we BELIEVE for prayers ANSWEREDCombined cell: KF @ Adam and NP
This week, we had combined cell again, in a smaller setting; with gel lead by Barnabas, then Net Net; and this week, we had our beloved Sis Serling to join us! (Everyone give an imaginary standing ovation! ;P) We started by getting to know each other with the “2lies, 1 truth game” where players were supposed to share 3 things about themselves, and everyone was to guess what was real. Then we were lead downstairs, where we were blindfolded and assembled in a row, hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us. As we walked, Net whispered in some of our ears, “There’s something in front of you. Let go.” When we removed our blindfolds, we realised that our line had disintegrated such that only Kangaroo and Jayni were left, right at the front. Net then went to explain that in our walk with God, it’s really by faith, and not by sight, and the enemy would try to throw many obstacles with his deception our way, like placing the thought, “there’s something blocking you,” in us, to break us apart. But as a cell and God’s army we’ve got to move on, not letting go, and standing united.
Back in Blue 5, where cell was held, Adriel lead us in glorify; with Jayni as the guitarist. Personally, it was... relieving to worship God again; after all the morning’s stress and rush. After that, we broke into our individual cells for Grow; Sis Serling joined Adam (*cries*) and Net lead us in looking at the various positive qualities of the Disciples of Christ. So words like, “bold” and “persevering” came out. But we all realized that the one quality they had in common was their heart of service (well, most of them.) So we broke into smaller groups to talk about the different areas in which we could serve God; and then prayed about it.
so yea; that was cell =)
taby
Sunday Morning (extension, right after cell...)
LoL; feels like I’m writing some kind of serial drama... Anyway, for all my beloved readers out there who are curious about what we normally do after cell, here’s something to chew on =P.
So after cell; within the 10 minutes or so which we had to break just before service (correct me if I’m wrong here; occasionally my sense of time may be inaccurate, because everything seems to happen so fast). We had our usual weekly prayer for cell, just before service. (okay, I admit omitted the chit chat, la-di-da we all had with everyone else. By the way, fyi: our cell is excruciatingly slow at moving from point A to point B, because we’re so stuck to each other).
Fyi about cell prayer: a culture we started about some months back (don’t ask me when, I don’t remember), when God placed in our hearts: Tails, Bro Andrew, Net and I to start cell prayer at pretty much the same time. So we started meeting every week about ½ hour just before service. Now finding a place to pray was difficult, since every inch of the church would normally be occupied with people (praise the Lord for His abundance) but God provided us with a place, which we affectionately named “Mount Sainai”, because it was at 4M, right on top, a rarely used stairwell right next to the toilet. Every week either Net, Tails or I would lead prayer (Bro Andrew couldn’t be there because the KF at Adam were having their cell and they needed him), and whomever from our cell who could make it would pray with us as a cell. Wow; that’s a whole lotta information. Ok, latest news on cell prayer now: we’re letting the members lead prayer too! And it started this week, with Valerie, one of our ultra powerful Gina’s, leading prayer as a section! Woohoo! Admire the courage she’s got to talk to the whole bunch of us. In pairs, she got us to pray with each other; on the sermon by P Derick last week, titled, "OUTWARD BOUND", which calls us to care and connect, by stepping out of our comfort zone, in compassion, and conviction.
Then we had service, when we all danced before God at the front during worship, and P Andy’s sermon, titled “to Be or not to Be” was awesome (wanna know what is was? Muahaha, BE there next time!) and after that we went for lunch as a cell. Yup, that’s all!
