Leow-John.COM-The Internet Marketing And Personal Blog of John Leow!

You Are An ENTJ

The ExecutiveYou are a natural leader - with confidence and strength that inspires others. Driven to succeed, you are always looking for ways to gain, power, knowledge, and expertise. Sometimes you aren’t the most considerate person, especially to those who are a bit slow. You are not easily intimidated - and you have a commanding, awe-inspiring presence. In love, you hold high standards… for yourself, for your relationship, and for your significant other. While it’s easy for you to impress others, it’s hard for you to find someone who impresses you. At work, you are organized and good at delegating. You understand how to achieve goals. You would make a great CEO, entrepreneur, or consultant. How you see yourself: Rational, calm, and objective When other people don’t get you, they see you as: Inflexible, controlling, and overbearing

What’s Your Personality Type?

Nose has been running and stuck-up non-stop since last Wednesday! Maybe my nose just isn’t used to civilian life again… the dust, pollen etc.. Anyway, I managed to clean out my wardrobe throughly, and wiped dust off the wardrobe panes which havent been cleaned for like 10 years..What an achievement!

Saw this article on Biblehelp.org… Will bless everyone!

Extracted from  Biblehelp.org

”

Summary
Christians often become frustrated when their Christian service does not seem to be productive. It’s important to understand, God does not ask you to be productive, He only asks you to be obedient.

“Awakened by a noise, Elijah opens his eyes and looks around the room. At first, the rugged mountain man is terrified. Slowly, his terror turns to awe and wonder. His cabin is filled with a bright light and the unmistakable presence of God. Suddenly, a voice (which appears to be coming from every corner of the room) is addressing him. It is God speaking.

God tells Elijah He has a job for him. Out in front of Elijah’s cabin is a very large rock and God tells Elijah He wants him to push against it with all of his might. Elijah is to push against the rock from sunup to sundown. God tells Elijah this is his job until He visits him again.

The next morning, Elijah gets up and obediently sets his shoulder against the cold massive rock and pushes with all of his might. Day after day Elijah obediently goes out to the rock and does what he was told. Night after night Elijah returns home exhausted and sore. As the years press on, Elijah begins to feel he is wasting his time. Discouragement begins to set in.

Seeing that Elijah is showing signs of discouragement, Satan places thoughts in the weary man’s mind. Satan says, “You have been pushing against this rock for years and it hasn’t budged a bit. Why are you killing yourself over this? You know you will never be able to move this massive boulder. And, even if you did, so what! What would you really have accomplished? If you think about it, moving a rock from one spot to another isn’t really important.”

These thoughts discouraged and disheartened Elijah. He thinks to himself, “Why should I kill myself over this? This rock isn’t going to know the difference. I’ll still come out and push, but I just won’t push with all of my might.”

After a couple days of halfhearted effort, Elijah feels convicted of his disobedience. Falling on his knees, Elijah begins to pray. He says, “God, I have been obedient to you all of these years and I haven’t accomplished a thing. I haven’t been able to budge the rock at all; it is still in the same spot that it was when you first came to me 20 years ago. What is wrong? Why am I failing? I admit, I really didn’t know what to expect when you first gave me my mission, but I figured after 20 years I would have something to show for my effort. I thought it would eventually become obvious to me why you asked me to perform this task.”

God responded compassionately, “Elijah, when I asked you to serve, you served. The only task I gave you was to push against the rock. I never asked you to move it. I asked you to push against the rock with all of your might and you were obedient. I didn’t want the rock moved; I only wanted your obedience. Your calling was to be obedient to me and trust in my wisdom.”

We can learn from Elijah’s experience. As Christians, we often think we must accomplish “great things” in order to be successful in our Christian service. We have this mental image of what a good Christian does and we feel bad if we don’t measure up to this expectation. We should never assume God is seeking spectacular performances or “great accomplishments.” We are to carefully listen to God and obediently follow His instructions.

Above everything else, God desires obedience. If the task He gives you is to turn the world upside down, be obedient. If the task He gives you is an “unimportant” job (such as pushing against a rock), be obedient. Instead of being concerned about being “successful,” we should be concerned about being obedient.”

   *The Elijah in this story is not the Elijah of the Bible.  The person in this story just happens to have the same name as the prophet in the Bible.

 

 This story about obeying God clears all my worries and strivings to try to make things happen when God hasn’t called me to do them!

 

Gotta run..

