just minishorts.

I find it amusing that there are some people who think that I'm against missional ministries in my previous posts. The emotional outbursts that I allowed on print reflected my personal views of the overseas short-term missions trips that so many of our local Christ-fervent youth like to mention in passing. I love the concept of outreach for Christ - but my peeve was mainly towards the definition and naming of vacational fellowship weekends the local church institutions are so quick to term as 'missions trip'.

I'm struggling with this - and it is because I am a righteous bitch. My personal view (PERSONAL) is that a trip to an overseas country that only lasts for a week (which includes the sight seeing) cannot be called missional. My peeve is also towards institutions that target the so-called 'problematic' regions or country-zones, why Thailand or Myanmar or Vietnam or Cambodia, when we have our own peoples in our own country who needs outreach? I'm saying what about the people in the rural settlements, what about the people who are the urban poor? I'm saying what about some kind of commitment before terming it a missions trip?

To me a missions trip is short term if its at least one month long, and a real missions journey has to go beyond 1 year - that I must admit this is my very skewed view of what Christian mission has to look like, because I can't swallow the touch and go concept of lets go and meet, and lets come home, all within 3- 10 days, and because of this also, its very hard for me to accept it when groups of sangat Christian people come to me and rave about the last week-long real missional trip that they participated in.

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It is my personal view that because of the way that most Malaysian Christians communicate themselves to our non-Christian friends, we have churned the religion of Christ into a somewhat purely conversional kind of belief. It doesn't help that the louder voices in the M'sian Christian circle tend to behave as if followers of Christ are all about bringing people into the tent of His kingdom. It doesn't help that the occasional visit to church allows our non-Christian believers to perceive us as exclusivists, we can't blame them because we behave like that, we talk strange like that. 'Are you Christian?' 'Why not?' 'Do you want to accept Christ?' 'Don't you want to go to heaven?'

It doesn't help it also when so many Christians themselves have come to believe that the belief in Jesus is for the entry into heaven - and so many Christians convert for this belief, die for this belief. But even this is all right to me - I can still learn to accept all of this miscommunication, albeit having to struggle with it a little.

And yet I'm angry even, with the concept of 'being missional' being so severely misconstrued . Which leads me to the realization that this situation is something that Christians have created for themselves, resulting in this severe misconception and misdefinition of the Christian faith that is exclusive, that divides, that breaks families apart. I mean, you have whole websites dedicated to accusing Jesus Christ of breaking families apart, citing verses out of context like that Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? line…

The worst thing is, you have CHRISTIANS themselves saying that its right to not sayang your mother if your mother doesn't sayang Jesus, because Jesus said such-and-such.

My pastor called me yesterday, to remind that we are all about being missional, and this is exactly what I'm talking about right now. Yes, I agree that Christians must define themselves a missional community. The problem is, the concept of what is being missional must be communicated in a proper way first. And it isn't right that we try to educate the non-Christians on what our mission is all about yet when Christians ourselves can't even grasp this entire concept of what Jesus has called us to do. The problem, I feel, is that we have given the word mission a very 'modern' concept, and that we have set out to complete some kind of task - and to many many Christian communities the word missions MUST be correlated to the converting of people.

And so as a way to complete and achieve a mission, something must be done, we have to draft a strategy or a method so to speak. And this is where I believe the confusion falls in - not at the topper levels of planning, but rather by the time the proposed action is cascaded to the communities, we completely miss the point. I mean so many Christians actually believe that you must go on a trip for several days in order to experience what is being a missionary. But that isn't the point at all.

Being missional isn't a kind of 'mode' that Christians (or non-Christians) can switch on and off. Its not about dedicating weekend hours to cleaning orphanages either. Being missional permeates the entire Christian life, and it is a call that we have to respond to by being 'aware' all the time. Being missional, as Al Hsu so rightly puts it, is about being intentional about looking outward, influencing others and society. Its about impacting society, transforming society.

