I'm Not A Reader...

I am not a reader but I do read sometimes. These are favorite books; "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "A Walk to Remember" by Nicholas Sparks and "The Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum.

Last week, one of my colleagues loaned me a Malay novel to read and I quite like it. The title of of the novel is "Andai Itu TakdirNya" (in English, 'Assuming That's The Fate') by Siti Rosmizah. The story started with many bitterness that can cause the reader so much heartache when reading it. Some of the readers told that me that they cried and basically for myself, I didn't cry but I felt the pain that comes from the main character in the story especially all the hardship that she went through in the beginning of the story. But I am so glad that the story ends well. This novel is very interesting too because there are so many climaxes, one after another until the final two chapters.

Seriously, I can never finish reading a book in a short period time. But this novel is so interesting until I finished reading it in 3 days.

I shall try to read more, so that I can share my opinion about the particular book in my blog. Well, as an encouragement for myself, I just created a new label, 'The Book That I Read'! Prayerfully, more and more of my post will fall into this label. God bless! Cheerio!

Eco Photo Hunt 2012

Yesterday, my friends and I participated in this photo hunt competition and we traveled almost 134 kilometers from Shah Alam all the way to Sabak Bernam with 7 check points and almost 7 hours of traveling but we had so much fun and laughter! I had a great time of catching up with my friends too!

My teammates, from the left; me, Fong Chu & Pui Yee

And here are some of the photographs that I took yesterday:-

God bless! Cheerio :)

My Best Friend's Wedding

Yesterday, it was one of my happiest days in my life that I able to witnessed my BEST friend, Nur Shakilah getting married. The feeling is like seeing my own sister getting married! Congratulations Twin! Wishing you a blessed marriage filled with lots of love and joy :)

Congratulations!

God bless! Cheerio :)

(pre-) My Best Friend's Wedding

My best friend, Nur Shakilah, who was also course-mate is getting married tomorrow morning and I am so excited about it! She is just like my twin sister; both of us share so many things in common :) She is my BEST friend!

The very last time that I saw her was during our convocation which was back in 2009. And I can't wait to see her tomorrow and attending her wedding. It is such a great joy for me that I able to attend her wedding. Congratulation Twin :)

1) Gift for her wedding...

2) My attire for tomorrow...

3) My camera is very important to capture her special moments...

4) My boarding pass, flying to Penang...

Am excited and can't wait for tomorrow!

God bless! Cheerio :)

Children Ministry

I started serving in Children Ministry since 2007 and my life was completely changed since then! When I started, I had this mindset that in a ministry is about ministering to the people that I am serving. But in Children Ministry, something is different than the ordinary and it is a very unique ministry that pack with many surprises for you to bring back home after the ministry gathering or event. I am so amazed on how God uses these little ones to minister to my life; I receive more than I give!

Cultivating the 'Child-like faith' is one of the many blessing that I received when I started serving in this ministry. Children's faith is so simple! When they pray, they really pray earnestly with great faith and trust in their heart! I still remembered during my very first mission trip to Cambodia, I was a student with so much limitation especially financially but with the 'Child-like faith' and trust that I had in God, He moved powerfully and went beyond my limitation. I experienced God's blessing before, during and after the mission trip!

'The Joy of the Lord is My Strength - Nehemiah 8:10'; listening to the children's angelic voices worshiping the Lord, always bringing so much joy to my heart. Sometimes, it soften my harden heart and stubbornness especially in letting go and in total surrendering to the Lord. In addition, worshiping together with the children is very joyful and very encouraging. They are the ones who taught me how to expressively worshiping the Lord like dancing, clapping, singing and shouting joyfully praising the Lord; just feeling free to worship the Lord without being self-conscious of myself.

Serving in Children ministry also help me to discover new gifts that God had prepare for me. It started with the gift of confidence to be on stage to do teaching, acting, singing and dancing! What a blessing to me that I had the opportunity to get involve in the clown ministry too, a gift that I never thought I will be having and enjoy doing it. I also received the gift of praying. Being in the Children Ministry, it helps me to pray fervently!

God always use the children to reaffirm me that I am always His precious child. My children in my cell group always come to me and tell me how much they miss me and some of them even will come to me to give me a warm hug. I remember that one day, I was really tired and a child came to me and gave me a tap on my shoulder and I was really encouraged by his little act of kindness that meant so much to me!

"Aren't you tired for serving every week?" - A question that people might ask! Well, it might be quite tiring sometimes especially when I depend on my own strength. But I can reassure you that serving in Children Ministry will be something very fulfilling with many excitement and joy! And when you are receiving this remarkable joy from the Lord, eventually, it will become your great and unfailing strength!

God bless! Cheerio :)

B.E.S.T.I.E.S.

