Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Work & Ministry's ups and downs

It's been a pretty hectic week for me so far at work especially yesterday due to the co-ordination work for my Petrobras project 1st delivery to Keppel Shipyard. It's always during the urgent times that things seem to go wrong. It's pretty frustrating at times.My forwarder and forklift requested was supposed to come at 11am-12pm before lunch to collect the goods at my warehouse to go to the shipyard for delivery at 2pm. No forwarder and no forklift at 12.30pm-I wondered what happened!

I immediately called my forwarder and they sent their trucker there within 15mins but still no forklift to lift all my goods to the truck. The truckers hadnt any lunch and waited for almost 30min for the forklift. I called the Singapore Offshore Petroleum(SOPS) operations office to find out what happened to my request for the forklift. They told me my office re-scheduled to 2pm, it was really a shock to me to hear that. And the best thing is there are no more forklift to activate immediately even though it was very urgent for my delivery. My colleague managed to ask/beg from our neighbour to loan their forklift to fork our goods to the truck. My colleague then had to rush down to the Yard to meet 2 other suppliers truckers there before 3pm. It was just a rush and I got scolding from the Yard purchaser about the delay for one of the truckers from Malaysia. He was stuck in Customs and arrived at 4pm. So my poor colleague had to run in and out to co-ordinate the delivery with the Yard storeman and our suppliers truckers.So, it was tiring day for all of us.

Earlier in the morning, I received email from my friend and fellow brother in Christ in Hope Pattani church-Ben Ceelen. He forwarded me the latest bad news that all South Thailand schools had closed due to teacher killings and also our proposed E-learning project that we have both been working on had been affected due to budget cut on the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. The new govenment Education ministry had decided to axe the program as they said that it was costly and didnt have any educational merit. This program was initiated by the previous govt to provide low cost US$100 specially developed laptops preloaded with E-learning software for primary and secondary students. It was one of the elements in our proposal to reduce the cost of buying PCs for our pilot E-learning project to be implemented small scale in Pattani schools. We really wanted to help re-build the South Thailand communities affected by the terrorist bombings,school closures by providing educational opportunities for the children through E-learning. It will be a platform whereby teachers and student can interact online, enhance learning process and also provide selfpaced learning 24/7.

I encouraged Ben and told him that we will not let the setback to get to us. We will still go ahead with the project and implement at a small scale level at church-starting from Hope Pattani. We will continue to learn from the OPLC project team about the technical and educational aspects of E-learning. Also we will look for sponsorship for funding our E-learning project externally. So, we have the resolved to carry on and trust the Lord for his providence for this project.

My other project is building up our Usher Ministry for next year. I'm excited to assist in this area and thankful to God to have a good core team working with me. I believe that God will buildup His people in this Ministry as we work on building unity in the teams through organising activities for closer bonding.We will focus on building up our team leaders and ushers,recruitment and a new Ministry initiative in form of Oversea commcare Special Interest Group.Im always excited when I share about the new initiatives to build up this Ministry with my felllow brothers and sisters. We are gearing up for an exciting year ahead.Look out for it!!

So, thats the up and down in my work and Ministry ...its lows and highs I thanks God for everything he has prepared for me to experience to make me a stronger and more patient person.Praise you Jesus!

posted by Graeme @ 4:58 AM 0 comments

Monday, November 20, 2006

A great weekend and a Stressful Monday

Saturday I had a good rest slept in till 10am-something usual for me as I'm usually up 6.30 every morning and 7.30am on weekend. I heard my flatmate Kam Wing's guys gathering from outside my room in the living room and woke up. The guys were praying,discussing and sang some worship songs...nice fellowship. I remained in my room and did my QT and prepared my heart listening to my favourite Worship group -NZ band Parachute Band's new album "All the Earth". Preparing an open mind and heart to receive some spiritual leadership seminar material from Frank Damazio via audio cassette tapes. It's a series of 8 audio tapes entitled "Maximizing Your Leadership Potential" with a workbook which I'm going through in order to equip myself and eventually to teach my Usher team leaders. I'm also reading another of Frank's books called "Vanguard Leader". It's amazing how God lead me to this material on leadership 2 weeks ago at Trumpet Praise bookshop as I prayed to Him how to equip my usher team leaders and myself for Team Hope Usher Ministry. Just at the right time, He shows me what resources to get and also got it at 50% discount off as they were having a promotion. Praise the Lord!

Well, I did 2hrs listening and taking notes and then the rest of the day at home resting. In the evening I went to Dasmond Pang's house foor dinner with my flatemates Ronald and Kam Wing. We had a nice home cooked dinner.Thanks Dasmond! Then we watched a Sci Fi VCD called "Ultraviolet".We went home earlier as Ronald had MM duty the next morning. So that was my Sat!

