1997 - towards the end of the year

a brand new 5 piece wine red drum set emerges in the building of bukit panjang gospel chapel... along with a brand new keyboard and an acoustic guitar at a corner of the hall. the english assembly of bpgc has bought them...



Sier suggested that Benjamin, Hueyfen, himself and simin come together to start a band for the chinese side.

Robert and I, then young teenagers, age 13 and 14, tagged along with no skills.. excited abt the whole idea of a band in a church where a piano and church organ were the only instruments in the church back then.

Sier started at the drumset because of his secondary school band experience. Benjamin plays the guitar. Huey fen at piano, no bassist, Robert bought a couple of tambourines and percussion instrument and sat beside the drumset playing along with the team,



while i came down week after week, just sitting around the corner, watching them play..

until one week where i felt so left out, i just went to one corner and cried... i asked God to teach me something so that i can serve Him..

He answered



I went for guitar and Benjamin offered to teach me...

my previous pastor, pastor David lent me his classical guitar to learn

soon i was playing the classical guitar in the background, with Benjamin's acoustic guitar plugged in, during the wednesday service for Chinese construction workers in church...

my dad finally agreed to buy me a guitar.. i bought a yamaha classical guitar from luthermusic...

it became one of my most treasured possesion...

soon.. i got the chance to play the plugged in acoustic guitar along with the band.. the steel strings hurt my fingers real bad when i started playing the folk guit...

Sier left for NS and Robert took up drums..



1998

Sindric, the band leader of the English Assembly, came along and told us our band needs a bassist... so i picked up the basic bass techniques and began to play the bass and benjamin still on the guitar, huey on keys, robert on drums and simin singing backup or leading worship once in a while..

it was a period of ups and downs..

i remembered robert and i discovered a drum key around the set and tried to tune the drums, thinking tighter means higher pitch, with no concern of proper technique...

we screwed up the drum tuning and the english assembly guys were quite unhappy about it cos they need to retune everything.. haha

robert's drumming was stagnant and he began to play real loud and it became quite annoying sometimes.. i remembered a couple of times where i had to tell him in an annoyed tone to keep it down... of cos.. sparked some unhappiness, which were resolved after that...

i began to try playing the drumset whenever i had the chance.. but normally Robert would be playing and i had to sneak in to play when he's taking a break at the toilet or after service..

got to know the church's caretaker and where the keys were, and got to know which windows around the church can be opened..haha..

so whenever i m free.. i would just pop into the church thru the windows or just calling the caretaker to open up the church where i will just whack away and try to play around with the set.. of cos i got my fair share of scoldings from the secretary for not booking the church and climbing in thru the windows...



1999, 2000

an eventful period...

benjamin and huey got together and broke off after sometime...

friendships were strained and benjamin left the church for some time...

we were without a guitarist and i began to play more bass till i became quite bored with the bass guitar...

and of cos, i was dealt with a big blow because i've always looked up to benjamin as a big brother in church...

he's my "shi fu" who taught me guitar... i was very sad when such a thing happened...

New creation's musicians came to bpgc to conduct a clinic for both the chinese and english assembly bands...

my temper was quite bad back then... i have very high standards for the musicians which resulted in many of them fearing me, especially the younger ones.. but ya... over these years.. God has shown me the correct attitude towards worship... and yup... i thank Him for changing me..

Over these 2 years, my guitar improved alot by God's grace...

Robert began coming to church less and less often... younger keyboardists were raised...



thus, i moved to the drumset



the english assembly changed the whole set of cymbals and added an extra tom..

i was still climbing into church once in a while to practise whenever i can... or i will linger around after service to play around till everyone have left...



2001 till today

got exposed to more drumming and hardware...got real serious to focus on drums..

benedict taught me drum tuning and even printed drum tuning technique which he got off the web for me (i still have the exact copy he gave me and it still is a treasured resource i have)

started playing acoustic guitar for english assembly's heart rock sunday held on 1st sunday of every month... thus i got the chance to watch and learn from benedict.. i would ask him tonnes of questions about drumming... haha

Chang bin came along and learnt bass... weiyan learnt guitar... i m still sitting happily at the drum set..

benedict and i changed the drumheads together... my first hands on to proper drum tuning...

i began to learn more about wood type... different brands of drumsets.. and pedals...etc...

purchased WAC's drumset along with pastor Stephen and Sier... first time playing Sabian cymbals

moved on to WAC in 2003... still very much into drumming and equipments...

took up role of music ministry i.c.

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as i reflect upon how the Lord has led me over these years in ministry...

its really amazing how much God have helped me to learn..

over 5 years... i got to know music which i have absolutely no idea i would be involved in when i was young (except when my mum got me to violin lessons when i was in primary school for 2 months before she stopped my lessons for being lazy and not practising)



still learning much along the way ahead... still depending on God

cos it's Him who provided and started me off,

it's Him who gave me these gifts in music to serve...

even though i practise alot and sometimes neglected God, He reminded me that all i have is from Him..

yes.. all the we have... comes from God...



its just this one desire i have, God

is to offer this gift, which You've given me, to You Lord

for Your kingdom, for Your purpose

though many times i may stray away from the focus, i pray that You will set me on the right track..



this is my testimony on how God has led me through all these years...

yes.. of cos its not into precise details of the many events God has used to nurture me...

of cos.. i will give thanks to Him all of my days for the amazing grace He has shown me