In all Imperfection

In approximately four hours, the first group- consisting of
Uncle Lye Heng, Sabs, Lydia and Deming-
will be on board their direct flight to Chiang Mai.

Ten hours after that, Victor, Nigel and I will be on our flight to Bangkok where we'll be catching our ten hour bus ride to meet the rest in Chiang Mai.

-I know the post says "posted at 9:50Pm", but that's because it's taken me this long, with Heather being on all the while, for me to finally settle down and blog.
FYI, It's 4:55 AM, May 14th Wednesday-

I've been up doing my last minute packing, tidying up, so on and so forth.

I was preparing a game that we'll be playing with the kids in Chiang Mai, in order to help them learn bits of English.
Just so that the bits of paper looked nice (I'm all for packaging!), I decided to laminate them.
Well, not really laminate them with a machine. More like, manually laminating them.
I've got this awesome gigantic roll of thing which could be used for just that.

As it always happens with things you do manually and without a machine, mistakes happen and your final product isn't always as pretty as you planned.
While on the phone with Victor, I did exactly that;
The huge piece of sticker-paper stuck itself onto the paper too early, making everything uneven and lumpy. My OCD/ perfectionist part of me kicking in, I printed out another copy to redo it.
Except, it just happened again.
I was so frustrated that I was quite close to tears.

Then I took a deep breath and looked at it again.
There was nothing actually wrong with it, I mean, you could still see the words and save for the back, it was pretty okay. Nonetheless, I hated the uneven feeling at the back of the tiny paper.
After lots of thought, I figured out a way to cut out the screwed up bits and even out the stickers a bit more.
It wouldn't be perfect, but it would do just fine and serve its purpose.

I sort of laughed (to myself, in the empty kitchen, causing mommy to give me a weird look) when I thought about how we're being used,
in all our imperfection.
I mean, it's precisely because of that, that we're doing what we're doing. Isn't it?

It's funny how something as insignificant and stupid as a tiny piece of messed up paper made me realize how foolish/ skin-deep/ superficial I could be sometimes.

I'm happy with the way those "laminated" pieces of paper turned out, I think the kids in Chiang Mai will really benefit from the game.
So a couple of pieces of paper have a rather scar-like feature on the back, but then, what does it matter, really?

We're heading there, and we should know that maybe everything might not turn out as perfect as we planned it. But as long as we do what we've set out to do, if we enjoy ourselves and if we get to bless the people over there, I do think that's all that matters.

Besides, isn't the whole fun in having our imperfections being made use of?

Myanmar

Cyclone in Myanmar

 

I thought today was really eventful. Singyong shared her heart about Myanmar and I believe many of us felt the tug in our hearts. If we are hoping we can do more or want to know more. Do read on.

 

This is an update on their woes. Was given by my thai/karen friend Wah Gay. Her dad works with the refugee camps and the workers and helpers will  be going into Kaw Ta Kuh to help them.

 

The People that Affected By Cyclone In Ayeyarwaddy or Delta Area

 

(1) . Kaw Ta Kuh Area

        (a). BGa Lay  - All affected

        (b). Kyaik Vatt - All affected

        (c). Pya Pon - All affected

        (d). Ma U Bin - All affected

        (e). Day Day Yeh- All most affected

        (f). HmawBee - Some Part

        (g). Pe Gu -  Some Part

        (h). Myaung Mya - Some Part

 

The Churches that affected most are 87 churches and their houses were destroyed, people were injured and homeless. The churches that under Kaw Ta Kuh area were about 100 Churches.

 

(2). Bassein/ Myaung Mya -

       (a). Ngaputaw - Some Villages

       (b). Laputta - All Villages

 

Laputta area were most affected and all villages were affected. Some villages were destroyed and some even disappear are 40 churches. Bassin Myaung Mya the churches were destroyed are 60 churches.

 

(3). The things that destroyed

        (a). Churches - some were destroyed / break down

        (b). School

        (c). Houses    - All 20,000

        (d). The Animals died

        (f). People - some died / disappeared

                 The pastors that died about 10 Plus

                 The Church members that died estimated 3000 - 5000 persons

       (g). The people that were homeless more than One hundred thousand 

 

(4). The things that we start to plan and help

      (a). We send our people to go arrange, help the people to bring them to safe place.

      (b). Working with the churches and with well wishes partners.

      (c). Will start to help and distribute things and find the more support from others.

     

 

(5). The needs of those people

       (a). Clothes

       (b). Water

       (c). Food

       (d). Medicine  ( some people have Diarrhoe )

       (e). Shelter

 

(6). The need for future for those people

       (a). To build  houses, church, school and road

       (b). Clean water and hospital service.

 

 

Other area that affected.

 

1. Convention office - The roof were destroyed, the staff houses were destroyed, the door were destroyed, some computer and office supplies also were destroyed.

 

2. Bible school area that affected Insein.

   (a). Mostly the roof building were destroyed, some were destroyed partly, some were mostly all.

 

  (b). The roof of clinic were destroyed.

 

 

3. Other building.

   ( a). Silver care center, the place for older people, and toilet roof were destroyed.

 

    The cost for the things that destroyed.

It's hard to count the cost of destroyed. For the convention we can estimate the cost about 150 - 200  hundred thousand Kyats ( 100 thousand kyats = $21,122.32 SG )  and in the bible schools about 300 hundred thousand Kyats.

The buildings that under Kaw Ta Kuh (Rangoon) Churches were portly destroyed and Thara Weh Tuh church also broke down.

 

Ñ Myaung Mya Area, go and help people and bring back about 100 plus people to area and now they go back again to help.

 

Ñ  Bassein Myaung Mya go and help people and bring back about 100 plus people to area and now they go back again to help.

 

Ñ At Laputta - People will be about 200 in Way Muh

 

 

That being said, I'll be meeting Wah Gay this Wed in thailand to pass her some funds collected to the people. It's important that the aid also reach the Karen people as they are the people being oppressed by the Junta Government and it's unlikely proper aid will come to them. I myself am really anxious to see their conditions improve. I believe God's heart is saddened by the loss of so many lives and I know He won't stand there and watch as these atrocities happen. I'm really glad that I'm able to share my heart on this too. It's affected me so much during the week that I do know that it's really God's heart beat to help the people. So I'm praying that God leads us as we give and also open doors for help and aid to come in. Lets pray, and pray and pray till something happens. Cos something will happen. I believe it.

 

God Bless,

Nigel

We had a grand time last week after our Sunday service when Jolayne
helped with Communion and Greg with focused praying. Awesome!