La Strada

New Year Resolutions for 2008 - first draft

2007-12-29T12:43:00.000+11:00

New year resolutions are no stranger to me. Some goal settings 'experts' said that the goals must be measurable, not sure mine are measurable enough, but here are mine.

I want to be working 85% of the time during 2008. Yes, I will be contracting and will not be working as a permenant staff. 15% of the time I can do what ever I want - namely mission work and holidays.

I want to be more hospitable. I will plan to host dinner at least once every month. People are getting busier. If I can book them in weeks ahead, I can catch up with some old friends and get to know some new friends.

Healthy living, now, this may be little bit hard to measure, but stil can do. Exercise at least 3 times a week, must have vegie and fruits in my meal all the time.

Active in the small group and ministry of my new church:- weekly small group meeting including leading study or leading worship and be part of the worship team.

An oversea mission trip this year.

Changes in Melbourne

2007-11-15T14:19:00.000+11:00

Things changed.
Railway corssing is no longer causing traffic jam during peak hours near Whitehorse road and Middleborrough.

Friends changed.
Some of them moved on to start their business,
some of them have just become parents,
some ...

I've changed.
Ready to start a new season of my life.

I am coming home in September

2007-08-20T07:49:00.000+10:00

Yes, I am coming home to Melbourne. I cannot believe that it has been almost one year since I left. It has been a very good year for me. I have learnt much about myself, I have seen how prayer works.

Friends that I made here made it hard for me to leave.
Friends at home made it hard for me to stay.
What do I do? I can't move them from one place to another or another to one place.

I do look forward to go home.

I am grateful

2007-06-20T00:46:00.000+10:00

This Sunday at church, while getting ready with the music team. I greeted John, he gave me an envelope and said it's for my trip to Spain. I could not believe it!! John and Jill, they are the music director for St Paul's. They have been such a blessing to me since I attended the church. Invited me to their place for meal a number of church, drop me off on Wednesday night after music practice. I am so grateful for the gift they gave me. God is good, He sends people to bless you.

Another retired couple (Wilf and Winnie) whom I met in a meeting had offered to take me to the airport. They are not even from St Paul's. It's a 90 minutes trip. What can I say? I am almost speechless!

Look around you, may be people like John and Jill, Wilf and Winnie, whom God has sent to pour His blessings into your life.

Thank Him today!

Thanks those wom He sent too.

Marmite Guinness

2007-06-04T00:43:00.000+10:00

Yes, it's Marmite made out of Guinness yeast.

Alcohol free, sorry guys for those who love Guinness. Apparently according to some post on Internet, Marmite only made 300,000 bottles. Thus the Limited Edition printed on the label. Some people had tried it and said that it is better than the original Marmite.

See, it does not taste like Guinness, it uses the yeast extract from Guinness what ever that means. But any way, I bought one.

It's all about Him

2007-06-04T00:38:00.001+10:00

You heard that phrase before ... 'It's not about me, it's about Him.'
I forgot about another one, 'It's not about them either.' Sometimes I tend to blame others.

Why can't they this?

Why can't they that?

Very often I missed the point and loose focus, at the end of the day it's still about Him after all.

what will I do?

2007-06-01T07:58:00.000+10:00

A thought came to me the other day, remember last time when I posted on my blog about will I be convicted for being a christian, is there enough evident to charge me? The thought was ... if I was asked to stand as a witness to give testimony whether the person on trial is a christian, what will I do?

Don't think I want my brother/sister to go to prison.
On the other hand, I don't want to be stupid enough to tell the judge, 'hey, I am christian too, send me to jail.'
How do you apply wisdom in such case?

Tin Whistles

2007-05-25T09:14:00.000+10:00

I started getting involved with whistles not long after I arrived in U.K. I was captivated by the haunting sound of the tin whistle. Remember the intro to the theme song in the movie Titanic? Such a beautiful sound ... so I've decided to pickup the instrument and learn to play it. It is not hard to learn how to play the notes, but to capture the Celtic mood is another story.

I spent 5 quids on a Feadog, nearly worn out that whistle practicing the instrument using the on line lessons. Not long after that, I've decided to upgrade my whistle to a very good one. This is the Kerry Songbird (D). Immediately I've notice the difference between the 2. Kerry Songbird off course is a more expensive one. I've got it on a very good discounted price.

The whistle has only got 6 holes. Normally it allows the player to play the tunes written in the key of the whistle, in my case songs written in D, I can play, other keys in C or F, I will need a different whistle made for that key. I also realised from the lessons I've learnt, you can stretch it to other keys. In my case it was key of G, E minor, and A. The key of A is a little bit tricky but can be done.

From that point onwards, I could not put the instrument down and I also explore to another area of the land of whistles:- the Low whistle. It is tuned to lower octaves, and therefore bigger than the high whistles. Yes, I ended up buying one. The fingering is the same, but the grip is slightly different. They call it the pipe grip, the pipe in this case is referring to the Scottish bag pipes.

The whistle I am holding now is Kerry Low D, yes, it's D again. Why D? I don't know. May be most of the worship songs are written in D, G or A. But that is also another low whistle that I can afford.

By this time, you would probably think that I am hooked on whistles.

On a serious note, this instrument has a sound that moves me, I am sure that it will move others. Wouldn't it be nice that this instrument can be used to express the wonders of God, the mercy of Jesus?

Faith without deeds

2007-05-22T19:26:00.000+10:00

I was challenged by a message that was preached on Sunday. Alan was preaching on the series of practical christian living on the book of James.

'so faith without deeds is dead.' - James 2:26b

He finished the message with quote from David Otis Fuller, a 20th century American preacher:-

“If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

That really got me thinking. What evidence do I have?

Will attending a church enough to convict me? working in OM?

Will there be witnesses to testify?

If I am convicted, will I deny Jesus?

it's all about me

2007-05-18T06:52:00.000+10:00

Lets talk about me,
Because mini me is not as big as me,
that name does not describe me,
I need something bigger than mini me,
I need something that talks about me,
Then something BIG came to me,
but that something is not as big as me,
but it does describe me,
ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce me,
yes, me, all about me,
here comes, me , me, me, me, me ,
the one and only me,
the - Mega ME!!!!

Inspired by a 'mega me' whom I met.

Visa granted, but what's next?

2007-04-18T21:30:00.000+10:00

Today, 18th April 2007, my passport came back with the visa to remain in the country for next 6 months. I am not so sure if I am exicting about this. I will need to seek advice from a few people. I think if I got my visa within 4 weeks of application, I would have no problem remain in U.K., my issue is that it took so long and it really drained the energy out of me just waiting for it. It may be clear to someone, but at the moment, it's quite blur to me. I have to wait for "dust" to settled before I can see clearly.

But for those who prayed, THANK YOU so much.

What the?

2007-04-01T07:30:00.000+10:00

I decided to visit the country side one day, we came across a church with this sign. Not sure if I want to eat beef in U.K. again.

Dead or Alive?

2007-03-30T07:01:00.000+10:00

I was reading a book, Bono on Bono, on the interviews of Bono, for those who are in the know, don't have to explain who he is. For those who are in the NO, as in I don't know he is the lead singer of a Irish rock band U2 also the spoken person for DATA, (Debt, Aids, Trade Africa).

He said something very profound.
"Some people die at seveteen and put their funeral off until they're seventy-seven. And I see a lot of dead young people, I see a lot of alive old people." [pg 252]

I agree with him. I've seen quite a lot as well. I have to examine myself whether I am dead or alive many times.

Jesus says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." [John 10:10b KJV]

A lot of the time, when I examine my life, I am very much preparing for my own funeral. I also seen a lot of Christians missed out on this abundant live that Jesus is offering.

Those who are tasted that living water have demonstrated living abundantly not in the materialistic sense but in a spiritual sense.

Passport workers on strike

2007-03-24T02:08:00.000+11:00

My flatmate told me about the news (click here) of the passport workers going on strike on 30 March over breakfast this morning. Another episode of my visa extension. Just wondering what's next?

This afternoon as I was praying, the verse came to me:-

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26.

I will pray and wait!

An expression of Worship

2007-03-22T02:25:00.000+11:00

A friend od mine sent me this link on you tube. I was so moved by the expression of worship. Enjoy.

Give me back my passport!!!

2007-03-21T02:06:00.000+11:00

All of this, all of this can be yours
All of this, all of this can be yours

All of this, all of this can be yours
[you took my money, what more do you want?]
Just give me what I want [my passport] and no-one gets hurt….

