Hello world I am back and actually I shouldn't be back,
But I am confident enough to spend a bit more time to think and blog. I just finished my Central Nervous System module written exam today. It will have to be the most difficult that is why I am confident enough to live a little easier now that it is over.
So what has life taught me these few days that I was away doing real world stuff...ok exams are more real than just blogging.
Anyway we like to complain whne we suffer. Over here in Ireland I complain about my loneliness...how I have no one to talk to....and how hard it is to find anyone who share my view of the world....let me tell you that I know more pro-Israel fella back home in Malaysia than over here....but then again you don't just go up to a guy and ask about his political preferences and you don't find unless the person is interested enough in it to actually bother to hint it in his conversations...but anyway back to loneliness. It is not a pleasurable experience and it is not one that i want or actively seek but from my lonely outpost I have the time to think and contemplate and do things that my friend sback home with commitments to church, family and friends are not able to do because they are so busy...so while everyone is busy preparing for Christmas I have a Torah sitting next to my bed and browse through in my boredom and yes it is true when God wanted to create man He refered to Himself as "Let US createman in OUR image"...the rabbis believe that it was GOd consulting the angels according to the commentary but as a Christians I see this as a reference to the Triune God...I have this tendency to digress but back to loneliness..so it enables me to many things that other people don't have time to...it is great to be with people but sometimes walking by yourself at night and then looking up to see the stars in a clear sky is one of the most wonderful experience..sure you would wosh to share this with someone but have you haven't been by yourself you would not have had this epiphany that you can share with others.....in conclusion, unpleasurable experiences are not things you seek out but there things to be learnt then or even something to be learnt from it if we are not too busy whining and missing the big picture that is.

Sorry that I have updated in aquite a while but exams have been heavy,
And of course I found that I had a disastrous MCQ with neurology. Anyway I came across this great story in the LGF. It is by a guy nicknamed geepers. Here is it:
A Christmas story:
I remember my first Christmas party with Grandma. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"
My grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns.
Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus!" she snorted. "Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad. Now, put on your coat, and let's go."
"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second cinnamon bun.
"Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days. 'Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.
I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.
I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church. I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobbie Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class.
Bobbie Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobbie Decker didn't have a cough, and he didn't have a coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobbie Decker a coat.
I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that. "Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the ladybehind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. "Yes," I replied shyly. "It's ... for Bobbie." The nice lady smiled at me. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.
That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and ribbons, and write, "To Bobbie, From Santa Claus" on it -- Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobbie Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially one of Santa's helpers.
Grandma parked down the street from Bobbie's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."
I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his doorbell and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobbie.
Forty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my grandma, in Bobbie Decker's bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.
Well it warmed my heart. Yeah Santa does exist.

Exams are in five days time but I haven't blogged in a while,
Many ideas are running through my head yet the pressure of exams, the need to study, guilt for not studying enough, depression from not studying, lack of mood to study, and one and hundred one excuses prarlyse me from blogging and in the end no study gets done. IT always happen to me towards the exams: The need to study arises, I head to the on-line notes, I get depress, I don't study instead I waste my time on blogs and surfing the net, nomstudy gets done, guilt arises, even more depression, even less study and so goes the vicious cycle. I am sure many people can realte to this...heck if some one finds the cure to this mental disorder..yes it is one...why? First there is the characteristic self-destructive behaviour, symptoms similar to depression...well some people will call it laziness and slothfulness..so whether mental disorder or slothfulness if someone can find the cure, most people in the class will scoring over 80% and they will have to bring up the standard to separate the first class honours and the second. It is my observation that I am not the only affected by it.
What makes us sad, not emotionally sad but behaviourably? I would say boredom has something to with it. I marvel that some people can sit at the same place everyday and put in countless hours duplicating sections from different books, books of the most viscous prose and in effect like an amanuensis reproducing those books except these books are now incorporated and its material organised into one called the 'Student's Notes'. I for the life in me can't even be bothered to take notes in class let alone 'make notes' in the above-mentioned method....though I would argue that this is not making notes as the material and knowledge to be gleaned is not organised or rewritten in the students own words and thus signal a certain amount of understanding but rather it is copied and memorised wholesale...so I read from the online notes which again are the power-point presentations of the lectures and represent the bare minimum but the problem that it is online and I tempted to check my mail box to see if there is mail, my blog to see if there are comments and the weblog community of which I am part of and read the comments of the news items, and so very little study is done and again I lapse into the vicious cycle.
Another unwanted effect is not only am I paralysed mentally but socially as I start skipping my commitments like Kidz Klub( I am skipping the club as I write this) so as to get more time and to make for that which was lost and yet it is in vain as I again lapse into the same self-destructive pattern. Maybe I should go to the library to study.

We the responsible citizens of the world,
want to save it. So we indentify the most crucial problems that need to be addressed so we can have maximum effect for the limited resources and manpower we have. It is sanitation, clean water, food security, basic education and literacy, and habitation. Most of the we know the solutions. No toilets? Build them. However this is what we will identify next, the obstacles to the solution which are lack of funds, lack of man-power, corrupt governments9 this problem is two-fold; one the money meant for development are usully siphon off and two the humanitarian agencies are reluctant to work in such countries knowing that the effort will come to naught).
In light of these problems I have always been for the using of local people to improve themsleves. Instead of giving them fish we should teach them to fish. teach them to build simple but proper toilets. In doing so not only you give them knowledge that will be passed on the the next generations and the surroundings villages inhabited by relatives but you also give them know-how for that all-important maintenace work. No point going in to build FOR them 5 star toilets when it will be ruined ina years time. Waste of money and time.
A lot of technology was passed on and learnt. We must research all these basic technologies and disseminate it!

I have always been a crazy medicant,
Sometimes I can't believe the rubbish I come up with but then again that is what makes my life interesting. So anyway I have been thinking: There are lot of pastors in China that are locked up right? And I have this grand dream of forming penal battalions to provide the labour for toilet-digging, food distribution, logistic support, vaccinations and that sort of thing. I wonder if I brkoker a deal with the Chinese government to get these to staff my penal battalions hopefully they will see it as getting a chance to get rid of troublesome prisoners and not needing to spend money to house them and feed them and for me buying them their crazy freedom I get man-power and lastly get their freedom and if they so choose they can pursue theological studies while working in my penal battalions. Now I guess the government won't see t that way..in fact they will deny that thse kind of prisoners exist..sure they will be dying to get rid of the rapists and murderers but I don't they will let these jokers out..then the whole world will know their despicable deeds. An idea is an idea.

I have always been a crazy medicant,
Sometimes I can't believe the rubbish I come up with but then again that is what makes my life interesting. So anyway I have been thinking: There are lot of pastors in China that are locked up right? And I have this grand dream of forming penal battalions to provide the labour for toilet-digging, food distribution, logistic support, vaccinations and that sort of thing. I wonder if I brkoker a deal with the Chinese government to get these to staff my penal battalions hopefully they will see it as getting a chance to get rid of troublesome prisoners and not needing to spend money to house them and feed them and for me buying them their crazy freedom I get man-power and lastly get their freedom and if they so choose they can pursue theological studies while working in my penal battalions. Now I guess the government won't see t that way..in fact they will deny that thse kind of prisoners exist..sure they will be dying to get rid of the rapists and murderers but I don't they will let these jokers out..then the whole world will know their despicable deeds. An idea is an idea.

Just a few random ideas I have bandying around my head,
I am always for teaching a man to fish instead of giving him a fish but there may be circumstances which are so great that he would not be able to fish for himself for a while such as when he is sick and that is when he needs fish given to him. That is my philosophy regarding the distribution of welfare. Only in the case when he is not able to fend for himself such as old widows or orphans with no closest kin do they become wrad of the state.
In the old days relatives are responsible for the welfare of fellow kin and clansmen but with the dissolution of the extended family this is no longer the case and thus have increase the burden of the state. The state must hold family responsible ofr the welfare of their own kin and only in extraordinary circumstances where they cannot to afford then only then does the state make them wards of the state.
In the case of the wards it may be that reliance will in the end breed dependence and such should not the the goal for it is only noble that all men learn to fish for themselves. Therefore welfare should not be distributed to any persons not making attempts to learn to fish such continuing their education in the case of teenage single-parents though the state should provide leeway in providing creche facilities or ensuring that mothers do not need to relie on caretakers that would take significant amount of resources so as to discourage them from continuing their studies and should the ward be working but yet earn not enough to feed the family. The state should give welfare proportionate to the amount he earns, so as to encourage himself to improve himself, for even in receiving welfare he is forced to improve himself, until the total reaches the threshold of sufficiency which must be adjusted for means, area and inflation. To him that works hard more will be given and thus should be the philosophy of welfare for in the current state one has no reward for working harder for all recieve the same amount of welfare depending on the number of people and should the state worry that with increased amount of capital the ward choose no to wisely invest then other mechanisms of motivation should be introduced, such discounts to buying healthy foods rather than junk or subsidies for such so as to encourage healthy eating that is realted with the increase ability for social mobility.
In this modern age the problem of a welfare system that is a hindrance to hindrance social mobility puts it in the league of the caste system and thus is not case originally envisioned by the founders of what we call welfare today, for they have envisioned one that will not hinder rather one that will be the vehicle to enable all men to claim responisibility and equality.

