tax

I just got my Payment Summary and I have just realised how painful tax can be. There was one particular line in the pay summary that caught my attention 'total tax witheld' and the figure that followed was enough to buy a car. How depressing. I guess that's why even in the Bible times, people disliked tax collectors.

That's all I have to say about that.

let us love and sing and wonder

I really really really love this song by Jars of Clay. It is based on a hymn by John Newton (same guy who wrote Amazing Grace). It's the one that opens up and plays automatically on this blog (whether this is true or not will depend on when you actually read this post). Here are the lyrics:

Let us love and sing and wonder

Let us love and sing and wonder
Let us praise the Savior's name
He has hushed the law's loud thunder
He has quenched Mt. Sinai's flame

Let us love the Lord who bought us
Pitied us when enemies
Called us by His grace and taught us
Gave us ears and gave us eyes

He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He presents our souls to God

Let us wonder grace and justice
Join and point to mercy's store
When through grace in Christ our trust is
Justice smiles and asks no more

He who washed us with his blood
He who washed us with his blood
He who washed us with his blood
Has secured our way to God

Let us praise and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high
Here they trusted him before us
Now their praises fill the sky

He has washed us with his blood
He has washed us with his blood
He has washed us with his blood
He has washed us with his blood
He will bring us home to God

Based on a hymn by John Newton (1725-1807)

great night, average day - lesson learnt along the way

Yesterday I left work early, hopped into a car with Alan and Shauny, and drove off into the distance to the youth180 retreat. Now why would a trio of ex-youth180-now-regeneration-members make the effort to forgo a good night's sleep in their own bed and risk feeling absolutely knackered the next day? Well, because of the one afternoon and night of awesome fellowship we experienced!

We came on the best night of any camp - campfire night. After two awesome messages from Jim Berg, we headed off into the cold night air to sit in front of the warm fire, sing praises to God, listen to testimonies of how God moved in the hearts of the campers, and later on to roast (or in my case, burn) marshmallows. I can't write about the night in a way that captures just how awesome it felt to be amongst brothers and sisters in Christ that had become so moved by God in the space of just two days. Many of them had really started to Change Into His Image.

At one part of the campfire program, we were all given a letter of the alphabet and were asked to come up with one-word starting with that letter to describe the retreat. Our new bro-in-Christ, Gavin, had the letter 'p' and his word was 'potential' because of the potential we have to do great things for God. I really couldn't agree more. As Christian youths we often forget or are unaware of just how much latent potential is in each of us. As Peter Blake shared in the National Camp in 2006, youth have strength, energy and the willingness to take risks that slowly decreases as we grow older.

The sad thing is that we use these qualities to seek after other things and essentially, waste our optimal period to do awesome things for God. It's not to say that older people can't do awesome things for God, of course they can! But as younger people, the time where we can be radical for God is limited so we need to act now!

Last night was truly a blessing. Shame about today though... It was pretty average.

It might have been the transition to work after a day of spiritual feasting, but today was pretty average. The main thing for me was that I felt so busy, yet I didn't get much work done (the problem with working in two offices is that it's like having two part-time jobs. When you are away from one office, the emails build up and there's a lot of wasted time trying to sort through all the accumulated work and trying to prioritise everything). I don't recommend it. Another thing that happened to me today was that I got busted by one of the girls at work. =(

Basically, I hadn't done something that I was supposed to have done (it wasn't a big thing, one of those small things that I didn't have the time to do) but she just wasn't really all that nice to me when she told me. In fact, she wasn't nice at all. I felt pretty sad after that and I just sorta sat there with mixed feelings - she did NOT have to speak to me in that tone... I had a legitimate excuse... why can't she be more understanding?... how can she be so rude when this is the FIRST time I have slipped up?... I'm not going to do it JUST because she was SO rude to me about the whole thing! That'll teach her!... and so it went for a few minutes.

But then I thought to myself, Rowena, now is the time to forgive. Before I could tell myself, she doesn't deserve forgiveness, I was reminded that God forgave me - even though I didn't deserve it AT ALL, and continues to do so. I was reminded that God is in control of everything, and if she was truly out of line and unfair with how she talked to me, God would take care of the situation and I just needed to do what was right for the sake of doing my job well at work.

It's easy to harbour resentment, but I think it's also easy to leave things in God's hands, knowing that He tells us things in His Word like 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay' and 'ye are of God little children, for greater is He that is in you, than he (or she) that is in the world'. So just remember, next time someone crosses you, step back and leave the battle for God. It's not being passive, it's knowing that our Father in Heaven is greater than our petty problems and conflicts on earth.

staff parties

Thank God for the weekend. It's been fairly busy. I just wanted to blog about Friday night. Well, my work had an 'End of Financial Year Party' at a certain place in the city which I initially said I wasn't going to go to. But after much 'encouragement' from my work buddies and after finding out that the bosses were all attending and that work was going to pay for all the food, I decided to go for a little while. And in a way, I am glad that I did.

