In Surabaya

haha finally got a chance to use a computer. I'm blogging from Surabaya nowXD. Helped alot of people, more than 800! The trip has been VERY enriching so far. Can't wait to get home and post more about it. Gotta go now.

Missions Surabaya

I'm blogging from inside Changi Airport lol. In any case, I'm going on my first mission trip to Surabaya. It is with my mother and her friend's church group and It's basically a medical mission and we will be helping out at a clinic to medicate the people in the rural area. It is a dangerous place and the persecution is very likely, so dear brothers and sister, please pray for me. That we may serve God well and that many people will be saved, physically and spiritually. Well I think my plane's going to leave me if I take any longer, so until next time. I'll come back with lots of pics.

Shepherd of my soul...

This song truly encapsulates the meaning of God being our Shepherd I love it. This is where I drew inspiration for my name AGS.thx pinoy4you!

Time of testimony

Last Thursday, the PM guys went to Ben's house for an outing. To start of, we watched "Bruce Almighty" but the point of the outing came much later. Oh yeah not forgetting the pop-corn incident, sorry Ben, I'll buy your mom a new pot! In any case at around 6pm I asked the guys to share their testimonies about their past, how they met Christ and how Christ changed them. This was the higlight of the outing. A lot of dark pasts were uncovered and laid in the open, a lot of dirty secrets were told. Of course I'm not gonna mention any of them here but I realized something while this was going on. None of us had a very happy childhood and what more, many of us went through nearly the same secrets and mistakes! I really do not think this is by coincidence. I believe that many of the things that a guy in the concrete jungle has to face is not faced by him alone. I could really identify with my friend's experiences and I'm sure they could also identify with each other.

Then I wondered "How could anyone ever use the term 'You Think You Understand Me? You Think You Know What I'm Going Through? Well You Don't!'" It sounds like a cheesy line from a chinese soap opera but many people still think this way. Indeed no one can understand another person fully, only God can do that, but ironically, how could a person not understand someone when he is going through nearly the same thing? When a friend seeks to counsel or comfort you next time, try to listten to him/her and correcting some points first before blowing your friend off.

Every person living in the same place has to wade through the same pile of crap.

Brastagi/Lake Toba/Medan Trip

Woohoo! I had a trip back to my home town recently. It's amazing how much more you see of it once you've grown up. Thank God it didn't rain the ENTIRE week I was there! Here is my fuzzy recollection of the series of events...

Day1: Arrived in Medan International Airport. It turns out that I would be staying in a villa that belonged to my relative. It also turns out that my relative owns a huge farm and is a major vegetable exporter to Singapore, Japan, etc! When I arrived at the villa my jaw dropped. It was HUGE. The Living room, or maybe I should call it the lounge?The SECOND Living RoomThey have 3 dining tables, THREE!This is just one of the FIVE bedrooms there.

It's great to have rich relatives, but I'm content with my small condominium haha, did I mention they have also have a large backyard full of different types of orange trees? I didn't take a full view of the garden but I took a picture of the orange tree.

This is the view from their backyard, their BACKYARD!!! Imagine getting up everymorning seeing this!!!!!

Moving on, we went to the soon to be Pearl of Lake Toba Resort which will be completed end of next year(I think). anyways, eventho it's not completed yet, you can see how great it will be already. Here are a few snapshots of the place

The lamppost is NOT why I took this picture!! me and my brother The Cafe there

Chilling out. The two women at the front are my mom' friends. The woman in black and whte stripes is my mom.

There are other facilities, some still being built, such as golf course, farm, etc. Btw, here are some interesting facts about Lake Toba: 1 It is large enough to hold 3 Singapores. 2 There's even an Island in the middle of the Lake.

