Lost and Found Sheep

I've finally made up my mind that I'm going to attend a baptism class. No one had coerced me into doing it, but the events that happened to me over the past 5 years, and particularly in recent months assured me that I'm ready to take the challenge of being a Christian.

My mom is a Methodist, while my late dad was a Buddhist, both devout in their religion. When I was a kid, mom took me to Sunday school at a Wesley Methodist Church in Malacca, a historical city in Malaysia. Somehow, along the way, I didn't feel the need to go as I disliked being forced to wake up every Sunday to go to church, and I didn't know God enough to want to go. Eventually, when I went into secondary school, I joined the Buddhist society, and found that it suited me well as Buddhism does not believe in a Creator. Don't get me wrong; it's a beautiful religion which I followed for nearly three decades. I thought that finally I've found something that gave my heart peace until something happened in 2005. My three-year marriage broke to pieces.

I was lost. I had nothing to hang on to. No one to talk to besides my parents. Then I remembered that there was indeed someone who could save me - God. I told mom one day: "Mom, I'm following you back to church."

After a 30-year absence, I was welcomed "home" in the same way by the same people except that they have aged a lot. I started going to church regularly with or without my mother. Yet I wanted to be sure that I'm truly ready to accept Christianity. That assurance came when I lost my job about two month ago. I prayed hard one night, confessing my sins to the Lord and asking him to help me get a job. The very next morning, I got a call from a premier private school in Malacca who offered me a teaching job that I had applied for earlier. It was truly God's work, and I told my Christian aunts that God has been listening and has answered my prayers! He is real!!!  I have prayed a lot from the time I decided to return to church, but THIS was special,

God has helped me when He knew I was in trouble. God will answer prayers in His own time.   So is there a God? Yes there certainly is, and I'm ready to be a Christian. There's no turning back this time.

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” – Jeremiah 13:29 (NIV)

Amazing Health Product

Apart from earning as much money as they could, humans adore two other elements - beauty and health. Every one regardless of gender, like to look physically attractive, and they want to be able to do the things they want without falling sick too often. Realising this scenario, cosmetics companies have been churning out one product after another, each claiming to be better than its predecessors. Health product manufacturers continuously do research to produce healthier supplements for us. Each company has its own product strengths, as returning customers keep asking for more of their products.  One of the recent players to join the cosmetics and health industry is Jeunesse, founded by a husband and wife team Randy Ray and Wendy Lewis in 2009. Thousands have heard of this company, and participated in their reward compensation plan, so if this is the first time hearing it, do check it out. That's the purpose of writing this introductory article - to inform viewers like you about one of Juenesse's "superstar" products which thousands around the globe have benefited from.

JEUNESSE'S HEALTH PRODUCTS:

To be honest, I'm a skeptic when it comes to health products. So when my ex-colleague persuaded my to try a box of RESERVE by Jeunessse, I hesitated; she persisted. She even paid for me and sent it to my house (located in another country) so that I could consume the product. Heck, why not, I thought. 

I tried a few days and felt the difference. Seriously, okay? It's not a 100% improvement, but I had fewer naps. Even when I did take a nap, I woke up in an hour, rather than 3-4 hours prior to taking this"wonder" drink. I felt more energised, too.  I don't mind taking this supplement as it is fruity - tastes like grape juice - and it helps in more ways than one.

Recently I also had nagging pain in all the joints in my fingers. No, I do not have arthritis - perhaps it was carpal tunnel syndrome, a friend said. However, after taking RESERVE for two days, the pain became noticeably lesser. I wondered if having just a balanced diet would be able to perform this "magic". If you think it's a drug, or contains some kind of steroids, you're wrong. If you want to know what it is made of, and what it could do for you, check these out:

Explaining RESERVE

A testimony for a friend of hers

RESERVE is also able to help patients with the following illnesses or conditions to recover, or improve:

• obesity
• heart problems
• fibroid
• hair loss
• cancer
• eczema
• scars

... and lots more.