'Into what?' some people may ask. Non-Christians in our communities accuse us of defining a goal, transforming the rest of the world into followers of Christ.

And that's where the confusion falls in, because people can't seem to understand what defines a follower of Christ. And this is where I become a universalist, so please don't kill me here. The definition of 'Christian' will then take on a very different meaning for different people. Some people say you're Christian when you go to Church, when you profess for only God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, when you've been baptised, when you reject all other idols and when you speak in tongues…

Some people (like me), choose to believe that being Christian is when you understand the reasons for doing all of the above (the go to church, become baptize, the rejection of idols, the coming of Christ, why God sent his son) and consciously make the choice to have the figure of Christ as the aim for perfection. And because you are intent on following the directions for living set down by Jesus, you make a choice to consistently act by His spirit at every single minute, consequently you become missional through your actions. You don't set a goal, you're not there to achieve something… Being Christian to me, is about constantly creating a God-approved context for living, and here is where the impacting 'society' comes in.

So to me, when being missional is due to a material goal (of having XX number of people in the church by XXXX date), it completely defeats the whole aspire towards Christ attitude that we are all called to have. It is when we attach the concept of an all too human target to the teachings of Christ that we become a confused lot, and in order to redeem ourselves we start to propose labels and draw distinctions between the non-core 'beliefs' in life. It is when we start saying strange things like, 'Do you know that you are going to hell because you don't believe in Jesus Christ?' because we're on an urgent 'target-driven' motivation to achieve the goal we have previously set… and its when we completely miss the entire point of Christ's entire life on earth.

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OK lah I cut down my rant lah. My point is, being missional isn't about going on a short term mission trips several times a year. Being missional is about a lifestyle you take on until the day you breathe your last breath. And then, since I'm on this topic, maybe, well, we should rename the word 'mission trips' so that at least we can learn to stop being confused about it.

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You know there is a reason why I'm not in ministry, or I'm not meant to be in pastoral service. Bacalah atas. I think I just confused myself.

The newest addition to my little family is a Holland Lop we call Chewie (who chews, and chews).

He's a bundle of joy, obviously… except he really really poops a lot (have to clean out his cage twice a day, imagine.

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A friend told me recently that she (and a group of friends) were going on an overseas Mission trip to the land of smiles (Thailand). For the uninitiated, a 'missions' trip is something like a church-led visit to a country with the purpose of propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christians are called to be missionaries in spreading the Good News, and many churches (especially the ones who're in the revival Charismatic categories) put a lot of emphasis on the evangelising of people, i.e. enlarge the tents to bring people to the saving glory of Christ.

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I'm as usual, the black sheep, the outcast, and honestly I cannot identify the concept of being 'more Christian' and therefore 'more loved by Christ' especially if you convert additional people to His kingdom. But even more so, in my very simplistic (and crude) way of looking at the whole strategy, I cannot bring myself to appreciate the group holidays organized by churches to lands of losts (such as Thailand where the religion of choice is Buddhism), where around 30 younger adults would travel via planes and live in simple 2-3 star hotels for around 5-7 weeks, and terming them mission trips.

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Now I'm not saying that I hate missionaries. I have friends who are permanently stationed in countries like Russia or India or Thailand or Myanmar even, where they are there for at least 2-3 years doing missional work - but the work isn't so much as 'spreading' verbally the good works of Christ, but more of acting as pillars of light and being blessings to the people, whether it is in the setting up of orphanages, or schools for the poor, or the building of libraries (and not necessarily Christian ones) for the peoples in the different communities.

What I am quite skeptical of is the purpose of these so called middle of the year missionary journeys where a mega church (there are a few in KL / PJ btw, and I myself used to attend one) would announce this little event for young adults or student Christians who are interested in a specially organized trip to a certain country that doesn't have the ideal penetration of the gospel… 30 seats on a limited basis kind, travel by Air Asia or something, for 7 days only. I don't get these sort of missions trip - because I personally feel that the money collected in payment for the journey and accomodation itself can be used to better touch the marginalized in this country — and we don't even have to go far because the urban poor in Malaysia is a very real community - there to be seen, touched and cared for.

