💵 Work at JJ LAPP Cable

After I ORD on April, I decided to lepak and chill for one month. I decided to go and find a job as I realised things start to get very boring and mundane at home and I wanted time to past faster for me. I also wanted to spend my time more meaningfully and to meet new people and forge new friendships. I also wanted to learn new skills and at the same time earn some money and not just rot at home and do nothing all day.

I decided to apply through recruit agencies as I felt that it would be faster and I would be able to land a job in which I am looking for. I was looking for an admin job and the location preferably to be near my house. I was also looking for a 8 to 5 job without much OT. When I applied to the agency, I received multiple offers but not one seem perfect. I prayed to God for God to land me a job which fits what I wanted in mind. In the end, I got a job which I wanted a lot. Praise God! The company location was near my house and there was a company bus from Jurong East MRT Station to my company and this reduce traveling costs and time greatly. The job requirement was from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, this allows me to wake up every morning at 7 am and sleep by 11 30 pm everyday, retaining my 7 hours of recommended rest. The job pay was 8 dollars per hour and 12 dollars per hour during OT, which was not too shabby. My superiors and other colleagues were very nice towards me, always willing to extend a helping hand to me and giving me free food and snacks. The upper management was very welcoming and friendly towards me, even though I was a temp staff, they always find a way to engage me in conversations and trying to get to know me more. I was also very glad that my superior was very understanding and graciously allowed me to take two week of leaves for two of my uni camp and one day MC to check out my ear. I also got the job scopes which I pretty much wanted.

My company size is very small, around 10 plus people as it is part of a bigger regional company. My role in that company was too handle calls as an informal receptionist. When someone calls my company direct line or my colleagues line, my telephone have access to it and my job is to handle my company main line inquiries and to help answer the phone if my other colleagues are on the line or unavailable to answer their phone. However, this was just the tip of the iceberg. I was tasked to do a wide array of jobs, ranging from simple to intense filing, folding invoices, helping to send acknowledgement emails back to customers, check stock and price, to even a perm staff job of keying and processing an order using the SAP software. However, I was thankful for such opportunities as I was recognized as being smart and capable by my other colleagues and superiors and at the same time I got to learn lots of useful and applicable soft-skills and hard-skills at the same time. I also learned how to deal with colleague and work relations skills.

Talking about work relations, I had this part time colleague too. She came in one and a half month before me and left 1 month before me because she went overseas with her friend and at the same time her school begins earlier. She was the same age as but, but because she went poly and took a gap year after graduation from her poly, we both are going university at the same year. She seemed nice to me at first, however i was so wrong. Just to set some context here, both she and I have very different ideologies and mindset when comes to working. I can feel the main driving factor for her to work was the money and since she stayed a 15 min bus ride away, she did not mind OT at all because she stayed near and she needed the cash. In contrast, the main driving factor for me to work was for time to pass by fast enough for me as I was so looking forward to campus life and the two school camps and one church retreat camp that I would be going. Just set things straight, before I apply for my leave through agency, I already told my agent that I would be taking leave on that specific for my Engin Camp and my agent said he approved it and had already informed my company. And also, keying and processing orders is not my actual job scopes and by right I do not need to know how to do it because I am not supposed to require to do so in my company, but she just taught me in advance first because it was good to know more things and I can help my company which was in "hot fire" at that moment because there was a swap with almost all the staff members and there were a lot of back-locks as the staffs who left did not need a proper handover. I took down notes and wrote exactly  what she taught me exactly on papers. I was not given any proper training and everything that I did as part of my job scope was what I picked and learned offhand from observing my other colleagues and doing the same thing. I was not given any proper training on how to handle calls, when I was thrown with that job, I just did what I learned offhand from observing the other temp colleague of mine.

