Kyushu, Japan free and easy 1: flying off

Early morning SIA flight to Fukuoka
Early morning SIA flight to Fukuoka

One of the most widely read blogpost in 2014 is How to go to Bukit Indah by bus. I did this post to keep a record of how I went to this place in Johor by bus in case I needed it again. This is after all a personal blog of someone who happens to be a pastor. As it turned out, many have googled about going to Bukit Indah and landed on my post.

We just had a photo sharing time with the Marine Parade cell with whom I went to Kyushu, Japan. It was a time of food and fellowship. We viewed and shared photos and videos. We remembered the funny and interesting moments and had many a good laugh. I heard and saw things that I never knew happened until I saw it on video or photo. It was fun.

There were so many photos and fond memories I want to keep – too much to write about in one blogpost. So I will do it in manageable bits and tie it up together once it’s all completed. Who knows there may be people out there who are searching for interesting itineraries to explore Kyushu. This will certainly help them. Travelling by tour groups is convenient but it has its limitations. Travelling free and easy is hard work at the research and planning stage, but it later yields greater flexibility and enjoyment.

I have always wanted to visit Japan. That was why I requested to join this cell group in their Japan trip. It is called ‘tompang’ in Malay, or jumping the bandwagon. If you do not like tour groups and have no time to plan a free and easy, then ‘tompang’ is the best option. They were gracious to let me join in and I was happy to follow the leader Jasmine. My wife and I just went with the flow and it was blessed by the Lord and became a special trip for us both.

Marine Parade cell group plus some others
Marine Parade cell group plus some others
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Sermon with story, personality and a journey

I was enjoying an article in SundayLife about two Singaporean poets. One of them is Aaron Lee, a Facebook friend and a Christian elder in a Brethren Church. It was an interesting interview but a line he quoted from his mentor caught my attention. He talked about some verses he had captured on his cellphone, lines inspired by daily life and social commentary that never got birthed as poems. He recalled how his mentor had given him some advice long ago. Aaron said: “She told me: ‘It’s got to have a story, a personality, so people can go on this journey with you.‘” The sentence held me captive and I was reminded of the several books that talked about the importance of the sermon being structured like a story, a narrative, a homiletical plot. It was such a good reminder as I tend towards the tired three pointer didactic sermon. Perhaps I should look for texts and themes that can be put on a story board and bring the congregation from tension to truth, from problem to promise, from conflict to resolution, from suspense to conclusion.  I have to think and order things more like a short film director than like a teacher or textbook author.

Lord help me. It’s so easy for me to fall back into that didactic three points sermon structure. It’s a rut I so easily fall into. Set me in front of a story board, and if there is no plot let there be no sermon. Amen.

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Start blogging again

Its been more than a month since I last blogged. Since then I have gone to Japan on vacation. I have seen a wonderful successful kidney transplant between two wonderful members in the church who are not blood related. I have been moving around in a Toyota Picnic that a kind American missionary friend who left for USA allowed me to use till the COE runs out in 2 January 2015. The church worship hall will undergo renovation so I have been busy with arrangements and communications of the alternate worship service space. And I have been on Whats App in a prayer group for the kidney transplant, and quite often communicating on my personal and church Facebook page. All these took time. And they drained me of ideas and the motivation to update this blog. In other words there were things to blog about but somehow the one liners of Twitter and Facebook seemed an easier and quicker and lazier way to express my thoughts. This blog is losing out but I know that if one of my goals of blogging is to practise writing then I simply have to push aside other competing demands and shun the broad and easy highways of one liners and plentiful pictures and “likes”. So here I am on Christmas Eve. I have decided I need to start writing again and avoid the easier path. Just write the ideas that strike me and reflections of what is happening around me and in the news. Ramble if I have to. Just get started again on a regular basis.

I am so heartened by Christian leaders and pastors who have continued to blog. Many have stopped as traffic moved elsewhere but these guys still keep writing regularly with persistence and quality. They are on my blogroll links on the right hand and I hope to keep company with them.

Well this is a good enough kick-start for today. Hopefully the passion will kick in and I will have something more substantial to say.

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