Hey people got an interesting story here,
"Consider the story of Henry Tandey, a British infantryman in the Duke of Wellington Regiment in the First World War. On September 28, 1918, Tandey participated in an attack against enemy trenches near the small French town of Marcoing. The British carried the day, and as they advanced, Tandey Cautiously peered into a trench. He saw an enemy soldier, a corporal, lying bleeding on the ground. It would have been easy for Tandey to finish off his enemy, as he had killed many that day; Tandey had played an heroic role in the battle and later was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest wartime decoration, for his great courage. But he felt it was wrong to shoot an injured man, and he spared the corporal's life.
In 1940, during the Nazi bombardment of Coventry, when Tandey worked as a security guard at the Triumph automobile factory, he gnashed his teeth. "Had I known what that corporal was going to become! God knows how sad I am that I spared him." The corporal was Adolf Hitler. Tandey's human gesture had led to the deaths of millions of people and, in a bitter irony of military destiny, had placed his own life at the mercy of the monster whose life he could have taken."
Everything within the quote is not mine but comes form Michael Ledeen's Machiavelli on Modern Leadership. Interesting story no? Just sort of help me understand that our finite minds cnoot comprehend the repercussions of our seemingly good motives and why the Israelites have to do what they had to do in Canaan.

Here is the round up of some of the news,
That I read in the Star. 17 year-old burn victim loses fight to stay alive, snatch theft victim in coma dies after baby delivered by C-section, old man dies crossing the street. Indeed we are but grass in the field. Looked through the prism of eternity living a thousand years is nothing but through our finite relativity it is such tragedy these people die. They could have just celebrated the birth of a grandchild, just gotten married. When they were young they could have looked forward and imagined living to a hundred and planeed their lives. There was so much potential. They would have had many moments happy and but never had they wanted their lives to come to an end and never in their wildest dreams had they thought it would come to this. Indeed we are but flowers in a field.
We plan, we dream, we hope and look to a future not quite ours but seemed so sure to become our pasts. We go through the cycles of life as all before us childhood, school and all its drama, our jobs and the material comfort it brings, love and children that is its rewards and everyone does it and is expected to a certain to do it but then tragedy strikes and all comes to naught. I was reading Ezekial and God was saying the troubles would be so bad that it was better that you were dead. Sad as we are over these tragedy cold comfort that they will never see the troubles those thatlive will see but happier still he is that knows the Lord his salvation assured and not balanced before the Throne of God.

Well the World Toilet Summit just ended in Beijing,
Lots of talk about improving public toilets but hwat really caught my attention is the fact that more than 1 billion people don't have anything other than a hole in the ground or the nearby river. Not that these are bad but given the amount of people alive today, you are almost certainly talking about a cholera powder keg waiting to explode. Millions of kids die of diarrhoea every year and the cause unclean water due to the lack of sanitation. Clean water and samitation is intimately liked though both are considered seprate basic needs yet billions are with.
So this is the problem. Now these are the parameters. A lot of the times people go in build great toilets and they degenerate because there is no maintenance, so there must a low-maintenece design. Second parameter cost. Like if people will spend billions to build a stupid tower butnot millions to fund people like Li Yit to design somekind of cheap low-maintence toilets what are the chances they wil fund its building. Thrid parameter focus. We always want to do everything but I guess we will more efficient if we are focus on one purpose.
So now here are the solutions. We start funding research to people like to Li Yit to design cheap but durable and easily maintained toilets and set up a focused organisation to the name of the United Toilet-Diggers of Malaysia to build these toilets on the cheap. And of course it will be under the umbrella organisation of the FDL.

Just a short one about prayer,
Of many years now I thought it was wrong to ask God for things because it should never be about things but now I realised it is OK to share with God what you want...Jesus did that too...He prayed for the cup to be taken away..but in the end submitted to the will of the Father...I guess God wants us to pray eventhough He knows what we want because He wants us to talk to him...just like I would everyone to talk to me everyday...especially if it is a person I especially care for..same with God and even better He loves us more than we can ever imagine and err..like the unrequitted lover waiting at the phone....so pray don't be ashamed to ask God for a Ferrarri if that is in your heart..mine is an Alvis Scarab....babies say stupid nonsense to their dads all the time and yet dads are so full of love...it is like I see all these new dads going all koochikoochigaga when their babies make some kind of noise remotely close to normal human speech....they sound ridiculous but you cannot deny the love...pray for what ever you want and don't feel bad....God just want to hear your voice....but don't expect everything to be answered though.

I was walking to church this morning,
And I saw a plane flying overhead. It was one of those rare clear blue mornings. The sight brought a thought to my mind. I thought to myslef I could be any where looking at this sight. No matter where you are somesights are the same. I was thinking about the people that the plane was taking its passengers from or to. It works both ways.
Probably when I am flying home some guy on ground will look up see the plane and hopefully not shoot it down and think the things I have thought and wondering who are the people onboard and who they will be seeing.
I also thought about airports and 99% of the people there are just there for a while. The only permanent staff are the janitors and the people at the duty-free shops and for the rest the airport is merely temporary stop. Kind of like life on earth. The temporal and transient and ephemeral. life on this earth is merely an inconvenience before we reach the next but we must live it and also die before we can reach our perfect destination.

Wow I haven't been blogging in a while,
But then again my exams are in less than four weeks time so I have to study.
Someone recently asked me if there are any reasons I support Bush other than because of the abortion issue. Well I have and this is because I am unlike most people who oppose Bush because I have more than one reason but I don't have all the time in the world and of course my major is medicine and not politics so I couldn't expound all of them but I will give you a summary.
One, Bush is a friend of Israel. Malaysian media is biased and that is why you will never hear the full story but if you go online or even read the Bible you will realise that the and belong to the Jews. The Palestinians were suppose to stop the suicide bombings once the Israelis move out of Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians have no excuse because all except Hizbollah is under PLO which is the umbrella body and if the Palestinians really plan to stop the suicide bombers they can because they have the intelligence. So they did not honour their side of thier deal and still expect Israel to treat them nicely. Arabs can live in Israel in peace but look at the settlers in Gaza and the West Bank....continually under threat this is why Israel have no choice but to send in tanks to protect them. Even when Israel want to pull out of Gaza they launch suicide attacks to make it look like a retreat eventhough this make Israelis unsupportive of the plan. Bush pushed the bias Roadmap to peace aside and say that he will not expect Israel to give further concessions until the Palestinians regconise the right of Israel to exist and stop the attacks. I saw this today....The Palestinians claim Jerusalem is theirs but it is they are the last to conquer it but that would mean the rest of the land belong to Israel because they were the last to conquer...if the land goes to the people who originally settle in the area..we can only conclude the Israelites because the rest of the peoples are gone and Arabs only came to that place after the Jews were driven out...
Secondly Bush is a free-trader. While Kerry to penalise companies for out-sourcing. Out-sourcing means sending jobs to places where there are cheaper labour. Now if this happens place like China and India will collapse even Malaysia because there is so much direct foreign investment coming because of out-sourcing. With Kerry he is going to penalise them until it is cheaper to keep the jobs in the US. Now this not only bad for us but the US because this is very unproductive and with Americans they must be paid American wages. People will have jobs but the won'y be abble to afford anything because well everything is so expensive.
Thirdly, Bush is willing to finish the job no dare to undertake, he is willing to fight the Islamic fundamentalist. Do you think for a moment if we left them alone they will leave us alone? September 11th happened eventhough the Americans did for the Palestinians what three pan-Arab invasions couldn't do: secure land for the Palestinian state and yet they were attcked. It was then that Bush took a hardline against them before that the Americans were happy to live as they were. Now even if the Jews were removed from Israel( something that will not happen), do you think the fundamentalist won't pull out all the stops and try to reestablish their caliphate. You read it even in Berita Harian all this talk about returning to glory days.
Fourth Bush do things. For two decades the South Sudan was persecuted and guess who are the people who forced the Notherners to the peace table. Bush launched a 15 billion dollar anti-Aids initiative in Africa something that Clinton never did. Clinton pulled out of Somalia condenming it to 10 more years of civil war. Recently Somalia elected an interim president the first leader in more than 13 years and it wasn't Malaysians who made this happen but the US! Hey Afghanistan had its first elections and girls are now going to school, the reason you don't hear anymore news coming from Afghanistan is because the US intervention is working now this is something that 10 years of OIC mediation never achieved.
Bush is not perfect and there are thing that I would like him to do better but he is better than what Kerry has to offer and don't give me that peace thing( Keery voted for the Iraq war for heaven's sake) and of course much better than anyone in Malaysia...by the way I don't rate Malaysians as very intelligent people or very informed except for Yew Kong and Li Yit..the rest are just people good at memorising books...OK this is bias but you get my drift and of course there are othe smart people.

Sudan,
Here you go another forgotten place in the world these past few weeks. People are still dying and in need of medical help, they still lack clean water and proper sanitation.
And when the war is over people will still need help to get their lives in order again. There is so mcuh to do...I am depress...all I am doing now and can do is reading about drugs that affect the CNS...sigh.

