Compassion committed to integrity

Charity Navigator, one of the world's leading financial accountability organizations, awarded Compassion its highest ranking—4 stars—for the fifth year in a row. Only 1 percent of the more than 5,000 charities they rate have achieved this accomplishment in financial integrity.

It is easy to get bogged down in the statistics of poverty. Each year an estimated 33 million children are born without any hope for a future. Thirty percent of children worldwide suffer from malnutrition. Nineteen percent have no access to clean water. Seventeen percent will never go to school. And the most sobering statictic of all—30,000 children under the age of 15 die each day.^**

These statistics are overwhelming, but at Compassion statistics don't matter as much as children do. In order to win this battle against poverty, Compassion strive for excellence in all areas of their ministry. In the past year, more than 135,000 children were registered in Compassion's Child Sponsorship Program. Here are some other milestones accomplished this year:

• Worldwide sponsorship grew by 13 percent, bringing the year-end total of child sponsors to 689,086.
  
  
• Total revenues were up by more than 18 percent over the previous year, enabling Compassion to serve more children than ever before.
  
  
• Compassion's Leadership Development Program helped 1,017 promising young leaders with their college education and offered these young people Christian leadership training.
  
  
• The Child Survival Program (CSP) rescued, nurtured and discipled more than 4,000 of the world's youngest, most vulnerable children and their caregivers. In the next year, Compassion plans to open 106 more CSP projects, bringing the total number to 172.

Read about the story of Emmanuel, Ghana's first sponsored child.


**Statistics from UNICEF's The State of the World's Children 2006

Soft opening of Jackie's Favourite Asian Cuisine

My dear friend and housemate Amazing Grace reviewed a new restaurant in the CBD we patronized last night called Jackie's—namesake of the martial arts superstar Jackie Chan. According to research done by Aaronwe the Melbourne restaurant is the latest addition to the celebrity's international restaurant chain. While we did not expect Jackie himself to turn up at our table and make suggestions from the wine list, after the meal I figured that for the price they charge, the food falls short of the buildup, although the service was great and the ambience acceptable. Anyone looking to catch a glimpse of Jackie in Melbourne might also be disappointed as according to the captain, the actor is not likely to turn up on the restaurant's November/December grand opening.

Pros: Great ambience, great and courteous service.

Cons: Average food leaning more towards a fusion/westernized menu rather than authentic Asian cuisine.

Jackie's is open for lunch Monday to Friday from 11:30 am to 3:00pm. Dinner is from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm on all days except Fridays and Saturdays, which is open until 11:00 pm. Location: Near corner of Elizabeth and La Trobe Streets (Melway 1A H1). Reservations: (03) 9606 0055

Introducing Daniel and Maycol

Daniel and Maycol came into my life when I decided to support two other children with Compassion after Hamisi.

Both Daniel and Maycol are from Colombia, a country where drug trafficking is a serious problem. Common health problems in Daniel and Maycol's areas include respiratory disorders, bronchitis, and malnutrition.

Daniel lives with his father and mother. His father is employed and his mother maintains the home. There are two children in the family and Daniel is responsible for cleaning around the house. Playing with toy cars, playing ball games and reading are Daniel's favourite activites. Daniel's performance in school is average and he also regularly attends church activities.

Maycol makes his home with his father and mother. Making beds, running errands and cleaning are his household duties. His father is employed and his mother is sometimes employed. There are two children in the family. As part of Compassion's ministry, Maycol participates in Bible class. He is also in kindergarten where his performance is above average. Soccer, playing with cars and bicycling are Maycol's favourite activites.


Boring plaster

I received a letter from Maycol this week and among other things he told me he fell down on the street in June and had a heavy cast on his left arm which was boring! Months usually pass before the letters get translated, forwarded, and delivered. I wish it hadn't been so long before I got the news, and it'd be another 3 months or so before my words could reach back to Maycol. But being able to exchange letters with him and the other boys several times a year does foster a closer bond between us. I have yet to hear about other child sponsorship programs that makes it as special as Compassion does.

Kids under fire

While every other blogger might have been vigorously pounding at their keyboard by now commenting on the Jesus Camp film, here's my observation for what it's worth.

As depicted in the documentary that came out two weeks ago in the United States, a Christian youth camp called Kids on Fire was underway in North Dakota having children speaking in tongues, weeping uncontrollably for their sins (which seemed to have been owned up to by scare tactics), and claiming the nation for Jesus by being soldiers for Christ who are willing to die for the cause of God. As one boy put it, "A lot of people die for God, and they're not afraid."

The film in dispute opens up an old debate on religious radicalism, an ill-treated topic in the public sphere. Now the issue seems to be aggravated by throwing children into the mix.

I think people at the Jesus Camp are seriously misguided to inject militant ideas into Jesus' teachings and then indoctrinate youths with what's not taught in the Bible to begin with. Pastor Beckey Fischer of Jesus Camp said she wants to see children as "radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are in Palestine, Pakistan and all those different places." Granted that's a noble sentiment, I would love to ask Pastor Fischer just how exactly does she intend children to do that. While Christian martyrs in Palestine essentially face persecution by literally laying down their lives to those who want to take it (contrast that to so-called martyrs who wouldn't mind taking other people's lives along), which I believe is what Pastor Fischer meant by radically laying down one's life, it is only silly for Christian kids in America to be ready to lay down their lives in that sense when the persecution they might get more than anything else in their own country is that blank embarassed stare of disconnection from their schoolmates when they start to utter religious babbles. Not unless Fischer intended to station the kids in Iraq at the end of the camp.

It is certainly easier to pound military slogans into the minds of little ones over the weekend in the name of truth and fun—which is a very strange combination by the way—than committing to the painstaking process of real Christian education, which involves critical thinking rather than propagation of religious catchphrases that could be confusing even to grownups. By the way there's nowhere in the Gospel accounts where Jesus was recorded as commissioning His disciples to die for Him either as a means or an end to their faith, which is what the Jesus Camp seems to be explicitly promoting to children. You can't really blame the media for equating Evangelicals with al-Qaeda terrorists when you have people like this misrepresenting Jesus.

