   
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed the set of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, you 'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troubled times of my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why you would leave me when I needed you most."
The Lord replied,"My child. My precious child. I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
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~Footprints of my Life~
 I enjoyed myself throughly during the 1D Kukup trip yesterday. Woke up at 5:30 am so that I could reach school at 6:45 am to take the coach to Johor. I took quite a lot of pictures. Overall, the trip was very interesting and I really got to talk more and know more about my colleagues. I shall now let the pictures do the talking. By the way, if you noticed that I looked different, its because I rebonded my hair (!) hehe.... A picture taken with some of my bus mates and the one wearing a blue jacket is my principal, Mrs Foo.  We used the Tuas checkpoint and it was my first time there. Immediately after we arrived in JB, the coach stopped at Kelan Bata (not sure of the spelling) and here you see my colleagues tucking heartily into their breakfast. The first response? "Wah, the food is cheap!"  After our breakfast, we arrived at our next stop, a chocolate shop which sold all kinds of chocolate, tomato, mango, durian chocolote and also some exotics like tongkat ali chocolate...hahaha. The promoter you see here is quite powerful....Her voice is like thunder and at one point when we were too noisy, she shouted, "CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLS!" That sounds so famaliar to us......hahaha. She is holding a bag of tomato chocolates here. Btw, I tasted these chocolates and they tasted funny to me so I didn't buy any in the end.  Our next stop was a fruit farm near Kukup. We were greeted by this stern but rather funny notice when we arrived.....  The farm is actually quite tiny ....about the size of my flat bah. The boss brought us around the farm and we finished touring it in half an hour.  We were treated to a tray of fruits grown in the farm. My favourite fruit was the jackfruit but I controlled myself from eating too much when I was told by my friend that I jackfruit causes bad breath (oops.)  We finally arrived at Kukup! I expected to see wooden longhouses on stilts but instead I saw concrete longhouses with concrete beams instead! These houses have indeed upgraded and have air con somemore. Not bad...  Opposite Kukup is a stretch of mangrove which the tourist guide says is the largest mangrove in the world. And the fish farm that we are visiting is just right next to the mangrove.  We took a boat ride to this fish farm and what freaked me out was that we had to move around the farm on planks placed on the stilts. It was not stable at all! I was so scared of falling into the sea and becoming fish food..... Here you see our tour guide (wearing a cap and in hawaiian shirt) Ms Bee explaining to us how the fish farmers catch the fish.....Quite educational.  I couldn't help but be fascinated with this puffer fish which is actually dead btw. The puffer fish puffs up when it is frightened.....so what the owner did was he actually scared the fish and it puffed up to this size...and died... And they scooped out the flesh, leaving the external body covering behind and this is what you see. How did they manage to do that? I seriously have no idea and the uncle is not willing to tell.... This fish is very thorny....ouch.  After our fish farm visit, we took a boat back to Kukup and here we are, enjoying our seafood lunch in Kukup.  After lunch, I bought some turtle jellies or also known as crystal jellies (famous there) from one of the shophouses there. Then we proceeded to Jusco - Tebrau City for shopping... It's a high end shopping centre, so didn't buy much stuff....But all in all, I must say that I enjoyed myself! Thank God for this journey! MaRGaReT left her footprint @ 10:01 AM | 0 footprints
my two classes this year.... :) Kindness 1  and Hope 1  and a picture taken with my colleague Lena aboard the SEED bus, taken 2 mths ago but never had the time to upload.... :P  MaRGaReT left her footprint @ 9:39 PM | 0 footprints
I am now reading the book 'Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot' and I have a few moving excerpts from the book to share.... In order to learn what it means to be a woman, we must start with the One who made her... Wherever you are .... be all there. Live to the hilt every situation that you believe to be the will of God. Single life may only be a stage of a life's journey, but even a stage is a gift. God may replace it with another gift, but the receiver accepts His gifts with thanksgiving. This gift for this day. The life of faith is lived one day at a time, and it has to be lived - not always looked forward to as though the "real" living were around the next corner. It is today for which we are responsible. God still owns our tomorrow. "Let not our longing slay the appetite of our living, " he wrote to me, and those words have helped me very often since. We accept and thank God for what is given, not allowing the not-given to spoil it. MaRGaReT left her footprint @ 2:44 AM | 0 footprints
God is teaching me about a lot of things this year. Firstly, I have a total of about 42 teaching periods a week. I was given heavier responsibilities - 2 English classes and 1 Math class. All the core subjects. It was a stark contrast to my 33 period a week timetable last year. Not only did I have less free periods, the marking was also heavier. I was fighting for time to mark my books and worksheets every week. It also required considerable amount of strength to teach well for 7, 8 or 9 periods every day. Secondly, I have more children with problems this year. Because I take charge of 2 Eng classes, I am like taking charge of 60 children and and there are about 8 of them with problems. This year, I face children who do not know how to read, children from divorced families, children from single parent families and children with behavioral problems. It was absolutely draining. The first term was a nightmare because I didn't know how to handle these children. I was at my wits end as well. Despite all these problems, I must say that God has been gracious to me because He has provided me with helpful experienced colleagues who have helped me to control the situation a lot better. Thankfully, I have been able to handle the child with behavioural problems. However, last month, 2 children sent me crying at night after work because I did not know how to deal with the situation. One of them was from a single parent family where there was zero support from home. I met up once with the parents and they were young, my age. The father smelled of smoke. His grandmother does not know