Today's service was nothing short of an atomic bomb.
Today was a fruitful day. I managed to finish all my work except for 1 Physical Science mock paper and 1 Higher Chinese mock paper.
Played Trackmania for a while. xD.
Left the house late (5.15 when it was supposed to be 5) to meet Hon for dinner. Apparently he hurt both his feet, the left by jumping down from 2m while getting his ball that flew over a wall, and the right by jumping up and letting it hit the drum. Thought he'd need some company and some care, so I agreed to go eat with him.
Well, got there early with the aid of a new double-decker 81. As in, the new ones normally go faster. So, yeah, cool. Gen's sister came on with her friend. I still don't know her name!
Reached Heartland at 6.05. The two of them got off too. Anyway tried calling Hon three times but well apparently his phone is still lousy at receiving calls.
He comes at 6.15, we make our way to the hawker.
I treated him to Laksa, he insisted on buying it. (It was $2.50, I thought it was a decent price. Don't come asking me to treat you for anything more.)
The Laksa wasn't too bad, in fact it was the best I'd ever eaten (which isn't saying much, I don't eat Laksa much). He bought me Sugarcane in return. ^^
So uh I gave him my cockles. I bit into one and it tasted like blood. Pfft. Disgusting. But he loves them. No wonder he gets Tonsilitis.
After we eat we go up to Popular cos he wants to buy earphones. Then we joke about Junyi's headphones (sorry!).
Well we reach church early, see Junyi as we walk in. We had to run for the traffic light, it was comical getting Hon to run (double injured legs, remember).
Go upstairs and put our bags. Lionel and SKang were ushers. And we see the band doing some kind of a jazz song. And well some "Angmoh". Which pricks my memory...Ah, yes, today is the DANCE thing. Something special on the 22nd of September. Amanda Liew mock punches me, and then hits the camera in Junyi's hand...*crash*...
And there was this cute baby that the girls were going gaga over.
Go downstairs again to meet Brandon, Shawn, Jeremy Ling, and Jarret. Well, Jarret and I just concocted some RI + ACSI vs. HCI + VJ. Hah. Then Ling agreed with us, so I was like "Fine, plus the students of VJ." Against the principal, apparently? I don't know why.
Finally we see Ryan. Coming with 4 girls (oh, can't he ever be without girls XD).
Go up to be greeted by a warm welcome by Pastor Reuben to the general congregation.
Today's gonna be special. It's in the air. That's what ran through my mind.
And I wasn't disappointed.
Mr TELEA FAKAUA
(pronounced TEH-LI-AH FAH-KAH-WAH).
That's the worship leader for today, and also our very special guest. He's wearing a black oversized shirt. Holding an acoustic guitar. And from the start he's lively.
"Good Evening, everyone!"
And starts off with a lively song. One I'm familiar with, I forgot what. I must say, from the start his strumming skills are impressive. Barring skills too.
And halfway through he stops the lively band for today (a mix of his friends and our members) and says we're not lively enough. So he says he's gonna teach us one of the hardest dances in the world. Called the one-two step.
Then he says "It goes like this." It's the move-your-right-foot-right then draw-in-your-left-foot and repeat to the left and right and left and so on.
Haha. Then he says, "See, it's so hard all of you still aren't doing it."
In the end we all end up having fun.
Second song was no worse. It was new for us, but well he asked us to bob our heads to the left, then to the right (this was comical), then bounce up and down (using the hand), and finally "shake the Holy Spirit inside".
And for the third song. WOW.
On Eagle's Wings. It's a pretty old song, sung mostly by our adult service. But this time he added a touch of his own flavour in it.
It sounds exactly like a remix. A good one, too.
It's JAZZ.
I never imagined.
And well. The second last song we sing is also new to us. But we're all willing to learn, I guess. It's about the voice of the Saviour. Touching, slow.
And for our majestic last song.
It's nothing but 4 lines.
