Hi Fam! Happy 2024! We're kicking off the year with the series that's been about 1 year in the making! I asked myself what is the content I would like to create have formulated this answer. We've got many CEOs for season 1, but I thought that I'd start from home, to share vulnerably my Mom's story to kick things off!
We're also going to be continuing our travel series CARRY ON! So stay tuned for that as we'll take you to more lesser known places this year
Not sure if you've noticed but all our videos are now ad free within the episode!!!!! we want you to enjoy the best of our content!
Thank you for your support! It's gonna be good. Love, Aiken, Char, Gaius!
As an introvert, I felt your extrovert-ness very strongly within the first minute LOL But seriously!! I have been thinking about going to Osaka soon because it's been so long since I last visited Japan! Last visit was 2019 to Tokyo! So who knows, maybe after this video, I might really just book my tickets!!
OH WOW!!! 2019?!?! You must be itching to go! I'm back and I already miss it. Even doing this solo was fun! Hope you get to go. Thanks for watching and commenting as you do always 💙💙💙
@@AikenChiaMing Ya I keep going to Korea for concerts la you know lol Anyway, MADE IT TO THE END OF THE VIDEO and you made a compelling case for the food, esp unagi don which I love! And the ocean! And ya Osaka is known for having loud funny people haha Thanks for this - really enjoyed watching it. And now, to look at flight prices haha!
Use Tabelog instead while in Japan. The reviews will be mostly from locals and they tend to be very tough critics. So if it has high scores on Tabelog, it is great even for locals. Google Reviews tend to be skewed by tourist reviews which tend to be more generous on the ratings.
Just listening to this and it’s just the start and I can totally identify with Gek. I’ve two brothers too and the family culture is exactly..late 30s and left my iron rice bowl to pursue my passion in ID on my own. It’s tough and this is encouraging! Thank you Gek and Aiken
This sharing and interview is so wonderful! The best part is how you both give glory to GOD! Thank you to Gek, for sharing your entrepreneurial story as a testimony to how gracious He is and the favour He has shown you along a difficult journey :) and Aiken, you are amazing, thank you for continuing the work you do on RU-vid and even elevating it to this level. Thank you for staying online, as your audience and fans continue get to enjoy your creativity and passion, thank you. ❤
If there’s one thing I take away from this episode, it’s the failures and stubbornness to not give up is what brought about Gek’s success. One of the most l inspiring videos! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you for this heartfelt sharing that SO GLORIFIES our God and not only that, shows us the Reality of our God’s love and grace! The LORD your God blessed you both tremendously. He prospers the works of your hands and anoint your words with divine weight. When is Part 2 /3 and so on coming up? ❤ The
Amen and amen. Thanks Gek for sharing your story. more importantly, thank you for showing us what's it like to be obedient and humble before God. And thank You for inspiring us with your definition of success - to be able to bless people around us. This is powerful Truly He has a plan for us. As a business owner myself, i've always had grand plans in my head. And i'm one who likes to have control of how things should go. But God has time and time again showed me the importance of letting go and letting God take control. Every victory is His. Hope to visit Surrey Hills one day :) love from Malaysia
What an amazing conversation that’s authentic, humble and hopeful. That vision of the two birds went straight to the heart - thank you both for speaking truth and hope in this space!
