Saturday, December 31, 2005
2005 in Review
Wow.. after logging into Blogger i just realised that my last post was over 3 months ago... hehehe I must apologise for not blogging.. too caught up in work / playing / slacking that I had no motivation to blog! =P
Anyways it's the end of another year.. what has 2005 been to me?
If I can sum up my year in a phrase, the phrase for 2005 would be "
Great Change".
Why I say so? Here's my year in retrospect:
- Dec 04 - Jan 05
I left Brisbane: the student life, university studies, the 'freedom' so to speak, road trips, house slacking, Brisbane City Church, the aussie friends, the international friends... I left all those after studying for a year and came back to Singapore. Of course with all changes, there are positive and negative aspects, but I knew I was supposed to be back... So with it came re-adjustments back to Elim Church, to the Singaporean way of life, to the Singaporean way of speaking, to the family and family values, to the company of loved ones here.
I served in my church's music and youth ministries not long after my return, and the youth had our first-ever youth concert complete with rocking guitars (inc my then new Epiphone Les Paul Standard Cherry Red), stage lightings, an attempt with the dry ice machine, and an improvised drum shield with egg trays (it's still in use!!) , and wireless mic-ing equipment... which is probably the church's first ever full-blown youth contemporary concert using all available resources in the hall! We're ever pushing the boundaries!
- Jan - Feb 05
Celebrated MAD's first year anniversary and finally being able to spend time together physically rather than over Skype, MSN and long distance phone calls... Started sending out resumes after CNY... after slacking for over 2 months...
- March 05
I started work at Inphosoft Pte Ltd (sidenote: the website is in the midst of updating, so its extremely outdated... *shrug*) after landing it on my first interview, thus migrating myself from a professional slacker to a professional programmer analyst... Managed to FINALLY catch a Planetshakers conference live in Singapore!
- July 05
I accepted and my pastor approved the move to God@Work to help out in their worship ministry. So it was back to basics from serving in a 600-strong congregation to one of just 40-50. But yet through serving faithfully wherever I was, I still think that I learnt more from the church than what I was giving to them... I served there on Sundays while I still served and spent time with the youth during the Youth Services on Fridays.
- September - October 05
I bought my new toy... the Line6 PODxt Live guitar effects pedal! This really was a dream man.. to have my own effects... hard to believe that for almost 3 years I was playing electric guitar on a borrowed guitar and borrowed effects...
And then I had the opportunity after a very long while to play with the Edge band from VFC for the J21 Prayer Concert at COOS... it was a real fun time worshipping God together with our music!
- November 2005
God@Work organised and managed the Hearts Set Free Seminar with Rev. Judy Taber at COOS together with the help of many other churches that contributed greatly to the event. It was a real blessing for me personally because I really was touched by her and she reiterated and refreshed my purpose and calling... it was a gentle reminder of where God wants me to go...
- December 2005
After 4 long years, I was finally able to go for Elim Church's annual family camp! MAD went to Malacca, Renaissance Hotel for the church camp and again we were really blessed! God again reiterated and renewed my vision... and because of it I can believe Him so much more that indeed He's going to do it! I'm excited really for the years ahead.
Yes this is a long post, but you can't expect a whole year's worth of events to be a short story now would you? With 2005 being a year of great change, I believe 2006 will be a year of new beginnings again for me... new experiences and new challenges await as I pray to move forward in my call... and trying not to step into the ditches / drains / longkangs / canals that
WILL come along my way... Lord guide my steps for the year ahead I pray...
To my dear, thanks for being there and for making the year more enjoyable! Love you!
PS: Happy birthday to me... happy birthday to me... Thanks for all the well-wishes and gifts!
~~derek~~ at 12/31/2005 11:59:00 pm
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