June 29, 2011

真的，随着时代的改变，人的观念、品味、偏好等等很可能也会随之改变。。。
记得在我中学，甚至大学那些年代，皮肤白皙的男生总会给人一种很娘或很弱的感觉。
所以，当时我是故意把自己晒得黑黑，甚至有时候故意穿着短裤和背心，在中午十二点烈日之下把自己晒黑！

It is true, as time changes, people’s values, tastes, preferences etc may change along with time too…
I remember during my high school or even university years, guys with fair skin gave the impression of femininity or weakness. So during that period of time, I often went under the sun to get my skin tanned severely on purpose. Sometimes I would even purposely go under the sun at 12 noon in shorts and singlet to make myself dark!

再加上到纽西兰留学时，洋人又特别喜欢我们那种被太阳“烧焦”的古铜色，而他们却偏偏晒不成那种颜色，所以我就喜欢让洋人看到我的很阳光和“健康美丽”的肤色。。。

Furthermore when I was studying in New Zealand, the Caucasians somehow liked our scorched copper tone colour as they could never get that colour no matter how long they spent under the sun. So I loved to let the whites see my very sunshine, “healthy and beautiful” skin colour…

当有人说我很黑时，我听了是很高兴；尽管他们不是赞赏，而是很负面的觉得我太黑不好看，我依然感觉他们是在称赞我。就如同现今很多人若被讲“太瘦”，听起来都不会被得罪，还会觉得很高兴一样，哈哈！

反之，在那个时代若有人讲我皮肤很白，我会很不舒服和尴尬，觉得他们是在讥笑我“娘”。。。。

If anyone commented that I was really dark, I would feel very happy even if they were actually saying it negatively as a criticism that I did not look nice because I was too dark, I would still feel that it was a compliment. This is quite similar to now when some people say you are “too thin”, you would not feel offended no matter how, and still feel happy, haha!

Conversely, during that period of time, if anyone had said that my skin colour was very fair, I would have felt very embarrassed and awkward feeling that they were criticizing me for being feminine…

 

说真的，我也不太清楚我的皮肤到底是“黑底”，还是“白底”。。。你们觉得呢？
Honestly, I am not very sure whether my original skin colour was more on the dark or fair side… what do you guys think?

 

可是现在时代改变了，男孩子皮肤很白早已经被接受，而且很多男生都刻意要使肌肤变白，被人讲白也不会感觉羞耻，还会很高兴。。。除了审美观、品味、思想改变之外，这也由于知识上晓得过份被烈日曝晒对皮肤也不好。

皮肤或黑或白，没有对错，只是个人偏好、文化、观点等等，这种观念可随着时代的变化而改变，以前不被接受的现在被接受，以前认为是不对的，现在认为并没什么问题。这种例子包括：妻子也上班啦、男人也可以洗衣煮饭啦、穿牛仔裤啦、染发啦等等（以前我是反对染发的，哈哈！）。。。

But nowadays time has changed, people readily accept guys with fair skin and many guys try to make their skin fairer on purpose, and guys would not feel embarrassed but instead feel happy when people comment they look fair…
Apart from the change of beauty views, tastes and thinking, of course the knowledge of direct exposure to the scorching sun is unhealthy for the skin is also a factor to this change…

There is no right or wrong whether your skin is dark or fair, it is just a matter of preferences, culture or opinions etc. This kind of thinking can change with time. What were not accepted before can be accepted now, what were considered as wrong before may not be any issue now. Some examples are: wives are allowed to have a career too, men can also cook and do the washing, wearing jeans, dyeing hair etc (I used to oppose dyeing of hair, haha!)…

 

我本身认为有一些东西是中立的，没有对错之分，只是时代改变，随着知识和思想的进步，有一些东西是可以被接受为正常和没问题的，只要不冲突到真理和神的原则。

然而，我的立场是有一些东西是永远都要持守的，不管时代怎样变迁，只要是神的话明确不赞成的，我们就不能妥协，譬如婚前性关系、色情文化等等。。。这些都有明显上帝准则，对错与黑白分明，无论社会进展到什么地步，我们都不能抛弃这些价值观。。。你赞成吗？

Personally I feel certain things are neutral, there is no right or wrong. As time changes, knowledge and thinking advance, certain things can be accepted as normal and alright, as long as they do not conflict with God’s Truth and principles.

