mission blog :D

http://daikondiaries.blogspot.com/

blog for mission! :)

please keep Japan and the teams in your prayers + check back for updates + please comment :D

THANK YOU!!

2 weeks to go!

Haven't blogged for a while.. haha how has everyone been?


There's only 2 weeks to go until mission.
Wait, I lie. 2 weeks and 2 days, 3 exams, 3 21sts, 1 20th and 1 more Mission Team meeting to go.
:(

See what I mean when I say that it feels like a lot but not a lot at the same time?


Am pretty excited though; stayed up until 3am setting up and blogging on the new mission blog & making a powerpoint to share about the Omagari mission @ FCG on Friday night... kinda scared but after Euge's sermon on Sunday.. I think I have to remember that God tells us that He has a harvest ready and no matter how hard it seems in the mission field, don't be discouraged because God is faithful :) Reading the Manders' newsletter (missionaries at the church we're going to) it's made me realise how impatient I am to see fruit in ministries - they talk about a lady who has shown no interest in Christianity despite coming to worship services for years despite other Christian women sharing their faith with her consistently... until really recently when she asked another sister to read the bible with her! Praise God so so much :) It's really made me repent and see that God has His perfect timing for everything that isn't the same as the time we see..

Will update with the link soon. :)

At the moment, preparing for exams (1 at a time!) is quite draining :( and realising that I do need to take better care of people around me + myself by resting more and being more alert! Major shoutout to John for the notes and I hope you get that position with LSS :)

Really praise God this week by guiding me through changing my major from Int Business to Finance :) I think He really made me realise (read something on Prov 31) how blessed I am to be given the chance to study Business (that I've always whined about and hated) and to be equipped with valuable skills to serve my family, my future family (yay!), church family + others who don't know Christ :) From now on I shall no longer hate but study with joy +; thankfulness! If I'm complaining, someone please remind me! =P I also realise how precious it is to have older sisters in Christ I can ask for wise and godly advice :) many thanks to the brothers + sisters who reminded me that God can be using whatever we're doing to serve and glorify Him.

On another note, am so so excited that Gracepoint Burwood will be so close to Westfield's (and so close to my old house!), and am currently praying and thinking about whether I should go to the Lidcombe Evening service plant next year. God has been so gracious in the mission opportunities He has provided even though our church was having a lot of stress with having nowhere to meet for service, and just a whole lot of uncertainty but God uses these things to make us realise that we only need to rely on Him in prayer, be willing to go wherever He tells us to, and to be ready to hold out the gospel to everyone and anyone :) Please be praying for the ministry God has given to the church to be reaching out and training international students in Cumbo & even (maybe) starting a Christian youth group @ Homebush Boys! :D

I have decided to stay at Burwood Extreme for another year to encourage + support to my lovely little sisters who are starting Year 12! :D It is my prayer that these youth will be serving and loving and growing in Him even when the stress hits! I'm really looking forward to making support packs for you girls + shouting you guys de-stressing cafe adventures + iced chocolates/coffees :)
 - I shouldn't forget my brother in all this.. okay I'll be nicer to you from now on :D

Also, am thinking of going to KYLC and doing Children's Ministry Strand 1 next year, and really praying that many of the Extremers will come and be equipped with how to read + lead with His word :) Seriously, I thank God so much for the way He has been growing you guys this year to step up to lead! So so encouraged!


It is now 12.32am and time for me to sleep so I can make the last 10AM Constitutional lecture tomorrow morning. For once :) Love you all :D


Another thought I had today was that I should really stop fangirling over groups like Big Bang, etc etc. :( I admit I get infatuated/obsessed with things and constantly just maul over it. Approaching the age of 20, time to grow up, further understand my identity in + mature in Christ :)

1 Corinthians 13:11

¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 

Came back with some photos!

FBF!!!! I accidentally thought my cheatsheet was scrap paper so ran over it with my chair a few times. :(

the mission team to Omagari/Sapporo :)

haha white radishes are roots - like ROOTEd in Christ, get it? ;D also, vegetables can't plant or grow themselves, they have to be planted and grown by Christ :)

it's also because we were thinking of what to cook for the Australian Outreach Nights and we realised that we needed a lot of vegetables, but apparently it's really expensive in Japan, so we were (jokingly) going to bring 25kg of potatoes, carrots, apples etc from Australia) :P

How to be Content

I found this Recipe For Contentment in SMH this morning.. what do you guys think of it? I wonder what the reactions would be if added to that list was "Have a partner who considered his glory above all else"..