I got this question a while back,
It was meant to be joke but I think it merit serious thought. The question was how would you solve the food crisis in Africa of something to that effect.
Well for onething we can start by slowly weaning First World farmers from their subsidies. African farmers can't export their produce and plow the extra money they could have earn into improving their productivity, their lives, and building up a reserve in case of famine because they can't compete with goods that are not cheaper but are made so because of subsidies. A note to First World nations: instead of sending aid, most of which goes into the pockets of the oligarchs or use as tools of manipulation, reduce the subsidies. The less subsidies the less aid needed to be sent.
At the same time knowledge is power and the most effective tools. Send experts to help farmers increase productivity or jumpstart their agricultural research cantres. In effect teach them to fish, fish better and find ways to learn to fish better.
Both must work together he who helps and those who are helped and both must be willing to achieve the collective goal.

Haiti,
I can't believe it is more than three weeks since the floods brought about by hurricanes. While Florida in the US was also affected but they have more or less got back to living their normal lives and of course they suffered less casualties. It sucks being poor.
In that time there is the US elections, Iraq war and so on and Haiti is all but forgotten. Even if we remember what is there to do.
People have lost their homes, their crops, their assets to survive adn be independent and their families. we cannot be feeding them forever but we must them fish again by giving new rods and nets or at least material to make new rods and nets. It is easy to talk but so hard to get it done. I can only pray now but pray for what? For God to send workers and am I not one of them..I am depress.

MSF just pulled out of Iraq,
I don't know but I never like pulling out when people need you the most. They have a valid reason though, their security was increasingly compromised.
That is why I believe the Failure defense League have a niche to fill but to fill this niche we will have to be more aggressive and this why we can't have married members at least in the military and suicide mission wing.
I was wondering why can't they set up shop in tribal chiefs house or something. Nothug will dare risk wrath of a tribe by attcking it and why can't they use tribesmen as their bosyguard. Sure there is always that lelment of treachery but I don't I believe anything is better than leaving and leaving people to their fate.

MSF has announced that they are pulling out of Iraq,
This is because of the security worries that they are experiencing. I don't blame them but I was thinking this is where the Failure Defense League comes in. Where others leave we will move in thouhg to do this we have no choice but be more militant. Why can't aid agencies defend themselves? Why can't they get the people who they are serving to help them defend themselves? I advocate machine guns for aid workers, preferably MP5's but I think the best will be opening shop in the village chiefs place and getting him to protect you but this is merely theory no one has tried this yet.
An aisde would be why married guys won't be in the main wings..quite seriously this dangerous and I cannot think how we are about to care for the widows given our limited resources. The only resources we have is our time and lives.

Sigh,
Everyone is busy. I am suppose to be busy but I am so dying for a chat that I just let my work pile up. I see the work but I have no mood. I guess it is kind of like an anorexic seeing food. You are hungry but you just don't want to look at it or eat it. I wonder if it is a psychiatric or psychological problem?
As for ideas nothing new really. So this blog in between being my personal journal and idea collection book is just waste of space in the cyberworld. Well the only reason that I took up blogging was because some people seemed so interested in my ideas so I thought why not reach a larger audience other than my weekend mamak kakis and and mintain this blog.
Sadly the amount of comments is pathetic. There is no debate. No one opposes my ideas. What is this? Even I myself know that they aren't perfect but no one is saying so. I can only draw a few conclusions. Either most people are weak-brained, no one read my blogs, or they do but can't be bothered to comment. Either way I living in a silent universe. Well it is not so silent if I read my Bible everyday but I have not been doing that so a bit silent. So maybe is my fault but at least other people can contribute to make my life less miserable.
It is interesting that it sems that only a few people in the owrld have anything happening in their lives.....arghhh.

Bush wins,
Now let's hope he will keep to his promises and not disappoint me. Now I am a very easy person to please. Capitalism or Socialism? Both doesn't work. Nothing works actually. I will explain some other time. War no war? The people in South Sudan are better off, Israel is safer but then again Christians were protected minorities under these Baathist minority regimes.
But the most important thing is Bush is the first person to regulate this Roe vs. Wade madness. I hope he does his best and about choice why can't all those women who plan to have pre-marital sex shove an IUD up their *ahem* it more effective than any condom or pill. It is 100% effective. though for those who believe life start at conception I would say ay least that life with no developed neurons won't feel pain but let me be straight a life is still lost but most of the time you can't stop them but it is not that we won't try. Anyway according to my Embrology textbook by Larsen IUD prevents fertilisation. Not sure about that but need research but if true the IUD is an acceptable form at least to some and pro-choice as a better contraceptive..no surgery required.

Went to Roman Catholic funeral on Thursday,
One of the kids' mum died. She is kinda of an alcoholic, her husband left her, and she had an epileptic fit when no one was around. They found her dead. Pretty tragic and so soon after the kids started coming back to the club after a long while. We still keep contact with them because we visit everyone who has ever come to the club to drop them the memory verse sheets. We don't visit, just at the door say hi, chat for a while about school. That is how we found out and thought that being there was the only way we can help. Even if they stop coming we keep visting for up to year. So once a week for a few minutes. Not msuch but over time you do build a bit of a relationship.
It was an experience. It was drizzling and pretty wet. I got soaked through on my way home the rain was so heavy my jacket just couldn't take it.
Anyway at the service, they don't sing any hymms and they talk alot about prayer for dead sort things.
well those kind of things wouldn't be part of my theology. There was a staute of a black saint in that church and I researched that guy Martin de Porres from Peru. Interesting sort of chap. Worked in the humblest jobs like sweeping the monastery at first because he was black he wasn't allowed to a member but his wisdom and compassion and skill as a nurse overcame that obstacle. So he is the patron saint of Black people it seems. One thing about this saint thing is we get to be informed about these servants of God and they are not forgotten, swallowed by time.
But then again people might turn them into idols and direct prayers to them instead of God.

Started reading 'A History of Russia',
Read about the start of Rus kingdoms. What follows is perhaps my imperfect comprehension of what I read but serves my point.
The Indo-Europeans came to Europe 3000 thousand years ago and the last branch to form was the Slavs and they settled in what is Eastern Europe and Western Russia. They mingled with another people also in that area the Finnish-Ugruic people. They were farmers and gathered resources from the forest. Then came the Vikings who at first were there middlemen but later became their masters and collected tribute from them. Now the Viking had iron weapons and were technologically superior and so able to assert control. Later they adopted the Slavic language and consolidated their rule into the Rus kingdom. It was divided among princes but in the end it was concolidated into a kingdom that became the percusor of Russia.
Interesting no? What struck me was how the strong has always bully the weak: exacting taxes, making them work their fields without pay, doing all the hardwork of collecting pelt so their masters can sell it and keep all the profits for themselves. Another example would be the Spartans who conquered the Messenians and made them owrk their fields and do all their chores so they will have time to concentrate on military training and remain in control.
We this going on today. Middlemen who are virtually oligarchs as they shortchange peasants. Think of the petai middle man. How much he gets and how much the Orang Asli fella get?
Anyway as far as I can recall I have never come across a nation that puts the interest of other nations as much as their won. Sort of like a national way of following Jesus' command of loving your neighbours as yourself.
In one of my earlier blogs I have envisioned Malaysia as a missionary sending nation or at least alluded to it. Now I am dreaming of nation that is also humanitarian but then again paradigms must shift. Like its medical schools will no longer produce workers for the private sectors but all gradutes will be channeled to the rural areas and and after which they will spend a few years in one of our not so well off neighbours helping shore up their almost non-exitent healtcare system. If they don't want to do it then choose another field. There are plenty of people out there who are willing to do this. What is the army doing? I guess Indonesia wouldn't might help putting out forest fires or assisatance in the case of floods and disasters would they? More than 2% of the GDP spent in this kind of assistance to our neighbours? Great! Why is it that we must only use the GDP to improve ourselves( infrastructure,economy)..see this as long-term investments! An unstable Indonesia and millions of refugees can't be too good.

If you read what the conservative and liberals write you have no idea who is telling the truth..they can with the same news source twist it to fit their agenda and that includes selective and creative editing...so what can we do I guess we can only go back to the primary source( documents, interviews)....the same goes with history..it is always written by the victors...check your shelf all the WW2 books are written either by Brits or Yanks..seen one by a Kraut( offensive word for German)..events and estimates according to them seeks to fit their agenda..even in the time of the Ancients..this was done....the same goes for the Bible..why not read yourself instead of depending on others for interpretation I must admit we need the cholars but they are not always right...but then again we don't have the time in the world..the Duelfer report is 1000 pages long...I have no choice but to read the review and analysis from someone who views are coloured by the side they belong to..same with history..I can't check all the ancient parchments....I would like to but I don't have the time...so I guess I can only choose one among all the fields I am interested in....but I guess no matter how little time you have..you should and can make time for the most important of all documents..read the Bible for yourself.

You know what they have weddings and receptions,
To celebrate two people coming together in holy matrimony why don't they celebrate when they get a divorce because if they were meant for each other their love would have lasted forever..because true love is suppose to last longer than than stupid stone on the girl's ring right?( By the way diamonds are not forever, it takes million of years, definitely not billions, but in the end it will break down into carbon I think)..so there they are divorced...why should they be celebrating? Well for one thing this means they will be on their way to looking for their true love..you can't be with your true love if you are married to soemone else, right? And just as weddings were originally designed to advertise to the world..hands off this is my wife and I am making a public commitment to take care of her for life no matter what happens..so a divorce celebration whatever you call it should be designed to advertise I am available...
This is a serious issue and I am not parodying marriage but show how ludicrous the idea of divorce is..the slightest sign of trouble people divorce..all marriage can be made to work...and people don't change it is just some people hide their bad-side better than others...can't blame them if you decide to let feelings and lust take over and you don't bother fiding out more about that person? So the way they are making it..very soon we will be celebrating divorce..but I guess it never will be be because it was never meant to be that way.

