Like A Rose
Dan Lai
26
may_fifteen@mailcity.com
Engaged to the sweetest angel in the world
Loves to sing, watch movies and DVDs, swim, play balls, read self-improvement books and travel with my dear
My Speech in Church
My RCIA facilitator asked me to share my experience in this one year journey during mass this morning. Here is my speech:
"Good morning Father and good morning to you, my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I stepped into a church for the first time in my life about 5 years ago. That time, the parish was celebrating mass and I was just observing. A weird feeling came over me as I heard the congregation reciting prayers in one voice. I thought that I was in an army camp where there were specific ways of answering and saying things. To be frank with you, I felt that it was silly to follow the responses in the Sunday missal. I found it ridiculous to control people’s responses to certain prayers as I perceived that faith should be more spontaneous than that.
Fortunately, the Holy Spirit had been guiding me as I attended mass more and more frequently. My girlfriend and her family’s display of faith in their daily lives prompted me to ask questions about the catholic religion. Even though, every year when the announcement was made to invite enquirers to attend RCIA, I was reluctant as I felt unprepared and found it even disturbing to think about it. While going through life and experiencing love, pain, joy and sorrow, I slowly realized that I was starting to open up to God. The readings and gospels were of great help to me in developing my faith. I started to pray to God and Lord Jesus and every time when I did that, I felt immense peace.
So came last year, when RCIA was inviting enquirers, I signed up for it. It was a clear and almost spontaneous choice. I felt prepared at last. During the enquiry phase, we learnt about the teachings and doctrines of the Catholic Church. Father Ho and Father Gerard helped us understand concepts like the holy trinity, the sacraments and many more. The facilitators also took turn to teach us about the faith and religious practices. The weekly sharing sessions allowed sponsors and Catholics to share their experiences with God and that really helped me to believe even more. The priests, facilitators, sponsors, Catholics and even my godparents are wonderful helping hands of God. It is through them that I see the possibility of being close to and loved by Jesus.
After the rite of acceptance when the enquirers accepted God to be their guiding light, the mood of the course changed. It was not so much of lessons anymore but faith development. It became a stage of transformation. Each and every Sunday, after our breaking of the word, all of us were transformed because we were touched by the words in the gospel. We started to embrace the homily put forth by the priests as we captured meaningful words that guided us in our life for the rest of the week. From then on, every mass is a kind of replenishment, nourishment and a re-building of faith as we understand more and more the meaning behind each action and word. Of course, there were times of fatigue and lethargy but the sponsors were all very supportive and encouraging. In my opinion, I think they are the best examples of good Catholics.
On a more personal level, I felt that I experienced a kind of growth and transformation in me and that certainly made a difference in my life. I noticed that I am becoming more patient, more understanding and more loving. By the way I incorporate my religious belief into my daily life, I am slowly influencing others when I prayed before meals and when I expressed my care and concern to those around me. My brothers and sisters, it is believed that the highlight is not during any of the other moment in mass but when leaving the building. That is when we go out to be the church.
So, by being church in your daily life, you can help others see and feel the wonder of believing in God and let them know that the door of RCIA is always open to anyone. Invite them so that they can experience the transformation that will give them peace and joy. We, as Catholics, are also encouraged to participate and I can guarantee you that your faith will definitely be strengthened.
Thank you and God bless everyone."
Sign My Life Away?
So, after the "interesting" experience with J**, it seemed pretty clear on which job offer to accept. I think what is wonderful about the offer from Sumitomo Chemical Asia (SCA) is that it allows me to work in the petrochemical industry and yet not in the technical functions which I feel I may not excel. The other thing is that it is actually a newly established company under the parent Sumitomo Chemical. It is also affiliated to Sumitomo Chemical Singapore (SCS) and The Polyolefin Company (TPC). Being a new organisation, it also means that there will be alot of rooms for growth and development. It was actually incorporated about 10 years ago but because of some overlapping business functions with SCS, SCA was made dormant. Now they re-open it to cater for the new business function of selling the product from a new petroleum production plant in Saudi Arabia. It would be an exclusive distributorship due to a joint venture with a Saudi Arabian petroleum company. So SCA will be exclusively distributing this product to Europe, Asia and emerging markets. Only thing is that SCA cannot sell them to Middle East which will be handled by the partner company. So being one of the 3 graduate trainees (sounds nice only lah, in the end also become salesman :) haha), we are supposed to do the necessary pre-sales preparation before the plant becomes operational in 2008. It will be like developing a business. So cool! Actually, SCA is now at its phase 2 of development, so I think it is already pretty stable. Judging from the way they hire people, I feel that they are very sincere in making this business work.