English and works night shift. Only the maid cares for him at night and because of that, he watches TV till late at night. His work so far has been horrendous and his schoolbag is like a rubbish bin. In all honesty, I can tell you that I was very angry with the parents for neglecting the child to this extent but yet there was this feeling of helplessness because there was only so much I could do. The thought of this child not being able to catch up in school and eventually falling away to bad company in the future due to a lack of family support was horrifying to me. In my distress, I cried out to God because I really did not know what else I could do. But I am not going to give up. You can be sure that I am going to meet up with the parents again. I am really praying that God will give me the courage and conviction to say what I need to say to the parents. God really taught me a lot about parenting through all these children. Firstly, I learnt that parenting was not a part time profession, it is a full time thing. To be a parent is a tall order and it requires selflessness and sacrifices from the parent. Sensible and successful children do not always come up by chance (though they sometimes do as a result of God's grace).These children more often than not a result of the seeds of love, time and effort that are sown by the parents since they were young. As a parent, the emphasis should not only be on results but on molding a child's character as well. Values like humility, love, trust in God have to be demonstrated and not just said to the child in order for the child to pick it up. The parent is the most important role-model to the child, do the wrong thing and the child is going to learn from you and do that wrong thing as well. Being a parent requires you to make a conscious effort to be a good role-model to your child at all times. Secondly, I learnt that the best gift that parents can give to their children is a good marriage. Having children is a 'we' thing, not an 'I' thing. I don't have to think too hard to realise that children who have problems in school are often a result of single parent, divorced families and familes where the parents are together but not on good terms. The family was created by God as a protective stronghold for the child. The child needs to feel safe in a family. When the parents don't get along, the child will inevitably feel insecure and have a whole lot of problems in the future. This realisation has got me thinking that it is thus very important to choose your spouse carefully. Does your partner have the qualities of a responsible husband/wife? Of course, no one is perfect but I am talking about a person who recognizes that they has weaknesses and tries their best, with the help of God to overcome their weaknesses and be a good husband to his wife and a good father to his children. Who you choose to be with now is definitely going to have a profound impact on the children that you have in the future. It's really a tiring time. There are too many problems around me. However, I thank God that He has taught me valuable lessons through these children. And my prayer now is that God will use me to reach out to these parents and guide them to help their children because I am a teacher and a teacher can never take the place of a parent. MaRGaReT left her footprint @ 6:42 AM | 0 footprints
MaRGaReT left her footprint @ 9:02 PM | 0 footprints
Let Your Kingdom Come Your glorious cause, O God, engages our hearts May Jesus Christ be known wherever we are We ask not for ourselves but for Your renown The cross has saved us so we pray, Your kingdom come Let Your kingdom come Let Your will be done So that everyone might know Your Name Let Your song be heard everywhere on earth Till Your sovereign work on earth is done Let Your kingdom come Give us Your strength, O God, and courage to speak Perform Your wondrous deeds Through those who are weak Lord use us as You want, whatever the test By grace we’ll preach Your gospel Till our dying breath © 2006 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI). I felt this short video by Bob Kauflin aptly points out the true meaning of worship. As the worship ministry of a church are often stage performances, worshippers can often be more preoccupied by appearances and sound effects. A true worship leader is as Kauflin puts it, "I realize that God is not looking for a worship leader who wants to look great in people's eyes, He is looking for someone who wants to make Jesus look great." MaRGaReT left her footprint @ 7:31 AM | 0 footprints
Ever since Term 2 started, my life was just work and marking, marking and more marking! But in the last two weeks, I have managed to meet up with Huisi and Chingu on two different days and have good chats with them! Then there was the the Pulau Ubin cycling trip last Sat with the Pathmakers...We enjoyed good weather, though it was very hot! And needless to say, I enjoyed the cycling tremendously since it was really quite a while since I last cycled.  Sue Mei and I (with another friend) on the jetty to Ubin On Wed night, I met up for potluck with my Alpha Course group members....The alpha course had already ended last year but our group bonded really well (by God's grace) and we are still in contact. It was a good time of catching up and sharing. I really appreciated the one day of rest for Labour Day holiday. It gave me time to mark finish those past year papers which I had to give back to the children on Friday. yay! At night, I proceeded to have dinner with my CG at Erwin's place. His parents specially cooked for all of us and it was really a spread man.... The dinner was followed by a short presentation by Reina about her mission trip in Timor Leste. It was really an eye opener because I never knew that Timor had such beautiful scenery and it also sort of exposed me to the living conditions there.  My CG! I enjoyed the presentation very much and so I told chingu this afternoon that she must take many beautiful photos in Hokkaido and then do a presentation with her photos for our next HFG gathering! Haha...I think she is more than happy to do so with her new camera. Huisi is also going Japan so she better get ready too! ;) Well, I am really happy to have a supportive Mum, friends to talk to and activities to help me destress from work. I have realised that though work is important, I must still have a life out of work in order to stay happy and remain energised for the work itself. I hope that I will be able to serve in more areas in church and also spend more time to strengthen the relationships around me. To the choir pple.... I really hope to meet up with you guys too but it just happens that I have sth on the 8th....haiz.. hopefully, we can meet during the June holidays. :) MaRGaReT left her footprint @ 9:53 PM | 0 footprints
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