This is how the new book looks like. available at all bookstores and from Amazon. Spread the message of hope!
27 Jul 2011
13 Jul 2011
fullyalive?! will metamorph..stay in view..
dear friends, after recently being duly impressed with some blogs and also realizing that blogging is a recognized work..i am pumped to give this home a makeover.
and Providence sent someone to help me - who tend to make machines go 'ping'!
so pls pray for the changes, for the writing, for the impact.
and visit in a few weeks' time, bring some friends and a cuppa and catch up!
thanks.
jenni
and Providence sent someone to help me - who tend to make machines go 'ping'!
so pls pray for the changes, for the writing, for the impact.
and visit in a few weeks' time, bring some friends and a cuppa and catch up!
thanks.
jenni
21 Jun 2011
16 Apr 2011
madness of faith
what is this deal called faith?
a madness.
isnt that the way we describe and treat those who have
friends unseen,
conversations with the air,
sudden smiles that light up the face,
uncommon strength, resilience and
dogged persistence?
why i seem to keep ...believing things will get better
that perfection will arrive
that hope springs up
people will change I will change
Someone hears me
knows my name
holds my hand
sign your name friend if you share this madness --
your days filled with ordinariness and yet streaking with glory
you died so many times yet live and
you plan to live forever because Someone told you so.
perhaps this is where we differ from those who get housed
we share this madness.
a madness.
isnt that the way we describe and treat those who have
friends unseen,
conversations with the air,
sudden smiles that light up the face,
uncommon strength, resilience and
dogged persistence?
why i seem to keep ...believing things will get better
that perfection will arrive
that hope springs up
people will change I will change
Someone hears me
knows my name
holds my hand
sign your name friend if you share this madness --
your days filled with ordinariness and yet streaking with glory
you died so many times yet live and
you plan to live forever because Someone told you so.
perhaps this is where we differ from those who get housed
we share this madness.
8 Mar 2011
each time i walk the streets
each time i walk the streets
my heart tumbles as i see
lives, stories, minds, pains, longings..
our bodies are so smooshed on the train but
sharing air
nearly barely breathing properly
and yet
worse than strangers
it's like nothing is right next to us (unless he smells or make a noise or step into our space)
eating
buying
rushing
going
talking
looking
looking
looking
what is really real to us?
and Jesus - where is He?
in me.
in me?
safely tucked inside to be let out in church and cell?
in me?
trying to get out perhaps?
in me?
O Jesus, i dont hear and see the bodies all around
s'fraid i dont really see or hear u either...
so
now
what
my heart tumbles as i see
lives, stories, minds, pains, longings..
our bodies are so smooshed on the train but
sharing air
nearly barely breathing properly
and yet
worse than strangers
it's like nothing is right next to us (unless he smells or make a noise or step into our space)
eating
buying
rushing
going
talking
looking
looking
looking
what is really real to us?
and Jesus - where is He?
in me.
in me?
safely tucked inside to be let out in church and cell?
in me?
trying to get out perhaps?
in me?
O Jesus, i dont hear and see the bodies all around
s'fraid i dont really see or hear u either...
so
now
what
7 Jan 2011
marking Nanking - thoughts on a play
nelson chia's third take on the massacre was n honest, caredul attempt. he cleverly tried to stay out of the way of a subject to huge and intense to be easily interpreted, portrayed or even referenced.
however, he comes short of a deeper, more engaging delivery; because as he honestly adnits, after looking and reading the materials for so long, he does get numb to it.
but as the audience i am not numb and dont want to be. he tries to steer awat from shock value but the direction he is trying to orient is in the end unclear.
perhaps he can rest and come back with fresh hunger for a deeply disturbing subject most of us reduce to image and newsbyte: power, evil, and choice.
would being informed by the philosophers give the piece more depth?
could we ask what the average Japanese was doing, feeling and believing until the atomic hell befell them? did these ordinary souls not have any power of influence?
i want to come away challenged and changed by art.
but the poser at the end was a math question that could not do that. i can easily distance myself - i wont be pressing the button to release the bomb - yes, 250000 lives here, 300000 lives there...
and it's still faraway..but evil instincts - o have u never ever delighted in dark deeds..., perhaps that's too direct for our postmod milieu; but that is what makes art powerful: it seeks the truth.
HHistory will have subjective bits; but the truth still stares all the same. humankind has a dark side that can consume us all - unless - we face it and bring it to light.
i look forward to version 4.
however, he comes short of a deeper, more engaging delivery; because as he honestly adnits, after looking and reading the materials for so long, he does get numb to it.
but as the audience i am not numb and dont want to be. he tries to steer awat from shock value but the direction he is trying to orient is in the end unclear.
perhaps he can rest and come back with fresh hunger for a deeply disturbing subject most of us reduce to image and newsbyte: power, evil, and choice.
would being informed by the philosophers give the piece more depth?
could we ask what the average Japanese was doing, feeling and believing until the atomic hell befell them? did these ordinary souls not have any power of influence?
i want to come away challenged and changed by art.
but the poser at the end was a math question that could not do that. i can easily distance myself - i wont be pressing the button to release the bomb - yes, 250000 lives here, 300000 lives there...
and it's still faraway..but evil instincts - o have u never ever delighted in dark deeds..., perhaps that's too direct for our postmod milieu; but that is what makes art powerful: it seeks the truth.
