Life goes on...

Dear Folks,

Although I am thinking of leaving, I must clarify that I will be bringing all my sweet memories and friendships along with me. That means that I will never forget any of my students and colleagues! Your contact numbers and email will never be found in the recycled bin and the practice of inviting you to my place (e.g. for steamboat during CNY) will still stay on and on until the day when you marry and I am invited to your house instead (hopefully, I can share with you some marriage and parenting tips)! I am thankful to God that our paths crossed and for the colours that all of you have added to my life!

Ok, I better not continue in this tone as it sounds as if I am leaving really soon! Still have one more year to go (that's a pretty long time, and who knows, I may just change my mind)... The sec 4 classes will leave earlier than me anyway...

Going for a holiday trip... Chalet at East Coast on thurs to sat... is that considered as a holiday break? Oh well, better than nothing! it's the people and not the place that really counts... (p.s. I am not trying to comfort myself!)

I read this article about discovering the real "you", which I find is so important... no one is more "younique" than you! Read on...

Why am I me?
Why can't I be someone else?
He or she seems so much happier.
Why can't I be them?

No doubt we all have asked ourselves such questions at some point in our lives. Human nature is such that we are never satisfied with anything. And when we start to compare… that's when we begin to crush ourselves under a landslide of self-imposed demands.

A life based on other people's expectations is a futile and exasperating one. No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to live up to everyone's expectations. We should live by our own yardsticks, because we are unique individuals. No two people are made the same. Every one inevitably has their own perceptions about beauty. Only people who haven't reached a level of mature thinking would criticize and judge others by their own standards.

Maturity does not commensurate with age. Sheila G. of Victoria, Australia was merely 15 years old when she wrote this piece…

You're an individual. You're You. What makes You that You is Your smile, Your voice; the way You walk, the way You take everything calmly in Your stride; Your interests, Your love; Your personality and Your features.

No one can take these things away from You. All these combined as one forms a unique and beautiful individual, You. There is no one else in this entire universe that is exactly like You. No matter how much they may look like You, talk like You and have in common with You, the bottom line is that they'll never be You. You can't be replaced.

Another thing is, You can't be someone else. The same things apply, You can look like them and have everything in common with them, but the one thing that will never be is that You will never be them.

We all have a special something that we all treasure deep inside and no one can ever take that away from You, just like we can't take it away from others. No one is exactly the same; we're all different in Mind, Body and Soul.

We're all meant to be. Learn to love Yourself. To do this You have to truly look inside Yourself. Find the center of the whole You and work on it. Build on it. Work on it's potential. Once this is done, then You can look at Yourself in the mirror and honestly say "I can see myself ". This is because when You have worked upon Your inside, what You see of Yourself on the outside becomes what You are on the inside. You'll be able to see the whole You reflected back 100%.

This is what true beauty is: knowing who You are and accepting it. Beauty, I believe, comes from within and this is how it shines through.

Never judge yourself based on the criteria of others. Don't compare yourself with others because everyone has his or her own problems and insecurities, most of which you will probably never know about or be able to understand. But most of all, we should never deceive ourselves to believe that we have the right to condemn or denounce other people simply because they don't correspond to our own ideals.

I will praise You (God), for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. Psalm 139:14

My 3rd Calling...

Big delay in writing this entry as my 2nd calling is not willing to drop the line... on call to write testimonials for some of the Sec 4 students who are applying for DSA and busy preparing for the cluster electronics workshop for the sec 4 from various schools! Thank you all for your encouraging replies to my blog! I appreciate them very much! The "blur" king/queen from my 112'05 class deserves a knock on the head, saying that I did not mention about them when one whole paragraph is all about them!

My 3rd calling, shouldn't be too surprising... It's what I have been mentioning all this while... to be a PAPA!
Hmmm, what do you mean? aren't you a father long ago?
You're right but I want to take one (bold) step further by switching job and helping my wife to homeschool our kids!

