A Lesson from the Amish

Elder Goh spoke on forgiveness last Sunday, and he read an article that touched my heart. asked him for it, and here it is, i hope it blesses someone too :)


A Lesson from the Amish

The difference between being ordinary and extraordinary is simply a choice. A choice
to be great is never easy and may take sacrifice, but that is why there are plenty of
ordinary folks in America yet very few truly extraordinary.

This week America witnessed this principle in the most profound way. A group of
peace-loving, hard-working, self-sufficient, faithful citizens laid to rest their precious children who were cut down in their early years at the hand of a man in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.

We all know the story. The Amish community was shaken to its core as a man entered
a schoolhouse, tied up 10 young girls and then proceeded to slay them. Methodically,
one by one they were shot execution-style until ultimately the shooter turned the gun on himself and the horror-filled air rang silent. I can't imagine what the scene must have been like, much less what that scene looked like in the minds of the parents who loved those children.

After the smoke settled and the reports started to pour forth, we watched as a group of extraordinary people responded to this tragedy as only extraordinary people would.

They mourned and cried and then went about the grim task of hand digging the graves
in which their children would soon be laid to rest. Afterwards they arranged, by meeting all the requirements of the state, to make the sorrowful trip to the coroner's office to take possession of the lifeless bodies so a funeral and subsequent burial could take place.

They drove their horse and buggies to the gravesites and buried their dead. Every last shovelful of dirt was gently placed on the coffin with the same care and attention as it was removed by the love of a father, brother or uncle. All the while the state offered transportation, counseling and various services in hopes of making this tragedy less burdensome. The response was "Thank you, but all we ask is for our privacy and your prayers".

The most remarkable part of this sad story is not what was visible but what was
invisible. The invisible shows the extraordinary character of these fine people. During this whole process you never saw a finger of blame being pointed at anyone, including the gunman who took innocent life from the Amish community.

The most you heard was an Amish spokesman's prepared comments read by a policeman. The comments were filled with love, understanding and forgiveness for what took place. Comments that talked about how this man made a bad choice and they forgive him for making that choice. They didn't blame guns, politicians, media, society or any of the other normal targets that we ordinary people look to blame.

They didn't blame God or look to make sense of what is a truly senseless act. They
made a choice to live their faith and trust in God. Knowing full well God loves them and has forgiven them, in turn they forgive others - even when it means the loss of
something as precious as a child.

They chose not to allow hate to fill their hearts. They know hate produces darkness and eclipses the light of God in man. They chose to walk in light and not in darkness.

Walking in darkness can only produce more evil, and for the Amish that wasn't even
an option.

Some may suggest that is a sign of weakness, but I know that it is the sign of ultimate strength. Make no mistake, however; it was a choice. They could hate and seek revenge. Instead they returned evil with good. They choose to love and not hate. Their natural reaction was to reach out to the family of the killer and invite them to the funerals of their slain children. The Amish have been more concerned about the pain of the killer's survivors then they are themselves. Perfect love and forgiveness has sprung forth from this truly extraordinary group of people.

What a great life lesson we could all receive if we choose to do the same as we watch Democrats criticize Republicans and Republicans criticize Democrats. We see no forgiveness from either camp for mistakes made or poor choices. Instead all we see is the constant straddling for political advantage. Who can trip up the other versus trying to heal each other's pain. How elections mean more than truth. Human decency loses out to advantage and politics.

This week was a rather extraordinary week to me, for I watched Americans all across
this country choose to either be ordinary or extraordinary. A man chose to walk into a school and kill innocent kids. A group in D.C. postured and played political gamesmanship to beat an opponent. They both walk in darkness because their motive is hate. Then there is a group of folks who chose to be extraordinary simply by living their faith in a God of love. They didn't blame or criticize. They didn't look to gain advantage in order to destroy their opponent. No - they loved and forgave and chose to walk in light.

Some call the Amish old-fashioned. They don't watch TV or listen to the radio. They don't fill their minds with the toxic waste coming from Hollywood. They work hard, love their families and love God. I think we all owe the Amish a collective sense of gratitude, for they have shown us this week what America could be if we shut off the iPods, turned off the TV, ignored the agenda- driven media and simply walked in light. They chose to love and not hate. I can only hope each member on Capitol Hill and across the nation heard the message coming from Pennsylvania this week.