Routine…we stare at the reality of routine everyday. Wake up, brush teeth, bathe,dress up,go work,eat lunch,work,come home,dinner,relax,brush teeth,sleep…Wake up,brush teeth,bathe…and the cycle goes on and on. Routine is defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary as “habitual or mechanical performance of an established procedure”

However, I ‘ve come to see that routine is actually a blessing from God! Its a radical statement to some, because many times a routine life has connotations to a rather boring and dull life.

Now let me explain why. But before one can understand the blessing of routine, let us lay the perspective from God’s lens first.

We can see the creativity of God in nature on this earth. People, the vast ocean, even the raintrees in the park are beautiful works of God’s endless mosaic of creativity! Therefore, we can thank God for His goodness in all that we see. Even in stormy times in our lives where everything seems to be in ashes, we can still thank God that those times were designed to bring us deeper in love with Him and to know Him more. Did you know that ashes, when mixed with oil, and heated in salt brine, produces a scum that floats on the surface mixture, which when compressed, produces a bar of soap? Therefore, what used to be a worthless and hopeless heap of ashes now becomes something of medical value; in other words, the trials and sufferings we go through and have won the victories can be shared to encourage and bring hope to others who are going through similar experiences!

A verse from Scripture:

Isaiah 61:3

‘to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness,instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. ‘ (NIV)

God is a wise master craftsman. He takes the seemingly useless heaps of ashes in our lives; the mum who always rejects you..the burnt down house and car..the loss of a family member, and turn it into a beautiful work of pottery that glorifies Him in the end. The ashes of our ruined dreams, mixed with God’s anointing oil and the salt of our tears produces a useful material!

So don’t complain about the tough circumstances or despair, because inn Him is hope!

Now, that we’ve laid the foundation of viewing the goodness of God through this lens, we can apply it even to the everyday routine chores of our lives! When we stop living to please ourselves daily and to live to love God (which has nothing in store for our own personal pleasure..that’s the truth) ,every second of time feels more valuable, because we’ll start to realise that only in this life can we start to reciprocate God’s love to a world that doesn’t know Him.

And here is where routine is a blessing, because we get to put acts of Christ love into practical use. For example, I know when my army buddy is going to need toilet paper again the next morning so I’ll did gladly donate mine to him;when i know that my boss is about to brew his standard cappucino coffee at the start of work at 9am, so i gladly sacrifice 10 mins extra sleep just to come in earlier and make coffee for him;Or when I know that that outcast in class who is always alone by himself..I make an effort today to be his friend.

Get the picture? Routine, gives us the advantage of knowing what will probably happen next, and so we can make that repeated moment count for the Lord. I for one confess that i tend to focus too much on living in the future, such as what person I will be like in 10 years time..How will my future home look etc…But its really in the everyday, sometimes seemingly boring moments of daily routine that we can make a difference in someone else’s life, but not just that, to please God too!

So sums it, the end of BMT has drawn to a close… I’m awfully sorry that i’ve not updated my blog the past 2 months because there is no internet in Tekong, but now that i have the chance!

Well, it’s 6 days left to my block leave (I had 11 days block leave), before i get my posting to a new unit and have to report next monday. My most probable guess is that I would be posted to SISPEC (School Of Infantry Specialists), as I was told our enhanced BMT batch is actually intended for command school. Well, throughout the whole of BMT, my buddies kept asking why i didnt aim for OCS, but SISPEC. It would sound logical to aim high, but to me, the reason I’m vying for SISPEC is because I have seen and am convinced that a sergeant has maximum exposure to make an impact on the lives of his men, while an officer mostly works behind the scenes doing planning etc, and that’s one of my army goals, to at least impact someone else’s life, and what better time than to be a sergeant correct?

O and did i forget to mention, i look forward to Taiwan if i ever get the chance too..because it’s an experience of a lifetime to train in Taiwanese mountains!

Anyway,9 weeks just passes way too fast…In BMT, time passes too fast, but yet too slow. Ironic, but BMT is slow when you look at it on a day to day basis because of routine, but it passes very fast when you see the big picture! POP pics are here by the way…

Dad and I(I only realise how similar we look after BMT..)

Esther my sis.
Funniest buddies from Yankee Coy, Platoon 2,Section 4..I’m in the top right

Our original ‘China Army’ flip salute!

Our OOT (Out Of Training) buddy gets tau-poked!

