An old missionary couple had been working in Africa for years and were returning to New York to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they were defeated, discouraged, and afraid. They discovered they were booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions.

No one paid any attention to them. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President's entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the great man. As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, "Something is wrong." "Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us."

"Dear, you shouldn't feel that way", his wife said. He replied "I can't help it; it doesn't seem right."

When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the President's arrival. No one noticed this missionary couple.

They slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East Side, hoping the next day to see what they could do to make a living in the city.

That night the man's spirit broke. He said to his wife, "I can't take this; God is not treating us fairly". His wife replied, "Why don't you go in the bedroom and tell that to the Lord?"

A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, "Dear, what happened?" "The Lord settled it with me", he said. "I told Him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put His hand on my shoulder and simply said:

"But you're not home yet." my son.

Dear Beloved In Christ, Sometimes when we do something for the Lord, we want to be rewarded and praised now for it, but that's not the way God works. God does reward obedience but our full reward will not be known or given until we see the Lord face to face. Be encouraged and never give up the dreams and vision the Lord has given you. The enemy never wants you to be successful and believe me, satan is cheering you on to quit, but never give that defeated foe the satisfaction. God will be with you and help you in every area that you need.

SOLUTION:

Total Hotel Rate is S$25.00, divided by 3 persons should be S$8.3333333
Each person was return S$1.00, that made S$9.333333 instead of S$9.00

                S$0.33333 x 3 = S$1.00

The answer: The dollar was returned to these three men.



When this problem sum was dropped in my mail box one evening, I spent hours thinking about the solution.  I was upset after a while because it was such a simple question, yet I could not get the answer.  Feeling abit frustrated I closed up my notebook and decided to go to bed.  I woke up the next morning still in daze, this problem sum flashed across my mind.  I decided to revisit the question again.  Within 15 mins, I found the answer.  Phew, amazing.... still figuring out the reason.

As the question is rather tricky, as I link it to our daily lives.... very often I just see things as per what is heard, read and saw, and I act based on my perception.  Some misconceptions are due to our background, culture, genes and brought up.  Do not let our misception mislead us in decision making.  There are alway some unlying hints that are hidden in every tricky situation. 

Self realization is very important for me to see breakthroughs in my life everyday.  I could see deeper into each situation or problems I encounter where I could learn from everyday.  From these encounters which make up my experiences enable me to share with my friends everywhere.

Have a blessed week ahead.  

Bunny, Flower and Duka decided to have a stay at Dynasty Hotel.   The hotel rate was S$30 per night.  Each of them came out S$10 and paid at the counter upon check in.   Later the hotel staff realised that there was an error in the system.  The hotel rate for the night is S$25.  He gave S$5 to the A-bo, the bell boy.  He told him A-bo to return the money to the three guests. 

In the lift, A-bo stared at S$5 and wondered wondered how should he divide the reminding change to these people.  As he pressed the door bell, an idea struck him.  He returned $3 to them, each of them got back $1 each.  A-bo kept the $2 for himself. 

I need your help to with this problem sum..
If each person paid S$9 for the room, total sum is S$27.  If add up A-bo's S$2, that arrive S$29, so where does the one dollar go to?

Yesterday lunchtime after having the Soya-bean cuisine at Geylang, my superior, Alpha, suggested driving and showing my Philippine colleague the Red Light District in Singapore at Geylang.  Since we were in his car we had to tag along with his agenda.

It was 1 pm in the afternoon while we drove along the Red Light District.  While driving he described the area like a professional tour guide.  I was wondering where he gathered the information, or was he one of the patrons who patronized such places.  I recalled he also shared with us when he visited Amsterdam, he also took a short walk around the Red Light District.  Why such places are so interesting for men?  Perhaps they have no guts to engage their services, they very much would like to admire the voluptuous ladies stood along the road to quench their desires and satisfy their lust in some ways.

As we drove along the streets we saw Thai, Chinese, Malay girls were standing.  While my colleagues were curiously asking questions, in silence I could not stop pitying the ladies. Somehow my guilty conscious curdling in my stomach, looking at them in the car as if watching tigers, lions, elephants, giraffes in the Africa Safari.  Alpha explained to us these ladies were holding social passes in order to stay in Singapore for just a couple of months.  After then they would have to go home or cross over to Malaysia so to stamp their passports at the Immigration.  Although they earn up to S$10,000 per month, in my opinion this huge sum of money to exchange their body, integrity and dignity is not easy earned money.  Once a woman falls into this trade, there is no turning back.  Not many ladies are as fortunate as Julie Robert starred in ‘Pretty Woman’, would meet Richard Gere, the rich guy and changed her life ever after.

In the car as Alpha mentioned the types of girls and services, the prices and their operating hours, the various ways of how people evaluate their services.  It is operated like a normal business.  How would this guy know so much about this business?  Is he somehow involved in the operation or engage their services? Obviously I dare not question, later over the conversation I realized he did a research over “Prostitution in Singapore”. He probably wanted to share his knowledge over the research, unknowing that his excitement revealed on his face was lust and pride.  He also told us that there was a guy, Samuel Leong, set up a website provide the reviews and profiles of these prostitutes.