Last Saturday, I had great time of photographing my besties as to commemorate our 13 years of beautiful friendship! Thank you Kevin Lee, Jonathan Kok and Kyle Hafiz for making it happen and making it so much fun and laughter! THANK YOU for being such an AWESOME friends cum brothers to me and also loving me unconditionally! :) You guys are my blessing from God!

 Kyle Hafiz

 Kevin Lee

 That's me :)

 Jonathan Kok

Thank you guys! I really had so much fun photographing you all and I am so happy with the outcome of the photographs too! You guys are the one that make the photographs so stunning and so awesome! :)

God bless! Cheerio :)

p/s: Here is a glimpse of some F.A.I.L.E.D. shots :p below...

Clown Ministry

I got this book "Clown Ministry by Floyd Shaffer and Penne Sewall" from my pastor and after reading it, I am so inspired about this ministry! I did clowning before but I didn't really understand about this ministry and after reading the introduction and the testimonies of clowning ministry by the authors, I come to understand and realized that clown ministry can do far beyond what I can imagine.

My clown character, SMILEY; I don't know how this name came about and I also don't know what was the reason my mentor gave that name to my clown character but I really like the name! SMILEY always remind me about 'the JOY of the Lord is my Strength - Nehemiah 8:10'; Happiness change according to circumstances but JOY of the Lord always remain no matter what is the circumstances, there is where the strength come from! I am so encouraged and this is my desire bring this JOY of the Lord that I experienced, experiencing and going to experience to people around me through my clown character, SMILEY.

 Pastor Nancy (middle), she is my mentor who inspired me to do clowning ministry. I am really thankful and blessed to discover this new talent from her! :)

Check this out, posts about my experiences in clowning from my older blog:-

1. http://jackyltroy.blogspot.com/2007/12/clown-again.html
2. http://jackyltroy.blogspot.com/2008/12/jingle-bell-jingle-bell-clowning-all.html

Few points that I picked up from the book that really inspire me to do more in this ministry:-

1. Clowns can "minister" while walking in a parade, visiting the sick, working in a circus, doing a birthday party or whatever opportunity is open.
2. In clown ministry, the chief task is to be childlike, to give of oneself, elevate other persons to positions of worth and communicate clearly that they are loved.
3. God has a sense of humor - so do clowns. God is not rational or logical in human terms - neither are clowns. God uses principles of comedy - so do clowns.
4. We are called "fools for Christ's sake," to be weak so that others can be strong. What an honor and privilege that calling is!

God bless! Cheerio :)

LEGOLAND Malaysia & Kukup The Fishing Village

The enjoyment and excitement that took place on last three weeks ago still very fresh in my memory and it seems like just happened yesterday! I can still feel the enjoyment and excitement; WOW, I think that the enjoyment and the excitement really created a big impact on me! What is this enjoyment and excitement that I am mentioning about? The answer, I guess you might know it because it is already stated on the title of this post. Yeah, I went to LEGOLAND Malaysia and I also visited Kukup, the fishing village in Johore.

Actually, the main factor that created the enjoyment and excitement in me was not entirely about the places that I went but it was about the people who I went with... Who are these people that created such a great enjoyment and excitement in me? They are my AWESOME and FANTABULOUS friends from my secondary school!

Introduction; from the left: Danny, Jonathan, Kevin, Me, Jaysec, Jeffrey, Kyle & Derrick

LEGOLAND Malaysia

This Malaysia's 1st international theme park is situated in Johore. Not a very big theme park but yet we spent a whole day here and the rain was the interruption of the day. Well, the rain didn't stopped us from having fun! :) The roller-coasters in LEGOLAND, not so thrilling but it can still get your nerve-wracking and your heart beating fast! Then, the LEGO Studio; showing a 4D movie adventure and it was really an awesome one. It was beyond what I expected; from the wind blowing to snowing, really cool! Last but not least, the Miniland; with all the famous landmarks in ASEAN countries that built by LEGO blocks, really fascinating!

Kukup, The Fishing Village

Kukup, what an awesome place for relaxing! I really had a great time of relaxing and fellowshipping with my friends here; we really had so much fun, laughter and enjoyment! The accommodation and the foods were really good. If you ask me to rate, I will give 101%. A BIG thank you to Jaysec for organizing and bringing us to such an awesome place! We managed to catch the beautiful sunset too and guess what, our dinner was accompany by fireworks, that was so awesome!

Thank you Jaysec for the entire trip; for organizing and all the arranging :) and to the rest, Jonathan, Kevin, Kyle, Danny, Jeffrey and Derrick, thank you for making the trip happened!

Thank you again everyone for making the trip so much fun, laughter, enjoyment and excitement; indeed it was a memorable and remarkable trip! God bless :)