Sigh.. evangelism... again

(for the christians and catholics amongst you guys, warning: you may be offended.)

Saturday.

Afternoon: Did Tutorial Assignments for Protein, Carbohydrate and Lipid for LSM while listening to mp3 player and smsing people to go to one of my friend's concert.

damn, no one replied. even her.. maybe i'm too kan cheong. like one of my frens said, "when chasing a gal u mustn't be in a hurry." ok we exchanged a few smses, but then.. i felt like this whole thing was simply going on the wrong track. a very wrong track. i really feel like i'm "barking up the wrong tree", that the previous years of my heartstricken love life have began to unfold like a drama. again. that sense of deja vu.

but i dunno. something tells me that if u want something u gotta fight for it. but i'm a fatalistic person... was thinking, why not? just get an act together since there's a concert coming up.

so about 5pm i took a bath. tiong phew, jevin and weida came to borrow my laptop. said something like "weida asked tp to bring his laptop but tp only brought his thumb drive and they have only one computer" so i lent it to them.

sat on 105 at 5:40 pm. alone. guess since i promised my friend that i would have gone to support her (i.e. made it look like i was going to support her) realised i should have taken to commonwealth mrt b4 taking the 105. i mean, anyone who has practiced for something should be entitled to some support from friends.

took 105 to whitley road. called leonard, but walked in the wrong direction of SJI. wasted more time. was thinking of going out with wang, he's somewhere in bugis with his friends, but promised to come to SJI as well to watch..

along the way i saw so many kids of JC age thronging about. saw some SJI kids, one chiobu with the "Raffles" PT T-shirt with a group of male friends and hell lots of couples hanging out together, which suggested that this was really a bad time and place to be in.

i tot: hell this place is filthy rich, even their community centre looks like a freaking church, with people kickboxing and all the english flying about. tells something about what is to happen later.

found SJI and entered. just outside the gate i called wang again. still at bugis. gingerly i entered the compound, found some ushers slacking away and some people scattered around the area, (former) Josephians i guess. the school was great, beautiful. must have cost alot to build.

an usher showed me to the Hall of Performing Arts (whatever the heck that was). damn nice place, with the grandeur of the Esplanade. one grand piano stood on the second floor. before i entered this usher gave me a form and told me fill in my particulars, i just scrawled. exchanged it for a goodie bag at the counter. hell good the service was, no?

entered the auditorium. although i was with so many people of similar age group but somehow i felt strangely out of place. sat by myself somewhere along the aisle and waited for my friend to come out with her dance item.

the next item was just coming up, and the nature of it made me leave the hall in 5 minutes. there was this girl dressed as a nun, and she was teaching a class of people... fine, ok, typical convent school style, but then when the teachings switched to stuff filled with "god" everywhere i began to realise that i was in the wrong theatre. pretended to sms someone and left in a hurry, never looking back.

i walked back to the bus stop and felt... cheated? it's like wtf?
well. come to think of it much later, maybe she did tell me it was a church event (she smsed me later that it was a church event and apologised ever so profusely la, even though it wasn't her fault). i examined the goodie bag and found all the evangelistic stuff like cds, cartoons, memoranda, etc. even the plastic bag had evangelistic words.

well. actually i tot i was coming to some "rally" organised by this community centre, e.g. PAP rally?? why the PAP would hire dancers is another thing... well there's some thing called a church rally as well..

felt like leaving the goodie bag behind some scheluded place. felt quite disgusted and offended. thank god i was able to leave early. otherwise had they barred the doors and etc, and like everyone was chanting non-stop etc.. wonder how would i make it out of there la.

i dun mind evangelism... admit that is part of their religion. but really hate it when they come out with dubious ways to do it, e.g. there was this time i heard that people were forcing terminally-ill patients, who have no relatives grieving after them, to convert "before it's too late", as groups of evangelists surrounded these dying patients and forced the rites upon them. its like my uncle keep asking me to his church to "have fun" there like there a party or something but i keep refusing him.

well, singapore has its laws; they can ask, and we can refuse. so it keeps going on.

but what i really don't like is that u mix religion and daily affairs like friendship or business together. it really defeats the purpose.

please note that i'm not anti-christian or anti-catholic. i've been to 2 catholic weddings and both were elaborate ceremonies with numerous songs and chants, but my focus would be to attend the wedding, hence they did not bother me much. i have many christian and catholic friends and relatives.

its just that my first experience with evangelism didn't really work out, and it didn't work out since then. the first time i just got down at clementi central bus stop and i met this fella who kept on "have you heard the good news?" or "our church is having some events and we're inviting you..." and kept blocking my way, when i was in a hurry. ccb. somehow, i think he's trying to sell the religion.

so there, any potential evangelists among you: any attempt to bring the good news to me will be swiftly met with the finger.