Jesus In Cinemas Near You!

There's much criticism about Evan Almighty. Christian viewpoints say it's blasphemic 'cos of a few 'Oh my God' expressions, Noah's Ark is about God's wrath and intolerance towards sin and not a love story while mainstream critics ignore the message about God completely.

Sigh... people... aren't we missing the point here? Come on... let's not nit-pick and look at the big picture. It's Hollywood! If you wanna get a movie into cinemas filled with people... the world has to wanna watch it. (Of course need to have audience la... if the movie is screening in an empty cinema also no point ma)

If it's a Christian's pleasure but the world's poison - what's the point? It's not the Christians who need to know that God chose all of us for salvation not just a select few, that God does everything because He loves us, that God answers prayers although not always in the ways we expect, that we need to be obedient despite persecution and God will supply us with all that we need to get the job done. It's for the rest of the world out there. Christians are supposed to ALREADY know it because we've received and experienced it.

As it happened in Passion of Christ - I ask the Christian critics this - Can you tell hundreds of thousands of non-church going people that Jesus loves them? Plus they even have to pay for their own ticket. If you've got a better way, I'm all ears.

Plus, I've always tried to explain to people the unseen circumstances in Noah's story. Imagine these facts - Can a guy in the middle of a desert, who has never seen more than a glass of water in his life, understand what a 'flood' is? How on earth would he even know what a 'boat' looks like, what more to build one? I mean this ain't Pirates of the Carribean with pirate ships sailing sand dunes y'know. If that's not frustrating enough, imagine telling other desert people - for 100 YEARS (it took that long for Noah to build the ark) that you're building a 'boat' because there's gonna be a 'flood'. I mean, I'm sure Noah must've thought, more than once, that he really was looney bin as everyone mocked him. Go sit in a corner and think about that for a while =)

So, go watch Evan Almighty. You can critique all you want - just don't miss the golden nuggets behind God's story about Noah building a boat in the desert.

New Fishies, Old Fishies

My fishies, the ones I posted a while ago, died yesterday morning. Yeah, I think I ter-poison them while trying to treat them for fin rot and fungus. The fish shop guy gave me this dark purple solution, much like the iodine thingie that schools used to bathe our wounds with, which must be used with some salt and it turned my whole tank purple! Maybe I put too much.

Sigh... so I went to check out this betta breeder that the guy recommended. Apparently this breeder has half-moon bettas. Checked it out and it was a kid who was breeding these fishies! And he just hatched a school of half-moons so I gotta come back in a month's time to check it out.

Anyways, I saw these two veil-tails and they were irresistible! So, I guess, I replaced my old fishies faster than I could say "My fishies died". Haha!

Asked the fish lady (little boy's mom) why my fishies keep dying. All her fish are an in algae infested containers, so green you can hardly see the fish and they're fine and fat... while mine are in clear water that I change weekly and yet they keep getting all sorts of funny problems. Then she asked me "What do you put inside the water?" I said, "Err... nothing." "Nothing?!?! No wonder your fish die la! Cannot wan! Come la... I give you some A-PO... FOC for you to try. Just change water every week then guarantee OK ade. The fish also I give you RM8+RM10=RM10 la. Then next month, come and buy the half-moon, OK?" Damn, she's a good.

Well, let's see how well this magical A-PO thingie works. Looking out for the half-moons next month. Hhmmm... my colleague just suggested putting one of these beauties in the office. Hhhmmm...

STUCK!

Thought I'd share how a sticky situation today got me thinking.

Was walking around the back area of the factory today, trying to do some investigative work on our drainage system when I got STUCK! Yup, how typical of me, eh? Well, as I was walking nearer the bund, the clay material they dug out yesterday (Sunday) looked the same way it always looks.

But in my haste to get a better look at the bund, I stepped ankle deep into super sticky, mucky mud. Then as I leaned on my other foot to take out the ankle stuck one - it started sinking too! Oh crappers!! Took me a couple of tugs, pulls and grunts to get both feet out without having to leave my shoe behind but they finally popped out with a loud *SCHPOK* sound. Haha!

So what did it get me thinking of?

Everyday, day in day out, we pretty much live life in a predictable routine with the terrain looking pretty much the same. I guess it's when we take the familiarity for granted that we sometimes get ourselves stuck in sticky situations.

If we suddenly sink like a rock, we'd panic and shock ourselves into fight or flight mode to get out as fast as possible. But the real danger is when we sink slowly - the world around us looking just the way it usually does eventhough we're sinking. I guess that's the way the world gets to us - a few 'close one eye' compromises, a few exchanged quiet times for a more snooze time, a little bit of closet sin...

How does this relate to me? Well, life here in Ipoh hasn't been easy. On the outside, everything looks fine and dandy... but looking inside, I'm a little bit stuck. I'm at the stage where I'm trying to pull my legs out but it hasn't quite gone *SCHPOK* yet. Perhaps after speaking to me gently over the last couple of weeks, God decided to up the volume a bit and show me through the physical. Haha!

