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

Dark Night (Not Related to Batman)

Saturday morning breakfast for my Sudanese colleagues .... lamb dish with the white french loaf. The guy in black shirt is a Filipino nationality and he seems to be enjoying the most.

Sudanese people have their breakfast around 11am, lunch at 3pm-4pm and dinner at 9pm.

Out of a sudden, electricity was discontinued around 5pm .... common situation in Sudan. In no time, we went out to start our generator.

As it's winter season, it's not really that hot compared to being in the office.










Failed attempts in getting the generator started. We 'sacked' the first fella. Next guy volunteered his 'expertise'.

Apparently, the generator's battery seems to be quite weak to kick start.











Nazril suggested to bring in our Mitsubishi Pajero's battery to be connected to the generator's battery, something like to jump start. Amin was the supervisor.

It was not a simple process as we borrowed the jump start cable from a car workshop serviced /operated by a few Malaysian chinese car mechanics. The journey to and back from workshop was about 20 to 30 minutes.






Such power generator is a common thing in a garden's compound or set up just outside the main gate. One of the most saleable products in Sudan as power failure is very very very common in Sudan.

When electricity kicked in around 8pm plus, our house caretaker switched off the generator. Phew!!!! at last.

Managed to prepare our dinner and not to our surprise, the electricity was cut off again ....... gone in the midst of our dinner.

How to start our generator now .... the car workship has closed by now.

We just need to go down to get it started as we have missed few English Premier League football matches that were played earlier and not willing to miss another one.

Our caretaker's friend that was around decided to bring out our car's battery again and tried to jump start our generator with a makeshift cable ............ so thin and we did say that it could backfire and short circuit something along the way.

They decided to proceed saying mafi mushkilla (no problem).

We decided to strategise everyone's strength and weakness and got two smokers to continue smoking as we need those second hand smoke to 'kill' the mosquitoes that were feasting on us.

True enough, there was big spark when our two Sudanese friends tried their luck. They were shocked!

Somehow ............. somehow ....... that one big spark did provide a small heartbeat into the generator's battery.

The generator started without a fuss and the next thing we worried about was was there enough diesel for the generator to burn throughout the night.

Final check ............... all accepted .... but we still missed our football matches as the electricity generated was too much for our cable TV's decoder. It short circuited and malfunctioned on us! No more TV for us.

Life in Sudan is very unpredictable. We fight fire everyday that comes from different directions that can't be detected ............ hehe
Tags: Electricity, Power Generator, Cable TV, Short Circuit

Error in Blogger

* The problems faced in blog editing have been resolved!!!!
Adjusting to time zone difference now. Will be updating real soon.
---------------------------------------

I can't load any pictures or link up to any websites, can't do my tags as all the buttons in between the Link and this box have disappeared.

Can't even label my blog post ........

Can't edit any websites links or load any pictures for previous blog posts ....... what happened?

Kept showing 'Error on page' at the bottom of my laptop screen !!?!?!?!??!?!

It happened from Saturday till late Sunday night. Good thing I'm making my way back to KL on Monday night from Khartoum. On Monday, I'll be tied down with meetings till late afternoon before I check into the airport around 5pm plus for my 8.05pm flight to KL via Dubai. ETA Tuesday afternoon.

Managed to read about that internet connection was down in a number of Asian countries, spreading across to Africa and Mediterranean Sea area.

Merry Christmas ....... Cheers!

Malaysian Warship Battles Somali Pirates

The KD Indera Sakti Malaysian warship went face to face with a small group of Somali pirates at the Gulf of Aden on 17 Dec 2008.

The Royal Malaysian Navy warship despatched two helicopters to save a Chinese ship, MV Zhen Hua 4 which is owned by China Communications Construction Company Ltd, from being hijacked upon receiving distress calls from the International Maritime Bureau. Just a number of shots were fired at the pirates and they flee as fast as possible back to Somalia shore.