What actually happened was it was one of the girls' last day before her big trip overseas, and she had to stay behind to finish off some stuff. So another girl and I stayed behind to wait for her and we ended up driving down to the function instead of walking (bad idea on a Friday night - traffic was crazy). Thank God because during the long ride in the car, one of them started sharing about her love life and about all the losers she had been seeing through an online dating thing. I listened to her talk for a while, all the way just thinking about all the things I had read in the Boundless magazine and in the Josh Harris books, and after a while I piped up from the back seat and gave her some Christian words of wisdom!

After I had shared some near-direct-quotes from Boundless and Josh Harris, she looked at me through the rear view mirror and said something like 'that's really wise Ro' and 'that makes a lot of sense, I think I have been doing that'. I thank God for the wisdom that comes from such resources because when we share things like this to non-Christians, they can't help but acknowledge that the knowledge that is based in the Word of God is true wisdom.

The downside of Friday was actually going to the work function because it ended up being a really loud and crowded bar with lots of sleazy guys looking us up and down (what was gross was that we (or I at least) weren't even wearing anything revealing and were all covered up in work clothes). I really don't know why people like going to these places. I guess it's because it is supposed to be the cool thing to do, people just do it thinking that if they don't they will be weird or not-normal, but I reckon there's absolutely no fun to be had in such places - not for me anyways. Call me a prude, but I'm not going to say something is fun just because everyone else doesn't have the guts to say otherwise.

Work drinks is one of those things I reckon. My personal policy is to go for a little while to 'show face' and then leave once people start getting drunk (cos by then they won't remember if you stayed or not =) ). I feel that as a Christian, it is possible to come across as judgemental and too-good-for-the-rest-of-them if I say I'm not going to go to drinks on the principle that they will be drinking. I have told them how I feel about getting drunk etc (Ephesians 5:18) and they know I am a Christian, so I feel that now it is my job to be the Christian who is not like the Christians they have encountered before yet who is still fearful of her God and obedient to what is in the Bible.

It's a pretty hard thing to do, but when I see my buddies at work say things like I am different to other Christians they have met or that they knew a Christian once before who was 'not like you', I feel better that they are getting a different and hopefully more positive impression about Christians and that they are starting to see that not all Christians are like the ones that have put them off church before.

I do have a burden for my friends at work because I really feel they need something to live for and Someone to guide them through their life. I believe that as Christians, we all have a duty to be the lights of our workplaces, uni classes and families - to show them what Christ's love is like and to be the ambassadors for God that we have been called to be. I hope you guys reading this realise this too (I'm sure that you all do!) and that together we can start making a difference for Him.

choose life

I Chose Life has received a makeover! Check it out by clicking the picture. I still need to hand in my testimony - oopsie daisies! And a lot of you out there are still to hand in your testimonies too! Telling myself as well as everyone else: The more we get on the website, the better it will be.

OK plug over. Have a great weekend!

online resources

I found this website while browsing online. It's an online magazine or 'webzine' called Boundless which is part of the Focus on the Family ministry. There are some really good articles in here about Christian Relationships which may be well worth your time to read and learn from. I have included some titles and links below. I have only read a few of them, but I picked put some which sounded interesting. Let me know what your thoughts are about what you read.

What Does a Biblical Relationship Look Like
Biblical Dating: An Introduction
Biblical Dating: Just Friends
Biblical Dating: Navigating the Early Steps of a Relationship
Biblical Dating: Are You Ready to Date?

Destructive Myths: Love Onscreen
Same-Lord Relationships
Real Men Risk Rejection
Not Your Buddy
Brother, You're Like a Six
Stop Test-driving Your Girlfriend
Taking A Relationship form Good to Great
Following My Heart
Mixed Blessings
Opposites Attract
Modesty Revisited
You're a Great Guy, But...
Humility that Attracts and Encourages

blogs

I came across Josh Harris' blog tonight. Now this is a blog - I guess this comes from him being a writer, but the guy is gifted eh. One blog entry (you should really read this by the way - especially my fellow bloggers!) was about how blogs can be a distraction from the more important things in life and I would have to agree with him. I have found that blogging can not only be time-consuming, but also addictive, and I want to make sure that I am disciplined with how much time I spend doing this.

I originally started blogging as a way to consolidate the things that I have learnt in my spiritual walk, but occasionally I blog for the sake of blogging or just communicating my thoughts as if my blog was a shrink or something. Therefore, it is enough of a concern to flag and keep an active eye on. So yeah, if I don't blog as much, it's cos I am trying to do other things like listen to a sermon or spend time in my recently-sadly-neglected-reading-hole or with my friends and family (like all of you guys out there reading this - wouldn't it be better if I actually talked to you instead of you reading what I wrote?? :) maybe not.. hehe).