One concern for me is that when the production actually begins and the performance is found out to be unsatisfactory like poor sales results, there is a chance of downsizing. Of course now, everything seems so optimistic with positive projections of company size and revenue in the future. Sometimes, things may just happen. So, I must always be alert to detect signs and move on when necessary. However, because SCA is soley owned by Sumitomo Chemical - Japanese MNC, transfer across board may be possible when undesirable dynamical situations occur.
Wish me luck!
HR = Human Resources or Hell Raiser?
Don't get me wrong. I have come in contact with many HR people who are the nicest people on earth. My girlfriend is definitely the nicest of the nicest (sincerely). My IA company's HR staff are very caring and understanding. The HR in Sumito** Chemical Asia are very professional and friendly. My lecturer for "Human Relations in the New Economy" is a very experienced, motivating and thought provoking teacher who was successful in HR at a MNC before he retired.
Today, I met the worst HR manager ever existed in the small realm of my world. It was during a 2nd interview at J** Singapore Pte Ltd - an engineering, procurement and construction company. I was offered the position of process engineer.
I shall not go into details what he said but some of my friends would have already know the details. I just wonder what blow did he suffered such that he had such negative opinions on Singaporean especially the fresh engineering graduates from NUS. It is weird that he is also a Singaporean. I mean there is nothing wrong with putting a certain emphasis on our starting salary. It is essential to provide a motivation to perform. It is a reward of effort and it is undoubtedly important. Yet, the HR manager made it sounded like we, the NUS graduates, thought too highly of ourselves. He labelled us as "bloody money grabber". This was exactly what he said. He started to blame the government, the education system, the society and even our parents. He tried to tell me that we are beyond hope and are victims of materialism. He talked about compassion and passion being the vital core values of a person and not money-mindedness. Well, by being so mean, I don't think that is compassionate.
Then he started stating his achievement as a reputable person in the industry and he knows and also offends many ministers before. He criticised NUS boring system of focusing on technical knowlege and mentioned how NUS graduates are poor in soft skills. Well, that might be true before but not neccessary anymore. He was dumbfounded when I informed him the diverse levels of modules we now take ranging from business to arts to science. What disturbed me was the fact that he downplayed the purpose of a good salary so much. Also, he generalised all NUS engineering graduates as one single characteristics which was definitely unfair.
A company that gives a low starting pay while many others offer more shows one thing. This company, although it promises all the intangible benefits like skills, experience, good career advancement and long term status growth (which are also attainable in many companies that pay well), have no interest to be competitive to recruit and retain talent. If this is so, how much do you think you can grow in the company? How much effort do you think they will put in to groom someone?
Welcome to our Family
"Welcome to our Family" is a song that dear's family and relatives sang to me last night. I was reborn after the cleansing of my sins with Holy Water. Yes, I was baptised last evening. The baptism was held in the midst of the celebration of the Easter Vigil. For me, it was an addition of excitement because the whole congregation was witnessing the baptism ceremony. The whole rite was actually not so much of a affective experience to me but I was indeed happy. It was only during the moment when I was about to receive the Holy Communion (Body and Blood of Christ) of Jesus then I felt the spring of joy in my heart. I was very eager to be in full communion with the Lord. It was very joyful and loving atmosphere especially when everyone was celebrating Jesus' coming back to life on the third day after his crucifixion. After one year of learning and practising the faith, this day had come to give me a new life.
After that we had a celebration at dear's house and I was truly touched by the effort and time put in by her and her family in organising the celebration. It was a very heartwarming moment and I am glad that dear's family treat me well. But of course, I did my part to earn it also.
Thank you dear for being understanding when I had to attend RCIA every Wednesday evening and could not accompany you to shopping and watching movies. Thank you dear for introducing me to the faith 5-6 years ago and then on started my journey of getting closer to God. Thank you dear for supporting me during my days of worries amd anxiety. You are like the angel sent down from heaven.
Here are some photos!
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