When I went away for 1 week for my camp and came back, I was quite sick and down with a flue. Still, I did not take MC because I knew I already went away for 1 week and I know I had my own commitments and responsibilities. Before I left, I also OT that Friday before my camp so that on the next Monday when I am not around, my colleague would not be so lost and have to clear my pile of "shit". When I came back, she just started testing me on the part about keying and processing order. She told me when she was testing me, I could not refer back to my notes and wanted to make sure I knew everything right. To be honest, I was not given any proper or formal training on how to use the SAP software and I was also not given ample opportunities and time to familiarise myself with the software. In addition, even though she went through a lot with me before regarding the SAP software, she did not go through the complete flow for each different scenarios. Even though she was just like a temp staff like me, someone of an equal rank, she just treated me like I was below her and kept testing and scolding me and tekan me for every time I got something wrong when she tested me. She scolded me also when I tried to refer to my notes. No one really cares if you refer to your notes while using the SAP software. Moreover, I am just a temp staff and not even required to know how to use it, and here is another senior temp staff who is trying to abuse her 'seniority' trying to making me memories things I am not required to know in the first place! She did not even care that day how I sick I was and just kept tekan me.

After scolding, she made a sarcastic remark that I took a long one week to leave her to 'die' alone and she OT a lot. I remembered clearly I even told my agent when would my camp be on which day before I even got this job and my agent already informed my company. I basically already applied for my leave before I even entered this job. Secondly, she was already working alone and OT one month before I came in. In a sense she was already used to it, and since she needed cash and stay near, all the more she would be more willing to OT. Not to mention in the corporate world, it is common for people to take a week leave and the other colleagues will help to assist and take over, this is a common and mutual understanding and practice. Even in my company, there were few times where several of my colleagues took 1 week leave and everyone got busier as we have to do their work too. However no one complained because we know that if we took leave, the other party will be glad to do the same and help backup us. Not to also mentioned I specially OT on Friday so that I would not need to dump my work onto her and I still came back to work despite being down with a flu.

If I was not a christian, I probably would have acted differently. The moment she tekan and scold me when it was not even my fault, I would have just rebutted straight away and scolded her back. I would have lash my anger back at her, because it was not nice to being scolded by someone of equal as you and when it is not even your fault in the same place. I could have make a big scene out of it, without fearing anything because I knew that I was completely not at fault. However, I chose what Jesus would have done so. I just kept my mouth shut and listen her to nagging. I just kept apologising to her. I realised that there was no point and logic in making a big mess and also letting someone unimportant in my life to ruin my day and incite future tensions in the office. If I just humbled myself down and learn to give in even when it is not my fault, I could prevent things from getting ugly and ruining office relations and creating tensions.

I humbled myself down and let her continue nagging. In my mind, whatever that goes in just comes out. I try not to absorb too much in what she said to prevent me from getting infuriated by her unreasonable words. As I reflected on this whole incident, maybe what I could have done better was to confront her one on one after the incident and sort things out. However, I felt that what I had done was already good enough, something that most people would not have done so in the first place. Sometimes, in life whether it is or not our fault, it is better to be humble and give in to the other party as no conflict is better than a conflict.

At the last few days, I felt very sad to leave the place as my superior and colleagues are very nice people as I never had such nice superiors and colleagues at my other workplace before. On the final day, due to clashes in everyone schedule, they could not have a proper farewell meal with me. However I almost cried when they gave me a farewell gift: a Starbucks gift card with 100 dollars inside! Yes, hundred dollars. To working adults, this might be a small fee but to me a young part time student, this meant a lot to me.

One thing that God had really done for me in this season was really answering my prayer by giving me a job in which the working hours, location and pay was what I actually hoped for. In addition, I also prayed for nice colleagues and superiors and God delivered them to me. Matthew 7:7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. As I sought God sincerely with a pure heart, He delivered me in my prayer. God is so real and He really provides for me and you.

Pics: pictures of me and my lovely colleagues and bosses :-)

Pic: this is an interesting mini story. There was this person not in my office but another office which I had to work closely with. He was also just a new staff like me but was a perm staff. He was very patient with the mistakes that I made and was also very helpful. Really blessed to have work beside with someone like him.