Looking back, I really miss BMT now..because of the really funny times all of us had together, plus the chiong sua in the mud. I miss my fantastic buddies, my sergeants and my CSM. But the thing that will stay with me are those hilarious stories of our platoon mates who did silly things.We had this very blur guy in our platoon who mixed up all his army terms.For example, he asked his buddy this during the 8 KM road march to our field camp site : “How long more before we reach the ’settlement’ (a.k.a Field Camp Site) ah?”.Also, another uber funny story was one of my section mates camo-ed his face with black camo paint instead of green in the dark of the early morning during field camp. And we didnt notice his face color was all black until the sun rose up in the sky!

And did i forgot to mention..some of my platoon mates gave out awards for everybody in the platoon on inscribed pebbles. I won the ‘Happy Ghost’ award(actually is Hungry Ghost!), because according to them, I’m usually found with chips,cookies or some other food in my hands or mouth nearly everytime they saw me. Its true to a certain extent, because while most people lost weight in BMT, I gained 5 kg at the end!

Ok..i’ve got too many experiences to share which are not possible to type in one entry here…but I just wana say to all enlisting recruits that BMT is not as bad as some make it out to be! Just follow instructions and do what you are told to do, and you should have no problems with the sergeants.

“Its not about what you leave behind. Its about what you will gain in the days ahead.”
-From Tekong Ferry Terminal Banner

Ok..actually this were some photos taken from my blog post on multiply, cause i’m feeling lazy to retype my thoughts. But really, army is a great learning experience, and it has made me more ‘manly’..(if you know what that means..).

What happened after POP day was some bowling with the zone DP at marine cove, plus intensive LAN gaming the next two days. I also realised i developed a very good habit of having water parade in the morning before i go out, and at night before i sleep (half full bottle). It’s a habit i picked up in NS, because it REALLY works and keeps you hydrated and feeling healthy throughout the day. One testimonial is that my mouth ulcers stopped appearing after the daily water parades in NS..so i think i have found the next big breakthru in ulcer prevention technology.. That is: DRINK MORE WATER! (can you see the scientist in me?)

Today (or rather sunday), we celebrated Cameron’s 29th b’day in church, and then went off for soccer ‘training’ at bedok court with the rest of the Generations guys. My, there were so many new faces, and the original soccer league has now grown to three teams! Didn’t get to play though, because we were team 1, and by the time team 3 lost to team 2 and it was our turn to play, the rain poured like no one’s business. The rain spoiled my mood (also in BMT, couldn’t do SOC because CAT 1 everytime we were about to do SOC) , but had a farewell dinner with dad and family at airport before he left for Shanghai to resume work over there for the next 6 months.I miss dad so.

On a brighter note, I checked my Clickbank stats, and it was one of those moments where it was like “Aiyah, confirm won’t have any affiliate sales one la..”, because the past 3 months i only made a miserable USD$42. But what a shock i got when i saw that i made another affiliate sale from the Profitlance system, and that sale brought in a cool USD$47.68 in the month of August! (Sorry the pic is too small to see the figures..because the layout is wide..)

I really have only God to praise for that, because if you are an experienced IM person, you would know that it takes lots and lots and lots of effort and time to make just one sale, and even so, competition is very tough out there. But praise God, i really felt He blessed me financially at the time where i least expect. Indeed, He’s the Lord our Provider! The Bible says in Matt 7:11:
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ”

God is a good God, and because He is our loving heavenly Father, He wants to lavish us with good gifts, not just financially, but spiritually and in every aspect of life like marrying a godly and beautiful wife!And a gift is best received when it’s out of the blue,when you have totally no expectation of it..Let that encourage my readers!

Ok, i’ve talked too much. Will update soon! So stay tuned!

It’s great to be home again!

Booked out from Tekong at 7pm, and everyone in Yankee coy was so upbeat..singing our trademark “Today is Book Out Day, Book Out..Book Out..” song all the way from the ferry till the bus. But when i set foot at Whitesands to meet sis for dinner, I felt so out of touch and ‘lost’ walking around civilisation, because for the past two weeks all i saw was jungle, camp, cookhouse, tonner, platoon mates..jungle, camp, cookhouse, tonner, platoon mates…jungle, camp, cookhouse, tonner, platoon mates… get the picture?

In fact, typing this blog entry on my PC felt EXTREMELY weird! I dunno if it is a case of really being too far away from the ‘comfort’ zones i used to enjoy, but when i turned on the PC, I had difficulty using the mouse pointer on my screen, and forgot where all my files were stored! hahaha..