It got me worried about the kinds of trash they feed the kids with at the camp, when a little girl of ten or so was shown going to a bowling alley and striking up conversations with strangers that begin with, "Hi, God spoke to me today and He told me..." One wonders if God has really spoken in that instance (see A Private Hot Line to God? by Greg Koukl). And you know you've really had it when children are shown worshipping in front of a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush.

One thing this reminds me of is the immense power of children to imitate. Left with no choice of better Christian examples to follow, kids will follow anyone that comes along and claims to offer them the truth. Rather than preparing children to advance the much-needed Gospel in the world, the Jesus Camp was nothing more than a circus frenzy with a serious role confusion that mistakes themselves as the militant Jesus at end times. Though I'm sure they really meant well, the effort is so farcical it's sad.

A.B. Paterson, Australian bush poet

I first stumbled upon A.B. Paterson's (1864-1941) poem The Man From Snowy River when I noticed two lines of verse scribbled at the bottom of the front of a 10-dollar Aussie note:

"There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around
That the colt from old Regret had got away"

The poem tells the story of a daring young horseback rider who recaptured the colt of a champion racehorse that had escaped from its paddock to live in the mountains with the wild horses. And famous among Paterson's poems is one that has evolved over the century into Australia's unofficial national anthem:

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me?"

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me?
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me?"

Along came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me."

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me?
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me?"

Up rode the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred,
Down came the troopers, one, two, three,
"Whose is that jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?"
"You'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me."

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me?
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me?"

Up jumped the swagman, leapt into the billabong.
"You'll never catch me alive," said he,
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by the billabong.
"Who'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me?"

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me?
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me?"

For over 100 years Waltzing Matilda has been passed on by oral tradition, in written forms, in sound recordings and other media. It has been represented and reinterpreted in countless artistic works, through music, film, television, dance and literature. The song appears in multiple genres and hundreds of locations—in parodies and paintings, in travel stories, in children's books, at sporting events and national parades. It has been used to commemorate Australia's participation in wars. In other words, the song has assumed a special status in the nation's cultural life.

According to Wikipedia:

"There have long been persistent calls for the establishment of Waltzing Matilda as the national anthem over the current national anthem, Advance Australia Fair. The song is certainly easily recognisable and easily sung, but its lyrics, relating the story of a swagman (see glossary of terms below) who steals a sheep and drowns himself when law enforcement arrives, render it unlikely to ever gain acceptance in official circles. Many Australians, however, continue to regard it with great favour and sentimentality. Some have suggested using the same tune but with different lyrics, but supporters argue [Paterson's] lyrics contribute substantially to the song's character."


GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Billabong: A waterhole near a river

Billy: A tin can with a wire handle used to boil water

Coolibah: A eucalyptus tree

Jumbuck: A sheep

Squatter: A wealthy land owner

Swagman: A drifter, or hobo, an itinerant shearer who
carried all his belongings wrapped up in a blanket or
cloth called a "swag"

Trooper: A policeman, a mounted militia-man

Tucker Bag: A bag for keeping food

Waltzing Matilda: To travel from place to place in search
of work with all one's belongings on one's back wrapped
in a blanket or cloth

Kuching on my mind

I didn't realize how beautiful Kuching looks from above:




And the spot on the map I belong to:




But this is how far away from home I am:



Which according to calculations by www.mapcrow.info, is approx. 5,635.20 km apart!

The best of shows

While Melbourne's September is hailing the late arrival of increased temperature, a heat wave is served up on Epsom Road, Ascot Vale (Melway 28 F11)—the venue of the 2006 Royal Melbourne Show, also dubbed "the best of shows".

Which indeed it was. Well at least it lived up to the hype. Running from September 21^st to October 1^st, the gigantic show is theme-specific for all eleven days so you get to choose the kind of experience you want to get out of this feisty extravaganza—from frontier adventures of the outback to the glimmers of showbiz to the much hallowed Australian sports.

And what's a better day for food enthusiasts like Amazing Grace, Aaronwe, and myself to crash than Tasting, Sipping, Dancing Day. While most of the tasting and sipping won't happen until you hit the Grand Pavilion in the middle of Melbourne Showgrounds, you won't see a square foot of boredom whichever way you turn. One of the first stops we made was at the Livestock Pavilion near the Epsom Road entrance, where cattle of all breeds and sizes are featured. And when I say all sizes, I do mean ALL sizes.

The Livestock Pavilion has actually something to offer urban dwellers if you're not someone who's too stuck up about your designer shoes to tread the feces-stained floors in order to catch a glimpse of the bovines. Although you could easily mistake most of them for giant hogs simply by the amount of fat they carry. With nose rings leashed to the back of the pen so they have no choice but to keep their backsides to passers-by, the cattle were either quietly feeding on hay tended to by Aussie Jackaroos and Jillaroos or obliviously urinating on their pen-mates. And prior to the show, it's easy for a city bloke to believe that he's seen from TV all the cattle there is.

Getting out of the stenchy confines, we proceeded to the Grand Pavilion hoping to get our tastebuds spoiled after ruining our sense of smell. Our first station inside the food expo was the Safeway cooking show, where the only aim of attendance is the food samples.

The expo was filled up with stalls promoting products ranging from gourmet cheese to Brazilian chilli sauce. While Aaronwe and I were being our normal selves shying away from food trays offering delectable bites, Amazing Grace skilfully worked her way through the throng of humanity plunging her fingers into every plate in sight. But it wasn't long before we warmed up to the endless sight of mouthwatering food items and joined Amazing Grace in her adventure. My favourite taste of all: Sanitarium's So Good Passionfruit soy-based ice cream.

The highlight of the whole show was unanimously for all three of us the Woodchop Competition at the Woodchop Pavilion. With this year’s total prize money pool in excess of $70,000, the Aussies are up against the Kiwis in this axe-wielding event. Probably the environmentalist's worst nightmare come true, it was admittedly exciting to watch the competitors axing away at the shaved logs with admirable strength and speed. And even though the team we rooted for did not win, they earned a feverish ovation from the audience the moment they first overtook the other teams with better headstart.

