But for some unexplainable reason, blogging haven’t come easy lately. There are so many things that I want to say and share with you.

A baby elephant being born at Taronga Zoo makes me happy.

A scrapbook of people being treasured makes me happy.

A daintily decorated room makes me happy.

A delicate flower waving in the wind makes me happy.

Taking all these in every morning at www.google.com/reader makes me brilliantly happy.

A scrumptious fiancé coming home from overseas? That makes me fly into the air happy!

Then, there are things that makes me want to crawl into bed and never see sunlight ever again.

My grandma being 89 years old makes me worried.

People not leaving #JackNeo and his family alone, irks me.

Jack’s wife. Disillusioned, hurt, misplaced, trampled.

Jack’s children, hearing it in school, watching it in the news, and reading it on the internet.

God, strengthen those who’ve been betrayed by their Daddy.

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(Sunrise over Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia by dtra@flickr)

Our God comes; he does not keep silence;
before him is a devouring fire,
around him a mighty tempest.
He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
“Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge!

Now let me put on a red dress to wish you a Happy Lunar New Year!

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You’ll probably dismiss him by saying, “Aiyah, in China, these kinda things happen all the time lah,” and turn the page of the newspaper but this boy may as well have been chained to the lamppost outside your house. His life is precious!

See the red welt on his leg. He doesn’t even have socks to protect him from the wintry chain.

Ouch!

I’m not angry with his Dad for doing so because this Daddy obviously loves his little boy. Just look at this picture of the Daddy’s expression when he picks up his son.

You can’t deny the joy that is shining from his Daddy’s face. You can’t deny the happiness that the little boy is feeling too, to be with his Dad again.

In fact, I think his Dad is a relatively good father because, apparently, people have tried to buy his son but there’s no way this father will sell out his son, even though he is a poor trishaw rider with a garbage collector wife.

Apparently, this Dad had lost his eldest child, a daughter who was kidnapped, which is why he decided to chain and padlock his son when he’s away at work.

I can’t imagine the anguish he’d been through and the brokenness that’s probably still in his heart. Where is his daughter now? Was she kidnapped by a family who really wanted a daughter of their own, or was she kidnapped by sex slave masters?

The relatively good news is that upon the explosion of this news, a kindergarten had offered to take in the boy for free so he doesn’t have to be chained to a lamppost any more, not in spring, not in summer, not in autumn and not in winter, never will he be chained again, for the rest of his life.

May God bless this miracle boy and his family forever. Unchain them from darkness and lead them on the straight and narrow path towards the great purpose God’ve created them for; and take them to their great destiny at God’s side as they discovers the richness and abundance of God’s love.

Originally reported at Daily Mail and ABC News.

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Which did you think of? Indonesia? Philippines? Myanmar? North Korea?

Unless you thought of Uganda, Burkina Faso, Burma, Mali, Guinea, Nepal, Comoros, Madagascar, Tokelau, Mozambique, Rwanda, Togo, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Niger, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Liberia or Burundi, the country that you thought of is wealthier than Haiti in terms of GDP.

Most of us here are not familiar with Haiti, after all it’s on the other side of the world. We may have heard the name before, and may have been fooled to believe that it is a charming and idyllic island just south of Miami, Florida. The truth is, though Haiti is set among the glittering Caribbean islands, life in Haiti was hard. Whatever GDP that God had provided for the people there had been hogged and controlled by a few powerful men while the rest of the Haitians go without. People were so poor that they sold themselves and when they could, they sold their children as well.

Then, an earthquake struck.

Image from Jonycunha@Flickr

The Lord loves Haiti. I know that because recently, God drew our attention to it. God made sure we found out that for too long, His people of Haiti had been sleeping in unsafe houses without food in their stomachs.

Of course there are some of us who are afraid to have our hearts broken, so we close our eyes and shut our ears whenever the news come on about the sufferings there. But those who are courageous, they allowed their eyes to see and their ears to hear and their hearts to be pounded and made tender. So, they fall in love with Haiti and give all that they have to love and help her.

Open your eyes, ears and hearts and move by it. You’ll be amazed by who you become, by the love that you’ll have, by the softness of your new heart.

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While I laughed at his energy and exuberance, I felt sorry for his poor mother who looked worn out. She nodded her go ahead for him to take part in every single activity available and over and over again, then she went ahead to slump herself, exhausted, into a chair. Meanwhile, her son was tiptoeing and craning his neck to see how near he is to the front of the queue and if it’s his turn yet. I could only shake my head. :)

The National Library Board didn’t just host the Asian Children’s Festival so that kids could have fun. The event is to power an incredible purpose and message. On the brochure was written how very few children’s books depict our colourful and unique Asian culture. As a result, our children have little opportunities to see themselves in books. What do you think that results in?