HHistory will have subjective bits; but the truth still stares all the same. humankind has a dark side that can consume us all - unless - we face it and bring it to light.
i look forward to version 4.
24 Dec 2010
garden views as Christmas nears..
Awaiting Christmas seems something we all know anything about Christmas does. We wait for the day - for..what? the parties, the gifts, the meeting-up-with-friends, or the obligatory family meals?
Since Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, then we await of all other 'waits', an encounter - with Jesus.
In the first Christmas* Jesus was born in a stable due to overcrowding and way too much activity to fulfill a political requirement. The conditions have not changed all that much has it?
But surely, if God became man, He must be looking for a home that is uniquely human - like each of our hearts.
So in the run up to Christmas as I spend time with Jesus, He took me on a tour of the garden of my heart.
The first thing i noticed were the weeds. How come so much and it all those old familiar places too...and some new corners they are spouting! Weeding is such hard work. I really wanted Him to wave His hand and like good Blu-Ray effects, have them morph before my eyes into more profitable growth...
Then i also saw some surprising blooms. One of them was called Stability. I knew i didn't know how to plant that one! If i am stable, it's more likely because I was afraid to move or at best had some vague convictions about staying... But the accents of red, fuschia and spring greens were astonishingly beautiful! The fragrance lingered long with me as i walked on...
Then a light fell all about me and the garden faded from view as I recognise afresh who was walking with me. He turned and said: "you are mine forever"..and then seemed to vanish from my sight even as i felt sure of His continued presence....
This morning, i gathered the kids, we learnt to sing an old song 'Thank you, jesus in my heart" in various languages, and made up a new one:
Jesus loves you and me
In our hearts He wants to be
His Spirit always sets us free
We love Jesus!
Welcome Jesus. Welcome Christmas.
*Christmas was originally a pagan festival date which the christians adopted as they wanted to remember the coming of the world's Saviour.
Since Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, then we await of all other 'waits', an encounter - with Jesus.
In the first Christmas* Jesus was born in a stable due to overcrowding and way too much activity to fulfill a political requirement. The conditions have not changed all that much has it?
But surely, if God became man, He must be looking for a home that is uniquely human - like each of our hearts.
So in the run up to Christmas as I spend time with Jesus, He took me on a tour of the garden of my heart.
The first thing i noticed were the weeds. How come so much and it all those old familiar places too...and some new corners they are spouting! Weeding is such hard work. I really wanted Him to wave His hand and like good Blu-Ray effects, have them morph before my eyes into more profitable growth...
Then i also saw some surprising blooms. One of them was called Stability. I knew i didn't know how to plant that one! If i am stable, it's more likely because I was afraid to move or at best had some vague convictions about staying... But the accents of red, fuschia and spring greens were astonishingly beautiful! The fragrance lingered long with me as i walked on...
Then a light fell all about me and the garden faded from view as I recognise afresh who was walking with me. He turned and said: "you are mine forever"..and then seemed to vanish from my sight even as i felt sure of His continued presence....
This morning, i gathered the kids, we learnt to sing an old song 'Thank you, jesus in my heart" in various languages, and made up a new one:
Jesus loves you and me
In our hearts He wants to be
His Spirit always sets us free
We love Jesus!
Welcome Jesus. Welcome Christmas.
*Christmas was originally a pagan festival date which the christians adopted as they wanted to remember the coming of the world's Saviour.
4 Dec 2010
signs of acridity
recently i surprised myself - alas in a bad way.
i signed my son and i for an art camp - three days of three hours moving, singing, inking, sticking..which was supposed to make us feel alive, give us great memories etc. We got there way too early so i let him do his mad dashes around while i try to take in what i can of the art and design pieces on display.
then i noticed it. a lady with her son came by; then another older Malay lady..and then we got to the area to register..and i was just totally lack lustre. no interest, no energy - not in the program as much, but in the people all around me.
i found myself sizing up the instructos and the other people with a nasty unfamiliar spirit of 'this better be worth all the money i paid". yuck! thankfully i did dive in and we had a valuable time. but mostly i did not succeed in shaking off the nonchalance toward my fellow human beings that morning..which made me wonder - and - shudder.
clearly love for your fellow beings never is a done deal.
i signed my son and i for an art camp - three days of three hours moving, singing, inking, sticking..which was supposed to make us feel alive, give us great memories etc. We got there way too early so i let him do his mad dashes around while i try to take in what i can of the art and design pieces on display.
then i noticed it. a lady with her son came by; then another older Malay lady..and then we got to the area to register..and i was just totally lack lustre. no interest, no energy - not in the program as much, but in the people all around me.
i found myself sizing up the instructos and the other people with a nasty unfamiliar spirit of 'this better be worth all the money i paid". yuck! thankfully i did dive in and we had a valuable time. but mostly i did not succeed in shaking off the nonchalance toward my fellow human beings that morning..which made me wonder - and - shudder.
clearly love for your fellow beings never is a done deal.
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