Hands Off!
Part 2

A continuation of the real life story of Nick that I put in my blog yest. He was born without limbs ........

As his family was Christian, Nick attended Sunday school when he was a boy. He was taught that God loves us all. Yet he could not understand if God loved him, why did He make him like this? Was it because of Nick had done something wrong? Or was he just a mistake by God?

There were still times when Nick felt depressed and angry because he could not change the way he was or blame anyone for that matter. He felt he was a burden to those around him. He even wanted to end his life.

Thank God that Nick’s parents and family supported and comforted him and gave him strength to continue.

A life-changing experience came when Nick was 15 years old. He gave his life to Jesus after reading a verse from the bible ( ) in which Jesus was asked whether a man blind from birth was due to the fact that he or his parents had done something wrong.

John 9 : 3-5“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “ but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.”

These verses spoke to Nick’s heart and convicted him to the point where he knew that there is no such thing as luck, chance or coincidence that “bad” things happen in our life. He felt complete peace knowing that God would not let anything happen to us in our life unless as a good purpose for it all.

Nick started to live life to his fullest potential and not let his handicap got in the way of accomplishing their hopes and dreams.

Today, Nick has completed his university degree. He is also a motivational speaker. Due to his emotional struggles he had experienced with bullying, low self esteem and loneliness, God has gave him a passion of sharing his story and experience to help other cope with whatever challenge they have in their life and let God turn it into a blessing. He is constantly encouraging and inspiring others to live to their fullest potential and not let anything get in the way of accomplishing their hopes and dreams!

Nick still has many dreams he has set and is striving for :
a) To be best witness he can be for God’s love and Hope
b) To be an international speaker
c) To be financially independent by the age of 25
d) To modify a card for him to drive
e) To be interview on Oprah Winfrey show
f) To finish his book “No Arms, No legs, No Worries!” by end of this year

Even as I read this story, I am encouraged by the passion shown by Nick. Personally, I do have dreams that I want to see fulfilled in my life. But yet a lot of times, I look at the situations in my life and feel that it is impossible for me to overcome. Other times, I look at myself (my weaknesses) and feel that I do not have the ability.

I decide to learn from example of Nick and not to look inward (at my own fears & weakness) . Instead I will learn to look upwards (to God) and outward (friends and loved ones) for encouragement and support!

Hands Off!

Part 1

A friend emailed me this encouraging story of a man called Nick Vujicic who was born without limbs.

In the morning of 4 Dec 1982 in Melbourne (Australia), Nick was born. Horrors to horrors! The parents realised that their firstborn son was born without limbs.

That began a life faced with many challenges and obstacles. He faced doubts and discouragement from himself and from people around him.

Initially, his parents were absolutely devastated. His dad was a pastor and the whole church also mourned over his birth. The dad had great concern and fears of what kind of life he will be able to lead.

But their faith in God provided the parents strength, wisdom and courage to care for their child.

As Nick came to school going age, he faced his next test. The law in Australia did not allow him to enroll in main-stream school. God gave his mum the strength to fight for the law to be changed and did the one of many miracles in his life. He was the 1st disabled students to be allowed to study in main-stream schools.

Yet Nick encountered many uncomfortable times of feeling rejected, weird and bullied because of his physical differences. He struggled.

Yet with support of his parents, Nick started to develop attitudes and values to overcome these challenges times.

Deep down, Nick knew he may be outwardly different but inwardly he was as normal as anyone.

With his parents’ encouragement, Nick start to attempt to make friends with some kids. Soon, the kids realized that he was just like them. God kept blessing him with new friends……. (to be continued)

Though we may not be outwardly crippled as Nick, inwardly we may be emotionally crippled.

For example, there was a period of time in my life when I had low self-esteem and felt that I was never good enough. Guess I have an inner handicap =) This inner handicap affected my life outwardly. I was shy and quiet. I also had no confident in the things I was doing and chose to remain always in my comfort zone.

Hmm, you could say I was a frog in the well =) But thanks be to God, I met Him and He turned me into a prince charming (I am being thick skin here).

He made me see the handicap in me as my uniqueness and accept them as my strengths. For example, I realize that because I am quiet and shy, I am thoughtful and observant. I can also be sensitive to the needs of people.

Yet at the same time, I recongised that my strengths can be my weaknesses at times. Therefore, I need to step out of my comfort zone and overcome my handicap at times. Therefore, I am consciously making efforts to talk and share more. Though still have struggle at times, at least I am working towards breakthrough =)

Hopefully after reading this, the question you can answer is :

Do I see my inner handicaps?
Have I accept them as my strengths

and yet learn to overcome them at times when they are our weaknesses?

A FROG LIFE

Someone emailed this story with a learning point behind it. Quite interesting

Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.

The race began. Honestly: No one really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower.

You heard statements such as: "Oh, WAY too difficult!!" "They will NEVER make it to the top." or,"Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"

The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one. Except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher.The crowd continued to yell, "It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!" More tiny frogs got tired and gave up.

But ONE continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn't give up!

At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top! THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal? It turned out.... That the winner was DEAF!!!!

The wisdom of this story is :

Never listen to other people's tendencies to be negative or pessimistic

because they take your most wonderful dreams away from you.

I do agree that we can hear discouraging voices when we attempt to purse our dreams. These voices can be from our "friends" who tell us that "we cannot make it" and "it is too impossible." At times, these voices are from us : our own fears, past hurts and failures. "I am not good enough." " I have falied before."

As a result, we are always choosing to stay in our comfort zone for the fear of failures. In the end, we end up like a frog in the well.

My encouragement to myself and you is that let jump out of our comfortable well and become the person God has make us to be!

May you step out of your well and

turn from a frog into a prince charming or princess gracious!

Back to the Future...........

Today, I went back to my secondary school to teach. Showed the students my sec2 class photo

Guess each one is me =)

Hint Hint : Look at the 1st row.

Being back in my old school brought back sweet memories of my seconday school days. Back then, I was a shy kid. My class was full of interesting people like Micheal, Yongsheng, TengChuan, DengYi.... We had lots of fun playing and studying togther.

Hmm, a question came to my mind. If I were to relive my youth days, what would I do differently?

For one, I think I will be more bold to try new things. I enjoyed playing basketball but did not have the courage to join the school team to train myself up in my skills. In the end, I was just an average player. Always wonder what if I had joined the team and trained hard.

Thanks God I still can learn my mistake and be bold to learn new things now =)

Hmm another thing I will change is my hair-style. Haha I do look like a nerd, rite.