CMPG #1 (CHOICE Mandarin Penang #1)

第1届 槟城华语CHOICE 周末营

CHOICE 是通过世界夫妇恳谈会无私的爱与慷慨精神所延展出来的单身青年组织。而CHOICE 周末营正是特为在职单身青年所举办的。

CHOICE 周末营是个需要留宿的周末营，一个远离城市的喧闹与拥挤的空间，一个能让彼此放慢繁忙的脚步，以正面的角度去探讨单身青年的选择与反省生命的意义。不但如此这周末营也着重于人与人之间的关系以及沟通。CHOICE周末营是以天主教会为本，并以非正式及轻松的方式进行。

CHOICE Mandarin Penang Weekend #1 (CMPG #1)

CHOICE is a weekend live-in experience for Single Adults (21-40 years) developed through the generosity and selfless love of the Worldwide Marriage Encounter Family.

CHOICE is a self enrichment experience. It is a weekend getaway from the busy lifestyle. It's about making choices, looking into every aspect of our relationship with the significant people in our lives. Our weekend experience gives young single adults the opportunity to meet like-minded people, and be able to look at the various relationships in our lives, in a relaxed and informal environment.

View/Download CMPG #1 Registration Forms here:
* Upcoming Events
* PDYN Events

CEPG #56

May 20-22, 2011 was the CEPG #56 weekend. it was held at St.Anne's Domus in Bukit Mertajam. 20 participants joined this weekend with a full CHOICE Penang team of presenters. this time around Deacon Martin joined us and was our Spiritual Leader for the weekend. Thank you for journeying with us for the weekend and i'm sure the participants were all inspired :)
a very big Thank You and Welcome to CEPG#56 CHOICEes! We've take it that you've had a wonderful, inspiring and meaningfull weekend. CHOICE English is outreaching to start CHOICE Mandarin Penang and we really hope that you could join us in helping for the CMPG #1 weekend :) God Bless and hope to see you soon!

Roadshow in Ipoh

the CHOICEes went all out for spreading the word of our upcoming CEPG #56 and CMPG #1. they even went to Ipoh! :D (apologies for the lack of pics, i believe they were quite busy recruiting ;) good job!)

one of the churches they went was St.Michael's Church. the experience was interesting when they met the parishioners and contacts there. they also visited Our Mother of Perpetual Help and Our Lady of Lourdes in Silibin.

even our CHOICE couple joined us! we're very grateful to them for the support that they've been giving us. and we're also thankful for the CHOICEes who followed us all the way to Ipoh as well. hope to see more when we next visit Ipoh again! God Bless Ipoh! :D

Coffee Morning and CEPG #56 Roadshow

April was a very busy month for the CEPG CHOICEes. Everyone was preparing for the upcoming CEPG #56 weekend in May. One of the early preparation of the Recruitment Team is well, recruiting! so what we did was, we had a combined Fund-Raising Coffee Morning cum Roadshow to recruit new participants to the weekend.

we had lots of food being prepared and sold for both Saturday and Sunday at Holy Spirit Cathedral. as you can see our very colourful menu and a sneak peek of what we sold. just managed to get pics before it all got sold out! a big THANK YOU to all who have bought from us hehehehe

fellow CHOICEes from CEPG #55 came to help out and we were very happy to see them again! it's always nice to see CHOICEes coming back to help/serve :D we did not only sell food, but also caught up with updates on each other and basically having fun serving for a good cause.

even parents of CHOICEes came to help out as well. as said previously, ALL are welcome to help! old CHOICEes, new CHOICEes, parents of CHOICEes... :D not forgetting, other than selling and fund-raising, the recruitment team was busy recruiting as well!Thank You to all who have helped us during the Coffee Morning and Roadshow, without you we wouldn't have gotten things done :) God Bless and hope to see you again!

Chinese New Year Fellowship Dinner

CHOICE Penang gathered together for the annual Chinese New Year "Reunion" dinner. It was a small gathering with the CHOICE Eng couple - Aunty Nancy and Uncle Thomas. The date was set and the venue as well. This time, the dinner was held at The Forum, Island Plaza.

Appetizers were of course the Lou Sang, we lou-ed and lou-ed saying well wishes for all CHOICEes, family and friends. Boy, what a mess we made! heheheh it was delicious too! yummy!

then the food started to arrive. we had asam fish curry, toufu, lemon (or was it orange) chicken, sweet sour pork (which was btw yummy!) and some veg as well. Great choice of venue Audrey! the food was lovely and wonderful!!

it wasn't just us who attended the dinner, we had a visitor CHOICEe from KL, and a fellow sister of one of our CHOICEe who was back home from China. visitors are always welcome to our fellowship gatherings, as they say, the more the merrier!

looking forward for more gatherings with the new CHOICEes! lets keep this tradition alive! God Bless to all :D

CEPG Christmas 2010 and New Year 2011 Dinner

*As appeared on Herald on Feb 13 2011 issue.