The sun was setting as we left the Woodchop Pavilion and the true beauty of the showgrounds began to slowly unveil under the twilight. Aaronwe took advantage of the neon backdrop and experimented with several shots of the carnival ground. More Royal Melbourne Show shots below courtesy of Aaronwe. For more information of the show visit the official website.

Living the Melburnian life

Finally after a hiatus of 3 months I get to blog again—now from my room in Melbourne. There is much to say to keep my friends up-to-date of what I've been up to since last hearing from me, so here we go... (This is going to be long-winded so go grab a coffee or something.)

Basically I have made two major relocations in the past 3 months: one from Kuching to Toowoomba, which is in the southern part of Queensland, Australia, and the other from Queensland to the state of Victoria—well Melbourne to be exact. Nothing too exciting happened during and in between the moves, but I instantly fell head over heels in love with Melbourne when I got here.



To say nothing else of the city, Melbourne has topped The Economist's list of most livable cities in the world not just once, but twice, on the basis of its cultural attributes, climate, crime rates, cost of living, etc.

When I arrived in August, the 2006 Melbourne International Film Festival has just begun to take hold of moviegoers with close to 400 screenings in theatres around the city. For folks with artistic interest of a different slant, the National Gallery of Victoria is hosting an exclusive exhibition from June to October, entitled Picasso: Love & War 1935-1945, featuring one of 20th century's most passionate and tumultuous relationships between Pablo Picasso and love interest Dora Maar.

The first two weeks were spent looking for permanent accommodation in and around the city while staying in a very clean and fun-filled backpackers' inn called Urban Central (where you get free frisbees upon check-in and are invited to free BBQs every Monday evening). The challenge lay in the fact that me and my friends were jobless at that moment (still are!) and that I lacked proper references from previous landlords or realty agents, and that's going to affect the outcome of our applications. And then we found this brand new beautiful two-storey modern townhouse 25 minutes' tram ride from the city, and blessedly the landlords liked us just as much as we liked their house. So we moved in at the beginning of Week 3 and as a plus, our next-door neighbours are very friendly and helpful people who happen to be our landlord's builders.

One thing that stands out in Melbourne for me from other cities in Australia is the electric trams that cruise alongside motor vehicles on the road. The third largest tram network in the world, Yarra Trams (part of Melbourne's public transport network formerly known as The Met) is the only suburban network in Australia still in existence. Getting around Melbourne proved to be very easy with a weekly Metcard that costs $26.70, giving you unlimited rides throughout the week. After the first week you'll find the trams way too convenient to even consider getting a car. If you have a concession card, the monthly Metcard would only cost you around $50—and that's much more cost-effective a way to commute than driving!

There are yet places to be explored in Melbourne, and I'll post more about my life here as time goes by. In the mean time here's a satellite image of Melbourne:

And here's where I live in relative to Melbourne:



And in case you wonder, a person from Melbourne is referred to as a Melburnian, spelled without an 'O'.

Does the Bible hush up history?

First as a runaway bestselling novel and then as a blockbuster movie, The Da Vinci Code has fascinated millions. Its allegations against historic Christianity are colorfully portrayed, and survey shows that reading The Da Vinci Code does alter beliefs. But are these allegations true, or merely inaccurate accounts of centuries-old myths and heresies?

To sift through the evidence, here's a summary of May/June issue of Solid Ground, bi-monthly letter from STR:

• According to The Da Vinci Code, the Bible as we know it today—along with Jesus' divinity—was fabricated at the Council of Nicea for political reasons. The authentic accounts of Jesus were destroyed. However, there is not a shred of evidence for these claims. According to those actually present at Nicea—Eusebius and Athanasius in particular—Christ's deity was the reason for Nicea, not the result of it.

• Writings from the first three centuries are replete with references to Jesus' divinity. Even the heretical Gnostics and the Modalists got this detail right.

• The New Testament Canon was never an issue at Nicea because the legitimacy of the four gospels had been decided centuries before. The Gnostic Gospels that Brown supports—like Thomas, Mary, and Philip—were not.

• None of the canonical Gospels report the most climactic event of the century, the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., strong evidence each was completed before then within decades, not centuries, of the crucifixion.

• No evidence suggests the New Testament evolved over time through countless translations and revisions. Instead, the academic analysis shows it to be the most reliable document from antiquity.

Read Solid Ground for more details.

Love and hard work

One of the men I respect and like the most, and one man every young person should get to know, is Ravi Zacharias. I recently reread one of his books, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah, and in the chapter titled "The Will To Do", he said:

The first thing to bear in mind is that we exaggerate the separation of the emotion and the will as two distinct faculties of operation--some kind of misshapen two-headed monster... I believe that a legitimate understanding of what is happening here can preserve the grand union between emotion and will.

Without the will, marriage is a mockery, without emotion, it is a drudgery. You need both.

In the same chapter Ravi talked about his initial disgreement with one of his professors that love is hard work, but after long years of being married, he assented that his professor was right. And like Ravi in his younger days, I find it incredible to think that loving another can be so hard to do. But then I looked around me and I started to see clues as to why that is true.

My parents celebrated their thirtieth wedding anniversary earlier this year. As a child who has the privilege of observing upclose the domestic interactions between two people over almost thirty years, I could vouch for at least one married couple that marriage is hard work most of the time, if not all the time.

While I do not know of a couple more devoted to each other than my parents, I also know that their marriage hasn't been smooth sailing through the years. But one image stands out strongly in my mind that serves as a hint to what marriage is really about. And that is the picture of my father serving up a hot cup of milk on the table beside my mother as she unwinds at the end of the day--even after thirty years of being married to the same woman, whose beauty and charm mustn't have stay the same as when they first met. Sometimes he would either forget out of busyness or abstain out of intentional withdrawal from a fresh argument. Other times he would make that deferential cup of milk despite all that. And that clearly demonstrates for me the role of the will in marriage, especially when witnessed over a long period of time.

Ravi continued by saying:

Chivalry in love has nothing to do with the sweetness of the appearance. It has everything to do with the tenderness of a heart determined to serve. That is the first hard lesson to learn.

