as i walk from earth into eternity

Wanted to share something that I learnt in bible study training on Tuesday, that I found really interesting. We were learning about how to study the Bible more effectively, and one of the ways is to examine the culture of those times in the Bible to better understand the context of a passage or verse. During the time when Jesus was on earth, it was normal for people to go to toilets which were probably just a bush, and do their business. Then they would wash with water by themselves, not wipe because they didn’t have toilet paper. So that was a bit of a hassle. So the slaves thought of a way to make money, where they put a wet sponge at the end of a stick, sit behind everyone, and wipe for everybody. They would dip the sponge into water and wipe it. So obviously there was a problem of it being not hygienic because they were using the same sponge to wipe for everybody, because sponges were expensive, and people started getting sick and stuff. So then they put the sponge vinegar instead which helps kill bacteria and make it more hygienic. You probably already see where I am going.

When Jesus was on the cross, about to die, he said he was thirsty, and a roman guard dipped a sponge into vinegar and used a stick to feed Jesus. I always wondered (I guess never to a very curious extent cause I never bothered to find out) why the guards who mocked him all the way, tortured and hit him, would even bother to answer Jesus’ request for water. That was a little too nice. Well, they weren’t being nice. They took what people used to wipe others’ behind and put it to Jesus’ mouth. That was a total mockery of Jesus.

So yeah. Well, i am almost done with my orientation with Disney, i hope i can officially start work (or training) soon, should start by monday. Missed out on evangelism on wednesday because of orientation, they went to a mall. But i signed up for mercy ministry on saturday morning, where if there's opportunity groups of about 20 people will go and serve the community. I am not sure where we are going, i can't remember.

For social night on wednesday, we had a hoedown. So everyone dressed up really southern, played games, had baking and chilly cookout contest and danced to country music. I am going to the disney water park later, i don't know why but for water park we only get free entry until end of this week.

Thank you for praying for me. I feel like this is a great opportunity if anything, for me to grow deeper in my walk with Christ. So whatever comes, i am not gonna waste the chance to grow in my relationship with Jesus, and just build relationships with God's people, and serve in whatever way i can. I do miss home, and am excited that i can experience this but at the same time be able to go home not long after. Only thing i am not looking forward to is the heat at home. It is hot here, but it's just not as burning and sweaty like back in Malaysia (though the americans would beg to differ haha) and the whole room is air conditioned 24/7. My roommate said to go about in jeans and sweatshirts during the last week here to get used to the heat haha

Kau yang terindah, di dalam hidup ini

Woohoo!! It's been awhile.. haven't had time to go and get internet. So i had my orientation at disney and it's called traditions. Basically, we sit in a classroom from 8am- 5pm and they teach us about disney history and tell us how to be happy as disney workers, and how we must always keep the magic alive. The goal is to create happiness with entertainment for people of all ages. It wasn't as boring as i thought it would be. Halfway we spent about an hour going to magic kingdom (one of the disney parks, the most famous one) finding examples of work ethics. It was hot, but i saw the cinderella castle for the first time, it looked amazing! it was like seeing something on tv come to life!

They gave out little disney figurines if you participate in class. I got mickey and minnie. Mickey mouse came halfway to our class for about 5 minutes, and he handed me one figurine when i answered a question, and he hugged me. Everything was complete. Kidding haha. But it was pretty cool. We got out ID, meaning this whole summer we can go into any of the disney parks for free! So obviously we wanted to go immediately. the 11 of us went back, took a short nap and went to Magic Kingdom at 7.30pm. Let's just say it was GREAT!! I really felt like a kid, and i had so much fun! We took only about 3 rides, cause it closes at 11. We went on the space mountain, which was like a roller coaster in the dark. It was fun, but i kinda felt a little scared halfway cause it was so dark and you're just rolling about, i kept telling myself maurice is in front, maurice is in front haha. If you would talk to my sister hannah, you would know just how much i am afraid of wild rides.

Then we went for speedway which after space mountain was kinda mild, just driving a bit. Then we watched the fireworks display over the castle which shows every night. It was a.ma.zing. Just like in those disney cartoons, when at the end there's fireworks. It was for more than like 5 minutes, i tried to video, but in the end i just watched it and savoured it. It really really was beautiful, and i figure expensive too. Then we went for a final ride, just about 10 minutes before they closed, the splash mountain, and we all got wet but it was really good. After a whole day of traditions, we were beat. So we headed back, but got a little glimpse of the parade which runs every night too. It was great.

The official schedule started yesterday, we have this slot on Wednesday afternoons where we go out to public places to evangelise, but what sucks is this week I got orientation on Wednesday, usually we have no work but this week we gotta go for orientation. I was really looking forward to it. Oh well. We went to River of Life church, the whole project go to 3 different churches. We go with our teams. It was quite the same as back home.

I’ve been learning a new method of studying verses from the Bible, and I find it pretty thorough and effective. Been having a good time getting in the word each day.

I fried egg for the first time today. I wanted to make a normal sunny side up egg, but it failed so I just scrambled it but it came out weird too haha. Apparently you need oil to fry your egg, yeah I just fried it like that. Oh well, good first time =p Okay, that’s it for today. Don’t wanna have information overload right. Be back!

i close my eyes and i see your face

Hello! If you’re wondering why I’m so free to update my blog, it’s cause I haven’t started my work yet. I start on Saturday. Yesterday, the 11 of us who are going to work at Disney (great opportunity, cause there are 100+ students and all the others work at seaworld and universal studios which is just as cool la) went to Downtown Disney for a work interview where we basically just filled forms and got told where we’re working in Disney. I haven’t got it all worked out yet, but what I know is Disneyworld has parks all over Orlando, not just one specific place. Downtown Disney is like a place where people can go in for free to walk and buy Disney stuff, and we went to the casting office, that’s what it’s called. That place itself is so cool! Everything has a Disney feel to it. And we even got this Disney folder with all our booklets and pamphlets about the job.