First day ... technically illegal

2007-03-17T02:45:00.000+11:00

16 th March, I am technically illegal over staying in this country. With no passport, can't leave. How do I feel? Oh well ... a little fustrated that why can't my application be processed in a timely manner. But most of all I am ata peace, I can't leave until they give me back my passport in the case of the visa extension is denied.

I won't hold my breath ... I think if I hold my breath until I get my passport, my face will turn blue and I will probably die.

Okay, I'll stop whinging ...

11th hour

2007-03-15T00:06:00.000+11:00

the eleventh hour is approaching ... still no passport and no news

2nd day into my fast ... thankfully it is also the final day.

no news on the visa, no news on the passport.

no news is good news they said, I think the saying doesn't work for me anymore.

I appreciate their care and concerns, at the end of the day, God is in control.

the song came into my mind

rescue me from hangin' on this line
i won't give up on giving You
the chance to blow my mind
let the eleventh hour quickly pass me by
i'll find You when i think i'm out of time

I think the news is going to blow my mind .....

2 more days

2007-03-14T03:54:00.000+11:00

2 more days before my visa expires .... started my fast this morning. Not praying for the passport to arrive, or visa to be granted. But praying for God to prepare me to accept the outcome.

experiencing some headache, not because I was hungry, but it was the coffine addiction kicked in.

still trusting Him to lead.

Susan, another OMer who is applying for her visa, got her application granted. PTL.

Counting down the days ....

2007-03-11T05:43:00.000+11:00

The d-day is getting closer, my visa expires on 15 March. I have not got my passport, I have not heard from the home office. I can't leave and I can't stay. I am waiting to see what is going to happen on the 11th hour.

How do I feel right now?

I am at peace, it is out of my hand, beyond my control.

I know who holds the future.

God be all

2007-03-06T22:49:00.000+11:00

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. [Duet 6:4-6]

27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" [Luke 10:27]

I was reminded many times about setting priorities of my life. What comes first, what comes second, so on and so forth.

It could look something like this

God
Family, i.e. marriage life, children & etc.
Work, i.e. career, study for stdunets & etc.
Church and ministry.
...
.. others like music, hobbies ....

I don't know, sometimes I seperate the God stuff and the non-God stuff in my priorities.

I was reading one of A. Murray's books, he pointed out why can't God be ALL in the priorities? He's right. Why can't God be in my priority number 24? Is my priority number 2 more holy than priority nuber 36? I am working on it, to let Him be in all of my priorities.

'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'

two more weeks

2007-02-28T10:53:00.000+11:00

2 more weeks, my visa expires, I don't have my passport with me, even if the immigration officer going to kick me out of the country, I still need my passport to go back. Probably because of the change of immigration rules in April, application for visa has increased. You can probably understand that my situation is not so comfortable.

TW said I was on a limbo.

Then I remember a song .....

I never thought you were a fool

But darling, look at you

You gotta stand up straight, carry your own weight

These tears are going nowhere, baby

You've got to get yourself together

You've got stuck in a moment and now you can't get out of it

Don't say that later will be better now you're stuck in a moment

And you can't get out of it

I will not forsake, the colours that you bring

But the nights you filled with fireworks

They left you with nothing

I am still enchanted by the light you brought to me

I still listen through your ears, and through your eyes I can see

...

On Monday, as we were doing a Global Action training, I was asked to read a verse, it was suppose to be Matt 13:8, but I heard Matt 8:13.

13 Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.

When I got to that verse, I've got o shock. Go back home? are you serious? the verse is definitely applied in a wrong context.

When I turned to Matt 13:8.

8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!

Me and another friend in OM are starting a book table ministry in the city of Carlisle, once a month, to give away free books. We've got a team of people expressing interest of helping out in the ministry.

It sounds like telling me that the seeds has been sown and will multiply.

I find this very amusing. God has a very good sense of humour of telling me something.

These were just my thoughts, I am in the situation, I naturally read the "signs" in a way that is biased, can't help it.

Staying or Leaving?

2007-01-28T03:44:00.000+11:00

6 more weeks my visa will expire. I am putting an application to extend my stay in UK for another 6 months. If God's willing, I will stay. OM wants me to stay as they are short of hands . I will let Him decide if I am staying. I am not just sit and wait for things to happen, at least I've made my visa application. Sure enough, there are work to be done in OM. The task seems very big and may not be able to get it done for another 6 more months.

I was very encouraged by Mark, an OMer from the ships office who spoke to me one morning. He affirmed some of the my gifting of recruiting and encouraging people in the office as added value. He also encouraged me to stay on longer whether in OM or any other ministries. I don't think he's trying to "sell" me the ship's ministry.

What are my thoughts about visa extension and another 6 months in OM if the application to extend fails, this could be any where else in OM. I would say I leave this to Him.

Relationship

2007-01-26T10:05:00.000+11:00

I've been in church long enough to learn lot of jargon. Christianity is not a religion but a relationship. There's nothing wrong with that statement. But how many people who said that really understand what it means? We the evangelicals know how to "defend" our faith with that statement. My question is that how many people really understand that? How many Christian has the life style to back it up? I believe people who experience that relationship will have that passion to back it up. One doesn't have to "squeeze" out that light of Jesus because one can't hide that light that shine from him/her.

So what do we mean by having a relationship?

Oh well you talk, get to know each other, you share your joy and sorrow, you basically open yourself to each other. You give and you recieve.

So how doest that work with Jesus?

Oh well ... you give your life to Him, you take Him into your heart.
You open youself to Him, He reveals Himself to you.

Political Correctness

2007-01-23T00:14:00.000+11:00

The whole world has gone mad. Everybody is so sensitive about political correctness. You were not allowed to say anything that may potentially offending another person. People are now afraid to speak about truth because of that. You want to be a nice and pleasant person. On the other hand, all the TV programs that are being put on air are getting worse and worse. Swear words are not being censored, sexual explicit contents material are being broadcast and so on. Aren't these materials offensive? The supposedly "open minded" people would say, 'if you don't like that switch the channel.', and at the same time, these "open minded" people are the people who get offended when certain truth is spoken about them. Sad, sad, sad.

New year resolutions for 2007

2007-01-16T09:31:00.000+11:00

Don't tell me you never make new year resolutions because you never achieve them. I have achieved some of them, not every one of them was achieved, 2 and a half out of four. I consider that not a bad effort. I can't take any credit of the achievements, it was God. The other one and a half that fail was my own effort to try hard.

It is mid January, I am still in the middle of sorting what I want to be/do this year. Few things came to my mind.

1. Live life to the MAX.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

I want to live the life that what Jesus promised, live the aboundant life He promised. I am not talking about physical thing. I want to live the cutting edge life that will impact people around me whenever I go.

2. Consist ant Prayer Life.

I want to pray more, I don't pray enough. To help me start, I will attend the mid day prayer meeting everyday in the OM office when ever I can. NOTHING works if there is no prayer. I want to see the power of prayer. I want to get closer to GOD through my prayer life.

3. Celtic Tin Whistle

I bought a Tin Whistle end of last year. I want to learn to play the Tin Whistle, what I really mean is that I want to learn how to play the Celtic mood with the instrument. The sweet tone of this simple instrument has such power to sooth the hearts of people. I want to use it to worship God, to lead people to His throne. Off course it is the Holy Spirit who leads people to worship Him.

I can only come up with 3 up to this point. I may add more if I come up with more.

Prayer

2007-01-10T10:57:00.000+11:00

I have been wanting to write this for a very long time, but did not get around to it. I have been in church long enough to notice when people pray, they tend to end each of the sentence with the word "Lord". The word gets used so much, it almost becomes like a comma or a fullstop. I was just looking at the book of Psalms, phrases like "O Lord", "O God" appear many times but never the frequency of someone who pray like what I mentioned before. Sometimes, I wonder if we are praying to a PERSON or to thin air? So, don't go into curise control with 'babbling words' when you pray.

7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! (Matthew 6:7-8)

Joy in the City Birmingham 2006

2007-01-05T10:32:00.000+11:00

What a way to finish the year 2006. I participated in OM LUKE (Love United Kingdom Evangelism) outreach in Birmingham right after Christmas. The team consists of 40+ people from 14 different countries, 4 of them including me are from down under. It's good to hear from Aussie accent English once again. The outreach is very short, 27 Dec - 3 Jan, yet we were so encouraged by the testimonies we heard.

During this short week, we did many things together. Street evangelism where we gave out tracts and talked to the people on the street. I've learnt that it is not as hard as I thought it was. Birmingham is a melting pot of many cultures. There are a lot of Muslims who live here and most of them are very open to talk about their faith.

