Building a Ship

Many many months ago, Zara and her team, consisting of Aaron, Wei Shaun, Stella, Vivian, Joanne, Calvin, Natalie and I, we set out to prepare for the Kidzone Merdeka Celebration on the 30th of August 2009.

Last year, another team of youngsters did the Christmas celebration, and it was wonderful, simply spectacular, and it was also our first time doing it. We managed to get everything done and ready at least 2 weeks before the event itself, it gave us ample time to prepare the hands-on work. This year, was the opposite.

Yes, we started way much earlier, but until the last week nearing the event, there were just too many things unsettled,especially the whole lesson part. It looked like we were so doomed. So did it go well?

Previous post, I talked about the Prefects Annual Dinner. And one thing i mentioned was that I really cried out to God for help, and I really sincerely was trusting God that everything will turn out well. God did come and God saved the day. Now knowing that I had only 1 week left, I did the same thing, hoping that God would really supply some help for the Merdeka Celebration. Adding on to that, I had 7 girls coming to my house on Thursday to stay over for 2 nights. 1 of them is my brother's batch, the other 6, was my friends, long time friends from Kuching. Now, I had to prepare and yet from Thursday to Saturday, I have to accompany them.

So again, I cried out to God for his help and wisdom to prepare, and everyday I could hardly do anything, it just seems like my lesson can't move on, I was stuck, don't know what point to lead to, how to bring out this part of the message and etc. A short talked with Ps Andy really helped me to understand what is it like to prepare a bible lesson and how to prepare it. But i didn't feel like God was helping me. To me, it was like, "God, where are you? I thought you would provide help!" Days past and thursday came, the girls came. They came at night, so thursday was pretty much over with. Then came friday, where I had to bring them to Mid-valley.

I brought them there, but I couldn't be with them because I really needed to prepare my lesson. So I went to Macdonalds and did it, while they went to do what girls do. During lunch, I met up with them to eat, but because I was so stressed, I couldn't even eat. In the midst of all these, I was attentive to what they casually talked about, because sometimes God really does speak to you when you overhear others talking, Interesting eh? But nothing, I didn't catch anything. From lunch onwards, I followed them shopping, but I was constently revising on my lesson, just keeping an eye on the girls while my mind was in a chaotic rush. We left Mid-V in the evening, and went back home. My plan was to go back home, take bath and start preparing the powerpoint slide. Little did I know, my brother offered to send them to 1 Utama at night, and with the sound of that, some were already rejoicing, how could we not go?

We went there at night and ate dinner there. Some left to go shopping while some stayed to chat because we were just too tired and lazy to go. Finally, we ended up going to MPH, while I stayed outside waiting for them. Nearing the time of departure, we gathered and headed for the car. By the time we reached the car, Ashley, forgot her DSLR. Darn, I followed her in to find it. and after a long while running here and there, another group of girls who were also on the run managed to get it. It is actually a much more interesting and an adventurous event, but it is just too long with details that I can't type it. Its another blog post by itself, haha.

So because of that adventorous event, everyone was so hyped up, while I was still stressed. Finally went back home and I rushed to start preparing my lesson. While I started, the girls went to take bath one by one. Then some of them started to see how my preparation was. I thought since they have nothing to do, they just wanted to help and see whether they can help in anyway. To cut a long story short, each one of them threw in some comments and surprisingly, it made me ponder over certain issues. Then everyone started to become tired, but mainly 2 girls, Caryn and Eu Fern, stayed up with me to help me finish up my lesson. I put it as they were hyper and not tired, so since its already about 3 in the morning and they had nothing to do, they just helped out. Suddenly, the thought struck my head, "What if they weren't here?" Then I knew, that this whole 7 girls coming-to-my-house thing, was God planned. One reason could be instead of me going to Kuching to meet them, God brought them to KL to meet me. But what I felt more important was God send them, whether to help in a big way or a small one, they were really helping angels to my lesson. I mean, who would stay up so late, or early in the morning, to help you on something that they themselves have no part in it? They were indeed God sent, and I believe God is the only one who can kill millions or many infinity of birds, with one stone. With them coming, I got in touch with them after many long years seperated, they had fun shopping, and most importantly, my cry to God for help was fulfilled in another whole new way. And that was just simply amazing.

So that was a short story on the 7 girls and 3 guys. Back to the Merdeka Celebration.

Now my lesson was more or less prepared, everyone was ready but because it was so last minute, everyone was so unsure. And I told che che Fay Cheng one thing, "If Merdeka celebration actually turned out well, it was nothing, totally nothing that we did, but it was God that was there." On Sunday morning, just 2 hours away, I surrended that event to God once again. And with His mighty hand, amazingly, everything went well all in all. Although there were mistakes here and there, but the children got the message and they responded really really well to it. Indeed, at the end of the day, it was all God, we played our part, and God finished it up for us. Again, God was there to sustain another event, when we cry out to Him. Yet we still have to play our own part, and one lesson I learn this time round, is that preparations must be done way ahead, otherwise, things can just turn out the opposite way that it should.