To the Amish, I express my heartfelt sorrow and mourning for your loss. The nation
grieves with you. But we also rejoice in knowing your faith proves to us all there is more than this life.



Craig R. Smith

recollections

went back to RJ to play floorball today.

but before that, i met liangsi for tea @ J8. it's been ages since i last talked to her, but it's really nice to see her still the same. she must be a really tough girl. i've always admired pple who actually dare to go to france to study, all alone, having to fit into a culture so immensely different. i hope she gets to move to paris...

while meeting hanyan to go play floorball, i also met audry, siewjin (again! and in the same clothes as last night somemore! :) and sarah, whom i havent seen since JC. heh. oh and christine ong walked past too. happening right.

finally dragged myself to RJ at like 6, cos i was so scared i can no longer take the intensity of the game anymore, and I won't enjoy myself.

it was nice to see sir, renji, ywee ern, ivan, yixin etc again! our batch actually had enough pple to form our own line. we played. like the old times, but slower, thanx to all the extra weight and lack of exercise. heh. it was fun, i haven't touched the stick since last year... haha hanyan and i actually scored a goal, againt the almighty teachers! ok, actually hyan scored the goal la. i merely crossed the ball in. heh. reminds me of what velda and i used to *try* to do last time, firmly believing and insisting that there was chemistry between us. haha

was talking to hyan on the way back to the mrt station, and we were talking about all the old times. our wonderful team full of newbies. our first suicide run on the first trng in J1, how slack we were in J1, and how that changed totally in J2. how fit we were in j2 - the fittest we ever were our entire lives. the surprise NAPFA test on the 1st trng after the christmas holidays. the crazy 4 x 800m runs. how we used to pace each other during the 'fat-burning' hour-long runs. playing on the netball court till it was dark and we couldn't even see the ball. the crazy but fun hockey training camps. how we fought for our place on the team, then for the starting 11. how that 1 horrible ball went past the both of us into the goal on that last fateful day making us take the silver. but through it all, it was the process - 1 sensational coach who was willing to give us his all in training us from complete hockey idiots to a team of hockey players; a united and extremely committed team of 12 who literally breathed and walked hockey; all the countless hours we spent on hockey such that a large majority of my memories of JC was just that... ...

in short, i miss hockey. i miss what we were, and will never be again.


raffles hockey.

Boston - MIT and Harvard

today was our 2nd full day in boston, massachusetts. continuing on our whirlwind tour of the ivy leagues, we entered genius world one more time, this time onto the town of cambridge - home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

started off the day with a bottle of supercharged natural drink. 2 for $5. quite ex. but we were determined to live on biscuits for lunch.

arrived @ MIT in time for the 10.45 am campus tour. it's a pretty neat school. learnt a lot of useful (and useless) stuff abt MIT.

of cos, we had to be true to SMU.
these MIT geniuses are really engine freaks. but i love american college traditions. at MIT, there's the MIT hacks, where they do stupid things without getting caught. once, some pple climbed up to that dome and decorated it as the R2D2 when the 1st episode of starwars came out.
another time, they broughts parts and assembled a car up there, painted it to look like a policecar, put a dummy in, with a pistol and half eaten box of donuts beside him, and a parking fine on the windscreen for parking on top of the great dome. hahaha. the next day they had to call in a helicoptor to remove it, and CNN was there to record the whole thing. another time, some pple brought a working telephone up there that wouldn't stop ringing until someone went up there to pick it up. it's hilarious, and they've actually published a whole book on it, pictures and all.

walked by this room while going through one of the corridors. apparently, only 3 unis are recognised for exchange credits within a major. one of them is cambridge, the other being NUS. I dunno what the 3rd is. but... why NUS?!?! heh.


saw this in the coop.

we spent like 3 - 4 hours there i think. 2nd stop: harvard

stopped @ the famous statue of 3 lies to rub the shoe of 'john harvard' for good luck. haha, yeah right.

walked to harvard business school.

once again, we had to leave our SMU mark there, a pity there was construction going on.. we tried taking these pics so many times that ambrose no longer needs to use the multi-shot mode (:

when i saw harvard law school, i couldn't stop thinking of legally blond. heh.

