Hope Church London 8th Anniversary

It was a great evening celebrating the 8th Anniversary of Hope Church London in a 'Ball and Dance' style. Had lots of fun with praise n worship, drama skit, song presentations, testimonies and the food! I even won a prize at the raffles draw, which I did not recall I won anything before! I also got a hydro-towel, from the church as thanksgiving appreciation!.

We'll be doing this again next year! It is gonna be even greater n more exciting!

Just click on one of the pictures. It will link you to the photo albums - one is the official church photograph and one is my personal one (which doesn't have alot)

Hope Church London 8th Anniversary - Official Camera

Hope Church London 8th Anniversary

Doraemon Movie 2006

You can call me obsessed ... but that's not gonna stop me to post up the Doraemon Movie 2006 video clips i found on youtube! :D

I know Wan Jin will love it sooooo sooo much! Same as Nyik San! :D

Go from clip by clip, okie? There'a altogether 11 of them. (Tips: If you have slow connection, you can click the play button of all the clips and pause it immediately. This will download the clips while u watch the 1st clip)

Enjoy! :D

Birthday Dinner ... (a week later)

Remember the birthday dinner I had with Soo and Rachel at Spagetti House in Tufnell Park, today I went there again, with another two sisters, Twin and Esther! Since the last dinner which was so nice and cheap, I really looked forward for tonight! Some more, it was the treat from Twin and Esther (but i truly feel a bit 'heart-ache' for their money that need to spend for this meal). I was really really thankful for them though!

This time, I really snapped some pictures to show all of you what we had consumed! :D

Starter:

This is Bruschetta, olive and chopped tomato on toasted bread! This is amazingly delicious!

Escagot! For those who dunno ... it's SNAIL! A French cuisine. I wonder how come French cuisine can end up in Spagetti House, Italian restaurant.

Mussel on cream sauce! According to Esther, this is the best mussel she has ever eaten! To me, this was the best I had eaten as well :P

Then we had the main course:

First, this is the 'Grilled Halibut' - a kind of fish. It's only 3/4 cause after ate a few pieces, I forgot to take the photo :P

Then this the 'Steak Au Poive' (in English, pepper steak). The meat was really tender and juicy!Such a wonderful life! :P

Last but not least, the dessert! It was suppose to be a 'surprise' - where I suppose to go to toilet to wash my hands, and they suppsoe to quickly get the cake out of the bag, and I suppose to come back to my seat, and I suppose to be very surprise and touched! :P Haha .... the plot had been used last week, so couldn't be carried out! So in the end ....

The chocolate gateau with one candle lit! Only 1 years old ;)

Twin, Esther and Eldos! Thank you very very much! Was really so bless to have you two as my sisters in Christ!

If you have not got enough of me .... Eldos with the birthday cake! (have i gained weight? look 'different'?)

This should mark the end of my birthday feasting! :D

p/s Tomorrow will be Hope Church London's 8th Anniversary, celebrating it in a Ball and Dance style! I will be worship leading! So excited now ......

WELL DONE, Yin Jin!

WELL DONE!!!

Received an email from my dad (he's so good at keeping all of us in the family informed what is happening in our life, especially our achievements), telling us that Yin Jin has improved tremendously in her term exams. She rose 4 places from 14th to 10th! Not easy, especially in the 'cream of the creams' class.

Our youngest sister did well as well in her exams (I heard). She was very delighted of her achievements (I heard as well :P

The picture abit too small ... but lots of As and only 2 Bs!

A Visit to Stamford Bridge!

Well ... Stamford Bridge; those who don't follow the football will just assume that I went to visit a bridge, cause there's so many bridges in London: Tower bridge, London Bridge, Battersea Bridge, Waterloo Bridge ...... But this 'bridge' that I visited is in fact one of the most expansive 'bridge' in the world, the home of Chelsea FC! I wonder why they called their stadium Stamford Bridge, where no where around the stadium i can see any bridge.

