Set Apart

Happy summer break, Monashians! Congratulation for clearing another semester of hardships, tears and sleepless nights, ancora imparo, ain't it?
I'mma make my holiday productive as usual, starting with reading these books, especially The New Answers 1 that I had actually read few chapters and gave up because the content requires high level of intelligence (and I said I study engineering?)

Fit to be Tied - Bill Hybels
The New Answers 1 - Ken Ham
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell

I spent my first hours of liberty by watching The Undertaker's (WWE) matches though.
Don't judge me, he is a legend

A little bit throw back:

Jansen Karim Zebua (Head of Praise and Worship Ministry) and Angelia Margaretha Wirawan (Head of Vocal Ministry) invited me to come to a worship seminar and it turned out that it was run by Worship Central.
Now we have Worship Central Malaysia *clapping sound effect

Can't say I'm a hardcore fan (like I am to Elevation. Speaking of which, EW will be releasing new album called "Wake Up The Wonder". Order them, you must.), but I do listen their songs, especially Spirit Break Out.

I met with Luke Hellebronth, his wife, Anna Hellebronth and Stewart Mcilrath.

Maaf gua sama Angel kurang tinggi

The better news is that they open Worship Central Academy in Malaysia, check it out HERE to apply.

I'm utterly excited, as I'm passionate about being a Youth Pastor or Worship Pastor (those are the things what God has planted in my heart), I might be able to fulfill this calling after I've been working for some time though (makanya cepet lulus dulu, dra).

So this opportunity is like a pathway to my calling and ummm, I'm negotiating with my parents about this academy, so please keep praying for me, will you? Appreciate it much, thank you :).

Anywayyy, they were selling the T-shirts and CDs. I, when looking at 'Set Apart'-themed goods, I was like "let's get as many as we can" (still wonder why I was not permitted to bargain).

Yang mo pinjem (CDnya) kasih tau ya

Speaking of set apart, I was introduced to the term "set apart" by my friend 2 years ago. Truth be told, even before that, I actually knew the older version of it: "sanctification" (yea, I'm old school), which is from the Hebrew word, Qadash.
This is one of the rhema I received when I was younger and, uh oh, I'm so into it.

This time, I'm going to share about it (no, not about The Undertaker)

To be anointed means to be singled out by God for special favours or responsibilities - Steven Furtick

Recently I found out that there are a lot of (new, yet kinda expected) rumours circulating about me (almost like a continuation from what I wrote on my old post).

People think I might have a gift of celibacy like Paul (I got that a lot, for years),

they start to match me with random female friends of mine, 

some even say that my future spouse isn't even born yet, 

or
to the extent where some people really think that I feel attracted to guys (just check my Ask.fm).

- No I don't. In fact, one of my dreams is to marry ONE godly woman and be blessed with cute and adorable children (number of children is TBA).

Jarang chatting, tau2 begini nongol pagi2. Anak komsel macam apa ini?

Di-tag di IG n Path, terus ada yang bilang "denial stage ya?"

The thing is...
I might meet her when I'm 22 (next year dong), 25, or maybe after 5-10 years, whenever God sees fit. I believe by setting myself apart for God, at the same time I'm preparing myself for her, our family and our family's calling.
Don't you see that marriage can't be your goal? It's another level of God's greater calling for both of you.
You shall not just pick up random people, because marriage is about a teamwork, thus a fit helper, an equal partner (Genesis 2:17) is mandatory.

Honestly, while you wonder who I am going to marry, I had prayed concerning this topic years ago. I mean, IF I did have a gift of celibacy, it would be much better if I had heard it from God at the first place. (gua juga cemas woy, beneran ga nikah nih, Tuhan? - just kidding kok. I'm all Yours).

Well, I don't get any affirmation regarding this gift (too bad for those who hope that I do).

So prepare yourselves, y'all, my future spouse is going to be fantastic and amazing (like I am).

Okay, back to the Word.

I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. - Habakkuk 2:1

In ESV, it clearly states that this Habakkuk guy 'stations himself', of which I picture the state of being set apart.
It doesn't mean you won't need your friends, mentors or community to discern God's will for you, but it does mean you thirst for God more than anything else in such level of intimacy, urgency and extremity.
(and it doesn't state that Habakkuk brings his Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Path or electronic gadget with him-Distractions, big time #justsaying)

I believe the key of setting yourself apart is to know God and desire to know His heart more and more each day. By doing so, you'll see that nothing can EVER compare to His love - and this is such a radical theology, because it takes faith for us to really live it - it pleases God nevertheless.
I would say, even my spouse will be nothing, compared to Jesus.

