This is the day the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad in it

This is the ‘First’ post since…
- Sep 2009 when my second batch of Swahili bookmarks were printed
- I relocated back to Singapore (above picture is taken from a free tourist attraction ‘Singapore Chinese Garden’, just opposite my apartment)
- I became a mother; which was why I took this long to start blogging
- I decided to pour my talent and time and resources to serve God in 1) raising my baby to be a child of God and 2) working on a home business that can further God’s kingdom.

So many changes naturally bring about their challenges and most of all, faith is tested and best of all, we keep on coming back to the truth that God is faithful. Each baby step that I take (and certainly taking care of a baby requires patience and wisdom to enjoy each baby step of spiritual growth) proves again and again that God will provide. For this is the day that the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24).

No doubt that worries of recession are at the back of my mind, but going into my 6th year of christian life, somehow I feel that it will be a year of change and therefore, a year to witness how God will work in my life.

I designed and printed this business card size calendar to give away. Yellow is the color of hope and this yellow is the Color of the Year. With this verse Psalm 31: 24 ‘Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.’, I will cross into 2009 with hope in a few hours time.

I printed 5000 copies of these calendars. 3,400 given to 2 Shanghai churches, 360 to 2 Singapore churches, 700+ to my colleagues, 240+ to my friends and have 100 left. Anyone who wish to spread hope with this calendar, do contact me.

My prayer that people who face changes in 2009 will hold fast to the hope that is in Jesus.

A thought that came to me is to study the bible with a focus on understanding who God is; this is central to the purpose of this blog (i.e. to bring people closer to God through graphic design in a light-hearted manner e.g. with cartoons) and incidentally, I came across my blog post 3 years ago also emphasizing on staying connected to God.

As to how to study (should I have a study plan or not be too regimental about it? Likely the latter will result in many hours recorded as wasted on my white board! (and yes, I do record my hours wasted as a reminder not to waste too much time!!), how to translate what I have studied to a blog entry and whether I will have daily design or cartoon inspiration to do that.., I really DON’T KNOW. Do pray with me on this issue as nothing can be more important than knowing who God is!

The first thing in life is growing intimately with God through prayer. I am going to start gathering clues on what my regular theme ought to be from PRAYER.

Saw this at in a Singapore bookstore and found out that there is this Chick Publications that specialize in gospel literature. Kind of cool the way they use comics to evangelize. Another reason why I should get moving on my cartoon drawings!

Here are a list of possible ways to honor our parents, gathered from friends.

1. Spend more communication and prayer time

2. Be practical and up the monthly household contribution for them, even if you are not living with them

3. Pay a visit, plan a family trip

4. Pamper your parents with a holiday

5. For those of us with pre-believing parents, pray daily for their salvation!

Thought of drawing a pie chart with percentage of emotions felt, hopefully the next time this is drawn, it will be all red!

Bible verse: 1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Adobe Illustrator‘s tools:

Pie chart, Effect- Stylize- Drop Shadow for the legend, Clipping mask

I have also done such work (thankfully not that many) for such clients and also for bloggers online and totally understand the angst and the discouragement. What made me more upset is that there are many designers out there who don’t ask about the customers’ identity/ mission/ image/ customers/ products before starting their work. This I believe will foster an impression for companies/clients that asking for design specs only require clicking some button or making minor changes to online free logos at the other end.

This is almost like walking into a restaurant and expecting to pay only if the food taste good and no, even the cheapest, most run down restaurant don’t give you money-back. So neither should fresh designer, no matter how bad you think your skills are, do work for free. At most, no repeat customer, but hey, no free lunch.

See a great article on this by British Design Innovation.

1. During bible study, God’s commandment for us to love Him and our neighbor was mentioned.. and

2. In defining a mission for my life, loving God (i.e. drawing close to Him and it takes effort I believe as it’s a little tricky to be in dialogue with someone not physical, something I am still grappling with) and loving people.. loving people I don’t know and taking the effort to share with friends on the web.. and

3. In reading a graphic design book, realised that designers also have love on their mind.

A quick check in online bible resource sites, found that love is mentioned 400+ times to 500 in different bible versions. Interesting.. just thinking how this love can be shown in this blog.. any ideas?