Open air performances were done in the public area, face painting to attract the kids, sketch board message & etc. One Muslim man I've spoken to believes in Jesus Christ is a prophet. I asked him does he believe everything that Jesus said? He said Yes. Then I asked him, Jesus said, ' I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ' He was caught off guard, then he told me he believes every best part of humanity. I gave him a gospel tract and asked him to read it. On other occasion, I got to pray for the people I talked to.

Not all conversations went positive, one man who picked up that react from me. Stopped, after reading it, shouted at me quoting scriptures. The conversation went wrong when he started telling me some obscure theology about we are cells of God. His face was getting really close to mine and I could smell his alcohol breath. One team member came to the rescue and he left. Later, I've found out that other team members had similar experience from the same guy.

OM LUKE is partnering Birmingham Christian Centre for the outreach. BCC is part of the Elim Pentecostal churches in UK. Majority of the congregation members were from African and Jamaican backgrounds although there are many other nationalities represented in the church. The style of worship was very different to what I used to. I have never heard the song, 'You have made me glad' sung in a gospel style, very different. It was like Whitney leading worship.

What encouraged me during that week was that some non-English speaking background members working with LUKE. One of them told me that her English is not as good but believes that God brought her here for training and equipping her for the ministry back home.

Carlisle city centre - Christmas Light Display

2006-12-23T20:10:00.000+11:00

The main attraction of the light display in Carlise city centre is this. Wise men visiting the new born King and Mary.

I think it's nice to have the real story being told in the light display rather than some fat guy dressed in red suit.

2006-12-23T20:07:00.000+11:00

Costa, one of many cafe in Carlise. I've tried they coffee, I think my niece can do better.

2006-12-23T20:05:00.000+11:00

This is the tourist information centre building.

2006-12-23T20:04:00.000+11:00

The side streets are not being neglected, actually I quite like the alley.

2006-12-23T20:03:00.000+11:00

Christmas in Carlisle.

2006-12-23T20:01:00.000+11:00

The shopping mall is being decorated by beautiful light.

2 - months

2006-11-30T01:22:00.000+11:00

It has been 2 months since my mother went home. Things are getting back to "normal". A friend asked me how am I doing since mum has gone? I don't really know, sometimes I still think I can go back and visit her in Adelaide. I did not try hard not to think about she has gone, nor that I've tried to think of her too much.

As Christmas approaching, the memories of mum come back. I remember everyone will try to be where mum was whether be in Melbourne or Adelaide. Where everyone would just enjoy mum's cooking and each other's company. Since she had the stroke, she was bound to her bed, we made every effect to go back to Adelaide to celebrate Christmas with her. There are times when we took turn to see her at different weeks, so that she did not get overwhelmed by all of us at one time, and next week no one was there for her.

This Christmas is going to be different without mum, something for the family to get used to.

You nourish our hearts in our yearning,
You dignify our souls in our struggles

You harmonise our grief and gladness

You make melody from fragments of chaos

You align our spirit with creation

You reveal to us the grace of God

You calm us and delight us and set us free to love and forgive

Our lives are richer because of who you are

Farewell DC!

2006-11-20T05:44:00.000+11:00

I've received an email from Aus found out that my pastor David Collins has passed away and went to be with the Lord. He has been battling with cancer since end of last year. He has been very dear to our congregation, Twilight, and we have been praying for him faithfully. DC is no longer suffering with the pain. I remember early this year when he posted a song by MercyMe, I Can Only Imagine, on his blog. This song was written by the lead singer of the band to commemorate the passing of his father. What would his father do when he sees Jesus. One can only imagine. Right now, DC needs no imagination anymore.

It's hard for me to deal with 2 deaths since I've got here in Carlisle. But like I said it before, I will say it again, it is by the Grace of God that I can stand here and declare that God is good and still is.

One month since ....

2006-11-13T09:15:00.000+11:00

It has been one month since my mother passed away. Time moved so quickly for me this month. ON office has moved to a new location, I moved out from the wrist's and moved into curries Road. I've decided to make Elim Community Church the church that I go to in Carlisle, joint a cell group, will be joining the worship team once I get the approval from the senior minister. Everything is still new to me. Seeing new things every week, learning new things every week. Honestly I don't want to settle comfortably and if I do I will be chatting into the comfort zone. I want to be living on the edge.

As I reflect how I got here in Carlisle, it has not been an easy journey. Somehow God allowed these incidents to happen for a purpose. Now, it sounded cliche and religious but what else can I say? Knowing that '... all things God works for the good of those who love him,who have been called according to his purpose.'

Now, let see,

I love HIM, I can only love God the way I know I can and continue to learn to love Him more.

I have been called for His purpose, everyone has and is.

So "ALL things"? Including some obstacles that were placed during my preparation? The nasty things said by someone? YES ... All things! They are for the good for me? The passing away of my mother is a good thing for her as she is no longer suffering in her imperfect body, that I understand but what about the rest?

I know this verse in my head, I guess I will only understand this somewhere in the future.

GOD is so BIG, I am so small. I cannot grasp all these things at the moment but somehow He will show it to me a right time. Right now, I just have to take it by faith and by His grace I will accept it.

"So help me God, to put my faith in You."

p/s, I am going to put a tribute to my mother on the blog, just give me sometime, when I am ready.

Walkers Marmite

2006-11-09T10:10:00.000+11:00

Walkers is a snack food company like the one in Australia, Smiths, known for their potato chips and variety of flavors. Then there's Marmite and Vegemite. The black stuff that "everyone" like. One day when I was shopping here (Carlisle) in the supermarket, my flat-mate showed me the chips with Marmite flavor. Yes ... The UK Vegemite chips, I mean Marmite Chips. Too good to be true? Yes ... Check this out.

I bought the 6 pack home to try it out. Believe me it knocked my socks off. Wonder if they would make them available in Australia? Chips with an Aussie twist.

Speaking of Vegemite, U.S. has halt the import of Vegemite.

Hopefully, by the time I come back to Melbourne, I will get to see Smiths Vegemite Chips.

Poundland,Carlisle

2006-10-10T04:53:00.000+10:00

Before I came to Carlisle, I thought this city will be something like a Tintinara. Where is Tintinara? I am here to talk about Carlisle, go look it up in the internet. To my surprise, it is bigger than Tintin. It's more like Ballarat or Geelong for those who came from Melbourne. For those who are not, go look it up in Google. This is a city in the county of Cumbria in UK. It's a city with a lots of history. Carlisle used to be a Roman station in 875AD.

The city has got one MacDonald Restaurant, one KFC and too many, really way too many mobile phone shops. I was told KFC just came in not too long ago. And apparently, it's one of the favorite restaurants in town. So I thought I checked it out. I could not believe that the waiting time is 20 mins. There's a queue at the door. You're kidding me? Oh, come on!

There's a what we called in Australia the $2 dollar shop. Right here in Carlisle, you have the Pound Land. Everything here is 1 pound. Yes, that's right, 1 pound. Very cheap, in fact I actually bought an umbrella here. So far, it is still working well. When I walked out from the shop with the umbrella and I walked past next door, the shop was selling it for 99p. DOPE! ... Just kidding it was selling for more than 3 pounds or something. I also bought my coat hangers there for 1 pound. I don't think I need a Prada coat hanger, so they are just fine. This is suppose to be an easy job for the shop assistant at the check out centre. But they still scan the merchandise, why border? Everything is 1 pound. What's else is in the shop? Things that you would expect to see in a 2 dollar shop. Not sure, what else I am going to get from Poundland. One thing for sure, there's no Prada, Chanel or Armani.

Aira Force, Lake District

2006-10-06T21:28:00.000+10:00

Okay, from Matterdale the Hebron families went to the Tea Room for afternoon tea. We the OMers chose the cheaper alternative, we went to Aira Force. We parked our car in the next free parking area and walked to the Aira Force. This is not the "May the force be with you" kind of force if you are wondering. It is a waterfall. The place was owned by a rich guy in 1780's as a hunting lodge and planted a lot of native plants. The walk in the park was totally different experience from the Matterdale one. It was like walking in the woods that was described in some books. It was equally beautiful. Some of the plants are very unique, here are just a few of them.

What does this look like to you? ->

Face of an old lady? Go Figure.

<- In order to survive you need to stretch a bit. As a result of that, it gives you a bit of character - persistent, patient, perserverance. If you are under a bit of stress, hang in there.

Matterdale, Lake District

2006-10-03T05:46:00.000+10:00

The weekend just past, I was invited by one of the OMers, Timotheous who attends the Hebron church here in Carlisle for a family hike around Lake District. I have not been exercising for the past few weeks, I figured out it would be a good start for me in this city.