And I will call it a visit ... coz i'm not a fan of Chelsea FC! I went to a fourth round Carling Cup match, between Chelsea and Aston Villa last night. The match was pretty exciting! What do u expect, a team which is assembled by money! In my heart, I always want the opposition team to win Chelsea, to show them that money is not the key to trophies, as we all can now witness in Real Madrid. Haha ... you are reading a blog of a Gunners :p

Nevertheless, I went to the match with Jacey, Anita, Henry, Yoppy, Gao Min, Carl and Anthony. We got the tickets for £21.50 each, so I was jokingly saying, since Chelsea scored 4 goals, each goal is worth about £5.40! By the way, Anthony is from Southend, the team which is 43 league place below Manchester United, which beaten Man Utd 1-0!!

Was quite delighted though, able to be in another stadium. So far, I have visited Old Trafford and Highbury, twice each! My next destination of course in our Emirates Stadium, which is just half a mile from where i'm staying. Near right! :D

Able to see most of the Chelsea star, except John Terry (one match suspension) and Ashley Cole (the deflected Gunners). The goals scored by Lampard, Shevchenko, Essien and Drogba were equally impressive! Will not elaborate alot here ... can always visit Jacey's, Anita's blog for the more detailed, more excited version of the visit! :P

Oh yea, I was surrounded by the 'true Blues fan' and for the whole night, my ears were filled with the 'F' word as well as their super loud noise while cheering! I hope one day, we can hear this kind of cheering for God and His people in church! :D

I'm looking forward for the Carling Cup draw on Saturday. Prayerfully Arsenal and Chelsea will not play against each other yet, but both will play at home ground, so that I am able to watch another few matches! That's the only chance I get to watch live football! To sign off ... here's two photos. Din manage to snap alot of picture, coz not interested! hahahaa

One last thing .... I promise, My Testimony - Part 2 will be up soon! :P

My Testimony - Part 2

While being trained in campus crusade, I also attend church service, mainly the methodist church. Initially I attended the one in BDC (which i forgot the name) but later I joined the one in Hui Sing Garden (English service of Holy Trinity). Nevertheless, even though I was active in organizing events for Campus Crusada (a parachuch organization, meaning the co-workers there all attended their own chuch), I was super-active in scout!

Because of peer pressure, 2 months after my conversion (my conversion date was 20+ September 1995, it was 11 years ago!), my best friend match-made me with his girlfriend's best friend. I was going into form 3 while my girlfriend is in form 1. All of us actually joined the same scout troop. I felt like I was living a double life. In front of people, I was so 'kind and helpful', while inside of me, I was a hypocrite and liar. I always denied to my friends and family I had a girlfriend, which cannot be hidden cause it was so obvious. I could talk on the phone for few hours as well as went out very often just to go 'paktou', with the convenient reason: "Go scouting!". Mind you, I was still very active participating in campus crusade meeting (a big event every month), ISCF (a Christian club which hold gathering on Friday noon time), church youth meeting and Sunday service PLUS my usual scout activities on weekends.

Fast forward: the relationship with my first girlfriend lasted for almost a year. I was so selfish at that time; the reason I wanna broke up with her because her result was not as good as mine. I did not even tell her face to face that I wanna broke up, i just wrote a letter and posted to her house. Unreasonable right? That's how hypocrite I was!

Back to my study: at the same time with all the 'happenings', I was okie with my study. In fact, the teachers had 'marked out' some students who they were very sure could get straight As in PMR. I was one of them. I prayed and studied hard at the same time! I was so confident that I could get straight As. When result was release, 6As and 2Bs. NO straight As!! That time, i felt as if the world was collapsing! I was so disappointed and depressed. Eventually, this turn to anger to God, of His failure to answer my prayer! I chose a drastic step, to totally ignore God, by not praying and not reading the Bible any more. I found reasons not to attend youth meeting and church services. I could not escape much though from campus crusade, which I reluctantly continue to help.

