Thursday, June 30, 2005

I'm home!

After 3 whole weeks of overseas trip in summer places, Tomika and I arrived back in the winter Melbourne this morning after hours of sitting in a plane and in airports. The jetlag wasn't too bad although I only managed to catch a few hours sleep on the plane. After I got back, I spent some time with my beloved mum, caught up with some sleep this afternoon before having dinner with my dear friend candice who just turned 21 today! It was so good to see her as I missed her very much!

It's nearly midnight. I now feel semi-normal, although it's kind of hard to relax after so much adrenalin has been pumped into my system for the past few weeks (and the over 300 photos to upload)! I am looking forward to spending more time processing, reflecting on the things I'd learned and special blessings during the trip, catching up with friends and work (no kidding!) and settling back into a rountine of day-to-day living.

I feel that I have been much blessed and I am being much blessed. I want to take joy wherever I go. I want to pass every blessing on. I want to pass on the God-currents to others. I want to be a transmitter of God's love. I want to love and laugh. I want to cheer and seek to understand others.

During the trip, I learned that I can see God in the dull, the normal, the uninteresting, the sinful, the critical, and even the miserable (yes i've seen quite a few of those). I can see God in the laughter of children and the sweetness of old age, in the courage of youth and the patience of man and womanhood. No matter where we are, we can see God!

Will share more in the days ahead.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Fellow Bloggers

Thanks Christop, Silvin, Kel and you all fellow bloggers for your support, encouragement and prayers while I am overseas. I've been missing the internet and blogging, and although i've had a ball, I am glad that i'll be home soon. Then I can restart blogging daily again. Oh boy how I miss that routine. Anyway, I've taken heaps of pictures, something like over 300 (including with my DC and films), and I'm looking forward to posting them up to share with you what i've been up to when I am in Europe when I come back.

Hey Christop, you've got to come to my place after I come back to show me the "Hello Piccasa" photo thingi k? Kel would love to tell you more about the arty things that I've experienced too.

Will be back in a few days and catch ya all again here soon.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Times in Europe


Greeting from the sunny London! My times in Europe (Paris & London) have been fantastic! Meeting with the people working there has been inspiring and challenging. I've had 5 new kinds of food one day in Paris, and gained many new impressions and insights too. I praise God for all that.

The dish on the left is the appetizer hosted by an Antillean family (from Guadeluope) in Paris, whose church was planted by World Team missionaries years ago. Their sharing and commitment to the Lord has really inspired me. I pray that God will continue to bless them and their ministries to serve people in France.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Christian Arts

The CCBC English Drama Team did a play called "The Onion Life" two years ago, where the role that I played contemplated suicide. I remember having to struggle with the controversy that came with it. I watched that play on DVD again tonight, and was reminded of the discussion we had at Ignition regarding truth in art.

Is it ok for Christians to portray negative or so called “evil things” (eg: suicide scenes) in their art? In church history, when drama was used in churches, there was concern about whether evil characters (like Satan or Judas Iscariot etc) should be used in these plays.

There was an example mentioned during Ignition about a play that seeked to communicate what it meant to be a virtuous woman. It was eventually decided that in order to show what a virtuous woman was like, a woman with the exact opposite was portrayed in the play – and quite a lot of discussions and debates resulted. Another side of the argument says that 'Christian' art can end up making evil ‘better’ than it really is, or avoiding portraying evil at all.

Monday, June 06, 2005

Europe

My lovely workmate Tomika and I leave for Europe on Thursday morning. We'll be away for just on 3 weeks so posts might not be as frequent. Still wondering if I should bring my laptop with me or not.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Intergenerational Worship Celebration

Today at CCBC during the Connect Worship Celebration, we had an intergenerational 'service' where the children, youth, uni students, adults and family all worshipped together corporately. The theme was on CCBC in mission, and I was given the opportunity to plan for the flow (logistics) of the worship celebration to introduce the missionaries at CCBC. We had praise and worship (with actions), puppetry, powerpoint presentation, flash presentation and interactive prayer.

Apart from the ambivalence about the differences between emerging missional church and mainline church, I found that even within the mainstream churches, there are so many various ways of 'doing church'. And intergenerational worship celebrations can really be among the most intriguing, moving, memorable and yet challenging worship services a congregation can 'produce' (yet I really don't like this word because of the consumeristic tone to it). Some people have seen it work well, but most confess that 'success' does not come as often as they'd like (then again what is success???). The truth is that it's not easy to 'structure' or 'plan' worship so that it engages, challenges and satisfies a wide array of ages, needs and learning styles. But I do see the benefits of intergenerational gathering - the followings are some of them:

  • Families whose parents are busy are looking for ways to spend meaningful time with their children that will spur them to further sharing and conversation.
  • Intergenerational worship often provides an avenue for interaction and integration between older and younger members of a community.
  • It can work well at introducing / integrating new members into a congregation as well as providing ways for older, harder to get to know members to become more accessible and more part of the growing, changing social life of a community.
  • It gives the younger members an experience of seeing what adults do when they worship.
  • It's been said that effective intergenerational worship is often one of the most common characteristics shared by our fastest growing churches.
  • Intergenerational Worship can be fun, memorable and meaningful!

I wonder what you think about Intergenerational worship / gathering.

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Seeds of Hope China

Tonight I went to an evening function hosted by "Partners International" focusing on the project "Seeds of Hope", and I found the program very meaningful. The Seeds of Hope program is forming partnerships to provide food, clothing and education to 1,000 underpriviledge children in Asia. With gift of $30 per month children's lives can be transformed. They will be fed, clothed and will learn to read and write. They will also learn of the love of God. Children are really precious and valuable. It is true that unperprivileged children can't escape the devastating effects of poverty and fulfil their full potential.

If you are interested in knowing more, you can read their website here.

Friday, June 03, 2005

Schapelle Corby

Having watched the news footages of Schapelle Corby, who was found guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in Indonesia last Friday (27 May), I have been thinking about it this past week. I must admit I don't know whether Schapelle is really guilty or not, yet I have this huge 'burden' in my heart to want to know the truth (just like I want to know the truth in many other things)!

On the other hand, I feel that the debate over her verdict very interesting. A lot of people (including myself in the beginning) declare her innocence without really knowing the truth, they just assume she is innocent based on the fact that she looks innocent (well that was my first impression anyway), or the emotions that she showed in the court.

I do pray that her newfound faith in God during her time in prision is sincere. Something I'll watch with interest as well....

Pilate's question: "what is truth?" keeps coming to my mind these past few days! As I've found that I feel ambivalent about many things lately, apart from Corby's case.

Interested in others' thoughts.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Sick Leave

Today was the first day I needed to take a sick leave in the whole year. I have had the onset of the cold for a week now. Have been taking various sorts of tablets / chinese meds and drinks etc., and thought I got better, but this morning when I got up a huge tiredness and then headache embraced me. I told myself I would be better after my shower, but nah! I felt like I was going to 'collapse', so I went straight back to bed and rested for almost the rest of the day, goes to show that I am still pretty easily 'attacked' by the cold weather!

Oh Lord I really need to be more disciplined in engaging in physical exercise, I'm almost certain that is the reason why I get the cold / flu so easily.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Putting Pictures On Blog Through Hello

Pardon my ignorance, but I've downloaded Hello for ages now, yet still haven't got around to learning how to put pictures on my blog here. Can someone give me a quick tute on that?

Or is there any other easier way of putting up photos in blogspot?
Four directions for a Christian to look:

Look back—and praise Him,
Look up—and trust Him,
Look around—and serve Him,
Look ahead –and expect Him.