Genesis 22:1-14

i thank God for two friends who taught me a really valuable lesson today. eugene, hannah & i were gng home after hanging out at jp this evening...and at the carpark, there was this parked car obstructing the way. while trying to get pass it, eugene's car accidentally scrapped its side. we were stuck there & when i got out to try directing him, anor driver who was waiting for us to get out of the way came out of his car to help eugene move out. tt driver then looked at the obstructing car & told us to leave our no. behind since we scratched it slightly (and eugene's car was pretty bad!). for a long time, we thought abt whether or not to leave eugene's no. we were uncertain, and fearful tt the owner would be nasty and try to take advantage of the situation (cos he had other dents on his car prior to this incident too). so i called a close friend of ours to ask for advice...there's no need to say why here, but she found it difficult to help us decide too. then, i tried giving ourselves excuses, to justify why there was no need to leave eugene's no. deep down, i felt pretty guilty becos i knew what was the right thing to do, but becos i felt so bad for eugene, i tried to convince myself it was alrite not to leave it. meanwhile, hannah was encouraging us to do the right thing by leaving the no, and tt God would honour us if we honour Him. while talking to tt close friend, i noticed eugene starting to write a note to the owner of the car. well, to cut the already long story short, eugene made a decision to be honest & leave his no. amazingly, when he started writing the note, it started raining. technically, if we left the note on the car, it would have been soaked by the time the owner returned. but eugene went the extra mile by putting it into a small plastic bag to protect it, which i told him i believe/hope the owner would take into consideration and be kind to him. i tink it took him a lot of courage, and i really admire him for tt. i thank God for teaching me to obey Him by making choices tt would honour Him...thru two friends, who were 1 year my junior. i felt really disgusted with myself, so ashamed, for not helping a friend to make the right decision and in the process, i might have even stumbled hannah - whose simple child-like faith taught us to honour God. it was really an experience tt has humbled me and above all...i thank God for giving me the privilege of gng thru this learning experience with these two friends...and of cos, tt close friend i called during the dilemma. haha, it's like God killing 4 "birds" with 1 stone...

o, and hannah was right. God will honour those who honour Him. eugene smsed to say, the car owner called to say he read the note, and tt he'd settle the damage on his own, praise God! indeed the God we worship is sovereign and real :]
thank you, eugene for being so brave and setting a Christ-like example. next time, i won't ever say you're a bad example to me anymore - no matter how "any-o-how" you hold your steering wheel or mount/scrap the curbs! haha

by God's grace, this day has finally arrived. starting, or rather, re-starting the Young Adults' Fellowship ("YAF") has been our hope and prayer for more than a year. God's timing for our 1st meeting is really perfect. when josiah shared tt come july, the comm would be down to 2 ppl (thus the decision to have only 2 meetings tt month)...what struck me was, the YAF is living up to its theme "reaching out - within and beyond". the comm wld be down to 2 becos alex is away in Ohio (m sure he's not just having a good time since he has purposed to share Christ with ppl around him) while eugene & myself will be on a mission trip in Chiangmai - out of our comfort zones, as ambassadors for Christ :]
i thank God for seeing us thru the months of coming tgt to pray and plan for this. thank God for bringing tgt the five of us (josiah, alex, shelia, eugene & myself) with this burden, and for moving the hearts of elder john & sis charissa to be our advisor & supervisor, guiding us as we plan for the YAF. some ppl might tink tt we're not gonna last, cos afterall, the YAF before us has been restarted so many times. in fact, pastor shared tt this would be the 5th time a grp of young adults are restarting the YAF. but m thankful enough to know tt there are many others who believe in us, as much as we believe in God, to sustain this YAF. honestly, we were quite discouraged when we sent out over 80 invitations and only 1/3 came. but i was deeply encouraged at today's inauguration (or rather, revival) of the YAF, when the ppl from the various fellowship grps/session came up to say a few words to the pro-tem committee. even the YF's presence was encouraging. these wonderful grp of youths/young teens, they were supposed to be hanging out at some cafe/go home after their YF meeting, but they decided to have a quick dinner & come back to church to encourage & support us as a group. and it was heartening to hear what darrell (my own younger brother!) spoke on behalf of the YF, too :] we were so moved tt we (okay, shelia & i) were sniffing & wiping away tears (of joy, tho) like we were at a funeral...haha
lastly...i thought i'd just share wat joe shared with me before he left. "it's not for formalities sake. i'd just like to say, because your grp is integrated, i believe this YAF will last." well, like i shared with sis charissa, come the day when we ever tink of giving up and gng separate ways, i hope we will rmb tt there were ppl who believed in us to sustain this YAF, and i hope we will be able to live up to tt expectation...and ultimately, give God the glory...