July seems to be a month of celebrations, festivities, homecomings and farewells. Usually what that means is that there’ll be a feast! An ongoing, perpetual feast for this month particularly. Dinner parties, tea parties and lazy weekend lunches… It’s a dinner party at ours last night and we made homemade pizzas and chicken wings. Decked with salami, ham, bell peppers, olives, onions and garlic (yes garlic!), the Italian pancakes oozed over with mozzarella cheese and filled our kitchen with tantalizing aroma!

This no-brainer recipe was shared to me by Lee Yen when I was there in June bunking over at the Singapore apartment. Since good food is for all, here’s the recipe:

The Dough
175g plain white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
½ tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
120ml warm water

How? Mix all ingredients together and knead (with love and soft piping music in air). Leave to rise for 1 hr. Roll our dough, spread tomato base and sprinkle with anything your heart desires! 230c in the oven and Walla – you’ve made yourself an Italian chef!

London is famous for its museums, fortunately the Natural History Museum is free for entry. We spent a good 3 hours exploring the different halls from mammals to dinosaurs to planets and the earth beyond. Massive re-constructed bone structures and life-size replicas filled the museum, knowledge oozed from every corner and inquisitive minds got their feed of chunky info.

Next stop – Hyde Park. Winter wonderland at Hyde Park exudes the very flavor of how Christmas is portrayed on telly. Carnival games, trails of food stalls, Christmas goodies and yummy hot drinks. Everyone is out to celebrate. There was even an ice rink with graceful skaters and those just fooling around. We walked the entire carnival hunting for cheap hot choc to warm our bodies. Cold pasta for lunch merely filled our tummies. Finally we found a shop at the end of the carnival selling a cuppa for 2.50 pounds.

We took a leisurely stroll to the other end of Hyde Park passing by a half frozen lake with ducks wadding at the ridge. The other side of the park looked pretty deserted especially when the entire extravaganza was happening on the other end.

Dinner was treat at Michelle’s place. I just realized we didn’t take much pictures with her – but dinner was a bliss. She cooked up a storm of Asian delights in her quaint lil home just after Ealing Braodway station. It was a cozy get together with her in-laws and a couple of other friends to join us. Clement has grown since the last time I saw him as a baby – now he’s running, chuckling and speaking a lot of French. Edgar the new member to the family is a bundle of joy. He coos and bobs his head when you talk to him and fits perfectly into my arms – making it really easy to carry him. Michelle and Vincent are doing well and it’s a joy to see her come this far with a very nice place she calls home.

More than 6 months of planning, weeks of meetings, hours in prayer and footprints of faith is what it took to make Camporama 2009 a reality. 10-12 churches and 700 people from all over Malaysia participated in this awesome experience. If there were more bunk beds, there wouldn’ve been more people! Kudos to the camp committee for making Camporama 2009 a lifetime experience.

I’ve grown up in Rangers for as long as I can remember and Camporama is one of those camps I look forward to whether rain or shine. There’s almost a 100% guarantee that it’ll be mind blowing, this time it’s no different. 700 people made up 4 cities – Australia, India, China and Japan.

Since we were team India we spent 3-4 months reading about the country, culture, culinary spread and people. We visited Indian Street in Klang several times and made umpteen trips to the Global Indian Fair at Mid Valley. We went on a shopping spree for bangles, bells, oil lamps, lanterns, sarees, punjabi suits, jeepas, Bollywood movie posters and tupperware full of Indian sweets. With professional help from engineers and self made architects we build an archway made of steel and screws, lined it with hand drawn posters and wooden boards and lited it with running bulbs. We even had our very own lifesize Taj Mahal made of frigde boxes and pipes. The energy and life in our city was contagious – dance broke out every minute or so, food was served to every visitor, laughter roared as “Indian” stand up comedians took the stage.