PLACING AN ORDER

Jeunesse products are available in many parts of the world, in fact, in every continent except the Antartic. So rest assured there is one near you.

Do place your order by clicking here. Choose your country of origin (top right of the website) in order to pay in the currency of your choice.

REWARDS OPPORTUNITY

One more thing, you could earn money from Jeunesse, too. To find out more about Jeunesse's other products and its REWARD COMPENSATION PLAN, do check this out by clicking here.

With this compensation or financial plan, you could be on your way to financial freedom. Thousands have already been there. So, you have good health, live longer, look more youthful, and earn the money that could help you live in comfort for a long time (don't forget to share your wealth with those in need)

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Note:
This is a personal blog. Jeunesse did not commission me to do a write-up for them  I'm sharing the "good news" to those who wish to be better :-)

Animals vs Humans

This video was shot in 1969, before many of us were born. Some were still in diapers. It shows how grateful animals are for taking good care of them. Despite being separated by its owners for over a year, and being more independent, Christian, the lion, vividly remembered his caretakers.

Yes, animals remember; they feel. Videos like this makes all of us wonder, if animals could be that grateful to their guardians, why can't humans? 

And yes, there is a follow-up video taken a few years later (below), showing a more matured pride who has learnt to be on his own. But he still remembered the two (then much older) who saved him from Harrods years earlier. He greeted them, played a bit, and then left them. Christian was never seen again since.

It's also a story of being able to let go when the time is "ripe". Christian did let go of his need for the two guardians because he had to be on his own.

Leave Technology, Embrace Life

I believe you may have seen this video clip before whether in social media or directly from YouTube. It is an advertisement created by a Thai technology company meant to drive a powerful message to all of us.

There are many things that technology can do, but humans are much better than that, for they created technology, from wooden wheels to rubber wheels. From computers the size of your living room to one which you're now holding in your hands.

We created technology, but we are also the ones who abuse it so much so that we and the younger generations are overly dependent on it in every aspect of our lives. We look at our smartphones as we walk on the pathway. We cross the road reading our WhatsApp messages. We snap photos of our food as soon as it arrives and instantly tell the world on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter where we are and who we are eating with, not realising that our mom is waiting to have a conversation right across the table. I'm guilty of all that too, and I plan to gradually put a stop before it completely takes control of my life.

We have to tell our children that the iPad, Gear, smartphones are all merely devices to facilitate our work and to entertain us for a very brief moment. These devices wouldn't have a care in the world if you go blind because of it, or if you suffer from a bad backache. They won't even know if you live or die! So why make them "look" like they're the most important part of your life? Give your children, our future generation, a real life experience that such technology can't give.

Treat Them Like Our Own?

When I first joined the school, there was a meeting a week before the beginning of Term 2. We had the meeting in the library. The meeting was chaired by the CEO, and the Founder was there too. The Founder made a speech, and in that speech, he mentioned: "We have to treat each child as our own, then things will turn out alright." - in brief, he was merely trying to tell the newbies that we have to treat them well, the way we do our own children. I was touched; to me, it made a whole lot of sense because if we don't love them, there's no way they would love us and pay attention in class.

Six months had passed (a tad too slow), and I realise that whatever the Founder had said was just his words of wisdom. I have tried to be nice, to be a "parent" to them, but it backfired. They won't listen but would continue with what they were doing at that time, be it chasing their friends, talking too loudly or not doing their work. Maybe I wasn't strict enough from the beginning, but then, they are not my kids and teachers are not allowed to impose physical punishment including getting them to stand on the chair. When they cause trouble, I tried talking nicely to them but it didn't work - not the primary kids whom I'm teaching.

I began to think... 

