choosing to love;

To Prayer Team:



We had our ukissmeSG BBQ yesterday to celebrate U-Kiss' 2nd Year Anniversary and God blessed us with good weather - no rain! (although still hot =.=) The turn out was good - 60 people? And some of you may know that we gave out 90 balloons and free hugs :D I can't remember who came up with the balloons idea (Gillian/Ant? inspired by Jaeson Ma's 365 days of love) I think Gillian & the other girls can share more on it hehe I just want to share some things I learnt from it (:

Everyone's response to the surprise free hugs event was good, and we started off giving each other hugs~ I attached a picture of the awesome free hugs signs U-Kiss edition that Gillian drew/paint/coloured! xD You cannot find these anywhere else!!! ;)

Anyway, I was one of the "paparazzi" at the beginning, chasing the girls everywhere to take photos of them approaching people and giving out balloons, hugs. I was able to observe some of the girls, and I noticed that the balloons were a sort of bridge to allow them to comfortably approach people, but once the balloons ran out, it was something interesting ;) I noticed that it was quite difficult for most of the girls to reach out and give the people hugs, & it is understandable, because giving someone a hug is "invading" their personal space? & not everyone is comfortable with doing that! Later on, after I got separated with the huge group of girls & joined back with a smaller group, that's when the exciting things happened which caused us to be back at the pit 1 hr later than everyone else LOL. I wanted to share more with Gillian Ant Cord Sue but it wasn't a very convenient time so~~~~~~

As I walked with the girls, it dawned on me that we were actually choosing people to offer the free hugs to, unconsciously; whether it was fear of rejection based on people's outward appearance, or wanting to only hug people who look "good", or other possible reasons etc. I admit that I was too, guilty of this, and along the way, I think God spoke to me through some people we met. When we were halfway through our walk, I told Willy that I felt that we shouldn't be choosing people to give hugs to, and she strongly agreed, so from a certain point, we made a group decision to approach as many people we see!

First was a family, sitting under shelter, and they looked unfriendly and were not well-dressed. Having their images registering in our minds, I could tell we were all hesitating. However, we decided to just approach them, and I just had a strong feeling that I should be the first one to step up, so I did! As I went up first and hugged the family and wished them a good day, the girls too followed suit! (: The family, who wasn't smiling at all and had unfriendly expressions as we saw earlier on, all disappeared and became warm and happy smiles which really touched my heart!

Second, we approached this table of elder people eating and talking. When we explained what we were doing, they hugged us happily, and this grandma kept saying I was like her granddaughter LOL. After that, they kept offering us a bag of fruit HAHAHA (i think longans) and ondeh-ondeh that they were eating LOL. In particular, one grandma said this to me, "谢谢你们看的上我们." Her words made me think of the "choosing people to give hugs to" thing I was thinking about earlier.

Third, it was a random couple we were starting to walk past -we were quite hesitant about disturbing couples rofl- but Willy and I looked at each other & we just stopped and walked up to them. Turns out the guy saw us a while ago and he wanted to ask us about what we were doing, but we were "walking away" from him! o.O They were really friendly haha and encouraged us xD

In conclusion, I learned something yesterday. Jesus didn't choose who to love, based on how they look, what they're wearing, etc. but He loved ALL, unconditionally. & He was my role model when I overcame stereotyping people -not entirely but I tried my best- and hugged people as I know Jesus would. I think we should have more free hugs day in the future hahahahaha & the girls really enjoyed it & felt great too! So did I :D I really felt the joy of passing on an simple expression of love to the people in the park on a Saturday evening ;) A hug is such a powerful thing xD Thanks girls!! Love you all so much <3