** Written by Marlina Sara (CEPG #54)

The Penang CHOICE New Year 2011 celebration dinner was held recently at the Little Cottage 2 restaurant in Penang. Close to 100 CHOICEes attended this event, most of whom brought their family members as well.

The guest of honour for that night was the Bishop of Penang, Bishop Anthony Selvanayagam, Father Dominic Santhiyagu, the CHOICE priest & Fr Gerard Theraviam. Initially Bishop couldn’t make it for the dinner, but he came to the dinner and surprised us all.

The dinner began with a welcoming speech by the Penang CHOICE Coordinator 1, Elizabeth Anthony & followed by the Bishop, and he blessed the food before the dinner was served.

There were lots of lucky draws & almost everyone won something. There were gift exchanges as well; where everyone who attended came with a gift and then it was later exchanged in a very unique way, by narrating a story. We also took this opportunity to celebrate birthdays of all those born in the month of Jnuary; Fr Dominic is one of them, who cut the cake together with a few others. The dinner ended about 10.30 pm, with everyone carrying a gift home.

The next English CHOICE Weekend will be on 20-22 May 2011 & the Mandarin CHOICE Weekend will be held on 5-7 August 2011. Calling all single young adults to join and experience a fulfilling weekend; please email ann_eliz1@yahoo.com.my

Tamil CHOICE Penang Jubilee

Written by Marlina Sara (CEPG #54)

This event was held on 4th December. I represented the English CHOICE group. Thank God, that weekend I didn’t have other function and wanted to attend this Anniversary event, to show my support for the Tamil CHOICE.But after buying the tickets, I found out that many girls were not going, the girls I’m close with. Then I rasa tadak mood to go. On that Saturday, it was raining heavily, lagi la, I didn’t want to go. But mom insisted that I should go, since I paid for the tickets, so I went.

Fiona & some of the girls were already there. I wore a simple attire; the rain really spoilt my mood to dress up.

I met Sagaya as I reached the entrance & she guided me to the English CHOICE table; it was at the front. Fiona, her dad, Maureen, SuSee, Liz, Jacinta, Mary were all seated. Thank God, the show haven’t started.Bishop Selva was there, as well as Fr Dom. After the opening speech, food was served. Jaya Catering Food, not bad la.

What I enjoyed most: the 2 MC’s – they were very entertaining & funny. They speak good Tamil. The other thing I enjoyed was the performance – wow, really superb! I really didn’t know they have so much of talents; the singing – superb voices; the dances – superb steps! Most of them sang as though they were professionals; no stage fright and there was Style when they sang. Really, damn good!There were CHOICEe’s came from all over Penang diocese and also from KL too. There were also 2 singers (twin bros) who recently released their album and their songs are currently been playing in the local radio stations. They are like our local Tamil rappers; their song was really good. Another talent - they hail from Sg Siput.

The setback: The MC’s did a good job, but most of the time, they were talking among themselves. Since this is a 15th Anniversary, perhaps they could have done ‘walk down memory lane’ & share with us some interesting stories/facts. However, their jokes were really good.

Another thing, there was no door gift given. At least something to commemorate this event.

But overall, the event was awesome & 2 thumbs-up for them!

Youth Leadership Congress 2010

the Youth Leadership Congress 2010 was held from the 12-14 of November at St.Anne's Church in BM. it was organised by PDYN and it's sub-groups. CHOICE was one of the groups and we helped out in certain areas. this congress was to bring together youth leaders and members to attend talks and workshops that will help them in their own youth groups.

there were different talks going on at the same time, from Praise and Worship to Leadership to starting up small youth group and many more other talks. there was even a Q&A session. it was quite informative and i'm sure the youths have gathered lots of information and ideas to be brought back to their own groups.

the CHOICEes were there to help out with the marketing, accomodation and F&B. while we were not on duty, they also attended the talks. it was great fun to be working together for a good cause.

there was a fellowship dinner at the BM Country club where we had Chinese sit-down course dinner and of course performances, games and lucky draw! food was good and the entertainment was good too!

on the last day of the congress, the organisers and participants were to sign the banner to leave their mark in the congress! and i believe the banner was not big enough! LOL.. and of course some had to pose with the beautiful banner :)

this congress is a great way to bring all the youth leaders together to help each other to build and strengthen their own youth groups. looking forward for the next one in 2011!