That's right! I'm most likely going to quit my job as a teacher next year June (when my bond ends) and embark on something else (maybe set up a tuition centre, a computer shop or online business - still praying about it! you want to give me some ideas?) so that I can have a more flexible control of my time and hopefully spend more time on my wife and 3 kids! I felt that I have neglected them because of my job. It's a big risk, giving up my iron-bowl job and venturing to unfamiliar grounds... I have always been a cautious (or rather timid) person all this while. I felt it's time for me to I take charge of my own life and take the road less travelled...

Home schooling is a big step for me and my wife. What's home schooling? Teaching my kids at home instead of sending them to childcare or kindergarten? Not exactly right. It means teaching them to develop fine motor skills, good attention span, curiosity for things and most importantly, good habits and God! Not so much about giving them worksheets and forcing them to study...We hope to let them play meaningfully and expose them to as many things as possible... Hopefully, we can bring them to travel around the world... We believe in experiential learning... learning comes from real experience, not textbooks and TYS... something that I unfortunately cannot do with my students because of time constraint, examination syllabus and my inadequacy in general knowledge. We decided not to take the easy way out: send them to a childcare centre or kindergarten to let the teachers do their "usual" stuff. My wife, in particular, don't like the ways some things are done or taught: e.g. teaching kids to draw... How do we do it? guide them by their hands and teach them how to draw things in a certain way? NO! It's about letting the kids explore by themselves and asking them to describe about their drawings! It's not the "what" they are drawing that is the most important! It's actually the "how"! Children should be given the freedom to express their creativity! We are often so into the system that we only know how to give model answers from others! Like what I told some of you, don't train yourself to be photocopiers! Be creative, be thinkers, be unique, be yourself! No one will compete with you on that! Life is what you make of it! Stand out by first standing still and letting the dust of the running crowd settle down so that you can have a clear view ahead and run at your own pace and in your own way...

Turning Weakness into Strength!

Sometimes our biggest weakness can become our biggest strength. Take, for example, the story of one 10-year-old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.

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The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn't understand why, after three months of training themaster had taught him only one move."Sensei," the boy finally said, "Shouldn't I be learning more moves?" "This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you'll everneed to know," the sensei replied. Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.

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Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For awhile, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened."No," the sensei insisted, "Let him continue."Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boyhad won the match and the tournament. He was the champion.

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On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind."Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?""You won for two reasons," the sensei answered. "First, you've almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grap your left arm."The boy's biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.
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Sometimes we go through periods in our life when we succumb to problems or weaknesses without putting up much of a fight. These problems just overwhelm us and burden us. But what would our life be like if we could master our weaknesses and turn them into our strengths. What if we could turn the least of ourselves into the most of ourselves? Today, take time to reflect on your weaknesses.... don't sulk about them but learn to accept them... take little steps of improvements and praise yourself when there is progress. Even if you fail, don't give up! try again...it's free! But most importantly, the answer to our weaknesses, as plain as it maybe, is in prayer, something myself, and I'm sure many others don't do enough of. Imagine the possibilities if we prayed just once a day to overcome our weakness and translate it to a strength. His grace is sufficient for me, His strength is made perfect in my weakness (2 Cor 12:9).

My 2nd Calling...

There are 3 callings that I have answered so far in my life: 1st calling to be a Christian, 2nd calling to be a teacher, 3rd calling to be ... (wait for the next entry!)

Being a teacher is a really challenging job, especially for teachers with young children. If you do not receive a calling to take up this meaningful job, you will definitely quit after 3 years (we have a bond with MOE). I came in hoping to make an impact to my students (to love them as my own, to fire them up with passion for life and learning) but up to today, I personally felt that I have not being doing my job well and it is my students who are making the impact in my life...

