CG, Service, Housewarming, Reflections

CELGRP

Wanna start with CG. Adam came to my place at 930 to practice, pray and to stir ourselves up. Though I had an encounter, presence of God flooded my being, yet, we feel we arent breaking through, it cant just be a few individuals, all of us have to contribute to the atmosphere and that was what 'worried' us in a way.

Its so early in the morning. Will people be tired? Etc. So we went to Thad's house and prayed round 2. Then cg started, all in all, I find it okay, I dunno about u guys. But its definitely not at its best. Its a period of transition for most of us.

But like I prayed, if God can show up when we had night cg at my house and liz's house, if God can show up during afternoon cg at adam's house, He can definitely show up again in the morning, because He is faithful.

And its towards the end of the worship where I felt a 'slight' breakthrough in the atmosphere, even though it may be small and not really very obvious, but at least it did. There was a breaking. Something was happening.

Sometimes as a guitarist, if the atmosphere isnt good, Ill tend to feel really stressed and tense. Sometimes we serve God and the celgrp so much, we tend to forget that we are not alone in this. That we dont have to bear everything on our own, because we have a celgrp that cares, a leader that cares.

I dont know, Im a very self-reflective person, and I think and feel a lot. Being someone who's quiet most of the time, I tend to be..well, not say more discerning, but rather more inquisitive. But really, we need all sorts of people in the celgrp, the rahrahs, the thinkers, the planners, the sympathisers, etc. Thats what makes us unique.

There is only one me in the whole world. You can find no one else like me. Thats how unique God has made me to be. Yes..you can find lots of introverted people in the world, but seriously, there's only one Andrew, theres only one you.

Thats why I treasure friendships a lot. People think.."Nahh..its okay, there are so many people out there like him, like her.." But no. There is only ONE.

SERVICE

Even though we ended cg late, we managed to rush down for service and catch the worship. Message was good and really..Bro Suraj told us during our sound briefing, dont be so occupied with serving, but really be a worshipper.

Sometimes we just got to take the extra effort to enjoy a 'full service'.

Oh yes, last night after our sound briefing, while we were clearing our stations, one of the greeters at the refreshments area asked us if we could help to finish the food :)) HOORAY! Hahaha. It was nice. I had 2 tuna sandwiches and 2 glasses of fruit punch.

And its so cool, the wine glass, the smartly dressed waiter, makes it look so classy. And its really a waste when I saw one whole tray of sandwiches and I was already full!

I just hope next time, if we can, try to finish the food. I mean, afterall, its our offering money too. Having given so much to the house of God, seeing abundance of food wasted makes my heart pain. lol. =/ I dont dare imagine every week, this amount of food is wasted :x Oh wells. Just something that caught my attention haha.

HOUSEWARMING

House warming at Liz's was awesome. And I cooked my arm hahaha. But its fine now. I dont think anyone saw, lol..the fire was really fierce, I spread the butter and honey halfway, the flame shot up across my arm. WOOT. It was so fast I had no time to react lol.

Haha can ask the guys, just putting your hand above the pit was already scorching, to have a flame shoot up is MAN! hahaha. Then got one time, the pit 'exploded' hahaha. Thad and I were sitting on the bar stools while Thomas was making the food, when sparks flew and landed on us hahaha.

Im the artistic cook, Thomas is the explosive cook haha. The pit literally 'exploded' into sparks flying all over the place hahaha. Thank God for jeans lol.

But it was fun haha. So much joy in serving, in helping.

Liz's house is UBER POSH! And the room gosh in front of the window! The interior designer sure outperformed my expectations of a house's interior design. Ive never seen such beauty and splendour for a long long time! Man..blew me away! Haha.

They even had a water dispenser that converted air into water! How cool is that!?! And the BBQ pit by the poolside has its own spa tub or mini jacuzzi for EACH BBQ pit! And people could sit in there and enjoy the food at the same time! WOOSH!

There's also a mini fridge underneath the pit! Along with something else..what was it? haha. =/

REFLECTIONS

Celebrated Adam's birthday. Haha. It was just a happy happy day for me. But I wasnt satisfied. When I reached home, there was really a longing to touch God. Celgrp was just nice, service was a little late. Im not satisfied to end this day without experiencing the tangible presence of God.

So I sat in my room, and..

I didnt look like I had problems, but yea, I had many and I began to pour out my heart to God. And I took the guitar and played. Instantly, God showed up. Just like in our pre-cg PMs aka Secret Place Gathering (SPG).

Tears just kept flowing and I was in love all over again. It was just a God moment. And its really amazing how love can make someone look silly, I was telling God.."God, I wish I could sing to you a love song everyday." So 'rou ma' hahaha. :$

And I did had a song, I had 3-4 songs actually, during that period of intimacy. But I didnt record cause, it was just a kairos moment. It was too precious to me for me to let go. I was alone at home, so in a way, I was more free and expressive.

And we should experience this everyday. Not just in celgrp, but even in your own QT.

I didnt learn guitar to play in front of people..really. I never intended to be a celgrp guitarist.

I blogged before how I became a guitarist, but Ive never blogged about "Why guitar?".

When I first got interested in guitar, I never had the desire to play in front of people, never. haha. I was shy, I had low self esteem, etc. I never had the desire to self learn things like scales, progressions, chords, etc. I was a lazy person! LOL.

All I wanted, was to be able to have a 'decent' quiet time.

The reason why I learned guitar in the first place, was really about God. I got to a point where I told myself, I cant be listening to praise and worship everyday for QT. I wanted to do more. I love God so much, but I just couldnt come to a point where I can express THAT love to Him.

And that was why I learned the guitar. Initially, it was just for my quiet time. I saw pow wee play during celgrp. I encountered God so many times during the meetings. But I wanted to take that same anointing, that same presence home.

But I was still young then, I didnt know better, I was in love and I attempted the silly lovey dovey things, one of which, was to learn to play the guitar. And just from the simple desire to be a WORSHIPPER, look at where God has brought me today.

When I look back, I can say nothing, really. God said everything for me.

I also wanted to learn the keyboard/piano. But since I started my path down as CGGuitarist, I knew where my calling was. Maybe one day, Ill make learning piano/keyboard as one of my new year resolutions haha.

Oh yes, one of my new year resolutions for 2008 is really to learn to cook a decent home cooked meal. Haha. Eh dont think guys cant cook okay..haha..all the chefs in hotels and restaurants are all guys. hahaha. Im not saying girls cant cook haha. But yea u get the point lol.

I really wanna improve myself this year, in so many areas. And I can see slight progress so far. And thats good :D This week is gonna be great. But it will be bumpy. Gotta finish up my program. =/ Program, I HATE typing that word! :(