Of STOMP and Birthday...

I guess the "STOMP" in us hasn't really gotten out of our system.

Last Saturday, I had a "masak-masak" session with my fellow STOMPERs.
Yes, we cooked believe it or not.

Ok ok ok fine... They cooked... Eh, but at least I helped out slicing those onions OKAY...



Hard work man... keke...

Initially the plan was that I'll cook spaghetti, Jo cook curry chicken and Sue Min cook her carbonara.
Due to the limited space in the kitchen, we decided to for one dish instead.
We all voted for Sue Min's awesomely delicious carbonara!
I tell you, she can open a western food restaurant man.
So sedaaaaaaaaaap...

Sue Min cooking what she was born to cook! Haha!

I just sibuk only... :P

Something else, or should I say someone else, added to the ambience of our post-STOMP cooking session.

Ivy.

Ivy is an Iban girl who just got posted to USM.
That's not the interesting part though.
One of our STOMP group actually visited her kampong during the mission trip!
What a coincident righhhht??
So Sock Lee actually knows her mum and all her relatives cause she visited that kampong.
It's pretty cool to see how God actually opened doors for us and for her.
I guess it's true when they say our mission doesn't end after STOMP :)

Ivy, the Iban girl whom we were tried our broken Iban on... Hehe...

I actually asked her to cook some Sarawak food... Muahaha...
She said next time.
Can't wait!!!

We did everything the Iban way that night.
Yes, we even berandau at the "ruai"!

Semangat Iban!

I even prayed in B.M (wanted to attempt to pray in Iban but takuts udah lupa! Hehe...), very the cacated B.M.
Hey, at least I tried riiiight? :)

Dancing is almost like a religious ritual in the Iban culture.
So mestilah kitai ngajat!
We persuaded Ivy to strut a bit of her instinctive dancing prowess.
Sarah joined in ;)
I pulak go cari some Ngajat music online... Hahaha...

Ivy and Sarah ngajat... So ayu that it freaks me out.

Last but not least, they "surprised" Socks and I with an early birthday cake...
"Nooooo... Not another cake...!" Hehe.
FYI, Socks and I share the same birth date.
Yup, Banting and KL dude sama birthday.

16 July 2008.
*cough*present please*cough*

Chris, "I wish Socks would stop whacking me..."
Socks, "I wish Banting can be more happening..."
:)

Well, I had a great time with a great bunch of people.
I'm thankful to be in a great company of friends.
With my rather tedious and not very pleasant job, it's good to know that I have friends to support me.

Birthday is not just about celebrating and commemorating your existence into this world.
It is a reminder to us that we came into this world, covered in blood, for a divine purpose because He died on the cross with His blood for us.
It is also a reminder that we came into this world, crying our lungs out, yet we found solace in the pair of caring arms of our parents.
So if you think about it, birthdays are actually not about us, but in fact,
about God and the people around us.

A reminder that they still care for me even after 23 years of my life living in this broken-down world.

Thanks guys!