To mention about my workload would makes this an endless entry so I will spare you the misery... but to paint you the picture, let me just mention that a teacher is not just teaching & marking alone... a teacher is also a debt collector (where's your HW?), a nanny (must be able to know you well so that your parents will know how you are doing), a nagger cum beggar (Please study for your tests! Please study! Please stop slacking! I lost count how many times I have said that!), a clerk (we spent most of our time clearing paperwork and admin stuff), an entertainer (we have to engage our students in learning - fail quite badly in this area), a CEO (handling a CCA [people + activities] is no joke!), a project manager (we have many ad-hoc & major projects e.g. Tablet PC), a writer (notes + worksheets + tests), a disciplinarian (tuck in your shirts, pull up your socks (literally & figuratively)) and many more... In a single word, an octopus!

A typical day for me: wake up at about 6 am. Reach school at about 7 am. Teach, mark, photocopy, check email, do paperwork, prepare for lessons and before you know it, it's 2pm! Continue with meetings, CCA, marking, preparing lessons, etc until about 5 pm. Fetch Christian from his childcare, play with the kids, eat dinner, wash up, story time, make them sleep and it's 10 pm. Continue to prepare for tomorrow and school related work etc and it's 1 am. My record still holds at not sleeping a wink just to finish preparing notes for lessons! You never guessed that some of the notes my students are receiving are products of sleepless nights...

Now the enjoyable and memorable part of it:

I missed the time that I had with my form class (303'04). We had steamboat in school for CNY, had plenty of birthday celebrations, showing them photos in class, went to the Sec 3 camp together, met up with each one individually to talk about things, tried to reduce the tension & stress in the class, comforted a few crying souls, gave advice to a couple or two, telling them that I want to be invited to their weddings, saying farewell to Melinda, inviting them for my baby's first month, receiving cards and gifts for teachers' day, receiving a jar of stars with an individual message to encourage me (I have not finished opening all yet), giving sweets to encourage them for exams and tests, celebrating the last day of school... this year I drifted further away from them because of my workload, just saying hi and byes... becoming strangers at times... trying my best to still celebrate their birthdays but my heart is aching to know that things are not the same anymore... I really miss the good old days...

God is merciful to comfort me with the time I am having with my new form class (112'05). They are adorable and bright kids to begin with, childish at times (many times) but yet sensible at the right time (not always though), came to my place (together with some of the 403 students) for CNY celebrations, showed them photos and videos of my family like never before, chatted and emailed quite often with them, pestered me with their problematic TPCs (virus, lockout, dropout, gaming, wireless etc), having a class blog, birthday celebrations, supporting each another when some of them are down with health problems...

My hope is still to be close to both my form classes, given the constraint of my workload and my commitment at home. Once a papa, always a papa...

My other classes are also very dear to me.

Three classes brought me to tears (and laughter) during these two years of my service as a teacher:

406'03, the havoc class during my time as a contract teacher. Was upset that they were not interested in studying at all...

304'04, the rojak class with people of contrasting personalities... Was upset that they were not united as a class and not motivated to study...

405'05, the artistic (virtual + performing) class with people of lovely personalities... Was upset that they are not serious about studying and they are not performing to their fullest potential... Most worried for this class... please don't disappoint me again, can?

Other classes who brought me laughter and "worries":

110'05, the jovial class with a great sense of humour! I love the energy and zeal that they display: they need to channel it to their studies!

408'05, the mini class who loves to play: the best, the worst, the neatest, the messiest in Physics are all here... they are actually a brilliant bunch of teens who had their priorities in the wrong place... start your engine and soar...

In summary, I love you all for the fun, frustrations, worries, laughter, disappointments & encouragements that you brought to my life...

My Earlier Days until Now...

