out with some sculptures, down by the sea...

Sculptures by the Sea at Cottesloe Beach happened a few weeks ago now. But being the lazy blogger that I am, I am only uploading the pictures now.

The funniest thing was seeing a young girl (only about 8 years old or something) pose with hands on hips and butt pointed out, completed with a I'm-so-hot-right-about-now-face. It was funny to see, but sad to know that kids these days seem to be quickly losing their innocence. I'm determined to raise children (if indeed I have children some day), who actually have a childhood, and who don't grow up sooner than they have to. I think that's kind of how we were raised by our parents, and I really thank God for that. There's just something really unwholesome about a lot of kids these days - but I guess that's just a sad result of the overall moral decline in the rest of society.

ANYWAY, let's have a look at some cool sculptures!

get a hole lot more outta life

I call it 'the air tree'

tribute to canned soup - I like it

this one isn't a sculpture.. he was about to bark at me! haha

my favourite one

adelbourne trip

So it's been nearly a week since i have come back from Adelaide and Melbourne. The trip was really good - lots of blessings along the way. Of course, the highlight was seeing Barry wed Juanita in a really beautiful ceremony and reception. I'm not the type that gets emotional at the drop of a hat - but if something gets to me, a few tears might slip out. On 13 March 2009, rumour has it that a few tears may have slipped out.

It was such a nice wedding, it was a great reminder that God knows exactly what He's doing when it comes to bringing a couple together in marriage, and gave the assurance, that God has someone who will be the perfect fit for each of us - and that He will bring that someone to us in His perfect time.

Giving the guests the opportunity to blow bubbles outside was just the icing on the cake!

Melbourne can be summed up with the following - food, coffee, shopping, funky architecture, and fellowship. The wooden rollercoaster at Luna Park in St Kilda was a bit of a highlight, especially when it felt like the cart came off the rails! Fully sik to the max bro!

After a few weeks of indulging in food, and coming back to Perth (and eating out even more), I think it's diet time. The muffin top must go! haha

Here are some pics...

overcoming evil with good

I have heard this sermon before, but circumstances have prompted me to listen to it again. This is super hard, but it's what God wants me to do, and therefore I gotta try my best to do it. I think I will listen to this one a few times until it sinks in.

1. Don't seek revenge [Proverbs 24:28-29].

2. Trust the Lord to do right [Proverbs 20:22].

3. Don't rejoice when your enemy falls [Proverbs 24:17]. The wicked WILL stumble, but we should not rejoice when it happens. God doesn't like it when we rejoice (even secretly) when our enemies fall.

4. Overcome evil with good [Proverbs 25:21, Matthew 5:44-45]. On top of not rejoicing we need to be nice to them too. We need to show them Christ's love - because it's biblical.

I recommend this sermon. It's short and it's message will save a lot of hurt :)


This picture will make sense if you listen to the sermon :)

digital diary

It's kinda funny looking back on photos taken in the last month or so to see what had happened in your life. I was just doing that just then and it was really quite interesting. I'll share a few random moments with the greater web-dom just because I can.

Photo: The white hair
Story: Julia, for some reason that I forget, was looking at my head and suddenly exclaimed 'Rowas! You have a white hair!', surprised and somewhat intrigued, I asked her to pluck it for me to have a look. As sure as the sun, there it was - a bright white strand which had taken it's place amongst my ebony locks. I took it home, had a bit of a show and tell to my family and then took a photo. Why? I don't know. I just did.

Photo: Group photo in Freo
Story: As part of Orientation Day activities, our church ran a free tour of Perth for all new students to attend. We took them on a tour around Fremantle, Cottesloe Beach, King's Park, the Bell Tower, Perth City and East Perth. This was the one and only photo taken by me on the day because I had volunteered to be one of the Tour Guides and had not the time to take photos. This photo was taken on the Cappuccino Strip of Freo, and this was part of my group, about 3 or 4 of them had wandered off to take a photo of a bin shaped like an ice cream when we took this one just before it was time to jump back on the bus. Thank God for not only great weather, but also for a great day out getting to know some really nice folks :)

Photo: The fan from inside my computer
Story: The day I tried to fix my computer. 'Tried to' are the main words as I am now using my Dad's laptop to blog this post as my current computer is still dead. So sad. You can read the whole heart-breaking story here.

Photo: Upside-down plum cake
Story: I baked this cake for Caleb's birthday. It was the first time I made an upside-down cake and it turned out pretty good. Baking is one of those simple pleasures that are just so satisfying. I don't bake as much as I used to, but still quite enjoy it.

Photo: A shot of God's awesome creation in the sky
Story: Beach Games 2009. An annual orientation event. we invite new students to come with us to the beach for some games and dinner. Always a popular event, this year, many new people came and we all had a great time soaking up the sun, sand sculpting, chasing each other around with water bombs and sitting on the beach watching the waves come in and out.

Photo: At Utopia with Claudia
Story: Claudia came back to Perth for her graduation and I have to say, it was such an enjoyable time with her. Some people just have that knack for telling stories, and Claudia is definitely one of them. she also adds in these hilarious sound effects and actions and in this picture, here are a few of us demonstrating one of them. If you don't find it funny, you had to be there hehe.

Photo: The welcome wall
Story: We spent a few hours decorating the Fellowship hall for the Welcome Dinner for new students. This was an idea from Truc, inspired by Ikea. We added our own personal touches and a few hours later, Voila!


Photo: Brekky at the Lefty with PJ and Bro. Sam.
Story: Pastor James was in Perth for the last few weeks and was such a blessing. A few of us had breakfast with him and Bro. Sam at the Left Bank and just had a great time of fellowship and coffee while relaxing in the great weekend atmosphere.