Because I got only 6As and 2Bs, I couldn't get into the first science class. So I got into 4H with some grudges. Little did I realise that it would such a blessing in disguise by not getting into first science class. Among all the schooling time that I have (even until now in Imperial College), I spent the most fun time in form 4 and form 5. Our class won the interclass sport day; our class were well-liked by most teachers (1st sci class ppl was always quite geeky and nerdy); most importantly, we did not have the pressure of expectation as those in the 1st sci class. In fact, I still manage to get 1st in class for 2 terms in form 4 and 1st term in form 5 (2nd term, i got 3rd, because i spent most time mIRCing and ICQing, the start of the internet era :P)

Hehe, I wanna boast a bit about my achievements in those two years. In Green Road Secondary School (GRSS), some of the big clubs and societies are like koperasi, library, radio club and of course the 'hated' prefect board! I hold the portfolios of all the highest position a form 4 student could ever get to. Vice-chairman of Koperasi, vice-president of library, group leader of radio club and assistant head prefect. I was at that time, the troop leader of my scout troop and the assistant drum major of the scout band. Okie, all these were history! :p

With all the above mentioned results and achievements in form 4 and form 5, I was the only one from my school being awarded the most sought after scholarship, the Shell Scholarship. It happened because God has His plan for me. He did not answer my prayer of getting straight As, but He gave me something even better!

To be continue .... next part about me and Hope JB

p/s I think I left out really a lot of stuff about my life (sinful one) in secondary school. I am afraid to bored you all to death. Probably one day will post a detailed one!

Birthday Dinner with G-hoodies

Today the G-hood family finally able to meet up for a proper meal, at Nando's Chicken restaurant, to celebrate my birthday!

G-hood (God's brotherhood), consists of Sugar Daddy (Aaron), Extremely Big Mamma (Jennifer), Handsome (Hason, the son) and me (I was called SEBBU, according to EBM, it's abbreviation of Superman (given by SD) Extremely Big (follow EBM) Baby (babyeldos) Udon (someone miscalled my name). It all started when 4 of us start to email each other during our break. It was a bit overdo when at a point of time, I received 100++ emails from this G-hood in 1 day! Nevertheless, we forge a fellowship among the four of us. We try to encourage and inspire each other in our emails!

So, went to Nando's, ordered a jumbo platter (2 whole chicken, 2 sides, chips) plus 2 plates of salad! The food was wonderful! The time spent was fabulous! Cracking so much jokes over the dinner table! It was a really great night!

Oh yea, today i also received my birthday present, a G-Shock Waveceptor watch! It was a gift from Twin, Esther, Vincent and Aaron. Beside the watch, for the past few days, I have received a book from Ps. PK and Kim, entitled "The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness". I really like reading this kind of book, that equip me in my service to God. I also received 5 boxes of chocolates from different friends, a cute gingerbread man, Mark & Spencer vouchers and many many cards! Thank you everyone! :D

Oh oh .... the present that really surprise me the most is http://www.eldosthen.com Thanks Harry! :D

My Testimony - Part 1

Today is my day, so I have decided to take things simple; do some reflections and planning. While praying this morning, I was inspired to write a entry about my Christian walk! I don't think many people know in detail :D

Early days .....

My exposure to Jesus Christ started when I was 5 years old. In kindergarden in Kapit (a division in Sarawak), a colleague of my mum, who was a Sunday school teacher in a RC church asked whether we (Fabian and I) were interested to join their activities. We joined, but I forgot how long we lasted. The only vivid memory I had was the sweets and goodies we received during Christmas!

Journey to know Christ continue when I was in primary 5 in SRB St. Paul, Kuching. All of us probably remember we need to take Moral Education class since primary 1 up until Form 5! But in that school, if you are a Christian, you'll be exempted from moral class and attend a Bible Class instead. My good friends were all in the Bible Class, still an unbeliever, I told my moral teacher that I am a Christian! Although we were causing havoc in the class, but the story of Jesus sank in my heart. I continue to attend the bible class till Primary 6.

Secondary School .....

Form 1, our form teacher, Ms Grace Wee was a devoted Christian! She literally preached gospel to us everyday. We were so noisy and naughty, until one day she cried in front of the class. Again, Christ is knocking on the door on my heart! Yet again, I kinda ignore and continue to lead a playful life!