However my stand is there are things we have to safeguard forever, no matter how time has changed, as long as the Word of God clearly disapproves, then we must not compromise, such as premarital sex, pornographic culture etc… All these have clear standards from God, telling you whether it is right or wrong, and black and white clearly spelled out. So, no matter how advanced society is, we must not abandon these values still… do you agree?

 

 

May 3, 2011

记得有一次在洗礼课，我跟新信徒分享有关我喉咙出状况的见证。我提到我已经很难过与困惑我的喉咙严重失声许久，也无法再持续唱歌。我告诉他们上帝很怜悯我，因为就在那个时候他派一位牧师介绍我医治喉咙的秘方，即把鼠尾草煲成又苦又浓的汁用以每天漱口或喝下去。但我说那位是新加坡的牧师，回到古晋我不知在哪里找鼠尾草。

洗礼课程结束时，有一位阿姨就兴致勃勃上来问我鼠尾草怎么写，她说她要去找。。。我听了很感动因为她只不过是一位新信徒，竟然已经会想到要祝福牧师！
正当我望着她，等她继续说更感动的话时，她说：牧师，谢谢你的分享！我要去找这鼠尾草，因为我的喉咙也是已经沙哑很久了，我要试试看能医好我的喉咙吗。。。

说完就走掉了。。。我楞在那里，幸好我还没跟她说谢谢，要不然那可糗了。。。

那就叫“perasan”…

I remember once in the baptismal class, I was sharing with the new believers my testimony regarding my throat and vocal condition. I mentioned I was very desperate and perplexed as I had lost my voice for a long time and I could not carry on singing anymore. I told them God was very merciful to me because just at the right time He sent a pastor to introduce a cure for my throat, that is to boil the herb sage into very thick and bitter juice and use it to gargle or drink it each day. But I said that was a Singaporean pastor so I did not know where to look for sage in Kuching.

After the class had ended, an aunty very excitedly came forward to ask me the writing of sage in Chinese, she said she would go and look for it… I was so touched as I listened to her since she was only a new Christian and already she was thinking of blessing the pastor!
As I looked at her waiting for her to say some more touching words, she said: Pastor, thanks for sharing this, I’m going to look for this sage because my throat has been very bad for a while, I want to see whether this sage can really cure my condition…

And she turned to leave after saying that… I was stunned for a while there, just as well I had not said “thank you” to her, otherwise that would have been so embarrassing…

Now that is called “perasan”…

April 19, 2011

有没有那种感觉，有时候见到一个人，我们会惊慌失措，身体出现怪异小动作尽流露我们紧张的心情，然后IQ突然降低，开始语无伦次。。。？

有人说我常使人出现那种状况。。。不！不要误会！不是因为我魅力无法挡，或帅到让人不能有正常反应！你们也知道绝对不是那个原因！而真正原因是，唉！因为我“杀气”太重，让人有一股很“畏惧”的感觉。。。

朋友说我该检讨原因何在。。。后来多数结论把问题怪在我的浓眉上，还建议我把眉毛剃掉或修掉！但不行啊，很多时候不能用口或手时，我需要用到我的眉毛向同工或助理指示一些工作需要。。。

Ever had that feeling, sometimes when we see someone, we will start to panic and weird little actions from our body will betray our anxiety, then our IQ will suddenly drop and we become incoherent in our speech…?

