I was like wow! Now my iphone camera isn’t so sharp so it doesnt bring out the colors well. It was actually the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen in my life. It literally was so bright and I could see the entire arch. Again the iphone camera is not wide enough in its angle to take the entire rainbow.

We actually stopped by the roadside to take this hahaha. I was so desperate. We just sat there and admired and it was just awesome.

It reminded me of God’s grace when He created this beautiful rainbow just to show Noah and to everyone of us of how He would never destroy the earth again. It is scary the extent of God’s wrath. For a sinner like me, I know it is only by grace that I can serve Him today. That rainbow is proof.

We woke up, did our devotions together in a simple manner hearing from our youth adviser and them moved on to have a wonderful breakfast prepared by our own chefs!

Chef Ng and Chef Kim at work

The result was Malaysian French Toast!

They proceeded to play their childish games….unbelievable

Hearers of the Word

Of course we still had our hearts set on hearing from God and the time of testimony was also very very inspiring. Still we all had to go with heavy hearts. We fellowshipped over lunch amidst loads of laughter when suddenly the Malaysian Tsunami Happened! The water tank for drinking fell creating an aftermath of plain fun! Hahaha. We just had to go off with a bang.

Peace brothers!

My chick magnet works wonders!

Whoosh!

Victims of the aftermath

We quickly got on the bus but didn’t realise we forgot to take a group picture. So we rushed back down and snap! We finally can get on our way back. Many were drooling all the way back and it is too disgusting to post those pictures here hahaha. Here is the nice group picture though. I’m glad that despite all the delay that I decided to come for this camp. It would be my last here. I would have regretted had I never went! I love you guys!

Sword Squad! Unite!

Since I was a little boy, this badminton competition is really something that drives me. I remember as a kid as I watched Rashid Sidek, Foo Kok Keong, Cheah Soon Kit- Soo Beng Kiang and the rest lift the cup up in victory! Oh what a moment.

Since that day, I must say I haven’t really had much hope for seeing Malaysia repeat its feat until now…..

Honestly, I was crossing my fingers during the semi-finals today hoping to see something to happen again. I must say, Lee Chong Wei and Mohd. Zakry and Mohd. Fairuzizuan showed me once again the Malaysian fighting spirit I missed. Thank you guys! Watching them almost brought me to tears as I felt once again how we should fight for what we believe even if the odds are against us.

And our dear Mohd Hafiz Hashim shows me exactly what I would never want to be as a player. So gifted yet…….

I hope Malaysians will really learn a lesson from this. This match has really shown what it takes to win as a nation. We need each other. I’m certainly proud to be a Malaysian but you know we cannnot fight for this country alone. We need to win this together. Honestly if some have the same attitude as that young man did in playing….were going to lose as a team.

Also in every team game, I certainly now realize how much importance for communication and the power of motivation.

What a game….so nervous because it was down to the last game…..

I was so disappointed we lost. But I learnt so much! Sports is just lovely

So I dragged myself of the bed after a few phone calls and here I am packing all the stuff, deciding what gadgets I’ll need to carry along to survive this trip. Then I realise I’m awfully late!!! So I stuffed everything I needed and quickly handed it to someone who helped me take them to her place where I will park my bike.

All packed and ready to roll!

Then I quickly got into the car then we were on the way to the airport. Now my father was driving at 70km/h. There I was sitting being so patient…..how could anyone drive at that speed! Not long later I could see he was falling asleep behind the wheel. So I took over the wheel and I didn’t speed. No I didn’t. So reaching there I checked in my luggage but something caught my attention! They were having a contest! Formula 1 driving. Oh my. I’m eligible to take part with my ticket. Another step close to prove my formula one skills!

But my parents were hungry so that had to be put on hold. We went to the food court, a new one i presume as I have never seen it before. There the food was quite reasonably priced to my surprise but I was busy filling my tummy with yummy egg tarts and cheese tarts bought for me by a dear friend. Then my mom came back and started to grumble a lot. She was complaining how she was cheated. That the price of the set meal she had didn’t make sense because if she buys it separately it would be cheaper. She was complaining during the whole meal about how she was cheated!

Yummy egg tarts

The meal my mom was complaining about

Now it was time for me to pit my skills on the machine. Now I was getting really nervous waiting for my turn. I was watching the rest before me crashing so many times. Worse still I was bragging to my mom how she had ruined my formula 1 career hahaha. Now they were doing quite bad before me and so I was busy looking and memorising the track and before I knew it, it was my turn! So I got in typical formula 1 driver style. Now we are only given 2 laps to set the fastest time. The time to beat was 1m 10 secs. Then I would win formula 1 tickets to the Singapore GP.

