Dear Hoonpage
It has been one of the most interesting week that I have experienced in recent days.
First there was my younger daughter’s junior college posting. As a family, we were kind of anxious about the outcome of her posting. She had applied for ACJC, SAJC and CJC in that order. As we were filling up the application form on the computer, we teasingly suggested to an indecisive daughter to draw lots. And we really did and the three of us drew SAJC. On the morning of the result of the posting, we woke up early as we were expecting MOE so give us an early sms. True enough, the result came and it was SAJC. Phew! what a joy we received when we got the news. We shot a quick prayer of thanks to God and told the good news to my younger daughter. Her response was neutral. “Don’t know anybody there.” was her only lament. Subsequently, she testified that God is good and gave her 12 points to get into SAJC. She met a few new friends as well as a few old contacts. That was it and hopefully the rest of her JC days will be, well, uneventful and quiet.
The hosting of the Youth Olympics Games by Singapore was a surprise, just to say the least. One the day before the official result, I saw my godson on the page 3 of the Straits Times. I found myself praying for the success of the bidding for the hosting of the YOG. In many ways it was a delightful surprise that Singapore can beat Moscow to take the place to host this all important youth sporting event. But I am sure we can make it. I think it will put Singapore on the international sporting map. By some gracious will of God, the olympic village is just located a stone throw away from my home. Looks like we have no choice but to pray for the village to be completed on time for the YOG.
Last saturday was the Christ Church Secondary School’s annual carnival. In this carvival, the school hopes to raise money to help the poorer students fulfil their life’s dream to travel overseas for exposures. What surprised me was the number of people that came to the carnival and the way the carnival was organised. The place was just filled with people and the stores were just so well organised and patronised. Immediately after the carnival at 5.30 pm, the students had already packed up the stores and placed the rubbish outside the school compound to be disposed. What efficiency! Only couple of hours before 5 pm, there were still hundreds of people milling around. Then at 5.30pm all the stores were practically dismantled and the students leaving for home. In fact on Sunday morning when we were there for our Service, there was almost nothing to remind us that there had been a carnival the day before. What great teamwork that between the school and our church. One more thing - Pastor Daniel and I went for the flying fox!
That’s all for this blog.
Filed under: Family
The lunar new year this year fell on 7th and 8th February. The best timing seemed good because we could have a long weekend and returned to church to worship on 10th Feb, which is the 4th day of the lunar new year.
Most new year is celebrated with reunion dinner in my parents in law’s place. However since the passing on of my parents in law, the reunion dinner is usually held in my brother in law’s place. For this year, we decided to have it in a restuarant. I must say that the food in the restuarant was excellent but the timing was a little, shall I say squeeze. Our dinner slot time was between 5.30 and 8.00 pm. Sounds like a lot of time but considering the fact that some of the family members came late and a number of dishes we hadto go through, it was a rush through the dinner.
The Chinese New Year visitation was good. My family and I managed to stay in my in-law’s place for most of the afternoon of the first day of the CNY. The girls in my family had a good harvest in terms of red packets(the chinese new year custom). Of course it also meant that we had to fork out more red packets for the other relatives’ children.
The second part of our visitation was to be a reunion at my brother’s home. It was a spacious and windy semi detached bungalow in Thomson area . We had a lot to catch up with one another as we have a family of 11 brothers and sisters. My oldest brother is nearly 70. It was not exactly uplifting when we talked about the health of some of the senior members of the family. At least two had heart by pass operation in recent years. One have had diabetes. My youngest brother is already 50. I am second youngest. My only thoughts about them was about their eternal destiny. Some of my brothers and sisters are still non believers, which means if they do not believe soon, they might be lost eternally. I am concern for their salvation yet I find it awkward to open my mouth to share the gospel with them.
The rest of the CNY was spent entertaining a few friends and relatives. I felt the mood for this festive season was a little non eventful due to I believe a few reasons: the US housing credit crunch, the local stock market downturn, two of my family members having their own financial woes and also because my own brothers and sisters are getting on in age and are not saved yet.
