The STUDENT world is bigger....

The student world is bigger…..

How big? Well, at the just-concluded EARC (East Asia Regional Conference) in Tokyo, Japan, 14 countries, 360 participants came together, representing only a fraction of the millions of students in East Asia.

What’s the big deal? In the course of the conference, each country’s student movement shared about their own unique circumstances. All together, it was a wonderful mix of stories ranging from persecution, to apathy, to underground victories, to resourcefulness in finding ways to worship God under watchful eyes, to ignorance towards nation and region, and history.

The call was to start rebuilding. Start rebuilding just as Nehemiah did. But it has to come with personal mourning, confession of sins, and a love for God’s kingdom.
At first glance, it doesn’t seem fair to ask a persecuted student to rebuild anything as compared to a student in a country where there is religious freedom. But all came to see that in whatever circumstances, we are called to extend beyond our little world and to use our youthfulness to rebuild our country, our region, our world.

The call to rebuild, unified students from many countries. It also opened our eyes to the fact that although we may have different ways of worshipping, different ways of living, different cultural expectations, we all served the one God. And just imagine, if ALL CHRISTIAN STUDENTS lived their whole lives, all for God, what an earthquake to the world’s society that would be.

The Christian student world in Malaysia may not be very big, the Christian student world in Thailand, Indonesia, Japan (less than 1% are Christians) may not be very big. But the world’s Christian student movement is bigger. Will we commit ourselves and our CF – the Malaysian student movement – to this bigger movement of earth-shaking potential? How does that change our perspective of our CF?

Red and Yellow, Black and White

I remember singing the song “Jesus loves the little children, then “red & yellow, black & white” when I was young (I think I was 5 years old then). All I knew at that time was Jesus loves the little children but it didn’t occur to me about the ‘difference in colour’.

Now, as I think of that song, I give thanks for two very good friends of mine, who are of different skin colour from me. We share many things with each other, from our struggles to things we go through in our families. They also are my friends who saw me through the difficult times. I treasure their friendships a lot.

Hey, it’s possible to build good friendships, not just the ‘hi and bye’ kind or online buddies, but deeper friendships with people of ‘different colour’.

Feel free to share your thoughts about this.

“I see the beauty in the tones of our skin” (D.C. Talk – Coloured People)

Stoppp....!!!

A friend once advised me to journal, saying “It’s the stop that keeps you going.” I found what she said to be true. Pausing to stop and reflect allows me time to consider my next step.

But this ‘stop’ is more than just journaling. It’s a lifestyle of stopping so that we can keep going. It’s a habit of taking time off consciously to recover, uncover and discover.

To recover is to stop to rest physically, to recover from a long day’s work or a tiring week. When we are busy, the first thing that decreases is the number of hours we sleep. There’s nothing really wrong with that, but we must learn to schedule in sleeping time later. Let us not be caught as persons who have to fill up every hour of the day with activities.

To uncover is to be silent before God and ourselves in order to lay bare and allow different concerns/worries/issues/events to surface. To think about what caused us to make a certain decision, why did I feel like that, why did that event/person affect me in this particular way? To uncover is to remove the many masks we’ve hidden behind so that we can see more clearly the feelings, thoughts, and experiences deep within ourselves.

To discover is to be able to see things in a new light, in a fresh way; to be recharged and re-energized; able to make sense of things. When we stop to reflect and be quiet, we find a sense of motivation, desire, and hope to go on, or to go a different direction. When we stop to reflect, we notice new things about ourselves, others, and the situation/circumstance we’re in. Often times, we miss the chance to notice what God is doing in our life, because we’re too busy to stop.

Have you made time for “the stop that keeps you going”? What are some discoveries that you’ve made about yourself or God lately?

Chronicling Our Lives

A word.
A phrase.
A drawing.
A picture.
A person.
Something that stays with you.

These are some of the examples of journaling. Journaling is not about writing a whole days events down. It’s not a diary. It’s just capturing a one or two a few things that remains with you for a particular day/moment. It can come in many forms

We always ask the questions like ‘what has God been up to in my life?’ or ‘has God been working in my life?’ Do you know that the Bible tells us that we are God’s poimea? Ephesians 2:10 says that we are His workmanship (poiema)… He is at work at all times in our lives, but do we notice it?

