Respect God.

Pride of India

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Respect God.

You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by his poverty He could make you rich.

This is how He showed His respect to us.

ODB reading today mentioned about respecting God.

"We respect God when we put ourselves out for Him. We all experience dry spells when the Bible seems irrelevant, our prayers don't seem to matter, (closed ones getting sick with all sorts of serious and deadly illness), and we'd rather sleep than go to church."

"If we continue to put ourselves out, even when we don't feel any benefit, we pay God the highest respect."

We respect God even though everything does not make any sense...This is how I see it. Who am I to question The One who created me and who knows me better than I do.

The Eternity of God and the Frailty of Man.

Lord, teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom - Moses.

Incorrigible.

Loopy likes to go to the fence behind and look over at the neighbour's house. He would sometimes sit down and stare at the fence, figuring out how to cross over it. My Dad tried to cover up all the holes he made on the fence and below it but Loops managed to cross over. This time my Dad did something and it finally has failed Loopy's attempt of temporary freedom.

Then, my Mom was saying, Loopy goes to that part of the fence every day to look at it. Sometimes it would nibble the fence. One day, he going to nibble to whole fence I tell you.

I'm so proud of my Loopy (haha..) Who says he's a stray mongrel? But he still chews our slippers although Boss rotan-ed him once and shouted at him a million times. This is definitely an incorrigible dog.

Just like Loopy, some of my students are like that-incorrigible. I tried everything - scolding, rotan, sweet talk, motivate, encourage but sometimes I just feel that nothing goes into their heads. It's like talking to bricks....Probably it's just the second month and it's too early to say, but sometimes it just gets overboard and too much to handle.

My colleagues.

I am just thankful I have a group of colleagues whom I am so comfortable being with. I guess every teacher has their own cliques but I certainly did not expect to get this especially in Mangosteen School.

Today we had a farewell lunch for Lim who was transferred to another school that has more Chinese students. She's a Chinese Language teacher. In about 2-3 years time, there will be absolutely no Chinese students in Mangosteen School. How sad. Today we only have less than 10 students. Talk about racial segregation..and racial integration among students here is almost zero.

After lunch, a few of us visited an Australian teacher here who is part of the ministry's programme of enhancing and improving the teaching of English in primary schools. Aah, my heart goes out to her after hearing the series of (unfortunate) events that took place the moment she arrived here about a week ago. House not ready-broken promises-different culture-fractured toe-inability to move around-pain-language-loneliness-frustration. This kind of situation needs a very brave person and I know she is exactly that person.

I'm glad today was a holiday because I've not had such a fun, fulfilling and meaningful outing for a very long time...

Remembering.

Joanna, schoolmate since primary school. I still remember a few of our conversations together although we were not together in upper secondary. I really regret not continuing the close friendship we had earlier on in primary school.

Thilaga, another schoolmate since primary school. I can still remember her 2 long pony-tails which she had in standard 2. She's this very fair and pretty Indian girl whom I knew since Standard One. Both of us were in rumah merah and during sports day in 1993, we all performed with the coconut tempurung and that famous Kitaro piece as the background music. That was so fun. We always had our practices under the huge Saga seed tree (the one with the red seeds) beside the field...

Becca. She was the first one to get married. All four of us were in 5 Curie and on one very boring day, we were discussing who among us will get married first. If I'm not mistaken all of us agreed she will the first one. And well, true enough, it really happened.

The meeting of the mangosteens.

Orang asli child.

Pn. Infila's very cute baby.

Last week, all the class teachers, including me, rushed to decorate their own classrooms because Pengetua said she will have a mini rombongan to take the parents around the school. She lied.

Sigh.

And only this week I was officially the class teacher. But it was good week. It was nice seeing 4 of my students helping me. It is so rare to see 2 malay boys working together with an asli boy and a malay girl.

And today, at Malabah's restaurant opposite the school, I had a very good conversation with another teacher (my closest friend in school, 25 years older than me). It was so encouraging listening to her sharing and experiences. She is one tough and caring nut. And school is not that bad because I really appreciate her presence and friendship.

***

Today's reminder: Our Lord preserves our soul!

Dinesh Kumar

I have this Indian boy in my own class, Dinesh Kumar. The other day I was filling up the register book with the details of all my students and I came across this name. It reminded me of a Dinesh Kumar whom I taught in Standard 1 in 2005 when I was a temporary teacher.

I can remember this Dinesh so vividly because I had a very hard time dealing with this little hooligan. I seriously thought there was something wrong with his behaviour. For no reason he would start throwing stones at his classmates while I was in the class. There was once, my heart skipped a beat when he carried a huge brick into the classroom. There were so many conflicts between him alone and all the other students.