On the other hand, I am most grateful to the Lord for looking after my family keeping us in the pink of health. We are trusting Him for the journey ahead and hopefully to have some good news to share before the next chinese new year. More Power!
Filed under: Family
My family and I were really grateful to the Lord for our trip to the most populous nation on the earth. It was original a toss between Taiwan or China. Why Taiwan? Well I went there for my army training years ago. My daughter was there during her secondary three year of her school. We thought it might be good to return to the land that we have had some fond memories. In the end we did not go to Taiwan because in comparison with China Taiwan seems so plain and uninteresting. The other reason was that the queue for the China tour on the day of the Chan Brothers Holiday exhibition was rather short. Now that we have been to China, we thought was a good decision that we were there.
The trip was undertaken on 8th -18th December 2007. We went immediately after the wedding of one of our members. The timing was perfect. The wedding ended at 8 pm and we left for the airport at 10.30 pm.
When we arrived in Beijing on the morning of 9th Dec, we were hit by the coldest weather we had ever experienced. the temperature at minus 5 degrees Centigrade. Talking about cold. This is probably the coldest temperature we have had. We were immediately put on the coach and bus of to the tourist sites. We went to the fobidden city, the Tien An Men square and the 13 Ming Emperor Tomb for the day. What a treat to be able to visit all these historical sites and visualize how the Chinese Emperor could have lived in those days. It is not comfortable by our standard but imagine the sheer size of th4e palace and all the resources that were spent just to upkeep one emperor. The building of the Ming tomb was just as remarkable. We literally have to climb 9 storeys down the tomb to see the resting place of the emperor and his empresses.
The visit to the Great Wall of China was just as incredible. But the thought of the thousands and tens of thousands of laborers that were killed just to complete the gigantic project is unthinkable.Yet they did it without modern technology. That morning of our visit to the great wall was a wonderful experience in more ways than one. We saw the snow coming down from the sky for the first time in our lives.
The rest of our trip to Beijing and Shanghai seems blend comparing to the visit to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Nonethe less, we have had the joy of visiting our Singaporean friends in Shanghai. It was our joy(especially the ladies in my family) that we have several opportunities to shop at the shopping malls that sell genuine as well as fate stuffs.
On the whole, it has been an enjoyable experience visiting China,the country so close to our hearts. We can’t help but felt the awesomeness of a country can come so far in their development so quickly. It is just amazing. I suspect being a country selected to host the next Olympic game must have contibuted to this. I would recommend all to pay a visit to this great nation.
It has been quite a while since I last wrote on my blog.It must have been the climb at Mt. Kinabalu that has taken out all my energy and stamina for which I am still recovering from it:-the knee injury. It is much better now.Exams has once again hit the Hoon family. My younger daugther has started her ‘O’ Level exams. She was initally the concern of both my wife and I as she tends to get quite excited about the exams. So excited that she might not get enough sleep because of it. But praise God, she is nearly half way through and she seems to be holding up well. Of course the other worry is if she can get nto the school of her choice. For that we will have to pray hard. Just a thought about exams, I wonder when will the government do away with the exam thing and be like the IB program that provide them with class projects instead. However, I heard that it is more work this way, not less.Church merger is another of those things that has been occupying our minds. Light of Christ City Church has been merged with Christ Church Woodlands to form Light of Christ Church Woodlands. So far so good even though we have some initially disagreements and adjustments between the two congregations. The good thing that came out of this is that we have more resources to do more work in the school and the community. Oh! we even got a newly renovated chapel and office. For a change, we need not use second hand stuff for church or office.As for Medicine, my older daughter has started her course in the School of Medicine in NUS. She is enjoying her study and occasionally even shares with us about her study. She is staying later in the campus and has formed a good group of students that she studies together. Hopefully something else can develop in the study group.Oh, finally, as the year comes to an end, we are hoping to drop over at the most populous nation on earth. Yes, we are planning to visit the mainland of China by the commercial tour. I think it will be fun. We hope to visit our friends who are posted there for work. It has been our dream to stand on top of the Great Wall of China and see the land that so many have been raving about in the past years. That’s all for this blog. Cheerio! |
