Upon returning to the real world...

It is only fitting that an entry on a d'NA Reunion begin with a picture that says it all: d'Noose Academy!

Just in case you were wondering, that is NOT a noose! And d'NA is actually d'Nous Academy, nous being the Greek word for 'seat of emotion'. Soo Tian and I came up with more uses for the poor massage gadget (below) than Drew Carey and co. probably would have on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, much to the amusement of the others.



We had lots of fun with Yen Mii's inflatable mattresses, as you can see below. That's a triple-layered sandwich, with Shern Ren (who looks very cheeselike here!), me and Tee Keat as the filling.


Yen looks very sultry here, doesn't she? Go into modelling, Dr Leong Jr!


No d'NA Reunion is complete without the customary group photo. Having exhausted various positions, we opted for the human pyramid this time, which is an enlargement of the tiny pyramid at the bottom-left corner of the picture. Going row by row, from left to right, beginning at the bottom: David, Tee Keat, Zheng, Shern Ren, Ming, Soo Tian, Joan, Yen Mii, Yen Yen, and the photographer right on top.


I arrived a day late, as I had a lunch to attend in Seremban. My maternal grandfather's sister celebrated her birthday yesterday, and she wanted the whole family present. So we had various relatives coming from as far as Germany, Singapore and Ipoh (her hometown) for lunch at the Regent Restaurant. By the time I reached SS Gospel Centre yesterday afternoon, Audrey and Sze Yao had already left. And by the time Sunday dawned, Soo Tian and Zheng made their exeunt.

And so there were only left eight of us who attended church this morning. We visited the PJ Evangelical Free Church (PJEFC) on Shern Ren's invitation; it's also Yen Mii's church. We managed to locate Dr Ng Kam Weng (genius in physics, Greek culture and philosophy and co-founder of d'NA) there. Meet the d'NA Football Team:


We talked with Uncle Kam Weng about various issues, but two gems stood out. First, he advised us to write on issues, not ourselves. "When you are 75, then you can write a book, My Thoughts," he said. The second is this: "When you're in love, don't philosophise! Be a poet." We will remember this as the reunion in which Uncle Kam Weng put his hand on David's shoulder when talking about relationships and marriage...

And Joan will also always remember this reunion should her actions below come to fruition, heheheh. :-P



So much for the photo highlights. This reunion really meant something to me. The last few weeks have been somewhat devoid of direction and purpose, but the past twenty-odd hours have been immensely encouraging and purposeful.


When the Doulos volunteer from Papua New Guinea shared in Ming's church on Saturday, I was reminded of Isaiah's words in Isaiah 6, when God asks, "Whom shall we send?" and Isaiah says, "Here I am, send me." (For the record, it was also the material of one of the night's rhyming heresies: "Here I am, Yen Mii.")

On Friday night, the gang went to PJEFC for the Doulos International Youth Night, and this morning Pastor Pil-Hun Park of Doulos was the guest speaker. Perhaps it is ironic that we had so many encounters with Doulos, yet I didn't have time to drop by the ship itself before heading for the reunion, which was the initial plan. But the birthday lunch was delayed, so plans changed.


Pastor Park's message was something I needed to hear.

Making a reference to the feeding of the five thousand, he said, "It doesn't matter if you've got only one fish and half a loaf of bread, instead of two and five respectively, as the boy had. The power of the miracle is in God." He continued, echoing the words of the guy from Papua New Guinea, "We're ordinary people, but God can use us to do extraordinary things."

His message was taken from 1 Thessalonians 1:2-4, focussing on three main themes: work of faith, labour of love, and endurance of hope. Some of the things I will always remember are these:

"When we cannot endure ourselves, we should come back to Christ."

"The work of faith is to invest ourselves in the lives of others. Things pass away, but people remain." [Li-Shia would note that this resembles the words of Charles Schultz on Rauf Fadzilla's blog.]

But it was truly the ending that capped it all. He recalls his experience as a deckhand on the Doulos, saying: "We can make it to our destination only if we keep coming back on coure, for many things will disorient us. If we are heading south, which is at a bearing of 180 degrees, we might look out to the right and say, 'Hey, dolphin!' and forget to steer. Thus we might end up heading 175 degrees. Se we must correct ourselves and return to the right course, following the navigation chart."

After so much going off course, it's high time I get back on track.


But that's only one part. This morning, before the rest awoke, I was reading Max Lucado. On page 69, he quotes from Ephesians 1 (The Message):

It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

--Ephesians 1:11-12

The NASB puts it this way:

[In Him] also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

The phrase 'in Christ' reminded me of Steven Curtis Chapman's song, 'I am Found in You':

The sun sinks low and here I go
Wrestling with questions that refuse an answer
This path of faith can be a place
So barren of what I understand
I can her the voice of fear
Saying let me show you another way
So I cry out my Lord, Jesus
It's in Your love for me
I find all that I need

Chorus:
So where else could I turn
And where else could I go
You have given me life
You have made me whole
You have rescued my soul
So where else could I go
For I am found in You

I may not see in front of me
But I can see for miles
When I look over my shoulder
And Lord, it's clear
You've brought me here
So faithful every step of the way
What can I do but follow You
For You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life
And You've promised never to leave me
My Saviour, my friend
From beginning to end

Chorus

Lord, without You
This child would be so lost
But I've been found in You
And now I'm bound to You
By the love that you've shown
It will not let me go

So where else could I turn
And where else could I go
You have given me life
You have made me whole
You have rescued my soul
So where else could I go
For I am found in You
All I've been made for
So there's no where else I could go
I am found in You


Last night I dreamt that I was beneath a very starry sky. This morning, at whatever quiet time I had, after reading Lucado and checking Ephesians in my pocket NASB, ideas for the MPH essay poured in. And I began to understand the role of the stars in my dream.

I went into Saturday with a fair degree of trepidation, for I recalled Michael's warning at d'NA last year, about me hiding behind my camera. I can do that quite well, and in so doing cut myself off from really interacting with people. Thanks be to God, that the camera wasn't abused at this reunion. With these friends of mine, I can be who I really am, without fear, without a mask.

I'll miss them; Ming, David and Yen are probably having dinner at this moment. I had to come home this afternoon; anyway, I was tired too, and needed some time to recuperate before launching into tomorrow. At least I get to put this entry up.

It's been a great weekend, but now reality beckons. Yet as Kim Cheng said just now via SMS, we're attempting to live an ideal in the midst of reality. To me, that's what life is about, and it's great to have fellow sojourners on this same road. Thanks, everyone!