Come my friends, start jotting something down. Start capturing moments. Start taking snapshots of what’s going on in your life. Start ‘chronicling’ what’s been happening. We are His poimea and He is at work. A chronicle captures all the necessary moments in one's life. By journaling, we are able to capture and chronicle what are the happenings in our lives, and we may come to realize the things that God may be up to in our lives. After all, we are His poiema, His masterpiece. He IS at work in HIS masterpieces, US.

Are you able to see what He is up to in your life? Grab your materials. Start chronicling. Do u want to allow God's poiema to unfold for you to see? Then it's never too late to start.

Walk The Talk

Whether you realized it or not, we’re reaching the half-way mark of the year! 6 months have already passed us by. Perhaps it is good for us to pause for a little while and ponder how the past 6 months have been for us…

If you have journeyed with us on our blog since the beginning of the year, you would remember that we took a look at our identity as Malaysians. Remember the weeks before March 8? Remember the excitement in our political scene? Everyone seemed to be talking about the state of our country and longed to see changes. Now that the excitement has sort of died down, are our eyes still open to what is happening in our country, or are we back to our own little world? Do we still long to engage our society and do our part as Malaysians, or do we think that we’ve already done our part when we cast our votes on that day? Surely there’s more to being a Malaysian than doing that…

We were also challenged to live out our identity as missionaries on campus. Have you committed yourself to being one by putting your signature on the MI Card? How has it been thus far? Is there any progress in reaching out to the International students in our midst, after reading the experiences of one of them on our blog? Have we become more sensitive to their needs?

Perhaps it is also a time for us to pause and reflect on how our relationship with God has progressed in the past 6 months. We remembered Christ’s death and God’s power in raising Him up from the dead during the Easter season. What does all this mean to us? Is it just a theological truth that we were taught and celebrate once a year, or does this fact that God made Christ Lord of all the earth affect the way that we live our lives, the way that we make decisions when we stand at the crossroads of our lives?

We invite you to pause as we reach the end of the first half of the year and think through some of the things that were mentioned on this blog or what God has opened our eyes to in the past 6 months. Perhaps this is the time to pick up again the things that we were determined to do and ask God to help us do them…

Holiday... God?

Holidays… Days free from work that one may spend devoted to rest or pleasure days filled with family, hometown friends, home-cooked food, family business, lazing away, visiting places……What is your holiday full off? Mine's full of food, lying on the floor and reading story books. Full of doing nothing important, full of 'no plans' days. It is really a time to put aside the usual routine of life and fill it with 'other things'. So what are these things we put aside during our holidays? Our studies, our work, our campus friends (since everyone 'balik kampung'), maybe even our church activities? MAYBE ALSO OUR GOD? How many of us feel as if we leave God behind as we start our holidays and when we return to campus, we 'pick up' God again? It is as if we go into a cocoon from the 'spiritual world' for the holidays and 'reemerge' when the semester starts again. Where is God in our long holidays? We go home, stay home, do all the holiday things, and come back to campus feeling that there was something 'missing' or not quite fulfilling in our holidays. Ever felt that way? I have. Till I went on a holiday with some friends who kept bringing God into the picture, who actually brought their Bible along….and read it….that I saw how God is everywhere. Even in my holidays!! Why don't you try 'packing' God with you as you embark on your holiday, wherever that may be. Where is GOD in YOUR holidays? Come share with us your holiday experiences…..

Super Hero? You, Me or .....?

I’ll like to think that life is like how this movie started- by propelling one to ask what happened and then the story unfolds.

Why? In that way, we maintain a certain curiousity to life and are always interested and interests makes us want to be involved.

The first ‘real’ question was when Dr Yinsen, his fellow captive asked John, “Who do you have to go home to”*

That was like ‘bang!’ and he realized - nobody.

The second was during Dr Yinsen’s dying moments, “Make sure you make your life count.”*

In that epiphany moment for John, which a sacrifice of a life was a means to it, he realized the sum of his life at that moment – he had everything yet strangely nothing.

So armed with an awakened conscience, John decided to reform his life and to think through what really matters. Betrayal and intrigue are added, as the cause that he was now fighting for, is set against a backdrop of wealth and power. And with wealth and power, we’ve read and seen enough to know humans will never be immune to these temptations, rise another powerful villain.