Ok ok God... I get the point =)

Cute Me

Remember earlier on when I said I don't have a picture of myself to post on my profile?

Well, Choon Ean came up to Penang with Grace one weekend and she decided to go on a frenzy of capturing all the expressions that I have. The resulting Cute Chris Collection of 50+ pictures was hilarious... apparently... to Choon Ean and Poh. And so their itchy-fied, cheeky selves decided to create this animated gif.

Even I have to admit it's quite funny. Some were done on purpose... but to my surprise... quite a number of them were captured while I was talking naturally. Maybe I'm not all that surprised. You too? Haha!

And so... go ahead, have a few laughs on me =)

Back With Fishies

Ok ok... I've heard many mutterances that my blog is SO outdated. Apologies for that, didn't mean to leave y'all out of the orchestra of my life.

Lots have been happening. I'll save the story about work for later. Now, let me introduce you to my 2 fishies! Yes, sad as it sounds... they're my after-work companions.

Fighting fish (i.e. beta) are very pretty and quite interactive too. Very responsive to anything that moves.

Here they are, having a litte face-off.

Yes, it sounds a little sad that these two fish are my primary source of entertainment. That's why I'm looking out for a Schnauzer puppy! Preferably black and white with the white burst around the muzzle area - so cute! Will definitely keep y'all posted once I get the little cutie. The hunt is ON!

OK, I'm skiving off some work time to do this so... gotta be quick. Look out for the pup soon... I hope.

LIVE from Ipoh!

Halloo halloo!!! Yup... after a month of being a bum, I've finally started my job in Ipoh. Was terribly anxious before I left KL but God has been great - just lovingly reassuring me. Aaahh... =)

Anyway, I'm here at the primary factory that crushes the rocks that come straight from the quarry site. It's dirty, hot and terribly dusty with calcium powder - so it sorta 'snows' in the factory. Btw, our products are all snow white materials. Hahaha... I went up to the higher levels of the plant this morning and man... it was really a winter wonderland up there. Bet I can make snow angels. Hhmmm... maybe I should try... Hahah!!!

People are nice and friendly. A big shift compared to my previous office. Not that they weren't nice and friendly... but everyone was so busy over there - you need to book people's time to discuss stuff and you'd better be quick about it. Over here... everytime I ask if I'm interrupting their work and I can come back later if they're busy and they're like "no no... come come... let me cerita how this thing works..." So that's great.

My only concern is the dust here. Didn't wear a mask yesterday so when I went home, I started coughing quite a bit and had a very slight wheeze in my lungs. So, I grabbed a mask today. Hopefully, it'll help.

Oh and I must say God has been fantastic in preparing a place for me to stay. Am staying with Siao Ping's parents and they're REALLY nice. Yeah... and her mom keeps offering food and hot drinks to me. No wonder Pete looks a little chubbier after each visit to Ipoh. Yesterday, she cooked me dinner too! Wow... a pleasant surprise. Then I took her along with me to hunt for houses and then to Tesco.

So yeah. I'll be going off to the quarry site in a while. That's always interesting. Get to play with rocks and see what their plans are since we can start a blast next month. Cool!!! Ka-BOOM!!!! Will try to get some pictures to help you fellas visuallise where I'm at now. So, look out for it.

Ok, I gotta go and read a bit more of the manuals before Thomas comes to whisk us off to the quarry site!!!

Oh ya... another funny thing is meeting people like Thomas - whom I've known since I was a kid and now I'm working with him. It's really funny.

Ok... really gotta go. Byee!!!

farewell & goodbye...

I can't thank God enough for dragging me to this little island 3 years ago, assuring me that He'd be with me each step of the way - Through It All. It is here that I learned...
God's love is the reason I am ALIVE;
God's grace makes up for all I am not;
God's faithfulness never fails;
God's awesomeness captivates my heart to worship;
God's promises are my keys to victory;
God's sovereignty establishes the work of my hands;
oh... and so much more than I can say.

Take God away from these 3 years and it would have been a total waste of my time.

God knows that I love the play of words. He sealed these 3 lines of divine wisdom in my heart for my time in Penang:
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and stop trying to be God
Be still and let Me be God

It has been a sad week. So many goodbyes... so many last moments. Who would've thought that I'd ever leave Penang kicking and screaming? Surely not me.

Though my heart aches and tears flow everytime I think of crossing Penang bridge tomorrow... I really am bursting with joy and thankfulness for all that He has done (and will do) for me, in me and through me.


Yo dudes and dudettes on da island... Chrisso is outta here! But I'll be back!!!

And here I come... Ipoh mali... Ipoh, Ipoh mali! (check out the new Too Phat song)