the silent story.

Unconditional Love is a comic strip about this special fun-loving and God-fearing church youth group called the "Agape Youth" from Saint Matthew's Church, Singapore. The youths encounter different challenges in their schooling and young adult years and they always get themselves into many laughable and priceless happenings with meaningful morals to be learnt. The comic aims to share the love of God and to bring a smile to everyone who reads it.

latest update: Unconditional Love, 22 December 2009. [3 more to go]

On 12 September 2008, I enlisted into National Service. My mum, Andrew and Haryanto was there to send me off. I still remember the long train ride, the ferry ride and the moment when I had to leave my mum after our “last lunch”.

 

A lot has happened since then and just 2 days ago, on the 9^th of December, I passed out from BMT (basic military training). I have learnt about the regimental lifestyle and military stuff but more importantly, I have grown another step closer in my walk with God and my eyes were opened to the wonderful people that God has placed around me. These people have encouraged me, cared for me, prayed for me and reminded me that I’m never alone. So even as I enjoy this little break before my posting, may I just roll out my thank you list.

 

God. He has always been there beside me from the day I was born but never has He felt so close to me. During the confinement weeks and especially during tough times, He was there giving me the strength to carry on. He reminded me each morning with the sunrise that He is the almighty one that has everything under His control and with the stars at night; He reminds me that He is watching over me.

 

Dad, mum and my brother. They constantly pray for me every week when I book in. Dad is the one who gives me advices and tells me that I can do it when my confidence is low. Mum is the one who cooks delicious food and washes the dirty uniforms for me every weekend when I’m out. Brother is the one who takes time to talk to me every week. He is the one who organizes those soccer sessions and games with me during the weekends.

 

The Nobodies and Hazel. They would be there checking out how was my week, telling me what to expect during those key events of BMT. They are the ones who would hang out with me for dinner and for late night prata sessions. Matt and Hazel were also there for my passing out parade.

 

Andrew and Hari. For these past months, we seldom meet out other than Sundays in church, but the time we spend talking together was great; those phone calls during book-ins and the talk at meteor garden. It was great knowing that you guys were keeping me in prayer even when you guys were facing your personal uphill.

 

Pei Ling sista. The messages and phone calls, it was great talking to you during those boring nights. Thanks for the Milo too! (does the “brudder-sista” sign)

 

Michael and RJ. The encouragement sisters of mine. One of them would message me every Wednesday night to tell me that half the week is through and that the weekends are coming. The other one would be updating me what is happening in church and what’s up for the coming weekend. Sorry that I couldn’t join both of your birthdays. Thanks for accompanying me for all the oreo milkshake sessions whenever I have the craving, along with our fellow oreo-mate Jennifer. Thanks to Jen for finding new milkshake places too! (and you have nice handbags)

 

The aunty gang! Aunty Lilly, aunty Chooi Chooi, aunty Susan, aunty Serene Chia, the list goes on. The prayers, the little “how are you” on Sundays, thanks for all the care and concern. Special thanks to aunty Lilly for the muffins and Delirious DVD.

 

The peeps at Heartfriends. Be it the staff or the kids, thanks for all the prayers even before I enlisted. Many thanks for the care and love you people gave even when I visited during the Hari Raya break. Aunty Serene and aunty Choo, thanks for the good food.

 

Of course, my buddy and my section mates in camp. All the support, jokes and biscuit sessions we had together, you guys made time so much easier to go through in BMT.

 

The list goes on. People like Victor and Nick for those prata sessions, Yao Sheng for the tips and advices, LDF uncle for the meals and talks together, Pastor for the prayers, Brian for slotting me in for drums even in last minute notices, the Agape Youth, the  Saint Matt’s family… there are simply just so much people to thank God for.

 

Once again I just want to thank everyone who has shared God’s love with me in one way or another, even if you are not particularly mentioned above.

 

I have felt God’s love and it is my joy to share it with everyone I meet so if you have felt the love of God, share it with everyone around you too! This way, more and more people would feel the love of God and you never know, one day someone who have backslidden or have never felt God’s love would be touched. You can talk to me and I can share with you how even in BMT, the love of God is felt and spread amazingly.

 

Share the love. Let them know who Jesus is.

 

-silentlurker 12.12.2008

 

Hallo everyone…

 

1 year, 3 months and 25 days. 54 comic strips. One story. It took longer than me expected to finish the story but it has been a fun and enjoyable journey. Thanks to all who have encouraged me along the way, if not I wouldn’t have finished the story too. I didn’t even have time to write this post for the past week due to my busy projects. Anyway, something interesting is that Brian (or Mr. Brian the keybearer) has never read this comic before. Actually, I don’t expect everyone that me drew in the comics to have read the comic, because me can’t imagine uncle Anthony or Eric Chong reading The Lord of the Keys! If they do read, Eric would be the first to kill me. (Eric Chong: “What? I am The Eye?!”)