And I believe my father learned that lesson well from the start. It couldn't have been a fortunate accident the way he treats his wife. Because I know my father's temperaments well, I know a lot of will is involved in his loving my mother throughout their marriage, no matter how loveable a woman such as my mother is.

I didn't know better. But that's my first hard lesson there, knowing that loving another means dying to ourselves--on a daily basis.

Life as an adventure

It is both daunting and beautiful -- life. But only if it is seen as an adventure. True adventures are scary because unlike their counterfeits, you seldom have it your way. But the beauty of it comes when we begin to see that it's never the point to have it our way with life but rather allow it to teach and instruct us as it may, even when it costs us. It is often the price not paid that would eventually cost us the most.

As I sat in my bed struggling to separate an assault of imagination from the reading at hand, an exceedingly beautiful picture entered my mind. I saw in my mind's eye a lady I love most dearly cuddling up to me on a similar winter night as this, as if she would lose me the moment she let go of her grip. Then the daunting came in the form of a truth, distant as it might seem -- but no less true. If the same winter night could not steal her away from me, there bound to be another that would. A wise sage once made an observation of beauty and affliction going hand-in-hand in life. That encapsulates the entire essence of a true adventure -- that it is desirable and unbearable both at the same time! If we were to truly live, choose we simply cannot.

But let affliction come in due season. Now is a time of gathering stones. Beauty fades when it is not desired, so it must be pursued.

An invitation

Why do we adopt a grave attitude whenever we speak about the God of the Bible? I kid you not, I myself am one of those who often get all serious and grim whenever the topic of God comes up, as if I'm talking about a rich, powerful uncle who wouldn't spare a penny on his needy relatives unless he sees a reasonable return on his "investment", whether in terms of a favor or a twisted sense of indebtedness. We all know someone like that. It doesn't matter if I happen to like this uncle a whole lot. I'd still talk about him the same way. Just like everybody else outside the family who doesn't know him any better.

And for years this "cosmic uncle" seems to have wanted to change my deep-rooted but gravely mistaken perception of him. I know he has been wanting to do that for a long time since I was much younger... if I weren't too caught up with my own problems to notice what kind of an uncle -- what kind of a person -- he has always been. And the kind of inheritance that he's long since written down in his will for me.

If I had told you exactly how God is inviting me to see for myself His true nature, rather than the nature imposed on Him by our wrong perceptions of Him, you would dismiss me as either hallucinating or simply out of my mind. But one reason why I believe what I'm called to do is what God would want me to take up is because it's a task that is, left to my own recourse, humanly impossible. Much more importantly, when I'm brave enough to be honest with my vulnerabilities and despite its immensity, it is a task that stirrs my heart and affirms that this is what I'm made for.

I seek not to convince you of God's good and passionate nature. No man can do that for another. The only way to find out is for each of us to know what He's telling us and do exactly as He says. This I am striving to do well myself. And the first step is to accept His invitation, with the full knowledge that we're not invited to a leisurely walk in the park, but to an adventure. That means we would have to take risks with God. And it also involves sacrifices. And one other thing: success is not guaranteed.

Now I ask myself: What kind of a God would take such a risk with mere mortals? And the conclusion I draw is this: Only the God who sacrificed His own Son for our sake is capable of such adventures. Not Uncle Scrooge.

God's invitation is never for the faint of heart. And the decision is totally ours to saddle up and ride after Him into battle. A battle to ransom hearts.

A new man awakes

Woke up from a dream that moved me to pen this down:

Live as if your dream has already come true--and change reality accordingly.

Here's one way life can be really funny. And didn't Astaire sing it this way(?) :

I see a new sun up in a new sky
And my whole horizon has reached a new high
Yesterday my heart's sung a blue song
But today hear it hum a cheery new song

I dreamed a new dream, I saw a new face
And I'm spreading (swingin'!) sunshine all over the place
With a new point of view, here's what greets my eye
New love, new luck, NEW SUN IN THE SKY!

A dreamer is the most dangerous thing around. And the dreamer who changes reality according to his dreams is going to CONQUER THE WORLD... or so I B-U-R-N-I-N-G-L-Y believe.

That's who I realize I've suddenly become when I woke up today. And for the first time I don't want to hide it under a bushel...

"I'm the luckiest man on Earth!"

The fork revisited

Pardon my use of allegories again. I know I haven't been at it for a while now, but there are things that must be spoken in such a manner lest the four winds latch on to the uncoded message and whisper it into the ears of those who would be stirred by its plain meaning. And unrest is the last thing I want to cause in those concerned as a result of my decision to make these thoughts public.

In the account of Sailor versus the Fork, the sailor has this to say in view of the events that have passed and what is yet on his mind:

I am but an ordinary sea-pilgrim in search of the Eternal Harbor. But sometimes the dullest pilgrimage could yield one of the most phenomenal peeks into the miraculous when inspected through mythical lenses. If my hearers remember my close encounter with the three-headed beast who shapeshifted as a forked seaway ahead -- a disguise that nearly perished my vessel -- I shall now proceed to explain the three separate affairs that each of the three sinuous head-routes sought to imitate in order to lure a seaman to his doom. It is hoped that my fellow voyagers will avail their selves of this tale and take heart thereupon.

The first atrocious head took upon itself the likeness of an unfinished Past that still haunts me from time to time.

Once upon a not so distant time in the early days of my pilgrimage I came upon a box crowned with priceless jewels. The jewels were such that I had never behold before that upon first laying eyes on them I intended to claim them as my own. But as fate would normally have it, I soon came to realize that the bejeweled box was the possessions of another man. So with great humiliation I promptly returned the treasure to its rightful owner, and before long thought that was the last I would hear of it. Little did I expect that later in my journey, I stumbled upon a fellow voyager who in the course of our dealings revealed the truth about the lost jewels in my previous albeit brief possession; that insofar as ownership of the jeweled case was concerned, it did not belong to any man prior to me.

The second head of the shapeshifter took upon itself the likeness of a strange incident that occurred to me in present time.