I just want to thank God that he was there for all of us yesterday, and I believe in the future, when we play our part, God will surely play His WHEN we ask Him for it. And I also pray that the children will really be able to break free from the control of sin over their lives, that they will turn to Jesus in times of need.

So all in all, the event was a success, but the "shelling/bombing/shooting" from my Pastor, because of unprepared-ness, is this Thursday, and I believe there is something that we all can learn from this.

Love,
Wai Leem

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NOTE: HAVEN'T READ THE OTHER 2 PAD POST? READ IT FIRST.

I'm sorry, its not that good to spam 3 post in one day, but i have no choice. so Prefect Annual Dinner 1 is about before the event. Prefects Annual Dinner 2 is about the event itself. So being a man that cannot run away from lessons, I write Prefects Annual Dinner 3 to express my feelings throughout this journey. Please note that names will be used and this what i feel, so even if you feel offended, sorry then.

I think the one thing I have learn, is that when you sincerely cry out to God, I believe he will come to your rescue. There were some sleepless nights when i was overwhelmed by the amount of work that i have to do, the planning that has to be done and the pressure that I have to carry. During those nights, I would cry literally, out to God and was  really begging for his help to give me peace and calmness. All I remember, is that every morning, I woke up as if a new day has dawn, but that day usually brings it down and at night, I would cry out to Him again and again.

Saturday night, I totally surended and asked God, "Does this really have to happen?" seriously, this was not how i expected it to be, but many would say that God wants to show that he can work when nothing seems to work. But I believe that there is more to it than that, but I have yet to know. All I know was that without God present at that dinner yesterday, it could not have been how it was. And I also believe that if I did not seek God for help, I would not have gotten it. So yes, God will help when you cry out to Him.

I think one of the many things that i want to say was that facing authority is very hard, especially for a person like me, who usually is in the position of it. But I took it as something i needed to learn and did my best to inform them. The thing was, from informing, it became a total control over the event. But they kinda failed, cause our plans were more or less set. So during the whole course of this journey, it was pretty hard, as we faced issues with the event and at the same time issues with the top. Now I don't say this as one person, at least half of the team weren't happy with it.

Aside from that, I realized that there are 3 kinds of people. One who nags but never helps, another who helps but doesn't ask you first, and the other who helps but asks for permission to do so. So, I already arranged it in order of which is better, from the least, to the best. So out of the three types, where do you think you are?

I don't know why, but when I went back home, I just wanted to watch a movie, despite how tiring I was, and I ended up watching Marley and Me. Basically a story about a notorious dog , maybe even worse named Marley and its owners who were a couple. Many who watch it i think would say that it is boring? To me it was a bit, just a bit. But sometimes it was really frustrating, like Why can't the dog be good? Can't it just sit still and obey? What kind of dog is this? It was wildly wild. But as I expected, at the end of the show, the dog died because of some health issues. But what struck me was the wife, also a mum of the main family, took out her necklace and said to her kids "Your dad bought this for me when our family just started, but, the thing was, our family had already started with Marley" Then she placed her necklace over Marley's dead body. Struck me there and then, that no matter how many issues we face in the board of prefects, how frustrating how irritating it may be, we are still ONE FAMILY. And that is why I love the title of the movie, because its Marley and ME. Me makes it personal, its ownership. And Marley could be anything, in this case, the Board of Prefects and ME. I don't need to be a head prefect to say its MY board, I don't need to be a head prefect to say its MY prefects, because why? Its still MY FAMILY. Just like how you wouldn't say that our brother is your dad's family, you would say he's my family. So likewise, its still my board, my prefects, my friends, my team.

An AJK biasa, but not biasa,
Wai Leem

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PLEASE READ THE EARLIER POST FIRST IF YOU HAVEN"T

So on the 23rd of August 2009, this is the day.

Tian Yoon, though not part of the AJK biasa team, offered her help and we accepted it gratefully. She was there since 10 am, and I reached there at around 11 am, followed by Ley Kuan. I went to negotiate a room for all those who are coming earlier to take bath. After much negotiation they agreed and gave me a room to shower.

So preparation of the tables were all underway. But I had to go church to help out somebody, so I went and only came back at 3.30 pm. At that time only a few more were there and the tables were almost done, dice also equal or almost done. Prepared for the opening ceremony, with rehearsals starting at the same time, as Tian Yoon preparing the guest book, the sorting of gifts and lucky draw were also done by some others. I cannot remember all the details but moving on, at 6 pm, we starting our briefing, to be clear on who's doing what and when what things are running.

by 7, teachers were already here, with prefects starting to camwhore, or sincerely taking memorable photos, we started to get people going in except teachers and seniors. When everyone was seated, we stood again and invited the teachers to come in while everyone clapped, followed by the seniors. When everyone was at their seats, we started the day with a simple speech by Pn Lee and En Tham. Then the opening ceremony was that they were suppose to pull down a cloth to show the words "PREFECTS ANNUAL DINNER 2009" But Ray Aun and Jin Yee were behind the cloth as planned. So when they pulled the cloth and revealed the both of them, the mc-s, Nicholas and I pretended not to know about it and were expressing our shock, fake shock. And everyone was laughing at the whole act. After a duet speech, was a small slideshow to get people ready and then teachers were invited to go first and take their food, followed by seniors and then the rest of the prefects.

