There is just one thing I need
I don't care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree
I just want You for my own
More than You could ever know
Make my dream come true
All I want for Christmas.. is You
You, Jesus - You
That's the song that sticks in my mind every Christmas season, when preparing stuff for the services, helping out during service itself, and keeping up the aftermath of the services seems to occupy my days from beginning to end. So much so that the general feeling is that there is no "Christmas Mood" until Christmas is actually over! Heh! Standing on the feet for 12 hours a day or more, running multiple times across the length and breadth of Hall 8, doing everything by light-stick light, torch light and candle- light as Hall 8 was plunged into complete darkness. Bulletin making, candle poking (Hahahaha Rachel what a term!), stuffing the candles into bags, bag distribution, goodie bags distribution, cleaning chairs, clearing chairs, moving chairs, scraping the wax "droppings" off the chairs with ice-cream sticks, recycling, frenetically producing a few thousand more bulletins and candles as the attendance for the last service exceeded anyone's expectations.. All these were worth it. Like Meng Ching so aptly wrote, the best Christmas gift is knowing that you have made a difference to someone else's Christmas. No matter how small or menial the task given, it is where God has placed you and enabled you to impact others. Amen!
And so, we HAVE made a difference - to the 45,333 people that came and were blessed by the presence of God in all the services over the weekend. We have stood together with our Pastor and helped his dream and vision of 40,000 people this Christmas come to pass. Indeed God rewards all our faithfulness, hey! =)
I must admire all the leaders and ushers who served willingly and enthusiastically from Friday till Monday. Longest weekend ever, hey? It was obvious that you guys were physically tired by Sunday, but yet you kept the joy of the Lord as your strength and continued to serve humbly and with your best effort and saw the weekend through. I must say, 4S5 guys would definitely have got a good upper body workout this weekend.. with doing Internal Traffic for 3 services (ie moving close to 3000 chairs around the hall.. woo). Yet not once did I hear anyone complaining. Kudos to my great section!
Appreciating all those who gave me gifts this Christmas (i'll try to remember and describe correctly.. Digicam is on the blink!)
- Goong-inspired rich jewel-purple-hued jacket with flower patterns and gold trim, in a faux suede material from Gary
- DKNY watch and Teachers' perpetual calendar from my parents
- Purple (hee! purple!!) clutch with intricate lace designs from Rachel
- Glam oriental-inspired jewel-blue drop earrings from Jingxuan
- Sweet baby blue floral design earrings from Jing
- A multicoloured pencil from Cheewei.. I think it can write in all 7 colours of the rainbow at one shot but 我舍不得 to try
- An extremely cute teddy bear from Natalie (Boy if you guys could see my school desk.. It is overwhelmed with soft toys!)
- A dog with a difference.. The dog comes as a handphone holder! Haha! You have to see it to see how cute it is.. from Sabrina!
- my Stila concealer (yay) from Raine
- Faceshop eyeshadow in a very nice olive green from Jade
- A pair of super-kuniang purple shoes (high heeled, closed-toes, faux suede material with ribbons and crystals) that I love a lot but must think of how to match! Hee! PLUS a diamante-studded gold ring that I once pointed out that I liked but did not have the chance to buy (Thanks for remembering, Juan, Hui Erl, and Beatrice!)
- Oriental-inspired necklace and immense multicoloured glass ring from Roger (with help from Lynn hehe)
- A beautiful Japanese-kimono inspired handphone pouch from Kokon Tozai from Joseph the original prototype
- Glam-queen style gold and silver inlaid mirror from Belinda
- a The Dog 2007 organizer from Meng Ching and Juliana
- a perpetual organzier in non-recognizable-but-still-very-cute -cartoon-patterns, PLUS a butterfly iron-on patch AND a pair of really unique bamboo?rattan?wood? earrings from Meizhen
- two raisin muffins from Charmaine (boy you can bake, girl! Section refreshments confirm 找你了!)
- a box of dark chocolate (yum) coated almonds (yumyum) from Jeffrey the pillar
- A glass angel holding my name, Joy on it (This is bad.. I can't remember who its' from!!!! Tag me please if its you!!! SORRY!!! Update: From Jayme! Thanks!!)
- Chunky black bead bracelets from Judith
- Orange beaded long necklace from someone (OK, also bad, but this is not my fault for not knowing who its from.. it just appeared on my table)
- Another(?) 2007 organizer from Tiffany.. Question mark as I'm not sure if it is or not.. Haven't seen the gift yet
- Some scrapbooky thing from Keqing (also have not seen it yet!)
- a bag from Youmei and Esther.. Will update on the description when it arrives, according to YM its "lost in transit".. Haha!
- Loads of handwritten heartfelt cards from people too numerous to count. Thanks guys!
- Two Ed Hardy teeshirts! From myself! Hehe!
Such a long list.. I am so blessed without even knowing it! woo!
Post Christmas, I am also so very blessed by the "service" of my loved ones. Mother has been cooking up a storm to nourish her exhausted and sick daughter.. Storm includes roast beef, potato salad, mushroom soup, pear and almond soup, konnyaku jelly, chunky vegetable soup, beehoon, macaroni salad.. Teehee! yummy!
Also had a blessing for dinner last night at Pearl River Restaurant at Suntec City, which is very worth it for Chinese banquet-dinner style food! They have an ala-carte buffet concept where you pay a fixed price and you can order as many dishes off their ala-carte menu as you want. The menu is extensive and the food is good. I think we ate our way through close to fifteen courses..
- Steamed fish
- Deep fried fish in sweet and sour sauce
- Broccoli with crab meat
- Spinach with abalone mushrooms
- Fresh shitake mushrooms in oyster sauce
- Buddha jumps over the wall
- Fish maw soup
- Roast pork cold dish
- Chicken in claypot
- Beef cubes fried with celery
- Beijing duck
- 三层肉 (don't know the english translation)
- Drunken prawns
- Oat prawns
- Mango, durian puddings, 龟龄膏, red bean pancake, mango sago etc for dessert.
And we ordered barely 1/5 of the menu! Solid right!! So next time you want to pig out on Chinese food, you can give this place a try. Should go with a large group of people though, cos the dishes come in pretty large portions.
Yumm.. And so we look forwards to the new year of 2007. Time to start thinking, planning, and preparing. Time to (oh no!!!) go back to school. May 2007 be our best year yet!
Update: I got blessed at CG too! A Tangs voucher from my CGL, dearest Xueling, as well a stunning Body Shop Cranberry giftset from Jeffrey and Cindy.
Story of the Body Shop giftset: We did gift exchange this year, and we were supposed to specify a gift we wanted for below $20. I chose a Cranberry lip balm (which costs $8+). So imagine my surprise when I went for cell group thanksgiving yesterday and saw a huge paper bag with my name on it! When I opened it, I saw NOT JUST the Cranberry lip balm, but it also had body butter, shimmer body lotion, and soap! Whee! Apparently when they tried to go and buy the lip balm, they found it was sold out, so decided to get me the whole gift set instead. It must have cost more than 30 bucks! Wow! I am so blessed!
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