Dare to do the 'impossible'.

"I'm taking thirteen subjects for my SPM, (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia which was known as the School Certificate before the name change.)" my nephew told me.
"How do you think you are going to manage that many subjects?" I questioned the decision.
"I'll do it. That's the only way to have a chance to get a scholarship to a good university education," he was determined to succeed.
"Alright. You've to understand it'll take a lot of hard work to do it. I can only assist you in art and craft and English." I told him.

In my mind, I was happy for him, happy that he had this strong desire to get extraordinarily good results. Although i have always helped and loved him, I knew I did not have the financial ability to do anything where an overseas university education was concerned. In fact I did say something to that effect to him once while encouraging him to strive for even better results, just as I did my own two children. I expected all three of them to excel in their studies for they had all consistently produced good results.

It was the year 2000, a time when the Malaysian Chinese without strong 'political cables' knew that their children with truly excellent results could not expect to get even a local university scholarship, what more an overseas education scholarship. They might just as well kill the thought.

This nephew knew his family's financial situation as I, in teaching him and my children about life, often point out how poverty can be a stumbling block to many paths to success unless we ourselves strive harder to get out of it through education and hardwork.

Thus, he worked hard, initially falling slightly in the marks he obtained as a result of the strain of taking on new subjects. It is to his credit that he pushed on determined to overcome any weakness that was bound to happen when something new had to be mastered in such a short period of time.

By mid-year, he was well on the way to excellent results. When it came to art and craft, for example, he was already good at drawing and painting. All he needed was the theory and knowledge about the crafts. He learned fast. I remembered explaining matters on certain crafts to him as I took him to or from school at certain times.

His determination to succeed eventually bore fruit when newspapers announced the best SPM Malaysian student in 2001. For the first time in SPM, a student scored A1 in 13 subjects. Usually, it was only for eight, nine or ten subjects. It had the whole nation wondering how it could be done.

Of course, it could be done. He knew it and he did it! This was proved again and again in the years that followed. It just has to take someone special to dare to do the so called impossible. Nothing is impossible as many who followed his path discovered. If I am not mistaken, there is even one girl who got A1 in 17 subjects.

Everything is possible for everyone who dares to dream. So, allow your children to do all they can to improve. Never say it cannot be done. Tell them about my nephew, Ong Jin Hock.

A true healing medium.

Unlike the old dilapidated temple, this new temple is well-built. It is some distance from the location of the old temple.


I once had an accident in Alor Star, Kedah and one month later when I visited my uncle, Mr. Lim Eu Hor, I was caught by surprised at the first question he asked.
"Something happened to you, right? Luckily, it's nothing serious," he smilingly said.
"It was just a very minor accident. How did you know?" I enquired.
"I felt it and I knew it was you," he told me.

At another time, when I was at his temple, I asked him if it was possible for me to learn how to heal others as he was doing.
"Young man, don't hope for that. You see how strong and able I am at healing others but do you know that life is tough for me?" he admonished me. "Take a good look at me. I'm so thin. I cannot eat anything much, just some vegetables and mostly, it's coconut and coconut water. You know, I am so weak physically. When it rains, I feel so cold!" he informed.


Here's a picture of Mr. Lim Eu Hor, the person chosen by Ganesan to be his medium for the Tai Pee Sun Temple in Tanjung Bunga.


What he said was obviously true. He was as thin as a scarecrow. The only beautiful part about him was his ever glowing, smiling face.

It was during my days of searching for spiritual truth that I was introduced to this uncle, the child of one of my father's female cousins. I remember very well the day I searched in vain for a monk who was reputed to have the power of astral travelling from the top of a hill to its foot whild meditating. I returned home to have my father notice the great disappointment I was experiencing. My father enquired about my feelings and upon being told of my disappointment, instantly drew my attention with the story of this uncle who had become a medium.

Lim Eu Hor never thought of becoming a medium. He was earning a good salary distributing cigarettes in Butterworth for a company.That was some time in the 1950's.