I was born on 02/12/1976 at some unknown hospital in Kuantan, Malaysia. From my childhood photos, I remembered living in a kampung house when I was a toddler before coming over to Singapore at about 4 years old. I come from a poor family. My parents borrowed money in order to come here to provide me with better education. We rented and lived in a single room near Newton Circus (Hooper Rd) when I was in primary school (I was in Monk's Hill Pri until it closed down when I was in P5 b'cos the student population was too low to continue. I was then posted to Swiss Cottage). My parents were both working so I was taken care of by a nanny, whose shophouse is located near the current Tanglin Mall. I spent most of my time (when I was in lower Pri) catching spiders, hiding in discarded boxes, cycling to Botanical Gardens and feeding the swans and turtles.

When the shophouse was torn down to make way for a shopping mall, I followed my mom to work at Lucky Plaza. I spent most of my time standing at the video games shop playing Nintendo (still remember playing Super Mario, Zelda & Street Fighter). I just stood there for hours everyday without moving, my eyes totally glued to the TV screen. I studied reasonably hard for PSLE (while I was still addicted to video games) and managed to scored 3 As and 1 A*.

When I reached Sec 1, my parents decided to make me a latch-key child. That means coming home everyday to an empty house and with no one to bother about me. I don't blame my parents for "dumping" me at home b'cos I know that they are working hard to provide for me... I was lonely initially but I managed to know a couple of boys in the neighbourhood and I picked up soccer, computer games, Karate, skateboarding, basketball and also some undesirable things like gambling, stealing, vandalism and having gang fights (I was smart or coward enough to run away most of the time!). I was pressurised by my "friends" to smoke as well but they never succeeded b'cos I hated the smell of it! I was quite rotten to the core during my secondary school times, rebelling against my parents, arguing back and holding onto the cane when my mom tried to cane me. I usually go out most of the time and only return home at the wee hours. It was a good scolding and caning and when my mom started crying that I woke up and I started studying for my 'O' Levels (please don't be like me!). With whatever time left, I managed to obtain 14 points and got into the science stream in SAJC.

That was where the turning point in my life happened. I was in triple science for the first three months but I decided to switch to double maths & double sciences b’cos my brain just refuse to allocate any hard-disk space to store all the details… I dropped Chemistry after a few months b’cos the chemical equations were not reacting in my brain… You may think that I am someone who gives up too easily. Well, you may choose to believe that but I believe in studying at what I can manage. Anyway, that’s not the main point! The turning point in my life came at the end of JC1, just before my final year exams! A few days before we sat for our first paper, I received a phone call from my classmate at night, telling me that one of our classmates committed suicide! That really shocked me! I was still playing Chinese chess with him that morning and he was looking so normal. He jumped from a HDB block near to his girlfriend’s place. He left a letter and I later realized that she dumped him for another boy. I thought it was too impulsive of him and my class was quite angry with his girlfriend for causing his death. However, I later felt sorry for her and find her most pitiful as she has to spend the rest of her life trying hard to take away the guilt of causing his death. His death started to make me think about life and how saddening death can be! It reminded me of an incident in Sec 2 when I cried and asked my mom what will happen when we die. She did not give me any answers then and that made me fear death tremendously. When our class stepped into the examination hall to take our first paper for JC1 promos, we saw, to our surprise, a marshmallow sweet and a pass-it-on card on each of our desks. What surprised me the most was the fact that the gesture of encouragement was actually from our fiercest teacher (Ms Kok, who teached me Maths).

The card had this message: God, grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change and the grace to change what I can. That was what inspired me to give out sweets to my students during exams and what set me thinking whether God has the answer to my fear of death… I was asked by one of my friends to church during that Dec holidays and I accepted Jesus Christ to be my saviour when I realized that death is inevitable but I am promised of a wonderful place with God if I choose to believe that He has died on the cross, on my behalf, for my sins. About 6 months later, I was baptized (without the permission of my parents – they scolded me but gave in when they noted a change in me). From a rebellious brat in Sec school, I started to realize the sorrows and hurt that my parents had to bear when I frustrated them during my Sec school life and how I have taken all the things that they have provided for granted.