RECIPE FOR CONTENTMENT

Have a happy partner

Don't be overworked or underworked

Prioritise family and community, and have a partner who does so as well

Don't be materialistic

Don't be obese

On other notes, I am super sick and have had to miss out on everything this week - though I had a very fun midsem break, where I did crazy things like...

PIZZA HUT BUFFET with the girls from uni,

go fabric shopping @ cabramatta + parramatta (!),

go to EXTREME CAMP!!!!! (which was the best camp EVER) where we learnt a lot about growth, bonded a lot with each other, served each other in wacky ways and just had an awesome time,

watch Despicable Me, had Korean food at this restaurant in this alleyway in the city which was really good & went to the Lindt Cafe all in the same day,

went on a walk with Focus from Bondi to Bronte to Coogee + had hotpot afterwards @ the summerhill manor,

went to the Maculty BBQ @ Kat's & had a seminar @ credo about relationships which was quite practical + useful, then had a japan mission meeting,

watched the final episode of MY GIRLFRIEND IS A GUMIHO with viv @ church, visited studylounge where heaps of year 12s were studying & had dinner with some FCG people @ darling harbour, followed by some awesome hat game fun :),

went to Brendan Wong's 21st dressed as villains (I went as the wolf who ate the grandma from little red riding hood.. Ninja still couldn't guess after very obvious clues!! =P )

and yeah.. going out everyday is probably how I got sick. :(

BUT IT WAS AWESOME :) okay, back to bed!

quite a rebuke :)

Ministering When It's Inconvenient

Posted on 02.19.10 by Erin Davis
Topics: Impacting your world, Relationships with Others

In Matthew 15:29, we find Jesus trying to rest on a mountainside. He barely sat down when a crowd of people came to Him looking to be healed. How did He respond? He healed them.

When Jesus received word that His cousin, John the Baptist, had been killed, He tried to grieve alone. But crowds of people followed Him and begged for His attention. Scripture tells us that instead of hiding in His grief, He had compassion and healed the sick in the crowd (Matthew 14:13–14).

On the night before Jesus was betrayed, He didn't hide out. He didn't run away. He spent the evening with His disciples. He even took the time to serve them by washing the mud from their feet (John 13:1–17).

If we look closely, we find an interesting pattern. We know that Jesus spent His time on earth serving others. But have you ever considered how often He ministered when it was inconvenient?

He served others when He was tired.
He served others when He'd have rather been alone.
He served others when He was sad.
He served others when He'd been serving non-stop for days and days.
He served others when things went terribly wrong in His own life.
He even served others when He knew His own death was right around the corner.

I am deeply challenged by this truth. You see, I don't mind serving others when it's convenient for me. I like to help out when it works into my schedule or fits into my agenda for the day. But there are lots of times when ministry is inconvenient. I'm tired. I'm stressed. I've got more important things to do than to meet the needs of those around me. Under those circumstances, I feel justified in giving priority to my own needs and temporarily ignoring the needs of others.

But this isn't how Jesus lived. It isn't how Jesus served. And it isn't what He wants from you and me.

The reality is, serving others requires sacrifice. If we only do it when it's convenient, we're missing the point.

What's keeping you from serving like Jesus? Will you let Him inconvenience you today?

The creeping up of Spring

Heavy sunshine and cool breezes.

Spring and Summer, how I have missed thee.

It didn't seem too long ago that I wore my black thongs everyday in the summer, running around. Yet as I tried them on again, it made me feel like I was meeting my cousins again after a few years; cousins who I could be very close with, yet every time we meet for the first time, there's an awkward shyness, a foreign feeling and sometimes some discomfort when we don't fit together as well as we used to.

Nowadays it doesn't feel like I'm stopping.. there's always something to be done after something else. I'm longing for that time where I'll get to sit around and gaze at insignificant things; the things I never get time to pay attention to.

I've actually been spending a lot of time on sewing and just simple craft design blogs lately. Among my favourites is A Little Red Ribbon - I've realised that a lot of these ladies who run these blogs are mothers who want to express their creativity whilst loving the people around them, and they're a wonderful read.

Bizarrely, the fact that there's only 2 and a half months to go until Japan startles me. So little time.. yet I can feel that God is still teaching me day to day, whether I realise it or not.