 

Lately, I read an article on Charles Schulz, the cartoonist of Peanuts, one of my favourite comics. He passed away quite some time ago and recently, someone wrote a biography of him and it revealed that he is actually a lonely and miserable person inside. I mean, look at the wonderful comics he drew and I really can’t imagine that he is a miserable person. The cartoonist’s family is very unhappy with the biography and feels that it does not reflect the Schulz they know. The biographer, David Michaelis, studied all interviews with Schulz and the 17897 strips he drew and came up with evidences that Schulz is a lonely man. Comparisons were made that the Charlie Brown he drew was actually himself and the bossy Lucy was like his first wife. The biographer also pointed out that Schulz always felt that he was left behind and that nobody cared for him.

 

Well, after reading about this, it is up to you whether you believe Schulz was a happy guy or a lonely guy, but it made me pondered about not judging the people around you by just their actions. Some people may be very hurt or down but is just putting on a mask of happiness so that he/she doesn’t affect other people’s mood by his/her own unhappiness. It doesn’t hurt for us to just talk to or care for the people around us. Sometimes just a “How was your week?” or “How are you?” can mean a lot to these people who are down. Sometimes we are too self-centered and people around us are like invisible objects and then we only talk to them when we need them to help us do stuff.

 

Anyway, the pass few weeks have been pretty busy for me because of my final year project. I’m reaching the final few weeks of my polytechnic years and very soon I’ll be graduating. My final project submission is the first Friday of the New Year, which means the Christmas break would be quite busy for me too. Just from the last 2 sentences that I wrote, it reminds me how fast time is flying. Didn’t Christmas just pass? Where we presented a song item during Christmas service and we had a Christmas party at the roof top with the rain clouds but they were so kind to only let loose after the party is over? For me personally, it was the miracle of 2006 for Agape youth because the clouds were really super black. It was #000000 black. Imagine Jesus was at the roof top of Saint Matthew’s and he stopped the clouds. And then the youths were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the #000000 clouds listen to him!” Well actually, all of us were amazed that it didn’t rain, but we didn’t ask because we know what the King of Kings up there is capable of.

 

Coming back to 2007, the youth is really packed with activities for the coming Christmas. We have a youth camp, we have a Christmas party and we also have a Christmas item to put up too! I was telling my brother that this is one of the busiest Christmases we have for the past few years. To everyone who is involved in either of the items in one way or another, jia you and enjoy yourselves while doing up the events. It may be a busy Christmas ahead, but trust me that we’ll enjoy ourselves and we’ll grow closer to God through all these events too.

 

Looks like I really typed a lot today. Think it is the combination of “after project submission” and “semi-conscious” state that contributes to this long post. You know that kind of “your fingers just move and you don’t know what you are typing” state. Me just had a small submission this morning and slept at like 4am last night so it kind of explains the blur state I’m in. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be able to draw much (maybe one comic once in a while) till my final project submission in January because it will be really busy for me. Me kind of having “idea block” lately and I don’t know what to draw. I’ve been following an organized story for close to 16 months that now I don’t really know what to draw so if you have any suggestions (like drawing the floating grass jelly drink) or any idea, pleaaaaasssseee feel free to let me know. There are more and more people that I’ve yet to draw in the youth too so probably it’s time to brainstorm how to draw more faces soon.

 

Enjoy this final part of the year people and may God be your guide in everything you do!

 

-silentlurker 15.11.2007

Hey hey…

Well, just to let you peeps know that there’ll be new features in the site! There’ll be Unconditional History, where the history and important dates of Unconditional Love comic will be recorded. These include the date of the first comic strip, the exact date when each character first appeared in the comic etc. You can find when you first appeared too.

The other feature is “silEnt screen” section. Here would be where videos (which I find cool. I hope you find them cool too) will be uploaded so you peeps can have a look. New videos will be put on the top when I come across a new one. The first one up is the Live Free or Die Hard trailer! It’s a great action movie; do catch it if you haven’t watched it yet. (You’re hearing from a bias source, because I’m a Die Hard die hard fan)

Okie, hope you peeps enjoy. Just in case you’re wondering, The Lord of the Keys is halfway through already. I aim to finish it by November so that can go back to normal comics for December. I’m seeing that there’ll be quite a lot of happenings in the youth to draw about especially in the December period. Well, it’s Christmas you know. Anyway, take care and Jesus loves you all!

-silentlurker 12.07.2007