A real star: Joey Yung 容祖儿

I decided on a lark to go up to Genting Highlands over a weekend just to catch Joey Yung in concert. Two weeks before the trip, I had no inkling of any of her songs. So I went on a crash course, listening to her songs day and night literally.

The concert was held at the Arena of Stars auditorium. The sound system is good, unlike that horrendous place at Suntec City that Mayday always performs at.

During the concert, Joey's voice was crystal clear and very good. She hardly sounded strained despite lots of gruelling dance steps and movements. She appeared to injure her back slightly during one of the dances early on. I knew something was wrong because she didn't execute one of the steps properly, and following that, when she was talking to the audience, her face seemed a bit pained and she was subtly stretching her back. It was quite worrying for me at that stage, because any fan would not have wanted her to continue just in case that was a serious injury. Thankfully, she seemed okay as the concert wore on.

What I really appreciated was that Joey gave her 150% during the concert. I could really see that she was giving her best. I was seated about 15 rows from the stage and was the only one apart from 20-odd fan club members, who stood up after every song, cheered loudly, screamed and danced. I think I was in her direct line of vision and she saw me and she smiled broadly at me. :-)

When I was told by the minders that I couldn't dance at where I was seated, I moved to dance beside the sound control box during her fast song segment. Ha! :-) Since I was so energetic, the people beside me caught my fever and four of them stood up to dance as well. Ha ha ha!

Joey had two encores that night. People started leaving after the first encore but we of course stayed back. We then started screaming and clapping and whistling. Everyone started moving towards the front, so a metal barrier was the only thing that separated us from Joey.

Joey was very accommodating to her fans. One of them shouted that she wanted to sing a song with Joey, who very sportingly asked her to come up to the stage. She hugged her fan, who was tearing as she sang. The guys around me were hilarious: they kept moaning and saying "aiyoh, wasted, why not us, why not us?"

I could see her really close upfront, and this was the closest I've been to an artiste. So it was very cool for me. All the fans looked very happy and everyone was snapping pictures like crazy. There was this guy who kept motioning in my direction. So I pointed to one girl and he nodded his head. His girlfriend obviously ran ahead of him and forgot about him, who was left behind. I tapped the girl on her shoulder and pointed to him. She laughed and waved at him. After that, she continued to scream, shout and take pictures of Joey, ignoring him. That was quite a funny moment.

The concert started at 8.30pm and finished around 11pm or later. I would say that I made the right decision to catch Joey live in concert. :-)

When the concert ended, one of the announcements was that an upcoming artiste would be Sammi Cheng. If Sammi doesn't make her way to Singapore, I will definitely make my way to Genting's Arena of Stars to catch her live. :-)

PS: The crappy, blurred photos are my fault. I took only my handphone with me to the concert, thinking that cameras would not be allowed. Sigh...I was so wrong.

Where is our place of ministry?

I had a pretty nice conversation with a cab driver just now. He picked me up at YWCA Fort Canning Lodge lobby, and following that, he started to chat with me. Interestingly, a lot can be learnt from a person just by listening to him.

He started off by asking me for my preferred route home and then he started talking about cars, homes and the wealthy. He said that he usually brings his wife and his parents to Genting for a holiday because it was the cheapest destination. As well, he would also travel to Thailand. Then he talked about providing for his family and how he felt that even the rich have their own set of troubles. We started discussing about life and what it meant to be happy. I told him that to me, a contented life is a happy life, and that there would always be ups and downs in life and the main thing is how one responds to a setback.

He then told me that he was very upset by what one customer said to him. The customer had asked him, "You're so young. Why do you want to be a taxi driver instead of getting a proper job?" I then said that it was not a very nice thing for the customer to say. As a taxi driver, he is earning money, working hard and supporting his family. That is a good thing, and something that nobody can take away from him.

He then told me that he was always involved in business ideas and that he had his own business, but that was difficult to sustain and so he turned to driving a taxi because he didn't have very high educational qualifications. I told him about my brother-in-law and my elder sister, and how their wooden-furniture business had to close after five years because it was no longer viable.

I then added that what was important was that both he and my brother-in-law and my elder sister had given starting an own business a try and this was commendable and brave. That he could say that he had given his best and there were lessons that he could learn through his experience.

He then laughingly said: "I used to "cheong" a lot but now I've to be more grounded and take a stable job so that I can support my family." I told him that he can say that he has at least given it a shot in his life. And that he is earning a decent income as a taxi driver and he is supporting his family - this is something to be proud of because there are many other people out there who are still refusing to accept reality and not work hard at keeping a stable job. I cited him an example of someone I know. I also said that a job doesn't define a person, and that as long as someone is working hard and earning an income, then that is all that matters. He said that yes, it's true.

Pretty soon, the journey came to an end. I paid him the cab fare and then thanked him, saying "Thank you for a very nice conversation. Take care!"

Sometimes, Christians have this mistaken notion that one must be doing something really big or significant in order to be labelled as "serving God", but for the majority of us, our service and ministry revolves around the people that we see, interact with or bump into every single day of our lives.

For this cab driver, I reckon he needed first a listening ear and secondly, some encouragement and affirmation. I did not mention God or Jesus at all, but I pray that he received some hope from me, and that could be just what he needed at this point in his life.

A deep and serious malady of the soul

I came across this wonderful quote from A.W Tozer:

A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions, and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar. The tragic results of this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit; these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.

