Thursday, March 29, 2007

I am all powerful! Fear my wrath!
Ok here's what happened... An irreasponsible teacher of mine has given birth on monday...she's a month premature and its my fault...

Well just a brief intro, before i took up the managemant job, this teacher was calling all the shots... she bullied the other teachers and kept stirring shit.... So he's so firece with the children that I had 2 kids pull out of the school because of her...she yells at the kids and well i shant eloborate

anyways, 2 weeks ago she traumatised and neglected a child to the point where the child could not breathe from her crying and had rubbed off the skin under her eye... My assistanat and I walked into the class shocked and for the entire week I was deciding what to do with her.

Last week I brought her into my office with my assistant and investigated the matter...problem was, this teacher kept lying and kept covering her lies with other lies... so all i had to do was repeat her lies until she was all tangled up in them... then she could lie no more... I gave her a verbal warning and told her that this was to be her last warning and that she should not treat me like an idiot (which I have allowed... because i believe that people should be given the benifit of the doubt...but of course theres a limit...for those who have known me for a long time would also know about my temper...) and I was pretty nice about it, we ended on a good note and all

So after she gave birth on monday, my HR lady called her and her response was that I stressed her so much that she had given birth.... Man am i powerful....

Lesson of the day
Don't mess with me...
Tieng Viet Oder Pasaat Thai?
29 days to go before I leave Vietnam for Thailand... a very interesting turn of events... well I guess its not of a grave concern where I go coz I'll still have to be used by God in whatever way He deems fit. But it'll be interesting to have to try to speak thai again...my last trip back to thailand was disasterous as I spoke broken thai with broken vietnamese....

(blues' for thai, red's for vietnamese, greens for the english) Phom Ten La Toby...My name is Toby

Xin cho phom kuey teow heng khong ot, Please give me Kuey Teow/Pho...dry...no chilies

Khong Chai, khong chai!, No! No!

Headache headache headache....anyways I was initially reluctant to go to Bangkok and I asked God why He wanted me there...and his reply was....' I want you to eat amongst the prostitutes and tax collectors at my dinner banquet'.... I seeeeeeeeee.......sigh..... wah biang eh.....can die leh....

Please pray for me regarding this... if you don't know what to pray for please consider this hint

Bangkok aka 'Sodom and Gomorrah of Asia' + Toby aka 'single and lonely 26 year old' = ???

Dreaming of Donald Duck
Ok now here's a weird dream I had this week....Donald Duck (Donald) has always been my favourite childhood cartoon character....but anyways....In my dream, I dreamt that I was given a magic plastic duck beak (similar to the ones they sell at the 'duck tours' only larger)...I had no idea what magical powers it had but I went to visit Donald.... We met in this field which was an elavated plain and below it was the CBD (Central business district) of Singapore... I told Donald that I was given a magic beak and I had no idea what it could do..then Donald got really desperate and wanted to look at the Beak... but instead of giving it to him...I put it in my mouth..and at that moment I became invisible to Donald...he scampered to find me and I would remove the beak from my mouth to reveal myself for a moment...and when he saw me and ran towards me I would put the beak back on and avoid me...

It was a great feeling to see Donald helpless and desperate.....I then took off the beak and he was calling for me to give it to him because he desperately needed it....so instead of giving it to him, I found a hole in the grass... I lifted him up and forced him into the hole... he was helpless and i ran down the hill to catch a bus....it was an exilirating experience....

Then I woke up and yes...it was a really disturbing dream...So i prayed for wisdom and at that moment it came upon me....The thing was...Donald and I are best friends and when I had something he wanted...something that I didnt need... I had an advantage and it was a great feeling to deprive someone of their needs... It felt good to have power over someone... That a physical object would mean so little to me but so much to my best friend and I would crush his spirit just for the sake of enjoying another person's agony...

A friend's child once said to me 'Satan tells us...to make yourself a great person, you make yourself bigger and others smaller....God says to us....to make yourself a great person...humble yourself....make others greater....that is true greatness' I guess this is the same idea which ran through my head as I was evaluating my dream....

Have we put an object before a human relationship? objects like money, our pride, other relationships...ourselves...I guess we can reflect on this..... interesting dream...interesting dream.....

Back to the Bangkok issue
Well I only see my period in Thailand to be for preparation to return to Vietnam....however the evil one has been making my departure very difficult...for he doesnt want me back....pray for this....

Im planning to take up a Tesol certification in Chiangmai and if its possible...i could source for a university course to attend while im there...and well i ll make my way back to Vietnam after that... Things are not finished here...not yet

Agape
Toby

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

21st April
Yup yup yup...bought my tickets and I'm heading down to Bangkok to start the next phase of my life... The cool thing is that Brian will be joining me on the flight as he's heading to Bangkok to meet a friend for a holiday and he's gonna help me carry my stuff over...cool siah...