To cut this long story short (thanks for your patience if you have read until this far), I worked very hard during my U days, completed my bachelor in electrical and electronics engineering and managed to obtain a scholarship to study Masters in NTU. When I finally graduated from my Masters, I did not manage to get a job in the Biomedical field as the economy was bad (the area that I researched on). My wife (who was training in NIE at that time) encouraged me to go into teaching but I told her that it was the last thing that I would do. Anyway, after searching aimlessly for a job for about 6 months, I was granted the special permission to be freed from my bond (of finding a job in an R&D company) and my feeling for teaching began to grow after attending a career talk. Finally, after confirming with God that it is His will that I should go into teaching, I did contract teaching at NHSS for half a year (I taught some of the current Sec 4 and just graduated Sec 4) before going into NIE. Afterwards, I was posted back again to NHSS… Well, that’s a summary of my life story. My entries are rather disorganized, going back and forth in time but it doesn’t really matter, right? Even Star Wars movies are like this…

Honeymoon - Germany (Married couples)

The couple on the left is from Romania, the couple in the middle is from Germany, the couple on the right is from Singapore! They are all brothers and sisters in Christ whom we met at a church camp in Stuggart, Germany! Language was no barrier when Christ is our Saviour! Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethen to dwell together in unity! Psalm 133

Honeymoon - Zurich (At the top of Mt. Titlis)

It's awesome to be at the top of this mountain (10,000 feet or 3020 m above sea level)! The clouds are below you... I'm outta this world!

Honeymoon - Venice (Near the far end of the city)

You need to go through a street maze in order to get here... The site was breath-taking... Notice the gondola beside us? Reminds me of the Cornetto Ice Cream ad years ago...

Honeymoon - Florence (Along a bridge)

Notice the nice scenery at the back? The river acts almost like a real mirror!

Honeymoon - Paris (Along the sideways)

Notice the "botak" trees at the back? It's winter time in Paris! Love is in the air...

Honeymoon - Paris (Lourve Museum)

The place where mona lisa is kept...

Honeymoon - London (Westminister Abbey)

It's somewhere near the Big Ben (A famous tower clock)

Honeymoon - London (London Museum)

It's has quite a big collection of historical artifacts (especially from Egypt and Babylon)

My Little Superstar @ Cultural Potpourri VI

For the first time, I had the chance to bring Christian out alone for a formal event. I could not bring my two other angels along as they are too young to be admitted. My dear wife has graciously agreed to take over (as usual). We were almost late, leaving the house at 7:10 pm as Christian refused to wear the attire initially. He only started beaming with a bright smile when we told him that he had to put on a tie. That got him all excited, saying goodbye to everyone as we left the home and started asking curiously whether all the other children (referring to the students of NHSS) have bathed, dressed up and are all ready to watch the show. Praying that we will not be late, we managed to reach there on the dot, after passing many green traffic lights along the way. Some of my students called, saying that we were getting late and they were all seated inside the hall already.

When we step into the hall, we were greeted by screams and shouts from my students from 1/10, asking who is Christian and saying how adorable he is! This continued as we proceeded to our seats with friendly hellos and shouts of "So cute!!" echoing along the way from 1/12. Things manage to calm down as the lights goes off and the show began with the performance from the band. We (Christian and me) loved the pieces played by the band, especially those pieces taken from Ma Ma Mia. My wife and I went for the musical and we bought a music CD of it, playing it in the car occasionally.

The drama was funny and yet thought-provoking, with an unexpected ending that sent me laughing away. However, explaining it to Christian was no joke as he bombarded me with the "why" questions: Why did the aunty died? Why is jia-jia so sad? Why is this? Why is that? I managed to answer him fairly well for this drama but when the second drama came on, I was almost speechless in providing any explanations! I don't fully understand the drama, let alone explaining it to Christian in the simplest manner. Luckily, he did not keep asking, probably because he is confused by it as well!