Then, one day was he was going his rounds, the spirit of Ganesan came and with that, he could somehow know where there are sick people who needed to be healed. He would go into such a house and with the touch of his hand, healed the sick. News of his daily ability travelled and he became well-known in Butterworth.

Unfortunately, news also reached his employer and soon he was without a job. How could this man do his job well when he spent so much time healing people?

Ganesan told him to continue with his work of healing people. It was his mission in life, according to Ganesan. However, to achieve the powers of healing others, he had to be a vegetarian. That, although difficult, was not a great problem. Then, he would have to purify himself to achieve a higher level by meditating in a glass case for forthy days, if my memory is not faulty. This he did and according to my father, it was recorded by the Chinese newspapers. (One of them could be Kwong Hwa Jit Poh, I am told.)

When I got to know him well, he told me he failed the meditation part. The reason was that he could not stop himself from talking or trying to communicate with friends who came to see him in the glass case.

The most difficult part he had to go through was to part with his wife and his child, forgo all marital joy and duties to his own family. It took some time for that to happen as love is the most difficult to forgo. However, to accomplish his work as a healer, with the great understanding of his wife, he had his wife and child stay in a small house beside the temple a committee built for him. That was the greatest sacrifice he had to make to be a healer.

It was not easy to be a medium in a temple in Tanjung Bunga, Penang where a committee had built for him. To maintain a temple and its committee, there must be money. To have the temple become popular it has to bring people who are willing to supply money. So, the committee asked this medium to give four-digit numbers to attract the crowd.

But Ganesan told this medium that his mission was to heal, not give four-digit numbers. So. there was this conflict of interest.
"Do you know that I had to suffer a lot during this time?" he asked me. "Whenever I follow the directive to give numbers to attract the crowd, Ganesan would use my hand to slap me very hard. And it was really painful. And each time, I gave numbers, I slapped myself hard. Finally, I couldn't stand the pain any longer. I told the committee I cannot give any more numbers. You know what happened. Every member of the committee deserted the temple. Look at the temple now!"

That was in 1969. The temple was in a very poor state with the roof leaking in a few places and everything else in the temple old and worn. There was no one to help this medium upkeep his temple.

That is not to say that nobody knows of its existence. It had many devotees, people who have been healed. Only difference is that nobody sells joss-sticks or oil to anybody. Just a small, hardly noticeable tim with a slit at the top was place at a table to people to put in donations. No money was ever asked for. I believe people did bring jossticks, candles and bottles of oil for the medium.

Once when I asked my uncle how he had survived all that without requesting for donations, he said, "Ganesan told me not to worry about money. When there is a need, money will somehow be given. There's no need to ask."

"Why did Ganesan chose you to be his medium?" I enquired.
This was his reply, "When Ganesan told me that I had to leave my family to help him heal people, I did tell him to look for someone who has no family. Why me? Ganesan told me I was the closest to him. Ganesan told me in a previous reincarnation, I was his, the elephant's keeper. Furthermore, He told me he wanted to help me to reach a higher level."

Thus, this medium spent the rest of his life healing those in search of a cure. There was no monetary gain and in his poor physical shape, he suffered in order that others might be healed.

Once, when I told someone about this medium, this someone said that it was the devil who had possessed my uncle. I did not wish to reply to that. I preferred to allow him to think of it.

In my own mind, I wondered how anyone who wishes to heal the sick can be called the devil. If the devil had such noble deeds and thoughts, I would be the first to support him. Where I am concerned, it's Godly to heal others especially when the healer does not expect any rewards. Divine! That's what it can only be.

Just amazing!

When God wishes to impress, there just are no boundaries. When I first recieved this email from a friend, I thought what I saw just could not be possible. I blinked a number of times and went into the internet to search for the truth. Look at him! Have you ever thought you would see such a sight!