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11

Don't waste your time by waiting for a wrong person, or worse, by being a wrong person for the right one.

Two weeks ago, in FGCC Fresh Youth Service, Ps. Fu Xie ministered a sermon about becoming someone who you are looking for is looking for (I'm sorry, that was originally in Indonesian), of which I guess I'd heard a similar message from Pastor Andy Stanley "Are you who the person you are looking for is looking for?" (how do I know Andy Stanley? Of course because the fact that he had preached in Elevation before *teteup).
So, are you? and I asked myself, am I?

Quick tips: If you think you're preparing yourself in your singleness for a certain someone, it's great. But what about your family? Do you think you have loved them like how a child should God does? I think they are the most suitable people for you to love before anyone else, second after God.

Singleness is a process of preparation, not an embarrassing state that you need to get over quickly.

Don't try guessing or hastening God's timing for you. 

Heartbreak hurts, man. Be it from people's rejection or God's no.
Can't you just trust God for His plan and His timing for you?
He has your best interests at His heart.

Meanwhile, set yourself apart!
So you don't hinder God's works in you by getting distracted by trivial things.

When you deserve the best, why settle for less? - Bryan Leong

I know I'm kinda unconventional.
I still hold on to my uncommon principles like "my first kiss is my wedding kiss".
Well, that's because I know that I deserve the best, and that's exactly why I said "I am different" (and proud of it yo).
I refuse to settle for less, therefore I trust God with my singleness until it's time.

Be sure of this: when it's time, it's time.

My First Gaming Consoles

Currently I was trapped in the reminiscence of my childhood.

I was checking many types of gaming consoles, based on my memories and the help of Mr. Google, I started to explore these classical consoles.

To start off, my first gaming console (because Prehistorik 2 in my aunty's Windows 95 can't be included for sure) was Sega Genesis Model 2.

Beneran dah, gua punya yang ini

Out of my curiosity, I downloaded some emulators in my laptop, but maybe due to exam's pressures, I re-opened them altogether the memories of my past (apa sih dra). I then came to the knowledge of the existence of gaming consoles that I'm not even familiar with, like Atari.

When I moved to Bandung, I was in Kindergarten at moment. No different from any active kids in common, I often asked my parents to bring me to a mall.
This mall had game center at its top level, if I'm not mistaken it was BIP, Bandung International Plaza (does this building still exist?)
What I can remember is that I played Mighty Morphin Power Ranger side-scrolling action game via an unknown game console (should be SNES).
Ah, and right under the game center, there was this shop that sold figures, mostly Superman.

Game imba, saudara2.
Tapi kudu bayar gara2 maennya di BIP

I guess my dad bought me Sega when I was in Cirebon, during my 1st-2nd year of elementary school because I was so noisy and kept asking him to buy me one game console (I don't know if it happened or not, but considering my behaviour at that time, most probably yes).

There were cool games such as: Toxic Crusaders, Spiderman vs The Kingpin, X-Men 2: Clone Wars, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Fighting Edition (turned out to be pirated version from SNES though).

These games are the ones which made me excited and nervous every time I played. The true suffering was when you spent all your character's lives and you needed to start again from the very beginning, because it did not have a helpful component called 'memory card' (gimana emosi gua ga labil pas kecil dulu?)

Exact appearance of my game cartridge!
I always thought this game was called "Genesis",
until I googled "green man mop sega genesis"

Game seru, tapi ga bisa nge-save bikin frustrasi woyy
Untung sekarang gua udah tau cheats nya, muahaha

Spidey, anyone?

Game yang kalo mo maen selalu maksa dedek buat jadi player 2
(koko macam apa sih ini?)

I'm always late in terms of gaming technology, even when I moved to Palembang, I still played my Sega Genesis. At the time when everyone had Sony PlayStation 1, my Malaysian uncle bought me a NES console, where I played Battle City, Jetman, Super Mario Bros, Hyper Olympic, Circus Charlie, Duck Hunt, etc.
After some time, when Sony PlayStation 2 was booming, only then I finally bought my Sony PSone (itupun dengan pesan sponsor "Chen, dibeliin ini makin rajin belajar ya")

Circus Charlie

Duck Hunt

Super Mario Bros

Hyper Olympic

Battle City (Tank 1990)

Choujin Sentai Jetman

Gaming consoles have improved tremendously, what I once thought as cool games, might be pretty lame if the technologies are to be compared.
Thanks to technology, now we have the incarnations of those legendary gaming consoles, called emulators.
You can check em out on EMUPARADISE.
It's going to be fun to play old games, if you have time (don't blame me if after reading this post you start to play video games too much).