Chinese crews were defending against the pirates prior to the arrival of the helicopters. They defended by throwing molotov cocktails at those pirates and when they knew they can't defend anymore, they locked themselves in unpenetratable rooms. By that time the Malaysian helicopters have arrived.

More pictures of the hijacking incident in Mail Online.

The Malaysian warhship do not have enough support and if they do, they would have bomb the pirates out of the face of this earth. United Nations Security Council just approved unanimously that will allow foreign militaries to conduct sea, land and air attacks on the pirates' bases on the Somalia coast. I'm sure other warships will be ready now to chase after those pirates with this UN licence to 'kill'.

Well done our Royal Malaysian Navy. Three cheers to you!
Tags: Royal Malaysian Navy, International Maritime Bureau, MV Zhen Hua 4, China Communications Construction Company Ltd, Somalia, Somali Pirates, KD Indera Sakti, Gulf of Aden, United Nations Security Council

All Malaysians To Attend Course Prior to Marriage

Muslim friends in Malaysia must go through a pre-nuptial course before they can get married. The courses are organised by the respective State Islamic Religious Department.

Non-muslims are not required to attend such course. I know that churches do have their pre-marriage counselling in preparing each couple-to-be on the expectancy of a marriage and what is a marriage. I would say it's useful and normally the church pastors or a church elder will conduct such courses, free of charge of course.

Out of a sudden, a memorandum has now been submitted to the government calling for all non-muslims to attend such compulsory marriage courses before they are allowed to get married. This is on compulsion???? Why compulsory now? Which organisation or groups are calling for it?

If the government somehow agrees with the memorandum, will a church's pre-marriage counselling be counted / accepted? Who's authorised to conduct such courses? Will such courses be organised by government agencies such as National Population and Family Planning Board only at no charges to the public?

I really hope that no cronies will benefit indirectly on organising such courses at the expense of the public (referring to the non-muslims now since the memorandum is referring to non-muslims) paying for it. Actually there's more to gain in attending such courses but I really hope that it would not be manipulated for selected people's pockets.

In future, make sure you keep your certificate of attendance of the marriage course in a safe deposit box because if it's lost, you can't say your vows on that big day of yours ........ haha

Reading: Memo on marriage courses for non-Muslims - Star
Tags: Pre-Nuptial Course, Pre-Marriage Counselling, Marriage Course, Marriage, State Islamic Religious Department, National Population and Family Planning Board

Viable Legoland Park in Malaysia?

The secret is out at last ........................ no Disneyland at Bandar Nusajaya of Iskandar Malaysia area.

Iskandar Malaysia managed to rope in Legoland to set up an entertainment park. It was rumoured that there will be two theme parks, with one being the anchor and the other is the secondary park. Nobody knows except for those in the top management .......... maybe they are in a blur too. Maybe Legoland is all we get after all.

When will we get to see it? Construction will begin in year 2010 and will be opened to the public in 2013. Long way to go man. The construction of Legoland will be at a cost of RM750 million (US$214 million).

Hopefully the Legoland operator, Merlin Entertainment Group, will be able to manage the park and draw many tourists to Malaysia. MEG is the world's second largest theme park operators ..... now that's a good start.

The Legoland will have 40 interactive rides but mainly catered for families with kids up to 12 years old. No adults' rides? Then will the operator of Tokyo Disneyland, OLC Group, get their wish to construct a theme park at this Bandar Nusajaya? I hope so.

Malaysia's Legoland will be targetting around 1 to 2 million visitors per annum which is a far cry from 15 million visitors targetted by Singapore's Integrated Resorts, namely Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World.

With worldwide financial institutions feeling the credit crunch, the funding is not going to be easy. Looks like the government of Malaysia is willing to provide a RM500 million loan to the joint owners, MEG (20% interest) and Iskandar Investment Berhad (80% interest). Will this be a viable investment by the joint owners?

(Picture sourced from Star)
Tags: Disneyland, Bandar Nusajaya, Iskandar Malaysia, Legoland, Merlin Entertainment Group, Tokyo Disneyland, OLC Group, Iskandar Investment Berhad, Theme Park