A Prayer for Baby Alden

A message from GIFT member:

Dear All,

One of our former GIFT members (batch 1997-2001) needs our help. Let us all pray for Marilyn John Sibatu's family. Her 5 month old son, Alden Joey Laison was admitted to ICU last Wednesday [22nd March 2009]. He had serious episodes of seizures and after further testing, the doctors found out that there are some bleeding in his brain. His condition is very serious as this can lead to severe brain damage.We (Joyce Siambun & I) went to visit baby Alden at Hospital Likas this afternoon and how our heart breaks looking at him lying on the bed with all those tubes and machines attached to his 5 months old body. He had tears at the corner of his eyes. According to Marilyn, baby Alden is unable to open his eyes since he was admitted because his eyes are bleeding too. Marilyn keeps talking to him, comforting him and telling him that mommy's friends came to visit.Please pass this on to everyone who knows her and let us all pray for the recovery of poor baby Alden. May God bless their family.

-Mimi-


In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Jesus our redeemer and healer, we offer baby Alden into Your mighty, powerful and loving hands. Please have mercy on this poor little child, have mercy on this baby who has not opened his eyes to the sins of this world. We pray Lord heal this baby from all his sicknesses, pain and suffering. You Lord have gone through suffering, pain and humiliation for our salvation
so You surely know what this baby is going through.

We believe nothing is impossible for You as You have the power to heal and give life. We know how You healed the blind man, we know how You brought a dead man to live again, we know that You have turned water to wine, and above all, we know for sure that You care and love this baby and so we pray.

ord touch this baby boy, Alden, and heal him in Your mighty name, Jesus, which is above all names. We claim healing and full recovery for this baby by Your precious blood. Heal him Lord
as You have said by the stripes on Your body we are healed. We now pray for healing for this baby.

Jesus, we also offer Marilyn and her family into Your hands. We know Lord, as much as the suffering the baby is going through, the mother Marilyn is also going through the same suffering and pain emotionaly. She is sad, terrified and in despair. We ask you Lord to give Marilyn and also her family strength and peace to go thorugh this moment. We believe Lord and we strongly believe that there is something better coming ahead for them, something more joyful coming ahead for them and that this is only a temporary trial, a test of faith.

Dearest mother Mary, please pray for this baby and the family.

All the saints and angels in heaven pray for this baby and family, and be with them, giving them comfort and calm assurance

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.


Thanks be to Jesus.

Alson And Bidot's Wedding

First of all, congratulations to Alson and Bidot on their wedding 30.08.08. Me and Egbert flew back to KK on the 28.08.08 for their occasion.

And it was a great joy seeing the newly wedded couple so happy together, so in love with each other (just like us, kekekekeke) and seeing so many of our friends who attended the wedding as well.

Well... Congrats once again and cepat-cepat la ikut jejak saya ! Hehehehe...

Here are some of the snapshots taken ...

This shall be Alson's new family

GIFTers who attended the church wedding ceremony

The ladies ...

The guys ...

The newly wedded couple

1st Wedding Reception at Dewan Kebudayaan Penampang

A lot of smoke and bubbles ... It was indeed a fairytale come true

The wedding cake with lots of staircases ...

Isn't it romantic ?

As always, we the ladies, always "stick" together ... (Actually, the guys dumped us for beer)

2nd Dinner Reception at Sutera Harbour

Cake Cutting (and cake eating, of course)

Song dedication from Alson to his wife, Bidot ... Band players are GIFTers of course !

Last toast to Alson...

Last posing for the girls before everyone heads back to their respective place

Angie + Ron

(Picture courtesy of Justin @ Awie @ Bugau)

Congratulations to the newlyweds - Angie and Ron.

They looked splendid on Sat night. Me and Egbert only managed to attend the dinner at Federal Hotel. Food was superb, hosts were wonderful, bride and groom were amazing. Only setback was we were seated at Table 1, and our view was blocked by this pillar. Suggestion from Egbert - can civil engineers design a column / pillar transparent ? ;)

Seated together with us was Che Ros, Harry Justin @ Awie @ Bugau, Aleng (not me, k...), Fabian and Harold. Its good to meet up with everyone again. Our table must be the loudest.. Shy lor..

Too bad doesn't have any pics to show to everyone. Hubby tak tau guna camera N73. Keciannn... Anyway, congratulations once again to Angie and Ron. May your wedding be a happy and lasting union forever.

GIFT 20th Anniversary .... Outcome ...

We (as in me, Ek and Vic) drove down to JB using Ek's Kembara. Started our journey around 9.45am from USJ. Harold and the rest started theirs from Sg. Besi toll. We agreed to meet up in Tmn U.

Our journey was un-eventful. Apart from making 2 stops, there wasn't much that happens (except how my blouse turned brown, kekekeke). Ek wasn't driving very fast so it actually took us 4 hours to reach Tmn U (he was drving at 100km/h).

