A Month Of Great Favour

It has been a fruitful month indeed. I have so many things and revelation to share that I could not fit in all in a single blog. August is a month that I like partly because it's my birthday month! Thank God for giving me a few meaningful celebrations with my sister and friends. And of course thanks for plenty of gifts from them too! Guess what I share the same birthday as Singapore's national day and end of the month would be my country's national day! A month of Festival Of Praise and a month of City Harvest Church's 20th anniversary. WOW! A month of celebrations huh? Besides that it is a month that I am going to clear my probation - a month that I'd be longing for. You know what I just came back from London and coincidentally my bestie flew there too. We get to go out together and it's our first ever oversea trip together! And my flight was really good and I got a good complex leader and the best check ever! Looks like it ends well for my last flight before I clear my P. Praise The Lord! It is a month where I get my allocated annual leave and I am able to go back to Malaysia for 1 whole week!!! Can't wait to meet my Mum, my sister, relatives and friends!!! It is surely gonna be an exciting week. Hallelujah! Isn't it a month of great favour and joy??? AMEN!

Okay, time for a short testimony. I have shared this during my cell group meeting and I guess it's only my second time sharing a testimony in a CG. This round I would say I can really feel the impact that I teared uncontrollably during my sharing. Well, have you ever wonder how beautiful God's plan is? We all did but it is never within our expectation. Things happen. Good or bad. But God will always be there to give you an answer as and when you need it. Not to mention other revelation I have gained over the past few weeks yet (will touch on this in my next blog). Just as how badly I wanted to take MC for an Indian flight on my birthday, God has stopped me from doing so. O Lord why not? I don't wanna work on my birthday on such a so-called s*cks flight; and I don't want to miss out the limelight dinner session with Pastor Kong! There and then in Delhi, I realised it all happens for a reason. First, the set of crew sang me a birthday song during PFS in the briefing room (alright that's a little weird) and IFSS bought me a cake and they celebrated for me in the crew room upon arrival to the hotel. Somehow I feel they are just being nice and bounded to do that out of IFSS's initiative. So I don't say it's something truly meaningful to me. Anyway, one day when I leave the company it will still be something quite special and worth remembering.

That night the electricity just cuts off for 1-2 mins every 30 mins??! I was a little freak out and started to imagine a lot of creepy nonsense. And problem is, it was extremely dark I could not see anything at all at that point of time. I called the Guest Services to check out what happened (well my general knowledge is pretty bad - I should have known that this is really common in India). Even their supermarkets have the same problem. The staff told me this happens regularly due to insufficient power in the country. That caught me in the heart... I suddenly put myself in their shoes and could feel how terrible it is to suffer in such condition. No lights? Imagine if it's a small village... I guess the black out will happen more frequent and last even longer. The next day, I went to have my lunch (good Indian food - yummy...); on the way back a little girl came to us begging for money. Her clothes was torned all over and she looked innocent yet weary. The crews asked me not to give her any money as it will attract others to come to me as well. But when I looked at her face and how desperate she was I discreetly gave her 15 rupees of coins I have in my purse. It was such a tiny amount - 15 rupees is equivalent to like only 50cents in Singapore. But the crew said it is more than enough for them to cover a meal. This struck me again. Before the flight, I was still in doubt of which child to sponsor through World Vision where they only have 2 choices of countries - India and Thailand for the time being. I was thinking of procrastinating the program because I wanted to get a child from South Africa instead. Yet God made all these to happen just in time. There must be a child praying to God to help her find a saviour. What I can do is just to contribute a small sum of money to her every month. But God is her true saviour! With this, God has answered her prayers and she shall be safe in the name of Jesus. AMEN!

"Romans 8:28-29 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them." AMEN.

I Love My Job

Am I for real??? I am actually declaring that I love my job... that's so not me right? Let's read further before you elaborate. I guess you need to have a good idea of how my job goes about. A year ago I joined this company after being through several obstacles. From the interviews to medical check up to employment pass approval. Almost every stage was a challenge to me! Thinking back, I should appreciate what I have now more. Everything went well even during my first week in Singapore; it had been a great adventure. Meeting my Malaysian batchmates for the first time and together we explored this new place; we walked and walked, took buses, mrt, explored the shopping places, went for medical checkup, settled MOM thingy, looked for rooms and my first time to City Harvest Asian Conference with my roomie (Thanks Amanda for bringing me there). As the training began, it was just so fun. I got to know Batch 64/08 and we'd been through the ups and downs together. A lot of group work, a lot of exams, practical and something more interesting was our safety training. We jumped slide, swam and shouted evacuation command together. Then comes our graduation day where we put a lot of effort on it and it turned out to be great. :D

After started flying things were still okay initially. I was kinda excited in fact. As time goes by, with different encounters on every flight I would say this job is just so interesting that I would spend my lifetime talking about it. Yet, I often complain about my job; the culture and the people. It's all about drama-ing and one way communication. Basically there's no freedom to voice out and in order to prevent being picked on there are plenty of rules that I ought to follow. Mistakes have been done and corrected; I mean "adjusted" to the culture. Soon enough, I am trained to be a "Sorry" "Thank You" person just like almost every other crew. Throughout bad experiences, I somehow have forced myself to adapt to it. Being the humble pie is not that tough though. It's being the "extreme" humble pie that's a great challenge. Everytime before flight, I suffer from some kinda PFS, while it actually means Pre-Flight Session, I call it Pre-Flight Syndrome. The feeling of uncertainty of what kinda crew you will be flying with sucks. It's not about the passengers or flight time or destination whatsoever. In fact, this feeling adds the risk of depression and I actually have phobia flying. Crying emotionally is just so common among crew. Moreover, having to fly at weird timings and work like mad on board are really tiring. And the job actually creates hazards to my health as in my bone, my joints, my womb, my SKIN!!! These are truly demotivating.

