A small get together

Was able to meet up with my good friends from Banting Church whom I've not met for quite a while today. It's hard to meet up these days as everyone is busy with their own life. Somehow I got in touch with Meng Yan through facebook and she arrange the meet up. I met up with Meng Yan, Ai Chin, Fei Chin, Wei Chien and Chee Sian for lunch at little Penang Restaurant in Mid Valley. All of them are much younger than me and was my choir members.

Manage to catch up a little bit of what's going on with their life now. I'm glad to see that all of them have grown up and doing well. Meng Yan in advertising, Ai Chin an actuaries, Wei Chien into studio recording and broadcasting, Fei Chin an interior designer (If you need to design your house, you can call her) and Chee Sian doing his own insurance business.

It was short but worth it. Haven't been catching up with my friends but this is a start. One thing that we talked about was the Musical Night where all was involved and how fun it was doing the recording, practising the songs and we had to get onions to get those acting into tears so that the recording is more real..............The recording was all done in my room in Banting. I hope I can get the video again and remaster the sound and burn it into DVD.

I wish all of them all the best in their life.

Here's a a few picture that we took. I'm disappointed that it wasn't sharp. I found out that my external flash wasn't working properly and shutter speed was too slow.......sigh. Anyway, at least I've got the pictures.








Hirohiko

Into the House of the Lord

Was feeling tired 3 days back because of work stress and also busy at home with the kids. Just felt like writing a song. Was pondering upon God's goodness in my life. As we worship him and always seek him, he will always keep our hearts and minds in peace. I picture it as though I'm entering into our Lord's special house where you'll find everything you need there. Be it peace, hope, love and joy and you wouldn't want to leave it because it is such a wonderful and perfect place to be. There is no reason for one not to enter to His house. Only believe in Him and you can enter it. His love for us is so vast and beyond our comprehension. He welcomes everyone into His House regardless of who you are or what you've done in the past.
Anyway, it's just another simple song that I did overnight. I didn't sleep at all and still went to work feeling fresh surprisingly :) Not that satisfied with the music, the singing and lyrics though as I did it in a rush. Still working at it and putting more instruments like drums, strings and bass guitar into the song. Will update it once I complete.

Into the House of the Lord.mp3

After this, I want to try to write a more upbeat song. Hope I'll have the time to do it.

God bless

Hirohiko

Running out of patience ?

I have always been a very very patient person by nature. When I was in primary school, I remember this one kid who always bully me and I would not get angry at him. I remember once he locked a padlock at my pants where I wear my belt. I would never get angry at all. In university, my course mates intentionally disturbed me during a class and I would just treat it as a game their playing. They would be angry in return and asked why I don't get angry at all. For those who know me since young, I've never lost my temper. I always try to give people a benefit of a doubt and say to myself that it's alright.

Now that I have kids, I find myself losing temper all the time towards my sons. hmmm......this is not me....I thought to myself. For example, teaching my eldest son piano. I will tell him what to play and how to play. He's always not concentrating and that makes me angry and I will scold him. If he makes mistakes, I get angry and belief me, I AM fierce. My wife can be a witness to this. Those who knows me will be shocked. Sometimes my son would cry and still playing the piano. I'll feel bad but I would hold myself together and just be stern and and ask him to continue.

As I study myself, I believe these are the reasons that I have this anger management issue now

1. I want to do things my way and if it does not go accordingly, I get agitated. But I guess children are different. They get distracted very easily.


2. I want my sons to be good and if they behave otherwise, I get very dissapointed.


3. I have high expectations on the two boys. When they don't meet my expectations, I explode


4. I release my work stress through them which is not good


5. I have a lot of things that I want to do and I want things to go fast. When it doesn't, I explode again.


6. I'm stressed up taking care of them as they are a handful. They are two hyperactive kids


7. I give pressure to myself to be a good dad.

I have become impatient over the years. I guess, now I have to tell myself each time to slow things down and try to explain in a calm way when I get agitated. Moreover, they are still very young. Sometimes, I feel so frustrated over things that my boys do; messing the room, leaving all the toys all over their room etc I'll shout at them. I believe my neighbor can hear me. To those who know me, you must be shocked right ? I guess I have to learn to be calm now and not try to control them like a robot. They have their own minds too. For example, my young one likes to play with the water in the sink and always mess things up getting his whole body wet. If I look at it in a different perspective, he is actually exploring things and imagining and being creative. He'll have his dinosaur toys in a container with water and he'll have his own story. I guess sometimes it does no harm to be messy. Just have to be patient and clean up the mess later. I believe both my kids are scared of me. However, they are still open to me which is good.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate my kids. I love them very much. I always love telling them bedtime stories before they sleep and they like it very much. I guess being a father is not easy. I'm also weak and not perfect. Well, I'm continuously learning and God is teaching me everyday.

I remember last Sundays worship topic is from 2nd Corinthians 12. When we are weak, God will keep us strong. I have to accept that all things whether good or bad has it's purpose. Verse 9 says " And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" Verse 10 " Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong ".