it's a nice place, generally. cant believe leslie will be studying here soon.

saw a few geeks here and there. didn't find harvard as pretty as i had expected it to be, but maybe that's cos i was in princeton just a few days ago, the school which is said to have the most beautiful campus in the country... owellz. but they do have a rich history and many interesting stories to boast about.

was supposed to meet up with serene lee today, but she's out of town escaping the heat wave, which has thankfully seemed to have gone away slightly. the wind is actually cool and not hot now. maybe i won't be drenched in sweat tonight as i sleep, tho i am still sweating now.

darn YMCA hostel room. no air-con OR fan.

we're leaving boston first thing in the morning tomm, taking the chinatown bus to new york - the last league of the great united states adventure. for the 1st time in a while, we wont be driving across the states, dunno how we're gonna handle our luggage also.

not sure if there'll be wireless there. if not, i'll be home real soon. 4 more days.

after 11 states, and the heat, i wanna go home.

PRINCETON!

am currently in the public library @ princeton university now.

this place is awesome. all the buildings are so old and grand, just walking around the quaint surroundings makes one feel like if you've been here long enough, your brain can actually develop like a genius'.

nearly witnessed a wedding ceremony under one of the grand arches of one of the halls, but the ceremony was taking too long to start.

einstein died here. i didn't know toni morrison lectures here.

bought a princeton collar pin, i shall start my collection of school collar pins now. now where did i put all my badges from RGS, RJ, etc. shall buy more when i get to harvard and MIT.

i did a perfect parallel parking today. it was my first ever parallel parking since i passed driving.

we should be going soon, i dunno what we'll do without the internet. we;re enslaved to it. at daysinn (where we're staying for the next 3 nights), wireless is $2 per hour, so i will prob have to do without it for now, hopefully YMCA in boston will be kind enough to give us wireless.

we set the smoke detector off last night because we were frantically cooking up all the food we had. debbie boiled all the spaghetti, baked brownies, made mashed potatos. and i scrambled eggs. and we had instant noodles at 4am last night.

as usual, we couldnt wake up again. was supposed to check out by 10am, but we only woke up at 9.30am. left in a hurry (as usual) and nearly couldnt fit everything in the car (again).

debbie couldn't go horse-riding. but we'll prob go white water rafting down the delaware river on tues before leaving NY for boston.

ok, that's all the random updates i have for now.

out.

leaving penn

time really flies. can't believe i'll be home in 10 days. after almost 4 months (only nick knows the exact number of days, heh.) away from home. on one hand i'm ready to go home to family, friends and life; but on the other hand it feels like i've been away for so long i can stay a few more months to travel, except of course i won't have enough money. and i actually feel sad to leave america.

my last pay check came in today, wonder how much i got since i didn't work as much.

drove south to philadelphia today. planned to wake up at 6.30am, but as usual we couldnt wake up. left the house only at 8.20 and got there at like 10.01 or something, just minutes late for the early bird parking. so we had to spend $14.50 on parking for 12 hours, instead of $9. sigh.

we visited independence hall, the very room where the declaration of independence and the constitution was adopted.
did u know that john hancock was the president of the declaration of independence; while george washington was the president of the constitution?


saw a man telling stories under a tree, but we didn't dare to sit down cos it was all kids. heh.
it was time for lunch, we HAD to try the famous philly cheesesteak, cos we had so many fake ones in NY and Ohio.

here it is, cost us $6.10 each. heh.

visited the US mint, after i walked to the car and back to the mint about 5 times, in the sweltering heat.

trip1: debbie, ambrose and i walk back cos we cant bring our handbags into the mint, so we had to leave out stuff in the car

trip 2: we walk back to the mint, only to find out that we need photo IDs, and i had left my passport in the car

trip 3: debbie and i walk back to the car, in the sweltering heat, again. my face was all red by then. ambrose went into the mint first.

trip 4: upon arriving at the car, we realised that the car keys are with ambrose. i had to walk back to the mint to get it from him while debbie waited at the car, and fell asleep on the trunk.

trip 5: i return to the car from the mint with the car keys, while ambrose goes in for a second tour.

trip 6: debbie and i return to the mint, and we finally get in at 2.50, with only 10 mins before it closed.

mind you, the distance between the mint and the car isn't short. it's a good 10 min walk. i stress again, in the sweltering heat. (did u read about the heat wave across philly in the news?)