Iron Man’s theme about a superhero, “A hero with a list of character flaws”* who rights the wrong that has been done, add the good looks and of being born privilege, will certainly sell the movie. Perhaps that is why Hollywood is able to reach many more than we do – it reads the people well and feeds into their ‘needs’. After all, once in a while, we too would like to be a hero.

But ours is also a story etched against a backdrop of injustice, power, wealth and privilege for the selected few. But unlike the story we don’t have a suit that can help us right the wrongs. That the Bible tells us that God is the superhero ultimately. Ironically his suit is human beings and his timing? As long as the history of mankind exists.

While I already know the ending to that, I still can’t wait for the final frame.

Watched any movie recently? Shocked at how you’ve ‘connected’ with the movie? Why not take time to soak in why it stirred you and pen it down. Those are the moments something within is resonating, don’t let it pass you by.

*All quotes from the movie is a reinterpretation of the writer’s point of view

Berdiri Di Persimpangan Jalan (Standing @ The Crossroad)

Ada seorang pengembara yang berjalan di tengah hutan. Setelah sekian lama di dalam pengembaraan itu, dia sampai di satu persimpangan jalan yang dia tidak tahu ke mana arah tujuan seterusnya atau jalan yang mana harus dia lalui. Dalam masa yang terdesak itu, dia teringat akan nasihat yang dia dengar sebelum memulakan pergembaraan tersebut. “balik lah kepangkal jalan”.

Kadang-kala kita lalui perkara yang sama di dalam kehidupan kita seharian. Banyak perkara yang memerlukan kita membuat keputusan yang tepat dan munasabah. Kerana setiap keputusan yang bakal kita ambil akan membawa

kesan kepada kita. Kesan samada baik atau buruk bergantung kepada keputusan yang kita ambil tadi. Seperti pengembara tadi, dia mempunyai pilihan untuk memilih salah satu jalan yang ada di persimpangan itu, tetapi yang pasti setiap keputusan atau jalan yang akan ditempuhi bakal tidak diketahui arah tujuannya. Atau dia membuat pilihan untuk mengikuti nasihat yang dia dengar sebelum ini, “baliklah ke pangkal jalan”. di sini, peribadi kita sendiri memainkan peranan untuk membuat setiap keputusan. Ambil contoh, cerita Nehemia dalam Kitab Nehemia. Memegang satu jawatan yang terpenting di dalam Istana (Pembawa minuman di Raja), tetapi akhirnya membuat keputusan meninggalkan jawatan tersebut. Perbuatan Nehemia ini adalah tindak balas daripada apa yang berlaku kepada dia secara peribadi. Dalam erti kata lain, rasa yang tidak tenteram dan kerinduan yang teramat mendalam kepada tempat asal nya-Yerusalem, membawa dia sanggup membuat satu keputusan yang terbesar didalam hidup dia. Yang pasti, hubungan doa dia dengan Tuhan dan keterbukaan dia terhadap raja atau tuannya membantu setiap keputusan yang di buat oleh Nehemia.

Begitu juga dengan kita sebagai seorang yang percaya kepada Tuhan Yesus Kristus. Pengelaman kita dengan Dia secara perbadi membawa kita kembali kepada Nya dan keterbukaan kita untuk berkongsi permasalahan kita di dalam membuat keputusan amat membantu apa-apa keputusan kita dipersimpangan jalan itu. Perasaan yang tidak tenteram dan keinginan yang begitu ketara di dalam peribadi Nehemia beserta sokongan daripada tuannya mendorong Nehemia percaya bahawa keputusan yang dia buat adalah betul dan tepat. Perasaan yang tidak tenteram itu dan keinginan yang teramat mendalam terhadap tempat nya-Yerusalem itu adalah doa peribadi Nehemia. Sama seperti pengembara tersebut, yang pasti akan melihat kembali kepangkal jalan melihat pengelaman-pengelaman yang dia lalui sepanjang jalan dan membuat keputusan berdasarkan apa yang ada disekelilingnya untuk meneruskan perjalan tersebut. Ya keadaan sekitar pengembara itu mungkin boleh membantu dia di dalam membuat keputusan tersebut…

The Student Chronicle

Have u heard of the Chronicle of Narnia? What about Spiderwick Chronicles? Weren’t they pretty good movies. But have you heard about The Student Chronicle that is to be released in June 2008? No it’s not a movie. Read on to find out more.

“Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events in chronicle order. Typically, equal weight is given for important events and less important events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred.” (Source: Wikipedia.com)

The Student Chronicles encompasses pages to journal in, mini-calendars, real-life stories of students and graduates, questions to reflect upon, and many more. It will be a perfect companion for you as a student, on your journey throughout university/college life. It has been prepared for a maximum of a 3-year journey throughout your student life. It will allow you to jot down and remember some of the things that you have been up to during university/college life. (But this is not a diary!) It will be a good guide to see what God has been up to also in our lives.

We’re excited and can’t wait for its release!!! Are u ready for The Student Chronicle?

He's Not There

After the curtain has been drawn, the last stage light put out and all the casts wiped off their make-up and hung their wardrobe, the recent Easter play will become just another buzz word for the next few days. Or should it be? What does Easter really mean to us? Have we made it to another ritual play, a yearly staple adding on to the already many ‘Christian things’ we need to do? Two thousand years ago the scenario was not much different. From the Triumphal Entry of Jerusalem right till the Crucifixion, the breathtaking pace of the drama as it unfolded left very little room for the people present to make sense of all the going on. The after taste of the drama varied. For most it was another gruesome end to a good man, for the disciples it was a sledgehammer blow to their dream and for the religious elites it was pure relieve from the thorn in their flesh. But what is the aftertaste of the recent Easter for you? Just like the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, all too often we left the ‘Play’ going back to our daily struggles, hardly could recall what the ‘Message’ of the ‘Play’ is (Luke 24:13-32). We left feeling disillusioned and disappointed. Where is the power?! Where is the New Kingdom?! Have we also forgotten the ‘Message’ today? Unknowing to the two disciples, Jesus’ presence was not far from them. Like them, though we may not recognize Him in our midst, He is there. Let us not be too quick to reset our eyes to our daily struggles. Linger on a little longer. Listen to what the ‘Lone Traveler to Emmaus’ has to offer. And in doing so, we too may be able to echo the same words the disciples said two thousand years ago, “Were not our hearts burning within us…” The Message of Easter is still relevant and powerful. It was never meant to be a Shakespearish drama. It was meant for you.

Every Votes Counts

“Every vote counts!” this used to be a cliché is Malaysian politics until the 8th of March 2008. With this single vote many Malaysians finally understood what it means to have a voice in our country. It also meant that everyone had a path in actually determining the future (the next five years at least) of our country. It was a euphoric moment for many of us. Finally we can see and hope for accountability in our legislative process.

But as the dust begin to settle, reality strikes back. Is our contribution just limited on that one vote? Do we or can we be more involved in the running of this country? Or do we just go back to our normal religious contribution of just praying and fasting for our leaders? Do not doubt the importance of praying and fasting but surely there is more that we can do.

Do share on how you think we can contribute to this country. Be creative as many of us really want to know of our place in this country.

World Full Of Strangers

“Sadly enough, making friends with local Malaysian students in my university (I don’t know if it is true for others) has been a very difficult and frustrating effort to most of us, the blacks. During the first few months of our arrival, we were so excited at the thought of having new friends and thought that we could adapt easily. But unfortunately, making friends with Malaysians has not been very easy. Standing before our course-mates often times get them scared. Many a times they leave the road for us when they see us coming towards their direction. We would often ask ourselves, “Why? What have we done?” What makes the situation worse is the fact that some fellow Christian students, sorry to say, behave the same way towards us. This is the thing that pains me the most.”
“Some of us got to find out that before our arrival, the local students that were supposed to study together with us went to the school authority and told them that they don’t want to learn together with us. They were so serious about it that the school just had to grant them this request and they never learnt with us. We were taught separately for the first two semesters of our foundation programme. They did everything possible to see that we didn’t have anything in common with them. When it came to group assignments, they would want only the Malaysians to be in their group and us, the non-Malaysians, to be on our own. There was no good interaction with local students. We were all alone and we feel so rejected.”
We, Malaysians, are often warned not to talk to strangers, and the media portrays the Blacks as being aggressive and dangerous. All these often shape the way we view and treat them. But Jesus calls us to live a counter-culture life, and He leaves us an example to follow – He reached out to those who were rejected by others. What did Jesus mean when He asked us to “Love your neighbours”? Have we forgotten that the international students are also our neighbours?
I was told by some international students that they would very much appreciate it if we could just acknowledge their presence by giving them a smile or just talking to them when we see them. However, the sad reality is that we often see the international students being segregated from the local students.
Come let us follow the example of our Lord Jesus, by reaching out to the international students in our midst and welcoming them. Let us share with them the love that we ourselves have experienced through our Lord Jesus Christ.