I beheld of late a phoenix of considerable size and majesty nesting atop the mast of my wee vessel. And for days this fiery creature brought about the foulest of weathers and utterly strenuous navigation. Granting that it is superstitious to equate a fearsome fowl with bad weather, the most amazing thing ensued when after days of obstinate roosting, the bird laid a giant egg trailing with strains of hemoglobinous slime as she alighted skyward in a sudden unfurling of her golden wingspan. Not noticing that the persistent storms were calmed immediately after the giant bird's departure, I fixed my eyes on the downfalling egg as it slid down the tall sails and landed in time in my outstretched arms below.

The third head, being the largest and most depraved of all three, took upon itself the likeness of a Future yet unknown.

Once I came upon a fount in the woods en route to the lodge where I stayed for one night to replenish rations before resuming my pilgrimage at sea. Wearied by the walk and the penetrating sunlight, I rested my feet by the fount and started cupping water eagerly from the spout for a drink. A maiden then emerged from behind the gushing spring on the other side of the fount, giving me a mortal scare. Without a ceremony, she acquainted me with her perils under one long, desperate breath. Before I could get to the bottom of it, the maiden dissolved into sunlight and left me without a chance to respond. One night after the incident at the enchanted fount, a vision of the same maiden visited me in my dreams, revealing the significance of our peculiar encounter. To my astonishment I learned that the maiden would be my future helpmate from a certain time on until I drop anchor in Eternal Harbor.

At this point the sailor arrests his report and searches his audience for any question that they might have regarding his testimony so far. He spots one standing up and gestures for him to speak.

"What is the significance of the jewelry case in relation to the Cerberean beast adventure? And for that matter, the egg of the phoenix and the vanished maiden? Why did the beast choose these particular incidents to lure your ship into the Drink?"

The sailor adeptly resumes his story with a continuation that could have done without the question:

It was knowledge of my emotional attachments to these incidents that gave the sea-beast a foothold in its attempt at my life. More specifically -- knowledge of the vision given to me about the maiden by the enchanted fount.

At the time when I received the vision, I was sworn to the maiden’s service and exclusive loyalty even before the vision would come to pass. The sea-beast knew I would greatly fail at keeping to my words, and played on my weakness.

Another in the audience rises and says, "What exactly was your word?"

Embarrassed, the sailor replies:

That I would never entertain or pursue thoughts of others -- save thoughts of Grace Hisself -- in place of her.

Obviously the sailor failed when he valued the treasures above the mysterious maiden, whom he believes would one day become his counterpart. After a long pause, the sailor continues:

It is with the deepest regret and utter humiliation that I stand before you this day a surviving but unavailing example. Though I have fought off the sea-beast for now with sheer grace, I have utterly failed to demonstrate steadfastness in times of tribulation. But take courage, I say! For were not the hands of His Grace at work to deliver me from the sea-beast's belly even as I failed to effect my own deliverance? Even as I doubted, my Deliverer doubts not! Wrestle though I might with His Order to be rid of the burden of my own words, His Grace has set His promise in the future, that I might learn to trust not in my own limited resources but rather look to His limitless promise for hope...

Truth be told, I do not grasp the meaning of the vision given to the sailor concerning a counterpart. But like every good sailor does, he believes there is a lesson inherent in the vision that can be known and must be learned before the vision could come to pass.

Until it does, the pilgrim sails on.

Truth... or tricks?

I received an interesting e-mail today that sent me on a little scientific excavation. And the result demonstrated how a little bit of careful thinking goes a long way in the quest for truth.

First let me reconstruct the original e-mail here:

In black you can read the word GOOD, in white the word EVIL
(inside each black letter is a white letter). It's all very philosophical too,
because it visualizes the concept that good can't exist
without evil (or the absence of good is evil).

Can you see why this painting is called optical illusion? You may not see it at first,
but the white spaces read the word optical, the blue landscape reads the word
illusion. See for yourself!

The word TEACH reflects as LEARN.

In brown you can read ME, and when you look through
you can read YOU. Read this text aloud.

The word THE is repeated twice...but did u notice???

Very well.

I did a little experiment having nothing at all to do with these pictures, but with one of the statements accompanying them. My experiment was based on the first picture's comments:

"It's all very philosophical too, because it visualizes the concept that good can't exist without evil (or the absence of good is evil)."

Somehow I knew that doesn't sound quite right. But it's not good enough to "just know". Just what exactly is wrong with this statement? And if something's wrong can I prove it? So my hypothesis was basically this: Is this statement's assumptions about good and evil correct?

Here's a detail of what I found out:

If we study this quote a little more carefully, what mistakes can we spot from the above statement describing the first picture?

Notice the statement's assumption that "good can'’t exist without evil" IS THE SAME AS "the absence of good is evil" (established by the conjunctive 'or' in parentheses).

To better understand what the quoted statement really means, let's convert the above into logical equations: Let's represent good with the letter 'G' and evil with the letter 'E'. So now we have the following:

1. "good can't exist without evil" becomes
   "G - E = -G"
   
   
2. "the absence of good is evil" becomes
   "G - G = E"

In the first equation, we see that G cannot exist (or G has a negative status) without E. In other words, if we take E out of the equation, G by necessity disappears as well. The application of this is that, if equation #1 is true, then a world without evil is also a world without good.

Whereas in the second equation, we see that E can only exist when G is taken from the equation. In other words, if we take G out of the picture, then E will appear. The application of this is that, if equation #2 is true, then a world without good is a world where evil exists.

Now here's the heart of the problem: Is the statement's assumption a right one? Are both equations/statements saying the same thing, like what the anonymous writer would think or have us believe?

OBVIOUSLY NOT!

Why not? Here's why:

Proposition #1:

G - E = (not G)
G = (not G) + E

Proposition #2:

G - G = E

G = E + G

G = G + E

According to the law of noncontradiction, we can see from the workings above that Proposition #1 DOES NOT EQUAL TO Proposition #2.

Therefore, we can safely conclude that "good can't exist without evil" IS NOT THE SAME AS "the absence of good is evil".

Now let's recap the original observation:

"It's all very philosophical too, because it visualizes the concept that good can't exist without evil (or the absence of good is evil)."