Goes to show how time I spend on this blog,
But anyway...it is pretty ironic that this blog is called new ideas but there was hardly anything new..politics have always been the same..broken promises and all that but here is definitely a new one....shortage of doctors? Why can't nurses take professional exams that will upgrade them to doctors how about one for paramedical staff...like for accountants you get a basic degree and after that there are a hundred and one course that will upgrade you into a chartered accountant or you can take the profesional route like CIMA and ACCA. SO why not for doctors and if you want to talk about competence and efficiency I can say many nurses with their experience are competent than many doctors.
Somehow I have a nagging suspicion that the doctor's union will be trying to control the supply side. Imagine that if there is suddenly like a deluge of doctors like in Italy, Russia and Cuba where it is not glamourous to be doctors, market forces will cause wages to fall. Now the car loan for the Porsche and loan for the house on the Southside assumes that you have the same level of pay if not more for the next 30 years so if we solve this crisis too soon and fast there may be many defaulters...I don't know this is mere speculation and I don't want to be smearing people's names but I was just wondering why not explore this route..it is not as though there are not precedents.

Just read the saint must walk alone,
Another one by Tozer. Man this guy has inisght though I moght agree with everything he said but he does have a real eye for the human condition. I particularly like the one where he commented that when a Christian complains he is lonely other Christians will say that Christ will always be with you and other cliches. I felt so vindicated as the articles said that at the end of the day loneliness does happen because you carry your OWN cross by yourself and 'no one is a friend of the person who carries the cross'. Even Jesus was LONELY; his disciples were asleep and when He was arrested the ran away. He was surrounded by a crowd on the road to Golgotha but he was not among friends. Other examples were given Abraham was alone when God spoke, Moses...it reflects that they seek God more than other people and because of this they have no peers that can understand them when they talk about the revelations of God. Only Noah could understand why God wants to flood the world.
He points out that the saint is alone not because he wants to be but because his life of holiness leads away from others. True he does not avoid them so he can reach out to them but then again people just drift away from you like when people have stories of how wild their weekend have been and all you have to offer is helping in Kidz Klub which is no smooth paddle down the river and Sunday school. Well people will think that you are boring because of this and well they don't talk to you as much becuase they know your commitment to your Saviour and week in and week out you will be there at the same place.
One thing about that article I can see myself in it, man. They are so few people I can connect to in class at least at a deeper level. Hey I can talk about politics and anything under the sun but there aren't really many people I can share about the Bible verse that spoke to me when I was praying this morning( though I did put it up on my blog, check the one about SOS:)) Now I am not saying I am that holy but it ihow I feel sometimes and I like especially in the end they talk about action. When you pray and remember the poor widow stop praying feed her and then continue. Wow that is the way to go man..Hope I can practise that.

This one is by Tozer,
Yeah Lin Lee sent me loads an dI have to read them I promise a short commentary for each. I must agree with her that rote,rut and rot is a good read. It basically about how the church can get into a rote of doing things. This means that they do it for the sake of doing it and don't mean it, feel that it is true or believe that is true. They may say it but they don't really believe. What does that mean? Well like the precher can preach that Christ is returning but then after church everyone goes home and do secular stuff and forget the message and this happens week in and week out and when that happens we reach rut and if it goes on it becomes rot. So Tozer ends by saying that a dead church like a dead tree will not feel a thing when things like this is told them but a living church like a living tree will bleed when pricked and start questioning themsleves. He illustrates this by saying it is sort of like the apostles when Jesus said that one will betray him, they didn't start pointing fingers but asked is it I and start with soul-searching. So if that happens we are on the right track. Because if not we will be self-righteous, judgemental, andn complacent and then revival will never come.

Lin Lee sent me a prayer,
written by this lady form idop. It was interesting. Basically it is a prayer for persecuted christians and towards the end she also prayed for the persecutors! I would like to wring their necks but that was not what Jesus would do!

Truth,
Philosophers have written books about and yet it s true meaning elude us. What many say is truth may not be at all or it may be truth in certain cases but ceases tobe so in certain and therefore it is not the absolute truth but this is one thing I know truth is. It has may even do harm but the end its good is greater than all the sum of its evil.

My ideals of an intellectual,
Would be one that seeks the truth and backs up with evidence, acknowledges the limit of his knowledge by qualifying that in his statements and beyond reproach in terms of bias but of course in the real world he doesn't exists because no matter how truthful as long as it is against the viewpoint of some people he will be accuse of bias. If people don't like what they hear they won't listen to you no matter how good it is for them. So as Solomon says the seeking of knowledge is futile but then again if we can save that one person I guess seeking knowledge is not that bad.
But then again no one can attain to the ideal intellectual because for one everyone of us absorb all kinds of influence that will inadvertantly colour our thoughts and we can never be as objective as we want. Some people try to do away and reject their beliefs and principle in the hope of achieving objectivity and sometimes at the expense of the truth so in the end instead of serving truth the means become an ends and no one benefits.
Finally no one can achieve this state because we cannot attain all and perfect knowledge. We will never know the real motive for an action and even if that person admits to a certain motive sincerely we can never be sure if he was led subconsciously by something else though in his conscious mind he believes that tht was the motive. So maybe Bush was really out to help the Iraqis and sincere but how are we to know we are not Bush but then even he might not know his subconscious reason or he might not tell us the real motive then it would very premature to judge a man. One can be seriously misled. Maybe John Kerry is really is nice and sincere person who cares for people and you will really like him if you get to know him( I figure this is true for everyone if you get to know them well...come on wouldn't you like someone who live the simple life and always keeps a picture of mum at his bedside? Well that someone is Hitler) so I guess personal attacks on thatperson will not lead him in the right and it might close his ears to you even if you hold the truth that he needs to know.
I guess the Biblical approach is correct. Approach with love, kindess, and gentleness and give him the benefit of doubt that he is seriously misled about 'choice'. This is our best hope. However it doesn't mean we can sit quietly at the side and be passive at the same time there should be concrete action.
So the ideal intellectual does not exist but one that knows what and why he believes and act on it( no one likes an armchair person0 is our best bet.

Just heard about the Gaza pull out,
Correct if I am wrong but wasn't Gaza used to be the land of Philistines and if giving up can secure land that were really under the Israelites on the West Bank( I think there is plenty) then it should go on. Though the Jews won the land when Palestinians choose attack the Jews and spurn the UN-sponsored division of the Holy Land, it is only after they lost the war that they choose to negotiate and all this crap about UN approval and pre-1967 borders but not before trying to invade Israel three times. It is so obvious that they have lost all rights. The land was won and lost with blood that is the way it was, is and to come. They wouldn't have settled there in the first if the Romans didn't chase the Jews out in 70 AD. Now the situation in 1947 was different, the Palestinians ran, they didn't even offered resistance. Now they want Jerusalem back! They can choose to live under Israel which means democracy, welfare and one of the highest standards of living but instead they want to lord it over others even if it means being like all the other banana republics in the Middle East.

I had an interesting chat with guy at CU yesterday,
He is a Syrian Orthodox priest and is studying for his doctorate in UCD. So I got talking to him about the church whose liturgy is Aramaic!( the language of Jesus), its 2 000 year history, his struggle for survival under more than a thousand years of Muslim domination. It was interesting we talked almost an hour SO I will give you a gist of it. OF course I got round telling him about the Malaysian church and well its lack of tradition and hisotry which made it easier to connect with other denominations.
He is an Arab! Now don't be surpirsed but Arabs have been Christians longer than they were Muslims. When the apostles went to Damascus they reached out to the Jews and the Syrians who were there and set up one of the first churches which continued to day as the Syrian Orthodox. Then Arabs were added to the church because they were traders and Damascus was a trade centre. Come on even Muhammad traded in Damascus. Once upon of time Syria was 90% Christian though this must be qualified that modern Syria came from the division of the Ottoman empire but it was called a church of martyr because through the long years they were persecuted and now they are about 10% of Syria.
We talked about the Iraqi war. Now I know I have quite pro-war because of the positive effects in Sudan but yesterday I was shown another side of the coin. Christians are leaving Iraq because under Saddam they were protected. Saddam was in the minority so in effect he also protected the minority..ditto for Syria..now he agrees Saddam is an evil man but now with Shiites coming into power we expect the Christians to get even more persecuted. Why? Take a look at their cousins in Iran and it is happening..sigh..nothing is as easy as it seems....my support sapped a bit listening to that....in the end I guess only God will have the wisdom to know whether there will be net good effect in a war or not.
Talked a bit about The Passion. He also like me didn't like the extra-biblical stuff and illutrated with the scene where the thief who spoke against Jesus got his eye pecked out. Now he said that that didn't reflect the gracious and merciful Jesus who had ask the Father to forgive those who crucified Him! Maybe it was to show that evil will be punished in this life but the effect could be that Jesus was vengeful and yeah he said the Aramaic is bad..sounded like Americans speaking it.
Talked about Syrian orthodox hymms then he had to rush home to finish his Hebrew homework.