You have abandoned old folks, and abandoned babies, orphanages in Klang Valley itself, crying out for help and love… and what do we do?

'I'm answering God's call, so I'm going on a missions trip with around 20 friends to Myanmar. Only 7 days only,' says the very devout.

I mean, why specifically this particular 'missions trip'? Aiyoh tak yah lah ambik flight pigi myanmar tu semua, go lah somewhere near, dekat-dekat Melaka, Seremban, kalau nak holiday pun go lah Orang Asli settlement, we have plenty of people to touch in this country, and this isn't even about evangelism.

I remain skeptical and critical. Its a struggle learning to be gracious to this. I'm sorry.

About a month ago I agreed to sample the humongous buffet spread that is the Weekend Special Buffet at Coca Restaurant.

The extensive menu that is the Weekend Special Buffet. Click to go to my flickr to see it in large size.

For the initiated, the Coca chain of restaurants is a made-in-Thailand now available in several shopping centres, hugely associated with steamboat, but actually has a whole lot of other goodies chain of Thai-styled steamboat restaurant. We went to the one (that's currently under renovation) at Bangsar Shopping Centre (near my office-kan), a day before Valentine's Day.

On our arrival, the restaurant marketing manager came up to us and congratulated us on our engagement - fuiyoh the whole world knows we're engaged hah, can't cancel the wedding anymore, can we? , and then we were informed that instead of the Valentine's Day set they were going to have us try out their signature menu.

So this was the one. RM78++ for adults on weekends only, a (super super) wide spread of dishes that ranged from the steamboat eat all you can (really really eat all you can) to the cooked dishes.

Now this was where Eric and I were a little surprised, truth be told. All along I had assumed that Coca had only their steamboat (the last time I ate at the same restaurant was about 8 years ago before meeting Eric, and I recalled little about Coca serving cooked Thai dishes only. So Eric decided immediately, 'OK, errr… we will skip the steamboat set, my fiancee has tried that one before anyway, but I'm more interested to see what you can cook up.'

The restaurant decided to recommend several dishes (in total we had about 10 mains and anothre 3 desserts. I'm going to show you some of the more noteworthy ones so that you'll remember to order these if you choose to go there…

Thai-styled Shark's Fin soup. I must say I was very impressed to see them serving real fin — sorry to the animal activists here. The taste was rather unusual for those prefering the Chinese-styled drenched in XO liquor type, and it was also very different from the ones they serve in Bangkok's Chinatown. Coca-styled - I'll call this boleh-lah.

Scallops (Typhoon styled). According to the menu you can order the scallops cooked in any of these ways: Tamarind, Golden Fragant, Typhoon Style, Coca Special Sauce, Stir Fried with Basil Leaves. We took the different sounding one. Now if you're ever going to try this (and do order the scallops - they're HUGE), don't order Typhoon style. Get the Stir Fried with Basil Leaves. The broccoli tasted great, but the scallops did not manage to absorb the sauce.

Breaded Soft Shell Crab - so sinful. But so yummy. MUST MUST MUST TRY (if you love soft shell crab - Eric thought it was too rich for him so I finished both pieces. ^_^

Always order a Thai salad at a Thai restaurant. We took my favourite - the Mango Salad. Chunky peanuts and whole cashewnuts were a good sign and this dish delivered. You can order as many salads as you want, so hehe, order a few lah if you go…

Eric saw the words 'Fried Morning Glory' and we had a little argument over what they meant. "I'm telling you they really take the flowers and fry lah."

"No, they're Kangkung… in Thailand they call it morning glory nia…" I said.

"OK we order and see who wins."

NEVER FIGHT WITH A WOMAN IN A RESTAURANT. She always wins.

This was very very close to the way they fry it in Bangkok. I like!