Sunday, my flatmates and I took cab together and reached 7.30am. I had early breakfast before the guys gathering and my CG morning prayer. Ps Jeff preached on "When the Spirit Leads" from book of Acts8:26-40. I was blessed by the message as it remindered me to constantly to be ready to OBEY the Holy Spirit. In order to be lead, we must be ready to obey and follow His directions. Also, we need to cultivate a heart compassion for Pre-believers especially during this X-mas season. We need courage and be lead by the Holy Spirit to bring Christ into the hearts of the people. I pray that the Holy Spirit will give me opportunity to invite my colleagues for our Christmas CG gathering.

I had great time with Alan in the afternoon and we went to the Singapore Expo to taste the food samples there.

Monday was a stressful day as I had to do all the paperwork for my big orders. It was a tiring day for me. Thank God He sustained me through the day.

That's all for this post.till next time.

God Bless,
Graeme

posted by Graeme @ 7:39 AM 0 comments

Monday, November 13, 2006


Back at last!

I'm glad to be back blogging again after 3-4months lay off. Really have a lot to share and didnt know where to start. Yeah, the old procrastination habit y'know. Anyway got lots to share about how God had touched my heart and given me a new zeal to serve Him in various areas in Ministry after my Thai Missions in Hat Yai. More on that later.


Here are some photos I'd like to share taken the recent usher's gathering on 4th Nov at Usher Simon's house in Tampines. Really had a fun time with all our ushers. It's gonna be a regular thing next year as I'm proposing for usher's outing/activity every 2months run the 4 different usher teams in morning service to bring ushers closer together.

Alan looks pro here at playing guitar for dinners :) Having fun playing Jenga and Kevin being so sporting after kena the Jenga game sabo..notice the hair clip :) We enjoyed the fellowship time very much and spent laughing,cooking and eating together! The sisters help to make Wantons and Alan cooked.Jasmine made Jelly,Qian Fang made fruit salad,Jessie brought famous Joo chiat Bajang, Kevin brought Mee hoon,Simon supplied the drinks and I brought the ice-cream and sausages. We had a feast!

We rounded the day off with a great time at a live Worship Concert by Parachute Band from New Zealand.It was an awesome time Worshiping God and we certainly were ministered during Worship.

It's great to be able to serve God together & share with all the joy & fun with my ushering friends in Team Hope. We will build Team Hope Ushering together to be a more vibrant community,Amen !! God Bless you all bro & sis!

posted by Graeme @ 8:51 AM 0 comments

Monday, May 08, 2006

Vietnam-Day 1
Ho Chi Minh City

Yay! After a half day at work in the morning, I have managed to hand over everything and could go in peace to Vietnam for my holiday :) I'm thankful that Faisal send me down to the Airport before his deliveries to the yard. And...guess what I had for lunch? Delifrance kaya and butter croisants-both on special for $1! So good deal :)

The flight to Ho Chi Minh City(HCMC) took 1.5hrs and we reach at 4.30pm Spore time. I took the Airport cab down to Parkview Hotel in town. Wow! the amount of motorbike traffic is alot! The whole road is dominated by motorcyclist of all ages. HCMC is a busy city! The cars are American left hand drive also. Surprisingly, the the lady cab driver spoke Mandarin and I was conversing with her with my limited mandarin also.

After arriving at the Hotel, I had a quick shower...the room is basic,big, clean,air-cond and has Satelite TV and High Speed Internet connection! Woohoo! Great value for US$20/nite. Better than staying at the Sofitel at US$150. The Hotel staff are very friendly and took time to explain to me the various tourist attractions in Vietnam for my planning for the next few days.

I had fried beef & Onion and rice for dinner. It's really tender & yummy! After that I went back to my room to check emails.I'm glad that I have brought my laptop along as I can surf to find out more on Vietnam tourist attractions. And can also type in this blog!I have photos...but some how unable to insert the photos in.. to bad you all can't see them. Once I figure out the error & why not working, I will try and insert later.

Tommorrow, I'm meeting my Spore's friend's Vietnamese friend who will show me around the market & museum.Am excited & look forward to explore the city!

posted by Graeme @ 8:54 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Looking forward to Vietnam holiday !!

Well I'm really looking forward to my personal retreat and holiday to Vietnam for the whole next week(8th -15th May). Initially, there was supposed to be my club JCI APDC 2nd missions trip to Ho Chi Minh City. It was cancelled last minute so I decided to explore Vietnam as a 'personal retreat and mini missions'.

