Meeting people

Me, with the hotel uniform.

Armand Maulana, one of the famous band members in Indonesia

The nice family that I met in the hotel. The grandpa (on the right), he was born here, in Balikpapan 70 years ago!
Took them out to have some coconuts, but unfortunately, the coconut was out of stock.

They're really very tall! If you look at it carefully, I am already on top of the stone and I am still shorter! Look at them!

Life is unpredictable

Last Saturday I heard a sad news about my parents' friends' daughter.. She got into a motorbike accident and passed away right after.. She was only 22 years old and she was the hope of her family..
This awakes me that life doesn't guarantee anything.
Whatever you have on earth, will be left on earth..
Life is unpredictable,
So do whatever we can to get a ticket to heaven :)

Everything happens for a purpose.

Yesterday was my first time attending a Christian fellowship with my colleague here in the hotel. It's wonderful to know that they're having a fellowship meeting every Thursday of the week. The Praise and Worship was good, the sharing from the pastor was good, too.
I was glad that God invited me there, to join them and to just feel how it feels to join a Praise and Worship, to spend time with Him. (p.s: Lifeline, I miss it so much!!!)
I lifted up thing that has bothered me lately, and I felt better after being prayed over.

And today, I attended a (free) seminar in the hotel titled: "Fully motivated at work".
The speaker was Louis Sastrawijoyo.
Some points of the seminar are:
- A change has to be started from ourselves.
- Don't say you're not happy if you haven't done this...
You as another party, look at yourselves, think about 3 things that you see at yourselves as the reasons why yourselves should be happy/thankful for
- BIG THINKING, BIG SUCCESS
- There are 3 points to achieve a dream:
1. Dream itself
2. Plans (at least 3)
3. Critics (against the plans).
Critics always make you unmotivated towards your dream, therefore, you gotta plan more until the critics become 0 in the end.. Don't loose hope because of those critics.
- A success depends on your faith.
Even faith has 2 types: faith as a power to build and faith as a power to ruin. Take the first one.
- PRAY, as the most of all. Because when you pray, you keep your dream in mind and that becomes your mindset.
- 6 Human Basic Needs:
1. Certainty
2. Change
3. Feel needed
4. Good relationship
5. Growth
6. To contribute

And just now, I was blessed to enjoy some food at one of the restaurants in the hotel. I was invited to join C' Dewi for dinner. Had some sharing on Christianity with her.

And now, I am going home soon, will get a small cake for my brother who's celebrating his birthday tomorrow ^^.

Til the next post, take care all.
God bless.

Le Petit Bal Perdu

"The small ball that's lost"
This is a direct translation of the Theme during the Party with some French last March 20th. Not sure why it was named so though.. Then we were supposed to dress up a la 50's.. But not many did that.. well..
We were invited by our French teacher to go and have fun! The singers are from France. They were purposely invited here for some musical activities.

A week after they also came to the hotel where I work at. So excited seeing them again! hehe..

Anyways, let the pictures do the talking.. =D

Me and Samira (Malaysian)

Next to Samira, it's Janin, our teacher

Just pretending, no worries! hehe

Le garçon is so cute, isn't he?? :)



It was a joyful night though pretty tiring cos we danced too much :p

It's about work, again ;)

I've been working in the hotel for 3 weeks already! Time really flies.. (well, in certain case, like work, am glad it flies fast. hehe)

So far everything is alright, I got to meet some Managers, which somehow will be good for my future reference :). The last one, he was Malaysian, and while we were talking on the way from airport to the hotel, he was kinda offering me a job.. he said like "oh, you should have asked me, I can give you a job".. Then in my heart I was like "oh please, you can give me one now, too!" hehee... Then I can work in Malaysia and meet my friends there again! hehe.. (I miss living in Malaysia..)

Anyway, 2010 is set to be the 'working year', save money! if possible I wanna start up my own business (I wish.., but no time to work on it..) Well then, we'll see what's going on next month, the following month, etc..

I need to manage my daily schedule, between work, study, social life, prayer life & community.

Jiayou! :)

God bless.

2 Weeks working

It's already been 2 weeks since I started my new job.
It is indeed an interesting job as a Guest Relation Officer (GRO). I get to meet people, talk to them, etc. I also get to go around in the hotel to check out if everything is alright (See if the guests are happy enough and no complaints and stuff). However, my working hour isn't that good. It starts from 12PM - 8 PM. Although I get to wake up late, but I have no life outside work, cos when I leave my house, it is 11AM, when a lot of thing starts happening and working in hotel doesn't mean 8PM straight you can leave. I usually can only leave at 9PM. So you see, 9PM, here in this quiet city, who's still alive and going out? :p No such thing as Yamcha here. What exist is late dinner or movie maybe.

I got one day off/week. This week I changed my off-day to Saturday cos I am having 'La Petangue' competition with my Classmates from Alliance Francaise. So gotta wake up early tomorrow. But I am happy to get a chance to miggle around with some french people and practise my french. Next week having an exam. OMG! Totally not prepared for that cos I am stuck with work.

Other things about my workplace.. I guess just like any companies, when you just join, you'll be very new to it and you might get some 'special' treatments from your colleagues.. But I am thankful that not many of them do that to me. Just a few, which happens to be my co-worker. People get jealous of who you are and what you have.. biasa itu.. I am trying my best to still be calm and treat them nice. I don't wanna have negative thoughts on them. Hopefully this Love will continuosly fill my heart..