No, it is no cartoon figure that you are looking at. It is a real man. Looks like this man had his body cut in two by a lorry in 1995. No one could have believed he survived. It is astounding how a team of doctors managed to save his life. They took the skin from his head and grafted it onto the lower part of his torso. He was left with only 78cm of the top part of his body.

That is Peng Shu Lin. He is lucky to have attracted the attention of some great doctors from the China Rehabilitation centre who came up with a way to allow him to walk again, after having been bedridden for many years.

Look at that round-bottom tub with two bionic legs attached to it. Such fantastic ideas and solutions are being implemented to help the helpless to overcome seemingly impossible problems. Once again, somebody has shown that there is still so much to learn.

From this, we note that science is advancing through leaps and bounds. Doctors are able to perform miracles that were mere dreams at one time. The wonders these doctors perform indicate there is still so much more that can be done. This brings hope to those who suffer some kind of handicap.

The devotees are living testimony of the goodness of a deity.

The devotees start to gather for the procession.


One of the young devotees who took part in the dance and show.


Another young participant of the dance in front of the chariot.


Wow! Look at those performers! Unfortunately, it's quite dark at almost midnight.


And at one side of the road is this deity. Frankly, I don't know about this. Those knowledgeable ones, please enlighten us. Please write in your comments.


Just look at the big turnout!


That's Lord Ganesan's chariot.


A closer look at the chariot.


Look at those horses! It's supposed to be drawn by them.


Another part of the chariot.


Another look at the chariot.


This is how the back of the chariot look. Why do I look show every side. Well a four sided things is like a sculpture. It must be just as interesting and beautiful no matter which angle you look at it. So is life. (I'll write about that in another post.)


A closer look at the back.


That's the entrance to temple of Lord Murga. Do you know who Lord Murga is? Please read on and find out for yourself.

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The day before, it was Lord Ganesan's birthday. The next day, there was an even greater crowd at night as the devotees accompanied Lord Ganesan in a procession or wait for him to reach their abode when they could pray to him with trays of food, candles and joss-sticks.

Those who accompanied him were dressed in their finest attire, making this outing a fantastically glorious journey through the part of town which was near the temple, from the temple to Jalan Sekarat, Jalan Kuala Ketil, Jalan Ibrahim towards the bus-station and then back to the temple. It ended well past midnight.

In fact, at midnight, it had just reached the temple of Lord Murga which is situated in Jalan Kuala Ketil with the entrance facing Jalan Sekarat. The procession went into Lord Murga Temple as Lord Murga is Lord Ganesan's younger brother. It was to pay respect to his brother that Lord Ganesan stopped there for a while. That was at midnight.

The procession was slow as the chariot with Lord Ganesan, the elephant deity, had to stop every so often to all the thousands of devotees to come forward to pray at the chariot. Despite the drizzle, devotees lined the streets and followed the chariot through part of the town back to the temple. The thousands of devotees seen last night is clear indication of the popularity of Lord Ganesan. He must have helped a lot of people to find peace and good health as well as give miraculous recovery from some kind of sickness.

When it comes to miraculous cures, I have heard from my own father how my uncle, Lim Eu Hor, the medium for Lord Ganesan, had done that merely with a touch of the hand even before a temple was built for him. Lord Ganesan had used him to cure the sick. I was able to talk with my uncle for some years before he passed on.

Lord Ganesan's devotees from the old Tai Pee San Temple at Tanjung Bunga can attest to the cures.

However, the old temple had been demolished and a new temple to replace it is some distance away.

God works in mysterious ways, ways we humans find hard to fathom. Every now and then someone is cured miraculously. Even those who belong to religions which do not believe in spirits and deities have come across such stories from people, sometimes believable rlatives, who have recieved such blessings.

Nevertheless, such miracles do occur when someone reaches out in belief to God through any medium.

Miracles do happen.

It was just two weeks after the 13th of May, 1969, the date most middle-aged and older adults remember as the day racial riots caused the death of so many innocent Malaysians. The politicians who orchestrated the arousal of racial hatred might have escaped the wrath of relatives of those who were massacred but certainly they always will be answerable to God.