Don't worry everyone, I will keep blogging :) - I just won't be so blog-focussed from day to day. I do enjoy writing on this blog and I have become quite fond of it so I will definitely update it and give it the care and attention it deserves (which I now know is a little bit less that what I have been giving it haha). Maybe we'll try less quantity and more quality when it comes to posting (no promises about cutting out all the random stuff though - some things are SOOO random that I just have to share them). Hmmmm... maybe I might just keep my blogging habits as they are?... hahaha nah, just kidding.

OK, back to Mr Harris. Well as I was having a squizz at his blog, I came across some recent pictures of him hehehe - he looks quite different - I will call it Uncle Sonny syndrome :o hahaha. I also came across a link to a video on YouTube:



The video is about 8 minutes long and is about how our actions can be a stumbling block to the non-Christians who are trying to get to the cross. He makes some really good points and he seems like he is a pretty dynamic speaker too! Hope the video helps to open your eyes and encourages you to be the Christian that God wants you to be.

In the meantime, I am off to the heater to do some defrosting and reading. The reading hole is pretty cold on nights like these... even if I use my rug :o

from the tube

This song came on my mp3 just then and I thought I would try dig up the video for it on Youtube cos it's one of the coolest things I have seen! The song (JCB Song by Nizlopi) is really cute too. Enjoy!

pics from level 37

convention centre

city skyline from the side

freeway onramps and narrows bridge

Site for Perth Arena (entertainment centre on right)

convention centre and freeway

Swan river

Constuction site outside QV1

entertainment centre

and the Northern Suburbs

trying to look at the unseen

I had another sleepless night last night and as I am writing this at work, I just thank God that He has given me the strength to get through the day so far. Thank God that today I am at Chevron again where the coffee flows freely (on my third one for the day - I will try to keep this my last, no promises tho) and the work pace is pretty manageable (today anyway) with no one else in my section except for me. Weird day today, soooo many appointments have cancelled and I am left with a pretty free afternoon now.

Weekend was great - packed and productive. On Saturday night, Regeration had a combined fellowship with the Young Parents' Fellowship (with the BGR topics and the combined fellowship with young parents, makes me wonder what is on the minds of the committee members who are all at a marriageable age o_o hahaha - jk guys).

We listened to the Jim Berg sermon More Than Enough Hope once again (I have listened to this my fair share of times) and it was a good reminder once again of where I have been putting my hope and more importantly where I should be putting my hope. Again I was reminded that God should be all that I need and all that I want, and again I was convicted of my desire for gifts from God taking place over God Himself. It seems like it will always be a bit of a uphill battle because you don't see God, but you do see material things.

Reminds me again of the Team Crosby memory verse from camp 'for we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal' 2 Corinthians 4:18. I don't think I will ever forget that memory verse eh!

OK I'm gonna leave it there for now and find something to do. When I get home, I will upload some pics of the views from level 37. For now tho, I might go make another coffee... Just kidding :)

points to ponder...

• Allow the challenges of life to cement your convictions


• If you know what your convictions are, you will be able to dig in your heels when waves of discouragement and disappointment try to move you. You will have the strength to say 'no' to the things that may seem tempting, but are not in line with your personal convictions.


• The cross lifts the heads of those who are 'ordinary' and empowers them to become extraordinary


• Disappointments can become an anchor in your life


• The higher you want to go, the deeper you've got to go


• The fact that we long for something greater than what this world has to offer is proof in itself that there is something greater than this world that is worth longing for.

to trust or not to trust

That is the question.. I think I have trust issues. Although I am a talkative person, my experience with people (though limited to just over 23 years) has taught me that the only people you can trust are your family and God. I get really troubled when I think about how good it could be if I would just trust someone enough to risk being burned by them, and to share things that concern me the most. I read in books all the time that it is important to have people who you can be accountable to, but I find that my own lack of trust in the people around me (though most of them haven't done anything to cause me to question my trust in them) has prevented me from having such a relationship, even with those who I am closest to.

I will say straight up that I have been burned in the past by people who were supposedly 'trustworthy' and whether they know it or not, they have caused me to be cautious (even over-cautious) about what and to whom I share personal things with - even to the point where I only share on a superficial level, if not, not share at all.

This I guess has been one thing that has driven me to want to be a more trustworthy person myself. When people tell me something, I do everything I can to keep it stored in 'the vault' and to take it to my grave. There is a quote that I once read that said something like, when you die you should be taking thousands of secrets to the grave with you. And that has always been something in my mind that has challenged me to be someone that others can confide in freely and someone who people like me (with significant trust issues) can come to trust one day. It is difficult and I will admit that I have slipped up or nearly slipped up a few times along the way, but I believe that I have a fair amount of information in 'the vault' which will be buried with me in the future. I dunno, I reckon to be a person who is 'trustworthy' is a huge responsibility and I don't think it is something that I want to seek after in a hurry - I would really like to learn how people like Jim Berg who deals with people's issues as his job does it. How does he sleep at night with everyone's problems in his mind (I guess via prayer - but what a prayer life that would be), and how does he keep everything in his vault (must be a pretty big vault for that guy).