Thank You for sharing this humbling testimony, Aiken, Gek. Gek hit the right spot - what is the inner real purpose we are living for? Do we just drift through life / do something really well and good? Keep staying rooted like this hor… and come to HK for a Surrey Hills roadshow pls 🤓✌️ A lot of us are here slogging v v v hard but we miss SG food a lot lor 😢
I’ll just paste my testimony here if anyone is interested. I was born in a Christian family and one of my parent is a pastor. However I left the church when I was a teenager as I felt I don’t belong there. People judge me because I was not the way they expect a pastor’s child to be. So after I left the church, I did almost everything against the Bible. Many years later I even got into fortune telling and divination. One day after work I was going to buy a book for divination, but I saw a woman who kept looking at me. She looks like a nice person but the way she looked at me was really weird. I found my book I wanted and was about to go and pay for it. But this woman kept looking at me as if she was telling me to follow her, and there’s a voice in me telling me to go. So I did. I put down my fortune telling book and started walking over to her. And when I moved, she moved too.. So when I was at where she was, she disappeared. Then I looked infront of me, there was a bible. And all bibles were wrapped and slotted into the book shelves except this particular bible. It was facing me instead, and it was not wrapped. But it was closed. So a voice in me told me to open it. I opened it and went to Deuteronomy 13 and saw if there is any among you that could tell the future, and even if it comes true you shall not follow him because this is a test from God. I know that’s not exactly how the verse was, but that was what I saw that time. I had goosebumps all over after seeing it. So I checked the bible and see if anyone folded it but there was none. So I took a picture of that bible and i ran after that woman but she was nowhere to be found. All these Took less than 3 minutes, it’s impossible for her to disappear because there is no way for her to hide or run in such a short time and in that area where I am at. It wasn’t a dream or vision because I even took a picture of that bible which is why I later realised the words in the bible were not exactly the way I saw it the first time. In my heart I knew that was an angel, I just knew it. In fact I dreamt about her few years later flying with wings around some staircase. But I was a stubborn person. I continued fortune telling anyway. One day after work I went drinking with my friends and he brought a few of his ex colleagues along. He told me one of his ex colleagues there had spiritual eyes, she could see and hear spirits. She was telling my friends about what spirits are around and how the spirits are telling them their past and future correctly. So I was curious and I wanted to look into her life with divination. But strangely I can’t see much of her life compared to others, i was considered quite accurate with my fortune telling but this is the first time I don’t know what to say while looking at someone’s life chart. I was telling her I don’t know why her chart looks so weird and there’s not much information. Then she told me because my eyes were covered by spirits. There are 3 spirits following me due to my fortune telling. These spirits wants to use me. I’ve always had 6th sense and I do sometimes see different types of ghost or shadows. so I already knew things were following me. But to hear that out from her mouth was pretty uncomfortable to me still. But I tried to act calm, then she asked me what religion I belonged to. I said I’m a Christian (but I don’t really act like one) Then she looked at me and said “no, there’s no God in your heart.” She correctly pointed out who are the important ones in my heart. It’s the first time I met her and she got it correctly. I had two important ones in my heart, she named them both correctly. One of them is my dog. Which is really impossible to Guess correctly. I practice divination but I can’t tell what people think or know. She was able to say it correctly about what me and my Friends truly feel. So I was really amazed by her and to hide my embarrassment that she did not see God in me. I drank my beer and I was looking up the ceiling and in my heart. I said “ sorry God, she didn’t see you in me” I did it in my heart while drinking the beer and while looking at the ceiling. Then suddenly she told me loudly “there’s an angel beside you!” She told me this is the first time she saw an angel. Because she had never seen any Gods even though she was a Buddhist. She then told me what the angel wants to tell me. This angel said I should stop doing fortune telling for others and stop going to different masters to learn about my life. Because my life is in a book of God instead so people will not be able to tell my life correctly anyway. She also said my life wasn’t supposed to be like this. God had a plan for my life, but I chose to go my path instead. I immediately knew it’s the book of Life. She didn’t know because she’s not a Christian. But ever since I was young, for some reasons I don’t know.. I’ve always scribbled and draw a book with the letters “Book of Life” all over my textbooks and on papers whenever I am bored. Long story short after that experience I did not fully gave up fortune telling. But after some time I was determined to stop fortune telling. Then One night, I had a dream. I saw a man asking me why I want to quit fortune telling. I said I don’t want to continue anymore, he kept asking and I kept rejecting. Then he got so angry his head came