Champions League Final 2007

Can God and football ever mix ? Can they come hand-in-hand ?

A picture of an AC Milan player in today's Star paper caught my attention......



Need I say more ???



AC Milan - 2 , Liverpool - 1



GOD - Glorified !!!



I wonder who was the real winner on that night ?





Who says our relationship with God, and football cannot be combined together ?

Who says God needs to be left out of football ?

Who says God can't be glorified even through such a sport ?



It's sad, that too often many of us leave God out of the things we enjoy doing, for instance playing football. We think of it as just a game..... This guy here has more in mind... To him, its more then a game.... He allowed God to be a part of him.... He allowed God to be a part of his game...



But why is it so many guys out there, leave God completly out ? Why is it so many of us are so into the game, that we leave no room and space for God to even be a part of it ? Why is it that many guys out there would even go towards such an extent to place football over God ?



I guess we all have something to learn from this guy......

To forgive and to forget............

" I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father. " Genesis 50 : 17


" Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. " Matthew 6 : 12


" For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. " Matthew 6 : 14 - 15


" Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven, " Matthew 18 : 21 - 22

Lord teach me to forgive.....

Again, and again, and again, and again ....................

Amen

Exit Checklist.......

Got this in my e-mail this evening :


Dear Nigel Evan Rode,

Your resignation has been approved and forwarded to APSSC HR team. This is to confirm that your official last day with Accenture is June 22, 2007.

We would like to advise that your resignation has been accepted, with confirmation of the following:

· Your last physical day: June 22, 2007.
· Your last official day: June 22, 2007.
· Any balance in vacation hours to be encashed.

Upon your resignation, I would like to re-emphasise that you have the responsibility to continue to preserve as confidential all trade secrets and confidential knowledge, data or other proprietary information entrusted to you or to which you were otherwise exposed.



I guess there is no turning back now eh..........

The end of one chapter..... The beginning of another.......

Here we go.........................

Moving on.........

Sometimes, its just plain hard to make choices and decisions. Especially life changing ones. Especially making choices and decisions that would affect almost everything and everyperson around. It's just plain hard.......

Today, I made one of those kind of decisions. I made a choice ! I know it is going to affect me a lot, or maybe change my whole life upside down. I know it is going to affect the people around me as well. It took me a while before I could finally make up my mind. But I guess I had to make this decision. I had to make this choice.....

After 6 months of working with my company, today, I resigned from Accenture....

It was not an easy moment as I sat down with my boss with my resignation letter in my hand. Over the past few days, much has been in my mind. Am I doing the right thing ? Am I heading in the right direction ? What if I am making a mistake ? What if this is the wrong move ? What if I made the wrong choice ?

By resigning, I am probaly going to say goodbye to Accenture for good. No turning back. Accenture is not an easy company to get into. This was probaly one of my chances in making it big time. Being in a multinational, global consulting firm, I could have gainned a lot of experiance, and also benefited a lot. Am I making a mistake by resigning ?

After much thought and prayer, I did decide to eventually tender in my resignation. The hardest part was not so much of passing the letter to my boss, but the hardest part was breaking the news to my colleagues, whom have become such great friends in my workplace. It was really difficult for me to break the news. I know many were shocked to hear. Some of them don't even know yet. I still find it hard to break the news to them.

Immediatly after I tendered in my resignation, there was this overwealming sense of sadness in me. In a months time, Iwould no longer be a part of this community. In a months time, I would no longer work with these bunch of people whom I call my friends. In a months time, I would be moving on...........

But yet, with all these emotions going on in me, I also look forward to moving on. It took me 6 months working in Accenture to finally make me realize what I am really passionate about. It took me 6 months to realize what I was shapped to be. It took me 6 months to realize that all this while, have been running away from my true calling. It took me 6 months to realize that where I am heading to is where I am meant to be.

I have always been passionate about this area that I am heading to. It was always my dream to one day move into this area. However, my hopes and dreams were dashed when I did not get accepted into what I wanted to move into last year. I thought that maybe it was just a dream that was not meant to be. And I soon slowly began to let go of this passion and dream. But these past 6 months in Accenture have showed me that the passion and the dream is stronger then ever. It is much alive in me and I cannot run away from it.... And the longer I work with this company, the more I lie to myself that this is currently the life that I want, and the life that I enjoy. The truth was that this job was slowly killing me on the inside, because it did not allow me to be my real self.

And so, I made a choice...... I made a desicion...... It's time to move on..... It's time to stop lying to myself and start moving in the direction that God has been leading me all this while...... It's time to move in the direction that God has shapped me to be, and move in the direction that God has called me to be in......