We’re divided into 3 groups, with each having a group leader with a car. We all work with food. My group works at Everything Pop, don’t ask me what is it, I just know it has something to do with Pop Century. Apparently we serve food that is classier than hamburgers and fries. We don’t get free food though, but there is gonna be a staff cafeteria or we can pack food. The other 2 groups work at All Star, and Caribbean Resort or something. I think none of us are at any of the parks, more like at the hotel area. But we can go into the parks for free on our days off, and each time we go in, we can take 3 friends. We can go in 6 times over the summer! Working hours are 3pm-12am everyday except Wednesdays and Sundays, cause Sunday we go to church, and on Wednesdays I think the schedule for the project is full. I don’t have the full schedule yet. Oh and here they refer to it as ‘the project’, like some covert government secret operation haha.

I guess cause it’s the Summer Orlando Project. A lotta people are on their 2^nd/3^rd project, it’s a yearly thing. If you’ve been twice, you have a chance of going to Malaysia for the summer trip. There are a few teams in Malaysia now, and it think Connexion Semenyih or Uncle Rodney is hosting some of them. They will be back here before we leave, so we can meet them later in the project.

I am free till Saturday when my job orientation starts. I am trying to wake at 7am while i can to skype with my sisters and mum. Tex Mex is not open yet, but i just sit outside and use the internet haha. I am still quite amazed by the fact that i am in the United States, that everything around me is so new and interesting, hence the truckload of pictures.

Today, after skyping, i spent some time 'getting in the Word' beside the pool with Billie (the girl from malaysia with me) and her roommate Lauren. Found out today 'get in the Word' is a slang they use in the project. No wonder everyone has been using that on me, although it's not hard to understand i wondered if it was a usual US slang. After studying Galatians 5:1 (which is the theme verse for this project), lauren and billie planned to go to walmart so i joined them. It was really exciting, i mean cmon it's walmart, we've grown up hearing about that right? haha, i went crazy snapping pictures, it looked just like a huge tesco, but there are some interesting stuff in there. The best part was i found twinkies and ding dongs which i always read about in books and see on tv.

Everything was so cheap and unique to me, i just wanted to get everything! But i practiced self restraint, i'll spend when we travel haha. I bought a bottle and some bowls. It only cost me less than 3 dollars. The other day on the way to the security office, we passed by a nike clearance store about 10 minutes from the hotel. Clearly i'm going to have some issues with self control long before my travelling haha.

After walmart, my roommates were back from seaworld for their orientation. They were having lunch in the kitchen, so i ate my mamee instant noodles with them and just hung out. Usually everyone makes their own meals, sometimes they drive out. What's weird for me is i am not used to this kinda independent living, but i guess it's good for me haha. I chatted with my roommate hannah (my roommates are hannah, rachel, amber and aly) for awhile after that, then they went down to the pool to sunbathe and read. So here i am in tex mex again with billie, updating on the net, and maurice just joined us. Every wednesday nights are social nights, they have parties. Tonight it's by the pool. Another thing is all of them love dancing, so that's gonna be awkward.. we'll see haha

p/s: sorry, i messed up the fonts!

believe me i won't stop at nothing

Hello from Orlando!

WOW! It's been such a trip.. Let me try to recall the last 40 hours or so. So we reached Singapore from Malaysia around 11.45pm on Sunday. Hung out for the next 6 hours, didn't sleep. Could not sleep actually. Explored Changi airport a little before the shops closed up. Took loads of pictures. Trying to upload pictures to facebook now, will caption them accordingly. It's too much to upload them here, we are at a restaurant called Tex Mex near the hotel to use the internet.

Anyway, after Singapore, we flew to Chicago, with about 2 hours transit at Hong Kong in between. It took about 4 hours to get to Hong Kong, and then another 14 hours to Chicago. It was quite a torturous ride the first half of it, cause i had a bad case of flu and my flu meds were in my luggage. But there was a nice stewardess to Hong Kong, she kept giving me hot water, and asam cause she said it's good for my throat haha.

At Chicago, our supposedly 4 hour transit became 8 hours.. Our flight got delayed, it was so tiring, and there was no free wifi in the entire airport. So we just curled on the benches and slept. It seems we keep sleeping but still feel so tired. We reached orlando around 1 am US time, 1 pm Malaysian time tuesday. There were about 10 people picking us from the airport, they were really nice and welcoming. When we got back and got ourselves registered it was already almost 4 am. I wanted to take a shower, and it took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to switch on the shower. Everyone was sleeping and i didn't wanna wake them.. I slept on the couch for about half and hour after that. The room was so cold, and my 4 roommates were sleeping without blankets and with shorts. After that i couldnt sleep anymore, so i got up went downstairs and went online. Skyped with my mum hannah and bekah for awhile, felt a little homesick, but thank God for friends who are here with me.

The students here are all really friendly, i guess it's just the sudden change of seeing all americans around me. They love sunbathing at the pool. We stand under the shade for about 2 minutes and already feel like we can't take the heat haha. I can't wait to start working at disneyworld. We start working on saturday. Went to get our social security number done today. Going to disney for an interview in about an hour. There's so much about the project schedule i wanna share, it seems really interesting, but i will find our more, get more familiarised and blog more.

Thanks for the prayers!