Above all, at camps like this – the night rallies are always filled with a sense of expectancy. When I was a Ranger my very real experiences with God were always at camp. Now as a leader – it is undoubtedly so that I pray the same prayer for rangers who come. God showed up in a very real way to many of the young ones. I have been extremely touched to see God being real to the Adventure Girls (the ones under my care)… at 13, 14, 15 they’re being filled with a relentless pursuit for God. And I know that this experience will last them till eternity.

Seeds were sown and a declaration of faith was made – that this NOW generation will recognize their position and destiny in Christ and they will do greater things!

Pictures on the life and pulse of Camporama 2009… here!

First are always significant. They leave lasting imprints in our lives, create a wealth of memories to look back on and act as a launch pad to aim higher and dig deeper.

I vaguely remember my first step as a child, but those first steps have taken me to mountains and terrains beautiful to behold. I remember my first day at school, it wasn’t very pleasant with lots of tears shed, but the tears wore off and schooling became bliss. There were many more first in my life; first crush, first best friend, first flight overseas alone, first sound of gunshots block away, first tooth extraction, first experience underwater…  the list never ends as every day opens up the opportunity to many more “firsts”.

Today marks the first since 6 April, ’08. Yeap! Our wedding rings have been on us since then! It has even left a visible un-tan line on our fingers from being out in the sun so often. We’ve many more kisses since the first last year! Pastor’s prophesy came to pass – haha! It’s one amazing milestone to relish in – we’ve tasted the goodness and faithfulness of God in our lives, the journey really gets sweeter as days go by, relationships are richer because friendships are shared and I believe I’m a better person having shared my life with Terence.

And yes, I agree with the old saying  – “You think you REALLY know your wife/husband, think again because there’s something new to learn about a person every single day.” Here are a few things I’ve harvested in one year:

• What makes a great home is not the size of its built up, neither is the location but the people that make up the home. I look forward to returning home every day because it’s my safe sanctuary and a well loved place.
• Football isn’t more important than spending time with his wife! I found that out when he’s willing to trade quality time to footie matches on TV!
• Cooking isn’t confine to the female species, in this case the better cook is Terence. The better taster is me! That’s why I’m always on standby to tell him that the dish needs more sauce, more sugar or salt!
• He’s got a huge heart (even bigger than when I first met him) perhaps it grew bigger. His heart beats for things of God, lives at stake – especially for the next generation.
• As for housework, he will gladly do the laundry but never the ironing. Favourite bit is tending to the plants and buying new ones!
• It’s important to have a partner that is willing to work at all situations knowing that the end is better than the beginning. Marriage takes a lot of work and I’m glad he’s a “working” husband.

Ah… my journal will be filled with several pages of thanksgiving and nuggets of well learned lessons. Today is made sweeter by the family and friends that surrounds us.  We love you – ALL!  Thank you for speaking into our lives and making this marriage wholesome. Above all, we have God to praise; He is the threefold cord that binds us together.  This milestone is another testimony of His grace…

Note: The photo was taken a year plus ago just before our wedding in Melbourne. We’d have more photos to show as we had a follow up photo shoot a week ago to mark this anniversary. Stay tuned!

Two months ago Gene asked us if we were willing to jazz up a party for her Vanora who was about to turn 5 at that time. Of course we agreed. Weeks before party, Vanny cornered her mom and with “puppy eyes” requested for a princess theme party. So the Splattered Paint team whipped up our wands and decorated away. It was oodles of fun planning for the party from decorations to craft to games.

We filled the hall with pink, white and red helium balloons with lots of streamers making it a dainty sight. Then sprinkled the place with colour by sticking handcut stars all over. Darren, Vanny’s uncle cooked up storm with choices like macaroni and cheese, cocktail kebabs, grilled chicken and other mouthwatering favourites to chose from.

For two and a half solid hours the children were entertained with an endless supply of food and candy, games, crown making and a magic show. They were rolling with fun and refusing to leave when their parents came to pick them. Here are some photos courtesy of Joshua Chan our ever talented and willing photographer! 

Thanks Gene for giving us the privilege to plan Vanny’s birthday and for being a special part of our lives. It’s amazing how time flies and how faithful God is through every season of our lives.