I must admit, I still have a lot of questions. But I know these questions will remain unanswered.
This was another hard choice and decision for me to make. And if resigning was hard enough, making this choice and desicion was even harder, as it would affect not only my life, but the people around me and my future as well. But somehow, I know I have been running away from this for some time, and its now time to face my true calling.....

And so I choose to move on..... With the very small amount of faith that I have at the moment, I choose to move on....... As to where I am moving on to, and what I will be doing after leaving Accenture, for those who know me long enough, would sort of know by now what I am talking about. And I'm pretty much sure many of you saw this coming, especially for those of you know know me very closely and well....... What am I talking about ????



TEACHING :)



From July onwards, my passion for youths and young people combined with my passion for teaching, will come alive in me..........


I got a job in Sekolah Menengah Sri Sempurna............

Are those cob-webs that I see ???

Yes ! I am still around. Not to worry..... And No ! I did not stop blogging due to my last post on February 14 last year......

Much has happened since I last blogged... I graduated, went back on Doulos, found a job working with a multinational consulting company (Accenture Solutions).... I have realized that I have lost so much by not blogging over the past year or so.

So here am I once again. This time round, I'll try to blog as often as I can. I want this to be a place where I can pen down my reflections, a place where I can run to with my thoughts, and a place where I can hide when I need to...... I don't want to lose anymore of my memories. I want it all recorded, penned down, written out !

Why now ? Why did I decide to revive my blog now ?..... Well because over the next one week, I will probaly be going through some major changes in my life. There are some desicions that I am about to make, that may change my life forever (And again, No ! It has nothing to do with the last blog post). As the days go by, I will blog more......

So this is my journey..... A journey on a road called life......

If only.......

If only you know how much I really like you...........

If only you know how much I care........

If only you know how long I have been feeling this way........

The more I try not to, the more I find myself feeling this way.......


But then,


If only I know what you think of me......

If only I know if you feel the same.....



...... I guess some of my friends are right. I'm just to plain scared to find out. And probaly too scared to get hurt again. Sigh......



Why does all this have to be so complicating ?

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year this year for me was a real blast. Allthough I am only half-Chinese, I think I celebrated it more than some of my Chinese friends that I have. Let me explain what I mean..... I really enjoy the Chinese New Year celebrations. Not so much because of the food and the ang-pows, but more because I get to spend 3 full days with my family (my mum's side). You see, when my family celebrates Chinese New Year, we celebrate it BIG ! It all starts with the reunion dinner on the eve. This year, we had about 12 dishes, all the normal Chinese New Year dishes. There was so much food, that the extra's lasted my family till yesterday. The eve reunion was great. I meet up with all of my aunties and uncles, together with my cousins. During dinner, it was great catching up with all my cousins and sitting down and talking and laughing about how we as little kids use to celebrate Chinese New Year back in Malacca. There was so much joy and laughter in the house, that it was like last Christmas all over again. Most houses around us were very quiet, and it was very noticable that we were the loudest. But never the less, we still continued to make a whole lot of noise.

This year's reunion dinner was slightly different and special in a way for my entire family. Through the use of Skype, my relatives from Australia and America were able to 'join' us for our reunion dinner. Through the use of the webcam, my relatives were able to see what food we were eating, and throughout dinner, they too would be able to join us in our conversations. Though confusing at many times as to who is talking to who, but it was really great. I think the person that was visibly amazed was none other than my grandmother (she kept on talking to the computer monitor instead of looking at the webcam) Truly, this was a family reunion, although part of it was virtual. It was great that everyone was present (both physically and virtually) for the eve reunion. The reward for the day was to see my grandmother smilling and being so cheerful and happy that all of her children were able to be at the reunion (and she didn't even mind if some of them were only on the computer screen). To her, everyone was present.

The first day of Chinese New Year was a rather long day for my family. In the later part of the morning, all of us went to my Aunty's place to see my grandparents and to have brunch. Now this is where the ang-pows come in....hehehehe...... but like I said, its not so much of the ang-pows for me, it was more of being with family. After brunch, my cousins and I had to go and collect the yee-sang for the nights dinner. Ever since a couple of years back, the grandchildren in my family would take a portion of their ang-pows to buy the yee-sang for our grandparents. And we only buy the best for them. This year's yee-sang was quite costly, as it had salmon, jelly-fish and it was for 25 people. But never the less, it has always been a joy of all of us, as grandchildren, to buy things for our grandparents. Just to see them smile and happy, is more than enough for all of us, and you can't put a price to that at all.