Matterdale is located in Lake District 30 minutes away from Carlisle. The track was an easy one since it was a family walk, it should not be difficult for the kids. Friends you see on the picture are Christian and Daniela K and Timotheous P. They are from the OM office, Chris and Dnaiela are from Austria and Timo is from Germany.

The country side is just so beautiful and it's green all over. The weather on that day was perfect, not too cold, may be it was because we were constantly moving and had warmed up.

The houses along the walk still retained their original state when they were first built. It was just beautiful. We stopped over at a few places, one of them was the Matterdale church. This church was built in the 1573, that's what they told me. It was just amazing. Inside the church building, there's no electricity and therefore the candles were used for meetings at night. Must be interesting to meet under the illumination of the candle light. As I walked through the door, there are some new song books. Someone told me that there are still people who meet here on a regular basis. The door of this church is never locked to allow people to visit. To visit a historic building like this always makes you feel surreal. You think you probably in the movie, Braveheart. I am so glad that this part of the history is kept and maintained so that the future generation will appreciate more of their heritage. As Australia is a very young nation, there's not such building of this age.

The walk/hike took about 2 to 3 hours walk. The scenery was just spectacular as oneof the friends told me that it has one of the most beautiful countryside in England. You would probably start asking question about wehre is the Lake? I asked them as well. The lake is acutally at the side or behind the hills. We did not get to see it because the track did not lead us to the lake. I enjoyed the walk very much as much as I enjoyed the scenery.

Broad St, Carlisle

2006-10-03T00:24:00.000+10:00

I am currently staying with an American family serving with OM here in the student ministry, Tim and Linda Wright and their 2 kids. The house is about 10 mins walk from the current OM office. OM will move into a new place in November. The house where the Wrights are staying is a typical English town house, beautifully located on Broad St. As you can see, the street is not that broad, only one car can go through. The street signs on this part of the town, is quite hard to see. Most of them are on the actual building at the corners of the streets. Some of them actually faded away. How to get around in this part of the town in Carlisle? Oh well ... You adjust.

I will stay in this beautiful town house for couple of weeks before OM finds a more permanent accommodation closer to the newer office.

In Carlisle

2006-09-28T00:53:00.000+10:00

After more than 28.5 hours of traveling, I finally arrived at Carlisle. I did not get my luggage, I've missed the train and there's nobody to pick me up at the train station. Jet lagged and tired, I managed to called the personnel manager, Torlief, apparently I've got the time mixed up and gave him the wrong information. But that's okay. He's willing to put me up for one night before I get to stay with the my host family for a couple of weeks. The place whom Torlief stays is beautiful, it looks like a castle. This place was made available by the Cathedral in Carlisle to OMers. Torlief's family wife and 2 teen-age kids stay in this very unique house.

The house is walking distance from OM office. It's very close, it takes about 5 minutes walk. The house was built for minister who works in the Cathedral and has some history.

主我跟你走

2006-09-24T14:32:00.000+10:00

主我跟你走
Music and Lyrics: 游智婷 Sandy Yu

主你跟我走，往普天下走，
天涯海角緊緊抓住我。
主我跟你走，往普天下走，
死蔭幽谷緊緊跟你走。

因你是萬王之王，萬主之主，
有你跟著我，我讓怕什麼？
因你已戰勝死亡，得勝君王，
這信心的路我永不回頭。

開啟我眼，信心的雙眼，
看那天使天軍在身邊。
塑造我的心，謙卑地聆聽，
你的話語深植我心。

Last days in Melbourne

2006-09-23T21:28:00.000+10:00

"When are you leaving?"
"Are you all packed?"
"What's going to happen to your house?"

Here are some of the few questions that were asked by my friends. Yes, I am leaving Melbourne for UK. One of the goals I aim to do this year. The trip to China to see my father's house, and mission work with OM.

My feelings at the moment are quite mixed. I am going into something so big for me to describe. It's very much like riding a 100M wave in context of surfing. Not only your heart rate goes up, but your adrenaline is pumping like a V8 engine.

It is like the moment before you set your foot off the platform of bungee jumping. That moment, the only thing you can feel your blood rushing through your whole body. You hear beat is so loud, it almost like a rock concert. You could no longer hear your friends cheering you on to take the step for the fall.

Everything is silent.

Everything slows down.

The noise that you hear is slowed down and becoming blurry.

You know all the safety harness are intact, everything is ready. You just need to take one step in front of the platform. One step into the unknown.

One step, that step.

Heart Of Worship

2006-09-14T14:57:00.000+10:00

Lately I have been thinking about worship. I was reading a book about how many churches have moved away from the Biblical truth. If you are interested, please check out 'This little church went to market' by Gary Gilley.

I just want to talk about worship here.

The Bible says in John 4:23
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

Sometimes, I questioned myself whether I am doing what the bible says when I worship God.
A lot of the time when I hear people say 'The worship was so good!.' I wonder what it means. Why? Did the person actually say the music was good? Or the atmosphere was good? Or I feel good in the worship.

After serving many years in the music ministry, I want to ask a few questions.
1. Are we worshiping God or worshiping music?
2. Do we have to feel good during the worship session?
3. How do you feel the presence of God in worship? Why do I have to feel the presence of God?
Why is it all about ME feeling the presence of God?
4. Is worship session a therapeutic session for me? (Be honest)!

I think you'll probably starting to get what I'm trying to say...
It's not about me, but all about Him.
Our worship should be God focused, we all know that. Sometimes, we really need to honestly ask ourself when we worship, who is the centre of the focus when the phrase like "meeting our needs" come into picture. Since when do we need the worship (music) to meet our needs?

Unless we go back to God focused worship, we will never be the true worshipers that the Father seeks. Notice that I did not say we never experience what true worship is.

I wonder why when Jesus said, "Yet a time is coming and has now come ...", in the verse.

Kiasu again?

2006-09-10T09:11:00.000+10:00

On the topic of 'Kiasu' again, I was reminded about a Bible passage, Mark 9:33-35.

33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

Why do we always want to be first? Can't we just be a servant?

Another passage, Mark 10:35-45
The Request of James and John

35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
36"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
38"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
39"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared."
41When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

So, any thoughts?

Kiasu

2006-09-09T15:37:00.000+10:00

I am sure some of you may heard of the Asian slang, "Kiasu". Wikipedia describes it as "fear of losing". It is a social attitude in a very competitive world that we're living now. Someone said that competitiveness brings out the best of us. I tend to disagree with the person who said that. The person may have the spirit of "Kiasu". I don't think competition can bring the best out of us because we are always afraid of someone who will be better than us. You don't always win when you try your best. And when you actually win, it doesn't mean that you've given your best.

We strike for excellent not to win but to do our best. Is wining that important? May be in sports event. Yes, in that context winning is important, but it must come with sportsmanship and integrity, otherwise the victory is without hounour.

The Bible speaks about being faithful servant and how to use our talents.

Matthew 25:14-30

The Parable of the Talents

14"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents[a] of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
19"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'
21"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
22"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'
23"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
24"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'
26"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Imagine these servants have the "kiasu" attitude, what will happen? I always believe in being faithful doing the things that you've given and do it to your best ability. This is what pleases God rather than achieving something great with the "Kiasu" spirit.

Limited Edition

2006-08-31T10:27:00.000+10:00

I was a big fan of Limited Edition, I am still one. Few years ago, I bought my first limited edition print of a local Melbourne artist: Garry McEwan's On Brunswick St. It was an edition of 250. It means that their are only 250 prints available. I love the vibrant colour of the piece. The tram on the print was another reason that caught my attention at that time. I paid just under AUD 500 (including the frame). Now the print can easily costs over AUD 1.5K. I was very happy when I found out that the print that I bought has gone up in price.

Then I went a bought another of Mr McEwan's limited edition print, Flower Love. That print caused a bit of controversy amongst my mates. I think it was a piece that will contrast the other one, yet balance my living room. This one is yet to go up in price.

The phrase 'Limited edition' was almost exclusive to the arts community. It was not until DVD became popular in Australia. You have Special Limited Edition, Director's Cut Edition, the Ultimate Collector's Edition & "you name it, we'll produce it " Edition. Wait, there's more; some DVDs also come with certificate of authentication. I think the word "Limited" no longer holds any meaning to many movie studios or DVD producers. It becomes a marketing tool targeting consumer like me to spend more money to pay for their CEOs to have dinner at a 5 star hotels discussing the next money making project.

