Forgiveness

It is already one week after I came back from my church family camp in Taiping Golf Resorts and I am still thinking about the messages Rev Clement Wong gave during the camp. Rev Clement was an invited speaker at the camp. The theme of the camp was 'Being Faithfull to God" After three sessions on the theme he felt that a change of topic is appropriate as he sensed the group needed it. Hence, on the fourth sessions he dealt on the concept of forgiveness. I couldn't agree with him more. In fact it is such a blessing to have this dealt with at the camp.

I reproduce below the six concepts of forgiveness that he shared.

1. To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.

2. To forgive sets you free from the past to live for the future.

3. To forgive is an act of the will not emotion.

4. To forgive does not mean to justify the offender.

5. To forgive is choosing to live in the light.

6. To forgive releases a person to change.

I am personally blessed by this message and I am sure many of my church members benefitted too as many of them shared with me how they were ministered at the camp.

Can-nosed bovine

Way before the political crisis in Perak unfolded, I read an artical written by Max Lucado titled "Hard Hearted". As the political situation deteriorate further with all its high dramas, I can't help but keep thinking of the article; particularly about the part on the can-nosed cow. I reproduced below the whole article:


Hard Hearted by Max Lucado

“Hardhearted people are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him, They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.” (Eph. 4:17-19)

A hard heart ruins, no only your life, but the lives of your family members. As an example, Jesus identified the hard heart as the wrecking ball of a marriage. When asked about divorce, Jesus said, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because our hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.” (Matt. 19:8) When one or both people in a marriage stop trusting God to save it, they sign its death certificate. They reject the very one who can help them.

My executive assistant, Karen Hill, saw the result of such stubbornness in a pasture. A cow stuck her nose into a paint can and couldn’t shake it off. Can-nosed cows can’t breathe very well, and they can’t drink or eat at all. Both the cow and her calf were in danger. A serious bovine bind.

Karen’s family set out to help. But when the cow saw the rescuers coming, she set out for pasture. They pursued, but the cow escaped. They chased that cow for three days! Each time the posse drew near, the cow ran. Finally, using pickup trucks and ropes, they cornered and de-canned the cow.

Seen any can-nosed people lately? Malnourished souls? Dehydrated hearts? People who can’t take a deep breath? All because they stuck their noses where they shouldn’t, and when God came to help, they ran away.

When billions of us imitate the cow, chaos erupts. Nations of bull-headed people ducking God and bumping into each other. We scamper, starve, and struggle.
Can-nosed craziness. Isn’t this the world we see? This is the world God sees.
Yet, this is the world God loves. For God so loved the world: This hard-hearted, stiff-necked world. We stick our noses where we shouldn’t; still, he pursues us. We run from the very one who can help, but he doesn’t give up. He loves. He pursues. He persists. And, every so often, a heart starts to soften.
Let yours be one of them.

When my daughters were small, they liked to play with Play Doh. They formed figures out of the soft clay. If they forgot to place the lid on the can, the substance hardened. When it did, they brought it to me. My hands were bigger. My fingers stronger. I could mold the stony stuff into putty.

Is your heart hard? Take it to your Father. You’re only a prayer away from tenderness. You live in a hard world, but you don’t have to live with a hard heart.

I think the politicians in Perak is really like the cow that stuck her nose into the empty paint can. They keep on running away when an opportunity came by for them to settle the political impasse. If Najib is smart and far sighted enough, he should dissolve the state assembly and call for fresh mandate from the people in Perak. He may be a skillful politician and finally wriggle his way out of the crisis while still holding on to power in Perak but the people in Perak may not be so forgiving come next election time. In this age of internet, peoples memory are prolonged much longer than before. Just a few clicks on the keyboard will refresh the memories. The patience of the rakyat is really running shorter by the day.

All I can say is that, if the can-nosed Najib and his goons in Perak refused to decan their noses, then they will certainly be starved to death politically.


ALL THE BEST TO ALL OUR CAN-NOSED POLITICIANS!!!!

WIFI on public buses in Penang?

I came across this piece of news in The Star (online) this afternoon and makes me ponder for awhile.