Later that night, it was steamboat dinner. I truly enjoy the steamboat because we are able to sit and talk while we waited for the food to get cooked. Can you imagine, our dinner that night ended way past mid-night. My cousin and I won the title of the last 2 to leave the table (as always !) This year, we also celebrated my Uncle's birthday and had cake for dessert.

The next day, before most of my relatives left to go back home, we all meet again for lunch. One last meal together as a family before everyone leaves. Guess what we had for lunch ? Bee-hoon soup ! I'm pretty sure you all would know where the ingrediants all came from ?

And so Chinese New Year this year was a real blast. When it comes to family, my family knows what it's all about and what family truly means. It saddens me to see so many younger generation these days do not know how to appreciate the true meaning of being one as a family. It saddens me to see that a lot of young people have forgotten the values, traditions, and culture that has been so richly passed on from generation to generation. I fear that in time to come, as one generation passes, and another takes over, all of this values, traditions and cultures would be gone. But one thing is for sure. I am really thankful and grateful for everything that has been passed on to me from my mum's side of the family. One thing that I really admire in the Chinese is their respect for the elders and the importance of family. Another thing I really appreciate is the rich values, culture, and traditions which have been passed down in my family. And allthough many out there in my generation choose not to bother, I have promised myself that I will always take these things which have been passed on to me, and pass it on to my children and grandchildren.

I end with a line taken from the movie Lilo & Stitch, and I guess it sums up my Chinese New Year..." OHANA means family. And family means nobody get's left behind ".... It is my sincere hope and my prayer, that this generation of mine, would truly apreciate their family, and come to realize that family's are important to all of us, because they are one of God's gifts to all of us. We may be able to change our friends, but certainlly not our families. We cannot trade any of them, nor put a value or price on them. Family's are priceless.

Gong Xi Fa Chai !

When ministry seems worthless......

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother. Why do I even care ? Why do I even want to spend all my time with these bunch of people ? Who am I talking about, you ask ? I'm talking about youths ! Young people !

Why must this generation of mine be so self-centered ? Why must they only think about themselves and no one else ? Why must they be so stupid at times ? Why oh why ?

I really don't understand youths these days. What is wrong with this generation of mine. As I look back, I feel that I have wasted all my time ministring to youths and young people. When God called me into Youth Ministry and into the ministry of people, and gave me a heart for youths, I never asked for all that I see now. I never asked for let downs and dissapointments.

Don't get me wrong. I know and understand that in any ministry, there is bound to be ups and downs. There is sure bound to be dissapointments and being let down. But ever since I have been in Youth Ministry, it has been nothing but let downs and dissapointments. I have come to a conclusion that Youth Ministy is full of dissapointments. I am beggining to be at that stage whereby I feel that its totally worthless to be in Youth Ministry at all.

I mean, why do I even bother, when these people themselves don't seem to bother about anything other than themselves ? I try, and try and try, and all these people do are make empty promises, and then they just go back to their old, self-seeking, self-centred self.

Let me give you some examples. In the past week, I have seen so much, heard so much and found out so much about the people around me, and not one of these things were good at all. I had to hear from a father, who found out just before Chinese New Year, that his son had been on drugs for the past year. I had to hear, of a mum, who hardly sees her son any longer, and does not even know what the son is doing, and what the son is up to. I had to see, so many of my Christian friends, choose friends over family, and not celebrate Chinese New Year with their family, but rather choose to celebrate with friends. I had to hear, of a mum, whose son drove all the way to Ipoh to drop her at her family reunion, only then to drive back to KL, because reunions according to him, were too boring. I had to find out, that some of my closes friends, choose to usher in the Chinese New Year, playing snooker, rather than being with their non-Christian family. I had to hear, of young Christian church leaders, visiting their other church members house during Chinese New Year, only to start gambling, furthermore, using Chinese New Year as an excuse that it is all right to gamble. I had to find out that a friend of mine is probaly sleeping around with his girlfriend, and this came from his parents.

Enough is enough for me. I don't think I can take this any longer. The above is only a fraction of what has been happening over the past week. And mind you, I know every single person in the above situation. To make it more dissapointing, all the above are Christians. From close friends, to friends, to fellow church members, to people I mentor and minister to. I just can't take this any longer. I so want to just throw the towel in and call it a day.

What is wrong with this generation of mine ? Why are they so self-centered ? Why do they only think of themselves and no one else ? What happened to God's values ? Family principles ? Culture and tradition ? Biblical principles ? Where have they all gone ? Down the drain ?

How I wish I could not care at all. How I wish I could not bother about this generation of mine and just choose to focus on me and my own relationship with God. How nice if it would be just between me and God, and no one else.

Why do I even bother at all ? At this point of time, ministry seems so worthless..........