I bought a Special Limited Edition of Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast. One year later that same edition of DVD can be found in the bargain box in K-Mart. Price did not go up, but gone down to bargain price. How many "Limited" copies did studio print?

Can I still remain positive and not be cynical about Limited Edition again?

Speechless

2006-08-27T00:32:00.000+10:00

It was a great concert. Despite a small crowd, we've collected some generous amount of donation towards my mission work from the audience. I am very grateful.

I shared in the Cantonese Congregation the day after the concert, the church was very generous and supportive. I am so grateful for the people for being so supportive. Ivan came to speak to me after the meeting and told me about how Doulos made an impact in his life few years back when the ship stopped over in Melbourne. He was interested in the ministry of Doulos. I thought I was here to raised support, I did not know I've actually encouraged people to consider mission.

The shop owner whom I bought my oolong tea from also supported me with a generous cheque. She also asked me to contact her if I need more support. Speechless? YES!

Stay tuned for pictures taken from PULSE.

DRUB

2006-08-16T11:00:00.000+10:00

I went to Bennetts Lane Jazz Club with my friends one night, it was a weeknight therefore I did not expect too many people there. To my surprise the place was packed with people, the band - DRUB, must be good to attract such an audience during a week night.

The saxophonist started a piercing note, I thought he was doing a sound check and it turned out to be part of the song, well ... Tune ... Err ... Sound? ... Noise. I could not make anything out of it. All I could hear was some random notes coming out of these musicians. There was no difference from one "song" to another when random notes are played. Having said that individually, each musician is excellent.

D who's a music student and said politely that the musicians might be following a motif and improvise around it. I could not make any sense out of it. Then why was the place packed with people to listen to their music? Did they really get something out of the music?

The experience got me thinking about the story called 'The emperor's New Clothes'. Was everyone in the club really appreciate the music played by the group on the stage because they did not want to be classified as "stupid"?

J also made a comment it was like watching a foreign art house movie without subtitles in the musical context. You suppose to work it out.

Oh well ... Again this could be alternative Jazz.

Go figure.

We sat through the whole gig just to show a bit of respect to the musicians. But I want my money back!!!!

Pulse!!!

2006-08-10T12:34:00.000+10:00

It has been decided that the theme for the fund raising concert is going to be called "PULSE!!!". The idea came from a CD called, "Psalm Drummers". All the tracks on the CD is just drumming. Awesome album, on the DVD the lead drummers ask the audience to listen to the heartbeat of God.

I am so grateful because every mission whom I approached has agreed to help. As mid September is approaching, I just have to trust God to provide the necessary support for my mission trip.

Getting back to the concert, I believe the people who come are in for a real treat of music performance.

How Great

2006-08-04T13:16:00.000+10:00

I received a card in the post box telling there's a package to be picked up in Mulgrage yesterday. I knew it was my visa. In my logical mind, I worked out that there wasn't any phone call from the British High commission about my application and I was not expecting any other delivery except my passport. True enough, when I picked up the package, it was my passport opened to the page where the Visa is. As I was writing this blog, my iTunes is playing the song 'How Great is God', yes How great and wonderful is He?

I am yet to learn about trusting Him more and more. Thank You, Father. You are truly Great.

It's finally here

2006-08-02T23:34:00.000+10:00

I've received an email from Brent telling me that the brochures are ready. It took 2 months to get it done and finally I've got something to show people when I talk to them about my mission work. The next challenge for me is to raise enough support within 6 weeks. My logical mind is battling with my little faith.

20He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Matt 17:20

Time can tell if I have the mustard seed faith.

We love Hymns!

2006-07-29T16:52:00.000+10:00

Picked up a CD during a 20% sale in Koorong bookstore - 'Here I am to worship - hymns'. As I was listening to the CD, I was reminded 10 years back when someone said the young people in church don't like hymns but contemporary chorus. Here I am making a decision to buy this CD, I then released that it was not the hymns that I did not like, it was the way hymns was played. The lyrics of hymns are some poetic and beautiful, how could we did not like them? When I was in Adelaide, we used to have combined service where hymns were sung in the church. It was so majestically played by the late aunt Rebecca on the pipe organ. I also remembered another time when Charles Swindoll was here in Melbourne, I attended the meeting, again hymns were sung with a simple piano, the congregation sang the hymns with full of praise and adoration to the Lord. Another example, the Passion released an album with just hymns. That album was absolutely brilliant, and the congregation who attended that live recording were mostly college students.

There are a lot of rock bands recording hymns on their abalones. So why did they still say young people do not like hymns? I think it was how it was played, how it was lead and how it was sung.

It should be sung with the heart something like the following:-

1 Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

Psalm 96:1-3

MIFF

2006-07-26T16:36:00.000+10:00

Once again, the Melbourne International Film Festival 2006 is on. Few months back, I thought I would miss this film festival. With the delay of my trip to UK, I think I can squeeze a few nights to catch some non-Hollywood movies this year. Last year, I missed MIFF because I was in Africa with Doulos. I will make an effort to catch a few this year.

Very rarely you have opportunities to watch so many films in a short period of time.

Lake House:- Hollywood version of IL MARE

2006-07-24T21:57:00.000+10:00

The trailer of Lake House came out when I was watching another movie. It did not take a very long time for me to recognise that this movie is a Hollywood remake of a Korean movie - IL Mare. I've got this movie after reading some reviews about it. At that time I was into Korean films. It's a Korean film with an Italian feel, said one of the film critics.

It tells a story of how 2 people living 2 years apart connected by exchanging letters through a mail box. One thing is that the DVD version I've got suffers from bad English translation. Having said that, I could still follow the development of the story.

Question I want to ask is Hollywood running of scripts to make movies that they have to look to other countries for inspiration?

What now?

2006-07-22T20:07:00.000+10:00

My mobile phone rang just before lunch on Friday. It was Wendy, my sister. Steven just had a stroke and now in the hospital, she told me. I tried to get more information from her, but she's got none that what she already told me.

Steven is my half brother from my father's other wife. He is 52 and has a son. He failed to show up in an appointment with family friend. My sister C called him at his house, there was no one answering the phone. If Steven is not in, the answering machine normally takes the message. C realised something was not quite right and decided to drive to his house. Steven's car was parked at the drive way, the letter box was not empty. She knocked on the door, there was no one answering the door. She quickly called my other brother Kok to come in; they broke in to the house and found him on the floor. Ambulance was called and Steven was admitted to the hospital.

Steven's stroke sent a shock wave to all the siblings. We are carrying the same gene from my father, heart disease and high blood pressure.

Another thought was that all these incidents that happened, I could just give up going to UK to do the mission work. I try not to over spiritualised these incidents that happened for the past few weeks. But I do sense the enemy is waving his fist in front of me. Whether my mum's declining of health and my brother Steven's stroke were the works of the enemy, I cannot tell. But I can feel the devil is whispering lies to my ears using these incidents.

One thing I am sure of is that God is still in control.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Psalms 23: 5

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 5: 28

One step closer

2006-07-20T18:02:00.000+10:00

Yes, it is one step closer. I looked at the draft version of the mission brochure, looking very nice and neat. Just a few more changes, it will be sent to the printer. A lot of waiting went behind this card, it has really tested my patient. Now, I can put this behind and move forward to the next step.

So lesson learnt?

8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:8-11

I thought I planned, but failed. It takes time for the snow to at least melt before watering the earth. I think too much and had an impression that everything should go according to my plan. It cost me a lot of unnecessary pain and furstrations, instead I could have enjoy watching the rain and snow watering the earth and making it bud and flourish.

100 mile stone

2006-07-03T15:25:00.000+10:00

Today marks a milestone in my exercise routine. According to my heart rate monitor, I've done 100 exercises since the 7 September 2005. I've done 82 hours and 58 minutes and 4 seconds of workout. I've burnt in total of 43387 Calories. Coming no exercise at all to going to gym to work out 5 times a week; to me it is an achievement. Having said that, I lost very little weight.

With the amount of exercises that I do a week, my weight would have come down to the healthy number. But some how it did not happen. One thing is clear to me, it was my diet. I need to do something about it. Exercise and diet come hand in hand, these two have to be balanced.

I think the next mile stone I put on the blog is the time when I get to my target healthy weight according to my doctor. What is the number? Oh well ... I will publish it when I get there.

I don't care

2006-07-02T23:47:00.000+10:00

"What would you like to eat for dinner?"

"I don't care. Anything. "

Ever been in a conversation like this? It can imply different meanings. First, the negative implication. The person who said "I don't care.", is not energetic in the food, or the dinner. The person may not even want to be there. Or he or she is in a bad mood.