The budding formula 1 driver

On the mark, get set go!!! Wait a minute that is atheletics. The five red light were coming on. Go go go! I was driving like a charm. No accidents I looked like a pro. First lap was trying the track out I was at 1m 37 secs. I knew I had to step on it the next lap. I was pushing the car to the limits. I see the finishing line!! What is my time! I couldn’t see it. Man! 1m 27secs. I only made it 10 secs faster. Disappointing. But I knew I was not bad la. Give me one more lap I would have easily crushed that time.

So with my head hanged low I walked in to the boarding hall. So distracted I just took out my EEEPC to surf the internet. Then suddenly I hear an announcement on the loudspeaker. “Attention passenger named Leon Lim Kok Weng please report to the security checkpoint”. Oh no, should I run???? Am I a suspected terrorist? Why are they hunting for me! What did I do wrong?

What is there to lose, I have no criminal record yet, I think I’m safe right? I slowly approached the security desk and you know what? They didn’t nab me and cuff me. Phew. Instead then I see a police lady officer walking towards me with something familiar in her hands. MY WALLET!! Oh boy! So much drama for a clumsy clumsy boy. Thank God I didn’t lose my wallet. I left it when they were scanning my luggage. So so clumsy.

View from window in the KLIA

I haven’t even reached Cambodia and so much has happened! Time to get on the plane…why are people so in a rush to board? I took my time. Got to sit next to the window, in fact I managed to obtain 3 seats to myself! I won’t teach you my secret technique on how to do that. Hehehhee. After the long boring wait for takeoff (reminded me of my bikes acceleration ‚Äì miss my bike sob sob), I grabbed my notebook again and start working on this post and my sermon. I needed to touch it up so much. I’m so nervous. It’s a huge responsibility

View of Cambodia from the air

View of Phnom Penh International Airport

But before I knew it we were already arriving. You can see that Cambodia unlike Malaysia is very flat. Can’t see any hills even from the plane! There I finally meet up with the husband to be (not my husband to be ok)! So exciting! He brought me to Toeuk Thla. A church I’ve been before and here is my bedroom. Hmm looks so comfy.

Tuk Tuk

Where I lay my head down

Now I got my gadgets all charged up and headed for dinner. Adino…..guess what I’m eating……

From right: Pastor Sothy, Pastor Net and his wife

It seems KFC is taking over the world! hahahaha. It just opened up here two months back and the more surprising part is that the owner is a church member of Subang AOG, the former church my father pastored. What a small world…. So I ended up eating too much again…..so much for not liking food

This is how you cycle a bicycle with your girlfriend. boys see so romantic

A view of one of the nicest hotels in Phnom Penh near the casino

I couldn’t get much pictures because it was raining when I arrived. So tomorrow I will take more of the city of Phnom Penh.

Now I’m so full laying here blogging just before I start work on my sermon again….I miss home……tata…see you tomorrow.

I noticed also so little comments on my song….it must be quite bad…sigh

]]> http://leonlimkokweng.com/archive/cambodia-day-1.htm/feed 20 http://leonlimkokweng.com/archive/shoe-string-run-by-touch-and-grow-community-support.htm http://leonlimkokweng.com/archive/shoe-string-run-by-touch-and-grow-community-support.htm#comments Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:23:18 +0000 WhiRL http://leonlimkokweng.com/?p=146

The beautiful sunrise taken from the school Photos by Jason Lee:

I’m writing this as a report of my second experience in assisting this run. Firstly I would give a brief background about this run so that you all may understand the fuller picture.

9 months ago, Touch and Grow Community Support decided to hold a run to promote awareness among the community of Kota Kemuning and Bukit Rimau of the centre’s effort to help a group of special children. This is a center for AD/HD children and those with learning disabilities that is on a rise in our country today. This year they decided to do it again!

TGCS Banners (you can read it when enlarged to find out more about AD/HD and the centre)

The last run had an amount of 250 registered runners and this year we had 450 registered runners. The run consists of a few categories mostly for the individual runner but also uniquely has a family category.

So as usual, help is volunteered from our church and therefore naturally I am given responsibility over areas I have expertise. This year I was to do the sound system again.

Knowing that rain has been a problem for us this year in the evening, I was unable to setup the system the day before instead we decided to have it setup at 3am. Now the hardest part for me was I was unable to sleep the night before. So at 230am we were on our way to the premises of the school to work.