So what's next? Do I still love my job? I would say I have to love my job and I can only say that because being positive is the only way to stay happy after all. Of course it is not that bad. Talking about the pros, it's not just about the pay (in fact I think we are still underpaid - it's such a high risk job man!). Why did I choose this job in the first place? Because I was heading nowhere and I wanna achieve my dream to see the world. I am so blessed that I get this job as it has helped me to achieve part of my dreams in my life (God is good). At least for the next phase of my life I can be more focused of achieving my other dreams! -PTL- Only 5 months of flying I've been to several countries in the world and seen a lot of wonders, seen a lot of culture and people from different walks of life. At most I only need to work for 4 sectors and when I touch down I get to enjoy the life of a tourist and sometimes as a rich tourist. As I have saved the airfare and accommodation, I only need to spend a few hundred dollars to make it to amazing scenes like the world's most beautiful flower park, snow mountain, rhine falls, Acropolis, African safari, blue mosque etc.! Imagine the lifestyle where you have your wonderful dinner by the beach, taking pictures all day long while your friends are still working hard somewhere around the world. Another fun thing is I become even more independent exploring the public transport and new places be it on my own or with the nice crews. Blessed that I have made a few good friends here too. I mean not just in SIA but in Singapore and CHC. :D

Most importantly, it's still not those travelling moments that I gained but the values and insights which money cannot buy. How much I've learnt to be a better person and how much I've grown. It's indescribable. Through this job, I realised even if you gain the whole world it's meaningless if there's no one to share your joy with you. Or if you lose your values and attitude. The bible says from Mark 8:36-37 "And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?" Even if you have a million dollars in your bank account, the main thing that you need is still God, family and friends. Believe me or not, even if you don't need to pay a single cent to go to one of the world's most beautiful beaches, Maldives but you are all alone, you will still feel empty. On the contrary, you work hard and save some money to just go to Pulau Langkawi but with your loved ones, it is the pure joy that you will gain. And it is through this job that I got to know God which is the greatest blessing in my life for the only happiness that lasts forever is to seek Him and be with Him. So ask me again, do I really love my job? Well, I can't give you an accurate answer. Human beings are just so greedy and no matter what they do they will not be satisfy. They will still seek for more and seek for something different. But one person told me today "No one points a gun at me and ask me to take this job. As we have made our choice we have to fulfil the responsibility and... ENJOY it!" As God has arranged this for me, I would have to fulfil His will until He tells me to stop and move on... Amen!

Seeking My True Self

It took me quite some time to finally get my blog done. I have been wanting to write for a while but just didn't have the right mood. Talking about the title of my blog as well as this post it is just so real that life is all about seeking your ownselves. At least to me, it is all about seeking my true self; my identity, my dreams, my purpose. All these while, I had been brainstorming why exactly am I living in this world. Isn't this a cruel world? Life is just a cycle. You are borned, you grow up and go to school, then you work hard your entire life to make a living and some to become rich, you get married and raise your child and your child would go through the same routine as you do. Then you get old, fall ill and die. Worse thing is you go to hell and reincarnate to the next life. This process goes on and on and it's never ending. So why do I want to live in the first place? Why would I get married? Why do I wanna give birth to a child? Wow! Sounds a little deep huh? And never expect I would have such thought? I bet even my very close friends do not expect these from me.

Until I come to a stage where I was suffering from a huge dilemma. I could no longer depend on anyone or anything. I just feel empty. I decided to look for a breakthrough and my life starts to change. Well, I mean my mindset and values start to change slowly and they get more and more significant. I got to know plenty of people that have made an impact in my life. I talk, I share, I listen, I read, I think, I pray... to understand the logic of life; the reason and meaning behind everything. And then the greatest breakthrough fall upon me; when I finally repented and seek God. I know a lot of people would comment "Here comes Phoebe talking about God, God and God again" but it is just because they simply don't understand. I know how they feel because I've been through the same stage as they have. For more than 10 years God has been trying to save me. Yet I was skeptical and now I only wish I could have known Him earlier. Because that would make a big difference in my life and within my family...

Honestly, I don't really mean to start this blog simply because I want to boast about God. But it's because I want to share about my life which in turn could touch people's lives and reach out (that's the main objective of my site). Well, it is the real life experiences I'm talking about here. And if you notice my life is actually so strongly related to God. So He just naturally comes in my way in my daily sharing. He has given me a purpose in my life! And that is the greatest gift that I would have ever receive. It is no longer about being rich or climbing the corporate ladder in order to become successful. It is to achieve the dream of mankind; to be with God at eternity. Until today, I am still learning, still growing and in search deeper and deeper of Him and through Him I can find the real me and my true calling. One person told me before "The journey is very tough but it is by faith that we sustain." Amen.