Things your mum will not tell you about Yong Ching Seng (Part 4)

Finally, the time has arrived. I put up my courage, packed my luggage, ate my porridge and set off to Singapore, not knowing what awaits me in the next 4 years.


1 Corinthians 2:8-10 (New Living Translation):

" But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets."

Indeed, God has brought me to a whole new level during the 4 years of my undergraduate study.

First year

During my first semester, I tell myself to "guai guai" study, score in exams and get a powerful certificate in the future. I had the minimum involvement with activities other than studies. After my lessons, I would just stay in my room. No birthday celebrations, no ah fang supper (I don't even know where is it until year 2), no visitation of friends, no outings. no RockBand gaming with Mike, no Sarah, etc.

Church wise, I reached Singapore few days before FOC, and I attended the church ever since. However, my definition of Christian lifestyle is very simple: Just go to church every Sunday, take down some notes, attend some Bible studies and maybe make some friends. I was still quite individualistic and did not involve in any cell group or other events. Christianity to me is just a Sunday event. What's the problem with my mindset here? Well that's another future topic haha.

After a while, thanks to the tiredless effort of my old friend En Yao, I got to know my first cell group W193 and joined them eventually. The cell leader is younger than me and I was the second oldest member. Slowly, I developed the concept about "spiritual family" and that no one is suppose to walk alone.

After 4 months attending church, God is indeed faithful, because the church has decided to shift the service to Expo, which is 1.5-hour travelling from NTU, meaning I need to travel 3 hours for church. Besides, W193 held the weekly meeting not at south spine seminar room, but at Tanah Merah, which speaks for another 3 hours two-way journey. This is definitely a big challenge for me to stay or to change church.

Why do I stay? It's because spiritual growth to me is a matter of life and death, and that the atmosphere in the church is condusive towards spiritual growth. So I stayed on, believing that God will see and honour the sacrifice I make just to attend church. It was during that time I came up with a statement to encourage myself:

"If I can't even travel the journey from NTU to Expo, what makes me think that I am fit to finish the journey from earth to Heaven?"

This became my mantra and commitment to church was definitely inconvenient and requires sacrifice during my first year.

Relationship wise? Initially I was quite eager, but slowly I knew that I was not ready, so just decided to forget about it and focus my attention unto my spiritual growth.


Second year

During the 3-month holiday after completing first year, the church held Emerge Conference 2006, it was a powerful youth conference.

During the conference, pastor Kong shared about the Cultural Mandate, which states that children of God should be the light and salt of the world, breaking the four walls of the church, and be a blessing to our surrounding by having positive influence which benefits generations to come. The message greatly inspired me and my concept of christian living was renewed.

Influence is best attained by becoming a leader. As a result, I decided to do something to my faith and I signed up as FOC group leader, so that I could be a blessing for the new generation of people who are going into NTU. This marks my greater involvement and also a burden for the NTUMSA community, and NTUAMCISA.

By now, W193 grew bigger and a new cell group E399 was born, I was allocated to E399. It is also during my second year that I began to take up more responsibilities in the church. I started to learn how to be a guitarist, and also assisting my cell group leader in anything that needed to be done. To a point of time, I could be involved in church-related activities for 5 days a week. (Monday prayer meeting, Wednesday Bible Study, Thursday cell group, Friday cell group, Saturday Expo service, Sunday Expo service). Sometimes, I attended two cell groups because I wanted to have more chance to learn the guitar. The greater involvement really stretched my limits, faith, emotional ceiling, financial stewardship, etc.

During my whole second year, I continued to develop greater hunger for God. Besides usual cell group, I also started to get involved with the NTU CHC community for activities such as prayer meetings, camp planning, etc. I got to know some friends of great faith and was inspired by their commitment towards Christ. It was this interaction with them that birth forth the desire in me to serve as a cell group leader. Be wise in choosing who will influence you, because it affects your destiny!

Well, my eyes still looking around for potential partner, but still remained single because wanted to grow more spiritually. I told myself that I must grow up before I can handle a relationship.


*To be continued*

Jah Yung's 21st and JC's 20s~

Happy Blessed Birthday Guys~

A simple yet memorable Birthdays~ It's difficult to have a surprise for both of them together, and end up Jah Yung sudenly appear infront of us while we are still preparing *Oops* So Everyone pretended as if we are going to celebrate JC's Birthday only! HAHA

So end up all of us crash into JC's little SAUNA room and sang a loud and warm Birthday Song to both him and Jah Yung! Yup...here's some photos =D


For Jah Yung~



For JC~



Seems like Fang Yun is really enjoy holding the cake for 2 birthday BOYS!!!!



Birthday BOYS!



Holding hands and cut cake...woots !



Feeding each other with sweet sweet Strawberry~ Hmm~




And here's their Birthday Speech!

A very first Birthday in NTU

Happy Blessed 19th Birthday Fang Yun!




Happy Blessed 20th Birthday Jeanette!



Happy Blessed 20th Birthday Seng Ljuan!!!




May God continue to pour His blessings on you in this very special day and Lead you through your next 7 semester in NTU !!!


W518 Loves YOU!!!!


God bless lots~

Phil 4:13

"I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."

A very important verse as we go through life, be it the challenges we face in uni (like exams) , in our career or in our relationship with others. During times like these, we learn that our strength is so insignificant. But, no worries, because if you believe in God and His word, leave all your troubles to Him.