How could people so numb about such operation?  Don’t they know it is humiliating to take it as a normal business?  As I pointed out, another colleague replied: “Stacy dear, prostitutes existed for more than 2000 years.  These women in such trade are discriminated ever since.  Hence nothing we can do about it”.  Came to this point, I kept myself quiet and rebuked within, “Then we should not even encourage by running through the street mocking, laughing and discussing in the car.”

It saddened me till I went back to the office.  Trying to forget my emotions and thoughts about what I saw, I soaked myself into my heavy workload.  Suddenly Alpha started to remind me about the incident.  “Look Stacy, as you know Jesus will return not just for the saints, He will come for the sinners like those prostitutes.”  I replied: “I do not really know who Jesus will bring up with Him when He returns, I just feel guilty and sad of just viewing but cannot change the situation.  I am no saint, not even near it.  The scene made me puke.  It is due to poverty the ladies forced to be into such trade.  On the other hand, we should not encourage or even mock in that way we just did.”  I wish to reserve my comments however as a woman in this century I felt insulted whereby I could not hold back anymore. 

Due to some restructurings in my company, I felt demotivated at work somehow.  Saying 'no time' to blog is an excuse, I am drained by so many uncertainties in my daily life for the moment.  There are many things happening around, I ask God "why"? 

Somehow, I receive answers to my questions and doubts through many ways.  One of them is the below article.  It mades me understood why companies were doing certain things.  It taught me how to move on with the organization strategically.   Hope it would help some of you in some ways.

God love us.

Race ahead during the economic downturn with strategies to perk up your organization’s efficiency.

In the aftermath of the United States sub-prime mortgage crisis and with oil and commodity prices escalating, the global economy is getting gloomier.

As part of the global business community, your organization has already or will most likely be impacted.  How makes the best of the change in the economic climate?

Here is a list of steps you might want to follow to prepare your organization for a rebound:

(1)     Focus on improvement

Take advantage of the slowdown to improve your products, services staff on your skills will be even stronger when the economy improves and your business gets better.

(2)     Add value

When it comes to business, do not confuse creativity with invention and innovation.  Creativity is related to people’s mindsets and about making new connections.  Invention is related to skill sets and about creating new things in a physical reality.

Innovation is about thinking up new ways to add value to other people’s lives.  Innovate with a clear focus on increasing your top line, bottom line and customer engagement or you end up wasting time and money.

(3)     Make informed changes

Seize the opportunity to get customer feedback.  Do not ask your customers directly what they want through surveys as they do not understand your business as well as you do and cannot see it from your perspective. 

Get your employees to ask your customers what they want.  Then get your employees to improve on their demands.

(4)     Embrace the age of disruption

This is an age of disruption, short attention spans and faster half-lives.  Pay closer attention to value propositions and core values.  Learn to build greater value propositions and observe how people are actually buying to coincide with their core values.  This will give your subsequent marketing a new competitive edge once the economy picks up.

(5)     Make a commitment to excellence

Discover what the greatest leap forward is and strive to excel at it.  Collaborate with willing parties, bring together value propositions, clarify individual and collective gains and you will magnify your chance of success.

People are far more willing to collaborate in bad times, when a new angle is needed, than boom times when everyone is too caught up with doing business. 

(6)     Do what is necessary first

In sporting jargon, ‘downtime’ is called posted-season and a time for athletes to recuperate followed by a pre-season, a time for them to train and shape up.  In business jargon, ‘down-time’ refers to a downturn and ‘pre-season’ a tough.

Focus on your core business.  Identify the few thins you need to do well right now and get it done.  Do not try to do everything.  Concentrate on the vital aspects first. 

(7)     Stop selling

To benefit from a lasting value proposition, you need to stop selling and focus on having people fall in love with you, your ideas, products, services and experiences instead.

This is the time to ignore fads and look for the established principles that has given rise to them.  Stop attempting to get people to buy what they do not want and figure out what they need, want and desire instead.

(8)     ‘Would not it be great if…’

Work with your team and identify 10 propositions that would be great for both your customer and the company.  Then look for ways to implement them.

Conduct a 100 New Ideas and Ideals Workshop and focus on the few that you and your staff think is best to work on.

(9)     Evaluate your people

Do a quick evaluation of all your people.  What are their strengths and weaknesses?  What personality traits do you think would make your business grow and what personality traits can you do without?  Who is living up to their potential and who is not?

All these are important questions as your people are either your competitive assets or liabilities.  Invest in research, development and innovation so you can compete better when the economy picks up.

Thanks for the encouragement from some of the iLand friends.  Finally I could take some time to write again...

What is the meaning of “sense of belonging”?  Is it a sense that we give ourselves or someone else gives to us? 

Remembered hearing this statement "a community gives us the sense of belonging".   We live together, we share everything we owe, we give in to each other, and we take each other for granted.  We love each other, we argue with each other, we hurt each other, and we reconcile every time. 