It is easy for others, particularly those who have never been teachers - or those who assume they know what it's like to be one - to tell us to treat students like our own children. This is pure fallacy; it's just fatherly talk. In reality, we can't treat students that way, not in this era. Firstly they aren't ours; we can't impose our rules on other people's kids because they may rebel (one of my students recently spread rumours about his teacher because he dislikes her), and their parents may not like the way we try to mould their children. Heaven forbid, they may even sue us if we say or do things that we know is right, but to them it's wrong. Secondly, those who offer such advice to teachers have dealt with only two or three children (of their own); they may not even have brought them up by themselves!! They obviously do not know the problems that we have in dealing with hundreds of kids of various backgrounds, varied attitudes and different upbringings. We deal one student differently from another, and we certainly can't help all, or even ten of them, given the amount of teaching load and non-teaching duties that we have per week. Some are able to accept our ways, others are not. And when things get too heated up due to the number of students teachers have to handle, they would not be motivated and will end up being burned out just trying to educate the recalcitrant or obnoxious ones. Teachers are humans, so they do get stressed out easily if the expectations are too great but the results too insignificant.

So, do we still need to treat students like the way we treat our own children? Nope. Students don't want another "mommy and daddy" - they already have enough naggers at home. Perhaps the Founder was trying to make his point across metaphorically, not literally. I don't know. Go ask him.

It Will End Some Day

Long ago, Malaysia is known to be a safe haven for everyone because there's no natural disasters like volcanic eruption and earthquakes. The major floods that we experience here each year can be attributed more to human activities than a natural event. However, things have changed now.

The recent earthquake in Sabah should open our eyes wide. The tsunami that hit Penang years ago should tell us that something bigger is coming our way. We have got to be ready; the government has to make plans for any eventualities of massive earthquakes or tsunamis years down the road (or sooner). 

Yes, priests and ulamas will proclaim in their weekly sermons that all this is happening because there is a prophecy that the world is coming to an end. The Christians believe that it is the second coming of Jesus. Other religions would have their own prophecies. It's not a joke. No matter what you call it, this earth won't last forever. It will be destroyed millions of years from now, but there are already signs of earth's destruction. We can already see it.

Apart from praying each day for our safety, for mercy, we also have to do our part to ensure that life is preserved as much as we could. 

Let's all pray that the government would take pro-active measures to address this issue, and not sweep it under the carpet, taking it as just a one-in-a-million occurrence. Let's pray for Sabahans, the victims, and pray for Malaysians.

Breaking the Bubble

I was chatting with a friend on WhatsApp recently, and I got this message:

"Get out of this bubble u r in since you are not happy being there. If you are, then it's alright to be stuck in the bubble."

This is definitely not about soap bubbles that kids blow to entertain themselves when they're bored. It's all about getting out of my shell - the hardened shell that refuses to even crack. I managed to break the shell once when I went out of Malaysia to work in Singapore in the same profession. Two years later, I was thrown out due to my sternness, so students refused to be enrolled into my class. Kids these days just want fun. What happened next was that I returned to my old shell - teaching in a primary school. Despite being a private school, everything is just the same as before I had left the country. In fact, I think it's worse.

This bubble that I'm talking about - it makes me wonder. Will I ever break it? It all boils down to myself - do I want to break it? If I do, then am I willing to make sacrifices? I have to leave my home, I have to forego coming back home as often as I'd like to, I've to let mom live on her own and not bother if she's worried about me and I have to ignore what others think of my decision to break the bubble. Even if I decide to stay where I am, but just change jobs, I'd have to face some of these concerns. 

I've been asking myself just one question. How is it that others could just pack their bags, leave home, travel thousands of miles, relocate to start a new life without a care in the world - or knowing that others at home could care for themselves - while I can't seem to budge? Okay, to be fair, it's not that they're heartless beasts; they just do what they want because it's their life. So, would I dare to do that? Maybe I was programmed with empathy and altruism at birth, so before making any rash decisions, I need to think of how it would affect others, especially my family members.

Are those two innate elements the cause of my reluctance to break the bubble and venture into a better world like many others? Is it the fear of uncertainties, or a combination of both?

Hmm... it's something to ponder seriously and make a stand or else I'd be stuck in the bubble for all eternity - and it's not alright for someone who gets bored easily.