Anyway, i’ve got loads of stories to tell about my experience thus far in BMTC, but the highlights for me was the 1st 4 days I really felt uber-DEPRESSED, but the then BMTC got super fun after those 4 days! On the 14 Jul, i had to bid farewell to my dad and cousin on their coach back to the ferry after the last lunch with your parents before you proceed to collect your barang barang, get to know your platoon and commanders, and the the ritualistic Tekong bald haircut!

Honestly, i felt that i missed and appreciated the creature comforts i had before enlistment, plus my friends and church. I can remember on the third or second day,staring at the mainland from the seafront stadium at the main school, and earnestly looking forward to book out day. I missed the smell of my home, the company of old friends versus the new group of platoon mates i now had to make friends with…just to name a few of the long list of things i sorely missed.
Ok..that’s besides the point here…But after those 4 depressing days and thinking about this army quote plastered on the wall of the Tekong ferry terminal:

“It’s not about what you leave behind, Its about what you gain in the days ahead.” ,

things started picking up quickly for everyone of us, and people(my section especially..)began to form a very unique camadarie and unity…When we marched together everywhere we went, we would sing the ‘alamak, wosampa, billy pala ai bu pa, ai pu, ai pu” old chinese song creatively composed by one of the Indians in my platoon! There were plenty of lectures, lectures, and lectures, on theory lessons about basic military knowledge like how to handle the rifle etc., but we had a fair share of combat physical training and practice drills too.. In fact, i hated the combat physical training the most at first because it was really STRENOUS, but thinking back, I can attribute its success to my 2.4KM run timing which improved drastically from 12.30 mins in the past to only 11.12 mins..MAN, i’ve never felt so fit before in my life!

Besides the training and stuff, SAF did feed us well.. In fact, so well fed i actually grew a little bigger in body bulk mass! The usual routine was Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Night Snack, with super sized cookhouse servings of rice and vegetables, but never the meat portion though haha..for some strange reason, my appetite returned tremendously and I always requested double servings of night snack cakes etc..

Boy i’m fit!

1st week we did the bulk of our physical trainings and practice drills..However, 2nd week we did not do much and had more admin time because it rained nearly every day in the second week and had to stay in bunk…My section is happening, because we started off this lame game of “Which place can you go in Singapore?”, that spread right through our platoon!  Oh and i forgot to say, because my sergeants liked my name (they always call me “Johnathan Cornelius”), i guess i got arrowed by them to become the toilet cleaner and Rubbish IC for my platoon!I had to clear the rubbish daily, and my toilet washing skills acquired in Helps ministry made washing toilets very fulfilling everyday during area cleaning…Y? Not to boast or anything, but i ensured that the standard of toilet cleanliness was so clean anyone could sleep on the toilet floor!

OK..daily procedures aside..I must say i got to know various types of people and their differing personalities too.. We have a very funny guy who looks like Patrick from Spongebob in our platoon (no offence if he reads this..), as well as a guy who was nearly always ’sick’ everyday..(won’t say who..)..But on the other hand, i got to know a few new buddies who really are born leaders, and are always ever ready to take initiative to help others.Oh yes, and my section came up with an absurd motto called “ButtCheeks”,because it takes two butt cheeks to form the butt..and so it represents our strong unity to function as a great section!

Realised that half my platoon are Christians, or at least they profess to be, but thank God for giving such an open atmosphere in the platoon, because i had four platoon mates who already started  getting curious about my Jesus which I believe in,asking me questions, and sharing their views. Thank God that even though I couldn’t talk much most of the time because of bad mouth ulcers, I had the opportunity to share my testimony so far with one guy whom i’m praying and believing to be saved.  However, i struggled with reading the Bible, because we really had very little free time to do so in our ‘admin’ time which often got eaten into by activities. Even when i wanted to do so, I could not because our company sarges are particular about us observing the 2230 lights off rule, and by the time we hit the bed, we were so tired we immediately concussed .  But i made up for it by worshipping God with one song every time before i slept on my sis’s iPod..Through that, I experienced a very renewed sense of joy, destiny and strength I had for the next day though worshipping Him!

I would say that being in NS made me more hungry for the presence and words of God more than I normally did before enlistment. So here’s a tip of inspiration for all you pre-enlistees:

“Let those 2 years of NS…….be the hungriest years of your life drawing closer to God!”

Ok..Told you this entry would be super long, because got so many things to share.. But I’m really looking forward to meeting my cell in a few hours, and attending 1st service as well as Gen service on Sun before booking in again on Sun evening! Stay updated!