Of Umbrellas and Silhouettes.

It has been a long time since I have taken interesting silhouettes. I love taking silhouettes pictures because it is easy! =) and with a little creativity you can take wonderful silhouettes just like a pro. Silhouettes are pictures taking against the sun. You put the subject in front of you and facing the sunlight you capture your shot. Easy weezy.

A few close friends when to Jolene’s house for the Chinese New Year and we had a mini gathering. While waiting for the rest, the few of us (me, Jolene, Suba and Yvonne) went out to the field nearby and decided to go wild with the camera. So here is only a glimpse of the many shots we took. Enjoy =)

All pictures were taken by me unless noted otherwise. *tripod used.

Wonderful trees around the park.



Chicks under my umbrella… eh… eh… under my umbrella… ella… ella… (I hate that song by the way, super irritating!)
Ooh I love this shot of Suba!!! She was moving and dancing and I kept snapping away with my camera and got this really nice one.
Subashini =D
Me. Picture taken by Jolene =)
Jolene Tan =D
Yvonne Yap =D
Suba again. Nice. She has the move!
Yvonne =D
I think with photoshop this picture can be edited to be really nice. Maybe I will try.
Jump jump!
Broadway!!! Here we come!

Ah ha!!! Saw me doing the kung fu kick? =D
I don’t know why but Jolene always seem to take wonderful shots of me jumping! This is her second one. The first was last year September 11, to see the picture, visit http://www.zlwinchew.blogspot.com/, it’s on my blog header.
Another wonderful shot by Jolene. I actually stripped off my clothes and tied in around my waist and was jumping and kicking for so many times to get a nice shot. The people at the field were wondering what this crazy bugger is doing.
Suba trying to kick =)
I like this shot, look as though she is falling.
This picture is credited to Suba. Nice! =D too bad I don’t know no taekwondo or kung fu. I know pepper spray though.
I gathered some onlookers and got them into the fun as well =)
Then I coax them into borrowing their bike saying that I will put up the pictures in STAR Newspaper haha.
Looks like E.T. =D That’s Suba.
And this is Yvonne.
Suba has a niche in silhouettes pictures. Love this pose.
For your eyes only.
Saw that little tiny droplet of water? Used the Super Macro mode on my camera for this shot.
I love this picture. Can you see the sunlight making an outline for the leaves? Look carefully.
Mushroom! Nah, nothing great about it. Eat it and you will probably end up in ICU. I like this picture cause I managed to blur the background as well as the lower front portion. Easy when you have a good camera and a just a little brain =)
Oh! The serenity…
Light shining through.
Now you can see the faces. And look at my shirt! Sweating all over.
Credits to Jolene for this picture. She took it while the sun was about to set.

The Call No One Bothers to Answer

Matthew 28:19-20
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

I am very sure all of you have read that Scripture above many times. If you haven’t then I am very sure as well you have heard of people sharing this with you. Doesn’t matter who are you, everyone will have surely came across this call sometime in their lives. Yet, many do not bother to heed that call.

It is really a sad thing to see you people doing what everyone have been doing for so many years but without bringing any eternal value. We stretch ourselves to the limit by serving in various ministries in the church; organizing events, playing in the worship team, singing in the choir and helping in the planning committee. But all these are really of secondary importance compared to the general call of our lives.

The church will remain as it is for the coming years unless we do something. By the grace of God, the church will stand but it will only stand, not moving forward. I hate to admit it but I (and I am sure many of you) can see that the church is not growing spiritually. I will bring your attention to the youths as I am more involved in the youths. I see the youths of the church are just stagnant. Many of you may be growing physically as you grow older and your talents in various areas are sharpened and polished. Many of you have grown in knowledge and understanding. But still many of your have not grown in your relationship with God.

Glad I am to see some of you whom have stayed through the many years in church and have come to a closer relationship with God.

Come on my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Heed God’s call. You may be doing a lot of things in church and serving in many ministries but if you miss that one call you will have wasted your time doing what you have been doing. God is very concerned about you answering His call.

God has called you to GO and MAKE DISCIPLES.

Organizing rallies and concerts and camps will only add people to the family of God. But with discipleship, we will not only add but also multiply the family of God. And what is the use of having so many events in and out of the church when even the people in church do not know God? God wants you to grow in Him and then disciple another person so that he will grow in God as well and then disciple another and so on. This is the divine formula that God has given us to follow and obey. But none bothers.

And of course it is hard to disciple when you don’t even know your God, am I right?

So what are you going to do?

I can't find any picture that relates to the coming Chinese New Year so I just took this red parrot and posted it up for you guys haha. Too bad there are no pink parrots, if they exist I would love to own one! I took this picture of this beautiful parrot when I went to Sunway Lagoon few months back. Nice? =)

Few announcements to make.

As all of will be busy going from houses to houses to rob adults off their money, there will be NO GRACE YOUTH LEADERS OUTREACH meeting this Saturday. Please take note ya. We will resume our meeting on the 16th February and on the 23rd, Bus Company will be coming.

Another announcement:

We are looking for LEADERS. Those interested to be a leader for Christ, do come join our weekly Grace Youth Leaders Outreach meetings.

For more information on Grace Youth Leaders Outreach meetings and programmes please contact me (Zlwin Chew) or Adrian Yap. God bless all.

Remember:

Leaders are always the minority but they bring a great deal of effect to those around.