😊 YAYP Retreat 2018

I signed up Grace YAYP (Young Adults Young Professional) Retreat 2018 which was held on 3rd to 5th august. Before signing up for it, I was contemplating whether to go for this or my NUS Orientation Week which would be held on 2nd to 4th august. Both events clashed, I was leaning towards more of O Week then I realised all my church friends who were going to faculty of Engineering in NUS were all going for this retreat. In addition, I was already going for Engin Camp 2018 which should suffice. This was my first YAYP retreat, I did attend two youth retreats and 1 main retreat before, but I could not make it for the YAYP retreat during my 1st year because I just enlisted and was unsure about my schedule. There was no YAYP retreat for my 2nd year so I just went for the main retreat. I really wanted to experience one YAYP retreat and was glad I managed to went for one after 2 and a half year of being in YAYP.

Before retreat begin, I prayed and seek God for signs and confirmations pertaining to a specific and personal issue and for God to speak to me about it during retreat. I decided to take the night bus because I recently brought a friend to church and she cant make it for the day bus. In this retreat, it was a 2 person bunking and I bunked with Jason Kwok, one of my close church friend.

Before I go into the details of what happened in retreat and how I experienced God and what I learned, I got to give you guys some contextual clues of the people I attended retreat with and how God can connect different unique individuals together. How I know Jason Kwok was by my close friend Edwin who introduced Jason to me back then when I was in the youth service. When I moved up to YAYP Service, me and Jason were both in the same mother cell and we always went dinner together after service. Even after our mother cell split and the two of us were in different cell, both of us still became quite close as we always hang out with each other after service. Other than me, 3 people from my cell group also attended the retreat. God recently restored one of my old friendship with one my ex-colleagues in IRAS and I recently brought her to church. Coincidentally, one of my cellmates was also looking for a female partner to room with as she did not know who else to room with. I can really see that God has placed much divine appointments in my life and God have use me to connect people around me with each other.

A day before retreat, I had a sore throat and my throat was feeling very hot even though my back, head and armpit was not feeling hot. I use a thermal thermometer to double confirm it and realised that I might have a mild fever or a throat infection. I decided to pray against it and rest well for the night while drinking lots of water. I got to thank God that He answered my prayer, even though I still had a sore throat and a bit of flu, my fever was totally gone.

The second day is where the main bulk of retreat took place for me. The R and R ( Relax and Recreation) was held on the second day (thank God). At first I was quite sad because this means I have to settle my lunch outside and this means higher costs. However it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Sean, one my cellmates, suggested a seafood restaurant to eat at. We took a 15 minutes grab ride to that place. I really enjoyed the food a lot as it was long since I ate crab and it was my first time trying out the XO Prawn Soup. It was one of the seafood meal I ever had.

Guess how much this cost per person? : 50 RM ONLY !!!

Moving on, some interesting things took place as well. When we were heading to back to the shopping mall, we got stranded halfway on the highway as the car wheels got punctured by one of the tyre. Luckily, we managed to walk to one of the nearby buildings which was around a 10 min walk and we managed to call another grab to come fetch us up in a short period of time. We did not shop much in the shopping center, but I had my first Thai upper body massage. I did it with the same room as Jason. At first, both of us screamed as it was both painful and ticklish at the same time. After a while, I got used to it because I did Thai foot massage frequently and I got used to the level of pain. However, Jason did not. He kept screaming in a high pitch voice throughout the whole massage. I kept laughing as it was too funny and other people who were quite a distance away from us heard it too. I remembered the Thai masseur scolded Jason in English and Thai, asking to why small thing cry and ask him to not cry to his mother and father after that.

At night, we stayed up till 4 am to play blackjack and spyfall. Jason, being Jason, drank his strong beer and got high/drunk during all the games. During one of the spyfall games. the location was 'Polar Station'. Jason, being the spy, gave it away in his drunkenness. When it was my turn to give a description of the place, I said Demi Lovato. She was the singer who sang "Let it go" in Frozen, which "Frozen" resonates well with 'Polar Station'. When I asked Jason if he knew which song that Demi Lovato sang, Jason in his drunkenness said "Hillsong". When asked why he said it, he just said he thought I was speaking in tongues. Everyone just broke into laughter. This was one of the most joke and hilarious stuff in retreat.