Yesterday while on the bus, the gusty winds swung the whole vehicle from side to side - it was quite scary, really. Lately I've been quite unsettled and unsure about some things, and my bookmark that I was quite sure was randomly placed, brought me to Psalm 13 in the bible.

How Long, O LORD?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

¹How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
²How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

³Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
⁴ lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him,"
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

⁵But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
⁶I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Euge has been telling us to do this thing for ages: pondering on the words the psalmist uses, why they use that word, where else in the bible it's used...

Trying that yesterday, it takes a long time to ponder over a single psalm - I can see how someone could be thinking about this for a whole day, or even a whole week!

What does the word steadfast mean? Why does David trust so much in this steadfast love? Should we be trusting in it? What does it mean to be trusting in it? Why does he use the word steadfast and not anything else, for surely God's love is not just steadfast? Is God the only place/one we can find steadfast love in?

Why does David rejoice? Why does it find joy, when the rest of his psalm is in such a longing tone? What does it mean for us to be rejoicing even when we're asking God for answers?

What is the salvation that David speaks of? If the salvation as we know it comes from Jesus, is David referring to Jesus, the one who was promised by God? Or is it another type of salvation, such as from war?

Because. It's a big word. BECAUSE of what He's done already, I'll sing to him - David doesn't say, I'll sing to him so He'll deal with me bountifully... and what does bountifully mean anyway?


Hmm...

Praise God also for Credo mission on campus :) I liked John Smuts' talk on 'If I were God I'd end the Suffering' especially, and the Muslim & Christian debate was especially eye opening -I realise that I have a lot of reading up to do. Be sure to check out the video/audio recordings on the Credo website!

.. and then there's reading for the Constitutional law essay.

6 Items or Less

While surfing Soompi last night and throughout today, armed with a sewing machine, looking for ideas on what to make for a 21st present (which I found heaps of ideas on in the Show Me Your Creations! thread (everything is awesomely cute), I came across the thread Six Items of Clothing where some Soompiers were discussing whether it would be possible to wear the same 6 items of clothing for a whole month, not including underwear and accessories.

Upon a bit of reflection, many of Mum's lectures and nags about how I don't wear most of the things in my wardrobe, come to mind. PeiChi told me about her workmate who clears her wardrobe and only shops for 10 items of clothing per season, and when that season is over, she donates/throws the clothes away and starts new with 10 new ones. Pretty revolutionary when I first heard it.

However, the thread linked to a site called Six Items or Less, which is where the original, and actual project started worldwide. About 100+ people joined in the challenge of selecting and committing to wearing 6 items of clothing, and wearing it indifferent combinations; one woman claimed her husband didn't even notice, and another girl, her parents. Pretty amazing right? Day in and day out, many around the world blogged about their adventure/journey/plight/nightmare or whatever it was, and it's amazing reading about them getting to the finish line and reflecting on the change they have gone through in their lives, whether it be moving out of home and into college, or travelling on a trip overseas.

I've always had an issue with overpacking on camp; I think it's the Asian inside me... or my mum constantly reminding me that I could do no wrong by carrying extra, whether it be camp in Year 2, camp in Year 7, Duke of Ed in Year 9 and 10, travelling overseas to HK (where my parents tell me that I'm going to buy lots of clothes anyway), or even law camp last year, where the bus driver smirked/laughed at me asking, "So how many days are you going for?" as I loaded by bag on the bus. I didn't answer and just smiled embarrassedly, running away - wait, make that half running away, because of the shell on my back, which was in reality the huge Duke of Ed-style backpack my mum encouraged me to bring.

So the thought of travelling for almost two months at the end of the year scares me a bit, because I know I will be packing sooo much, despite advice to pack lightly as we'll be moving around and travelling alot. That, and because I doubt and in fact do not wish for my arms to be fully built after a semester of studying Constituitional and Contracts - after all, as Cheryl says, we're law students and not bodybuilders.

Hey, while we're talking about textbooks, really praising God for the people he's put around me and the facilities he's placed to help me not buy my textbooks this sem (because I'm cheap...) and a major shoutout to Jonolee for always being so awesome and lending me his business textbooks, even when there is such a high demand for the finance textbook :D you're the best!!! & hopefully borrowing and renewing the law textbooks at the library will get me through!