Oh one more thing: on an unrelated note, since Tails and I were arguing while I was writing this, everyone cast your vote: who’s more rational? Me? Or tails? Stick your opinion on the tag board! Although I think we all agree the answer’s pretty obvious.
taby
Combined Cell, Sunday morning, just before service
We had combined cell with the other zone 2 folks, including the JC’s and our beloved sister (note that I used “SISTER” and not “BROTHER” here) cell Kingfishers at Adam, where all the other poly’s are, and where all the “Gina’s” (Hokkien, or Malay? For “kids”) are collected at, waiting for their posting results. Gel lead by Bro Andrew was... ahem; out of the ordinary. Although come to think of it we have never had any ordinary games before. In a huge circle of 40 over people, we were to turn into “rams”. Each player had one hand on their head, and their preferred hand free to deflect other oncoming “rams” or to touch the elbows of other “rams”. Of course, we couldn’t have everyone play at one time, so we numbered off, and Bro Andrew would call numbers to send 2 victim rams into the ring to battle out with each other. It was entertaining, really, until my number got called at round 2, when the target was knees instead of elbows, and Net happened to be my opponent. So Halleluyah, we approached and circled each other menacingly as the cat fight unravelled, neither willing to lose to the other. Cut the whole story short; till now, the result is still uncertain. =)
Then Pastor Andy got us to form a double layer circle, and the inner circle was instructed to face the outer circle. There was this murmur of excitement which P. Andy appreciated, by declaring that he liked noise, because it meant life in the place. He went on to emphasise on how much he appreciated the family spirit we had, as a Zone 2, and how we could and should be open with sharing with each other, which we did, later on, with different people, as the inner circle was to rotate in a clockwise direction, stopping at one person at a time. The newly formed pair would exchange on God’s latest revelation to them. That was pretty cool, since I got to hear from a JC kid and other kids I wouldn’t normally get to hear from, by virtue of my cell’s constraints.
Finally, P. Andy ended by sharing his heart. It’s always so intriguing and fun to hear P. Andy share his heart; because he speaks from the ground level, in that realistic, down to earth, yet especially amusing fashion of his. He charged us, as the Zone 2, to set the culture for the younger ones (Pri 6 to upper sec), within our cells. “You know what makes us attractive to people out there?” he exclaimed. “It’s that family spirit; that warmth, that openness to share!” (okie, I admit here that I can’t recall his exact terms; but here’s the gist of it anyway.) Because, according to him, the truth of the matter is that it’s a cold, hard world out there. It’s especially so, in Singaporean culture, where it’s a “you keep to your space, and I keep to mine” kind of unwritten social rule. After all, it seems silly to help a friend with studies if it means more competition for yourself. Out there, we can’t do much about it, but in here, amongst our cells, we can take down the walls we’ve built up for ourselves, and share and encourage each other. Not just to attract new folks, but to spur each other on, amongst ourselves. It’s not about competition and self protection here; it’s about helping each other and going up together as a family.
Taby.
CELL, 13th Jan '09
this week, Cheryl lead us in a great time of gel: the personality game, to welcome our dear new brother, Chuan Fa! ok, i'll share about him later, but anyway, in gel this week, we were to share 3 main things about ourselves. 1. our nickname (shan't write mine here =P) 2. of our favourite foods, 3. adjectives to describe our personality. In a circle then, we were supposed to pass the motion by calling out the different things in question about one another. It was a really hilarious and interesting game, because we got to know each other better, like for example, did you all know that Faith's nickname in her secondary school was "Tofu"? because... we'll leave you to make inferences ;) And Gitiong called himself "introverted, extroverted, high". It was a pretty bad strategy since his was the easiest to remember, and apparently, he only remembered Mocca's personality, which was "determined, persevering and loud", and even that he got only partially right. So one could imagine what happened when he called Mocca, and Mocca would reciprocate almost twice as fast. Naturally, Gitiong got the honor of doing the forfiet for us, (along with Mocca and I), so I initiatedmy favourite song, "I love you Jesus, Deep down in my heart", complete with all the actions I learnt in Discoveryland (our children's minstry) for our darling boys to follow =P
After gel, we had glorify, and Faith lead us all in a time of prayer, followed by the song, "To the Ends of the Earth," because that was the song she felt led to sing by God that week.