I wish to take you back to the Friday morning which was approximately two weeks after the riots started. From Alor Star, my three bachelor friends and I hoped to reach our home-town, Penang Island, safe and sound. So, we rode our motorbikes towards Penang Island in single file, so that should anything happen, one of us could escape and inform the parents.

It was eleven-thirty in the morning. I was leading the group on the main road when we neared a small town, Simpang Empat. We were going quite fast. As I approached one of the junctions, a Malay man on a Honda Cub came out onto the main road. He obviously wanted to cross over to the other side of the main road. When I realized he had not stopped to let me pass, it was already too late. At that speed, if I had braked, my bike would have skidded. He came straight into my path. I had no alternative but to brake a little and crash straight into his bike. The impact of the crash threw me up and forward into the air. Automatically both my hands reached forward. As my hands touched the road surface, I relaxed them and cushioned my fall towards the hard surface of the road with my palms. My body rolled forward as it landed. The momentum sent me rolling a good number of times as my hands attempt in vain to stop the movement. As I rolled forward and up onto my feet, I was amazed to discover no injury to any part of my body. I looked to the row of shops beside the road. The onlookers did not move towards me. They were all Malays. They must have been just as astonished as I was at my front somersault ending with a few forward rolls.

Shaken but still able to move quickly, I ran back to the man on the road. I helped him up and pushed his motorcycle to the side of the road. Except for some damage to the mud-guard of his front wheel, everything seemed fine. With just some bruises on his arm, the man looked alright. I inquired if there was any other place he was hurt. His reply was in the negative. Then, I looked at my own bike. Thank god! My bike did not seem to have any damage either. Knowing that it was a dangerous situation, I quickly went astride my bike, started it with a crank and moved on to join my other friends who had stopped a safe distance away ahead of me.

My own daily gymnastic practice with my school gymnasts had saved me from injury.

From the experience I understood very well the importance of gymnastics. It not only gave me health and strength; it saved me from an early death; not once but three times.

Well, I’ll tell you more about the other two times and my recklessness in future postings.

Fantastic performances through the power of belief.

For the girl I love I could do everything to make her happy. I could even die for her. However, she must not ask me to walk over burning coals. Never in my life can I picture myself doing that. There is this little coward in me which could not imagine a leisurely walk on red hot, smoking, burning coals in a big pit. Can you ever do it?

Well, many people can and they purposely present themselves for such an ordeal. Nay, it is no ordeal! For them, it is a part of a cleansing process. I am talking about the Taoist Nine Gods’ Festival in which it is believed that only a purely vegetarian diet and a cleansed heart can take you over such a pit of live coals safely.

The Hindus also have such a ceremony. I once witnessed such a ceremony. Unlike the Nine God’s walk across the pit of fire, the people at this ceremony seemed to go into a trance-like state. I remembered seeing one of those present who just felt uneasy about following the group across the red-hot charcoal pit. He withdrew when his turn came but the others just did what appeared to be the impossible.

Those people who could walk on such hot coals must have first conceived and believed that it could be done before they even dared make their first step onto the coals. The fact that they did it without getting burnt, without any expression of pain indicated the power of believing. How else could it have been possible?

Beside fire-walking, there are Hindus who pierce long sharp metal poles into their bodies. Even the nine Gods in their trance do it, piercing long thin metal into their cheeks. The fantastic part is that even when they pull out the metal shafts there is no blood or wound which needs any medical attention!

Well, after having seen all these with my own eyes, I can only conclude that all such wonders are possible because they believe it is alright to be pierced with the metal shafts and no harm could come to them as God is with them in whatever they do.

Fantastic? Unbelievable? Impossible? Yet all such feats can be seen throughout the world and when you witness it for yourself, you just have to believe what your own eyes see. For what you will see is the miracle of their belief in God.

Have you witnessed any such miracles? Please do share with us.