Anyway, so about packing for holidays, let me link you to a fantastic blog entry on 6 items or less by this girl who travelled a whole month overseas with 6 items of clothing, taking 5 minutes to pack (it usually takes me at least a few hours.. and perhaps a week for a 3 day hike! There's always something I manage to forget as well..).

I'll post some extracts of her entry:

My 6 included a pair of leggings, a skirt, 3 tops, and a knit jacket and let’s face it skirts aren’t really travel friendly clothing. Desperately needed another pair of leggings but was determined not to buy another one. As a result of which I think I’ve extracted as much value as I could out of that $10 I spent buying them...
..
By the way, my parents didn’t notice that I was wearing the same 6 day in and day out. A few years back I’d have gotten a good listening for not being well turned out, etc. Guess I managed decently with the 6. Also, a few of the guys I know have been swearing they live in 6 pieces (4 shirts + 2 trousers) of clothing any way. They just get a new set of the same every 6 months. Hmmm… (my note: word!)
..

All in all here’s what I got from my 1 month:

– No need for spares. Be it clothing or stationery or anything else.

+ Leggings are awesomely comfortable. And they hang-dry way quicker than jeans

+ Check for longer lasting clothes. And bang for buck.

+ What doesn’t fit you anymore will surely fit someone else. Give it away

+ People aren’t always watching you and noting what you wear.

+ If you’re comfortable and okay, it’s all okay

+ it’s not difficult to stick to a routine,

especially when you’ve got a 100 other people doing the same thing :)

It brought a smile to my face the joyfulness and just enthusiasm these ladies (and gentlemen!) had on the blog, and I could tell they learnt a lot about being less.. wasteful (?) with their wardrobes... and there's ANOTHER amazing project this girl did called The Uniform Project where she (and others now!) committed to wearing this one particular black dress for 365 days a year with different accessories and items and stuff, to raise awareness for children who couldn't afford education, and she donated the money that she got donated to these children, and ended up raising $103,374 = 287 kids in school! Her outfits are quite amazing though, and you could hardly notice them at all :)

Sooooo, yes. I'm sitting at the library now waiting for Credo Public Meeting to start, and was going to do some law readings when I came across this! Hope you guys enjoyed reading and I'll keep sharing interesting things I find with you guys :D

Something I spotted in a signature =)

Question:
If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who already had 8 kids -- three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?

Answer: If you said YES, you just killed Beethoven.

Mission Prep Update #1 Prayer group

Hey guys, preparation for the mission at the end of the year has confirmed dates now, and one of the things I'd like to do is to get a bunch of friends who would be willing to pray for me while I'm are in Japan & I'd love to keep in touch with you guys, updating you with what's happening in the preparation and while we're in Japan with a prayer letter/email/newsletter :)

Please let me know by telling me your email address and thanks so much for supporting us through prayer :)

Personality Test

You are an ENFP (Extravert, Intuitive, Feeler, Perceiver)

ENFPs represent between 6 and 8% of the U.S. population

Curious, energetic, adaptable, and creative, ENFPs like considering unconventional approaches. They enjoy batting around ideas and finding creative solutions and are energized and intrigued by new possibilities and anything out of the ordinary. ENFPs tend to be talkative, enthusiastic, playful, and generally fun-loving people. Warm and caring, ENFPs have strong personal values upon which they base most decisions. Conversations with ENFPs can be very circular as they excitedly move from one topic to the next, making connections and associations.

Unconventional and occasionally irreverent, they pride themselves on their uniqueness and originality. Optimistic, and spontaneous, ENFPs have a strong sense of the possible. For them, life is an exciting drama. Because they are so interested in possibilities, ENFPs see significance in all things and prefer to keep lots of options open.


What's yours?:D
www.personalitytype.com

Prodigal: An Animation

Reflections on Rice Revo & Kids Club MYE

Last night was the best 9 hours of sleep I've gotten in a really, really long time :)

Waking up late and missing the 10:53 train this morning was how my day started this morning, along with convincing my brother to skip Chinese class to come to Rice Revo; praise God, my parents actually were okay with it!

So met up with quite a number of Extremers at Central to go to UNSW today, got a bit lost, had a lot of bus ticketing difficulties... but overall, it was really a day that made me want to praise God endlessly.

Even just gathering together as youth from our church was extremely (ha!) encouraging, and getting time traveling, eating lunch, chatting with you guys were so so valuable to me.. just getting to know you guys better, and seeing you guys being fired up and being challenged for Jesus makes me love you guys more and more, just as if you were my own children (even though I'm only 2-5 years older than you guys!)!

