Christmas Day Event

Yeah ...... it took me almost three weeks to blog about this because I just realised it.

One of the local hip-hip singer, Liang, was invited to perform in my church's Christmas service held at International Youth Centre at Bandar Tun Razak.

He's not only good in singing but a fantastic emcee too. I was there when he emceed at a few events.




He was fantastic with his songs. Belted few songs and he was able to get the crowd to participate as well. Incredible.

At the end of the service, many many people actually took pictures with him. He became a star amongst my church members.










Well attended Christmas service.

This blogpost should have more pictures but due to my involvement in the Christmas drama, I was too occupied with the preparations.

It was either this or that that was missing, not connected, not found, not the right one .... wow, really interesting.


This choir group, named the Praise International Choir, comprise of members from various countries. One of the countries is Malaysia and I'm sure Nigeria was represented. I wonder which African nation was represented too.

They have done exceptionally well way because of their hours spent practising their songs. Bravo!!

This is where I operated from on that day. Helped an Indonesian performance to play their songs via laptop ...... good thing I brought mine along otherwise another hiccup.

Mainly, my laptop was used to play the songs used for my drama entitled "1King". Yeah, I caught the fever of using the "1". Influenced by whom? I'm sure you know who.
Tags: Liang, Hip-Hop, Christmas Service, International Youth Centre,
Praise International Choir, 1King

Christmas 1,000

This post will be quite heavy with photos. I was in church compound by 10.30am for the 11am event. Most of my friends were there by 9am for the preparatory works. I can't help it as I only managed to sleep at 6am plus due to adjustment to time zone difference.

The registration counters were packed by the time I arrived. One thousand guests and chuch members. Not easy to handle such crowd.

The long stretch of tables with 28 large tents.

You better had remembered your table number, else all the best in the hunt.

The people were streaming from both ends of the tents depending on where were you directed to park.

The big trees on the stretch of road do help to create a cooling effect.

The sound equipment was not spared but sound quality wasn't that good on both ends of the tents.

Being Malaysians, the Malaysian timing applies in whatever function.

Mr. Clown was there too.

The Praise and Worship team took the stage at the beginning with a few songs.

Next was the youth that took centrestage dancing to the tunes of two songs, one of which was from the High School Musical collection.

Our Chinese church never disppoint us with their presentation that includes a bit of dramatisation of the meaning of Christmas.

Our African brothers and sisters came up to present their dance number, of which majority are from Nigeria.

Next group of African brothers and sisters belting their two songs. Thank God for their contribution to the event.

What do we have for the lunch. There was fried rice, fried chicken, fish fillet in tomato sauce, spaghetti, vegie and sramble eggs. A plate of roast lamb was served on the table too.

The African contingent had a separate food menu. Seen here that they were rushing to fill those food containers just before the call for serving of lunch.

There it goes, green light was given. There were many food stations ......... good planning for that.

At another part of food stations.

The African food station.

In the middle of the event, team members were still trying to resolve various issues.

These were the big eaters sweeping the rest of the food ............. at another food station.

Children participating in a contest where they had to gather as many keys as possible to win Jusco cash vouchers. The winner had 91 keys (if not mistaken).

Towards the end, the team members gathered to eat after serving guests earlier. Those in yellow uniform were our security guards or traffic wardens for the day.

The last game for the day, kids were to bring along one of the parents to dance together (simple as we just want to give away gifts but must work for it lah).

Three months of planning, over in three hours plus - quoted by my senior pastor.

As quite a large number of church members stayed back to clean the area, everything was taken care of in about thirty minutes.

Sweepers, rubbish collectors, table / chairs movers, dismantling of decors and keeping musical instruments back in church ..... and a photographer .... haha.

A small talk arose - Christmas 2,000 for next year?

Related post - Christmas Community Lunch for 1,000

Tags: Christmas, Praise City Church, Christmas 1000, Christmas Community Lunch

Christmas Community Lunch for 1,000

Exactly one year ago, we embarked on a five christmas dramas that zapped our strength away. One year later, our church, Praise City Church, decided to do something different.

Why not do something for the community? The last I heard from the organising people (didn't contribute this round as I was away in Sudan) was invitations should be sent out to old folks homes & orphanages and bring the people for our Christmas celebration.

