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FINAL YEAR STUDENT MISSION TRIP

The Final Year students comprising mainly of epsilon FOE students and delta management and IT students. Pastor Joanne had came all the way from Malacca to see us and also to preach for CF as well. She came along with her kuncu; Mark, Solomon and Deric. I was surprised to see bags of rambutan, mangosteen and also curry puff. We ate and discusses mainly which country to visit. This years venue of interest seem to be projected towards our neighbouring countries mainly Thailand and Cambodia. Pastor had invitation to go to Bihar, India. However, we decided not to go there due to the insecurity and also the difficulty for us to go there to do mission as it wasn't an easy place to minister.

At first, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia made into the list. Each of this countries are different in their mintries. Myanmar would be more underground works where we would be gathering
in small groups, Thailand would feature more rallies and outgoing preaching while Cambodia would be more focused to social work. In the end, most of us decided to limit it to 2 countries in order to cut down on the travelling time and to concentrate on that particular area place more.

My thoughts on it. I would generally agree to go to suffer. The challenge that I would like to undergo is both physical and spiritual. I would like a new experience. That is why I would prefer to go to Myanmar and Cambodia rather than Thailand. Thailand would seem like an experience that I would be able to experience back in my homeland. There would be indeed more preparation in terms of presentation and band performance. It seems more fun but that is not my idea of mission. I also would like to consider local places such as the interior of Sabah and Sarawak for mission. It seem ironic to me to go out of the country to do mission when there is a field of mission work to be done in our own backyard. It is seemingly too early now to really decide on the place to visit. However, places is unimportant to me. It is more of meeting the need of that particular place be it provisions or just plain company.

It was simply one of the best audiowarfares I have been so far during my uni life in MMU. Though my bands didn't make it through the audition, we were happy to give it a try since we would be graduating soon. Multitudes of people throng to our down-scaled Multipurpose Hall and practically filled up every space that they could find. Me, Don and my sis came in around 8pm just to get good seats so as to have good view of the stage. Things started off pretty slow as they were awaiting for the opening act band to arrive. Katreena and James, the MCs for that night entertained to patiently waited audience by giving out freebies which was sponsored by Digi, Xfresh and ROTTW.

The time was now 845pm and the opening act band were nowhere in sight. The judges for the night, Disagree were already in the house already. The organiser decided to start the night with the first band instead, The Cannot Goes which was surprisingly a very good band to start off with. What was interesting was they had a fan with a playcard which read Multimedia Idol dedicated to the band. It wasn't that surprisingly to see the whole Idol thingi catching up with the people as the auditions for Malaysian Idol in KL would begin next week.

Then, in came the opening act for the night, One Buck Short. They didn't seem all that impressive by their looks. Mundzir, the vocalist was really round and cute. They apologise to the audience for being late as they were inform to come at the last minute. I realise that after noticing that the opening act wasn't Elisabelle's Tears. The tune to the first song they played was really familiar. My sis was quick to recognise the tune. It was one of the punk rock song i heard over Hitz.fm that had caught my attention but never did realise it was them. It was their debut single, That day. Man, were they really tight in their playing. Their skills got the crowd hype up and you could hear cries of satisfaction acknowledging their presense. The excuse for coming late was certainly out of the window. They followed up with another another song (which I couldn't remember the title). It was certainly a good opening act although it wasn't the first band to perform. Too bad, they had to leave the event earlier due to some appointments but it was certainly awe inspiring act.

Next up, it was up to the other 9 bands to strut it up on stage. Basically, most of the bands who performed were generally emo. Emo seem to be the latest genre that have been taking the music scene by storm. There were 2 experimental bands, one having a tabla and another a violin. Metal or as my friend puts it, "Rock Kapak" was in the air as well. They began playing songs from Il Nino and Megadeth which seem to change the mood a little or should I say till you heart began pounding to the beat. One of the bassist stood out from the rest by having a horny bass that incuded effects pedal to it as well. It was really fun sitting at the audience and going "WAH" and "WAT?". Me and my friends, Don, Terry and Ah Fui were having a ball laughing and joking around the entire session except stop to really pay attention to certain bands who were really skillfully tight as a band.

The moment we all been waiting for. Disagree stood from their judges sit and walk towards the stage. Zahid then rallied the audience to stand and ask those who would like to be upclose with them to come forward to the front. It certainly look like a mini-concert in our very own MMU. The crowd were supportive and were waving their lighters and handphone in the air. There was one guy who did a body wave as well. Talk about freedom to do such a thing in MMU. I was beginning to worry as James seem to be walking up and down the stage looking worried over the whole display. It was the fear of getting himself in trouble with the authorities for such a display. Zahid came and interjected during the song to ask the crowd to be at their best behaviour. They played 3 song altogether; The Enemy, Suicide Note and their ever famous, Crumbs. It was certainly a well displayed performance by one of the best local artiste.

I was delighted that I quickly exited the hall without hearing the results to the winners and went to the back stage to get their album before the crowd starts to pour in. I approached Ashrooff about buying his album and it seem like I was the first person to approach him about the album as he directed my request to Hamka, who seem to be the band's spokesman and so-called sales director as he began to scavenge his bag for boxes of their album. Seeing that I wanted their album, Zahid came over and thank me for their support. I was really surprised that there were so friendly and down to earth especially towards people who had taken a liking for their music. My friend, Don likened their music influence to Pearl Jam though Zahid mentioned he hopes he isn't like them. Guess, every band wishes to be original in their own profound way. Aziz didn't seem to be comfortable with the whole crowd thing. But, I manage to get all their signature on my first album from a local band.

It was almost 12am and our tummy were beginning to scream for attention. We decided to make our way to HB3 to get a drink and to Cyberia to get a burger. On our way to HB3, we notice bright lights coming from the Central Plaza and decided to check it out. We saw lights, cameras and people standing around. I realise after that it was an MTV shooting as Anuar Zain was there. The setting seem to picture a red carpet scene where Anuar Zain walks with a bodyguard and fans at the side screaming his name. My sis notice her lecturer, Ghazali directing it. Many people really seem to oblivious about Malaysian artiste. They didn't even know who Anuar Zain was. Guess, international artisteses makes a bigger impression to local ones. It was really an all eventful night for us having One Buck Short, Disagree and Anuar Zain in MMU Cyberjaya all in one night. This truly shows how happening this uni is and I am proud to say I have no regret coming here. This are events which would help me reflect on my uni life when I grow up. Sad to say, one year left to my stay here.

My Band Se7en


From Left : Terry, Me, Peng Yew, Don & Roland

This is a picture of my band mates. Though, we didn't make the cut through the audition but we tried. This will not be the last you seen of Se7en. There have been plans for some jamming session together just for the fun of it. Our main genre at the moment maybe be jazz fusion. I think most of the time it is just a time to chill out with one another with music as our medium.