Christmas Party in Student House

Our Nilai Service planned a christmas party on Monday (22nd Dec) night. There'll be food, games, gift exchange and caroling. As usual, there'll be a lot of preparation for these kind of events and human power is needed, so Robert and me are there to help the Chan family (also to enjoy)!

A day before it (21st Dec), Cheryl dug out all the random stuffs that can be made as gift. We gonna prepare extra gifts because there'll always be somebody that didn't prepared or forget. Robert taught me how to wrap present as I never did it before, and I wrapped over 10 presents!

Oh ya, just a little boxed in scenario. Uncle Tome and Aunty Frances gonna have a flight back to US on that night too, so it'll be the last meeting with them. Our Nottingham bible study group prepared a photo album with some of our bible studies' pictures and messages inside as a gratitude. I presented it to them before they're heading to the airport. I really thanks LORD for bringing them to our life, which strengthen our faith and also helped us throughout our spiritual growth.

Robert practiced so much for the caroling session as we're gonna have a series of christmas songs and he'll be the one only one playing guitar *really respect and appreciate his hardwork*. Me, Cheryl and Charles were busy mapping the programmes for the party.

That morning, Aunty Elizabeth woke up early and started marinating the turkey*believe me, it's not easy*. We packed all the stuffs needed for that night, and went Giant to buy some more food.

Aunty Elizabeth took me and Robert to the student house first. Here's the tough part, we gonna start cooking! We're taking care of the veges, nuggets, hotdogs, potatoes, wedges, turkey, curry chicken and log cakes (that's a lot to do). For the first time of my life (ya... again), I cut so many potatoes and hotdogs, thanks Robert for teaching me again or else my fingers will be the victim. Robert and Aunty Elizabeth were inside the kitchen cooking and baking the turkey, so sorry that I can't help for that part. Luckily Tess and Carol came to the rescue, they arrived early to help!

My greatest achievement on that day is, I decorated the swizzroll cakes into super nice christmas log cakes *I love my creativity*! The snow are icing sugars, decorated with candies from Austrailia.

As Chris Abner and his family arrived, they reinforced the kitchen force and told me to be incharge of the gift registration for gift exchange later. Honestly, I'm kinda messed up as I didn't really manage the situation nicely for gift registration. So worried that I'm gonna spoil the whole party.

Students came around 7 p.m, most of them are African students trapped in Nilai UC during semester break and quite a number of them from KTT arrived too. There were more than 60 of them, amazing! Anyway, we started with the food first. Surprisingly, our cookies recieved a lot of possitive feedback, I'm glad about it.

Then Chris shared about the real meaning of Christmas. Next, I'm invited to share a testimony of myself about how, when and why I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior! Actually, my testimony isn't a bombastic one like others that is so touching and overwhelming, but I just hope that we can all share the wonderful love of our God with each other. Then, we have games. I'll be the one explaining the rules and Cheryl will be the game coordinator, they really had a lot of fun.

For the gift exchange session, although it's quite "kelam-kabut" but at least everyone get a gift. Finally, the turkey is ready to serve, Aunty Elizabeth's recipe was incredible! Too bad, KTT students have classes the next day, most of them left at that time. Then we had caroling, I think the turkey boosted them up, they sang so loud and powerful... hope they can sing like that every Sunday. Robert did well in leading the caroling session, his hardwork pays.

We ended around 10p.m, and cleaning took us about 1 hour. I washed the dishes at the kitchen, since that's what I know how to do. We were splited into 3 cars to go back, where Robert drove the van and I followed him. On the way back, Robert asked me whether I'm tired or not since I'm so quiet. Thanks for the concern buddy, but I'm just thinking about my coming exam. The last time I had this kind of fear was during SPM, even during A-level I'm better than now. Hope God really bless me.

Today, I'm reading Isaiah 19, which is talking about a message for Egypt. For the Almighty will say, "Blessed be Egypt, my people. Blessed be Assyria, the land I have made. Blessed be Israel, my special possession." Jesus, thanks for this little garthering to celebrate Your majestic arrival to Earth to fulfill God's Great Plan. You have really been faithful to my life, for blessing such a wonderful time and experience for my first time celebrating christmas. LORD, I pray for Carl, Audri, Hinn, Shaun, Colin, Matthew, Kai Seng and other faithful followers of Yours. I pray that they will lead well in their respective ministry for organizing christmas events to glorify Your name. Be with us LORD, Amen.