Form 2, i think I reach adolescene earlier than other peer. I started to thinking of get myself a girlfriend (Eh, wait ... actually the thought of having a gf occur when I was in primary 4 .. haha!) Anyway, I was particular close to this girl (Due to privacy issue, name will not be mentioned :P). We really spent lots of time doing things together .. until one day she kinda hinted to me that she did not want to 'friend me anymore' (later in the years, I discovered that it is a misunderstanding. What she meant is let's concentrate more on study and play less!)

I got very sad and depressed. I still remember I would just cried when I listened to those chinese romantic songs (Yes, very embarrasing to think of it even now!) Nevertheless, my good friend, Siew Chee (who got married few years ago! Geee, i feel so old now!) who was a devoted Christian, actively serving in church can't 'bear' the sight of me 'giving up on life'. So he introduced me to Tee, a co-worker of Campus Crusade. There, she used the Four Spiritual Laws and shared to me the full gospel. I was paying much attention to what she said but only can remember: "God LOVES you .... ". In my mind, 'since nobody loves me, and this God loves me ... fine! I'll accept Him and He'll love me!' So, I made the sinner's prayer and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour!

As that time was near the second term exam, I've decided to 'turn my sorrow into prayer and hardwork' :P Everytime before I start my revision, I'll pray to ask for wisdom and strength. I even did schedule and chart to monitor my revision progress! That time, I was an average result student, always lingering at the 15th-20th position in class. But that term, I managed to break to 2nd in class (heard that it's 2nd in whole form as well). Few years later, as I opened the report card again, I observed that my results were still the same as 1st term, just that all my classmates did not maintain their result (except the one who got 1st in class :P)

Thank God for campus crusade, I was being care for and being trained as student leaders and evangelist, by organizing evangelistic events for secondary school students. This actually path the way for my ministry in God's kingdom!

T0 be continue ......

My 27th Birthday Celebrations

Back to blogging. This is motivated by Harry, who wants to give me a domain name as my birthday present! Soon, all you need to do it just type in www.eldosthen.com Thanks Harry! :D

Notice that the word "celebration" end with S (plural, not the other 'S' you are thinking about). It started on Tuesday, when I had dinner with Rachel and Soo at the Spaghetti House at Tufnell Park. The food was so good and most importantly cheap. We had lasagne, risotto, 1/4 roast chicken, then we ordered starter (toasted bread with herbs and olives; and yes, the sequence of our dinner was wrong, cause we were tempted by the starter our neighbour had); we also had mussels, a huge plate! All these only cost us £21.50! We already planning our next trip to try the melon platers, escagot and steamed fish! Well, this time, both of them successfully pull of a surprise: a birthday cake! Seriously, I was really touched! Thank you so so much, Rachel and Soo!

On Friday, I had a wonderful time at Hatfield CG, where we celebrated 5 persons' birthday, namely Scott, Bill, Jessie, Tom and mine! I always wonder, why there are so many people born in November. So a simple theory come to mind: 9 month pregnancy period, so babies are conceived around Jan or Feb ... normally our Chinese New Year! So maybe during festive holiday, nothing else to do ....... Anyway, everyone in CG cooked and the meal was really delicious! We played games: 'Big wind blow', 'pass the message' and 'musical parcel'. It was really an enjoyable time. Of course, we can't miss out the birthday cake! :D

Then, came Saturday, the birthday dinner in London! We invited all the people who attended the Mooncake Festival Dinner last month, and most of them came! To name them (no order of preference, k): Renee, Tian Tian, Cherie, Qi Ji, Ryusuku, Gemmi, Su, Tomin, Leon, Janet, Yan Yee, Wilson, Carl, Erin, Nejuma, Stella, Ivon, Tommy, Jenny; of course not forgetting Kenny, Yanti, Yoppy, Jacey, Nat and Ah Sun. I received many birthday cards n chocolatess! As usual, after dinner, we played some games. The last game, which only involve me, need to be blind-folded and walked in the room full of eggs (which suppose to be the mine). At the end, when I removed my blindfold, it was a birthday cake, with those 'magic candles' on! (magic as in the candle will ignite itself when u blow it out). I made a wish, which i can reveal here, that is: For every non-believers friends to accept Jesus; for believers to love Jesus more and more!! I also took the opportunites to share about the blessings that God has bestowed unto my life and my family! In the end, I prayed for everyone :)