I have to acknowledge all my weaknesses to God and He will give me the strength that I need.

Hirohiko

Lord Our God Almighty

Lord Our God Almighty ? Yes, he truly is a real God who is mighty and never fails me even though I've failed Him many times. I was thinking of my days when I was staying in Banting and the church I attended. Indeed He has blessed me through this church and now that I've moved on to another church since 2001 as I'm living in Subang Jaya now, He is still good and taking care of me and my family here.

I've been to Sunday School since I was young. I think I was about 6 or 7 years old when my mom's friend Auntie William was a Sunday's school teacher and she will go around Taman Seri to pick up all the children with her old but big mercedez Benz car to church. I remember all of us maybe 10 children have to squeeze into her car. I have always enjoyed Sunday School because of the singing and story telling. Thanks to her I was brought to church and was taught about Christ and how he died for me on the cross. I practically grew up in Banting Chinese Methodist Church. I've learned a lot of things from this church be it spiritually and to be a good person in this society.

Talking about Sunday school, I will always remember Mr. Lim Kim Chai story telling. Every single child will get excited when he starts to tell stories. Every kid would love to listen to him as he is able to get our attention and he is very expressive. He is indeed a very good teacher and a devout Christian. Then there is the handcrafts which I always liked. I was always slow to finish the crafts as I was too careful in doing it and wanting it to be perfect. Guess till now I have this character in me.

MYF was my next stage. Stands for Methodist Youth Fellowship. Had a lot of fun with my close friends Timothy William, Michael William, Hock Wah, Lee Ping, Patrick, Jerry and many others. I started to play the guitar from the MYF. We always had fun together when we have singing competitions and other activities like bible quiz and table tennis. Was never good at the quizzes. My cousin Mona will always win the bible quizzes . She's now one of the advisors for the MYF. However, I'll get very excited when it comes to singing competition. I would be very busy practising, helping others to play until I took my sis for granted. She would get very sad as I didn't practise with her. I've always been very sorry to her about this.

Before I knew it, I was already in university for 5 years. After graduating, I worked in Toshiba which is near Banting. I still attended this church and I taught in the Sunday School. But it didn't last long as I wasn't good at teaching and catching the kids attention. I wished I was like Mr. Lim the great teacher. Anyway I joined the choir and played the piano. Rev Peter Hong was pastoring the church at that time and his wife, Mrs Hong was leading the choir. I had many good memories with the choir group and also with Mrs Hong. Once a month the choir would give a song presentation during the Holy Communion. I always love the practices on Sunday nights. The boys would always be sitting behind and not concentrating and Mrs Hong would get angry sometimes. I guess boys will be boys. Oh well! Anyway, she's always close to all of us and a good teacher.

Rev. Peter Hong then was transferred to another church in PJ and Rev Lee Huck Tee replaced him . Sister Phaik Hwas then took over the choir. Thereafter, I took over from her as she was very busy with other church activities. I think that was in 1995 if I'm not mistaken. I recalled that I was very nervous when I first started teaching the choir. Every week I would get anxious and I guess I didn't really do a great job when I look back. I always prepared the songs last minute and the choir members would have to suffer trying to learn the songs as fast as possible. I would always seek sister Phaik Hwa for help and she is very helpful to me. I was always shy to conduct the choir during the presentation and all this while sister Phaik Hwas would be the conductor and I would be behind controlling the mixer. Sometimes, I would be behind the sanctuary trying to conduct the choir as I do not want to be seen. I always said to myself, " What kind of choir master am I?" I should have stood in front of them to conduct or guide them but my shyness always gets in the way. I love the choir a lot though I always find it hard to control the members. I always love to get new songs and immediately I would listen to the songs chosen and do the minus one accompaniment for it. I would spend hours doing the song sometimes till the wee hours in the morning. We would have presentations on musical nights to evangelize to the non Christians in Banting, Easter day, Chinese New Year, Christmas, weddings etc. All this brings sweet memories. I still have the audio recordings of the musical night. I'm trying to get back the video and if possible, remaster the audio sound and post it here. Really miss those times a lot.

Another thing that I miss is going swimming in Morib at night. I remember Voon Li (nickname Li Chai) who is a good swimmer and has the pass to the Morib swimming pool. Almost every week, Voon Li, John, Voon Ling, Sharon, Amelia and myself would go down to Morib to swim. I would drive my proton iswara and go there for a swim at night. It's very relaxing to swim at night. It was fun.

Banting Chinese Methodist Church will always be in my heart. It's a small church but all the members are very close to each other. We always work together, care for each other spend time together. One thing I miss is the supper time together at the mamak stalls.

I thank God for bringing me to this church. Now that I'm in Pantai First Baptist Church, He is still with me because of his love for me and because He is the Almighty God. While thinking of His goodness, I wrote this song to dedicate to Him.

Lord Our God Almighty.mp3

Well, that's all for my short story about Banting CMC

Hirohiko