Ask for a Rainbow

I asked God for a rainbow on Saturday and it has been raining for the past 3 days.  Really loving the the rain, making the best out of it.

This morning, with the right shoes, wrapped in a jacket along with the shade of my umbrella, I walked in the rain, enjoying each step I took.

  

Reminded me of times when I was a child, mummy would take us out when it rains, in our wellies and raincoat we would happily splash the puddles of water on the ground, giggling and having the best time in the 'worse' weather for many.  

I guess it really taught us a valuable lesson: to make the best out of the situation present before us, to enjoy every single bit of it until the sun comes out.

The existence of rain gives me hope, it tells me God's promises is on its way really soon, just gotta enjoy every bit of the process along the way even if it meant having a broken sandal from walking in the rain too much (which it happened to me yesterday), or getting drenched.

Cos at the end of it all, the rain gave us a some chilly wind in this hot hot country, it washed down some dirt and it watered the wild grass and flowers making them beautiful again.

Think of a fun activity to do in this rain, I don't know? maybe play in the rain with the one you love, get drenched together and laugh it off, take a warm bubble bath(together if married, alone if you've yet to be!), curl up on the couch wrapped in thick quilts and enjoy a hot chocolate together while watching your favorite movie again :)

May this season give you hope instead of the conventional feeling it places in all the others.

Letters to Myself, 31 Jan

Dearest Mel,

You're getting stronger, you're really growing and learning to trust and for that you deserve to smile more.

Stay this way, don't give up on God, He never will He never does.

What you did yesterday was really brave, the old melissa would never have done so.  You know you're on the right track now for a future God has planned for you, so don't sway, don't stray..

His love never fails, it never fails..He is the hope of all hearts :)

Fill your void with His love and trust that if He brought you to this day, He has his purpose. Stand aside for Him to work through you.

This year will be a year of promotions and multiplications, don't allow anything or anyone to rob that away from you! Whatever that you're facing now will take you to a higher dimension.

Press on Mel, you're a woman of great tenacity as what Li Ping says you to be, breakthroughs are on its way, its coming soon.  Keep your eyes focused on the upward calling of God.

 

Love always,

Melissa (yourself)

Letters to Myself

Dear Melissa,

I've decided to write you letters so that you can see and know that I've loved you very much, for your joys are mine, your sorrows are mine, we share the same things in the same heart. What better way for someone who knows exactly who you are to be by your side encouraging you.

At this moment in life, things maybe blurry, unsorted but just like the haze that hits our city every once in a while, we go through discomfort but you know it'll never last.

So be strong, you've gone through worse, and you can go through another of life's hard knocks. I know you too well, that you'll never stay low for too long, so give yourself sometime to heal, know that God is always around, He has never left you, He will always be by your side.

I want you to remember the promises of God He has in your life, the big ones and the little ones, the newest ones and the oldest ones, He came through for you many times, this time He will too if you just let Him.

Remember your worse breakup? remember when you sang with all your heart "even when the mountains tremble and a thousand fall, I will stand with You, my Jesus take my all"  won't you do just that again this time, won't you tell HIM to take your all again?

Trust me, or at least trust God that He will come through for you again, not now, maybe not anytime soon that you'll see the breakthrough, but trust HIM, He is doing a good work in your life now.

Perhaps this was all necessary so that you wouldn't take SOT for granted, after all you enroll in so that you could give your all to God, to be closer to Him, what better time it is that you can get closer to God earlier.

Babe, your honeymoon starts with God today, if you would just cast all your cares upon Him. For your heart to be healed, He has to have all the broken pieces first.

What you say you make a trade with God, for all your cares in exchange for a wonderful life experience this year, a year of breakthrough and restoration? sounds like a really great trade isn't it?

Be strong, have an ever thankful heart, always praise Him, you know our God never fails..

In as much as it pains HIM now to see you hurt, but you know He has to allow such things to happen only because He wants what's best for you. 

So be of good courage, so be a good servant, so serve HIM like you never did before, so consecrate your life to HIM, love HIM, entrust your fears your cares upon HIM and see that whatever the devil meant for harm, He would turn it to good.

His ways, not yours, His life, never yours. Know that He has already made plans for your life, so let go now even if it hurts so much, let God.

Please take good care of yourself, eat even if you don't want to, cry if you want to but don't over do it, grieve if you have to just not too long dear..a month more to SOT, please prepare your heart for an expectancy towards God and what He can do for your life, for your family..

Don't be so hard on yourself. You know that God loves you, and I love you too.

