year, he went to the same spot again in order to speak to God and to hear Him speak.

He said to God, “Lord, You promised, and You never break Your promises”. And God did speak to him yet again for God does not break His promises, and true enough, Pastor Joshua finally had a job in which he was happy in. Pastor Joshua said that we can only listen to Him, if we are prepared to listen to Him speak. For he waited for the Lord to speak, and true enough, the Lord did speak to him.

To be able to listen to Him as well, we must read the bible. This is the second step to listening to Him as the bible is His written Word.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
– John 1:1

Pastor Joshua also shared with us a touching story about how his girlfriend who eventually got back together with him after a period of being apart. (His girlfriend eventually became his wife, and they lived happily ever after!) They both heard God speak, in different ways. He told us that God speaks, most of the time in a still voice that we have to strain to listen, and rarely does He speak in an audible voice. This is why we must always open our hearts to listen to Him and to learn His Word.

The third step to listening to Him is to check our motives. We have to know why we want to hear Him. Pastor Joshua shared with us a little story, that there were two people in Petaling Street but one of them actually heard a cricket sing. His friend did not believe him but he then parted the leaves of a nearby plant and actually found the cricket.

His friend then said, “How can you hear the cricket over all this noise?” The point is, when we strain to listen, we will hear something beyond the noise. The world around us is always filled with noise, and so, we must take that time off to actually still our mind and listen to God.

The story doesn’t just end there, the boy then rolled coins down the street, and everyone actually stopped and searched for those coins. Pastor Joshua then also mentioned that when we focus on something, we will then be able to listen to it. These people have set their motives on money, and as such, they were able to listen to the clinks of the coins over the noise.

If we focus on Him, and set our motives right, to listen to Him, we will be able to listen to Him.

Speaking first is the fourth step to listening. We must first begin, by saying, “Hello.” Pastor Joshua told us to pray to Him and to ask for confirmation for Him to speak. We must begin the conversation, and we must then be patient and listen.

And lastly, we must rely on the Holy Spirit. In John (16:7, 12-13), Jesus Christ said,

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
– John 16:7

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”
- John 16: 12-13

Pastor Joshua then begin praying for those who lifted up their hands, wanting to be able to listen to God, those who had not been able to listen to him, or even those who had fallen out momentarily but wished to listen to Him once more.

Afterwards, Pastor Joshua also urged those with examinations coming up to step forward for him to pray for them to be given the wisdom and strength by the Lord to get through it. However, due to the large number of people who stepped up, Pastor Joshua then told them to form small groups to pray for each other.
A small worship session was then held, and everyone had a really great time singing along to the songs and worshipping God. After the small closing worship session, it was then time for fellowship and we adjourned to the next room for refreshments prepared by Jonathan Chua, Pei Ling and Chewie who helped. They served us soup, with hard bread, and even banana cake.
One thing about this CA that was really touching was the fact that everyone had the passion to serve, and to worship Him. God really multiplied our time, and everyone felt that things concluded early and just in time for everything. Another great thing was that so many people turned up for this CA, and we were all encouraged by all the small little events that occurred during CA this time.

In His service,
Nicole.

Can you hear Me? 9 October 2008

really... sorry for the late update. we will have CA this Thursday as usual. as you can see, this flyer is done by a junior, Jonathan. there will be a number of juniors serving in various ministry as well. do come and join to serve the Lord together. see u there..

ASK and you shall be Answered

Campus Alive was finally back after a few weeks of absence due to the AUSMAT trial exams. This time around, CA was held in forum style. The gathering kicked off with a warm welcome from our emcees, Larry and Samantha from ALM 9. They had the crowd cheering and geared up for the session ahead. There was a competition on who could cheer louder between the guys and the girls. Two newcomers were introduced and it was followed by opening prayer by Samantha.

We proceeded with games led by Krystal from ADFP. We were divided into two groups and both groups had to guess the word without using all the other words shown on the screen. This game is called taboo. If a taboo word was mentioned, the other group had to shout the word “taboo” and marks will be deducted. Some words had to be acted out without uttering a single word. Among the words that they had to guess were Pak Lah, cheek, shoulder, Jonas brothers, pirates, Transformers, robots, Ratatouille and many more. It ended with both groups evenly matched.
Praise and worship was then led by Chewie and the team, Theng Theng (piano), Daniel (guitar), Dian Han (drum), Winnie and Miryam as backup singers. The songs included in the worship were Hatiku Percaya, Here In Your Presence and Sing Of Your Great Love.

We had an inspirational time with God and we could sense His presence throughout the session.

After that, Larry and Samantha introduced the three speakers who had kindly agreed to answer our questions in this forum-styled CA. The three speakers were Kong Lee Ang, Michael William and Lee Chun Chung from Fellowship of Evangelical Students (FES). The questions and answers during the forum were as followed:

If God is good, why do bad things happen? Why does God let Christians suffer?

Michael answered that according to Genesis 3:16-17. God gave human freewill, so He allowed Man to sin. However, sin has consequences, which is suffering. Bad things happen to everyone because of sin.

“To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."

“And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;”

Nevertheless, in our suffering, we can hope on God and He will still help us.

How do we know that God listen and answer our prayer?

Lee Ang said that there are times when we can be sure that God will answer our prayers but through the Scriptures in 1 John 5:14-15, we can be sure that God does answer our prayers. However, sometimes we do not know whether it is God’s will for us when we ask of Him for something. Therefore, we need to read the Bible in order to know whether it is God’s will or not. We must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as well. She gave the example of Joseph who did not know what God’s will was for him until after so many years being stranded in a place far away from home and enduring so many hardships.