With the help of the test that we'’ve just done, we can see more clearly now that this statement obviously contains error. If according to the anonymous writer the first picture visualizes any concept at all*, it's either it visualizes the concept that "good can't exist without evil" OR "the absence of good is evil", but the picture CANNOT VISUALIZE BOTH CONCEPTS at the same time.

So which concept is the right concept and which is not? Is Proposition #1 correct and Proposition #2 incorrect? Or is it the other way around? To better answer that, we need the help of philosophy on top of the logical thinking we've just applied, but that is an entirely different topic all on its own.

For now let's just bear in mind that, from the result of the test that we've done, "good can't exist without evil" IS NOT THE SAME AS "the absence of good is evil".

*I did not include in the above analysis one observation that I made after the experiment. As creatively as these pictures are presented, I never believed they illustrate any philosophical concept at all (especially not when alleged truths about good and evil are inferred from the first picture).

In other words, just because we are capable of twitching images to accommodate certain ideas doesn't mean that we have established valid evidence for those ideas, good or bad. For example, as the first picture demonstrates, you can't even hope that the picture would support ideas like "good can't exist without evil" without manipulating the letters in some way to fit the intended meaning. In Genting or Vegas that's called a loaded dice. Likewise in a science lab, that's tampering with the apparatus. What you end up with is not a proper 'G' or 'D', but the likeness of a 'G' or 'D' or whatnot (that's when optical illusions gain an upperhand in fooling the mind to trust the eyes). As soon as the distance between the letters or the thickness of the lines by which the letters are formed is altered, or one stroke curving or ending without certain flourish, the whole thesis breaks down.

The pictures might speak a thousand words in this case, but they certainly don't speak a word of truth.

Tomorrow in history: Last day as pharmaceutical rep

With tomorrow as the last day of my two-year service with the company, I have the following people to thank in retrospect:

Anna Lau – Thank you for your constant mentorship especially in the government hospital sector and for imparting your professional knowledge and experience to me. It has been a fruitful and pleasant time partnering with you.

Eugene Chai – Ah Gene-Gor! Thank you for being a wonderful teammate and counselor. Your casual and generous attitudes have gone beyond what colleagues do and have given birth to our friendship.

Annie Poh – Dai Kah Jay! Thank you for accommodating this young and inexperienced colleague in every way and for cheering up the office every morning simply with your presence and jolliness.

Kenny Lim – Regional Sales Champion for 2005! Thank you for being the shining star and pride of Sarawak team. You are definitely a professional role model to look up to. Your thundering presence is something that I will dearly miss!

Sharon Lee – Thank you for making laughing such an easy thing to do. Your professional integrity with your uniquely personal touch is something that’s truly inspiring and admirable.

Now to the best manager I’ve known yet:

George Kueh – I couldn’t have asked for a better boss! Your steadfastness, ingenuity, enthusiasm, integrity and humility are a combination that I’ve never seen before in a superior and that I fear I will never find in a future boss. Thank you first and foremost for believing in me and for offering me this opportunity of a lifetime to work under you for the past two years. Thank you also for continuing to mold and make me into a part of your vision for the team and for expecting the best from me. And I couldn’t thank you enough for your gracious motivation in times when I fall short. You are a constant source of inspiration and a secret recipe that propels personal and professional achievements! I’m simply blessed to have caught a glimpse of the ingredients for success in you.

Not forgetting all others in the bigger family of Sanofi Aventis Malaysia (and the prenuptial Sanofi~Synthelabo days) who made my term in the company an even richer one. To my Sabah and Brunei teammates: Ian Chan, Gavin Wong, Michael Yee, Josephine Yong, Chai Fui Ming, Felix Chu, Ken Yong, Vincente Wong, and Cynthia Lee-Kwong – for lack of better words, thank you for the brief but cherished connections we’ve had during each company get-together. You are a bunch of friendly and fun colleagues!

To Colin Yap and Goon Su Aan in Marketing – thank you through and through for your fantastic work and collaborations. To Tan Mae Lyn, Naresh Kumar, Simon Jesudason, Loo Beng Siew and all others in Training and Business Support – thank you for making it possible for me to function and excel in my daily responsibilities. To the ever-smiling Cheah Shih Wei – thank you for putting a smile on my face with your valuable sales updates ;-p. To all my colleagues in Finance – thank you for saving me every month end with your prompt deposits!

To MK – thank you to the invisible hands at work behind the repping scene that “domino-effected” results down the ladder and made much of my professional success a possibility. To Victor George Phillips – first of all thank you for agreeing with George that I had what it takes to represent the company at the frontline. Thank you also for being the character I looked forward to at every company function, and for caring enough to remember the little details in passing. Your occasional reminders of bigger things in life have been and always will be a source for forward momentum. To YS Chua – thank you for leading the team to a superb first quarter at the start of 2006. I deeply regret having missed the opportunity to extend my term under your leadership. My best wishes to you and the future accomplishments of the company with you at the helm. Also a special thank-you goes out to Patrick Lau for patiently grooming me during my probational period with the company, and to Cecilia Teoh who never ceased to amaze me with her great affability since my first days with the company.

And last but not least, to countless others and the many nameless faces in the company who have ever offered a passing smile in the corridor, uttered a warm greeting, helped with my detailing skills or passed on a plate in a food queue – thank you for seizing the moment to make one other nameless colleague feel at ease and at home.

Thank you all for everything. My best wishes to you in all your current and future undertakings. May the gracious God bless you.

Some recent updates

Some updates for the past month. I've been touring Hong Kong and Shenzhen on a company incentive trip in February. The Monday following the trip, I walked into my boss's office and delicately presented him with a standard four-by-nine envelope containing my nicely typed, tersely phrased letter of resignation.

After recollecting himself from a brief heart event, my boss listened to my well rehearsed basis for departure and accepted my resignation without much fuss. And then the hunt for a replacement began.

Maybe I was the only person in town who did not fully realize the popularity of the position I'm leaving. My job was advertised in the local papers the weekend following my resignation. Factoring in the speed at which news travels in this industry, the office was instantly swarmed with applications through fax and mail the following weeks, non-stop.