*crap the pics aren't loading, and it's 3.38am. we need to sleep cos we need to go to NJ tomm*

to be continued...

woodbury common premium outlets, new york

still not through with cedarpoint!

(L-R) danny, me, dominik, lenka (chezk rep), ana (ukraine), debbie
our roommates! (not danny and dominik!)


the note and mr bob, whom we left at the windowsill facing the pavement. haha. mr bob was a gift from aom, when i met him at the mall one day... really couldnt fit anymore things in so i couldnt bring him.. sorry aom...


the last time we'll ever see that checklist again!


cedar point dr, the road we used to live and work on, for 12 whole weeks. yucks! (and sharon's favourite add to send all her online shopping stuff!)

having one last tea, we ate too much as usual, and took too long, that's why we left so late!


finally on the way to penn. the whole boot (or trunk, as they call it here) was filled, we had to fill up the back seat as well. haha it was crazy.

more on penn later! (:

just know that today we woke up at 1pm and we cant go white water rafting anymore cos it's too late. heh. debbie's going horseback riding while ambrose and i are gonna work out in the pool/gym. yeahh rite...

leaving cedar point forever

signing in for the last time! notice that i was late on my last day at work! set my alarm wrongly so i only woke up at 8.15 when my supervisor called. because of that i could only leave at 12.40pm! but it was ok la. taking photos and writing autographs ain't exactly working! (:

the humongous turkey leg that nick has been craving for for the longest time. cos like $5 and it wasn't even that nice, but it was big alright....

nametags galore. haha, before we had to surrender our IDS. (debbie and i paid $1 each to get the temp IDs so that we could keep it)

a random keychain i saw at the leather shop. i have more pictures, but no time now.

had some singaporean party last night too, at the guys room. was supposed to be a potluck, but i couldnt get in cos i stayed at bayside and didnt have my ID no more. was very very upset but finally manged to get in at like 1am or something. stayed there till about 5. everyone was just taking pictures and writing autographs and some guys were busy getting drunk or pretending to be. got home and tried to pack till 7 but wasnt all that successful. woke up at like 9.45 to finish packing, when the plan was to leave sandusky in the morning. finally left at like 5.45pm. heh.

because we left late, we only reached penn at like 1.45am. the journey was supposed to take 6 hours. ambrose started driving for about 1.5 hours, to almost the border of OH and PA. i took over for 3 hours at 8pm, had to drive like 200 miles! crazy! and debbie and ambrose both fell asleep, so i was all alone, which i didnt mind that much. havent had time to be alone really. was going at an average of 80 - 85 mph (120-130 km/hr) cos i really wanted a place to lay our head for the night. thank God for safety, and for not getting caught. was so tired by 11pm i had to let ambrose take over. we had to drive across the state of penn, it was crazy. left ambrose with about 74miles of the interstate, and a bit more of normal road to get to white haven, except that we got lost. spend like 0.5 to 1 hour finding the place. apparently they drove into the jungle, i dunno cos i was knocked out in the back.

thank God for everything so far, really amazing how we've been preserved. just heard from nick about the west coast adventure pple, seems like things aren't going as well for them, but i'm sure it will only get better!

woke up this morning at 11am. was supposed to explore the area, but we decided to go shopping instead, at woodbury premium outlets. so off we went, 2 hours northeast to the state of NY. i drove there and ambrose drove back. it was a beautiful drive, cos we were driving in the mountains and through some state parks.

okok i better go or ill get locked out... i dun have keys and im all alone in the lobby now...

more random pictures

isaac, kay and i being lifted up for the ripcord.. i was so scared i didn't dare to pull the cord after they went "3, 2, 1, FLY!"... it was good, but i dun think i'm ever doing it again...heh

first baptist chuch, a whole bunch of us went there last sunday. the lady behind is linda (the pastor's wife) and the other lady is (crap i cant remember her name), but she was trying to make me play the piano and she was so scary, reminds me of piano teachers.. haha

finally took the dragster yesterday morning. dragged myself out of bed at 8.40am so that we could go get in line. we waited for like 1 hour before we got on, but it was very very good... but not worth the wait la. it opened in 2003 as the world's fastest (120mph) and highest (420ft) rollercoaster...