MI Challenge

The MI. CARD is a small, name-card sized card that basically helps a student commit to one thing: being a missionary on the campus. Carry it in your wallet, next to your IC... one tells you "I'm Malaysian", another says "I'm Missionary". It is a pledge, a commitment. Take care and give thought then, when you make the choice to put your signature on the card...but imagine the impact if every CF member lived to serve and to reach those in their social circles on campus! Together with strategies or plans in CF, the card helps us say "Hey...know what I am? A missionary." and to live and act with that consciousness. Available from your staffworker now.

Something Fishy is a training on friendship evangelism. Evangelism that's not hit and run, that's not the crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon kind of waiting to pounce on unsuspecting victims. It's evangelism with soul, built into the lives we share with our friends on campus. Wanting them to know Christ, yet letting them make sense of Him through their own stories, their own experiences. And along the way, we learn a bit more about ourselves and our own journey in the faith. Interested? Every region has got one planned (check them out under the regional calendars on our FES site), so pencil those dates down...on second thought, write them in bold marker, and make sure you don't miss it!

* Are you itching to be reaching, are you raring to get going? Ask your staffworker for more about the above.

Snapshots of Life

“Fold your hands, bow your head, close your eyes and we’ll pray”. That was the way I was being taught to pray from the time my little 5 years old feet first stepped into Sunday school. There’s nothing wrong with praying with your eyes closed. But through the years, I felt something is missing in my prayer life – my spiritual life. Somehow I was being conditioned to think that spirituality is always formed in the closet of solitude with my eyes tide shut away from the distractions of the world. So I grew up unknowingly crippled in the art of seeing – contemplative seeing. My serendipitous discovery of photography has ‘opened my eyes’. God is everywhere, in everything, among everyone. We don’t need fancy digital cameras to take snapshots of life or to help us practice contemplative seeing. We just need to paused (Selah). In his book The Contemplative Pastor, author Eugene Peterson wrote in the closing of Chapter 7 “… and we find ourselves in the solid biblical companionship of psalmist and prophets who watched the “hills skipped like lambs” and heard the “trees clapped their hands,” alert to God everywhere, in everything, praising, praying with our eyes wide open…”

Mourning Our Times

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us …”

It seems that in the past few months, our country is reaching boiling point. Everything seems to be ready to explode – crime, corruption, demonstrations, rising cost of basic items and freedom of religion and so on. We all know about it and we all talk about it. It affects us, and most of the time it makes us angry. As Malaysians we want to live in a peaceful and harmonious context. And this context is getting eroded day by day.

One major issue lately was the Hindraf issue. Though most of us do not agree with the way this movement demonstrated for its cause, we all agree that there is marginalization amongst all races in Malaysia.

But most of us stop at just disagreeing and accepting the follies of our country. How many of us actually did something after we realized that marginalization is a problem for our country? How many of us actually went out to our neighbourhood and actually did something to stop the rot? When we say our country is in its boiling point, don’t we realize we are part of our country?

Jesus engaged the world by dwelling in the world. And it took him all his earthly life to see, empathize and take action for all the needs of his society. We all know that dying on the cross was not the only thing he did for us. He lived amongst us.

We need to hear more stories of people engaging the world today. We need to hear of people trying their best to make Malaysia liveable. We need to do our part. Do share with us some real stories of people trying to engage our society. Only then can we see the hope of the gospel realized in real lives.

Looking Ahead...

Changes. It’s inevitable.

'Development; at what cost?'