Love always,

Melissa (yourself)

Value of a Cracked Pot

A water bearer in India had two large pots hanging at the ends of a pole that he carried across his neck. One of the pots was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house. The other pot had a crack in it, and by the time it reached its destination, it was only half full. Every day for two years the water bearer delivered only one and one-half pots of water to the master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments—perfect to the end for which it was made. The poor little cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfections and miserable that it could accomplish only half of what it had been designed to do. After two years of what the imperfect pot perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer and said, "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."

"Why?" asked the bearer, "What are you ashamed of?"

"Well, for these past two years, I have been able to deliver only half a load of water each day because this crack in my side allows water to leak out all the way back to the master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all this work without getting the full value of your efforts," the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path." Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot noticed the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because half of its load had leaked out once again.

Then the bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path and not on the other pot's side? That's because I've always known about your flaw and took advantage of it by planting flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day as we walked back from the stream, you watered those seeds, and for two years I have picked these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just what you are, he would not have had this beauty to grace his house." 

(adapted from Dr Joyce Meyer's Articles)

Outta my flaws and imperfection, I hope it managed to plant some flowers along the way.

Encouragements

I've been telling people that I don't exactly have close friends maybe friends friends yes, but not those super close kind?

But, I just wanna really thank each one of you for being here with me, random church mates that hasn't exactly spoke much before leaving messages in my FB inbox, chatting with me on FB , DirectMessaging me on Twitter and dropping me text messages telling me to press on.  Through all your gestures I feel really blessed and thankful to know I'm never alone :)

 

A little stronger today, small progress is always progress, I'll get by placing my trust in HIM.

Just wanna head home, get down on my knees turn on some worship songs and be lifted away.

Was just looking through our past FB inbox conversations, and boy did I not notice the amount of spam on clothes and blogshop :s hadn't realized it since forever.  But of cos there were some that left me smiling cos of the funny replies we had.. 

But most of all, one of the post greatly encouraged me. Okay I'll skip the "i love you parts and all", even so the other words feels like they're still in season...

"Dearest Darling,

I'm not writing to nag.

Tonight there flowed a river.

A river down my left cheek.

I prayed, I cried out to God, I pleaded, i begged.

I went on my knees.

You have probably never seen me so sheepish or desperate.

And God reminded me, of what Dr Niko said in svc today.

John 10:10 - That the thief always comes to steal kill and destroy.

How many times, that whenever we stepped out of our comfort zone to do more and serve more in the K.O.G and we get attacked either directly or indirectly?

How many times, when we catch the fire from heaven and our passion ignite for the K.O.G and the devil has to do something to distract us from our realigned purpose?

I'm not attributing my failures and my weakness all to the devil.

But seriously!? Think about it... there was totally no prob when we're just shaking legs watching tv and not being a contributor to the K.O.G.

Believe it or not darling, we are meant to live for so much more.

We are gonna make great great impacts in the lives of our members and friends.

We are doing so already.

But mark my words, if we are faithful and we press in, if we do not allow things like that to distract us... 2010 will really really really be a year of breakthrough for the both of us, as a couple and individually.

It's 2010, new sem , new ministry, new goals, new time table for us.

We'll have to readjust.

In our own QT, we really really really really need to pray for each other and our own lives.

Lets really treasure the time we have with each other and not put a second to waste.

And lets us both be more gracious and kind hearted to each other shall we?

Sometimes its really tiring in out own lives, especially after a long day after work or school.

So lets go easy on each other alright? And not get agitated so easily.

We've been through so much.

Despite our hardships, we started in Christ.

We are strong. We do not give up. We do not quit.

We do not allow fear or division to break our spirit.

Pls we must fight on.

Sometimes we can't stop the devil from attacking us, but we can always pray for God to strengthen us to go through it.

We can always pray for it to turn into a stepping stone to go further.

Darling, I love you, and i cannot do without you.

At least remember that if you even decide not to read any of this.

Lets not give up, not even a quarter to the enemy.

I hope to hear from you soon. Please.

You bumbum forever,

Mcking. " February 1, 2010 at 2:06am

 

So we I needa pray like never before.  New level, new devil, its time to not let my guards down.

Tonight, I'll send in my SOT application, and the devil will not be able to do anything about it, things that can be taken away from me has already been taken, nothing worse can come against me cos' I'm on God's army now.

For You Alone

I know its time to update this space, I thought hard if i should just say:

"This space will not be updated until the tide changes, until the world spins again"

But time and tide waits for no man, I've been in my 'winter' far too long that my dry bones hurts.. Its time to get up from the cold hard floor and pick up the pieces of my life, of my heart, time to make a connection with the one who loves me regardless, that is my Jesus, my Lord.