Then Net opened with our Grow with a really interesting activity: we were supposed to grab our wallets, and present the most valuable thing to the rest of our cell. Naturally, all the ex link cards and credit cards came out, and a few sentimental boys like Gitiong showed off his 10 year old phone card, and Chuan Fa pulled out his primary school bus pass (he was like,"you can't make these anymore, you know?"). Net then went on to explain that often times, God's promises were like these things, kept locked in their wallets, or within us, they would never be of use until we took them out.
We then moved on Joshua 1, when God made a couple of promises to that then young chap called Joshua, who had just assumed leadership over all the Israelites, who were in the midst of entering God's promised land. We then separated in pairs to talk about the promises God had made to us; especially those which have yet to come to fulfillment, on how we could work with God to see them come to fulfillment, and then we prayed about it.
After that, we came together to pray for our friends, especially those who came for our IWCP, that they would be touched by the love of God within us. Not to forget; before that, we shared about how Chuan Fa came to be in our cell! Cut the long story short: Mocca cared for him, as his friend and gym buddy, brought him to church; Halleluyah; he got saved, and voila, he's here with us now! Then we also prayed for Bro Andrew, who's going for reservist next week, and people who were having tests. Oh, Mocca too; he needed prayer because he had chosen to give up a competition that day (something really really important to him) just to come for cell.
Last but not least, our interesting gear up, courtesy of Mocca and Net Net. In view of the upcoming Vday event and CNY, they had a short skit on how one could care and connect creatively; or rather, effectively. Mocca came over and studied with "Boy" (can't remember the name Net assumed), and then he and "Boy went jogging together.
Finally, Bro Andrew took the opportunity to announce that Net was officially cell leader of our cell; yaE! And cell ended there. Yep, I shan't talk about how I threatened to drink Mocca's water each time he was naughty. We were wrestling over his 1.5 litre bottle in the lift as we went down, but that's not relevant. =P
taby
okok, before I forget, which i'm pretty sure I will, in like; seconds, I better put this down on virtual paper =P
1st cell of the year!
we started cell with an absolutely hilarious gel, coutersy of Odi and I; a game called: SOMEONE SAVE ME! (name formulated on the spot because that was what we heard players call out most often ;P). We would play the devils, and everyone else were the "people": Net, Gitiong, Faith, Cereal, Clarice, Daniel, and Mocca were given a lifeline of 10 tokens (we realised that was too many if we wanted someone to "die" in 10mins by losing all his/ her tokens) and were allowed to "flee from us" before we came to "kill, steal and destroy" (muahahaha~) by speaking against them. The catch was, the victim we caught and spoke to was not to defend him/ herself, but other people was to defend him/ her by speaking a blessing/ care act to counter the enemy, and sacrifice his/her lifeline by handing 2 tokens to the victim. If not, we would take the victim's tokens. Mind you, the person with the least tokens at the end of the game would lose and do the forfiet; a fact which we cheerfully emphasised from the start. Everyone was too ready to sacrifice though; we should have made it harder to sacrifice, like maybe 5 tokens per sacrifice >=)
Anyway, at the end we revealed that the purpose of our game was to illustrate how it may seem foolish to the world to give of yourself to someone else, in effort to love them, especially under such circumstances, when everyone is trying to protect just oneself. And you do this just because you love and trust God enough to provide. Yup, you guessed it; we intended to illustrate how in loving God, we loved our neighbours and though it may seem tough at first, but we will have abundent life in the end. In this case, our forfiet was to recieve a prize from Odi and I (hehe, we have yet to get the prize >.<) That marked the start of our Glorify, when we had the opportunities to share of testimonies from 2008, of how we have experienced that for ourselves. (hint hint: feel free to post the testimonnies you shared in cell here k? =P) Then Net lead us in vision casting (Bro Andrew joined us here), where we broke off into 3 strategic groups of 3 to sense for God's heart for our cell in prayer, before coming back to consolidate all these. The points which were affirmed (this means another group sensed the same thing, or something similar) twice or more were:
among these, other pointers affirmed only within the groups were:
Vision casting was like, woooah: Gitiong, Odi and Edwin (all in the same group) all had different visions which were sort of connected (I'll leave them to blog their visions, yar?) and it looks like God has quite a bit to place within us!