The dance performances were brilliant, although the first item was repeated from CCA extravaganza. Christian enjoyed the first item very much as he loves to tumble himself and he was fascinated especially with the last part when they stack on top of each other! I was busy looking out for my students, feeling very proud of them!

The er-hu solo was also splendid, although it gets a bit squeaky at times! K.L was telling me that M.S actually likes the soloist very much!

When the break interval came on, we were literally swamped by Christian's instant die-hard fans! The gals, especially, were trying so hard to gain his attention! He was so overwhelmed that he hugged onto me real tight and just refused to come down. Luckily, the toilet was nearby and we managed to find an excuse to escape into the toilet!

The choir was also music to my ears, with very nice blend of songs!

The finale dance item Oai x 3, was very well co-coordinated and yet funny! Christian and I were both awed by it! They must have trained very hard!When we came out of the hall to make our way home, Christian's "fans" continued to “stalk” him! When we decided to take some photos, phone cameras started popping up and snapping away! I felt at that instant, like the bodyguard of a “superstar”! Excuse me, my “client” needs to rest, please meet up with him again some other times. Sayonara! We made a final stop at the entrance before departing happily to our car. At last, privacy and simplicity of life came back again! It’s back to me and my son!

My Last Child, Ariel Chow

She was born on 28/07/04, the same day as her cousin, Natasha. Her birth was not as smooth as the first two. My wife's placenta came lower than Ariel's head and she was not growing well in the womb. She had to be delivered by cesarean earlier than expected (her expected due birth was actually National Day!). For the first time in my life again, I get to witness the birth of life in a totally different manner. My wife chose to be awake during her operation (she wanted to be awake to see the baby the moment she is delivered! Very brave of her!) while I chose to support my wife by being present in the operation theater to witness the whole delivery! For the first time, I see my wife being "sliced open" and hands digging into her body to reach for the baby. After a short game of hide and seek, Ariel's head finally immersed! My wife was feeling terrible then. I can see that she was suffering as her face turned pale and she looked as if she is going to depart from me. I prayed hard that she will be able to feel better and that the baby can be out quickly. Within the next minute, Ariel was fully out of her womb! The placenta followed and they did another round of operation on my wife (it's called ligation - factory shut-down - my sincere thank you to my wife for our wonderful productions). We decided to stop at 3 so that we have just the right quantity to provide the best quality care and concern for our kids.

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We named her Ariel because it comes naturally after Ekklesia. Remember Ekklesia stands for the church, a group of people called out for God? Well, Ariel is another Hebrew name for Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a very special city in the eyes of God. It is a city where God has chosen to place His name and where He has chosen to dwell with His people. Although there is a present Jerusalem in Israel today, the Jerusalem that I am referring to is the future and glorious city which is mentioned in the last book of the Bible: Revelation. This city is where God's people will dwell forever. It is THE place where "happily ever after" really takes place! We named her after this city to remind ourselves of the hope that we have as Christians!

Tell you a secret: If what I believe is not true (meaning if Jesus Christ, the son of God, did not come into this world to die for my sins (no one is perfect, right?) and resurrect (made alive after He died) again, then what I believe is but a big prank that I played on myself. However, if what I believe is true (which no one is able to disprove till today, I'm serious), then you have been fooled (by the Devil) to live on in life without God and you will be heading towards a place where you will live "unhappily ever after" (aka Hell or Lake of fire). To avoid that, simply believe what God has done for us and start living! Getting a bit preachy but what I am saying here is sincerely from the bottom of my heart!

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Back to Ariel my daughter. She is a very quiet and easy baby. She literally slept most of the time during the first few months after birth. In fact, she is sleeping so much that we began to be worried, thinking something is wrong with her. A check with the doctor revealed that she is just a sleepy little girl who wants to grow and grow. Do you know that you will grow more if you sleep more? Until now, she is a very quiet baby who sometimes can be so quiet that she does not even cry out for milk when she is hungry. We are a little worried for her as she is developing a bit slower than her cousin who is born on the same day. Her cousin can now eat a handful of rice while she can hardly eat one grain of rice!