Then I started to count from 2005 till 2010. That Dinesh would be 13 years old this year. The same age as the Dinesh Kumar in my class. The Dinesh in my class looks a bit like him except that he's a little on the heavy side. The primary school Dinesh was a very thin fellow.

Today I asked him which primary school he went to before. He said 'Bukit Bintang Boys School'. That was a surprise. (my father was the guru besar of that school for many years). He continued and said he was sent there after standard 3. Then I eagerly asked him which school he went to from form 1 till form 3..aah, and he said MES. My heart felt so warm.

I asked him whether he remembered me teaching him and he answered with a smile 'Yes, I still remember Teacher'. Today, he is a very different person. He still has the tendency to be in little conflicts with other students but he has certainly improved a lot since 2005. He is quieter now and speaks rather good English. I think he is so easily misunderstood by others...and by maybe teachers too.

While I was waiting at the school gate to cross the road, Dinesh stopped my car and asked me to drop him off at another school on the way back because the school bus to that school (from my school) always comes late. He had to catch another school bus to go back home. If he misses that bus, his mum would have to fetch him home from work.

I found out in the car that Mum and Dad were seperated since he was standard 3. Mum has a very low-income job.

I thank God I went to school today even if it was only for 3 hours (rushed back home from a very crazy place). It made my day but it really got me thinking........

Temporary Home.

Temporary Home

..."This is our temporary home.
It's not where we belong.
Windows and rooms that we're passing through.
This is just a stop, on the way to where we're going.
I'm not afraid because I know this is our
Temporary Home."

[Temporary Home - Carrie Underwood]

5.30am to HS - 20 years from now.
6.30pm from school - Temporary Home on radio.

Emo.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be nore more death, no more sorrow, no more crying. There shall be no more pain. for the former things have passed away.

Loopy.

1. Longkang Dog, Loo Loops, Poopy Poops, Poopips
2. He bites slippers, even boss' (Dad's) slippers when he 'mengamok-s'
3. He hops whenever he chases a squirrel.
4. He has a friend, Pinky who lives across the road.
5. He waits for me at the gate and greets me everytime I come back from school.
6. He is only 1 and a half years old that is more than 7 human years old. Still a child.
7. He was found (and saved by ajw) in the drain outside the house.
8. My brotherS wants him gone for good. (as if ajw will allow that to happen)


***

Psalm 37:3-7

Trust in the Lord, and do good.

Dwell in the land,

(Malaysia comes to my mind)

and feed on His faithfulness.

(Remember and be conscious of His faithfulness to me and to my country)

Delight yourself also in the Lord.

(Even in suffering and loneliness)

And He shall give you the desires of your heart,

(at the right time...)

Commit your way to the Lord,

(Even my smallest ones)

Trust also in Him,

(In every single thing)

And He shall bring it to pass,

(When I meet Him face to face, there will be no more pain, no more tears)

He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,

And your justice as the noonday,

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.

(It's difficult especially when you're living one day at a time, not knowing what is going to happen to me next...Example: fever! Low blood count! But in the end I realize it is useless worrying. God will help me deal with the surprises and to go through them)

Chinese New Year 3rd Day.

Today was a really good day despite a VERY painful morning. There are so many words to describe this week: difficult. waiting. unexpected. unknowing. sad. happy. new experience. faith. prayer. fall. rise up. care. love. support.

That's why it get's a little tired feeling. But then again, imagine a person who can't feel anything at all. Blank. Stare. I thank God for giving me these feelings because it makes me who I am and how God created me to be like this.

Anyway, I shall not leave this blog to rot in peace. The problem is it takes a long time to load so many pictures.

Today:
1. Good breakfast at Sunshine's Indian shop
2. Very painful antibiotics injection at Banting Hospital. Good riddance of the branula. It always come back.
3. Trip to Morib Beach
4. Bought 3 pairs of really comfortable shoes for work and church.
4. Met with 4 of my schoolmates. It was a good time of sharing and reminiscing the old days.

5. Family reunion dinner only 3 came from Klang :(
6. Awesome Fun Fair! We sat on the huge (but not crickety) ferris wheel. The last time I sat on it, I think I was a very little girl. It was also in Banting.

So tell me, was I really sick last week? Where did this 3rd fever come from? Who's the culprit? (of course it's me and some bug) Now if I hadn't forced myself not to be admitted, the doctors would nicely keep me in hospital for ONE week.

I shouldn't complain.

Everything works out for the best.