On the other hand, the person who said did not really mind about the food and was happy to eat anything and enjoy the dinner that night.

This phrase has been commonly used by many people. It puzzles me all the time. Do people really care? If you don't care why bother.

I was working on a critical project and we were running out of time. The phrase like, "I don't care. Solution A or B will do.", does not help the morale of the people who's wagering on the project at all.

You may say it depends on the person who said the phrase and the tone of it. It also depends on the listeners, where the phrase can be intepreted to negative meanings.

I think the phrase "I don't care.", can be replaced with "I don't mind." I think it can tone down the negative implication.

Now, let's try again ...

"What would you like to eat for dinner?"
"I don't mind. Anything. "

Fragile

2006-06-27T17:04:00.000+10:00

Last week, I made a trip to Adelaide. It was one of the very difficult trips that I made. My mother was very sick; her kidney is failing and not communicating very well. Doctors suspected that she may have another stroke. Everyone from the family came to Adelaide to see mum, including the grandchildren from NZ.

When I saw mum, my heart was broken. She was frail and very sleepy. Her condition is getting worst. She was very chatty last time I saw her. She used to be able to feed herself with one hand. She used to be able to recognise people but this time, she looked confused. She's in a lot of pain. The doctors who are looking after mum have never experience such a difficult case. The family need to make a decision whether to have active intervention to treat mum or to let her go peacefully without prolong her suffering any longer. Her heart was kept active by the pace maker implanted in her heart. Though her body starts to fail, it was the pace maker that artificially keeps her heart pumping. The decision was to deactivate the pace maker, if she has a heart failure the pace maker will not kick in.

Mum has been praying to God to take her home. She looks like she wanted to say something, but her condition makes it difficult for her to communicate what ever she wanted to say. She must be very frustrated.

Mum was a superwoman when she was young. She brought all us up single handily without dad's help. Dad was being controlled by the other mother at that time. (My father was married to 2 women at that time.) She has set a fantastic exmple for all of us in the family.

Life is fragile. Treasure every moment.

Make an impact to someone's life today.

Doulos Part III - Mozamibique

2006-06-12T09:54:00.000+10:00

Doulos Part I

Doulos PartII, Doulos Part IIb

After 3 days of voyage, we finally arrived at Nacala, Mozambique. The sea got rough before2 hours before we reached Nacala. I lied on the floor in the main lounge which is the middle part of the ship. Before long, I found more and more people joining me. We got there at 5pm.

‘To Teach and Testify’ was the theme for this port. Mozambique was occupied by Portugal for over three hundred years. The country gained independent in the 80’s and was governed by the Marxist government which was all out against the church. Only about 15 years ago, the government started to open up to freedom of religion. Very few people speak English as the main language in this country was Portuguese and the local dialect. As most churches are very young, therefore the theme was chosen for this port. It would be a challenge to all of us because of the language barrier, but the language that would reach them would be the love of God.
1July 2005
First day in Nacala was my free day according to my schedule. I got better from the sea sickness as the ship is now berthed at the port. No waves, no movements, it was just beautiful. After our group meeting, I went to the E-day notice board to find out what I would be doing on the next day. E-day is one of the jargon that we use on the ship, it is the day when members of the ship’s company gets an assignment to go out and meet the locals and do some community work. The ship normally sends out few teams a day. Doulos consists of 350 volunteers from over 40 different countries. When you are working on Doulos, you get 5 working days a week on your assigned department, 1 ministry day, i.e. E-day and 1 free day.

When I looked at the notice board, I found my name on one of the team. And I have to be ready to meet the team leader at 9:00am. I did not have much time to get ready for this. The work we’ll be doing on that day was practical work, which means it would be very physical. I would need a lot of water. Being new to the ship, I went around and to look for a water bottle and I couldn’t find anything. Finally, I’ve decided to go without it, silly mistake. I packed my lunch for the day as instructed by the notice as our schedule was going to be very long. The second part of the E-day was that we will be going to show Jesus film in a village 45 minutes away from the port. No dinner will be provided, so I have to pack dinner too.

The team met our team leader, Peter who’s a very tall guy and has been nick named by people as Tiny. Our task was to dig a 4m x 4m x 3m reservoir for a missionary centre near the port. It was hard work as there was no machine to help us and everything had to be done manually. After day one, we managed to dig 1.25m deep. During that time, I managed to drink water brought by the team leader and the host provided lunch as well. It looked like there would be another 2 to 3 days of work before the project can be completed. We cleaned up after 4pm and got on to our van and headed to the village to show the Jesus film.

When we got there, it was close to 5pm and started to get darker. We were followed by the kids in the village everywhere we went. They were so curious to see foreigners in their village especially an Asian. Few of us have to distract the kids so that the crew can set up the projector and the screen. We bounced the flash at the kids and they went wild and ran around to follow us. It was fun!

After showing the film, we packed up our equipment to the van. The pastor showed us to a mud hut to serve us some dinner. I was immediately humbled by the food they served; soft drinks and chicken, simple and cheap according to Australian standard but extremely expensive to the Mozambican locals.

We went "home" tired but very satisfied.

Hong Kong

2006-06-08T16:01:00.000+10:00

Hong Kong, a happening city. I stopped over at Hong Kong for a few nights, on the way back to Melbourne. My main purpose was to catch up some of my friends who used to stay in Adelaide when we were students whom I have not seen for many years. Before making this trip, I was told that everyone was busy. It's very hard to get together to meet. I was very happy that these friends made an effort on a very short notice to come out to meet.
There were some thoughts went through my mind when I was in this very much happening city. Will I survive with the pressure over here if I work here?
Will I have time for my friends with my very much packed schedule? Will I have time for God? & etc
I was reminded a bible passage about how Jesus asked 'Who touched my clothes?'
Mark 5: 24 - 34
24So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. 30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" 31"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' " 32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

One could imagine how busy Jesus' daily schedule would be. When He was going through the crowds wanting attention, He had time to minister this woman who was suffering from bleeding out of many people who gathering around Him. I guess most people did not take notice of her but Jesus did and I was touched by the attention Jesus gave to this woman. The bible says 'Jesus kept looking around ... ‘ I am sure that He knew who did it. I could imagine that must have been a long time for the woman to come up and admitted that she was the one. Jesus was willing to stop what He was doing and give her the time that she needed.

My Family's stories

2006-05-21T23:06:00.000+10:00

Dragon's gate is the name of my hometown village. This is where my forth fathers born. I was privileged to visit this town. Anxi is 72km from Xiamen. It is a very small town in Fujian and famous for its Oolong Tea. As we were going through the mountains on the way to Anxi and I understood why my father built one of his restaurants near Temple's Park in Malaysia. He was home sick and wanted to feel the atmosphere of his hometown that he missed so much.
The original house is now being vacant but it is still under the name of my uncle (my father's younger brother). It is situated inside Dragon's Gate village near the Bridge of Light and Righteousness. This bridge was built for the people so that they did not have to cross the river the old fashion way. My uncle working together with my father in Malaysia at that time help organised the fund raising projects to build this bridge by contacting Anxi Chinese overseas.
The house has 4 very special trees planted by my great grandfather, grandfather and my father. The fourth one was the tree planted after the death of my father to commemorate him.
During the time when Kuomintang was recruiting soldiers to fight against the communists. They would "encourage" one young man from every family to join the army. Fearing of being recruited by Kuomintang, my father fled to Malaysia with the help of other relatives in Singapore. My uncle was too young to join the army during that time and he was spared. Time was tough for the family; my father was to try out his luck to make a living in Nan yang (South Asia) to help to support the family back home.

***

My grandmother was quite sick at that time after my father left China. My uncle was desperate for help; the family went to the temple to pray. A remedy was given to get 27 water snails near the river. The family members started scooping for water snails near the river. They finally got 27 snails after working non-stop from 10pm till 4 am. But grandma died. My uncle was crushed by the incident and decided to become a doctor to help people.

***

With my father working in Malaysia, my uncle studying in the medical school at interstate; my uncle has got no choice but to send grandpa to Malaysia so that my father could look after him. At that time, my father had established himself with the Lam Tai restaurant in Rawang, Malaysia. Grandpa also died 2 years later after arriving in Malaysia. I had never heard stories like this before I came here.

***

I've met some interesting people today. Some people were old friends of my father. One man came in and told me that he was my father's student. He remembered when he was punished by my father for misbehaving. The man was old; if my father is still alive he would be 81 by now.