And when you thought you've witnessed the scariest in corporate recruitment, the company offered my colleagues a bounty of 500 ringgits simply for successfully recommending a candidate for the position! That's not all. Rather than aiming for the generous cash reward, half of my colleagues decided to apply for my position instead...




A brand new page

Although I have yet to prove myself worthy of my decision to move to Australia and start things from scratch come May, the most important people in my life think it a cavalier move to leave a well-paying job for uncertainties abroad. What sane yuppie would even ponder such a senseless endeavor?

No looking back, I told myself. I did not regret resigning from a job everyone's raving about. I just have to move to Australia to find out if I can make it away from home. All the rest would soon be history no one would even care to remember.

Notice: Blogger in Hong Kong, China

Away in Hong Kong from July 18 to July 24. February 18 to February 24.

Introducing Hamisi

The information package of my sponsored child arrived on Monday. The child's name is Hamisi, a boy of 9 years from Tanzania. Hamisi lives with his father and mother. He is responsible for helping in the kitchen, running errands and cleaning. His father is sometimes employed and his mother is sometimes employed as a seller in the market. There are 6 children in the family. Soccer, playing with toy cars and playing ball games are Hamisi's favorite activities. Hamisi is presently in kindergarten and he also regularly attends Bible class.

Hamisi lives on the plains of Mwenge, home to approximately 325,000 residents. Typical houses are constructed of dirt floors, mud walls and corrugated iron roofs. Common health problems in this area include malaria and typhoid. Most adults in Mwenge are unemployed but some work as subsistence farmers and earn the equivalent of 18 US dollars per month. This community needs agricultural improvements, employment opportunities, potable water and medication.

Tanzania

Tanzania's vast resources have helped create industries is tobacco, sugar, diamond and gold mining, cement and tourism. Yet Tanzania remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The economy depends heavily on agriculture, which provides 85% of exports and employs 80% of the work force. But topography and climatic conditions, however, limit cultivated crops to only 4% of the land area. It's estimated that nearly 1.7 million people, or 8% of adults in Tanzania, have HIV/AIDS. Nearly 100% of the country's population is native African.

Compassion International



Compassion International exists in countries like Tanzania as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.

As a Compassion sponsor, you will enable your sponsored child to participate in a church-based program that offers life-changing benefits including help with learning development, health care, social-skills development and Christian training -- opportunities and services that most of the world's poorest children simply cannot receive. You will have a meaningful connection between you and the child you support. The child you sponsor will know your name, write to you and benefit directly from your monthly sponsorship. In return you can help your sponsored child develop a sense of confidence and self-worth by the love you express through letters and prayers.

If you wish to make a difference in a child's life but for any reason cannot commit to sponsoring a child, you can make a one-time contribution through Compassion's Unsponsored Children's Program. Thousands of hopeful children are registered with Compassion but are waiting for sponsors. Your gift to the Unsponsored Children's Fund can help children see hope in Compassion's program by providing care until they find a sponsor. Learn more about the Unsponsored Children's Fund.

For more information on child sponsorship, visit Compassion. Also hear it from Tom Emmons who's been sponsoring children since 1984.

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."

- Matthew 18:5

C.S. Lewis: The godfather of layman apologists

These days C.S. Lewis is better known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. Those who are fond of his children's stories (equally enjoyable to adults) will find that Lewis has much more to offer than weaving tales of fantasy and adventure.

I was first introduced to C.S. Lewis by a friend's recommendation of his book Mere Christianity. What I found interesting about Lewis after the first reading was the intense intellectual workout he can put you through, but at the same time making you enjoy it. I think the reason for that is that you cannot read Lewis without being impressed by his natural ability to marry reason and imagination.

Visit this nicely done fan blog dedicated to Lewis, a daily updated site featuring snippets from his vast body of works. Since Lewis is someone you'll find yourself going back to over and over again, I've put this link on the navigation panel to the left under the heading "Blogs I Read".

The importance of the mind in Christian living

J.P. Moreland first gained recognition when in a debate with renowned atheist Kai Nielsen, he displayed an uncanny ability to connect with the audience in arguing for the existence of God. This turned into a book, Does God Exist?, co-authored with Nielsen. Dr. Moreland has since become a well-known name in Christian apologetics, speaking and debating at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

In this audio clip, Moreland addresses an assembly of Christians in Texas A&M University on the importance of the mind in Christian living. Listen or download.

More than personal: A case for an intellectual life in the Church (2)

...continued from part 1

Do you notice that oftentimes when we are asked by a non-believer why we became a Christian, we proceed to detail to them our struggles before we became a Christian, then our encounter with Christ and the changes that followed after accepting Him as our Lord and Savior? Do you notice that instead of giving reasons why we are followers of Christ, all we did was telling them the story of how we became Christians? No matter how impressive, personal experiences – contrary to common belief among most modern Christians – are not the reason for believing in the credibility of Christianity. Statements like "I believe in Christ because such and such a thing happened to me" are not valid reasons for believing. Noticeable spiritual experiences can be the results of believing aright (or they can be mistaken as such when we believe amiss). And the right reason for believing in Christianity, just as the right reason for believing in anything, is because we have come to find out that it is true. Or in other words, Christianity or rather Christ Himself can only be believed in after we are convinced that what Christ claimed to be so are in fact so.

Now the hard work lies in being convinced of that conclusion, which by the way isn't impossible work – in fact far from it. But nonetheless emotional reactions only come after we understand the truth of Christianity, or they may not. No matter what we should never believe because believing brings about favorable feelings – feelings upon which we judge the validity of our beliefs. When that happens, we are in fact projecting a corporate image to the world that is consistent with our mistaken belief that the process of coming to faith is all the reason we need to be and to remain a Christian. Do we still wonder why the world at large finds Christianity something left to be desired? If we were to attempt an answer beyond our personal experiences, which by the way varies from one individual to another, are we in the position to give it? Christians, though passionate and well-intentioned, cannot connect with a world that demands to know why we believe what we believe because we have disengaged our minds in loving God when it matters to Him that we have a sound, intellectual case to present to the world.