Sometimes even when I am alone, I also feel this sense of belonging.  Especially when I quiet myself down, hearing my breath and heartbeat.  I feel the energy flow within my body, the blood flows.  I sense the belonging, the belonging in the silence and to be with myself.   Do I really need a community in order for me to feel that sense? 

I am afraid to be hurt, so afraid, and later I learnt not to trust everyone.  Everyone I meet seem not sincere not true, hypocrites.  They just always wish to take but not give.  When I was down, I talked to my friends, they nodded their heads but they did not understand my problems.  They make me feel I am the problem and I am the cause of every problem.  I decided not to discuss about my problem because I did not receive that “sense of belonging”.  I realized that they just wanted to “steal happy” instead of “sharing my sorrows”.   No one really cares how I feel, how I live and what I say.  They only want to make fun of me and to mock me.  Is this really a sense I deserve?   I begin to drift away from this community and speak lesser with this group because these people do not realize how they behave, where they fail to give me that sense of belonging.

For this moment, I really couldn’t find anyone here could give me this sense.  Perhaps I see it so clearly.   Though they were taught to be selfless, to be loving, to be understanding, to be humble, to be kind and nice, they seems not trying to be.  Maybe it applies to a common saying: “they are human beings”.  Human is selfish, not so loving, they do not seem to understand but only pretend to be.  They try so hard to be humble and kind, however their ego and evil deeply sip in their personality. Even though how hard they try to change themselves, they won’t be able to attain what they learnt.  Hence, no one could ever give anyone that “sense of belonging”. 

In my opinion that “sense of belonging” is an individual gives to himself or herself.  As long as one would live joyfully everyday, complete the tasks drop on the lap without hurting anyone. I would consider that is the sense that one should feel, the “sense of satisfaction” of being where we are.

Here is a joke about "Prayer Wanted"...

As the storm raged, the captain realized his ship was sinking fast. He called out, "Anyone here know how to pray?"

One man stepped forward. "Aye, Captain, I know how to pray."

"Good," said the captain, "you pray while the rest of us put on our life jackets - we're one short."

After reading this joke, reminded me about the "poor" coffee machine which was yelling for HELP this morning. It was so pathetic, full of coffee waste in the disposal bin, and also the pan filled of smelly and dirty rinsed water. It's so sad to work in this company where most of the people are so reliance on other people because they decided not to employed an extra cleaner to clear our daily mess at the pantry. My dear colleagues are so efficient and diligent who concentrate in their jobs, even if they see the coffee machine which is shouting for "fill me with WATER or fill me with COFFEE BEANS these guys just simply walk away, then hoping the next kind soul would take up the extra task which is 15 minutes job.

Neither I am praising myself as a kind soul nor I am so great to sacrifice my valuable time for my ignorant colleauges.  But because I am a coffee drinker and I love the coffee machine which serve me for years. I decided to spend that 15 minutes to clean it up.

Come with me to a third grade classroom..... There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened.  It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, 'Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat.'

He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered

As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap.

The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, 'Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!'

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie.

She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you klutz!'

Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?' Susie whispers back, 'I wet my pants once too.'

May God help us see the opportunities that are always around us to do good..

Remember.....Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.

Each and everyone one of us is going through tough times right now, but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that only He can. Keep the faith. 

My instructions were to pick four (4) people that I wanted God to bless, and I picked you. Please pass this to at least four (4) people you want to be blessed and a copy back to me.

This prayer is powerful, and prayer is one of the best gifts we receive. There is no cost but a lot of rewards Let's continue to pray for one another.

The Prayer:
Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and those that I care deeply for, who are reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of Your love and power. Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit at this very moment. Where there is pain, give them Your peace and mercy. Where there is self-doubt, release a renewed confidence through Your grace. Where there is need, I ask you to fulfill their needs. Bless their homes, families, finances, their goings and their comings. Amen.

It's a brand new year, Year 2008, eight years after the Millenium.   I was recollecting myself before welcoming the coming new year. I realised that I did many special things, there were good ones and bad ones. 

Of course, starting blogging is one of those things I started in Year 2007.  It's been a wonderful experience.  Blogging and reading others blogs I gained knowledge also made new friends. 

I would like to thank Rediff.com which created a good space for people to post their views.  I read many blogs however, the people and the system in iLand made me felt very comfortable. Hence I decided to return. 

I hereby would like to seek for forgiveness from my family and friends.  Please forgive me for the things I have done wrong and for the things I didn't do.  In Year 2008, I will try to do better. 

May God's blessings and graces shower upon us throughout the coming year. Peace in our hearts, Warm in our souls, Contentment in life, hope these Priceless Treasures will be with all. 

Jeremiah 29:11 - 'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'

IN REALITY we are living in a fallen world, it is about striking a BALANCE between…

Good and Evil

Positive and Negative

Unjust and Just

Darkness and Light

Unlovely and Lovely

Sympathy and Cruelty

Sorrow and Happiness

Truth and Lie

Failure and Success

Hot and Cold

Wet and Dry

Peace and War

Masculine and Feminine

Work and Family 

Basically to strike a balance the differences between everything we possibly think about we cannot do it with our will power.  We need God’s grace, prayers, faith, hope and passion.