off him and rushed to me. I normally could control my dream to my advantage but I wasn’t able to then. I didn’t know what to do so I said either Jesus or Jesus save me. Then a bright light came over me from the top, it was so bright it blinded my eyes. When I open my eyes again, I was in a room. I was sitting in a chair with a table that had breakfast, Jesus was sitting on my right side calmly eating. There was a half opened door infront of us, and a black hole/black portal in the middle of the half opened door. Many people were trying to come in, but they would walk into that black hole and get thrown out. It kept happening. I was terrified there, I was afraid of those that were trying to come in but I was more afraid of Jesus. Every time I tried to look at His face I was filled with fear. I felt so ashamed and so guilty when I saw him. So much so I wished I could hide my face in under the ground. So I could only kept looking at his sandals. He wore a white robe and he had a brownish red sash across. He had dark brown hair, with slight curl. He also had dark brown beard. But He looked very clean and neat. I don’t know how to explain it. It felt really Royal and Holy. I don’t know how to explain His face, because it filled me with fear when I look at Him. Then He spoke to me with a gentle yet firm voice. When He spoke to me it wasnt heard by my ears, I heard it in my chest/heart area loud and clear. It was as if it’s downloaded into me. He knew what I was thinking without me saying a single word. Which is when he said “Have faith, for I Am with you” Then I was still afraid while looking at those trying to rush in our room. Then He said again “Have faith, for they cannot hurt you” Then I saw a lady taking food in and I knew at that moment without His permission, no one can come in. Once I understood this, I woke up in this body. While I was there I had this sensation of rest in my body, when I woke up I still have that sensation. I couldn’t move because my body was so at rest, it’s different from sleep paralysis which I used to go through. This was so calm and peaceful. and the weirdest thing was I can’t remember who I am and why am I here(earth). It was as if my spirit was taken out and then put back to my body. It felt like this place (earth) is not the real place. It felt this place is more like a dream compared to where I was in Jesus’s presence. It felt more real there. It took me about a minute or so for my memories on earth to come back to me. After that I went drinking with that girl with spiritual eyes again. The first thing she said when she saw me was “ Have you seen God?!” I was shocked and asked her how did you know? Then she said Spirits all around are telling her that. She also said there’s a different angel beside me now. She was saying how tall they are and the genders are different. Can’t remember the first time was male or female. But one day I heard the Holy Spirit telling me I cannot rely on her anymore, i need to rely on God instead and that I will never see her again. And true enough, I couldn’t see her again due to some reasons. God Himself slowly changed me over the years. I used to have experiences with sleep paralysis and seeing spirits, and I realise the name of Jesus is indeed powerful and it works EVERY single time. I’ve also witnessed my Grandfather who died and was pronounced dead by the Doctors came back to life infront of me and my family when I was a teenager. He said heaven was really beautiful and that we have to believe in Jesus. Even though he still died 3 days later, many of my family members including myself was convinced God is real. I am no longer doing divination (not even horoscope) and I’ve changed a lot over the years as the Holy Spirit work in me. God has took away many of my past addictions I’ve had. I am not perfect yet, but I have a perfect God who will never give me up. Jesus is real and He loves us, He loves us even when we couldn’t love ourselves. Sometimes we hear from people how God is and we feel so distant from Him. But God is always waiting for us to come near to Him, because He loves you more than any kind of love you’ve ever known. Have faith in Him. Jesus loves you all. He is coming back soon. See you all one day in heaven/cloud. God bless you all
I just wanted to say. It was a very daring move to open the outlet in arena. I was working around the area and thinking "will it works" when it opened. But when I tasted the food. I can only say it was really good and the result was just from pure hard work. I can only say the starting was slow not because of the PR or brand. It was just purely at that time a lot of us were still working from home and it takes us a while before stepping in to try. Well done and well deserved.
Aiken, thanks for bringing this interview to live. Truly great to hear awesome stories like this so long ones continue to believe in Him while continuing to work hard. Ms Pang’s quote resonates to my guiding life motto: The Higher We Go, The Harder We Fall The Harder We Fall, The Higher We Bounce I wish her and you continue successes.
Surrey Hills as an Aussie concept is reminiscent of the Surry Hills neighbourhood wine and dine vibes in Sydney. Surrey Hills is actually an area in UK. Love the ambience in Surrey Hills Grocer but no so much the food in the cafe.
Thank you for sharing your inspiring story. I’m in my late 40s, and thinking of what’s next in life. New job or start a biz. With ur sharing, I know what to choose.. 🙏🏻♥️
So cool, never knew the story behind this. You are amazing and I pray that God continues to prosper the work of your hands! May you continue to find joy and passion in doing what you do :)