Everyone was given a time 1 hour to eat, then the performances started as soon as possible. So we started with a simple photo slideshow done by Nicholas followed by the Form 2's lucky draw and performance by the form 2's which were spectacular and wonderful. Then we played a game called "Who's  Baby?" Everyone said it was easy, so i stopped giving out prizes to the correct answers but yet everyone somehow still managed to have fun playing it.

After that the Form 3's were ready for their performance, which is a band called KTFB, which is comprised of their english names, I think, or in other words, Kiss The Floor Baby. They sang 21 guns which got a huge response from the crowd, and were asked to do an encore, but they didn't, sadly. Then we moved on with Form 3's lucky draw, but surprisingly they all disappeared. So we gave a 5 minutes toilet break and after that, we continued the program. After the lucky draw was the giving out of souvenirs, which everyone doesn't like but still, we had to do it.

I needed a break, so I told Nicholas to call a 10 minutes break for everyone to continue eating and taking photos. When I was ready to get up and running again, we proceeded with the form 4's lucky draw and to clear up our stock, we straight away headed to the Form 5's lucky draw. Sadly, we ran out of time and had to cancel it. We straight away moved on towards the final performance, the form 4's. Whom i tell you, was simply amazing. Almost all of them went up, I was tempted to, but I didn't cause i wanted to reflect on the whole day. So their singing, was well enjoyed by everyone, every single person had fun at the end, especially the teachers went they started to do the chicken dance. Well where was I? Standing at the back, smiling with utter joy, gladness, an indescribable happiness.

We concluded the night with a photoshoot. And I realized that i said these few words "THANK YOU and HOPE YOU HAVE HAD A GREAT NIGHT, GOODNIGHT" as closing, with utter regret, because tonight was indeed a happy, it was a GREAT night! I could see that the organizing team's faces were filled with joy because everything that was done, was not done in vein. But there was so much more we did not do because of time, but the night had just ended.

So after everything, we packed up and left, and when i reached home, put down my stuff, my brother suddenly sang the song "Tonight's going to be a good night!" It strucked me there and then, that indeed it was going to be a good night. Now as I write this, I feel like I could have done so much more yesterday, but its over, the AJK biasa's first ever project was done with succeess, and I believe there is more to come.

An AJK biasa
Wai Leem

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Its been a year already! CLICK HERE to see what i wrote for last years Prefects Annual Dinner (PAD). This year, it was held yesterday, 23 of August 2009.

The difference between last year and this, is that last year, we were spectators, not we are organizers.

During the Prefect Board's Annual General Meeting (AGM), a couple of people nominated me to certain post. But knowing that I will not be able to perform to my fullest, I declined everyone. Because of that, naturally I would become an AJK biasa which is just a normal committee member.

The thing was, I did not know, that this year, with new leadership, they placed the normal committee members in charge of everything besides those concerning duties, which would be like telematches, cool activities, camps, year end trips, and not to mention, this Prefects Annual Dinner.

So at first, it was like, well, okay.. I can do this, and have done it before, shouldn't be much of a problem. Things went on as usual, until in late July or early August, I was informed that the Prefects Annual Dinner is suppose to be SOON, aka this month. Shocked? OF COURSE! So here was the first problem. We don't even have scratch and we got to come up with something in the next 3 weeks. Which led to the second problem, which is, the dinner is for the seniors, but i never liked them, so why should I do it? But in the end, I made a promise that seniors are seniors, and no matter what, we got to respect them, and so I did it anyway. And so the third issue arose, people started to nag us for updates, and yea, irritance led us not to tell them everything.

Starting from scratch, the first protocol would usually be finding a place to hold the event. To cut a long story short, there were so many complications, then I think it took 2 weeks to even settle the place, and remember, we only had 3 weeks to do this. See how wonderful that is?

But not to worry, we also started planning the activities and such already. People volunteered to perform and we came up with lucky draw and some fun-filled games. Just that, to cut a long story even shorter, on Saturday, the day before the event, we honestly, weren't fully prepared.

During this point in time, this whole little journey already had some bureaucracy issues with the top fellas. And to handle stress, irritance, ignorance and utter frustration all at the same time, it surely wasn't easy. But what could we do? the top is the top, that's what they do anyway.

So just hours behind, we were practically unprepared.

So, DID WE MAKE IT?

read the next post.

An AJK biasa,
Wai leem

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