Lets get on to the more serious stuff in this blog. The main theme for this retreat was the five-fold ministry. God has given us one or more than that five fold ministry gifts in each and every one of us. Some of us displayed these gifting in our everyday secular life, but this is not God had wanted for us. Ephesians 4:11-12 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, and for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Notice in verse 12 Paul uses "for the work of ministry". God did not just gave us these 5 fold ministry gifts to be just used in secular settings, He gave us these gifts so that we can use it to serve Him in church and glorify His Kingdom with it. In our lives, our callings in the five fold ministry can change overtime as God can be calling us into different office as we transit into different seasons in our lives. Some of us might have several inclinations towards more than one officer, generally God has called each and every Christians towards one office.

To me, when I took the five fold ministry test, I found it to be very accurate. I scored the highest for Prophet. It was probably because that many times God used dreams and visions and even songs to speak to me and I am also quite sensitive to the Holy Spirit. I also scored quite high for Apostle, which I did not see it at first but when I reflected on my life, I realised that God have constantly use me to start new things, form new connections and also I have been leaning towards techno entrepreneurship recently for my studies in NUS. I also felt several inclinations towards evangelist, as I have been trying to reach out actively and evangelise to most of my non-christian friends after I rededicated my life back to God upon joining Grace. I also felt God recently increasing me in the gift of teacher, as I started becoming a part time tutor and cell leader recently, in which both I have to teach others.

However, even though everyone might be different as they have different giftings and callings in their lives, everyone is important and no one is more important than the other. We all still worship the same and one God, which is our Lord Jesus Christ and we all belong the one and same single church under Him. Ephesians 4:13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

On the last day of retreat, during worship in service, the song "YOU" by Hillsong was played. I started to felt the tangible presence of God and started to cry. I heard God speaking to me, that everything will be alright, I do not have to worry about anything as He will set my path and to stand firm in His word. God asked me to focus on Him first and everything else will fall in place, especially the personal issue and confirmation which I kept seeking the Lord about on. I was then having a very bad sore throat at the point in time, I almost had no voice left but I still wanted to sang my heart out and worship God because He is my Lord. When the third song, "Build my life" by Housefires came in, during the bridge, God asked me to not sing and just listen to the song verse while saturating in His Presence. As I heard the song verse, "I will build my life upon your love, it is a strong foundation. I will put my trust in you and I will not be shaken", I started to cry even more. The meaning of this verse should be self explanatory to you guys. To sum it up, God just wanted me to stop worrying about my future (relationship, academics, careers) etc and God wanted me to trust in Him and seek Him first and everything else will start to fall in place. The fourth song became a confirmation, as the song title was "Jesus be the center". God wanted me to put Him at the center of my life and not thinking and worrying about other things in life.

At the end of the sermon, the Pastor gave an altar call. I just went up as I was already serving in church as a cell leader and I wanted to serve God more and also wanted to be part of YAYP growth. As I found my spot and knelled down, I instantly felt the strong presence of the Holy Spirit falling upon me and I kept crying and crying during the whole altar call. At first, I did not know why all these supernatural stuffs happened, but as I reflected on it, I realised the Holy Spirit was doing a work in my heart to my response in wanting to serve God more. Also, this altar call was aligned with my VCF (Varsity Christian Fellowship) Camp in NUS that I had one month ago, as I caught the fire and wanted to serve God more actively in that camp.

The next day after retreat, as I was just reading the bible on my bed, I saw a vision of a picture of a foot stepping on clear waters. I felt that this vision was aligned to the season in my life which is about to come very soon ahead, which is my NUS campus life. I am very worried whether I can cope well in my studies, especially I am very keen in doing a double major, my possible career pathways and also whether I would get into SEP (Student Exchange Programme) or NOC (NUS Overseas College). God is telling me to not to worry and to step out and step on the water in this new season ahead of my life.