Lord, help me to trust my brothers and sisters more in my life. Help me to be someone who is trustworthy, with a genuine care and concern for others. Teach me how to become this person. Please forgive me if I have ever caused someone to lose the trust they once had. Show me what I need to do and how I need to change. I pray that I will be someone even I could trust someday, as You mould and shape me every day. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

hooray for the weekend!

Thank God for the weekend! It's been a pretty crazy week with lots that has happened... the week kicked off with city evangelism on sunday and my uncle's 70th birthday bash at Yu (it was pretty funny seeing another uncle get really really really really really drunk - cantonese people make entertaining drunkeds! haha), the week flew by with work, had a night out with the sisters and now I'm about to go off to Regeneration for the official start of another busy weekend!

This weekend, my cousin's children's nanny is getting hitched (I'm gonna read a Bible verse for her during the ceremony :) which will be fun) and then Regen is having a dinner with the Young Parents Fellowship, then Sunday will rock around with Sunday School and then who knows what else!

You'll never guess who came walking into work today. I was out in reception hanging out (more like procrastinating from writing some reports which were due) when someone with a familiar face walked in for a JCA... It was Will from Sunday!! I didn't realise who it was until later - but whoa mama! What a small world eh??

I do have one prayer request from anyone who is reading - please pray for Tammy (one of tha girls at work) and her fiance Chris, cos I have invited them to come to church tomorrow night - long story - I might share it when I have more time. But please pray for her, the events that led to me inviting her were pretty cool.

OK gotta go to church :)

out with tha sisters

Tonight was really great... Spending time with the sisters in true fellowship! I think what was great about tonight was that we normally wouldn't go out in the mix of sisters that came out tonight. We had ShieTian, Joyce and Angeline representing the CYPG, Lilian and Sel from Y180 and Merilyn, Truc and myself from Regen (Merilyn and Truc only stayed for dinner tho). It was really good fun and we had some really good laughs (Truc even managed to learn some Cantonese!)

At coffee, we had a bit of a D&M about so many different things and we all got to know each other a little bit better. So thank God for Lilian who made it all happen - I think tonight was just the right number of sisters for us to really get to talk to everyone and such a good mix of the three fellowship groups too! Ladies, we should definitely do this kind of thing more often! Just for the record, I'll be up for anything like this in the future ok?? :)

On another note: whoa...2000 visitors already! That's crazy talk! Thanks everyone for stopping by and thanks again for all the encouragement!

On another another note: to all you students doing exams still, don't worry there's a light at the end of the tunnel! Keep at it and remember to do it for the glory of God! Keep healthy, get enough rest, keep up the H2O, study hard and don't neglect your walk with God! Oh yeah... and STOP PROCRASTINATING by reading peoples' blogs!!!!! hahaha.

it's baaaa-aack

Insomnia! I have been having a bit of difficulty sleeping over the last two nights. Not sure why - but it's been pretty gay. I really thank God though, that I have been able to function and do all that I needed to do.

This morning, Lilian called me up and asked me about tonight (I have a hot date with some of the sisters tonight :P) and I told her probably not, because I was feeling really run down. She said something like 'pray for God to give you the strength' - and I was like 'yeah, yeah.. but don't count on it!' but thank God that He really did provide the strength for me to get through what became a really busy day at work!

I was onsite and out of the office for the morning and in the afternoon, I found out that I had been booked in for assessments (I had no idea - so it was a bit of a surprise, considering I had stuff to do by tomorrow!). But I managed to get everything done (by God's grace) and I even managed to nick off a bit early! So after all of that, I thought, I better go out tonight and keep my promise to Lilian because it would be wrong of me to pike after God has helped me throughout the day.

So NCR - here I come! (NCR = Northbridge Chinese Restaurant... Home of the best jiu-yun-pai-quat in Perth!)

job - my thoughts and lessons learnt

I finally finished Job - YAY! Hehe.. Took me a while eh. I thought it was a pretty interesting read over all. I have to admit, that I didn't really know what was going on initially because I was reading it without a commentary, so I was a bit lost for a while - but I will write about what I learnt after I give you all my basic summary of the book of Job. Here goes...