These past 1.5 weeks have been busy at work. However, I had a great time last weekend in Ipoh for a gathering of all the Area Peninsula Convention of JCI Msia clubs. JCI Ipoh who hosted the event is our sister chapter so we from JCI Marina are supporting the event. We had a lot of fun making new friends from JCI Bayan,Penang and also connecting with many other members from other states including nearby JCI Johor Bahru. There were trainings workshops and of course the official business for General Assembly where all the club presidents cast their votes for important issues relating to JCI Malaysia. From our side President Gerard, Treasurer Dexter and Membership Director Claudia went.

Yesterday, I had a specially memorable time with my close church friends Frank and Lynn at their wedding at Swiss Merchant Court serving as my first time as Best Man. I was excited and felt really priviledge to be given this opportunity to be part of their big day. Frank-you look great in white! Ps Ben jokingly mentioned if he didn't see the bride in white with Frank in white tuxedo,he might have mistaken for a PAP member for Elections! hehe. I feel very happy for this Godly couple! Frank-your my big brother :)

Well, it's getting late again. I hope to write more when I get to Ho Chi Minh City tommorrow nite!

posted by Graeme @ 11:00 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Tiring week at Jurong Shipyard...need patience

These few days has been very tiring and testing my patience at work. Low productivity!

For some of you who don't know what I'm doing in my job, I'm working as a senior sales engineer for a local Sporean engineering co,Marshal Technology doing the bulk item sales for Brazillian vessel projects in the Marine Offshore Industry.My current customer is Jurong Shipyard and the vessel owner is Petrobras (Brazil state oil co)

Been working on the my 15 volumes of 4inch thick folders Manual for the past 3 weeks andworking late every day. Saturday I came back to work for a few hours and Sunday evening till midnite. Monday I rushed the manuals out in the afternoon to the yard before the Purchaser came back from his holiday in India. Unfortuntely, I delivered to the warehouse instead of the engineering office. The 2 boxes of manuals were packed to the container and sent onboard the vessel and sailing for Brazil today!

I so blur...I didn't check with my engineer before I sent...I just was desparate to get it out as soon as...since it was 20kg heavy I sent it to the warehouse for keeping. Yesterday, after the Purchaser asked me where it was I got a big scolding...XXXX He asked me to get the manual from the warehouse to his office...It's like easy job but going all the way from Changi to Jurong to help them bring the manuals from the warehouse to the office..ridiculous! Anyway...its gone!
He scolded me all the way back to his house in Sengkang...ya yelled! After reach his house..ok already let off steam!

So today, I again rush down the yard to deliver my 3 volumes of Master copy for him to duplicate. Spent $29 in cab fare, waited for 3hours before getting a lift back from my colleague. He just said to leave on his desk...that's it..Hopefully, that's settled my manuals.
Gosh, it's so tiring going back & forth to Jurong everyday just to settle these issue.

I'm being testing for my patience...ya I prayed to God that I will have patience working with special needs kids one day. Maybe the testing has come sooner than I thought! Scolding + patience improves my endurance & develop my Character...yes Bible book of James again remind me.

I'm also praying for my CL Jaci who is very discouraged with all the CG visitor & member who could not make it for CG consistently..Pray that God will strengthen her and us the coreteam and that we will be able to rally the group together again. Our Cg people are mature people(in age) and busy and put priority with their work rather than attend CG. *sigh* Let's pray for transformed hearts..

posted by Graeme @ 10:09 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Joys of Serving as an Usher in Team Hope

Last Sunday, I got up early eager to serve as usher,on my own voluntary basis as backup for my good friend & Floor Manager Alan Chan.

It's great to be down and about serving with my fellow brothers & sisters as an usher again. I really enjoy this ministry and just counted that I served 3 times this month-twice volunteered usher and once on my regular duty as Floor Manager. Today, we have Team Hope usher training for our new ushers.Great to see some new faces including a couple from my own CG!

I feel the joy serving God's people with a bright & warm smile welcoming them into His house. Ps. Ben shared about how gratefulness makes a difference & changes our perspective & motivation in life.I'm very thankful to God for seeing me through the tough times recently and being in a spiritual family help me through their prayers. I'm so glad to serve Him in this ministry!

This week is another busy week for me..been to the Shipyard yesterday and will be there again tommorrow. Tommorrow, I'm Chairing, leading Praise & Worship & discussion. Due to recently one core my team member left for work in Japan and another is month end closing for accounts, both me & CL are doing the bulk of the roles. I pray that God will continue to pour the joy & strengthen me as I serve Him despite the heavier responsibility.

I'm always encouraged by the book of James n was teaching it to my sheep daniel in the weekend. It's talks about endurance and molding character so that we can be ready for anything. Thank-you Jesus !


posted by Graeme @ 9:03 AM 0 comments