Hey finally got my life back in order,
I read the Songs of Solomon this morning and reading it has strengthened my belief that husbands and wives should read the Bible together. So now there is three level: personal devotion then one with the spouse and finally one with the family. IF this deson't strengthen families I don't know what would. Any ideas? My guess that even divorce is creeping up with Christians is well not enough time spent with each other and God. Why not marry your job if you are going to spend more time with it?

Tsk, tsk,
My blogs are so political. It is as though my life have been revolving around politics but to be honest I haven't read the Bible in a week and I have more pathology, microbiology, and pharmacology in me plus the news and election news than the Holy word of God so you can see a shift in ideas that I have in my blogs. Less Chistian stuff more medical and political stuff but I guess that is humans function we take all around us and it shapes our worldview. A person should always have both side of the story so as to have a balanced view though in the end he will only subscribe to one view( You can't be for and against stem-cell research at the same time) but at least he knows he makes the decision in good faith and he can't say had he known at the time the other view he wouldn't have done the same.; well my question is why didn't he find out?

You know my views are very biased really. They are based on what I have read which will reflect the biasness of the authors. Sometimes I wish I can talk to all the people on both side of an issue. Sure most people don't have independent thought but it is the personal reasons that I am interested in and generalised ones. Like the only reason I am for Bush is that I am anti-abortion and though he did nothing and have not the political courage to tackle abortion harder he IS better than John Kerry. So I amsure that people have millions of reason for doing somethings. Some are shallower than others but reasons nonetheless. Peace for israel, land for Palestinians. I am almost for everything actually except the right to kill your own children.

Haha,
You know the world is crowing about Israeli occupation and all that but do they know what they are talking about.
Hey when the Jews first went back they BOUGHT the land off the Arabs. Then too many began going no surprises because of what? Hey it is a free world and no one can say you can't go anywhere right? Problem is the Arabs saw it differently? in 1947 they had a choice go with the UN and have half the land or take the all or none approach. They took the second option and attacked too bad for them they lost. Now there was another dilemma run or stay. Most ran and are still refugees they and their descendants and what happened to those who stayed? Well they currently enjoy some of the highest standeards of living in the world, heck there are Arabs in the Knesset. Name me one Middle Eastern nation that has a Jew in its PArliament if of course they have a parliament and free elections to begin with. The rights of the Arab women? Well we don't see these Arabs dying( literally) to join their brethren. In fact, 19% of Israel's population is Arab.
Hey, it is not that the Palestinians are discriminated. Millions of them work in Israel, they go to Israeli hospitals to see Israeli doctors but the fact that everytime someone blows himself up, you celebrate in the streets isn't goign make them open the borders so you can work to feed your families or your wife go to the hospital to deliver number 8.
Plenty of Jews lost everything( look at the Holocaust survivors and refugees from Iraq, Iran and elsewhere after the Arab defeat) but they didn't stay refugees, instead the built themselves up again. As for the Palestinians 57 years on they are still whining about 'home' and staying in their camps. Just as Germany will never be home for many Jews so live with the fact that you will never get back Israel. Time to pick yourselves up and do something instead of blowing people up. Even your Palestinian doctors don't want to stay and work to help Palestinians and you are hoping that the israelis would given your aim of pushing them into the sea.
And to the rest of the world don't tell Israel what to do until the day you can get Morroco to stop occupying Western Sahara and allow the UN to have referendum there; Sudan, Saudi Arabia to practise the freedom of religion; and fair elections all over the Middle East.

Sorry about the silence,
Bank Holiday on Monday so I can't go online until today. But here are some thoughts and oh yes from now on I will put a new post for every idea so people won't get lost.
My dad made a prediction once that Bush was going to be a one-term president when he started the war against terror and invaded Afghanistan. Now it is not that he is against the conservative Christian agenda of Bush. Hey being in a teacher in Sunday School and the father of four kids, he is as against abortion as one can get but the fact Americans had never shown the stomach to carry the right things through. They are forever in this popularity contest never mind if it means not doing the right thing.
I wasn't too hot for the Iraq myself, not so much it will get Iraqis killed( by the way who has sympathies for guys who torture footballers for reasons not their won making? Plenty of people actually but that is another story) but that the Americans won't be able to stomach the casualties if the Iraqis put up a stiff resistance( I was wrong, the melted away even when they had home-ground advantage). My change of heart came when I met this Sudanese pastor from Khartoum. A question was asked whether he thought what Bush did was a call from God. I liked the way he answered. He said honestly he don't know but the day Saddam fell, all of the sudden the government decided to start negotiating with the rebels in the South because their patron is no more.
Then I realised the only pro-peace people who spend hours marching are those who at the end of the day can go for a pint at the local pub and then drive home in their nice cars to their comfortable homes and couldn't give a damn about the 20 million refugees around the world but to people like the Dinkas and Nuers they don't have the luxury of choice.
Yeah I agreed Bush can do more in Darfur but at least something is done though it is lacking but then again it is much better than what Clinton had done: pulling out of Somalia and condenming it to a civil that lasted up until this month9 that is more than ten years) and let us not go into Rwanda. To him much is given much will required. With all its wealth and might wha thas the US done with it. A little daeth here and there is justified by the means. LIke 50 million died in WW2 but you know what. Hitler and Tojo must be removed. They should have did the same with Stalin but then again this hindsight. The world is better today for what happened more than 60 years ago.
SO my stance pro-war if it is just. Don't remove just Saddam. There is Musharraf, Gadaffi, Mubarak, the Sauds, the ayatollahs..heck all these people came to power by oppression..they all should go...I don't why we are stilln tolerating them...like we tolerated Sddam 20 years ago the will become cancer. Convenience should not be at the expense justice.

You know what I should start posting less cheong hei blogs,
I didn't even realise that some people had commented on some of my older blogs but better late than never. My apologies to those from the Boys Brigade that were taken aback by my ignorant views( from the outside no less) there fore I ask for forgiveness.
Hey thanks to Sieh Jin for his refreshing rebuttals to my points which as always bring so realism to my ideas. Yeah there are Christian unis and selling them idea would be better off but then again they are in far off places like the US. How about one for Southeast Asia! As I always say we are so central! We are poised to send missionaries into China, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Southeast Asia. We are talking about 2.7 billion people and ohh Japan is the least reach nation in the world.. all right at our doorsteps. Yeah I agree with you the Old Testament perception about life after death is at best quite vague becuase the lack of revelation that is why I figure in the Jesus' time there are the Pharisees who believe in life after death and the Saduccees who don't.
Thanks also to Lin Lee for her down to earth comment sot guard against pride and giving some level of orthodoxy to my thinking. Yeah and about the lesser evil thing..Well everything compared to God is nothing and like rags. So we shouldn't even question why things like the Holocaust happen because everything is in God's plan and there is a greater good. However I don't want to end up like the Germans to whom Allied soldiers showed the victims of concentration camps and their only defense for not doing anything is ignorance. There is war and a holocaust happening in our time not just in America but Sudan, DRC, Uganda, Mexico, Myanmar and almost every country. We must do what we can.

I had a weird dream last night but lets hope it is prophetic,
I dreamt Bush wins Florida and the Electoral College count was 274 to 264 for Bush. So hoping for another 4 years.

From the looks of things,
It seems the Republicans will control Congress but lose the White House. It is still dead heat the Presidential elections but I like to give the oppsing team advantage and put myself at a disadvantageous position.
Currently this is how I am praying. If indeed God does not want to give outright victory to Bush I can only say that Kerry is in His plans. Why is Kerry part of God's plans? So that the fullness of a nation's sins will be achieved and punishment can be meted. God is merciful but He is also just so putting Kerry into power would the same as hardening Pharoah's heart. This first few times it was Pharoah hardening his own heart then the last five times was God hardening Pharoah's heart so that all the punishment can sent out. Now I suspect if God didn't send ten plagues the Egyptians wouldn't have let the Hebrews go. God in His infinite wisdom knows that it takes ten not nine not eleven before the Egyptians will let the Hebrews go for long enough so that the Israelites can reach the Red Sea. Had God not hardened Pharoah's heart until the tenth plague but only until the eighth, I think Pharoah would have let them go but not long enough that God can reveal His marvellous power against the Egyptians.
So for the current elections I am drawing the same parallel. First we pray for mercy on behalf of the American nation, that God will not let them reach the fullness of their sins so soon. How is this achieved? If Bush is reelected, chances he will nominate four new Supreme Court judges that will be able to let regulations for Roe vs. Wade to go through. The current injunction against the Partial Birth Abortion Act is pending appeal in the Supreme Court and I don't expect it to be pass the Supreme Court because the majority are Liberals. If you analyse the Old Testaments all nations that got massacred were nations that practise child sacrifice and abortion can be said to be a form but as always there is always a caveat that the fullness of sins must be reached. This is why Abraham didn't get the land straight away.
And if Kerry does win all is not lost. All we have to do is pray that the conservative members of the Supreme Court will have their preserved long enough to survive a Kerry presidency which I suspect will be only one term( given his aversion to work).
In summary. Pray for a Bush victory while praying for God's mercy on America( like Moses did for the Israelites) and if Kerry wins pray for the health of the Supreme Court judges. Though I must remind my readers that Bush is not perfect and had not he become the first president to signed the first legislation to regulate Roe vs. Wade I wouldn't have been bothered about this election and also for the fact that Kerry is over-whelmingly pro-choice.
Onwards to a lighter subject. Currently I am doing a Bible study base on the shorter books of the Bible. They are so shrt there is not excuse not to have read them. In fact some of them are sohorter than an average posting of mine but they are unread and God's inspiration within its letters remained untapped. So this is what I amtrying to do with group. Here is a list of books that can be finished in less one sitting of one hour. Book four of Psalms( remeber Psalms is the longest book in the Bible because it consists of four books.), Ruth, Ecclesiates, Songs of Solomon, Titus, Philemon, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Malachi, Haggai, 1 and 2 Peter, 1,2, and 3 John, Jude, 1 and 2 Timothy, 1 and 2 Thessolonians. This is not exhaustive but as my memory serve but this is to illustrate that just doing these books we can cover more than one-third of the Bible! OK not one third but one third of the books.
Nut as you grow more mature in the Word even the Pentateuch will get interesting...seriously. For those of you looking for guidance in ecclesiology, missiology the Pentateuch is the way to go.