Cheers!

I Am Not Forgotten

Hola, short update on my blog. I'm going to write some great experiences I had recently. Yes I know I'm supposed to study for my final papers and finish my FYP progress for this semester instead of writing this down.

This semester I entered some futsal competitions with my friends, and we won some, woohoo...
Can I be honest (well, I'm always honest... I was only asking this because I could only think of this sentence at moment) that I'm really really happy that I received a proper training in futsal?
I started to train my futsal goalkeeping ability in 2013, which is last year. So I was playing mini soccer instead of futsal in my previous years, I guess.

Praise God for my coaches, Kevin Yee and Vedo Irawan that continuously help me to correct my forms.
+ Valiant Ibrahim that fights together with me, that we encourage one another during training sessions and even matches (bareng2 dicupu2in, dibohongin, ditindas, n dianiaya sama si Vedo. Pokoknya selalu bareng dah).

Long story short, our self-proclaimed "Happy 3 Friends" initiated an intensive futsal training for ourselves, which then mainly consist of Sunesia (old) players.

I don't think wearing turtleneck will do any harm

AUISS Cup 2014, bersama si MVP

Gua dan Uswah bukan kakak beradik btw

Personally I'm really proud of our jersey. This is the first jersey that I (we) have ever designed by ourselves, with a borrowed tagline from Leonis FC: Our Blood, Our Sweat, Your Tears! (peace y'all).

Olaf FC, Titan Futsal League Division 2 (Season 2)

Sunesia Reunited, ISCF Cup 2014

Promosi Black Out Jersey

Meeting with Sunesia players did not disappoint me (biasa, nuansa reunian itu hangat2, tidak ada kebencian, tidak ada permusuhan, semacam nuansa lebaran atau natalan dah. Apalagi pada bawa pacar n istri masing2, woy gua kapan?)

Especially because I had a chance to talk with their ex captain, Mario Satya Wirawan, whom I respect since I joined ISCF. One thing I admire from him: a fighter mentality.

When we were having our supper, he mentioned this one phrase that I remember until now: 

Stay honest!

This post ain't much, but I want to draw a connecting line from "Stay honest" with "I am not forgotten".

During my own "stay honest" phase, I felt like I went through a desert where I felt like I was neglected. I didn't find what I really needed, I kept on doing mundane things noone was with me at that time and it felt really bad.

I almost gave up, but I stayed honest about my fervour, stayed faithful in doing my passion and calling even when I was all alone.

You might say I was shaped through all of that, yes I was, but I remained myself.

God cannot bless who you pretend to be - Steven Furtick

 

Nevertheless, God never forgets about me.

For instance, He remembered that I like to play futsal in spite of my many activities.

1.5 years after I quit playing for a while, I was "found" by Vedo who happened to play in Monash and introduced me to Monash captain (bla bla bla, you've known the story or if you haven't you can read it HERE)

I was kinda short of money, but God let me play futsal and train for Monash, for free. 

Even better, I have Monash Univ jerseys for free as well (thanks Monash, ha!).

I always wished to receive futsal trainings, and I did.

I dreamt of playing in an international team, I did play for Monash and Olaf (and train with Leonis) and against great players.

I wanted to win (who doesn't?) a non-Indonesian futsal tournament, I did.

I wanted to design my own jersey, we did, this year.

You see, some of those things are the ones I never actually prayed for (that's also why I typed them in past tense). 

I thought they were impossible, unrealistic, or egoistic, so I didn't even pray about them.

But God knows the details and gives me chance to pursue my dreams

and I'm sure He will give everything He sees good for us without holding back.

These are just a few from the list of my answered prayers, which I can't tell here as they are personal. :)

God remembers, I am not forgotten!

If you want, you can say that this is the best moment in my life.

Yes it is, yet for now.

I still feel that there is something more waiting for me.

There are greater things that God has prepared for me, while He's preparing me for 'em.

If you just stay honest (be different, be who God has made you to be) and stay faithful in your struggles, God will prepare you for His promotions and greater blessings.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. - Phil 1:6