I'd like to thank my friends who have supported me and told me things that usually happen when working in hotel. So now when I am really doing it, I am not surprised, yet I feel I am already well prepared. :)

Thank God for always being there for me and not letting me go.

I am blessed. ^^, and so are YOU!

Only in His time

I am glad that I've finally decided on something. This is about the job offer that I was talking about at the previous post. I chose to work in Hotel. Will start working next Monday, March 1.

I hope that this job will last longer than the previous one :) and this would be something that I really look forward to.

Thanks to many of my friends who have been praying for me and be there to comfort me :). Really appreciate it all!

As Today's reading talks about Matthew 7:7 which says:
"Ask and it will be given to you, search and you will find, knock and the door will be open for you".

There's a story about a junior highschool boy who asks his dad to get him a motorbike. For his dad loves him so much that he gives him that motorbike, although it is not the right time for the boy to have it, as he is underage and it's illegal. Then one day the boy got into accident and had his legs amputated.

And after reading the meditation, which asks us to think about all the things that God has given to us and the things that are yet given, not because He doesn't want to, but He knows what's best for us and when is the best time to give it.

I think back about the things that I currently asked Him for, the job. Nevertheless, He didn't so easily give me what I asked for, yet He made me going through a lot of thoughts, confusion, etc. That was really a discernment period on this job -+2 weeks. But I believe it is all worth the result. I wanted something MORE that the previous job, something challenging and He gave it. But as I said, after I really discerned if it is what's best for me at the moment. Most of all, I believe that He has a plan for me in the future and this is one of the steps I need to take in order to reach that future. Just like the staircase, you need to take the steps one by one to reach the next floor. The future is on the last floor that's so much higher than where I am right now. But He will guide me step by step, for sure. :)

So what about you? Have you thought about the things He's done for you? what do you want lately? Have you asked Him for it? Ask Him, pray, discern, and most importantly, keep this in mind, that it's only in His time that it'll be the best for you to get what you want :), cos when that happens, that's when you actually really Need it.

God bless.

My testimony

Why am I a Catholic? Why did I choose to be become a Catholic?
Reasons for the 'Why' question often pops up at time that I've never expected, although I've been writing about it, through sharing/testimony, yet not in a direct point of view. Hence, when it DOES pop up, I might get blank or at least have little ideas of what to share about. Like what happened few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me how I became a Catholic, knowing that I was not one before. At the moment when she asked me, I was like.. trying to figure out words to explain but what I found were words that are far beyond. In other words, things that are mostly only discussed by the Christians, like the Church history, future (eternal life) and stuff, but NOT so much as I am just like a Catholic baby. So as a result I made her even more confused. :( Thus, I decided to just end it there, not talking further.

Since then, I asked a Catholic friend of mine about the Why question, and thank God for her, she reminded me about the simple things that God has done in our lives and those are simply basic reasons of why I became a Catholic. Thus, I decided to share some that I can recall at this point of time.

I find PEACE that I've never felt before, especially when I am in God's house (Church). I can share anything in mind that I can't share with other people, even when I want to cry, I can cry easily there and I know God listens to me and He's there to comfort me. If you have experienced this before, I am sure you know how it feels. :)

God is love. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. (cf.1 Corinthians 13:4). This basically summarizes everything. True love makes everything beautiful in this world. Imagine when there's no love, there's no God, we all might just be filled with lust, everything we do is based on lust, which leads us to unhappiness in the end. Lust is at a moment of time whereas Love is forever.

I now realize how important Mother Mary for us, Catholics. A lot of Christian denominations do not believe in Mother Mary and they think we worship her. In fact, we don't worship her, but we honour her as Jesus' mother. We know that a son will never reject whatever his mother asks him for, and just like Jesus, He wouldn't ignore His mother. So we pray with Mother Mary and ask her to intercede for us. In many cases, Novena and Rosario prayers really end up with the Best result, for me and many of my friends. Just like Jesus, She hears our prayers,too. And although we don't say it, she knows our hearts within.

My emotions are much controlled now. For God is always there to remind me whenever I do wrong or whenever others might test me. When we're making efforts to be close to Him, we are being sensitive to the situation around us. If there weren't something greater than ourselves, we will never be humble, for we think we're the best in everything, but in fact, we are NOT. Who are we? we're just human. We make mistakes, but how we know we make mistake if we don't know what's good? See, there's always something better/greater thanus that 'rings' us whenever we make a mistake..

Catholic friends are really a blessing to me. They're always there for me. Whenever I need someone, God gives them to me, it can be in the presence of a person or two, or through media telecommunication like internet or phone or sms. And no matter what my story is, they're there to listen and to comfort me. I believe God uses them for that. They just never ignore / avoid to help me and their advices are indeed Really comforting me. Not only Catholic friends in fact, I have some close friends who aren't Catholics and they are a blessing, too. :)

Overall, I could say that I've been changed so much as a person. Those who know me from who I was and who I am now, realize about it much better that I myself do, although there's still a lot of things that I am lacking of.

This is a lil sharing from me.

-Small things can make a difference-

God bless.