Hello all,
I will be having an exam next week so I guess I won't be blogging so much until but still need to unload some ideas.
This is not a new one but it will be the first time I am unloading it on this blog and it has to do with penal battalions. During the World Wars, alot of time tactics include runningas fast as you can across a mine-laden field. To reduce casualties among their trained soldiers they used prisoners and felons in the first so they will clear up the fields. In the Second World war the Germans developed this concept because of the lack of manpower into one where disgraced soldiers( deserters, cowards) can redeem themselves. Now the how many doctors, accountants and professionals have disgraced themselves? Thousands and what happens? They rot in jail when they can be used to logisticians and manpower for humanitarian organisations. Since the aid world is always lacking in manpower why not take advantage of this situation.
Ohh don't worry about them running away. If they don't speak the language, have no idea of the culture and survival skills they won't last long in the trek from the heart of Africa to their homes! Since tax-payers are supporting them why not make them do something useful and make the tax-payers feel good about themselves!
reading about how the Greeks made war. so got history lesson in how people become kings and how other people end doing things for them and how this privileged position will more or less be envied by others and all sorts of power struggle will happen and how in the end normal people will still do everything for them even if they don't deserve it..actually the Bible and how Saul's appointment is very accurate..kind of wonder why people want a king but when there are crisis it does help to have someone unite everyone and to blame if it doesn't turn out well.

Hell; sometime in the future,
Stalin: Never thought I would share the same hotel suite as you?
Hitler: You think I want to. Come on killing 6 million Jews and sending the world into its most violent war ever should have gave me a room closer to Satan's.
Stalin: Child's play. I shoulc have had a bigger room for I've starved millions more to death than you..the very people I had sworned to protect...so not only am I a bigger arse-hole. I am a liar.
Hitler and Stalin: What are you here for?
John Kerry: Responsibility for and connivance in the murder of 30 million innocent babes by virtue of selecting liberal judges that ensured Roe vs. Wade had at least another 30 years of life. I can't say any of them deserve to die except they were an incovenience to their mothers and fathers and their immoral lives. This was as president. I am responsible for more if you count my support for abortion as Senator.
Hitler and Stalin gawked...there was no argument...who was worse....they both took off their hats to Kerry and bowed and pointed him to Satan's inner chamber in the Lake of Fire Hilton.
So for the sake of the nation of America and also John Kerry's soul( you are doing Kerry a favour if you love him so much), vote Bush. Everytime Kerry invokes God's name or says he is a Christian I fell like puking. What do you mean you don't want to impose your faith on others? Just as thinking that the Jews were pigs and the Slavs were subhuman, doesn't give the Nazis the right to kill them so also thinking that foetuses are not humans make them any less so. You kill a chimpanzee and the left-wing liberals will have you by the throat and this because the chimp hshare 99.9% of our genome. Now a foetus is 100% human in genome but that still don't get as much protection as a chimp.
If we use the Holocaust as an analogy, it would like Kerry saying he won't do anything to stop the Nazis because they don't believe killing Jews is murder. Murder is murder: the taking of a life that from a being who when given a choice will not choose to have his or her life taken. Now foetuses can't express their will and want to give a shot at this miserable human existence or a two year old child for that matter but does that mean they want to be killed. You can tell them that life is not worth it and it is miserable and try to discourage them from living ( if there is some way that they can choose and make a decision and make it known to us) but an overwhelming majority will still want to live. That is human nature. Guess why is everyone trying to get federal-funding for stem-cell research? Because they don't want to die if they get a terminal disease like Alzheimer and want to extend the span on this miserable earth for as long as they can. We want to live even if this mean killing another person. Why do adults scramble for life-boats on a sinking ship without regard for children even if they had a fuller life than a child? We want to live. But it is not these people we remember, in fact we revile them but those who rose above the base instincts and gave their place to a child these people we remember eventhough they are no more. Same rule applies to stem cell.
But back to abortion. Abortion is different from all other issues Christians are worried about. Senator Kerry, I address you; global warming doesn't kill quite as much innocents even famine happens because of it, the blame still lies not with emission but with rich nation refusing to open their grain stores and getting enough; war in Iraq, God has used war as punishment and to set history back in the right cause..all peace except the peace brought by Prince of Peace when He is enthroned except willed by God is of a Satanic and demonic nature. I do not claim to know the mind of God and Iraq may not be God's will but one thing I know abortion is definitely not in His will; capital punishment is again can be argued as murder the taking one's life when that person is not willing to give up his or her life. In the magnitude of scale and evil one cannot compare abortion to other issues.
If you are Roman Catholic as you claim, them you would believe that abortion is murder, a man that has no moral fortitude to stop the murder of millions even though he knows AND believes it is murder has no right to be leader of a nation. You will be reviled as the Vatican was for not stopping the murder of Jews maybe not by left-wingers, maybe not in this life..but by the God whom you claim to believe in!
Telling a foetus AND God that abortion is between the woman, God and the doctor, is an insult to both and close to blasphemy as though God will say yes,( Though I believe and again I do not know the mind of God except that which the Scripture reveals and Kerry quotes copiously[ many times out of context] but in the case in which the death of both foetus and mother the mother will be given priority for she can produce many more children yet in the case of either foetus or mother..it will be the foetus as this new life has as much potetial to bring life as themother.) is about as comforting as telling a Jew that is between Hitler, the executioner and God as though will agree to the massacre of the apple of His eye.
Even if the foetus only is one tenth of a human, with the rate of abortions in the USA even by the most conservative( or should I say most liberal because only the liberals will agree to the smaller number in ths case) estimate would mean the death of 80 000 humans in a year. Now this is more than those who died in Iraq, Sudan, floods related to global warming, and inequality in the past TWO years.
Calling all Christian veterinarian out there, in the US and the world who believe abortion is murder and are angered when pro-choicers say the foetus is not a human life. Don't kill abortionist as it will win the more sympathy and our contempt This is what you do. Three of you should ban together. Look for a pregnant animal preferably a very endangered species( like a Black Rhinoceros) because the most endangered the more publicity you will get. Perform an abortion on it( Yes, it is cruel but remember humans have dominion over animals and the life on animal is less important than one of a human and also the communion between God and man[ sacrifice was about this idea]). Then get arrested. Preferably this should be done in some US zoo because it is US laws we are trying to mock. In courts, since you have three vets you can claim that it was done to save the life the animal. As in human abortions, all you need two doctors( who can be paid to say whatever the patient wants). This is to proof the folly of this so-called safety mechanism to prevent trivial abortions. Then you go for the kill. Since the foetus of the animal is not that animal you are not guilty of killing an endangered species and can only charged with breaking into the zoo. This will smash the argument that a human foetus is not human. Always remember to make reference to human abortions so that it will be news to the world. IF the prosecution said that the mother have no choice in this, retort that animal can't speak and because it can't speak like the human foetus it has NO rights. The folly of pro-choicers will be revealed for all to see and the bias media will try to dumb it down but make sure you have a lot of attention-seeking stunts! A few in jail but the lives of millions saved. To those who take up this challenge thank you and when I graduate in a few 2007 my friends and I will support your family monetary-wise and in whatever way we can should be imprisoned. I am not satying thins but this is a bit hard but you can trust my word..if only I can prove it to you...how I wish....
Anyway I wish I was able to finish the whole piece before the lecture started now I seemed to be a bit stuck. Got something about penal battalions that I have been developing and also lamenting the fact that super-long blogs like this don't really attract much readers who are out there.
Oh yes back to Kerry. Senator you once quote this against Bush but I find this more apt FOR you. Faith without works is dead. So what is your faith, Senator? What is it called? Orthodox Christianity according to the Roman Catholic branch or Eviscerated Christianity with only whatever suits you? You can only choose one, sir. If you believe that abortion is murder and do nothing to stop it isn't that faith without works? True Bush too have many other sins like the death penalty, war in Iraq and so on. But again we looking at the lesser of two evils. Millions against thousands and what more all your victims are innocent. Senator, should you be elected president you will break promises and that is fine but one that you MUST break is the upholding Roe vs. Wade. There must be a control to the madness! Just a because my neighbour is upsetting my mental health and destroying my chance of getting a good medical degree, doesn't mean I have right to kill him. unless he is endangering my life. Same for abortion if you can see the analogy, sir. Sir, please before remove the plank from your own eyes before youtry to pick the sawdust off President Bush's eyes. I have thought of supporting you sir but I can't be party to the murder of millions and still call myself Christian though millions of Christians in America seem to be able to sleep well.
Just one note sir. Had not Saddam bribed the French, Germans, and Russians, the war in Iraq would have UN authority then what are you going to use as your platform?
Well the Us elections wouldn't be as an emotional reason if is wasn't fears for the age and health of the 4 Supreme Court judge. Kerry if elected president from the looks of things will be a one-term president. At worse it will be two 8 years but Supreme Court justices are for life, that means 20 even 30 years! You know for such important people who can strike down laws with Senate and House of Representative majority and also Presidential endorsement( you know which on e I am referring to) they should be elected not appointed. Hey if Kerry only appoints Liberal candidates and IF he becomes president also all the other judges of all level( thus the pool for SC appointments)then Roe vs Wade will not have a chance to be contained.
More on abortion. It is illegal in Ireland so then if you are interested in doing Obgyn you can be sure it won't be part of the curricula if you come here to study. So come to Ireland to study Obgyn! There might be the mention though but it won't done as part of the practicals.
Yeah, I just thought of this. If a girl has been taught that abortion is not so much about rights but murder she is less likely to resort to it. This thing about the foetus being not human is part of the ploy to get people accept abortion is OK. It reminded me of the propaganda of Goebbels that said Jews are not humans and cite 'scientific' proofs. If the Nazis cannot have a choice to murder Jews so also people to murder babies! In the case of rape and incest. I know this is hard, but just as giving the death penalty to the offender will not solve anything so also killing the child which is part of you. I can't understand why Democrats would oppose the death penalty but not abortion and the foetus is not even the perpetrator! We can make a video you know where there is this voice narrating( aborted foeutus voice) telling about mum's rape and ending with what have I done? Abortion won't unrape the woman.
In closing I think I have spoken too much. The Democrats were on the wrong end during the slavery issue in the 1860's I guess they are at the wrong end today on the issue of abortion.