Photo: :)
Story: This never gets old.


Photo: coffee with Sixian
Story: In a busy month of people visiting, we took Sixian out a few times while she's here in Perth. It has been really good seeing her for the last few days. It's almost as if she has never been away.


Photo: Supa Golf
Story: We took Sixian out to the Swan Valley today and took this shot at the end of 9 holes of Supa Golf. The observant few among you may notice the picture indicates we were at the 18th hole. As today was a public holiday, and we did not book, we were told to start from the 10th hole and go up to 18 instead of doing from 1 to 9. This proved to be a more difficult task than expected and the course, which takes normal people about an hour to do, took us two and a half hours. Yep, two and a half hours of running after balls, screaming 'NOOOOOOOO! Don't roll down the hill', looking in the bush for balls, interrupting other people's games because our ball landed in the middle of their course, and putting like Happy Gilmore on the green (in the first part of the movie before he gets good). It was pretty tiring but heaps of fun.

He's still on the throne

Church has gone through some tough times in the last few months. I've seen and heard some things that have been disappointing to say the least. A few months down the track, it's sad to see that the scheming has continued and that there continues to be people doing all they can to destroy the fellowship between bretheren. The more I hear about such things, the more it saddens my heart and the more I know it saddens God's heart too.

I have had to keep reminding myself that the battle faced is a spiritual one and as such, should be dealt with spiritually. Evil cannot be repayed by evil. The unforgivable need to be forgiven. And Rowena needs heaps of grace from God to try to make that happen. It's so very tempting to hold a grudge (especially if it seems to be well-deserved), but it's so very wrong. I know it in my head, but I am still trying to live it through my heart.

As saddening as the situation can be, I have to admit, most of the time I have been pleasantly distracted with serving God - and through this I have been reassured (many times) that God is still with our church. He is still on the throne, He is still in control. Our church continues to keep serving the Lord as fervently as ever (if not, more fervently). God's blessings continue to shower upon His people, and have extinguished the fiery darts that had been hurled our way. Though the church has been attacked on several fronts, she continues to be strengthened by the grace of God. God is doing a great work in our church.

It has been a joyous step in my faith to see God work in His church, teaching her, protecting her, blessing her, prospering her, and helping her overcome her trials. He truly loves His church and will continue to defend her jealously. And the best thing is - this ain't gonna change! He will, and always will, still be on His throne. God is awesome!

my attempt at being miss fix-it

I haven't blogged for a while now and the reason will be explained in this post.

For a few months now, my computer has been a bit temperamental. Sometimes when I turned on the computer, it would fail to boot up and instead started beeping incessantly. When it did this, it would sometimes turn on normally after I had turned it off and then turned it back on again, but a few weeks ago, it seemed as though the beeping was there to stay.

I asked Google and my brothers what I should do, and discovered that the reason for such an occurrence was due to a build up of dust in the computer. So operation de-dust began. First step, opening the computer. After undoing a whole heap of screws, that in the end, did not need to be undone, and re-screwing them in, I discovered there was one large screw on the computer that could be undone by hand. I unscrewed the large (and quite obvious screw). The side of the computer could then be slid away quite easily. First der-brain moment overcome.

I was now confronted with a whole bunch of electrical looking things - wires, green boards with metal bits on them and two fans. Which one do I take out and how does one go about removing it to clean it anyway? Enter my brother. After fiddling around with some levers and internal brackets, the fan came out and I proceeded outside to begin cleaning.

Second der-brain moment - blowing into the fan thing and then getting dust all over my face. I soon learned to blow and then quickly snap upwards to avoid another face-full of dust. It's really amazing to see how much dust gets into one of these little babies. Incredible. When I was satisfied with my de-dusting attempts, I then went back into the house and tried to re-insert the fan.

This took a fair while, but was done eventually.

Now for the moment of truth. I plugged everything in, braced myself for more beeping (meanwhile making sure I didn't have a cricket bat or something I could bash the computer up with - the beeping can be quite frustrating you know), and then switched the power on.

NO BEEPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoooooooooohooooooo! I started yelling at the computer! Take that fool! I beat you this time! Whooooooooo! Yeah!

Minutes passed and the screen remained black. This isn't cool. The computer seemed to be running, the fan was working beautifully, the light on the computer was on, and most importantly, the brain-numbing beeping had ceased. But the screen was black, the keyboard lights weren't on, and yep, not even the mouse light had switched off. The forecast did not look good. Not good at all.

Now the computer couldn't be switched off as well. It was mocking me. I unplugged the power cord and felt a strange sense of anger, frustration and a little satisfaction all at the same time.

I consulted Google again. Google advised me (through other unfortunate souls who had encountered the same situation) that I had most likely touched something I shouldn't have touched and had therefore killed my computer. I had given it the touch of death. Third der-brain moment. Miss Fix-it had failed miserably. The computer was beyond repair.

I sat there for a few minutes in disbelief and then sulkily walked outside to watch TV. I could count on the TV to turn on at least.

So now the computer resides in it's normal spot, but the familiar hum that used to keep me company in my room is now long gone. I will have to take the old girl to someone who knows what they're doing to see if there's any hope for her.

In the meantime, I'm stuck with all the reject computers in the Cheng household that nobody uses cos they're too slow. So gay.

don't diss the bald guy

This passage in 2 Kings I thought was funny. The naughty kids in Bethel tried to make fun of Elisha as he passed through...

2 Kings 2:23-24 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

And then got ripped up by some angry Mama bears... Moral of the story. Don't call people names. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will cause a bear to rip you up!