1. Well firstly, Job has it good (life was abundant and full of blessings).
2. Job loses everything
3. Job's friends try to comfort him by saying he has done something wrong (what kind of friends were they eh? Hmmm.. well on reflection, I guess we can be like those friends sometimes when we try to comfort our people who are hurting. We try to help by saying the right thing, but we just make things worse!)
4. Job says back 'what? no way man, I don't know why God is doing this to me, but I know He has a good reason for doing whatever He is doing'
5. Job's friends persist
6. Job insists that God is in control
7. Job's friends keep going (they take turns to have a go at poor ol' Job)
8. Job then says 'actually, God, what are You up to... really? I don't think I have done anything wrong, so why all of this?'
9. Job has another friend, Elihu, who seems to make some pretty good points about who God really is and why He does the things He does.
10. And then finally God answers Job by asking him some rhetorical questions about creation (all the dinosaur references are found here in chapters 40, behemoth, and 41, leviathan)
11. Job says, 'my bad, God, I shouldn't have questioned You'
12. God says, 'that's cool Job, your friends are pretty dodgy tho - I think you should pray for them - don't worry, I'm listening to your prayers'
13. And then God blesses Job all over again (twice as much as before), they have a big party, Job has 10 more kids, and everything is hunky dory once again.

So that's Job in a nutshell. Don't comment about me missing out stuff because that's what I remember (it's got lots of holes in it I know - that's expected with MY memory).

But what are the lessons in Job? Well as I mentioned before, I was a bit lost so I asked my brother, Adrian, if he had any idea and this was his take on the whole Job thing:

Job is like the 'controlling farmer' that Jim Berg talks about in the last chapter of Changed Into His Image (sermon can be found here). The controlling farmer likes to have everything in his / her control and therefore expects things to always go in the way that was planned, and when this doesn't happen, they question why and either get angry or discouraged.

I think that interpretation makes sense. When things didn't go as expected, Job kinda got sad. I think his friends were controlling farmers too in a way because they said that Job must have committed some kind of sin because there must have been a crime if there was a punishment.

When I did this study at Regen, I didn't think I was a controlling farmer at first because I have always thought that if anything, I am more of a lazy 'gambling' farmer who does the minimum and expects a harvest. But after some reflection (doing this quite a bit), I have realised that I can be a controlling farmer at times too - when things don't go as expected it's really easy for me to (and I usually do) fall into discouragement. I need God's help to teach me to trust in Him fully while still being diligent in learning more about Him too. Consistency is the key I reckon.

If you haven't listened to the sermon or read the book, give it a listen or a read because it is really a very good lesson to learn. OK I'm outta here - Rowena's getting very sleepy :)

it's days like today...

That I appreciate my normal job and things like this...

The super-duper coffee machine at Chevron hehe. Today was a loooooooong day... I started just after 8am and finished up just before 6pm - it was absolutely non-stop from start to finish and I am just glad that that's it for another week at Chevron. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the work at Chevron, it's really interesting and the busyness keeps me on my toes - but the amount of admin work that we have to do is absolutely nuts! (I think because I have been spoilt in my normal job by having access to admin staff who can type stuff, do data entry, order stuff, call people, take messages and all of that stuff - I am really feeling the difference on my days at do-everything-yourself-Chevron. I guess it goes to show you that we shouldn't take anything for granted).

I must point out however, that though these hours seem long to me, a lot of people work really long hours - I met some of them today. One guy told me he works on average from 7am to 7pm every day. He said that he has to because his boss works from 4am to 6pm every day - and that's the only way he can keep up with the work - crazy stuff man! So remembering that guy, I feel a bit better - and I thank God that I am not an engineer. =)

It makes me wonder though, because a lot of these guys have young families, and though they work hard to provide for their families, their working long hours makes them miss out on spending quality time with their wife and kids. I talked to one of the guys about this and he is aware of the problem this creates but says it comes part and parcel with the type of job that he does. I think that's when you know that your job has taken over your life. The thing is that these guys didn't plan it to be this way - I don't think anyone would intentionally do so. But what starts out to be something that is a part of your life can quickly take over and become your life.

I don't think it will happen to girls as much as guys - because a lot of us will end up in the ultimate full-time job of being a mum (talk about long hours man! Mums never stop!) - but I think everyone has that potential to become a workaholic. Some have less potential than others (i.e. yours truly), but it's something for all of us freshies in the workforce to keep in mind. Easier said than done of course writes the one who skipped prayer meeting because she was 'too knackered' :(

Lord, help us to use every day for You. Help us to keep the important things in life important, and help us to do everything to glorify You always. You know the struggles we have in our lives, so Lord, please give us the strength that we need to overcome these now and in the future. In Jesus' name, Amen.

on the streets of perth

Vicks doin his thang - with Max Kay harassing him from behind

Barry, Vicks, Truc and I went for an impromptu street evangelism after lunch today. I have to say, it was a real blessing to have the opportunity to go out and do God's work with friends who have similar burdens. After Victor had a go at the Speaker's booth (more about it here or here), we had the opportunity to talk to one guy named Will for over an hour. We all had a go at talking to him but after a while, I felt that it wasn't going anywhere and decided that it was probably a waste of time to continue. But God bless the brothers for continuing to try because Will slowly lowered his guard and became more receptive, and started to listen more instead of talking.