Hello all,
I had great if not weird weekend. On Friday night from 5 to 9 and then on Saturday from 11 to 7, I was packing people's groceries into their bags in the hope they will drop their change into the pails marked Kidz Klub. This is to raise funds for Kidz Klub not exactly back-breaking work but humbling at the same time. Got chatting to some people towards the end on Saturday. There was a really friendly lady who asked whether I would follow her home to help her unpack; the guy who host two foreign students and bought lots of bread for them; the guy who had a Malysian friend who went home a few years back; yea interesting people...at the same time there are the scabby ones; those who don't wnat your help,then needs it and then paid nothing; those that got your help and don't put in a cent; those that put in only the 1 and 2 cents..sigh..people I guess. Somehow the more tattoos, the more disrespectable they look the more generous they are..worse of all are those who wish you well and not a single cent....
Was sending a mail to Kong the today. I was telling him that we are at a threshold. We can choose to go in the promise land or continue to wander. The generation that chose to wander got to eat manna( the food of angels), they clothes and shoes never wore out, and other blessings..so in a way those that continued in the wilderness are truly blessed but they did not receive the promise. So we can be truly blessed by God( HE loves us anyway) with a good job, nice,car and house and yet we stilll can be missing out on the promise of seeing His Kingdom come in Malaysia! So what will it be to enter the promise or live off the blessings. It's not going to be easy the day they entered the Promise land the manna was no more and form then on they have to work hard for their food but still the Promise.
Here is a bit of economics. I was reading Proverbs 19:17..it reads" He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done"..so it got me thinking about what lending means. When you buy shares in a company you are actually lending money to the people who set up that company to build a road, to build factory to make more computers and so on. In essence you give them your money and they reward you by paying dividends and if they do the job well you shares will be worth more than you put in. Same thing for a bank. When you put money in the bank you are actually lending money because the bank will use that money and loan it to someone to buy a house and when he pays back the bank interest part of it is profit to the bank and another part goes to paying you rinterest so you actually lending money and getting a reward in interests! In fact most economic activities are just elaborate ways of lending and borrowing money. Same thing with the stock market, bonds, banks, insurance companies( you pay premiums and you are rewarded with the assurance that should anything bad happen you will get some money. Most insurance companies invest the money to get profit and also pay the claims), Government( you pay taxes and the Government give you services as a reward but of course there is a bit of pemakanan). But as with all earthly institution they will fail. The Government might be corrupt or overthrown or conquered, there can be scandals, thefts, bankruptcies, wars, runs on banks, default, burst bubble and all sort of things that prenvent you from getting your 'rewards'. So a word of wisdom to all the rich uncles and auties in the church. Why not lend to God and invest in his Kingdom..that way you can always be sure of your reward and returns on investments if want to look at it that way. So be kind to the poor and being kind to the poor always require some money.
I love reading through the Pentateuch. I use to think that they are the most boring books in the world and why on earth that they are in the Bible but that was when I was 9. Yup I am proud to say at 9 I qualified to called a adult( in the Jewish sense only, you are an adult when you've read through the Torah and do a Public reading; so in actual fact i don't qualify because I never did the public reading or most parts of it aloud but I like to think that I was considered an adult at 9 and also the fact I am technically more senior than a lot of people 4 times my age in church) but that is an aside and blowing of my own shofar. Anyway back to reading the Pentateuch and gaining wisdom from it on how to run the church. It si technically a blueprint, ashadow you may say of the King dom of God, just like the Tabernacle and Temple was a shadow. Laws governing rest, welfare and all are in there and being a person who went through a phase of supporting virtually every political system, I can say the best is a theocracy based on the Bible as a constitution. I was Capitalist, Socialist, Communist, back to Capitalism, Imperialist, in fact I can say I was right to left and back again and all these before I was 17 and now I happily settled in Democratic Theocracy( it is not unbiblical in fact it is the most Biblical because God rules this earth but eventhough He is the boss He gives us a choices, we can outvote Him but when things get too bad He will intervene and set things right again.)
So anyway I was assailed by this question that how do we know that we do not have so many people on the field that we do not have enough people supporting them. My response was that has never happened in the whole hisory of the Christian though it will be nice if it happens because this means Christ's coming will be hasten. And it seems everyone seem to think that they wil be the one doing the supporting with money while they get to comtimue with their comfortable lifestyle..so I had a hard time debating these people because I thought we have no precedence until I realised we did have a precedence in the tribe of Levi. The Levites is a whole tribe dedicated to serving God, they get no land except the commonland of the Levitical cities. SO the number of full-time workers, missionaries, and people ministering in parachurch organisations should be one-twelfth at most because never use a number without reason. All the other 11 tribes give their tithes to support this 1 tribe. SO our tithes is not to build church buildings but to support this 12th tribe known as the missionaries and fulltime workers. But you may say why give so much when they should be tentmaking. True because even the Levites when their lot for doing duties is not picked will be farming but the fact is their farming careers or whatever missionaries give up to pursue the Kingdom of God is hindered because a lot of the time the duties of the temple take up alot of their time so it is very diificult to earn a living. You can only plant wheat at a certain time of the year but what if you have to serve in the Temple at that time? You can't expect the levite to starve. Hey the Christian doctor probably will be so busy manning the free clinic he probably have no time to man the private clinic that was suppose to earn his keep. I am not advocating being a burden but the fact is a lot remain to be done and if the church don't support the full-time workers who will? Even if you pay crap to missionaries at least make sure their kids get to go to college or university. God will provide for them but it will be through YOU! In conclusion how do you know when you reach have enough workers in the field and you are spending the tithes correctly? Tithes is correctly spent when it supports missionaries or some kind of mission work or outreach. THe number should at most one-twelfth of the church so if PPBC has 120 members so we should looking at at least 10 full-time workers and or missionaries. DUMC with 3600 members, 300 but the fact of the matter is I don't see these numbers and what does that mean? WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH IN THE FIELD!!