***

The feeling of coming back to Anxi was very surreal. In many ways I was glad that I made this visit. It has opened my eyes about my heritage and many things about my father.

Doulos Part IIb - Seasick

2006-05-09T10:52:00.000+10:00

27 June 2005
I woke up at 6am. My cabin is still rocking. I got up and sat at my bunk bed, I could not hold it for a minute. I had to lie down again; I could not hold myself together. After about 10 minutes, I told myself that I needed to get out of my bed and get a shower. May be that would help. I just had to give it a try. I managed to get down from the bunk bed, balanced myself and walked to the bath room and had a shower. One of the most difficult showers I ever had. The bath room was rocking too.

Then I was reminded the following Bible passage. Matthew 8:23-27 (The Message)

23Then he got in the boat, his disciples with him. 24The next thing they knew, they were in a severe storm. Waves were crashing into the boat--and he was sound asleep! 25They roused him, pleading, "Master, save us! We're going down!"
26Jesus reprimanded them. "Why are you such cowards, such faint-hearts?" Then he stood up and told the wind to be silent, the sea to quiet down: "Silence!" The sea became smooth as glass.
27The men rubbed their eyes, astonished. "What's going on here? Wind and sea come to heel at his command!"

How I wished Jesus would calm the “storm” right where I stood. But there wasn’t any storm. I was just experiencing seasickness.

I never knew being seasick was such a bad experience. I could not function at all. The feeling is very hard to describe, I was not experiencing any pain or fever. The discomfort was all too overwhelming.

I walked to the dining room for breakfast. John was there and told me he just threw out his breakfast. As soon as I heard there, I went straight back to my cabin and chucked; I went straight to my bed.

Doulos Part II - (Tanzania to Mozambique)

2006-05-02T19:24:00.000+10:00

26 June 2005
My cabin was in section 1:- the front of the ship. This means when the ship is hit by the wave, section one will get it first before the rest of the ship. If you put this in a sea-sickness perspective, you get the picture. My cabin mates were Lucas from Germany, Andrew from England and Tespo from Lesotho. Lesotho is a country inside South Africa. Cabin that I stayed was very small. 2 bunk beds and a very small bath room.

27 June 2005

The STEP group was meeting for the first time. STEP stands for Short Term Exposure Programme -the mission trip that I participated. Most of the participants were from America, Jordan, Ryan, Rebecca, Deets, Jenny and Jennifer. Daniel from England living in Cyprus, Hack Chul from South Korea, Reza from Albania, Raphael and Martina from Switzerland, Annamiek from Holland, John from Malaysia studying in Scotland and Rachel from Ireland. Our co-ordinator was Gill. She has been on Doulos for more than 1 year. We were brief by different leaders on the ship about the programme and what expected of us.

The ship is set to sail this late afternoon. As part of the normal safety protocol, we performed a search for stowaway, the ‘unwanted guests’ who got on board for free passage. It happened before; the ship has to make a ‘U-turn’ back to the previous port and returned the ‘guest’. Normally, there will be someone pretend to be a stowaway during this exercise. The aim is to search every part of the ship and locate the stowaway.

The ship’s company, i.e. the crew members, were out on the deck waving good-bye to the locals. I was out with everyone else to check out what was it like to sail on a big ship as this was my first time on board with the ship. The deckies were busy getting the ship ready as the tuck boats pull the ship away from the quayside. After the ship was tucked to the required distance, we set sail for a 3 day journey to Nacala, Mozambique. The weather was cloudy that day, apart from that everything was fine. I felt the wave on the deck; it was not as bad as I thought what people said about seasickness. I was taking photographs with John and Raphael who were on the deck and I could not feel any seasickness coming to me. We adjourned to the dinning room for dinner. I could feel a bit of movement in the dinning room. As I was eating my dinner, I started to sweat. This could be the weather since we were in Africa, and this land is always warm even during winter time. The sweating did not stop, rest of the people who were eating with me were fine. At that moment, I knew; I have been hit by seasickness. I finished my dinner and excuse myself and went straight to my cabin. I lost my bearing. I could not even walk to my cabin. The ground was 'moving'. I was sweating is crazy trying to concentrate each of my step back to section 1. I finally made it to my cabin, climbed up to my bunk bed and trying to sleep. I felt better when I lied down but I could still feel the cabin rocking. My body not longer fighting off the cough but trying to counter act the imbalance of my body. It was 6pm in the evening; I did not go out of my cabin that night.

Doulos Part I (Aus to Tanzania)

2006-04-21T19:41:00.000+10:00

24June 2005
I could not sleep. It was partly because of my cough and partly the excitement of going to Africa. I think I slept about 3 hours. I kept waking up checking the alarm clock fearing that I might overslept and missed flight. I felt encouraged that a friend, Peter V from work had offered to send me to the airport. But I had made prior arrangement with Ps Glenn to come at 4 am to send me to the airport.

...

Sitting at my seat, waiting for the plane to take off to Perth for my connecting flight to Johannesburg, I was wondering why the plane took so long to take off. The plane was delayed because the panel in the cargo area was damaged during the loading of luggage. The ground crew has ordered a replacement part, the captain explained. The luggage had to be unloaded, damaged panel removed and replaced and luggage to be re-loaded. The ship that was current docking at Tanzania will leave at the scheduled time, if I missed the boat, I will have to find way to get to Mozambique to meet them. Fearing of missing the connecting flight, I prayed.

...

We arrived in Perth 2 hours late. The flight to Johannesburg was waiting for the ‘missing’ 40 passengers from Melbourne. The flight from Perth to South Africa takes 11 hours. The passenger siting next to me was a Tibetan Buddhist monk, we had some interesting conversation about faith. Apparently, he knew some prominent evangelist in the Chinese speaking church. I guess the conversation about the religion will not be favourable. I told him where I was going and what would I be doing with Doulos. We had a very good chat. Finally, the plane landed in Johannesburg.
I checked into Holiday-Inn courtesy of South African Airline. The connecting flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania was 11am, the next day.

...

25 June 2005
I woke up at 6am, I must have slept for a long time. Freshen up; I went down stairs for breakfast. It was very different atmosphere in the restaurant. There are so many Africans here. I have never seen so many Africans in my life. Serious! I slowly came to terms that I was in the continent. Duh!

...

The Johannesburg International airport was very busy. The check-in queue was very long. So I tried to find things to do to kill time. Turned around, I started talking to the people behind me and found out they are Aussies from Sydney. The mother and daughter are meeting the dad in Nairobi for holidays. The kid was doing year 11. The mother was a teacher. After about 20 minutes, I said good-bye to them and went to the prompted counter. I managed to check in my luggage and got my boarding pass. The line through the immigration counter was not as long as I expected. I was wondering why all the immigration officers always have straight face? This one in particular. How about greetings like ‘Have a safe journey.’? Is this too much to ask for? Part of my airport tax goes to your salary.

…

I went to the departure gate, checked my boarding pass and the gate number. Everything’s checked, now I just have to wait for the BUS. What? The bus? It is interesting that an international airport like Johannesburg transports passengers to their planes using buses. As I was going through my boarding pass, passport and other documents, I noticed my ticket which has the return trip to Australia went missing. Oops, I must have left it at the counter during check in. Looking around, there’s nobody at the departure gate and departure is 5 minutes away. I thought I could speak to the staff members of SAA and asked them if they could locate my ticket. Or I could call SAA when I get on board with Doulos.

…

The bus has arrived; it’s time to get on. I rehearsed my line to ask for assistant about the missing ticket many times. As soon as I passed the boarding pass to the crew member, before I opened my mouth, he passed me my ticket and gave me the look.

Okay, I’m very sorry!

Thousand apologies.

Umm, got a plane to catch.

Thank you, have you nice day.
…

The guy sat next to me must be tired. He was carrying his pillow with him. It’s interesting to see some peculiar habits of people. The in-flight movie for the trip was ‘Hitch’. I’d not been to cinema for a long time. It’s somehow predictable movie, but still enjoyable. As the plane got closer to Dar es Salaam, the passengers were given immigration forms to fill. I pulled out my travelling documents so that I could answer the questions. Nobody knows their passport number by heart. There are some questions that I could not answer, i.e. the address of the place where I would be staying. So I peaked at the person sitting next to me. He’d got a letter with OM logo on it.

Wait a minute!

OM logo? Doulos?

‘Hey, he’s going to the same place I am going.’

I introduced myself and told him where I was going. His name is Ryan. He just finished high school. His friend was serving on board with the Doulos. He plays the drums for the church.