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Our God reigns
-Hillsong United - Hallelujah
But you would never have imagined how great it was.
I guess it had to do with the meaning of Hallelujah.
It means, simply, praise be to God.
But. WOW. My voice was unlocked. I sang like never before. Honest. I guess, the whole TNG sang their hearts out.
And as we sang it over and over again, and the words touched our hearts...
Suddenly, with closed eyes, I heard the singing of multitudes. I'm not kidding, it's what I heard. And no, I wasn't in the middle. I was sitting at the extreme left, where Sec 2 guys always sit.
IT WAS A MULTITUDE. It sounded like surround sound. Like the whole TNG multiplied by 1000 singing. And, no kidding, it sounded like heaven.
Definitely I've never felt that before.
After we finished with that song, and yes, it was great worship, even better than Luke's the week before, Hon asked me if I had felt the whole floor shake, as if from an earthquake.
I looked at him, startled. Shake?
Yes, he said. The whole floor went down and up. Like, a few centimetres.
Wow. We bring the roof down, baby!
Okay. So while we were collecting offering Pastor Reuben introduced Mr Telea Fakaua. He's a Samoan, and is now a citizen of New Zealand. He used to be a rapper! He plays Rugby :o, and does the Hakka?
And he met him in "Gayland"(Geylang). Hahaha.
So he comes up and I'll tell you he took the stage. He told us that when he saw speakers bringing up their Bibles and their papers he groans and looks at his imaginary watch *laughter*. SO in light of that today he's here to tell us his life story.
From young he grew up in NZ. And around our age he started a gang with four friends. Just to see where it would go.
Wicked A*s Baby Gangsters.
From here on he sounds like CJ.
Carl Johnson, San Andreas. (GTA). Runs Grove Street Gangstas4Life. Colour of gang: Green.
Telea Fakaua, Samoa. Runs Wicked A*s Baby Gangsters. Colour of gang: Yellow.
Okay!
Heh. So he says, his gang grew from 4 to 8 to 12 to 36 and in the end it ended up being 80 people.
Imagine! Him leading 80 people as a gang! How formidable he must be!
But no, he's skinny! The only reason is because the Southerners and Easterns (him) click. Then their enemy was the Westerners.
Cool. So, anyway, at 16 he fulfills his dream. He gets signed for a music contract as a rapper.
Isn't that cool! 16!
And he says his rise to fame is somewhat like Eminem's. Heh. According to the movie 8 Mile.
And one day he decided to rob his manager. Well, his manager is real close to him because his manager wants to see him to the top. Isn't that cool! So he knows where his manager stows his cash and booze (yes, drugs) and so he plans to intercept the package at the last drop-off (oh gosh, how GTA-cliche-ish).
According to him, the last drop-off is the largest. SO in the end he got $10,000 and loads of cocaine and drugs. And he was like, "Whoa. This is all mine!"
Apparently his manager was the leader of *something*Mafia. So he sent his men to some poor guy's house who they suspected had taken the stuff. With shotguns and all. But only the wife and the baby are home. So they warn her, he either turns up with all the cash and booze, or leaves the country, by next morning.
So next morning the manager tells him all this. What happens was, the guy returns all of it plus a Mercedes just to make up. Ouch.
Anyway. His salvation story. He goes to Perth to go with his brothers in YWAM for two weeks around the area.
Apparently they're having a staff retreat and he's freaked out by the stuff they do.
And he'd planned to hit all the clubs in Perth (wow), and managed to in two days.
Then his brothers thought he should stay. For a Discipleship Training Course. And since they're older than him and his society teaches listening to your elders, he reluctantly agrees.
Then he goes like. For y'all it's once a week. Every Sunday (or Saturday), then a week's break, then another sermon. But for Discipleship Training, it's EVERYDAY!
Argh. Continue this some other time. Dad wants me to sleep. It's 12.15, anyway. Nites all. Stay tuned! xD