Today's theme for Rice Revo was revival (from what I got!) and God through His word & His servants really convicted us about being lukewarm, and how we're missionaries wherever we are, whether we're at school, uni, work, in our social groups or in our families... God gives us so many opportunities in our everyday lives, and it's true when Steve said that as we get older, we get busier doing more ministry things but our non-Christian friendship circle fades so rapidly and there's less people to simply tell about Jesus from the bible, pray for them + ask to church..

What I really saw today (along with getting my own reminders about continuously fueling the fire and asking God to take away the things that rob my affections for Jesus so that we can be entirely consumed + satisfied with God), was a lot of young people who are a bit younger than I am being so passionate for God, who want to see their friends and family saved. It made me a bit sad that I didn't try going to ISCF when I was in high school (although God works in His perfect timing!) and I really praise God for the love and encouragement that the NSGB ISCF give to each other! I saw Sharon and Julia, whom are my peer support kids from when they were in year 7 three years ago, and I really praise God that He has made you His children and that we're sisters in Christ! As Una said, today was really overwhelming and emotional, and I saw lots of hugs and a few people in tears..

What we learn can merely be taught to others, but what we experience we need to imitate and display to others... because we experience and encounter his love, we need to love one another and J loved us, displaying his love.

Adrian also talked about how God's pursue of us is like a guy proposing to a girl, and how the girl doesn't need to prove if she's worthy of being a wife. Rather, she just says "Yes, I do"; it's her commitment that she gives, and she's committing to him and no one else; just like how we need to say "Yes" to commit to Jesus everyday and say "No" to other things everyday.

Coming back to simplicity, Matt x2, Jane, Emma, Andrew, Zoe, Nat & I have been serving at St Luke's @ Clovelly for the past week in their Kids Club. It was so much fun, and it has been a time where God has been showing me and teaching me more about kids! I'm really sad to hear that people don't think that Kids Ministry is worth the time and effort that others think it is, because kids are the most amazing people and Jesus loved them so, so much.

The K-2 kids we were teaching were sooo cute, so well mannered, so enthusiastic and most of all.. they really surprised me with their answers on the last day when we learnt about Heaven. On the first day, we learnt about how God created everything in 7 days and the talk I did... was pretty bad. I couldn't engage their attention all the time and I made the mistake of not sitting on the carpet with them :(

We had an awesome workshop on Tuesday with a lady who was a children's worker on storytelling, and I learnt some amazing skills, such as never raising your voice with kids but dropping your voice so they pay more attention and listen, and using your body, your tone, your facial expressions, using tone, volume, pitch, actions, cultural allusions, discussion questions, eye contact with every single child... it was really insightful and I definitely was really equipped by the brothers & sisters @ St Luke's when I was there so a major thanks to them and to God for the week, and really could see how different parts of the church could serve, whether it be by teaching, by playing with the kids, prepping food or playing the guitar!

So on Monday, we learnt about creation, planting cress seeds (which I didn't think would do anything because the packet said it'd take 5-8 days or something like 10-14 days!! but praise God they grew!), making animals out of marshmellows, biscuits and M&Ms (and it was truly by God's grace because I had no idea what to do because we didn't have bananas and we forgot we couldn't give them nutella :( ), played this memory game where we built up on what we thanked God for, and one of the boys (and no he wasn't Asian! =P) he shouted out, "Thanks God for CHEAP PRICES!", which got a laugh out of everyone after him who had to repeat it =P I was actually surprised by some of their comments/questions like, "Who is God's mum then?" "Everything is God!" etc etc which were quite interesting..

On Tuesday, we learnt from Zoe about the prodigal son and she really awesomely used a farm set which worked really well visually. We then made pig masks and kids love painting! I painted for the first time in ages too, and it worked really well. The seeds starting sprouting! We started learning our memory verse, John 3:16 by cutting up the sentence into little individual words and distributed them to the kids and they would collectively build the verse together after reading it together. I think their favourite part was shouting, JOHN 3:16! at the end; well, it was MY favourite part! :D

On Wednesday, we learnt from Nat about the lost sheep and coin, and Nat hid the coins around the room and they all had to find one each to demonstrate how happy they were when they found them, just like how happy God was to find us! We made sheep in a paddock from pom poms that Nat and I made and they loved them :) Who is this Shaun/Sean the Sheep by the way? All the kids named their sheep Shaun/Sean! =P I used Julie's story about Sam the Shepherd and his lost sheep Wooly, which was a really good interactive story where they repeat every line/action that you do to tell the story, it's really fun!