Published: Wednesday May 13, 2009 MYT 1:56:00 PM


Free WiFi on Rapid Penang buses

GEORGE TOWN: Rapid Penang Sdn Bhd will be providing free WiFi access to its passengers, the first bus company in the country to do so, beginning with a three-month trial on two buses.

Its chief executive officer Azhar Ahmad said the company was installing the facility in two buses: The first plies the route between Balik Pulau and the Bayan Lepas International Airport, and the second on the Teluk Bahang-Batu Feringgi-Weld Key route.

He said use of the WiFi facility would be free and that the buses would have special stickers for easy identification by passengers.

“After three months, if response from passengers is good, we’ll have the facility installed in stages in all of our 180 buses, and also the additional 200 buses which will be delivered to us by the end of the year,” he told a press conference here Wednesday.

Azhar said the facility was provided to enable passengers to surf the Internet in the bus before arriving at their destinations. -- Bernama

Wifi on the buses is great but I think the basics must be there before other facilities, no matter how beneficial, can be fully enjoyed by the commuters. Just take a good look at our public transport system in Penang. Can anyone say that it is reliable? The buses often do not keep to schedule. They are all the time overcrowded especially at peak hours. The frequency of trips is not good enough for the public to find it convenient and beneficial to use. Most of the buses are just not clean enough for comfort. And the attitude of the bus drivers?....a lot of room for improvement.

Oh, come on, En Azhar, improve the basic facilities first before going into things like WIFI on the buses. I think the commuter will be very much more appreciative if the basics are improved rather that providing something that cannot be enjoyed. Do you seriously think the commuters will really make use of the WIFI facilities? Maybe some will if the ride is more reliable and comfortable. But for now, lets improve the basics first.

Absurd Story?

I was browsing the May issue of Astro View and the article "The Mozart of Madras" caught my attention. It is about A.R. Rahman who was actually born A.S. Dileep Kumar in 1966 and converted to Sufism after his critically ill sister was miraculously healed with prayer from a Sufi dervish saint. A.R. Rahman is a very talented composer. His works have been featured in more than 100 movies. One of the latest is Slumdog Millionaire.




Curious to know more about Sufism I did a Google search and found it on Wikipedia. After going through the article I click on the link to one of the Sufi saint Nasrudin (or Nasreddin). As I was browsing the write-up about this saint, the artice "Whom Do You Trust" caught my eye.




Whom do you trust
A neighbour comes to the gate of Mulla Nasreddin's yard. The Mulla goes out to meet him outside.
"Would you mind, Mulla," the neighbour asks, "lending me your donkey today? I have some goods to transport to the next town."
The Mulla doesn't feel inclined to lend out the animal to that particular man, however; so, not to seem rude, he answers:
"I'm sorry, but I've already lent him to somebody else."
Suddenly the donkey can be heard braying loudly behind the wall of the yard.
"You lied to me, Mulla!" the neighbour exclaims. "There it is behind that wall!"
"What do you mean?" the Mulla replies indignantly. "Whom would you rather believe, a donkey or your Mulla?"




After reading the story I was thinking how absurd the story is and wondering about the moral of it. I still do not know the real moral or intention or spiritual truth of this story in the context of Sufism but then it dawn on me that the situation described in the story is real. It exist even today in our modern society.




It reminds me of someone I know personally for many years. He is a well respected man in society. He runs a drug rehabilitation center on a voluntarily basis. Many drug addicts have gone through his programme and came out becoming someone who is contributing to the betterment of society. But sad to say, success and self ego has got the better of him. He slowly began to get involved in questionable activities. Everytime a former resident of the center revealed something about him that is not good, some people who are brave enough to question his will get this reply: "Who do you want to believe? A former drug addict or your trusted spiritual leader?" He never gave a strait answer to the question posed to him. When you query him further, he would say "Why are you so stupid as to listen to the drug addict?"



After some thinking, the story is not so absurd anymore.

I am a millionaire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received an email recently and I reproduced below which is self explanatory.

Well, looks like I should be jumping for joy. I am a millionaire!!!!

Should I cry or laugh or jump and roll crazily on the ground????

Or maybe I should start booking my favourite BMW.

Well which pretty lass out there wants to marry me? (Be warned I am already married to a wonderful women and having 3 wonderful kids).