And before I end, I would like to offer help to anyone who has problems with Economics/Business related subjects. (unfortunately, thermo is not a subject I learnt =P) I don't promise that I know all the answers but I can always try! So, any questions, feel free to ask through email, through the blog, through Facebook, or face to face when we meet.

Good night!

Pasta with Pasta Sauce

HAHA, I am good with titles. :P

Ok, I'm now in the office, all alone again and waiting for my boss' email reply. So I thought that I shall take this time to post up the recipe I promised. It is simple, I promise.

(serves 2)
Ingredients:
Half a packet of spaghetti (you can use any type of pasta you wish)
One pack of minced beef
One can of button mushrooms
One small bottle of Prego's Traditional Pasta Sauce
3-4 cloves of garlic
Dried Italian herbs, salt and ground black pepper to taste
Olive oil
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Boil a pot of water. When water comes to a rapid boil, add some salt into it before adding the pasta. Cook pasta till al dente (one way to test is to bite off some, or break off a small piece to see the middle of the pasta. If you see a white part, it's not cooked yet).
2. While waiting for pasta to boil, chop up the garlic. Slice the mushrooms. Rinse the minced beef of its blood.
3. Heat up the pan. When pan is hot enough, pour some olive oil into it. When the oil is heated up, pour in the chopped garlic and fry till fragrant.
4. Pour in sliced mushrooms and fry till partially cooked.
5. Pour in the minced beef and cook till slightly pink. Then, pour in the pasta sauce and mix well.
6. Lower the heat and leave the pasta sauce to simmer (bubbling gently). When the sauce starts to simmer, add salt, black pepper and herbs to taste.
7. Serve pasta with the sauce, and add grated Parmesan cheese to the dish before eating if you wish.

ENJOY! :)

The P's and Q's in The Kitchen

Of course, we don't go "Thank you" and "Please" so often in the kitchen, especially to the utensils and all, but our mood and character is often shaped in the kitchen and also often affects the outcome in the kitchen.

For example, have you ever wondered why some people just cannot cook at all, even though they followed recipes to the very last detail? Sometimes, it just attributes to lack of skills but most of the time, it boils down to two things: patience and common sense. A lack of patience often makes someone try to do shortcuts which may spoil the dish. If you were to keep on stirring a soup, the time it takes to boil would be longer. If you keep on opening the oven door while you're baking a cake, the cake will not rise at all. When you cream together butter and sugar but not until it is fluffy, then not only will the batter be not mixed properly, but the cake's lightness will be affected as well. If you add in eggs into the batter, all in one go instead of one yolk by one yolk, your cake batter will curdle. So you see, patience is truly a virtue and is much needed when you cook or bake. Of course, your mood also affects your dish as well. A rather complex concept, but it's true.

Common sense is simply gained through using your eyes, sense of taste and application. When you are in the kitchen, observe your mother as she cooks. You would notice a natural flow to her movements and cooking, then apply it. The best lesson is through observation. Your level of alertness will also be heightened in the kitchen. You can be amazed how you become more alert in other areas of life, simply by doing more housework. :P

When you eat something, do not simply shove it into your mouth. Take the time to taste the dish. Notice what you are eating! I know of a friend who cannot remember whether the dish was chicken or pork, or what is in the dish. When you taste, you will know what goes inside the dish and through time, you will understand which ingredient enhances the taste of your dish, and which dishes complement each other.

It's cool how simple lessons from the kitchen can be applied to our spiritual lives (no wonder my mother's prayer sanctuary is always in the kitchen, while she cuts and cooks). Patience is akin to obedient endurance. It is not easy to be patient in the kitchen, no matter how good a cook you are. Similarly, it is not easy to endure hardships. But I have learned that the more patient you are, the more you learn and the better your cooking. The more you learn to obey and endure, the more you learn and the more you become like Jesus.

Common sense is learnt through observation and application of things around us. But the key to it is the willlingness to learn and apply. Likewise, our spiritual sense is guided by the Holy Spirit but we have to be willing to listen to His voice. Unless we learn that, we would not be able to identify His voice. The next step then is to heed Him. This is one tough call, but thank God for Jesus who died on the cross for us, so that we can be more than conquerers in Him.

Next post: I'm gonna give a step-by-step on how to cook simple pasta with sauce!

The Essentials in the Kitchen

Hello everyone!

Guess whare I am now? It's 8 pm on a Monday night, and I'm all alone, still stuck in the office! I have quite a bit of work to rush up and hopefully, everything will turn out fine. Am currently waiting for the software run to be completed, so I decided to blog instead!

I think many of us wish to cook sometimes because we crave for a home-cooked meal, or are just pretty sick and tired of canteen food and MSG. Well, how can you cook if you're not properly equipped, no? So here is a list of kitchen utensils and ingredients which I think are essential for you to whip up proper meals, despite living in halls of residence:

1. A proper chopping board - I find wood more hygenic than plastic, but if you're not careful to dry it enough, it could turn mouldy.
2. A good chef's knife. Not those tiny, puny kinds, thanks.
3. A non-stick frying pan.
4. A set of pots of different sizes. Ikea sells a set of 3, and it's only SGD15. The covers are no longer made out of glass, so no worries for butterfingers here!
5. A frying ladle. If you're using a non-stick pan, please buy a wooden ladle.
6. A soup ladle.
7. Peeler.
8. Can opener.
9. Salt.
10. Pepper - both black and white.
11. Garlic.
12. Italian or mixed herbs - perfect for pasta sauces. They enhance flavours well!

All these are inexpensive, and can last you for a long time if you buy decent ones. So, go get some proper utensils and start cooking! :)