We had been doing various stuff (that was also done with much stamina and zeal) for our own church members' eyes all these years and we ventured to try something not done before .............. a big challenge.

Out comes the idea of the Christmas Community Lunch. The target was to bring in 1,000 people for the function.

Praise God that we obtained approvals from the Royal Malaysian Police and City Hall Council as we would be having the event on the frontage road and the empty land facing our church.

Every church members did their best and everyone put in their efforts in getting various issues settled, arranged and organised.

All in all, we managed to sell all the 1,000 tickets - 100 tables that is. We want people to feel happy during this year end festive season. Those who will be attending the function at 11am (later on), will be part of the church's history.

Maybe one day we can try feed the 5,000????

I was at a relative's christmas party in Bandar Sri Damansara and went to church after the dinner.

Lots of people were there to arrange all the tables/chairs and decorate the outdoor stage.

The guys & girls who were decorating and preparing the outdoor stage were really enjoying themselves ...... their laughter fills the air.

Altogether there were 28 big white tents that covered all the 100 tables along the stretch of road.

Can't show much with the lack of light but it was a long stretch of tables.

The church entrance, for once, was empty as the event will be held outside.

This Nigerian brother was doing the dirty work where nobody would know. He scooped water out of the sitting area so that people will have a clean place to sit tomorrow morning.

Well done brother ....... your tough work is not in vain at all.

What did I do? I ensured that his unnoticed work didn't go unnoticed by taking this picture that took quite long as light was so dim and with a mere camera phone .......... took quite long to find the right moment of lighting from passing cars' headlights.

Final planning / instructions / things to look out for tomorrow morning by the core group.

All the supervisors supervising each other's work sitting down ............. no wonder it took us till midnight to finish our work.
Tags: Praise City Church, Christmas 2008, Christmas Community Lunch, Christmas Celebration

Christmas Day 2007

Our Christmas service started at 10am with a children's fast dance. Unable to capture photo as I was preparing my stuff. Next thing was the praise & worship session where Kok Yen was the songleader.
The hall was packed with lots of visitors.
Towards the end of the service, our senior pastor encouraged the congregation to cross the bridge to signify us giving our life to God. How useful was that bridge after all. It brought great significance as the bridge represented Jesus that bridged between earth and God.
Well, that's the end of the The Bridge series and it was a tough path to walk from the birth of the drama ideas till Christmas Day but no doubt, it was worth the journey. Lots of good memories indeed. It's back to normal life for me after hectic months in preparation for the five dramas.
Tags: Christmas Day 2007, Christmas Drama, Christmas, Bridge Finale

Bridge Finale

Tomorrow is the finale for the Christmas season's dramas. Got the best of the best of the actors/actresses for this drama. They are the drama veterans in my church and hopefully this comedy drama would make everyone laugh.

This drama is set in the contemporary time and the story is still there where Joseph & Mary reaches the town of Bethlehem. They tried to check into a hotel but it was fully occupied but was offered elsewhere - the luggage room ...... hehe.

Then the wisemen scene appeared (where the video was shot in Hotel Maya) followed by the shepherds who were businessmen dealing with sheep products. All in modern settings.

The Bridge Finale drama will be followed by a dance finale to cap a fine month of dramas. This dance will see the participation of the actors/actresses, props team and stage decoration team.

That's my abode up in the balcony where I usually gave commands on the lightings, sound and videos.

The singers and the songleader (sitting down with a guitar) practising their songs for the opening of the Christmas service.
Two of the ladies trying to translate the english song into mandarin language. The Christmas service tomorrow morning will be bilingual (English/Mandarin) as our chinese church will be combining with the english church.
This is the group that was practising for the dance finale. The leader, Esther Wong (in black, on stage) was our dance choreographer.
It was an easy song to follow and it required two practise sessions only (those who usually don't dance found it hard to follow the steps but they tried really hard to follow).
Resting time as this practise was done right after service, the children's dance and song practise and just before lunch .............. hehehe

Tags: Christmas Drama, Christmas, Bridge Finale, Dance Finale, Dance Choreographer, Christmas Service