No Matter How Tough Life Is

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No matter how tough life is
Your grace has proved all sufficient
I will trust You
Just let me sit at Your feet
I'll choose the best You have for me
I will love You

O Holy Spirit You are welcomed
To heal and do Your mighty work
You are the reason that I worship
I offer up my life to You

Lord, You're my shepherd, my King
You leadeth me and I am blessed
You're my portion
In You I trust all my life
Teach me Your ways and I shall walk
I will prosper

O Lord Your Name is great and awesome
There's none like You on earth or heaven
You will lead me to my victory
No matter how tough life is

 
If you have conquered Mount Everest, you will not fear climbing any other mountains. If you have tasted the sufficiency of the grace of God, there is nothing in this life that God cannot do for you.

I came to this conviction after many dangers and toils, and God has proven again and again that He is strong. He sure has a good track record. He is the creator of the universe, and He is also the One who knows  you and me by name. Indeed  He already knew us and loved us even before we were born !

The only response I need to have is to sit down and listen to Him and be at rest. Tell Him how much you love Him, and He will show you your next step. Be at rest, my friend; no matter how tough life is..... He who is the great I AM will teach you how to be an overcomer and lead you to your breakthrough moment.

Happy Parenthood

Prior to Mother's Day and Father's Day, my 2 kids will be hiding in their room with papers,colour pencils and whatever they can lay their hands on to create cards for us. As both do not get any allowances, so buying gifts is not an option for them. It's amazing how fast they have grown.

I can still remember vividly the day they were born. Philip says "You (Doreen) look the happiest after the birth of our kids."

Indeed those are incredibly special moments for me.

Being parents require a large dose of wisdom from God. To bring up our kids in the way of God is not always easy. Usually we find ourselves going against the current of the world. Often times our kids cannot fully comprehend why other people's kids are allowed to say or do certain things but they are forbidden to do so. We always pray that the Holy Spirit will teach them and show them in His time why following the way of God is always the best. It takes a lot of time and effort to impart godly principles to our kids which is why we try to spend as much time as possible with them. Building a strong relationship with our kids is an important factor for us. They are a heritage from God and we intend to be the best we can be in raising them. We are not perfect so we have made our fair share of mistakes. One thing though...we endeavour to learn.

Heather is 12 this year. Carol my sis always reminds me ,"She (Heather), looks up to you a lot and your approval is valuable to her". I try to remember that she's looking at me as a role model. Philip says she's beginning to be more like me in my mannerisms. On the other hand, she has inherited great musical talent from Philip and as her mom I am seeking God's plan for her life so that she can truly blossom.


Jordan at 7 is a bundle of energy. Loves sports, food and is the artist of the family. We believe one day God will use him to design something for he is a creative guy with an eye for detail.
I thank God for my kids & the privilege to be their mom. Enjoy Mother's Day & Father's Day. Be blessed and don't forget to bless your parents too.

I Love You Lord

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I love you Lord
You fill my heart with joy and peace
I praise You Lord
You have made my life anew
I thank you Lord
For your good and perfect gifts for me
I worship you for what you have done for me
Every tear that I have shed
Every trouble I have met
You were there and held me by Your side
You have set me free from fear
I am safe under Your wings
You will fight for me and we are more than conquerors

It is my pleasure to share with you this song. I wrote this song after walking through a very difficult season of my life. It was a season of great pain and fear, but the good news is... God came through for me ! He was my help and my Saviour, my very help in times of need. He carried me through the darkest of nights. He held me tightly when I was about to fall.

I finally understood what God's love for me is all about. I am forever grateful for His love for me. Now I worship Him not for the sake of worshipping Him, but for who He is. We need to understand that our God deserves all our worship, not because He has done this or that. He is our Creator, our healer, our protector, our provider, our hope, our Saviour, our Master, our King. He is our everything. Yes, He is my everything. Amen.