Image from AllPosters.com

It is very common now for girls to colour their hair blond and put on contact lenses that make the Irises of their eyes look blue. Have you ever wondered why it’s not a fashion trend to look like our beautiful Asian selves? Why is it trendy to be blonde instead of brunette? Why is it trendy to have blue eyes instead of warm brown?

Later that week, I had dinner with a friend and she related to me an experience she’d just had – she went shopping with a friend who didn’t colour her hair or her eyes and the salesgirl mistook the lady to be her Filipino maid!

In case you misunderstand, I don’t have anything against colouring eyes and hair. You can be as creative as you like with your hair and eye colour, it can be lots of fun. What I want to say is, I think the Asian look is a beautiful one.

There isn’t any particular viewpoint that I feel a need to air because what needs to be said have been clearly iterated by my leaders whom I trust. I can only reiterate them – that the constitutional right for Malaysians to practice their faith must be upheld, that torching any places of worship is condemnable, and that Allah is an Arabic word which means God.

With these recent attacks, Christians should pray as Christians always should have prayed, and Christians can be thankful that more Malaysian Christians are praying these days.

Should you wish to clear any confusion in your mind on who the Christian Allah is and who He is not, you can read about Him in English, Chinese, Tamil, Malay, and Arabic.

Be warned: the information contained in those links are for non-Muslims only according to the laws of Malaysia (not according to the laws of God).

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Image from The National Geographic

Alvin is the sort of chipmunk who lives in his own world. He’s constantly thinking of his success, his fame, his likes/dislikes, and his talents and gifts. He doesn’t travel deep enough into other people’s shoes to learn their plans, likes, dislikes, talents and gifts. So, he lives pretty much for himself. Often, Alvin doesn’t even follow the rules that had been created to enable as many as possible to live peacefully and reach their goals.

In many ways, I am like Alvin the munk. I squeak whenever I talk and I’m quite the individualist. I like to shop alone so that I can go directly to the shop I had in mind without stopping by 2 or 3 boutiques a long the way, which I would have to do if I had others along.

Alvin learned that his way of living was selfish. I’ve been learning that my way of living limits everyone’s potential for success.

Let me give an example.

Recently,we played a board game where each player’s goal is to build as many forts as possible. You can help others to build their forts so that you co-own it with them, and you can start your own fort to build till completion.

When I was playing, I didn’t take notice of what others were doing. My only goal was to start and build forts without hurting anyone else. I kept observing the board to see where I could establish more forts. By the end of the game, I had a few forts which I had built almost completely on my own. I felt pretty pleased with myself.

However, when Nic was playing, he kept observing what others were doing. Whenever he sees a fort that is likely to be successful, he would help the owner to complete it, which makes him the co-owner of the fort.

By the end of the game, there were many forts that he co-own spread far and wide across the board. He became the largest fort-owner of all. In fact, all of my successful forts? He had become the co-owner of them as well.

Someone will need to start forts, and someone will have to build them till completion so the way I played was not wrong. In fact, I did the necessary tasks. Neither did the way I play hurt anyone, nor did I break any societal rules.

However, the way he played was much more effective and efficient. By taking notice of what others were doing and taking part in their work to help them succeed, everyone gets a spring forward.

This philosophy is so powerful, it’s the reason God had to scatter us!

Image by Derek Purdy @ Flickr

A friend told me that the season when you are about to get married is also the season when you have the highest negotiating power with your future hubby.

Whoah, that is very interesting. I haven’t thought of that before! But come to think of it, my former colleague did draw up a list of non-negotiables before getting married, and her future hubby did agree to abide by every item on the list. After reading, he found that all the items on the list are morally legitimate to demand for, feasibly practical to live by, and even wise to ask for from a bride’s p.o.v.; aaaand that unless he agrees to them, no wedding!

Very very interesting. I’m getting curiouser and curiouser! Lemme ask you, if you were her, what practical items would you put on the list?

Let me think. For me, item number one would be,

NO ADULTERY!!!

Even when I’m fat and frumpy.
Even when I’m wrinkly and naggy.
Even when I’m irritating and not understanding.
Even when I’m bedridden, bedwetting and utterly disgusting!

After all, isn’t that what marriage is for? To have someone to love you and care for you, through every season (because there’ll be times when we’ll have just enough and times when we’ll have too much), even when you’re imperfect (because we all are), in spite of every challenge, until death.

And to have someone to love, care for and hold on to, even when he’s imperfect, through every season, as long as they both shall live. It’s a fair exchange.

Heaven forbid I marry someone who loves me only when I’m young, pretty and perfectly pleased with his every behavior. Life would be too stressful as such a horrid person’s wife!

Again, what about you? What would you put on the list? Tell me…

As I walked through the green green field, all of a sudden, I came upon another patch of wildflowers! A different kind, this time. These were yellow when the earlier ones were white.

Again, my soul was crushed because these flowers are just too… perfect. Too… beautiful.

What does it mean? How can these flowers be?