Bro andrew then went on to enforce, once again that truth, adapted from Luke 10: 25-28. In loving God with all our hearts, and loving our neighbours as ourselves, he then encouraged us to challenge each other by asking each questions like, "hey, how's your relationship with God doing?" or "How's your time alone with God?", regardless of position in cell. (Members are highly to ask their cell leader or SP's about such things as well.) We could also do care acts to care for each other. In doing so, we would be able to experience life abundantly.
Just as were ending off, Cereal spoke up and made a really imporant point: "now that we've said all these, what are we gonna do about it?" She was genuinely serious about everything we had put just put together then, and she was like, " so next week, everyone bring a friend!"
So we ended off with prayer, and gear up for Vday! note to all NP folks: ok, I know that it's right smack in the middle of our exam period, but hey, faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see; let's see what's God gonna do about this one, shall we? ;P
taby
MY DEAR WORMWOOD, I am very pleased by what you tell me about this man's relations with his mother. But you must press your advantage. The Enemy will be working from the centre outwards, gradually bringing more and more of the patient's conduct under the new standard, and may reach his behaviour to the old lady at any moment. You want to get in first. Keep in close touch with our colleague Glubose who is in charge of the mother, and build up between you in that house a good settled habit of mutual annoyance; daily pinpricks. The following methods are useful. 1. Keep his mind on the inner life. He thinks his conversion is something inside him and his attention is therefore chiefly turned at present to the states of his own mind--or rather to that very expurgated version of them which is all you should allow him to see. Encourage this. Keep his mind off the most elementary duties by directing it to the most advanced and spiritual ones. Aggravate that most useful human characteristic, the horror and neglect of the obvious. You must bring him to a condition in which he can practise self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself, which are perfectly clear to anyone who has over lived in the same house with him or worked the same office.
2. It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous. Make sure that they are always very "spiritual", that he is always concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism. Two advantages follow. In the first place, his attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself. Thus you can keep rubbing the wounds of the day a little sorer even while he is on his knees; the operation is not at all difficult and you will find it very entertaining. In the second place, since his ideas about her soul will be very crude and often erroneous, he will, in some degree, be praying for an imaginary person, and it will be your task to make that imaginary person daily less and less like the real mother--the sharp-tongued old lady at the breakfast table. In time, you may get the cleavage so wide that no thought or feeling from his prayers for the imagined mother will ever flow over into his treatment of the real one. I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moment's notice from impassioned prayer for a wife's or son's "soul" to beating or insulting the real wife or son without a qualm.
3. When two humans have lived together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that. Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother's eyebrows which he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it. Let him assume that she knows how annoying it is and does it to annoy--if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of the assumption. And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her. As he cannot see or hear himself, this is easily managed.
4. In civilised life domestic hatred usually expresses itself by saying things which would appear quite harmless on paper (the words are not offensive) but in such a voice, or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face. To keep this game up you and Glubose must see to it that each of these two fools has a sort of double standard. Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his mother's utterances with the fullest and most oversensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention. She must be encouraged to do the same to him. Hence from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or very nearly convinced, that they are quite innocent. You know the kind of thing: "I simply ask her what time dinner will be and she flies into a temper." Once this habit is well established you have the delightful situation of a human saying things with the express purpose of offending and yet having a grievance when offence is taken. Finally, tell me something about the old lady's religious position. Is she at all jealous of the new factor in her son's life?--at all piqued that he should have learned from others, and so late, what she considers she gave him such good opportunity of learning in childhood? Does she feel he is making a great deal of "fuss" about it--or that he's getting in on very easy terms? Remember the elder brother in the Enemy's story, Your affectionate uncle,SCREWTAPE