The creme de la creme. The steam fillet of cod on a bed of oh-so-sumptious Steamed in Thai Style sauce (up in Kelantan we would call this the Khengsom Steam). It's a pity the buffet only allows a one-time-order only for Cod and Crabs. Otherwise we would have ordered this over, and over, and over again. THIS ONE DISH ALONE is worth the entire trip to Coca (even if you don't take the Weekend Buffet, ORDER THE COD! The manager told us that they fly in an entire cod on a weekly basis so you can be guaranteed of freshness. And the sauce is very very spicy yah (so children and people who can't take chillies, you've been warned).

The desserts were so so and the Biasa type you can find in all Thai Restaurants. Go for the Thai styled Cendol, cause the cempedak bits in them makes the taste very different from the Malaysian styled one…

Of course there are some not-so-sedap ones on the list. The stranger dishes which you might wanna miss if you go…:

Stuffed prawns, baked crabs (the fillings were the same, and tasted like fish paste! The black pepper giant prawns (a little wtf lah, the sauce tasted right out of a bottle!) and the pandan chicken (a little too oily). Wait. On second thought, the pandan chicken was ok…

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OK. The Verdict: for RM78++ and the choices you get (the extensive list of cooked dishes, AND the steamboat set), it really is value for money. Its a pity that the normal human being can't take in too much (or rather, Eric and I aren't big eaters) so even though we only order the cooked dishes, we were stuffed by the end of it. Cooking time is rather slow (we had to wait around 25 minutes for the first dish to arrive), but the quality of the food is good. I'd prefer to take the steamboat though, after all, IT IS COCA, and you HAVE to order the steamboat when you're there - so if you ever order this buffet set, don't skip the steamboat. I would recommend ordering the following sets if I were you…

Steamboat buffet - take this one…
Cod Fish - Order the steamed in thai sauce set
Soft Shell Crabs - Order two plates if you love soft shell crabs and you don't really care about cholesterol
Morning Glory - Very nice
Mango Salad - I would order a whole plate for myself, if you love Phad Thai then do the same!

If I were you I'd also call the restaurant to reserve a table AND order the dishes of my liking first. That'll give them some time to cook!

Coca Restaurant outlets are at:

Open Hours :
[Weekdays] 11am - 10.30pm
[Weekends] 11am - 11pm

Baru saja saya sedar betapa rendah gaji pokok yang sedang 'dinikmati' pekerja gomen kita. Biarlah kerja sampai sepuluh tahun pun, kalau nak jadi setiausaha akhbar, gaji tertinggi yang diterima tu sekadar empat ribu saje.

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Lain kali kalau masuk pejabat kerajaan, janganlah maki tahap keberkesanan tu. Faham lah sikit. Dah sampai pun masanya kita sedar betapa kekurangannya negara kita.

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Pentadbiranmu Pak Lah sudah ketinggalan zaman. what are you going to do about all of this? Or is the new cabinet just a preamble to a new set of rhetorics to come?

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I thought the Digi ad slogan is timely here for everyone, we should keep it as a motto - always. TIME TO CHANGE.

On a lighter note, I was looking through some photos of last night's thanksgiving party at Tmn SA and came across this one.

Check out the guys man, posing to look good, Eric especially, I wonder what he was thinking… but from his pose, it could have been, 'OK If I stand like this I'll definitely look macho…'

And our PACA head Ronnie who was recovering from a post-election bug also managed to stare straight into the camera, possibly thinking, 'Mengantuknya I, takpe, kalau bukak mata besar sikit boleh nampak hansom jugak kot…'

As for the women… heh, Izzah and I were talking about difficult issues like bringing the IPP/PPA fiasco to light, that's why lah we didn't pose… (eh I'm not kidding here yah, we WERE talking about TNB's caught-in-between position and the silly dead agreements that are the PPAs).

So if you wonder why the MEN in Perak are squabbling over state exco seats, don't wonder any longer (ini semua nak look good), and thank God for the women who always get the job done. BLEK!