A Wrinkle In Time

I just finished reading this children's book called A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle, who surprisingly gave a Christian twist to her series. Here are some phrases scattered through the book which I found interesting:

Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point (Pascal, French)
The heart has its reasons, whereof reason knows nothing.

Ab honesto virum bonum nihil deterret (Seneca)
Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable.

Justitiae soror fides (Latin)
Faith is the sister of justice.

Come t'e picciol fallo amaro morso (Dante)
What grievous pain a little fault doth give thee

Finxerunt animi, raro et perpauca loquentis (Horace)
To action little, less to words inclined

Vitam impendere vero (Latin)
To stake one's life for the truth

Qui plus sait, plus se tait (French)
The more a man knows, the less he talks

Das werk lobt den meister (German)
The work proves the craftsman

La experiencia es la madre de la ciencia (Cervantes, Spanish)
Experience is the mother of knowledge

Que la terre est petite a qui la voit des cieux (Delille)
How small is the earth to him who looks from heaven

...For that he was a spirit too delicate
To act their earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refusing their grand hests, they did confine him
By help of their most potent minsters,
And in their most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprisoned, he didst painfully remain....
(The Tempest, Shakespeare)

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.
(1 Corinthians 1:25-28, King James Version)

Let the little children come to me

This note from my nephew made my day.

Predestination and free will

I had an interesting discussion with a colleague about predestination and free will. I told her that it was a weighty topic and I did not know enough about it. We threw up a few things and following that, I decided to google it and came upon this Spurgeon extract, which, to me, was a pretty good explanation of the two truths. I've not studied the subject enough or read the bible thoroughly enough to get a grip on these two truths but I thought Spurgeon's comments hit the nail on the spot.

C.H.Spurgeon:

The system of truth is not one straight line, but two. No man will ever get a right view of the gospel until he knows how to look at the two lines at once.

I am taught in one book to believe that what I sow I shall reap: I am taught in another place, that "it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."

I see in one place, God presiding over all in providence; and yet I see, and I cannot help seeing, that man acts as he pleases, and that God has left his actions to his own will, in a great measure.

Now, if I were to declare that man was so free to act, that there was no presidence of God over his actions, I should be driven very near to Atheism; and if, on the other hand, I declare that God so overrules all things, as that man is not free enough to be responsible, I am driven at once into Antinomianism or fatalism.

That God predestines, and that man is responsible, are two things that few can see. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory; but they are not. It is just the fault of our weak judgment. Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other.

If, then, I find taught in one place that everything is fore-ordained, that is true; and if I find in another place that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true; and it is my folly that leads me to imagine that two truths can ever contradict each other.

These two truths, I do not believe, can ever be welded into one upon any human anvil, but one they shall be in eternity: they are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the mind that shall pursue them farthest, will never discover that they converge; but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.

Eternal love of Christ

Another Christian song from the same 512 charity concert.


爱是不保留(电影《天作之盒》主题曲)
Love of No Reserve

演唱：林志美(中文版)、区瑞强(英文版)

常听说世界爱没长久
I've always been told love won't last long
哪里会有爱无尽头
Nowhere can one find eternal love
尘俗的爱只在乎曾拥有
They never care how long love will go on
一刻灿烂便要走
Just a moment, it slips away

而我却确信爱是恒久
But I believe in eternal love
碰到了你已无别求
Being with you is all I wish
无从解释 不可说明的爱
You never know why, love is beyond words
千秋过后仍长存不朽
No matter when, it is still there

谁人受痛苦被悬挂在木头
Who suffered for us and carried the holy cross
至高的爱尽见于刺穿的手
The greatest love is all seen in Jesus' hands
看 血在流反映爱没保留
See! Blood is proving love of no reserve
持续不死的爱到万世不休
Everlasting love until the end of time

惟求奉上生命全归主所有
Wishing I could give my whole life to the Lord
要将一切尽献于我主的手
Your arms are opening wide to hold me close
我已决定今生再没所求
I'll never find another one like you
惟望得主称赞已足够
Setting my soul free with praise and love

When you feel weary

It was such a joy to hear the HK Christian artistes sing a Cantonese Christian song during a charity concert for the Sichuan earthquake victims. They sang it well, with heart and the lyrics are very meaningful. I don't think I can do justice to the Cantonese version through my English translation but here's the song in Cantonese and my translated version.


當你走到無力......

當你走到無力 - 徐偉賢

當你走到無力繼續下去
當你感到寂寞困惱空虛
只要相信神隨時扶助你
願助你解開困惑拋開痛悲

當你跑到疲乏難再下去
當你感到疑惑說我是誰
只要相信神完全明白你
就讓你伸手接受他深愛你

別害怕他知你難受
擔當軟弱與困憂
不需再懼怕
耶穌必拯救
願你開口接受　張開你手

別害怕他知你難受
擔當軟弱與困憂
不需再懼怕
耶穌必拯救
讓你一生快樂展翅高飛
一個全新的你


When you feel so weary that you can't carry on
When you feel alone, troubled and empty
Have faith and believe that God is always there, to help and support you
Delivering you from your troubles and your sorrows

When you feel so tired that you can't carry on
When you feel doubt encircle you, asking "Who am I"
Have faith and believe that God understands you completely
Just stretch your hand and accept His deep love

Be not afraid that He knows of your suffering
Of your weaknesses and your troubles
You need not fear
Because Jesus Christ is the Saviour
So accept Him and embrace Him

Be not afraid that He knows of your suffering
Of your weaknesses and your troubles
You need not fear
Because Jesus Christ is the Saviour
Living a life of happiness, with your wings spread wide
Becoming a new you