What is the explanation of the trinity? Are they three in one?

The word “Trinity” is not directly mentioned in the Bible. However, in Genesis 1:26

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”

and Genesis 3:22

“Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.”,

it is shown that God was addressing more than one person. What is the trinity? God is three distinct persons (Father, Son and the Holy Spirit) and each person is fully God but there is only one God. Also, if Jesus is not fully God, how can He redeem us from our sin? The one who suffers for the sins of mankind must be perfect, completely sinless. The only person that fulfills this requirement is Jesus, the person of the Son in the Trinity. The trinity is a mystery and man’s understanding cannot comprehend it. Trinity cannot be explained in a tangible way.

When do we receive the Holy Spirit? What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

The disciples first received the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost

“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Acts 2:1-4 (CEV)

The Holy Spirit comes upon us after our conversion. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit and we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then brings forth the Fruit of the Holy Spirit and empowers us with spiritual gifts. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is basically receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit when one becomes a Christian. A manifestation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the speaking of tongues, but it’s not the only sign nor is it a must.

Can you lose your salvation?

We cannot lose our salvation. Jesus had died on the cross for us to redeem us from our sins. Salvation cannot be lost just like that. Jesus Christ guaranteed that we are secure in His and the Father's hand, and so He will keep safe each one who has received the gift of eternal life.

"And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."

John 10:28(NKJV)

If we are truly saved, will there be any reason to denounce our faith and lose our salvation?

What about the people in the interior or those who have never heard of Christ, will they be saved?

We do not know but we have the conviction that God will be fair. Everyone will have a chance to hear the gospel, as illustrated in the verse Revelation 7:9 (NIV).

“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”

If there are people who did not hear of the gospel, how can there be people from every nation, tribe and tongue that are saved?

The people before Jesus did not hear of Christ e.g. Abraham, yet they were saved (counted righteous) because of their faith.

“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

Genesis 15:6 (KJV)


As time did not permit for the session to continue, Samuel suggested that those who were still interested in the forum could stay back and others were asked to adjourn to the next room for refreshment prepared by Eliza and Siaw Hui. We had French toast, sausages and jelly. It concludes another great CA.


His children.

ASK and you shall be Answered

Hi!! Greetings in the name of the Lord!! CA is back on this coming Thursday, 25 Sep 2008.we are going to have a forum session for this CA. so, if you encounter any doubts or questions on your faith.. or if you would like to know more about Christianity... do come and attend this CA!!! ASK and we have special guests trying their best to clear your doubts... see you there!!

Live Out Loud

Merdeka x7!! These indeed are the historical words which set our nation free from colonization. 51 years passes as time witness the massive development in our country. As we ponder again, we are not forgetting our mighty King who releases us from sins and death through His precious blood. Great is our Lord!!

When you step into the Atmosphere, you will be surprised with Malaysia flag hanging here and there and even at the back of the t-shirt!!

This CA kicked off with Graham and Shalisha emceeing for the night. It started off with some songs before welcoming us. We were greeted by dividing ourselves by the colour of our toothbrush!! Blue, red, green, yellow and even I don’t know group!! What a new and fresh way to start!! We also have the privilege to welcome back Daniel and Vincent, my super senior, our juniors’ super duper senior, from Germany!! They were conducting the ice breaking and we were divided into 2 groups, (Cat Group and Dog Group). For the first game, we were to arrange ourselves in a line according to our names in alphabetical order, without talking to each other or making any sound. Imagine, everyone started to point out their fingers trying their best to show the alphabets. Then, we had another fun game. Everyone was paired together and the objective is to look at each others’ face and try not to laugh. Look who showed up to interfere. Bryan with a silly and funny face got everyone roared with laughter. In the end, the winners received chocolates all the way back from Germany. We had a great time having fun and fellowshipping with each other. Thanks Daniel and Vincent for the games.

Next, the praise and worship was lead by Andersen and his team which includes Patricia and Peiling as backup, Larry, Daniel, Bryan, Chewie and James. The songs are You are Good, Awesome in this place, How great is our God, Beautiful Savior and God of this city. We can sense God’s presence with us throughout the praise and worship session. Then, we have sis Eu Pui, an FES instructor from IMU speaking to us on the topic “Living Out Loud”. Sis Eu Pui gave us some questions to ponder about. Are we satisfied with the current situation? Are we going to make a difference, not doing anything or just be indifferent? She also shared the story of Daniel, who was stripped off his very own identity, even his name, to live in other land. Daniel who completely put his trust onto the Lord lived out to His name (book of Daniel). She also urged everyone of us to return back to Malaysia after our studies because the Lord has entrusted Malaysia to us. We must indeed live out God’s name and shine in this land. We are building His Kingdom. In the end, she poured out a bucket full of marbles. It symbolizes that God will also scatter us to different parts of Malaysia to spread His words. Each of us took a marble to remind us of the day to come.

It all ended with the song “Malaysia Bagi KemuliaanMu”. Samantha also prayed for the nation and everyone of us. We had great refreshment prepared by Betty and J-Cyn. We have the chance to taste Betty self bake cake. Longan and Lychee drinks were served. Everyone manage to return back to the college in time and it concludes another great CA. Greater thing have to come, greater things are still to be done in our beloved country, Malaysia. Amen

Han