Ahhhh the world,
I had some friends over the yesterday and I cooked some simple home-cooked Malaysian fare or something that vaguely resemble Malaysian food given the lack of ingredients. We had fried rice, mince beef stir-fried with ginger and spring onions, and of course my signature mince pork steamed omelette. They enjoyed it( I hope).
Anyway enough of that and back to my ideas..hhehehe( so hedonistic).. lots of things in my head.
To all my readers from the US( I don't think there are any actually) please please vote George Bush. George Bush is our one best chance to put some control in this madness called Roe vs. Wade. Even if a Fetus is one tenth of a human, it still amounts to 130 000 a year which more than number of casualties in Iraq and Sudan combined for the pass TWO years! "I won't be sending forces to Sudan because the military is over-stretched" my foot..you only 5 000 to stabilise Sudan that was the numbered they ask for in Rwanda 10 years ago. Pulling out of Somalia condemned Somalia to another 10 years of civil war. So if you Americans can sleep well at night and not get nightmares and still have the gall not to hang yourself or blow your brains for letting this happen eventhough you have the most pwerful, modern and best equipped military in the world then be my guest and vote John Kerry.
I came to realise that David didn't believe in a life after death, read his Psalms and you see what I mean..like why would he say the dead cannot praise God? Rather than seeing this as the lack of unity in theology I see it as God does not reveal all his plans at once so when Jesus came he told us tat there is a heaven and Hell and later John was shown the lake of fire. We will not have all the answers but in due time we will know what will happen to aborted foetuses, babies, and people who have never heard IF we keep the faith. God reveals piece by piece. Even David without hope still cling to God even in his mind the wicked goes unpunished if they are not punished in this life.
I have been thinking about setting up new kind of Christian University. In this uni the entry requirements for courses will not be how well you score though a certain level of aptitude is required but how much you plan to serve. So the person with less than straight A's but has a heart to go to Trashcanistan and serve the poor will get the place over the the straight A's kid who wants be a doctor to finance his Mercedes and bungalow loan. The curricula will also have components in apologetics and theology and skills neccessary for missions. SO basiccaly it is a missionary production line rather than a production line for producing job-market people. Since I am in this line I will outline some of my fantasies for the medical course.
So you have the basic pre-clinical stuff but there will be plenty of missionary skills thrown in and for the clinical( which is my favourite part) we pack our bags and go to some really deprived area like Burundi where the students will have plenty opportunity to practise their skills without the fear of being sued but get thanks not matter how well the job was done because some help is better than no help. In fact given the shortage in Burundi( They have only 1 doctor for every 100 thousand persons!) I don't think they mind 150 greensticks practising their history-taking, suturing and setting skills. Though there might be a problem as they speak French but then again there is always other Commonwealth nations that have a dire need. Better a bone set but not exactly align than totally not set, right? I think some may differ on this point. Haha...even before these kids graduate they are already contributing and getting valuable training and practise at the same time. Oenthing though their lecturers and clinical tutors will also have to be on the field. Given that the previous generation was not selelcted on this criteria we might have more of a problem here. But I am sure we can cobble something together. MSF might help..I hope... you got to have field experience( I don't expect someone with tests always available can learn to improvise so quickly) and you got to be there at least 3 years and after that you can't just leave as by then you will be experienced tutor. Anyway the pay will also suck and I don't know whether the Malaysian government( they get very little benefit except from those who will got o Sabah but people will be posted proportionally according to global need) will support this venture and funding from the UN will take forever so unless some billionaire leaves us a lot of money it will take some time to get going but looking for lecturers will be more difficult. Lecturers in Dublin have their own lucrative practises but not the field MO in Burundi so how do you get the applicant for a job that don't pay well or at all but guarantees the satisfaction improving whole health syatems( 70 doctors going to serve in Burundi will improve the health system there by 100%!) and training future Livingstones.. SO I hope that there will be a new breed of medical lecturers that will staff the medical faculty of this uni.

I was going on yesterday about revamping the Boys Brigade so it will be useful to missions now and provide a pool of leaders for churches in the future. The ideal will be creating guys modelled after Yew Kong and Sieh Jin. Look at them passionate about God, lead exemplary lives, can preach, can interpret the Bible, can do apologetics, can lead worship, can counsel...in the real world they can be managers and teachers...they are a mobile church...they are the church..should all the churches be closed, all they have to do get a group of people in a place( under a tree,in a room) and they can BE a church.
Heard King Sihanouk is abdicating. Personally I don't think he has long to live when people give vague explanations like his is almost certain an euphemism that they have cancer and not given long to live.
Heard that Education TV thing is a failure...like all education fads and trends using fancy gizmo. What people need are not computers but be taught how to read once they can read you will be surprised now fast they learn to use the interent and computer. Anyway these things are not like in the 70's they are getting easier to use all the imte and only the most lazy still say I don't have time to learn to use or I am not skilled. Come one even I can use Word and Excel.. This may be shocking but there people in Form 3 in Sultan Abdul Samad who don't know how to read! I should know I taught them two years ago and they are from the so-called weak classes nowonder poeple have no interest in what they are doing..they can't understand a thing! If I am education minister forget about using powerpoints and multimedia presentations just make sure everyone is FUNCTIONALLY literate be it verbal or marthematical and have a good enough command of the languauge of instruction and should the student not able to achieve this then they must be communicated to in their mother tongue. Gimmicks don't work dedicated and passionate teachers do! Again in Samad I have come across people with excellent Mandarin and high intelligence but because they are not so good in BM and English they lag behind. Mind you Sultan Abdul Samad is not some lousy school in the hinterlands it has one of the best STPM results in PJ which is an urban centre but this is only for the elite few with educated parents. In my experience..I actually thank God I got to teach some lousy class...I know some of my students healp their parents at the coffee shop and also their stalls. One or two might break out of the cycle and the otheres unlcky enough not to it is not because they don't want to or don't work hard. But how do you have time or afford to go to tuition? The system has failed them with its emphasis on the best classes, and prepping up those who already have tuitions and destined for straight A's to the neglect of those in need of more teacher time.
Here are some interesting facts from the united nations development programme report. http://www.undp.org/hdr2003/know_that.html If you look through some of them my interest given my line of study would be health. The fact that more people died of dairrhoel diseases in the past decade than lost in all the conflicts since WW2 struck me. Like what did all the war protests achieve? Nothing. They invaded Iraq anyway which isn't a completely bad thing given the people are now better off though there are who disagree. But if all who protested I figure about 5 million give a dollar each( they are mostly from rich nations with too muc time on their hands) to providing basic sanitation of clean water, they probably will achieve something and save even more lives! And if the use the money they would have spent for their after-protest parties they would achieve even more and save more lives! Seriously sometimes I think of the hypocrisy of things. People do all these protest or take up a cause because it is cool and things that 'aware' people do but none of these people will be willing to give up their carreers and dedicate it to saving all these people. Plenty of irish kids go and protest and for their summer go to Africa to do what? To spend their parents money. Seriously if you want to be involved be involve all the way or not at all. Like what God says be hot or be cold. The most irritating epopel onearth are the lukewarm because the apathetic ones have good arguments for their stands. Like what you will say? Well they can say that all effort only benefit dictatorial regime9 which it true) and so on. But ask a lukewarm person why he can't go all the way and well silence. Really if the people in Europe and the US and their politicians want to make a difference in the world they should give up all the farming subsidies. Africa is actually quite productive but they just can't compete with subsidise farms. Africa isn't that bad actually but it is just like a small shop trying to compete with Tesco. Tesc can afford to lose on some products because it is big enough to gain on others and this will push the small shop out of business. That is what they do it in Europe anyway. Let's be realistic though if a prime minister do away this subsidy, he will lose the next election, hundreds of thousands will be unemployed( but all those subsidy can become unemployment dough) and he will be pariah but he will do the right thing and improve the lives of millions in Africa provided the other nations in the Eu don't take advantage of that and expand their subsidies which will make it a futile exercise. But will these people give up their creature comfort? You have to lead by example in the end and of course it starts with me. I wonder if I will live up to my own ideals. I hope I would and I do hope there is someone out there who will be by my side to help me.

There is an inherent risk in posting wordy blogs and this risk is chances people will be so put off at the sight of so many words that your readership is near nil. I will persevere however as I am too lazy to write and since typing requires less energy.
Latest has it that Blair intends to solve the problem of Africa. I eally do hope he succeeds then there will be less burdens for me. However as far as I know he is not the first person who wants to do something and as far as we can see no one has succeeded. What is the matter? I really don't know. And Africa is not the only one in trouble South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, ...basically the whole world....poverty, infectious disease, corrupt officials, resistance to the Gospel..there is more trouble than I can list...why is no one making headway?...why isn't more people driven to do something? Sorry this question is unqualified. I think epople wnat to do something but they don't know what to do. No one enjoy wasting their time and resources and so until there is an effective way to solve these issue no one is going to invest either. Anyway enough of depressing stuff.( I am coping out actually thinking too much about these issues make my head hurt)
Anyway I have discussing with some friends about the future of Boys Brigade or whatever you call the Christian version of the Boy Scouts in your part of the world.
Most important we must have an objective, vision, goal, target or whatever you call it because I felt that over the years it has become some kind of social club and ditto that for the church but before I hijack the church I think I will hijack the Boys Brigade. My idea for the new Boys Brigade is that it will train people to lead the end time church and until then be effectively equipped to do missions. I don't think this was the original vision but I don't think I have the time to start another organisation from scratch so just hijack one with its exiting structure and facilities and change it.
So what will we do? Well we know that in the end times the church will be persecited and churches will have to go underground like the house-churches of China so instead of waiting for that to happen before we start training leaders that can lead in house churches style and get all the inherent problems, I say we get ready now. So instead of slogan shouting we have intense Bible studies so that at the end of 5 years all would read through the Bible. Into this mix we put in exegesis techniques, ecclesiology, pastoral care, apologetics. So inessence the Boys Brigade beoce some kind of boot camp for ministers. So at graduation they are all ready to lead a small church should the need arise. In addition to that guitar lessons are geared towards worship instead of cosy bonfire sing-a-longs. They do this in madrasahs and religious schools. So why can't we?
That is for whatever future eventualities. So in addition to swimming badges we have counselling badges, apologetics badges and so on.
Nut for the time and now we must make ourselves useful so we can touch the lives of epople. First Aid is a must, learning to cut grass, build toilets, and all other things to that can help people and at the same time show them God's love. We already have an organisation so now it is. Gotta go now but I will continue tomorrow.