We eventually got to share the full Gospel with him and God eventually led us to talk him through some of the questions he had in his mind. Thank God for giving us the wisdom to know what to chip in here and there.

I really thank God for today because I initially didn't really want to go, but went anyway (mostly because I had promised last week that I would definitely go this week). As usual, when an afternoon is spent for God, no regrets are felt. It feels really good to voluntarily go to the city and spend 'your' time for God (really, our time is God's). We will try to make an effort to go every Sunday - so feel free to join us.

AwesOMe news

I think my cousin, Jie Aom, is saved. Last night was the first time that I have talked to her since saying bye to her the night before she hopped on a plane back to Thailand. I was up last night doing nothing much when she popped online. My brother and I started talking to her and we eventually asked her about how she has been spiritually. She confirmed with us that she asked Christ to be her Lord and Saviour at Perth Airport before she got on the plane and told us that since she has been in Thailand, she hasn't worshipped any idols and has even been trying to tell her sister, Jie Aor, all about God (she was telling us that Jie Aor's main barrier is that she doesn't understand why Christians can't go to the temple and participate in Buddhist traditions - we all thought that was quite funny because Jie Aom had struggled with that for a long time before she eventually came to know Christ).

She told us that she doesn't worry as much about her life because she now knows that God will guide her and show her what to do :). She had a few issues with assurance of salvation but Adrian helped talk her with that quite a bit, and later when we asked her about what her eternal destination was to be - she said Heaven, and quoted a verse (in Thai, she has an online Thai Bible) that said if anyone believes in Christ, they will have eternal life! She also said she doesn't know everything about God, but she is believing first and learning along the way - which was really encouraging to hear.

I just really want to thank God for saving Jie Aom. I really really believe that she will be used so much in Thailand to do great things for Him and to bring lost Thai souls (including my family) to come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour! Thankyou to everyone who shared with my cousin while she was here as well as all of you who have been been praying for my cousin too! You guys are awesome - and I'm so blessed to have you all as such caring brothers and sisters in Christ (praise God! we have another sis in Christ!!).

Lord, thankyou so much for working in Jie Aom's heart and showing us Your loving care by bringing her into Your Kingdom. You are truly wonderful and faithful. Please continue to work in the hearts of the rest of my relatives too. Use Jie Aom as a vessel to bring them all to You, one by one, and continue to send a great revival in Thailand.

current reading

Bible: Acts, Job, Zechariah, Amos

Confessions of St Augustine - St Augustine

Boy Meets Girl - Josh Harris

Tired of to-do List Christianity - Scott Morton

As you can see - some books have been finished but most are still going... Hopefully I'll get some of these finished by the next reading update!

In the meantime, enjoy this video from the Tube. Veggie Tales' Boyz In The Sink sing their hit song 'Belly Button'. The lyrics are hilarious! :)



Mr. Lunt: Baby I know your eyes see right through my disguise
Boyz: (Larry, Jimmy, Junior): And no one can deny
Mr. Lunt: Baby that I’m the one whose love is no surprise
Boyz: And he can’t tell you no lie
Mr. Lunt: But there’s a secret I’ve been hidin’ I can’t keep it no more
Boyz: There’s this thing about himself he’s never told you before
Lunt: Baby!

Chorus:
Boyz: He needs to tell you something
Mr. Lunt: I don’t got a bellybutton
Oh I need to tell you something
Boyz: Have you figured out?
He don’t got a bellybutton
Boyz: Bellybutton no, oh no no

Mr. Lunt: Baby please don’t squeal, just tell me how you feel
Boyz: ‘Cause his love is for real
Mr. Lunt: And if you went away, my heart would never heal
Boyz: So to you he appeals
Mr. Lunt: There’s something missing in my middle and it’s hard to ignore
Boyz: There’s this thing about himself he’s never told you before
Lunt: Baby!

Chorus

Khalil: Bellybutton!
Boyz: Uh, uh
Khalil: Bellybutton!
Boyz: Uh, uh
Khalil: You say your bellybutton’s missing, there’s no reason for alarm
It’s a common thing for gourds, it won’t do you any harm
You’re technically a fruit and with that much being said;
Your umbilical equivocal is up there on your head!
You could opt for a prosthetic but of course you’d have to know
It’d be covered by your shirt, but not your HMO
Khalil: Bellybutton!
Boyz: Uh, uh
Khalil: Bellybutton
Boyz: Uh, uh

Mr. Lunt: a stylish something absent from my midriff’s décor
Boyz: There’s this thing about himself he’s never told you before
Lunt: Baby!