Alex and I have walked miles and miles together, but for now we just need to slow down, meanwhile find ourselves in God again.  T'was a hard decision any of us could make, probably an unlikely couple that you'll see walking down this path.  We'll be on a one month breather, friends asked what can they do to help me, all I asked is our mutual friends can just say a little prayer for us, cos' there's nothing else men can do but to wait on the Lord.

My heart fought so hard to change that facebook statues, it was thumping mad loudly that my surrounding sound faded to only focusing on my heart beating.  Pulled through the rest of the 5 hours at work after the news was broke out to me by running to the toilet occasionally to cry out those pain.  Headed home, sat down on my couch crying out to God.  Was tough, but I don't know what to do if there wasn't God in my life.

Got reminded of Job, his entire life was robbed away but yet he choose to praise God. (In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. Job 1:22)

In 2010, I decided that I'll be going to SOT'11.

In that very same year:

I lost a close friendship, not that the three of us are not talking anymore, things weren't the same.  But I'm thanking God for bring us closer again recently.

My family started going through a rough patch, my parents are separated, things are still not looking too well, a divorce is on its way..Things just got worse last night too and its turning ugly.

The entire year I felt stagnant in my walk with God, in my ministry, I was constantly disappointed and demoralized.

And now, my relationship has took a toil as well.

But in HIM, i place my trust.

I won't understand why or what He is doing, but all I can do is wait and trust that He has a reason and a plan for all this.

Knelled down in my prayer closet last night to worship and a song came to me,

You are the peace that guards my heart,

My help in times of need.

You are the hope that leads me on,

And brings me to my knees.

For there I find You waiting,

For there I'll find release.

So with all my heart I'll worship,

And unto You i'll sing

For You alone deserve all glory

For You alone deserve all praise

Father we worship and adore You

Father we long to see Your face.

A peace that surpasses all understanding covered me.

I pray, you'll have the peace with you too, I pray you'll be fine, I pray that through this period of time you'll stay strong.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  

God, once again I commit my life and all persecutions into your hands, keep us safe, heal our hearts, take away all the hurt and bitterness. Restore to us the joy we have in You, restore our broken hearts, fill us with Your love. We love You.

went back to take a look at lovesacollaboration , a blog I started out for us, the same struggles we had in the beginning of last year.. I pray we'll get through it all again.

Question? Question..

Had my tumblr blog with me since October 2009, I thought I remembered having a Formspring page..
Turns out to be it's just an "ask" function.. ._. 

blur or blur..

Got me a formspring account after the Hoohaa has died down,  hahaas... I'm just leaving it there on my sidebar for any future entertainments and amusements.

FORMSPRING ME, ASK AWAY! :)

Earlier in the day (Thursday).....

*Grins*

In the evening.....

Conversations with BeeBoo at the badminton court:
M: "bee what time did the property agent say he was coming to show us around the houses?"
A: *stare blankly* ????? what?
M: "yaa..we're meeting the agent to hunt for our home now"
A: "ohh yes yes..my wife so smart la, arrange at 7pm when we'll only take half an hour from Punggol"
Hahah, love making up non-existence event conversations with him, he plays along pretty well.

Took a trip down to my uncle's aussie bistro cafe - Stevo's Salad 'n' Such once again to get a fix on my roast chicken and salad..


Now serving Aussie and NZ beer, the outdoor area is sucha great place to chillax, with the breeze and the fairy lights (I have a soft spot for fairy lights ♥ ♥)..
I'll keep coming back for more of their Salad..always fresh always tasty! Never fails.

You don't wanna miss out on their roast chicken and Chilli Mussels!  If Mac n cheese is the way to go for you, then you'll have to try theirs cos' it is light; even mumsie who have no tolerance for cheese took a coupla a spoonful of it the first time when we were there.

New menu on the way too, more pasta and a butter rice that will get tastier as you chomp on it; Dorcas, Alex and I were given a portion of it to render our feedback, and it'll defo' be good selling.

Drop by Stevo at 

215R upper thomson road 574349

6554 0636

Opening Hours Tue-Sun 11am-10pm (Till 12midnight for this week)

*Call for table reservations for the outdoor area if you're going in a large group.

 Or just get Dor, Alex or me along with you cos' we've got Privilege cards!

That's pretty much how I spent my Thursday evening :)  Thanks Dor and Alex for the lovely dinner. 

Hope everyone else's was dainty..