I had two great assistants who didn’t complain. So we got it all ready by 5am. Feeling utterly exhausted I still had to go on making sure everything was working in order.

So as exciting as they come, it was to begin. Fitness First one of the main sponsors began by starting the crowd with their warm ups. Now this is where my job is. I was supposed to have the cd player ready and guess what? I did have it ready but……They needed to skip tracks and we didn’t have the remote control. So immediately I grabbed my helmet and revved my bike so that it would warm up and sped off like a speed demon. I had 5 minutes to get a way to play the cd there. I think people around were like thinking….who is this mad rider making so much noise.

1,2,3,4 swing your arms, That’s good keep it up!

I got it back on time. Phew only to be bugged by the technical error of not being able to get a clear signal on the wireless microphone making it impossible to hear the instructor in front. Bummer! In the end somehow she managed to do all her fancy moves with a wired mic. Wow!

The Starting Lineup

Ok so time to flag off. But my poor DJ forgot to raise the volume of his mic and was at the main flag off area. I ran with all my heart to the mixer that was 150m away and got it up in time. But the wireless mic was still giving issues. So poor thing for him, he had to repeat himself so many times.

The individual categories ran 10 km in distance where else the family runners only ran 3km. It was absolutely adorable to see the families together. They flagged off at 710am and before I knew it, they were already done. So fast. I felt so small about myself and unfit.

Run Papa Run! Run Son Run!

Let’s do this together!

We’ve got a rush of thirsty people. Work harder! Work Faster!

The beautiful prizes! I want one!

She doesn’t look tired at all after running 10 km. Amazing!

There was a simple prize giving ceremony and it was just so encouraging to see the unity of the people involved. When all was done I quickly packed up what I had to. It seemed so easy to take apart what took me so long to setup.

Boy was I tired, drained. That is why it took me until today to write something. Still recovering from the aftermath. Even so I am so honored to be able to give to the community and the little children which this centre supports who are deemed as the failures by the system. They deserve the same opportunity to a great future.

Interesting information for you to think about. AD/HD people that you never realised – Thomas Edison (lightbulb), Tommy Hillfiger (Fashion Designer), Jackie Stewart (F1), Orlando Bloom (Actor) and so many more.

Sorry Guys but I missed out this important picture that I wanted to put up. These are the Happy Faces after the race

I finally got it all figured out and you can see the result of it. What satisfaction. But the excitement is just about to begin…..for today is the day I will show the world one of my greatest skills. I will feed a hunger that burns deep within. I will declare my dominance over all…….muahahahahha.

So therefore I got one of my personal assistant to prepare for this grueling event as you can see below. Be prepared as I’m going to take the world by a storm. I’m going to‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ

Me getting a massage from my personal assistant. Hehehehe.. Ahhh so nice

GO- KART. Heeeheheehee.

Wooohooo I have been looking forward to this for more than a year. I keep trying to organize but to no avail. Almost given up hope. Even for this day. When all hope was lost. When I couldn’t even glimpse of what is ahead of me. When I no longer had strength to walk. It happens!!! Hahaha so dramatic man me.

Time seem to past so slowly and the sky begins to get gray. There are droplets falling around and all hopes are at the brim of destruction. Then you begin to realize that everything is not in your control, it is in God’s control. You can work hard, plan things out, make every preparation but yet only God knows what the future holds. So I prayed. Amazingly it didn’t rain. I don’t know how or why but before I knew it, we are on our way there!

The Macho Men walking in with style

So we arrived there all excited and gung ho because for most of us it will be our first time. Some also never driven a car before. Some don’t even ride bicycles. But who cares after all we are just going to race and speed on a track right? Hahaha. In the back of my mind my ego is tugging. ‘you can’t lose you know’. You have your reputation at stake. Hahahahha. So we suited up and here we are at 1820 hours ready to begin the free practice session.

The Man in NO.2

All geared up and ready. The Speed Maniacs

So the time has come. Our nerves all shaken. Full of sweat and the smell of exhaust and the thumping beat of our hearts.

Me waiting anxiously to start off. Don’t I look cool? Free Petronas Syntium advertisement. They should pay me hehehehe

The young man (son of the penang hustler-well known for her driving skills on the road) in front of me couldn’t resist the urge and sped off on wheels of a car for the first time. Feeling the pump of adrenaline, I went full throttle Zoooommmm……wooooohooooo!!!