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Oh well, although she seem slower in other areas as well (like her hair is not growing fast and she is often mistaken as a boy), we are still very happy and proud of her for who she is. A quote from the movie, Robots, express how we feel: She shines no matter what she is made of! I am a proud father of 3 very adorable kids (undeniably true, right?) and I hope that they will all grow up happily and passionate about life! I don't expect them to be scholars (unless they choose to) but I hope that they are able to pursue their dreams and challenge themselves to fulfill them one day!

My First Daughter, Ekklesia Chow

She was born on 14/05/03. When she was still a foetus in her mummy's womb, my wife came down with a virus that can be deadly to the foetus. We prayed hard that the virus will not spread to her in the womb and thankfully, my wife managed to recover without endangering her life. We named her Ekklesia because of the vision that we received from God. Many a times, we often treat God as a vending machine, asking Him for favours and help when we are in trouble. Seldom do we ask God to tell us what He wants from us... What!? O.o Does God need anything at all? Isn't He the creator of all things? What can we give Him? o.O Well, God owns everything in this universe except for the freewill (the freedom to choose) in us. He actually long for a group of people who is willing to love Him and live their lives for Him. That is exactly what Ekklesia stands for: it is the Greek word for "church", which means the assembly of those who are called out from this world to live for God! Church actually refers to a group of Christians and not the building! Bet you don't know, right?

She started off as a very quiet baby. We thought she is going to be easy to handle. As days go by, she started to make more noise and soon it grew louder and louder and LOUDER! She is now a "chilli-padi" who likes to do things her own way and can be very stubborn! She looks harmless and adorable when things are going her way but if you snatch anything from her and if you don't let her do things her way, she will ROAR and literally bite you (Christian has many of her teeth marks)! She is very close to her mummy and sticks to her like super-glue. In fact, my wife can't even go to the toilet peaceably as Ekklesia will come banging at the door, crying for Mummy when my wife goes out of sight! She is reasonably close to me (saying hello and smiling at me when I reach home - my heart melts when she kisses me occasionally on her own). Whenever she is dancing or doing something funny, she will always call for my attention. I hope to reduce her stickiness to my wife but have so far failed to do so. I have tried volunteering myself to pad her to sleep at night but she always refuses me with a strong NO! I WANT MUMMY!

Having a daughter is really a totally different experience! The heart of this woman (mini-size) is hard to fathom or maybe I am a block of wood (as usual)!

My Firstborn, Christian Chow

He was born on 10/10/01. The labour was long and tiring for my wife. We were worried as my wife has epilepsy and we were afraid that she may have relapse half way. Thank God, she managed to pull through the labour smoothly after about 15 hours of labour! For the first time, I have the chance to witness the birth of life. Blood was flowing, tears were streaming and finally, he was crying!

We named him Christian because we wanted to remind ourselves about what we believe in. Not a religion that follows a set of dos and don'ts but a loving relationship with a true and living God! My son has often reminded me to pray and we have often experienced God's providence and help many incidents... in stopping the rain so that we can go for an outing,in finding a carpark slot in a crowded place,in recovering from sickness, in opening the door with another key when my son accidentally locked himself in the toilet, in thanking God for the milk powder, diapers, clothings, food & toys, in finding the strength to go on day by day without losing heart! He also exposed me of my weaknesses... my lack of patience when he refuse to listen, my lack of love when he do something that irritates me, my lack of knowledge to provide answers to all his "why" questions. He is pretty artistic as he loves to draw and paint. To date, I think he has drawn about 30 over drawings on his own. He just loves animals: when he draws, most of them are animals, when he plays play-doh, he makes animals, when he play lego, he makes animals, when he play imaginary games, he pretends to be an animal (usually lion), when he select TV programmes and VCDs, what thrills him the most are documentaries of animals. I am not surprise if he wants to be a zookeeper in future! He is also a music lover who often sings and dance to a great variety of songs that we expose him to. Who knows, I may one day be sending him to the school I am teaching (famous for performing arts) so that he can develop his talents. Right now, we are considering of sending him to NAFA kindergarten to get a head start!