Boyz: He need to tell you something
Mr. Lunt: I don’t got a belly button
Oh I need to tell you something
Boyz: Have you figured out?
He don’t got a belly button
Boyz: Belly button no, oh no no
Lunt and Boyz: No belly button!

best buddies

This made me all warm and fuzzy inside when I read about it. You can read the story of these two little critters here. But I thought I would post up some piccies of them from the net. God is so awesome to allow us to experience and see thing like this! Owen the baby hippo (who was orphaned after a tsunami) was adopted by old-man Mzee (130 year-old tortoise) and have been best buddies ever since. Aaaaaaaaawwwww!! :)

the light of northbridge

Just wanted to quickly plug Kaio Cafe in Northbridge. FYI - Kaio actually means 'light' in Greek - true story!

Last Saturday the Evangelism Committee held the Creativity Workshop (which was awesome - see pic below) at Kaio - which is officially my new favourite place for coffee in Northbridge (Sorry Kosta's Cafe... I got a long mach from there today on the way back to the office from ATO)! Their muffins are YUM, there coffees are GOOD, their wedges are DELISH, there's SO many other yummy things to try - and the people are so nice too! (not to mention the prices which are pretty reasonable too!). What makes it even cooler is that it is actually run by Christians (YWAM - Youth With A Mission) - which I guess is why the people are so nice. It's the type of place that I would like to open someday (all you people who were thinking about starting a Christian Cafe - let's do it!!) so it's pretty inspiring to see something up and running that is so well-run.

The website is pretty spiffy too - http://www.kaio.com.au. So yeah, check it out someday - and I'll come with ya :)

pride and performace reviews

I have a problem with pride... I really really do - and if you don't agree with me, well it just means that you're not as smart as I am and obviously not as perceptive! :P hehehee.. But seriously, I find myself comparing myself with other people all the time, and it is so automatic that it scares me. I often only realise it only after I have already compared myself to them and made subsequent judgements as to whether I am better or worse than they are. It's a dumb thing to admit to, but it's true! I try not to let my thoughts influence who I talk to and how I talk to them or what I do and how I do it, but unfortunately this happens quite often.

So when I was told that I have to self-rate myself for a Performance Review with my boss, I was quite conflicted in the way that I would respond to the KPIs on the form. Where is the line between self-confidence and pride anyway? Are they the same thing? Can we (if we have really done a good job at work) be truthful and humble at the same time? I know a lot of you will be saying right now, 'give the glory back to God' - but I find that this is a hard thing to do in the workplace. To make it harder, I have been told by people at work that I need to 'sell myself' and 'talk myself up', but I just feel proud when I try to do this. What do you guys reckon? Drop a comment with your thoughts - I'm interested to know.

Well anyway, I wanted to thank God also that the Performance Review went pretty well. My boss took me out for coffee and basically told me she was really happy with how I have been going and really spent time with me nutting out areas that I can develop more with training (she even mentioned a pay rise will be coming up next month - YAY!). It is such a blessing to have a nice boss - it really is. I have heard some absolute horror stories when it comes to bosses, but my bosses so far have both been really supportive, so friendly and not the slightest bit intimidating at all. I don't think I could handle having a mean boss in my job because I stuff things up quite often and I would just get busted non-stop. So thank God for Gen! (Good thing no one from work reads this blog - otherwise I would be harassed for sucking up hehehe)

my day at QV1

I had my first day at the QV1 building today. As I have mentioned before, my work recently won a big tender with Chevron and I have been assigned to be one of their onsite Ergonomists for 2 days a week. My desk is on the 37th floor and there's a great view of, well, everything really! Chevron occupies several floors of QV1 and going from level to level, it's awesome to see how the view changes so much! And I thought C Restaurant had good views!

I am absolutely knackered after an early start and a day of induction and training but I thank God for the opportunity to hang out in a nice office with awesome views and coffee machines to start off my working week every week! Cool thing is, that the work is pretty easy the difficult thing will be learning all the processes and admin stuff. It also feels a bit weird because we took over from another company and the previous girls were pretty chummy with the current Chevron people that we work with - so I think it's going to be pretty awkward for a while.

It will also be strange being in workplaces every week (well really I am in 3, but the 3rd one is for a half day only) but it adds variety and keeps things interesting too. Well that's it really, I don't really have anything deep to share - just wanted to thank God once again for the cool job that He has blessed me with :)

sunday skool

I was back on Sunday School duty today and for the rest of the month. It's always pretty fun to teach Sunday School - I have a cool class (the youngins) and they always crack me up when I see them. It's quite easy to get a laugh out of the little sausages - the same jokes are always used and now even expected by them and it's great to see the kids in Sunday School have fun, have a laugh (or ten) and have a good time while learning at the same time.

I was really impressed today when all of them memorised their memory verse too. Usually it's like trying to get blood from a stone but I think the previous teacher really drummed it into them. They ALL did it and it was word for word correct! I should have recorded them saying the verse cos they sounded soooo cute! hehe.

