God, please grant me patience!

These few days, I have been in situations that really required me to be very patient.

Just last week, when I was talking to one of my colleagues and wanting to clarify certain things from her, she did not give me an answer or direction. Instead, she answered a question with a question. I got a bit irritated and told her that I had no idea of the things that was why I was asking her that question. Then, I reckoned that she could have reiterated when I did something to her earlier. You see, what happened was when all staff were busy packing the things for the Saturday project, there she was slowly doing other things, not related to this project. When she asked me for an extension number of a staff, I jokingly told her that I was busy. She got offended. Then when all staff had finished packing the things for the project and were ready to load the things in the vans, she was the only one without the necessary things and even told our team to wait first. When she finally finished, she just told us to seal the box and moved to the vans. It was like it was only right for us to seal the box for her since we were in charge of this, instead of her lending a hand doing it since she delayed the process.

Then on the actual day of the project, things were a bit messy when some of the people in charge were late. So our team put the things where we thought could have been the place. Sure enough, things got messed up and we had to re-do again. Sigh!

Sometimes, I feel that it really takes a lot of effort to get everyone on the ball in this place. Some will draw their lines of duties so clearly that they will not lift a finger to help others. Yet others will unsacrificially help others when they see a need to. What a contrast! I feel very frustrated and sad when I see the first group of people. Come on, we are a team. What a team means is to be in the same boat. Whatever one part of the team does will affect the others. So why not help one part of the team to function well so that the whole team will reflect good? Even though this is practised verbally by many, so few of them have actually do it in actions. What a sad story!

I really don't know how long I can tolerate such behaviours and attitudes. God, please grant me patience to be able to do that and to have a bigger heart to accommodate such people in my midst. Also, I pray that the approval for the outing expenses will be approved by the top this week so that I can plan the route. In Jesus' most precious name I pray, Amen!

Stupid to advocate dialects???

I need to get this out soon before I burst into anger more. I read with disbelief on the forum page what someone of high position in the government's office wrote. 'It is stupid to advocate dialects' and even quoted MM Lee Kuen Yew as an example where he stopped using dialects for his National Day speech. My goodness!!!!! Dialects is our roots as a Chinese. Why disown our own roots? I remember in one of the preaching sermon by one overseas pastor who said that if we disowned our own roots, we would lose ourselves and became poor. What has this person do? What is this person trying to advocate? Why view dialects as a 'low-class' language?

In the social service sector, I find that many young people do not know how to speak dialects. Their main languages are English and Mandarin. However, there are still a majority of the elderly that we serve in the community who only understand dialects. Are we to ignore them in order to advance into a better society? I agree with one of the readers in today's forum that many young people do not know their own dialects, thereby causing a communication breakdown between the young and the old. If we are to continue ignoring the learning of dialects, we are telling the whole world that we are not only ignoring our roots but also our elderly who need our help so much.

Compared to the past, nowadays so many people do not know their dialects, causing the elderly to have problems communicating to the doctors, nurses, government agencies. When I bring my grandmother and some elderly for their medical appointments, it is so disappointing to find a Chinese who does not know any dialects. It is like a chicken and duck talking to each other. This causes much frustrations and confusions to the elderly. Like one of the elderly who has to undergo chemotherapy in a hospital, he is so frustrated whenever he has to face a doctor who does not know his dialect, Cantonese. He does not understand what the doctor says and the doctor does not understand what he says. Even if the nurse around, it does not make any difference because the nurse is a foreigner.

I definitely think that it is good to educate and advocate the young to speak dialects. If we don't advocate the young in learning dialects, we not only lose our roots but ourselves. In the route of advancement, we must NEVER forget that it is through our dialects, we find ourselves. Let those who find it stupid re-think their decisions and their positions in life. Are they able to communicate with the elderly and know their needs better? OR are they advocating that the elderly are useless and wasting the nation's resources?

Spiritual Warfares

In the past week, there have been news on 3 men who were actively playing violent games. Some readers felt that by playing violent games, it would not make a person violent. Well, I like to somewhat agree to that but at the same time feel that these kind of games expose one to something more scary.

Many people may have heard of games like World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons and feel that these games are just games. They do not make a person violent or agressive. However, these games open oneself to spiritual forces too great for them to bear. I remember seeing one documentary on these games and there are people being interviewed. These people are either the players themselves or their relatives. At first, they are like many people who feel that these are just games, nothing much. Nothing to worry about. However, as they proceed to higher levels in the games, they find themselves unable to control their minds. They tend to see things and some of them even committed suicide because of the things that are controlling their minds. It becomes so scary that some of the relatives interviewed say that they are losing their loved ones. If these games are just games, why are people so scared? Why are they so stupid as committing suicide?

I believe that games are good. They give the creators of such games a platform to express their creativity. However, when it is being misused, it can invite many evil things to happen. Just like God gives us the option of choice. We can choose to do good or to do evil. It's our freedom. However, once we misuse those freedom, we have to take responsiblity. No one can help us. We must face the music on our own. I just pray that those who think that these games are just games will re-think whether there are evil forces working in those games that can entice them to do evil. Satan is not stupid. For him to work into our lives are very simple. He just have to make use of our minds and do a little trick, and there, we will lose ourselves. That is why it is so important to fill our minds with God-given things and spiritual verses. Lord, please help those who are obsessed with violent games thinking that they are just games. I pray for spiritual awakening and spiritual revival to happen. Let them see what You see. Help them to get out of the situations. Let those who are contemplating these games, drop off those thoughts. Let them never play these games. In Jesus' name I commit them to, Amen.

Things more stable. Thank God!

It's been sometime since I wrote in my blog. Well, things had happened and I really needed time to think through what I needed to do.

What happened was I found myself having difficulty to work with my colleague. Sometimes, I would find that she did not inform me things and when problems or issues arose, she would ask me how come I never informed her. It was tough at that time. Besides, I was so free every day that I did not new what I did. I really thought of resigning. But then, I know that I would not be able to find another job that I enjoy as much as I do now. So I shared with my closed friends. One of the more stabled ones told me about an article she read. The writer was a foreigner and he noted that Singaporeans did not inform their bosses of how they felt about certain situations and resigned from the jobs. It was noted that such actions were unfair to them. So she told me to let my boss know what was going on. But I must be very objective rather than pin-pointing my colleague.

So I did and I never regreted it. I told my boss that I felt my colleague and I had very different working styles. Hers was a slow and cautious while mine was do it fast and move on. So my boss arranged a meeting for both of us; firstly to let us know precisely our roles so that there would be a clear role definition, and secondly to iron out any grievances. The meeting went well. We both felt better after the meeting. Besides, now at least in what we do, we can joke and tease each other because of our understanding of each other's working styles.

I must say that if I bottle up the frustation, I will be the one in the losing end. Thank God for showing me the way through my friends. I pray that God, You will continue to send more elderly willing to accept You as their Lord and Personal Savior. For those who have already accepted You, I pray that they will be willing to obey You by going through water baptism, just like uncle Boey Yin Meng, uncle Fong Fook Seng and auntie Lie Bie Kee. Also, I pray that uncle Tan Thian Her will do the crafts given to him properly and not rush into it. For auntie Hoe Kim Kee, I pray that I will be able to think of some crafts which she is able to engage in due to her poor eye sight. In Jesus' name I commit these elderly to You, Amen.