Bus Company Live

All you music fans out there head-banging to some hardcore metal music, I bring forth good news to you =) You can come head-bang with us this coming end of the month, bandages are provided free of charge. And we have well trained medics ready to help you in case you got head-banged.

Just kidding =)

Grace Youth Leaders Outreach has organized an event for you guys. We are inviting the recent Battle of the Bands champion to come and perform for us this coming 23^rd February. The band goes by the name Bus Company! *claps! They will be performing a number of songs for us and sharing their testimonies on how they used their talents for God.

God has given us all kinds of talents and our task is to use it to the fullest of potential – not for ourselves but for God and God alone! And we a have a whole arsenal of weapons for our usage. Let us then rise up and lead with the gifts God has given us.

Event: Bus Company Live

Venue: Second Hall, Grace Klang

Time: 1:30 pm

Date: 23rd February

Is the Bible Real?

IS THE BIBLE REALLY THE WORD OF GOD???

Many doubt the validity of the Bible as God’s Spoken Words. Up till today there is still debates after debates on Biblical arguments and as we all know, not everyone believes that the Bible is the Real Stuff. There are many things we could alkf about which might shake your faith but one thing I tell you – the Bible has always been and will always be THE REAL STUFF...

Why?

Many reasons I can give you. But today I will share on one powerful reason that will surprise you.

If you want to know whether the Bible is really God’s Word, look at the Jews.

In Genesis chapter 12 God said to a man named Abram (later Abraham):

Genesis 12:2-6
The Lord said to Abram,
“Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and I will make you a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

These are the words of God that will change the whole world thousands of years later. The call of Abraham has a sevenfold structure if you notice: (1) “I will make you into a great nation.” (2) “I will bless you.” (3) “I will make your name great” (4) “you will be a blessing” (5) “I will bless those who bless you.” (6) “whoever curses you I will curse.” (7) “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

And the number Seven is a Biblical number of perfection. Therefore, the call of Abraham was a perfect call in which God will use to bring the Good News to all people on earth.

This is the REAL STUFF:

If you notice, all of the promises of God to Abraham have been fulfilled. Hundreds of years after God made these promises to Abraham; the great nation had indeed appeared and numbering in millions! They were led into the promise land by their Jewish leader Moses.

God warned them that if they disobeyed God, He will cause them to be scattered and be spread throughout all the earth when their enemies attacked them. They did not heed God’s warning and disobeyed God many times. But by God’s grace and compassion, God promised that He will bring all of them back into their land again.

In the Bible, the Israelites were attacked by a lot of enemies but each and everyone of their enemies were wiped off!

In 606 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar took the Jewish captive to Babylon and returned in 588 B.C., and after a long siege he burned the city and temples. But in the end as God promised, they were brought back to their homeland again. But in 70 A.D., Titus the Roman conqueror attacked their city and removed them once more from their homeland. He destroyed Jerusalem and scattered the people.

Then for almost 1900 years the Jews wandered around the earth as strangers who were persecuted from every side! During the World War II Holocaust, more than 6 million Jews were put to death in Nazi concentration camps!

Then against all odds, on May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was reborn and every Jews started to return from all over the world! And since then, they have survived numerous wars such as the 1956 war with Arab, 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Holy Day War (Yom-Kippur War), 1982 Palestinian guerillas war and many more. Yet they grew in numbers!

God also promised that all peoples on earth will be blessed through Abraham. This promise came through as well! All descendants of Abraham are Jewish people and Jewish people have been a blessing throughout the earth.

A short list of Jewish people who had contributed greatly to the world:

1. Albert Einstein, Physics
2. Levi Strauss, Jeans, 1873
3. Maurice Levy , Lipstick, 1915
4. Lazlo Biro, Ballpoint Pen, 1938
5. J. Robert Oppenheimer,, Atomic Bomb, 1945
6. Edwin Herbert Land, Instant Photography, 1947
7. Denis Gabor, Holography, 1948
8. Peter Carl Goldmark, Long Playing Record, 1948
9. Robert Adler, Television Remote Control, 1950
10. Edward Teller, Thermonuclear Bomb, 1952
11. Paul M. Zoll, Defibrillator, 1952 and Cardiac Pacemaker, 1952
12. Gregory Pincus, Contraceptives, early 1950s
13. Charles Ginsburg, Videotape, 1950s
14. Gordon Gould, Laser, 1958
15. Stanley N. Cohen, Genetic Engineering, 1973
16. Jason Lanier, Virtual Reality, 1989
17. Niels Bohr, Physics
18. Karl Marx

And the list goes on... Moreover, 22 percent of Nobel Prize winners are Jews!

God promised Abraham that he will make him into a great nation and true indeed. The Jewish population in the world is now more than 14million!!! It is about 20% of the whole world’s population! Wow! Jews fill every corner of the earth today as prophesied in the Bible!

So now do you believe that the Bible is true?

While filming a movie in Israel in 1976, two Christian filmmakers named Josh McDowell and Don Steward met with a very high official of the Israelite government. They asked him how did the Jewish people managed to survive so many wars and tribulations that should have made the Jewish people extinct. His answer was:

“Although most of the people in my country would claim to be atheists, don’t you believe it. I think that all of us know deep down inside that some force greater than us has been protecting this nation.”

And we all know that the “force” is the Almighty God.

The Jews are the Bible's testimony.

-Zlwin Chew.