The Sunday School kids often make me reminisce about the days when I was a little tike growing up in church and going to Sunday School. It's funny how some things never change. One of the girls once told me whilst smiling proudly ' I memorised the verse in the car on the way over here'... As I had a chuckle to myself, it brought back memories of me and my bro trying to memorise our memory verses in the car on the way to church too - I remember when we got to the end of Bombard Street and turned up toward Ullapool Road, that was the point at which I either felt ready or started panicking (usually the latter) and started REALLY trying to get it right before the car engine stopped and it was time to face the Sunday School teacher.

Certain teachers were real sticklers when it came to memory verses and wouldn't really give hints, whereas other Sunday School teachers gave hints too liberally (I used to want to tell them that I was smart enough and didn't need the hints - but I never had the guts). I like to think I am a bit in the middle - though with the bigger kids who have it all under control, I like to play the Memory Verse Nazi and ensure that the verse is recited to the exact punctuation marks etc too. hehe I know... But through emotional scarring, one grows to be stronger :) hehehe

Today I had no materials for my class which was a bit of a challenge. I kinda realised late last night (which is bad, but a reality in my tendency toward forgetfulness) that the materials that I had been given had been finished in May and I was told this morning that the new materials hadn't arrived yet (bum-bowm!). So I had to wing it totally. I spent the first part doing attendance (tried to drag that out a bit by mucking around with their names) and then I had a bit of a celebration with them (one of them mentioned they didn't have to go to school tomorrow and I promptly advised them that I didn't have to go to work and high fives were had all over). So that was the first 10 minutes. I still had about 50 minutes to use up. So it went a bit like this from hereon in:

Me: Ok guys... we don't have a story today
them: no story??
Me: yep no story. So uh... what is your favourite story in the Bible anyway
them: Jesus
Me: ooooo ok... what about Jesus?
them: Noah's Ark!
Me: *thinking* [did I miss something?]
them: Noah built the ark, and the rain came down so much, and all the animals were inside the ark, and then there was a rainbow
Me: Yeah that's right, what do we learn from Noah's ark?
them: rainbows... and Jesus!
Me: Ok... [*thinking* did I miss something?.. man these kids are random] what does the rainbow mean?
them: God made a promise to Noah.
Me: [finally!!] yeah that's right! Was God happy with Noah?
them: yes
Me: Why was God happy with Noah? Was he good or bad?
them: good!
Me: how about the people who lived in Noah's time? were they good or bad?
them: bad! They killed people and wrote things on the wall..
Me: [what??] yeah... So what do you think God wants us to be?
them: good!
Me: [ok.. that will do - there's a lesson there already!] Alrighty then, how bout we draw Noah's Ark?

OK it was pretty dodgy, but I had to think on my feet alright - and I didn't feel really well either so that's the best I could come up with! Hopefully, there will be material for next Sunday (I seriously won't take the Sunday School material for granted from now on!). But yeah, as you can see, it's pretty fun to teach Sunday School - the kids are always good for a laugh and it's great to see them really enjoy themselves at church too! I would encourage anyone out there to have a go at teaching Sunday School - there's always room for more teachers and assistants. You can learn a lot from the youngins and you will also have a great time too! :)

On another note: a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Carinesky! Love ya heaps babe! :D

i LOVE this pic!

This is such a cool shot taken by David during the last City Evangelism! When I saw this picture, it really really really warmed my heart. On Victor's blog, there were some pics of the blue shirt boy reading the tract and then the boy in the black shirt not looking interested at first, but then slowly moving closer to the blue-shirt boy and eventually having a read of the tract himself :)

Call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you know not [Jeremiah 33:3]

30 acts of love

Last night at Regeneration, the 30in30 for acts of love was kicked off. So in the coming month, every day we are supposed to do one act of love (three differnt categories - encouragement, giving, and actions I think). I think it will be a really good exercise for me personally because I reckon I can be a pretty self-centred person (last night at Fast Eddy's, people said I was spoilt cos I am the only daughter in my family - which I still maintain is a totally false accusation! I just have a lot of stuff cos I need it ok?) and that is something that I really want to change. It's difficult though because it's what comes naturally to me (and I guess any other human) - it's my default way of thinking. So hopefully, the coming month will be a step toward more selfless thinking by doing more acts of love.

Let me see if I can remember the memory verse now... John 15:9... OK... all I can remember is the last bit that says continue ye in my love or something like that. Crap! It's only been a day and I have forgotten already! I seriously dunno how the Sunday School kids do it! Alright, gonna open Sword Searcher...

Right, John 15:9 (at least I remembered the reference!):

As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

Man... it's so SHORT! I'm so heading toward dementia when I get old... OK.. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love, John 15:9. Yay! (just so you know, I didn't peek ok?).