Apostle Peter encouraged Christians of his time to always be ready to give intelligent answers to unbelievers regarding their faith (1 Peter 3:15). Apostle Paul clearly appealed to reason in his testimony before the judgment throne of Felix the governor (Acts 24:10-21). Augustine urged us to "think in believing and believe in thinking." These saints seem unanimous in believing that the mind is of the utmost importance in our walk with Christ. But look around and what do we see? Christians throwing around spiritual-sounding catchphrases like "just believe" or "don't judge." The sad reality being the unspoken parts of those statements. When we utter things like just believe, we usually mean it to be a dismissive statement that really says don't ask too much, you're making me look bad with those questions. When we say don't judge, we're most likely really saying don't judge me, lest I judge you back. We find ourselves easily disengaging our minds in our walk with Jesus when the Lord Himself commanded us to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." What looks like spiritual maturity for most of us is really just intellectual apathy in disguise. It's no coincidence that we're living in an information-overloaded age. We have too much information available at our fingertips we have lost the ability to examine ideas and think critically on important issues like beliefs and truth claims. Something has definitely and seriously gone wrong in the Church's thinking life.

It is not my intention to profess to lecture my fellow followers of Christ on how to engage the mind in their faith. I am learning that myself every day. But what I want to do here, over the course of future postings, is to bring to your attention thoughts of great writers and teachers who have the knowledge on such a topic. Much more importantly, these are great men who consistently practice what they preach. Do not take my words for it that what these men teach are consistent with God's Word. By all means find out for yourself.

Two clarifications

(1) I do not want you to get the wrong idea that I'm against Christians sharing their emotive spiritual experiences to the unbelieving world, nor do I think such experiences are illegitimate. I don't. What I am against is Christians sharing their personal experiences to unbelievers with the intention to convert based on the merits of the experience, which brings us to my case later.

(2) I'm by no means saying that the intellectual life is the only way of life and the only way to God or salvation. But I do believe, after consulting the Good Book and also minds greater than my own, that an obedient mind – indeed the exercising of the whole person's intellectual faculty – contributes an enormous part to knowing God aright. A distinction derserves to be made between the two. One might be saved by God without first knowing God (of course this statement has to be qualified), just as someone drowning could be saved by a total stranger standing on the bank without knowing the saver beforehand; that's the work of a saving grace, the act of a father giving his little child gifts without first asking for the child's full knowledge of him. But through sanctificating grace, we are asked to participate in our Heavenly Father's business by paying full mind to His real nature and His deepest concerns – not to satisfy the Father's sense of self-regard (for He has none) but to increase our full pontential as His own. This is an errand that cannot be completed without involving the mind in its full vigilance. And it is by so doing that we are enabled to be like Christ. Now on to my case.

More than personal: A case for an intellectual life in the Church (1)

Many people have this idea that the logical or intellectual approach to anything religious is just a clever way to win arguments and it's not a legitimate way for Christians to sway unbelievers to Christ.

In the very early days of my Christian walk, the longer I stayed a Christian the more I had to tell myself that witnessing for Christ is nothing more than just sharing my personal experience with Jesus, because that seemed to be what everyone else was doing. I didn't realize that by doing what everyone else did, I was putting myself in a vulnerable position where it can be said that my religion was a product of a kind of subjective belief that is of no relevance to others, therefore making my witnessing unnecessary and what’s worse, irrelevant. I find that once such an objection is raised, I no longer find my faith credible, let alone defensible, because my witness was based on experiences that are largely personal and therefore cannot be verified objectively.

With the help of teachers like C.S. Lewis, J.P. Moreland and many others, I realized later that something else was needed if I were to take my faith seriously and have an entrenched confidence that Christianity is believable universally, not just for me. We need a belief that is able to stand on its own regardless of our feelings or our vested interest in it. And to identify that diamond in the rough, we need some tools; something which is indispensable in the sharing and defense of the Gospel: a thinking mind.

A lot has gone wrong in people's ability to think critically about the important issues of life, and Christians are no exceptions. One of the most careless mistakes committed by Christians today is making the absence of a thinking life a prerequisite for faith. Join a local Bible study group and you will be convinced that an average Christian no longer holds the truth of God's Word on the level of objectivity. The message of the scriptures has become a subject of a person's opinion of how their experience has led them to believe what the Bible is trying to say to them. When difficult questions are raised by non-believers in our midst, we usually either meet them with a pat response or circumvent them by finding an easy way out of a ready answer. If on the other hand an objection is raised by someone in the family of believers, more often than not we would employ the "I don't want to judge and so shouldn't you" tactic to put people off genuine concerns to which we have no honest answers.

We the Church have lost our ability and courage to critically assess our faith before we eagerly offer it to the world. As a result we not only find that the world has more genuine objections to our faith than we are ready to handle, but that we are pushing our comrades, especially the young, to the frontline of fiercely competitive ideas armed with nothing more than an individual and separate sense of divine duty to convert nations. And when the world spearheads us with challenges (a lot of which are, not surprisingly, intellectual) and accusations of irrational and irrelevant faith, we wonder why our harvest is not more plentiful when our laborers are willing. Why then is the use of logical persuasions so important in our witness for Christ? What can an intellectual argument do that a personal, experiential account of faith cannot?

Two clarifications before I proceed to make my case, lest anyone take my lack of exactitude for certain false endorsements.

Continue to part 2...

A New Year's resolution

To be honest I never caught on to the trend of making New Year's resolutions. Chiefly because I didn't believe in myself enough to believe in them.

But I've decided to make my first at the start of 2006. Not because I've finally found enough self-confidence or ambition to do it. But simply because, knowing the tasks that lie before me despite my lack of natural ability to accomplish them, I must begin immediately, however insignificant the effort might seem.

Thus are my goals for 2006:

1. Support a child through financial sponsorship and prayers
   
2. Visit a prison inmate through letters of encouragement and hope
   
3. Advocate for truth by engaging a relativistic culture with conversations that count
   

The first two are pretty straightforward. The third goal, which is really conversational apologetics, requires some homework and training. Look out for more on each of the goals in future posts.