Anyways Ive started on my farewell video and it's really sad that I have to go through all of my old pictures and recollect the emotions I had whilst taking them...Im gonna miss this place...but i ll be back

The student
Today I started teaching a new class of students and it was good as I could finally prepare my lessons and not just head in to teach a 'conversation' class......well anyways...the students were delighted to hear my name....apparently my reputation supercedes me muahahahaha

anyways...they were all new faces except for one, whom was just lost in the midst of the entire class...he's a student who's been in my class several times...he speaks excellent english and is always interested in discussing politics with me

But he always would be able to translate for me in class but he's always quiet and avoids participating in class... he would have been such an asset...dont even know his name...oh well...

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Confirm, guarantee and chop!!!
Ok I have accepted the job with the international school in Bangkok... Initially they offered me us$800 but I turned it down... I had originally asked for us$1500, which i strongly felt was a fair wage...then I told them that I would only settle for $XXXX, which was only a miserable amount on top of what I was getting....and they agreed to the amount...+ living expense which was good... well the contract for 3 months untill we can confirm that I can get a work permit... well its a good thing as we can still negotiate the salary at the end of 3 months and stuff...

The thing is... I like the bosses and well I guess its a step down but I can see myself having a good time of learning there...well we ll see how things go... But now my time of eating Pho Bo Tai Chin is over and now Ive gotta start eating my Pad Thai and Kuey Teow Heng Mai Ped

Pai Tee Gong Zhor (Pray to the God of Heaven)
For my birthday, interestingly enough God gave me a little present....It was a little flame which he re-kindled in my heart for missions... On tuesday I visited Thanh at the hotel and then as we were arm wrestling....... erm yes I arm wrestle...this middle aged couple stepped in and said in chinese 'i wonder how cold it is' and so i promptly replied in mandarin that it was 13 degrees...they were surprised and thats how everything started....

They were from singapore and the lady was originally from Taiwan...then as we were talking, for some strange reason, I told them that I was a christian and we started this really weird conversation on missions teaching used on the chinese people from missionaries from over a hundred years ago. The things I told them about were mainly from Don Richardson's 'Eternity in their hearts' who talks about how God as the creator has left reminiscences of himself in all creation...and the Chinese people have know him ever since the beginning of our civilisation...fyi Shang Di, the name which we modern Christians use for God has been a name that has been used in the Chinese culture for thousands of years... Western Missionaries adopted the name because they recognised that this was indeed the Creator God/ God of heaven and earth...

Well anyways we talked about this for 1 1/2 hours and the wife was very interguied with what i had shared as she had never heard of it before, but the interesting thing was that her husband was supporting everything I had said...they were seeking and were considering becoming christians but they felt that they could not agree with what the pastor was telling them but hearing my perspective on the matter they were ready to begin seeking... I have no theology of my own, but its simply an understanding which I have received from my mission's training and reading... well many would disagree, but hey...if im wrong...pray for me...and teach me....Agape

Monday, March 05, 2007

Lao Liao (old already)
26.....26! can you believe it? Im now officially past the mid-twenties.....*shudder*....well I wanted a quiet birthday and have it pass as quickly as possible...but it was nice that people came to wish me a happy birthday...I mean I like that much more then presents...but I like cards the most...

The Tele-Filipina
Uncle Bob called and gave me his birthday greetings as well and I told him how puzzled I was at how so many people at church knew that it was my birthday... he then told me that it was probably the Filipinos who spread the word... he then told me that in this world there's the telefax, the telephone and the tele-filipina...and the fastest moethod of communication was the tele-filipina....and how true he was....thanks Nings/Malou/ Neph hahahahahaha

Hole-in-the-middle
We had lunch at the cafe by the lake near the zoo (and yes thats how i describe it), and Victoria bought my a cake...then Christina told my to make a hole in the centre and distribute the cake from there...apparently in south america its a habit to leave the centre circle for the birthday person...its was a cool idea dont you think! its much more meaningful that way :)

Alpha....
My Alpha group also gave me a mini-surprise birthday party as well...Mark and Celia put up decorations....could you believe it decorations!!!

Well I don't usually like birthdays but last night was special....at the end when we sat down after dinner...I read a passage from the 'back to jerusalem' book and i felt whole again...as if the testimonies in the book had been missing in my life for a while now...God rekindled my heart for missions again...thats the greatest present I received...Khup Khun Pra Chao!!!