The Heart of Worship

Some time ago, I had an opportunity to go to a very remote village to visit the villagers. It was a very fruitful outing for 7 of us - myself, Pastor Daniel, Alex, Jonathan, Jimmy, Shirley and our youngest member of the team, Nathan. The intention of our visit was to bless these villagers, to encourage them in the Lord and to get to know them better. After driving for about 3 hours, we finally reached the area where this village was located, but we had to park our 4 wheel-drives a few kilometers away from the village as road for cars and bikes ended there. Then we changed our mode of transport to another type of 4 wheel-drive (see pix) and that was the beginning of our adventure.



Nathan and his "4 wheel-drive".

It felt like a never ending ride on the "rail". With Jonathan and I sharing one "coach" and holding frantically onto just anything and at the same time trying hard not to lose our balance we proceeded with our adventurous journey. We had two strong village men paddling with bamboo poles. During the anxious roller coaster journey, we passed through dry land and swampy-muddy areas. We finally arrived at the village in one piece 30 minutes later.... all soggy and wet. All my bones were rattling after the whole episode. But WOW what an exciting experience !!!

Dinner with Pastor Jubang's family.







We had a wonderful meeting that night. We shared God's Word with the villagers and prayed for the sick. We saw how their faces lit up after the prayers as God touched them.

The next morning, being Sunday, we worshipped God in their hut-like church. Their church was a stark contrast to our church in Kuching. Despite a total lack of grandeur , the worship was filled with a heart-felt passion for God.

I love worshipping God and I enjoyed the atmosphere as God moved in our midst. During the worship time, I saw people lifting up their hands to God, enjoying His presence. It was as if they were standing beneath a waterfall, with the water pouring down all over them...soaking them with His presence. The sweetness of God's presence was all over their faces ! We shared with them the goodness of God and how we can live as children of light. I also shared with them about how God had helped me and delivered me from difficult situations in my life. I could sense that the people here desired more of God in their lives. They have simple faith in God and they simply trust God. That's what faith is supposed to be.

Shirley teaching Sunday School. We need child-like faith to come to God.


I came to realize that as we fill our lives with so much entertainment and the latest gadgets , we could easily lose sight of more important things in life. We could end up worshipping things instead of God. People would worship celebrities, money, sports, careers, hobbies, cars, houses, blogs etc....and musicians like me have a tendency to worship the music ! Let's go back to the basics. Let's ask God to lead us back to Him, worship Him and Him alone. Make no mistake to whom you should worship. The heart of worship is Jesus. When we intentionally make worship a lifestyle , we will never lose sight of the way our lives should go.

We traveled 3 hours with the intention to bless these wonderful people here, but instead were blessed tremendously with an eye-opening worship experience! Wow, isn't that great !!

Mommy's Birthday

Recently we celebrated Mommy's birthday at Orchid Garden, Holiday Inn. We had a delicious BBQ buffet.



Aunty Ling Huey, Aunty Maria and Aunty Wendy wanted to be famous. So this is their first appearance on our blog. Don't they look glamorous ? They celebrated mommy's birthday at Bangkok Thai Restaurant.


This is the third birthday celebration for mommy. It was a combined birthday luncheon for mommy and Aunty Jackie, organized by Kung Kung and Mama. We all helped to blow out the candles.

Be Inspired

I write music regularly. When inspiration comes, I have to write it down before it is gone. Whenever possible, I like to share my songs with my students in order to inspire them to love music and hopefully to love God.

Some time ago, during a piano lesson with a teenage student, something wonderful happened. After finishing all his exam music pieces and requirements, out of his curiosity he asked me about how to compose music. Knowing that he is a Christian, I felt it was very good for him to be exposed to the songs God wants to put in his heart. I began with some basic theoretical rules about composing, then we decided to have lyrics first before music (it could be the other way round, I prefer music first). To get some ready-made lyrics, we began by opening a Psalm from the Bible. As we read the words repetitively, I showed him how the melody could flow out from the words. Despite his earnest attention to my demonstration, he still looked quite puzzled initially, but he promised me to give it a try after the lesson.