Some people say I tend to cause people to become like that… No! Don’t misunderstand me! It is NOT because I am irresistibly charming or so stunningly good-looking to cause them to behave abnormally! You all would know that is definitely not the reason too! The true reason is, sigh! It is because of my “over-bearing fierceness”, and that gives them a kind of “respectful fear”…

Friends ask me to examine myself as to what the reason is… but most come into the conclusion that the culprit is my thick eye-brows and they suggest that I should shave off or at least trim my eye-brows! But I cannot do that because many times when I cannot use my mouth or hands, I need to use my eye-brows to instruct my staff and assistants what to do…

 

话说那天，初为人父的他要求我帮他儿子取名字，我也很努力的想和祷告，结果想了一个名字，被他拒绝了！原因是，他说有点像马来名。。。我也不能怪他，因为那毕竟是一个希伯来名，老实说我也不太确定如何发音。。。既然如此，我也忙，就说那他自己取名字好了。。。

要知道，我们的这些沟通都是透过他的组长，而不是跟我直接交流。。。组长也责备他说，牧师那么忙还那么认真帮你想了那么好的名字，你竟然拒绝！我想他也觉得很不好意思，但还是决定不要用我给的名字。。。

The story begins with the new dad asking me to help name his new born son. So I was very serious in thinking and praying for a name, and finally I came up with a name, but he rejected it! Reason being, he said it sounds like a Malay name… well, I can’t really blame him as it is a Hebrew name and honestly I am not very sure about the pronunciation too… Well, since he did not want and I was very busy too, so I asked him to think of another name himself…

You must know that all these were communicated through his leader, he did not talk to me personally… His leader kind of rebuked him saying: Our pastor is so busy and yet so kind to think of a name for your son and yet you rejected the name!
I think he felt quite bad about it too, but he still decided not to use the name…

礼拜天散会时，刚好我在大门口跟他碰个正着！我全然出于关心的问说结果孩子名字取了吗？
我看得出他很紧张，脸有点红，有点吞吞吐吐的说：取了，是妈妈取的。。。
然后他就说洋名叫 Zacchaeus (即圣经人物“撒该”的英文翻译。其实我也蛮喜欢这个名字）。。。然后，他就很认真的告诉我说 Zacchaeus 就是圣经里面那个爬上桑树要看耶稣的矮子。我感觉很有趣他需要告诉他的牧师撒该是谁，所以我就作弄他，向他鞠躬道谢说：谢谢你告诉我撒该是谁，谢谢！谢谢！

他顿时脸变得通红，觉得很不好意思。。。大夥儿也大笑一场。。。

回到家，我从 Facebook 收到他寄过来的简讯，他说：

“嗨！牧师。。。我觉得很不好意思因为刚才在教会对你说的话好像是侮辱了你的智慧！像你这种美貌与智慧并重的人，哪里可能会不知道Zacchaeus这 个名，我还真是多此一举去解释，真下衰。。。虽然你心胸宽大，一定不会为这种芝麻绿豆小事放在心上，但还是要跟你说一声不好意思~谢啦~”

我读了真的是笑出来了，太可爱了，哈哈！

Sunday, after service, I bumped into him at the door! With pure concern I asked him, so have you decided on your son’s name?
He seemed very nervous, somewhat blushing and stammering, he said: yes, already, my mother named the baby…
He proceeded to tell me it’s Zacchaeus (actually I kind of like this name too)… then he went on to tell me rather seriously that Zacchaeus was the name of that short guy who climbed up the sycamore tree to see Jesus. I was kind of amused that he should tell his pastor who Zacchaeus was, so I teased him by bowing my head and said: Thank you, thank you! Thanks for telling me who Zacchaeus was…

Immediately he turned red and felt very embarrassed… and everybody laughed…

When I reached home, I saw a message he left in my Facebook that read:
“Hi, Pastor… I feel very embarrassed that I was like insulting your intelligence just now at church! For someone like you with a combination of beauty and wisdom, why would you not know who Zacchaeus was! I was really doing the unnecessary to explain, so “sia-soi” (embarrasssing)… Though I know you have a big heart and you wouldn’t hold this against me, I must still apologize to you~ thanks~ ”

I really laughed when I read that, so very cute, haha!

 

Zacchaeus，欢迎来到这世界，你爸爸真的是很可爱！
Welcome to the world, Zacchaeus, you have a very cute daddy!