It just blow my mind that such emails are still circulating around. Are there people who are really so gullible as to believe this sort email or it is just that the sender/creator of such emails is treating fellow human beings as fools?

Which fools who believe in such emails please stand up and raise your hands up high..........



"siyabonga.t.zwane@accenture.com"

We are pleased to notify you that your email addresswon the sum of £850,000 GBP from our monthly UK National Online Promotion held on 16Th November 2008 and released 19Th November 2008. You have therefore been approvedto claim a total sum of £850,000 (Eight Hundred And Fifty Thousand Pounds ).Ticket No. 5647 5600 545 188Contact agent for your claims.

***************************************

1.Agent Name: Mr. Edward Connor

2.Agent Email: notificating-department@live.com

3.Agent Tel : +44 7035 954 072

***************************************

Claims Requirements:

1.Full name:

2.Home Address:

3.Age:

4.Sex:

5.Tel:

6.Occupation:

7.Country Of Residence:

8.Nationality:

9.Amount Won:

***************************************

Send all details to notificating-department@live.com only.

Yours Sincerely,

Zwane T Siyabonga.

(Web-Email Information Manager)

Unforgettable Incidences in Yunan, China

When I was in Yunan recently two incidences happened that I will remember for a long time to come. One I witness personally and the other is told to me by my friend who was directly involved in the incident.



Incident No 1

I was in Dali, cruising in a five-storey high ship in Erhai lake. The lake is about 42 km from one end to the other. The view is fantastic with the seagulls following along side. Naturally at one point of time I have to visit the toilet. It was always crowded with people especially the ladies. On that particular day we had about more than 500 people on our ship.

Side view of the ship that I cruised in.

Nearing the end of the cruise I went to the toilet for the last time. I was surprise to find it quite empty with the cleaner in sight. This man actually looked very stern and graff. While I was at the urinal, I heard the cleaner talking to someone in one of the cubicles. With my limited knowledge of spoken Mandarin I could make out that he was asking the man in the cubicle to hurry up. I look around and then it dawn on me that the cleaner was waiting to clean that particular cubicle. Probably he was waiting to change the container as there was a clean and empty one on the floor next to him.

I heard the man in the cubicle answered back. There was a brief exchange of words that sounds like they were arguing. Suddenly the cleaner pushed open the door and stood in front of the cubicle and started shouting at the man inside. From the corner of my eye I could make out the man in the cubicle was actually in the midst of doing is business as he was squatting down over the potty with his pants down. They continued to shout at each other. Of course I could not understand them as they were shouting in an accent that is typical of a China national. Not wanting to be caught in an ugly scene in a foreign land I quickly zipped up my trousers and make a dash for the narrow door, not even looking back at them.

Whew! What an experience!

Incidence No 2

One of my friends was queuing in the ladies. She was next in line. When the door of the cubicle in front of her opened a lady appeared from nowhere and dash into it, leaving my friend stunted. Almost immediately a younger lady appeared in front of her and announce loudly that she is next in line. Our tour leader who happened to be in there saw what happened and being very experienced told the two ladies off for jumping queue. The younger lady responded immediately that if she needed to queue up then she will go into the cubicle with the older lady at the same time. They both sounded like China nationals. With that remark they went in together. My friend was left standing speechless.

Cultural shock??????????

Good student-teacher relationship

A good student-teacher relationship can indeed inspire alot of creativity among both the students and teachers themselves. Indeed a healthty relationship while they are in school can last a long time beyond school life. I have heard countless stories of how a good teacher can draw out the best in a student and propel him/her to much greater things in life than you can imagine. In return, many teachers have told stories of how they were touched and blessed by the simple and sincere nature of a young child in school.


I believe my daugther, who is in Form One, has quite a good relationship with one of her teachers. When she found out that one of her lady teacher needed a cushion for her back, she quietly went about getting one for her. When she was done with her mission, she showed it to me. I am impressed with her handiwork. I was a little "jealous" of what she is doing for her teacher. But I am absolutely proud of her capability and special friendship with her teacher.






The pillow case.

The pillow case complete with the pillow nicely tucked in.

She took quite a few months to complete it. I think it is really wonderful. Don't you think so?