Sarah full with racing horsepower

Wen Cheang – motto slow and steady wins the race…yeah right

Jordan the Young Man – son of the Penang Hustler

Min Ook – Superstar wannabee

Me looking cool as usual

Min Jun – Don’t look at this cute face and be decieved, behind lurks a racing monster roar!

Joshua – Pierre Cardin, the other son of the Penang Hustler

And not forgetting the Penang Hustler Herself Nancy (I’m going to pay dearly for this)

There were many exciting moments as many crashed out into barriers. Some couldn’t get the cars moving. Some moving slower that a tortoise. At the end of the first session. We were still smiling. Though some sustained minor injuries and some traumatised. Still nothing is going to stop them from winning the coveted prize of first place. Muahahaha. They have to get past me first though hehehehe.

So its time for the qualifying session. We got into our cars and here we go again! This time i realise my car was shaking tremendously as I can’t seem to get it up to speed. Everybody is faster than the earlier session still some cruised along playing it safe. But in some, there seem to be the hidden side unleashed. Especially the two sisters who hail from Kemuning Utama. Hahha. Still the session finished smoothly and I had my car examined and they rectified the problem. Still I’m suspecting some have better cars than others. Mine felt slower somehow.

So the cars were repositioned into their grids according to the time-sheets of the race stewards As we close in to the highlight of the whole event. Race time! Unlike the ordinary, The stewards put the fastest drivers at the end of the grid and the slowest drivers in front. Naturally, I was last and what does that say? Hahahha. I kept a keep eyes on my nemesis. No.10. I’m about to be the closest to be living my dream of being a Formula 1 driver.

Flags off!! All the cars zoom of their starting girds and prepare to tackle the first corner. If this was a real formula 1 race, the amount of casualties will be tremendous! Hahaha. I somehow managed to squeeze my way into third place. Only to see my nemesis making his way to first. From that time on there was no looking back. It was full speed all the way. I pushed my car to its absolute limits.

My Nemesis. Wayne Ong

I’m following close behind

The speed sisters! So fast that their picture is blurred

Lap after lap of sheer fun and pure adrenaline rush finally I can see it! the chequered flag just ahead! Oh no, Ahead of me is my nemesis and he crosses the line first! Noooooooooooooooo! My dreams all shattered right before my eyes. All the talk about me being the first amounted to nothing!

Race Results – follow this link to the selected driver quotes

I must say though that we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. I can say that not one person left there unhappy and sad. Man it was a day to remember. I learnt a huge lesson today as I’m sure everyone learnt something. The first verse that came to my mind was Luke 13:30 – And behold, some who are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

It was not about winning the race. It was not about who came first. It was a win win situation for all because it mattered not in any one’s eyes who came first or last. It mattered that we were together sharing the experience and joy together. In the same way I believe God sees this way. He longs for us to just be with Him more than being the so called best.

In the end I lost! But I was happy for the winner, for all who were there. More so I am glad to see God in all of this, who brought us together, held the rain and gave us each lessons that we will remember for the rest of our lives.

Wayne Ong Ket Wei, First Pace:

“I beat Leon, It was an easy race and I had loads of Fun”

Leon Lim Kok Weng, Second Place:

” The car was giving me problems as there were huge vibrations and under-steer especially at cornerings. The top speed of my car was way below par but I’m glad to have come in second place still. I want to thank the team for rectifying the problem and doing their best with the car”

Joshua Ng, Third Place:

” I was in front of Leon at one point of the race, It was thrilling but I made a mistake on turn one and it cost me second place. Overall I had a great car. The race with Min Jun behind was quite exciting as he overtook me at one point only for me to regain my place later hahaha”

Min Jun, Fourth Place:

“No comments”

Min Ook, Fifth Place:

“I had an accident in free practice that caused me some injuries so I didn’t perform to my best. I want to quit racing! But I’ll beat you still Leon”

Jordan Ng, Sixth Place:

” I want to hold my birthday here! I drifted my car! I didn’t use my brakes!”

Sun Wen Cheang, Seventh Place:

“There’s no seatbelt? I was scared I’d fly out of my car!”

Nancy aka Penang Hustler, 8th Place:

“I am ashamed! I felt so afraid haha ahaha”

Chong Mae Ryn, 9th Place:

” I was trying to take the corners smoother each time but as I did that I sometimes ended up with some oversteer which spun my car out”

Sarah, 10th Place:

” This Joshua knocked me!”

Chong Mae Eve, 11th Place:

” I take consolation that I was in third place for the first two laps until I spun out and hit the barrier! Ouch, bruised. Sob Sob”