i know i'm fat, and this is what makes me fat. haha.

lee's chicken, something like KFC, but better... (:

the ultimate ice-cream place on earth! isaac and i even wanted to open a franchise in singapore (seriously). we even did our research, only thing that's stopping us is the USD300,000 capital we do not have. they make the ice-cream on a slab of cold stone in front of you, how cool is that. i have a video of that too! (:

ryan's steakhouse. i've been there twice, once for lunch, once for dinner. all buffet. they have everything u can imagine. and lunch is like 5.80, dinner 7.80. sigh, it's evil to make us go to work at 3pm, cos we have time for buffet lunch before that! heh.

P.O.P

hahaha, last night we had a "passing out parade" for yong chang, who is leaving tonight for newyork. haha i was the commanding officer and debbie and ambrose were the guard of honour. isaac had every detail planned out, it was hilarious, we even have videos of it. btw, it was held at 1am, and all the angmohs/thais were looking at us like we were mad. haha. isaac congratuated him for being the first singaporean who successfully completed his contract without 1.quitting 2. getting fired 3.saying he got reservist and then zaoing to boston for a holiday before going home. haha. the whole POP thing was just as excuse for us to have a blanket party la. after that, marcus (special ops) sneaked out from behind and put his blanket over him and pushed him onto the grass, and the guys taopoked him, except that there were only 2 guys... it will be our turn soon. to leave, i mean. gonna drive him to the amtrak station tonight at 2am.

just walked into a gun shop on the way to the library. it was quite cool, they were making rifles and guns there, and the ammo was so cheap. like $15 for the whole box. heh.

amish country

the amish are famous for their cookies and homemade stuff, i bought a jar of peanut butter, i dunno whatever for.

before the buggy ride, too bad we cant take pictures of the amish cos photos are a graven image to them.


the beautiful surroundings. u can recognise a amish home by the (lack of) cables that run to it. heh.

21 more days

i cant wait to get out of here. i hate work. it's driving me nuts.

there's absolutely no welfare in this place, all they care about is making money. welcome to the business world, ms business student. sigh.

yesterday it rained, so i had to close all but 1 wagon, and send everyone home cos they didnt want to pay pple. and when the rain stopped 2 hours later, they wanted me to open 4 wagons, with nobody. they wanted me to call pple up in their rooms and make them come back to work. i called debbie and told her not to pick up the phone. heh. john (the area sup) said that technically we belong to cedar point while we're here and we should be on call 24/7. siao. that guy has no life.

but i was happier today. maybe cos i tot i had everything under control, and i was looking forward to coming home early. here's what i did today.

7.15 woke up
7.32 left the house to run for the 7.35 bus
7.47 arrive at work and call in to say im in, and then proceed to clean the wagons outside, armed with gloves, windex and A LOT of paper towels.
8.20 start doing morning inventory counts and all paperwork
8.32 yong chang arrives to open one wagon
9.00 'the star-spangled banner' plays and im still at camp. im late for the meeting @grandstand.
9.03 i'm at the meeting drinking pink lemonade from the pop machine. yesterday i saw john eating an m&m brownie ice-cream which they sell there, and sam (the sup @ grandstand) was eating nachos which sell for $4.25
9.14 meeting ends cos they really dun have anything to tell us.
9.30 - 12 opening wagons, which is a crazy and laborious procedure, including filling 3 sippers(push carts) with 72 bottles of water, 144 bottles of soft drinks, and 48 bottles of gatorade each.
12 - 4 stocking all the wagons with dipping dots boxes (which is about about 13.8 kg a box) and syrup for the ice kachang machine which is 2 gallons each; and a whole load of crap, and running to cash control, which is a 7 min walk away, twice, to get small change for the wagons.
4-4.15 attempting to go on break
4.20-5.20 break!!!! but i went back 5 mins early anyway.
5.20 - 6.20 giving another grandstand sup (kiantay) a break, which i enjoyed cos it was indoors and i didn't have to walk.
6.20 - 6.40 attemting to go home.
6.43 signed out! (10.3 hours worked today)
6.43 - 7.05 waited for john to get done with his stuff so that i could give him a lift home. sheesh. i was only being nice cos he gave me a macdonald's muffin for breakfast. heh.
7.05 - 7.19 walking to the car which yongchang parked like 5 miles away. haha, but everyone had to park there today.
7.19 - 7.30 going to shell so that john can buy a carton of cigarettes. heh. managed to talk to him quite a bit. that guy does not have a life at all. work and sleep is his life. poor thing.
7.30 - 8.15 go home, shower and make small talk with my slovakian roommate.
8.15 - 8.30 walked to the rec centre and took random pictures of the sky on the way, attracting the attention of some ang moh.
8.30 - 10.30 trying to figure out what to bid for and anyhow whacking anyway.
10.30 - now debbie just walked into the rec centre and i'm typing this entry.
10.30 - 2am go home, cook dinner, go to the supermarket, sleep.