Day2: We went to Brastagi which is a mountain near Lake Toba. Uncle Rio(the relative in whose villa I'm staying, He's not as old as his name would suggest) kindly brought us to his farm. Usually it would be strictly off limits but since we're relatives, he's giving us a special privilege, yay! He even let us pick some of his fruits and veges, yum! Btw Uncle Rio has SEVERAL farms these are pictures not just from one of them.Cucumbers! We got to harvest some of the cucumber, wash and eat directly! They were soo sweeet:D Citrus! Tomatoes!
Paprika!Me Picking the Paprika Shades of my shirt! The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few indoorOutdoor
They have an interesting technique to reduce usage of pesticides on crops in the farm. They will grow bright flowers such as the marigolds above along side the hothouses. Apparently, pests will be more attracted to the flowers and stay on them rather than the crops. The flowers are then sprayed with pesticide to kill the pests. Thus the crops need less pesticide Aww...Ain't it cute and the next moment it's DEAD MUAHAHAHA!!! Just kidding:DSeedlings Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

When we got back for dinner in the villa IT WAS GREAT! The freshly harvested vegetables were quickly cooked and they were soooooo different from the veges we have here. For once in my life there were more vegetables than meat served on the table, and I enjoyed it more!!!
Day3: Okay so we have seen where the vegetables are planted, but where are they processed and packaged? Well that is what I found out on this day. Uncle Rio brought us to the packaging site. Here is where YOUR vegetables are picked for qualityBusy at workWhere your veges come inProcessed

Then packaged in these. Workers are required to pass through this water gate to ensure hygieneThis is where water from the factory is disposed. The water has to pass through 3 pools before disposed into outside. To ensure that the water is clean before disposal, they breed fishes in the third pond.

That's Uncle Rio explaining everything to us(I bet he's younger than you expected haha)

After that we went to a famous fruit market in Brastagi. I've been here before long, long ago when I was a wee child, ahh good times. It's so different how much more I see, now that I'm 15 though the market itself has not changed abit.
But what surprises me the most in Brastagi is the number of churches there! Nearly every kilometer we traveled had churches. Granted these churches are quite small and aren't as fanciful as the ones we have in Singapore. Later I learnt that long ago the Batak people(inhabitants of Brastagi) were canibals. Missionary after missionary came to give them the gospel, many of them ended up on the dinner table(assuming they HAD tables) but one day, the Batak people aactually sat down and listened to the message of the persistent missionaries. That was when God did his work in the Batak people's lives and changed them to be what they are now. YES that IS a church I know that some of these shots are not very good but give me some credit! I took it from inside a moving car!

Oh yeah one last Highlight off the trip was going to a restaurant at the edge of the Lake and have some scrumptious fish. We had fried goldfish! Not the chubby little goldfishes you find in aquariums but the more slender ones that somewhat resemble a koi. We got to see them catch the fish, beat it, scale it, slice it and gut it, All while the fish was alive!(actually it was already half dead) Wohoo! NC16 action! haha. It was goooooooooooood but I don't think you can get any tour guide to bring you here, it is a restaurant only locals would know. I was to busy watching the fishes get battered to take any pictures so sorry.

Day4-6

We left Brastagi and returned to my hometown! Medan! I missed it sooooooooooooooo much. The good thing about Medan is that no matter how long you've been away, you can still find everything nearly the same. All your favourite eateries you went to when you were a child. It's so great. Original Christian CDs are also waaaaaaay cheaper than in Singapore. One could cost about 50000Rp-75000Rp. 6000Rp is S$1 you do the math and yes they ARE ORIGINAL. I even got too see my old house!!! Too bad I couldn't enter, someone else is living there now. It's soooooooooo nostalgic. I can't believe someoneelse is now sleeping in my room... Well that's all for now the trip was very enriching and so nostalgic. I love my hometown no matter how bad some people may picture it to be.

Mum's Cuisine:D

YAY! I dun like to boast but my mom's cooking is just the best:D Yesterday she served us prawn and mango salad and chicken pastrami. Actually, she substituted the original ingredients. The two dishes were christmas meals and were supposed to be lobster and mango salad and turkey pastrami, but whatever. As long as they taste good I dun bother.

ARHH!!! my aunt's arm is in this picture! Anyways it's quite obvious that this is the prawn & mango saladThe Chicken Pastrami (dun ask me what pastrami is, I dun hav a clue)

mouthwatering:D? haha food cooked(properly) at home is food at it's best. I thank God for such a wonderful mom as mine:D