…

I walked through the arrival gate, right before me was a group of people holding up a sign. Doulos! Yes, there’s somebody there to pick me up. I greeted them and introduced myself. Amongst the people to be picked that day were Hack Chul from South Korea, Ryan from America and we were still waiting for a few more. My luggage was being loaded by the Noah who was also the driver. Ryan went off yo catch up with his friend whom he has not seen for a while. After some time, Jenny N from America who is the book store manager from Logos II walked out from the arrival gate. She was to relieve Daniel – the book store manager of Doulos while Daniel went home for a break. It worked out well because Logos II was on dry dock. Finally, Daniel from England walked past the arrival gate. He was waiting on a very long queue to pay for his visa to enter the country.

…

The African road was like documentaries that was shown on TV. People walking on the side of the roads, women carrying their things on their heads. About 15 – 20 minutes ride on the Doulos van, we arrived at the port where the ship is docked. I was quickly greeted by Adam and Mark who would be my buddies during my stay on the ship. They showed me to my cabin to leave my luggage and then the tour to the rest of the ship. I was totally lost with all locations of the dining room, forward lounge, car deck & etc. I’ll have 2 months to work it out.

I have lost control?

2006-04-19T00:22:00.000+10:00

I was driving to my pastor’s house for a birthday dinner. Something just crossed my mind, there’s no income coming in from now on. At that very moment, I felt like I’ve lost control of myself. What have I done? Things I’ve used to say about identity long time ago suddenly back fired at me.

‘Does the job that I am doing define who I am?’

‘Will I still have my identity if I loose my job?’

I let money defines the power I have. No doubt, money plays an important role in many things that we do. Question I am asking myself is whether it is powerful enough to control me?

A pastor once said, ‘You can have money, in fact; you can have lots of money. Be careful not to let money have you.’

Then a Bible passage came to me:-

Psalm 121
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Then I felt at ease, I’ve chosen to do mission; I will learn to trust in Him. It is suppose to be a journey of faith. If I can see everything, it will not be faith anymore. Yes, there are practical things that I will have to do to raise support for my mission trip. At the end of the day, it comes down to trusting Him.

STRIKE

2006-03-26T14:43:00.000+11:00

I got a phone call one day about a percussion workshop run by a group from NZ called 'Strike'. This group is like a NZ equivalent of the STOMP. Initially, I thought this is just a workshop where you learn to play better. I had no idea that I have signed in to perform in Federation Square in the city during the Melbourne 206 Festival running parallel with the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Game. What an opportunity! There were only 2 practice sessions, Sunday and Monday. The minute I walked into the church hall, I was "strike" by the set up. There were like 2 cube structures hanging with percussion instruments. Wow! Looking at set up is like admiring a piece of art. The workshops went well; the members of the group were very patient showing us the rhythm patterns. The practice was really LOUD. Finally, the day has arrived. I was thinking about the rhythm patterns whole morning. I just wanted it to be perfect, not to upset the performance. When I got there, the square was packed with people watching the telecast of the commonwealth game. I think it was the lawn bowling final or some sort. When it came to our turn to perform, it was so quick. After all these practices, it took only 2 and half minutes of performance. Sometimes it takes years and years of learning and life experiences to handle a 2 and half minutes situation.

I resigned from SEEK

2006-03-13T17:30:00.000+11:00

On Friday morning 10th March 2006, I've handed in my resignation to SEEK, the company I worked for five and a half years. The driving force behind the resignation was my mission trip to Carlisle, UK. I don't really know when will I be able to raise the money to support myself for the next 6 months. But I believe God will provide people to support my trip.

Before the trip to UK, one of the things I want to do is to visit my uncle, my dad's brother in China. The trip to China is very much a discovery tour about my origin. It will be interesting to find out the place where my father grew up.

After the mission trip from Africa, I have not been taking time off. I needed one. The timing is good for me. Week or two break and 2 weeks trip to China. I will start my preparation for UK trip. I may pick up some contract work just to raise whatever remaining money I need. I am so relieve, I've never felt this way for a very long time.

P/s I will update my Doulos trip, now that I have more time.

Mission Trip with the Doulos

2006-01-26T23:48:00.000+11:00

The next few posts are some thoughts about my mission trip last year, I thought I share my journey with you on the blog.

Prelude

It started when I received a prophecy from a visiting speaker one Sunday morning service end of 2004. I was helping friends who started a new service playing djembe in worship. While asking for congregation to come to the front to be prayed for, the speaker pointed me out and gave me the prophecy, "You will go to the nations, I don't know but you will." I was shocked at the moment. I always have been involved in other ministries except 'mission'. Though I did not sign up for the next available mission trip, I took the word to my heart seriously. I know He will lead me, and the word will come to past. The week after that was a combined service at our church, another visiting speaker came, and he’s from Operation Mobilization. He spoke about mission and mentioned the ship's ministry. Once again, he had sowed a seed in my heart. One lunch time in early 2005, I was little worn out from the pressure of work. I've decided to check out mission opportunities; naturally I went to the Doulos web site. The opportunities were engineers, carpenters & etc, no IT related jobs. So I've decided to expand my search on OM web site, and found IT related jobs. The ad came up. Linux Tester for 1 - 2 years. Something happened in my heart at that moment. I tried to ignore it for the next few days. It did not go away. Finally, I've made enquiry about this position. I've got a reply from OM. Read through some pre-requisites. One of the recommendations is for candidates to have done some short term mission trips. There were a lot of short term mission trips organised by churches, most of them are very short. We're talking about 10 to 12 days. As for me, I think it's too short for me. I finally ended with Short Term Exposure Program with Doulos. STEP is a 2 month program where you're exposed to different aspect of mission.
Jehovah Jireh - the provider
I started making enquiries about my annual leave for Oct-Dec 2005 which was after my friends’ weddings. After some discussions, my leave was changed to July-Aug 2005 with one month paid leave and the other one unpaid. Normally, I would have to resign under this situation but the Lord's favour was upon me.
When I started my application to join STEP, I did not think I have enough money. The flight to Africa was expensive as it is not a very popular destination for Australians. How would I get the money to support this trip? When I got my tax return back from the tax office, it was more than enough to fund the trip. God is good all the time, all the time, God is good. Though, I did not raise money for this trip, I've used my "own" money. The lesson I learnt from here is that, my money is His money. Everything I have is His.
Another miracle happened in my application of my leave for this trip. The whole trip is about 2 months; normally the application of the annual leave will never be approved, simply because of the length of the time. Amazingly, it was approved. One month paid, one month unpaid. I am happy with any arrangement. The fact that I was able to come back to my job after my 2 months leave is a miracle. Normally, situation like this, one would quit his or her job.

After months of anticipation, the day has arrived...
(stay tuned)

2006-01-24T22:31:00.000+11:00

profile

New Year Resolution

2006-01-24T12:56:00.000+11:00

This is where I started.

Everyone makes New Year Resolution every year. There are some who don't, reason being that they said they never been able to follow it through. I was wondering it is a good enough reason not to have one. I make New Year resolution so that I have something to look forward to in the New Year. I will have goals to achieve; otherwise the I become aimless, well ... so to speak.

Here is what I got in mind so far.

Visit China.

I am Chinese, and Chinese educated. I speak few dialects of Chinese and have a very good understanding of Chinese culture and custom. Yet I have not been to China. The China I know has changed. I want to see the changes that people talked about.
There is also a family estate in China where the "Goh" began. It is my origin, my roots, the surname my father carried when he was alive. Someone once said, 'In order to know your future, you have to know your past.' It would be good to see the tree planted by my grandfather before he left China to Malaysia. There's also the tree that my father planted before he left as well. There's also a bridge built that was funded by our family. Most importantly, my uncle (dad's brother) is getting old, I want to see him.

Mission.

Last year, I've made a decision to join Operation Mobilization ICT in UK. Somehow I ended up with Doulos for 2 months in Africa. It was such an enrichment experience in my life. I believe that this year will be the year to fulfil the "ICT" part. This trip will be a 6 months journey, doing IT work with OM.

Stay Tuned.

I want to be in tuned with God. This may be a much generalised goal for a lot of Christians, but I think it's good onw to have as a New Year resolution every year. It's a relationship that needs to be maintained, it's not a goal that once you achieved that you will never go back again.

Exercise and healthy diet.
After my mission trip with Doulos, I've lost 5 kilos as a result of it. I've started exercise after coming back from Africa. I was able to maintain my weight. I feel refreshed after workout and able to sleep better. It also increases my metabolism, which equates to burning more fat in my body.
Healthy diet, this is going to be hard as I normally eat unbalanced meal. I don't eat enough veg and fruits.