'Blatant disregard for the environment.'

'Exploitations of foreign labourers.'

'Suppression of the voices.'

'The old and weak despised.'

'A purposeless generation.'

'What will we be remembered for?'

50 Years of independence shaped the nation. History says we have achieved much. Our elected representatives say we should maintain status quo to ensure the next 50 years is just as successful. The media plays to the tune of a harmonious country and progressive nation.

But is everything REALLY all right? How sure are we that the pact our founding fathers worked out, will work in the changing decade and shifting values? Crime has reached an unprecedented stage. Diseases, natural disasters, human carelessness and greed make a ‘normal day’ read.

What role will you be playing in writing the next 50 years? God forbid that if we keep silent or remain in apathy, history itself will convict our generation for allowing things to deteriorate.

But what CAN we do, where we are?
Do we even care?

(Photos courtesy of BBC News, LightFrame.lee and Joshua3.com.)

Silence of Christmas

"When is Christmas ever silent?" we ponder.
Carols and jingles mingle aloud in malls,
There's Santa with his bagful of wonders.
And not forgetting the myriad stalls

Selling trees and trinkets and tinsel
To go with wrapped goodies we scatter
Round the twin altars of Pine and Mistle-
Toe. It takes a while before the other,

Yes, the insignificant other part
Of the season comes to mind.
If at all. "...till it happens in your heart."
Do we forget when, or why, or with Who,
"...Christmas really starts..."

The little babe buried 'neath the season.
Has the quiet loud night lost its reason?

Carried Away?

"Whooosh!!! Can’t stop…need to hurry for Christmas practice."

"Byeeee!!! Gotta go finish this last 2 assignments first."

"Eh…coming for the Christmas party? I’ll be acting…seeya there!"

"Sorry!! Can’t join you guys for mamak today. Got church caroling practice…"

Does the lines above sound familiar or similar to what we have been saying to our friends this end of year season?

Where have our time all gone? Assignments, Christmas preparations, camps….all good things in themselves. But are we being too carried away? Busy ‘being busy’, what are we ourselves leaving in our friends? Or even with our families?

Leaving behind “hurrying”? “Rushing”? Christmas presents? Songs?….Or even hurried goodbyes shouted to our friends after the last exam paper is over as we rush off to other things?

Ever wonder that our friends and family may miss us?….Miss our simple unhurried presence.

You and I have hope of leaving behind something with our friends and family. But in our busyness, what are we REALLY leaving behind?

What does your end of year season look like?

Come share with us what you are REALLY leaving behind…

Contend For The Faith!

Life goes on. Even when life gets twisted and distorted and contorted, life goes on. Even when truth tellers cease and falsehood abounds, life goes on! When wrong seems right, and Christ is made to be a superstar or a real moron, life goes on.Faith goes on, in its out of world experience.

Yeah you have seen the past posts in mugz-n-buzz. Today, we no longer have servants as our leaders, we have CEOs. Today, we no longer call for a counter-culture, we immerse ourselves right in what is offered today and make no difference. Today, because of our lust for wealth and health, we buy into anything a preacher says, as long as we stand to benefit.

We desist a gospel that calls us to be humiliated, to suffer or to sacrifice. Christ has been made mute, ineffective and ridiculous, because we Christians have not fought for the real Gospel with our lives. I urge you to CONTEND FOR OUR FAITH!


Will you voice the wrongs you see? Many are being led astray. The Bible is no longer our final authority, but what man says seems to count more. You may have your story to tell where the truth has been violated, ... this is your forum!

Enough! Who is going to stand up and stand out? Who will speak out? Or are we as usual going to cower and fit in?

Health and Wealth

Recently there was a story where a mother of twins died because she refused to receive blood during her delivery which had complications. She was from a Christian group which people would call extreme. This group however would just call themselves people who are exercising faith in the Healer.

There also has been many stories about Christians who believe that in giving to the church, they would receive back manifold. Have you heard about one speaker who promised the return of gold fillings in a person's tooth if he gave money to the 'Lord'?

These might be stories from one extreme but i am sure there are also so many other stories that state healing and material blessings as a direct consequence of faith in healing and in giving.

How do you view these stories that crop out every now and then? What is your view of giving and trusting God in faith?