The First Sunday of Advent

This week is the first sunday of Advent. And this week is when we light the first of four candles - the candle of Hope.

Hope has been a massively marketed concept these days.

And yet, sometimes we fail to understand the magnitude of this hope. Being in Malaysia, it's relatively easy to take the world for granted, to always think that the world will catch us when we fall. It is easy for us, as Catholics and Christians, to hold on to our faith, because God seems to have made it good for us. So easy for us to cling on to this image of Christ as a loving Redeemer and Savior.

Others have a different story to tell.

When senseless destruction rocks the world, when people are killed for no apparent reason, when family members are snatched away in one fell moment, well...hope does not come so easy.

But there is hope. There will always be hope. And we as Christians live with this hope in our hearts because of the knowledge that Christ died for us, and He will be coming back to save us all. And until then, He and His Father will watch over us.

"For this reason, keep alert and never give up; pray always for all God's people."

-Ephesians 5:18

So as we light the candle of Hope this Sunday, as we journey together into the first Sunday of Advent, let's all try and discover the true meaning of Christmas together. And let's all pray that we will have enough hope to share with all the people of the world that need it more than us.

God bless us all!

Catholics and Protestants

Dear all,

The blog has been dead for some time. But it's back!

This week, as the poster says, what is coming to be an anuual event, judging by the past year or so. It's the difference between Catholic and Protestant faith.

We'll be organizing it with the Christian Fellowship, so note that there's a change in venue. It's now at SR5 (Seminar Room 5) as opposed to the previous SR2.

Do come! Let's see what God wants to say to us.

June 6: Amazing Grace

Break open the popcorn. And the Bible, of course.

*ust who makes these cheesy one-liners anyway?

Anyway, come and see. I promise it won't bore the socks off you. If you wore socks, that is.

May 30: The truth about the Bible

This is good...I'd even go so far to say that it is necessary.
Almost the entire Christian faith is based on the Bible. Even sacred tradition is mentioned the Bible, which led to the formation of the Catholic Church and the faith as we know it today.

Isn't it scary to think that we know so little of the authenticity of this source, upon which lives are built?

Come and learn more.

P.S. Come with questions - our guest speaker, Mr. Bruno Pereira will be happy to field any you may have. You can even post them on the blog and we'll get back to you.

Thanks and God bless.

NEWBEC: DUC IN ALTUM

This is an old one, given to me by Ben. Another gem from the past. Do read and let the Word speak to you.

God bless.

The Street Ministry

Here’s our weekly bulletin for you all. Now this week we will be doing something different.

This is not to say we are going to do stuff like run around with party hats on our heads, nor are we going to go duck-paddling with the frogs in the pond near Vista Komanwel.

No, nothing of the sort. This week, we will be joining the Christian Fellowship, to attend their talk about The Street Ministry. For a brief intro, the street ministry is a volunteer organization that tends to the homeless that populate the area surrounding Chow Kit Road, one of the more notorious places in Petaling Street. Every Saturday, a team of IMU students joins these people for an hour or so, giving out food, medical aid and demonstrating their awesome CPR skills. Okay, so I lied about the last one. But seriously though, it is no joke. It is hard, gratitude-free work. And you will hear all these and more, when their administrator, I think his name is Steven, comes to educate us.

I thought I’d just say this: We aren’t joining them simply because we’ve run out of things to do. The committee thinks that this is a good idea to expose you all to the darker side of Malaysia, and how some people really go out of their way to help a person in need. For love and love alone without any ulterior motive. And anyway, it would be stupid to call the speaker to come and speak TWICE, so these are the reasons why we’re going there.

Anyway, that’s only the first part. The second part is that we will actually get to follow them to help out in the Street Ministry. Then you guys will be able to put everything you learnt on Friday into practice. If anyone’s interested, let us know. Believe me, it is a rewarding experience, and we strongly encourage everyone to join.

So, here are the details:

Location: SR5
Time: 1 pm
Day: This coming Friday
Talk topic: The Street Ministry.

This is also an excellent opportunity for all of you to get to know your CF brothers and sisters, so please, by all means, go! You won’t regret it.

God bless.

Love,
Jon and the CSS committee.

P.S. Please keep the M207 in prayer. Apparently the EOS was a lot tougher than the previous ones. I mean, who the heck knows which Trypanosoma species infects East Africa anyway?And don't forget the N107 who are starting their exams too.

P.P.S I just realized some of the lecturers here probably do. Ha ha!

St John's Cathedral on Google Earth.

Our counterparts in UCSI (University College Sedaya International) have done an excellent job, complete with pictures, showing everyone where St John's Cathedral is.

St John's Cathedral, as they have mentioned, is the only Catholic cathedral in Kuala Lumpur. It's also one of the churches nearest to IMU that is fully accessible by LRT.

Here's the link to their post. In the meantime, why not go and check out their blog. Get to know your Catholic brothers and sisters around Malaysia and beyond!

http://cssucsi.blogspot.com/2008/05/where-is-st-johns-cathedral.html

God bless.