CNY too Hyped Up

Just when we ushered in the New Year and Christmas spirit was still all around, the shops and malls quickly transformed into a frenzy of red accompanied with loud festive songs to prepare for the coming Chinese New Year..

Seriously? Can't y'all wait for a little while more before "painting the town red", its the ANG BAO RED that no one would exactly touch again until the next CNY..

Even the clothes are not spared!! Wanted to get my CNY outfits earlier but the boutiques are already a step ahead of me...arggghh..

I'm frantically browsing every blogshop in my bookmarks, looking at fashion webs to draw some inspiration..

Speaking of which, when will H&M be opening its doors here? Early or Late 2011?

Was having quite of a fun mixing & matching their clothes on the web

I'm naming her Hippie too Hot, haha makes no sense, who cares? I styled her, your opinion is invalid.

Even if I had to wear red or orange, I'd wear it like how I styled the model in H&M's fashion studio.  Then again she can pull it off so well cos' she is thin and well above five feet...

Click H&M Fashion Studio to unleash your inner stylist within ;)

Start from choosing your model - female/male 4 different models each to pick from.

Click "Clear" at the bottom of the model

See a whole range of clothes from tops to shoes and accessories on the right to mix and match from.

Style your model in your own liking, choose your model/set

And Presto! Yours truly, H&M dressing inspiration!

The 2nd one that I did, something I'd wear if Alex brings me out on a date night to Clarke Quay or some chillout pub.

Throw on a pair of flats and I'm ready to hit town in the afternoon, casual yet not too under-dressed.

H&M can you start operating here already?

....Back to being on a race with time to get all my outfits! Helpppp...

Comment and recommend some of the blogshops you frequent!

See You in Six Months!

1st week of the new year and I'm already feeling good that 2011 will be the best year yet!

Getting all excited to oil my rusty engines as I wrote down my resolutions and prayer list for things I wish to see taking place. Its like a surge of confidence burst within me that this year I'll be able to strike each point off as I accomplish them.

One of which is to get started on my driving lessons! have been dragging it for the longest time ever. Found and confirmed an instructor within 2 hours, so so excited that this Saturday will be my first time behind the wheel! Whee, No more procrastination!  hope I wont stall the vehicle that much though :s

*Best of all the instructor speaks relatively good English, no additional stress as compared to a Chinese speaking one..heheh got exactly what I needed! Strike one!

Soo anyhowss, this post is meant to be dedicated to The Brends.

my all time favorite couple to be around with, they've been there through our ups and downs, and I'm always thankful for a friendship like no other.

Brendan really hated this photo, but you'll see, its always the unusual photos that brings back the best memories. Hahaha

Tomorrow's the day when Brendan will fly off to the states, but very quickly 6 months will pass, don't forget the gifts and encouragement cards Alex and I have prepared for you ;) they shall be your "Perk-me-ups"

Brenda reading the cards in advance. The first card starts from "on your 1st week in UB" to "Its Your Graduation!"

Instant local delights and a Singapore Favorites when you think of home :))

Aloe Lip Smacker for the Vanity in him.

Had a really good dinner and chill out session in Holland V, it was a dinner for my Belated birthday-the couples date night-Christmas dinner-New years dinner-Brendan's farewell all in one.  

When you're back in June we'll have to make up for all the other festive dinners we missed alright!

Headed to Amici, The Brends had some promo, eat in and get a bottle of wine free.

The food standard were kinda alright I guess, nothing really fantastic, except for the Eggplant in Cheese and tomato based sauce(picture 1)...Ooo that was the yummiest starter!

They stock up their ingredients periodically so acoupla things on the menu wasn't available, which put quite a frown to my brows.  They didn't have their recommended dish, Vongole, so I changed my orders to squid ink pasta and again they didn't have the cod fish that was supposed to come with the dish, but made it up by replacing it with prawns instead, which was kind of a BooBoo to me.

The Extra long mozzarella that could go on forever.

 The pizza and tomato based dishes weren't too bad. 

Bee turned Gothic

NOOoo I didn't drink from it duhs, it was a fun shot

Erm bee..do you really wanna do the twist in photos next time?

Till then, See you in Six months time Brend!  Have fun, study hard, go explore NYC, get us some souvenir too! Stay outta trouble in UB, skype us, go crazy missing Brenda and and and, take loadsa photos, make us envious hokay!  Dont you worry bout Brenda, we'll be taking good care of her  ;)

And Brenda, we know it won't be easy for the first few weeks, but holla at us and we'll come to you wherever. We'll hang out, have tea in cafes, go shopping, catch the latest show or anything like that ya.

Have a safe one!