I learned a lot personally from God during this short 2 days retreat. To the people who are reading this blog right now, my story might be one of a kind and your personal spiritual encounter with God will not be exactly with mine. However, God still wants to speak to you and and is still reaching out to your heart day after day. God has given each and every of you many and different gifts. How would you use it and will you use it to serve God in the body of Christ?

⛺️ VCF FOC Camp 2018

When I first signed up for VCF (Varsity Christian Fellowship) FOC (Freshmen Orientation Camp) 2018, I thought it would be like just another NUS school camp, I was so wrong. It was a 4 days 3 night camp. At that season of my life, I was still working as a part-time temporary admin assistant at a company under a recruit agency contract. I was getting paid per hour so I had 'unlimited' leaves. When I want to apply for leave, I have to ask both my direct superior and my agent. During that period, my company was in a busy period and I was afraid that I would not be able to take my leaves successfully. However, thank God I managed to take leave in the end if not I would not be writing this blog at all.

It turned out that this camp was more like a church camp than a normal NUS orientation camp. I prefer it that way because it was a long time since I had actually attended a church camp. Also, I wanted to know and experience God more and better is one day in His courts than a thousand elsewhere. In this camp, there were people from many different denominations. The fellowship was lit as I get to have many "Heart to Heart talks" and intellectual deep theological conversations with like-minded people. By interacting with people of different mindsets and ideas, this broadens my own perspective and mindset about certain things in Christianity and life. I got to see certain things differently. Also, as I fellowship-ed with my OG (Orientation Group), I got to learn that actually there were a lot of people who share similar struggles with me and I was not alone. In addition, one of my church friend, Daniel, also coincidentally signed up this camp. Even though we were not in the same OG, we managed to hang out and fellowship with each other in the camp during various activities and this camp strengthened our friendship. Also, me and him spent like 1 hour prayer and interceding for our upcoming campus life as we prayed for different areas and aspects of our campus life.

Also, as I fellowship-ed with other Christians, I realised that there were a lot passionate Christians. Some of them went through a three month bible study course during their Holidays, some of them went for mission trips and some of them who were also cell leaders also served actively in their church in other parts of ministry area in addition to just cell ministry. I reflected and decided to rededicated my life to wanting to serve God in more areas in addition to just cell ministry whereas possible. I wanted to also bring that fire back to my church to ignite others to start loving God more and having a passionate heart in wanting to serve God actively in any small or big areas in church.

Most importantly, the main theme of the camp was "Time to Treasure". Believe it or not, Jesus is coming to Earth soon in His second Coming. Acts 17:31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead. However, in Matthew 24:36 No one knows about the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. In the chapter Matthew 24 verse 36 onward, Jesus said that even though we might not know when is His Second Coming, we should be prepared for His Second Coming by being Holy. And how do we respond to this passage? This is actually very simple but requires dedication and discipline, just be rooted to the word! Read and study your bible regularly, do your devotions and pray daily, go to church and cell groups regularly and even fellowship is consider as part of how to be rooted to the word! This theme was very relatable to a dream I had 4 years ago. If you had read my previous posts, I dream about Jesus Christ 4 years ago and He told me that He will becoming sooner than I expected and told me to be Holy. After having that dream, I tried to prepare for His Second Coming. I admit until now, I wont say I am 100 percent confident ready for His Second Coming but I know I am trying my best to prepare for it. During this camp, as we had many discussion about this theme, am I really giving my 100 percent in preparation of His Second Coming? After that camp, I decided to renew my mindset to study and work hard for God and not just myself in my future campus and career life. Everything I do, I give in my 100 percent effort for the glory of God.

After reading this, what would you do if you know that Christ is coming back in 10 years, 5 years, 1 year or even tomorrow? Would you have live your life differently? What would you have done differently and what would you have regret not doing in your life? YOLO, you only live once.  Millennias casually use this word YOLO in their everyday life, but this word YOLO packed a powerful meaning. We only have 1 life in this world. How you would like to live it depends on you. At the end of the day, you still have to account everything to God yourself. No one can help you with it except you yourself. Do you want to live a life without much meaning, or do you want to live a life next time when you meet God face to face, God might say this to you, "Well done my child".