When we reached Tmn U, one thing that is still certain is that the road will always have pot holes here and there. We stopped at Rose Cottage first to booked our rooms, before heading towards Old Ong Lai at Kemuliaan for the chicken rice. There, we met up with Andy, Raphl, Julian, Brian, Anthony, Vivian, Harold, Fabian, Ivan, Nick, Cath and Eirin. The chicken rice wasn't as nice as before (probable due to new owner) but the fried keuy teow were still the best.

The rest are staying at U Hotel (it is a new hotel and is next to Appolo). We will be having mass earlier at 5.30pm in SCC, so there is gonna be music practice at 4pm. I missed singing at the choir. :( Brian will be playing the keyboard. Yippie! Brian is a d**n good keyboardist. It is certainly nice to be back in SCC - meeting up Fr Jojo, un David, un Vincent. Unfortunately, juniors semua tak kenal lor....

The highlight of this trip is of course the GIFT 20th Anniversary Dinner, held at Tmn U SPorts Complex. We were really looking forward to this.

Sad to say, I was kinda dissapointed with the way they organized the dinner. Why ? Let me point it out (and this is my feelings alone, does not represent everyone):

• The MC (who is speaking in English) must be d*mn nervous. It's ok if his english is bad, but the way he speaks was TOO KASAR, almost to the point, rude ... And he is not making every guests at ease. I felt very tense listening to him, very jumpy and very boring.
• The presentations (some of it) was done just for the sake of doing it. Some is even hard to comprehand its meaning.
• Photos presented should include GIFT alumni from the beginning (or as early as possible). Why arent people like Andy, Kingston, Brian, Desmond, Abeth Fung, Alex Anting (the one that created the song - KUPA), Herman, Jocelyn, Evelyn, Marciana and all other GIFT members shown in slide ? Miss President has mentioned, if there is no alumni, there will not be 20th anniversary.
• Should take the opportunity to let the juniors know who are the alumni.
• KUPA should be sung by all GIFT members, not by the committee alone (not good) - it is the song that brings us all together. Nasib Harold stood up and brought all the alumni to sing along...
• Publicity was very bad. Last minute it was made known that donations are needed.
• Most important was that - where is the feeling of togetherness ? GIFT - Growing In Faith Together ???

Again, this is purely my own feelings. If I have offended any of you, I am truly sorry and I apologize. Will upload the pictures soon. Waiting for the sources.... ;)

Anyway, it has happenned. Maybe I am getting old. This could be the "new way to do things, maybe." More of digital presentations, rather than physical presentations. But I kinda wish that there are still some old elements, like CindyEgbert and "her" gang. But one thing I wanna congratulate was the superb animation of GIFT being a bud that blossoms into a huge, strong tree. That is who we are - GIFTers !

GIFT will still remain in my heart. Till the next anniversay then !

KITA UMAT PILIHAN ALLAH (KUPA)

Kita umat pilihan Allah

Membawa misi penyelamatan

Dengan penuh cintakasihNya

Melayarkan bahtera Yesus

Di dalam pergolakan dunia

Seruan umat menyahut cabaran

Melalui jalan keimanan

Bersaksi atas ikatan Kristus

Chorus:

Marilah bergandingan tangan

Mencari domba yang kehilangan

Memburu insan yang kehausan

Menjalin tali persaudaraan kita

Sedarilah wahai manusia

Akhirilah zaman kegelapanmu

Singkapkanlah makna kemenangan

Baharui jalan kehidupan

Bridge:

Kita sebagai keluarga Allah

Membentuk suatu tamadun kasih

Berjalan bersama Yesus Kristus

Dalam perlayanan G.I.F.T

GIFT 20th Anniversary

I am so excited ... Can't wait to go down to Skudai with Ek, to attend the 20th anniversary dinner of GIFT a.k.a Growing In Faith Together.

Let's bring back some memories, shall we?

I first got to know GIFT while I was studying in UTMKL. GIFT is actually an "underground" catholic student society, aim to bring together catholic students studying in university. While I was in UTMKL kan, GIFT and IK (and IK is a registered body with the university) seems to be one, which was not suprising coz kami sikit saja ma .. Catholic ka non-catholic ka, kami join saja ni ... Kekekeke...

When I continued my degree in UTM Skudai, there I realized that there is a vast difference between the registered Christian society group and GIFT. I chose to join GIFT, and I never regretted making that choice. I am proud to say that I am a GIFTer ! Yahoo !!!!

GIFT brought back lots of sweet memories for me which I dun think will be enough to write it all down here. Sufficient to say, GIFT thought me alot on faith, friends, commitments, management and responsibility.

Tomorrow, we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary at Tmn U Sports Complex. Me and Ek will be driving down tomorrow morn and Victoria is coming with us. Harold will be going as well, and so is Aning and Loe. Not very sure about other seniors though. The last time we went down to visit them (to pass the wedding cards actually) was somewhere in October, just before I left for training in France.

Looking forward to this event. Will update more later ... Ciao ...