8.30am wake up cos the wait for the bus is expected to be 1 hour long.
10am -3am work

work stinks. literally too, cos i perspire so much, and i stink. heh.

happy birthday america, i hope it storms tomorrow, like it's supposed to.

that'll be awesome.

chicago!

ok, we love smu, even at the millennium park. that's where we parked our car after a 6 hour overnight drive. parking cost $16 for the whole day, and that's considered cheap.

this cute bean thing, in which y0u can see the skyscrappers that make the chicago skyline.

walking by the old navy store, on our way to the sears tower. who can resist shopping? even ambrose can't. ask him about the white sox cap. haha.


the chicago theatre.

the chicago temple, apparently the tallest church structure in the world, home to the first united methodist church, and er, a bank.


more detours that prevented us from reaching the sears tower. i know sharon would love that if only it were a t-shirt.

there it is. the sears tower-once upon a time the world's tallest building-until the petronas towers decided to build a taller antena that inched them out.


that's me and michael. hah.
crap, where are his legs!?!

a rather meaningless picture. can u see the hancock building? haha, neither can i.

chicago - home of the blues (louis armstrong) and...

billy graham. haha, i dunno which is he though.

see, we learnt a lot about chicago up in the sears tower skydeck. we had to. we paid $11.95 to get up there!

next stop: navy pier

detour 1: CBOT

detour 2: some falungong protest.

detour 3: nah, the guys were buying stuff off the dollar menu from the macdonald's opposite. debbie made me tahan till we reached navy pier, but i was seriously dying of hunger.


detour 4: playing with water in front of this cool water wall which has a screen (i cant remember what it's called) @ millennium park

finally: navy pier, except that my camera was dying so i don't have the pictures. argh.

and lunch. finally.

it wasn't even that long. but it was good.

after lunch, we tried to walk along the pier, but we ended up sleeping for a good half hour. i got sunburnt. haha. dunkin' donuts and coffee in the morning didn't help at all.

don't really have very many pictures from hence forth cos it's all in debbie's and gabe's camera.

but we did have dinner at the famous cheesecake factory @ the john hancock building. i had the Godiva chocolate cheesecake, which was so so rich. argh, i so need to put up pictures of that.

wanted to go to a blues bar to listen to some music,but we had to get back to the car @ millennium park, so we had to walk to the metra station in the rain. and we passed by... the hershey's shop!


yup, that's the world's largest hershey's bar. it is 5 pounds, which is about 2.5 kg i think.


sigh, i'll put up more pictures next time. anyway, we couldnt get into the bar cos we're under 21 and there was a $10 cover charge anyway. we left at about 12.30am. got home at about 5.30am.

the next day was filled with drama. gabe got fired for some stupid reason. sigh. was quite sad the entire day. WAT will be so different without him. for one, we have to go to penn and boston without him, just the 3 of us, which leaves ambrose and i to drive. will miss his company, of all pple who had to get fired and leave. but i guess i'm quite glad for him cos his heart is really back home anyway. hope all the admin stuff gets settled :(

super super hungry now. waiting for the rest to come back to go for dinner with nick cos he's leaving tomm for thailand. okok, yongchang just appeared, and gabe's outside. sigh, he cant even step in anymore. :(