Becoming a father is easy but being a good father is not! With my "L" plate on, I am slowly (snail-speed) learning and hopefully maturing to become a good steward of this wonderful gift (every child is a gift not a burden) that God has given to me!

How it all started...

What is your idea about God? If you think that He is an old man who is out-of-date, seated in heaven and oblivious of what is going on here on Earth, then you are terribly wrong! He brought me and my wife together through modern technology: EMAIL!

Dec 1996: I mass-mailed to a couple of people from my church to share about how I experienced in my exams and Faith (my wife) was the only one who did not reply. I tried again hoping to know why and she replied that she did not know how to respond to the mail as I sounded too spiritual! We started off from there, sharing about our experiences and over time, it became our daily routine to email each other. Even though we see each other in church every weekend, we did not talk to each other as we are both too shy to do it face to face.

I developed a liking for her gradually because we realised that we are of the same frequency and we can be very frank with each other. I started hinting it to her subtly by signing off differently: From "In His Love, Daniel" to "In His Love and Mine, Daniel". I think she got the hint but she acted as if nothing happened.

Finally, on 8th May 1997, I could not take it anymore and wrote her a letter to honestly express my feelings. She read it and shyly agreed to a meal @ Mac. We talked and she verbally agreed to be my stead! Being very inexperienced and blur as usual, I walked her to the bus stop and see her go up the bus by herself! I did not accompany her all the way home! (She later told me that I was really like a block of wood!).

We went through quite some difficulties in the beginning as I was one year younger and her parents are not very supportive of that. We prayed hard and our perseverance finally paid off eventually when her parents got to know me better. We went on for about 2 and a half years before tying the knots on 9 Dec 2000.

We had a simple wedding (no wedding album - we both don't like taking photos, no wedding dinner - managed to persuade my dad especially when I am the only son, no fancy car - borrowed a white Toyota corolla car with Precious Moments dolls in front, no fancy suit/wedding gown - She designed her gown and tailored made it for $70). We just had ROM and a church wedding reception.

We saved all the money to go backpacking in Europe for honeymoon. It was one of the most enjoyable moments of our life! We went to

London (watched 2 musicals (Les Miserables & La Cava), celebrated New Year there by watching a musical concert on TV, bought my Fossil watch which I wear and love up to today),

Paris (went to the top of Eiffel tower, ate Quickie fastfood (we loved it - cheap and nice), avoided plenty of dog faeces on the streets, took the Metro train, bought some dresses for our future daughters),

Florence (saw the statue of David by Michelangelo and plenty of artistic stuff, loved their houses),

Pisa (A side trip from Florence by train to visit the leaning tower. ate the best pizzas along the way)

Venice (almost got lost in this water city, it's not as romantic as we thought but we still enjoy its scenery),

Zurich (we almost got robbed (someone rocked our doors violently in the middle of the night)while taking the night train to this beautiful city in Switzerland, luckily we tied our doors tightly with ropes - Thank God that idea worked! we stayed at the church meeting hall and was warmly welcomed by a Swiss family, went to Mt. Titlis (not sure of the spelling) which was spectacular from above),

Stuggart (The Swiss family drove us to this part of Germany for a church camp. We really touched God and enjoyed our fellowship with the Christians there),

Paris (We went back to this city and stayed with a French sister-in-Christ who treated us very well. For the first time, Faith stepped on the dog faeces and I did my part as her husband to clean it off for her),

London (We finally came back to this city to catch one more musical (Whisper down the Wind) before heading back to Singapore!)

Coming soon will be the honeymoon photos...