I did not think about that lesson until about 2 weeks later when the mother of this fine young man came to me after the church service to thank me for her son's new found ability in composing songs. She was amazed that now her son spends time on the piano, composing and singing Psalms to God. Wow ! That was amazing! I was pleasantly surprised as well.

It looks like we all have the potential to make music, don't we? (Don't worry, I will not ask you to take up music lesson...) Making music is a God given gift. As you hum and whistle around the house, you can actually release a lot of stress and at the same time send cheerful tunes to people around you!

But honestly, I think the lesson I learned from all these is all of us can come up with something beautiful; if we are sensitive enough. When you feel a prompting to say a kind word, or lend a helping hand, or take time to be a listener, or simply just spend time with your love ones, you can be a blessing to someone today.

As we learn how to connect to God by having a close relationship with God in our daily lives, we will never run out of inspiration to do good.

Be inspired, my friends.

Simple Things in Life

Have you ever wondered what would happen if it doesn't rain for 2 weeks? Well, nothing much will change I guess, we will still carry on our lives comfortably, enjoying food and water supply as usual. This morning as I pondered about how comfortable city life has become, my memory flew back to 17 years ago, a time when I had to survive alone in a jungle with no water and no electricity for a year. I was a teacher back then, teaching in a tiny school with only 3 teachers and about 40 kids in a jungle in Simunjan. This is a picture taken recently when I re-visited the school. I am glad to know that there are electric and water supplies in the area now.

Back then in 1991, the place was inaccessible by car or bike, only by foot on a 45 minute journey. During my stay there, I stayed alone most of the time as other teachers usually left the school together with the kids to nearby villages and long houses after school hours. I learned how to grow my vegetables, cooked my own meals and slept at 7pm every night, yes, 7pm! Doing anything after 7 is literally burning midnight oil. (Oil was expensive in the jungle). By the way, my cello sounded divine in the middle of the night when I could not sleep. Anyone interested in learning cello ??
The school building with 3 classrooms and a small office.





During one "midsummers night" when the draught season was at its peak, I started to wonder when would the rain come. By the 2nd week, my water tank in the school quarters was running very low, and the river nearby where I used to bathe everyday (now you know where the term "Mandi Kerbau" comes from, it's from ME!!!) was already dried up, the thought of no water to survive became a real threat. My stress level shot up from worry to panic, even though nobody from the 2 long houses nearby (that is 45 minutes away by foot and mountain climbing) seemed to be bothered by the weather. For the first time in my life, I prayed for rain just to survive. God please send rain, please ! I need rain ! I need water !

I endured the waiting, until almost at the end of the 2nd week, I remembered it was a Thursday night, when the heavens finally opened, and the rain came.
It just kept pouring for more than an hour. This was the sweetest rain I have ever tasted in my life. Nothing feels better than an answered prayer. I was jumping up and down as if money was dropping from the sky (like what you see in movies). But nobody could share the joy with me that night as I was alone out in the rain forest. (Doreen was not in the picture yet, Tarzan was still searching high and low for his Jane. True love waits !) But the rain was such a joy and relief.

I have many interesting stories to tell Heather and Jordan and my future grandchildren about the "Philip Crusoe". The best of all is about how our God answers prayers, no matter how unimportant others may think your problems are, God cares a lot about YOU, and what you are going through. He understands. He is the creator of Heaven and earth, nothing is too big for Him. Yes, nothing.

As I share my life with you in this blog, I pray that you'll come to know God more intimately, accept Him as your Savior. He is not a God so far away, He meets you where you are even out there in the jungle ! He is a God who can pour out the rain of blessings into your lives and give you a hope and a future. Be thankful for simple things in life ..... the rain, sunshine and people around you. Smile, God loves you.