On Thursday, we learnt from Zoe how Jesus is the good shepherd and we made another paddock but with felt animals, and she led us all in a roleplay game where she was the shepherd and the kids were sheep around the room, demonstrating the roles of protecting, leading, guiding and fending off enemies that a good shepherd does. Nat was the tree and I was the wolf!! (complete with growls and teeth-baring, ha!)

On Thursday arvo, the minister there also gave us a handout about church planting and talked about how their church plant came to be and explained to us the process of how they did it, consisting of a core team of 17 entering the area and living as missionaries, getting to know everyone around the suburb and meeting up in someone's lounge room and eventually moving into a building and just forming friendships with neighbours. I've been thinking a bit about whether to move to Lidcombe or stay at Burwood next year, and for now I've said that I'll wait and see where most of the year 12 girls in my group next year will go, so I can encourage them :) the minister mentioned how it was good for us to consider being part of church planting, and it does sound very exciting and if I'm considering long term mission in the future perhaps it would be really helpful to be part of that... but at the same time, if everyone moved it would just be relocation! :(

On Friday, I gave my second talk and it was on HEAVEN - the best party ever :) I made a golden ticket (like the ones from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and it was a ticket to heaven (the best party ever) and it would start from when Jesus came back and it would finish.. well, NEVER!

Today I was thinking about why heaven is so special. To be honest, I hadn't really thought about it deeply until perhaps the end of last year; I had only read bits of Revelation by then but I didn't really think much about it, but Peichi led me to read through Revelations 21-22 with her while listening to a Mark Driscoll talk on it, and as Dan said in his talk, finding out about the end really changes how you see the middle of the story (which is where we're living now!).

To me now, I guess I see heaven as God's promise to us. It's where he promises he'll bring us at the end of the journey, the battle, the race; it's our prize - and the reason why it's the best prize ever is because we get to spend forever and ever with Him. It's spending the rest of eternity with the one person you admire, you cherish, you pine after. Then again, perhaps considering the alternative, which is spending forever away from Him and His love & everything that is good, because He's the giver of those good things. The bible says it'll be painful too, not a walk in the park...

So I followed Robin's advice and Nat's suggestion and split up the talk into two parts. The first part was on how God would only let us into his big party at his house if we were Jesus' friend, like how our friend's parents would only let us into their houses if we knew their children, while the second part was about how Jesus tells us all to give up everything and follow him, and I used the stories of the rich young man and Zaccheus to illustrate how some people did and were saved, and some didn't.

I actually found the talk quite hard to write, and didn't get much sleep the night/morning before haha. It was a really humbling experience, and through kids club I realised just how abstract some of these concepts were and how great the gift of the Holy Spirit is in being able to understand His word. Nicodemus asks in John 3 how one can enter God's kingdom, and Jesus replies that one has to be born again. When Nicodemus asked how old people could be born again, Jesus clarifies that they must be born again of water and Spirit. When Nicodemus asked how this could be, Jesus replies that just as the snake that Moses lifted up, so must the son of God be lifted up so that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life, because the son of God has been the only one who has gone into heaven and came from heaven. Man, that's really confusing even for a big kid like me! :(

Anyway, this snake that Moses lifted up was actually mentioned in Numbers 21 in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, as I discovered..

⁴ They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, ^c]">[c] to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵ they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"

⁶ Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸ The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

Later on in 2 Kings 18,

Hezekiah King of Judah

¹ In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. ² He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother's name was Abijah ^a]">[a] daughter of Zechariah. ³ He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. ⁴ He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called ^b]">[b] Nehushtan. ^c]">[c] )


Which I find really interesting :) Another thing we were taught was to not sell the bible short, nor the kids short - teach them biblical theology, because they do understand it! I was really surprised but really praising God for their answers to the questions, when I asked how the people felt, why Jesus was sad when the rich young man walked away, whether they noticed a pattern in the game we were playing where some kids followed Zoe even though no instructions were ever given to them to (I said in the end how we followed Zoe in that game but in life we follow Jesus! - Thanks Matt =P)

Jesus also replies that:
¹⁶"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,^f]">[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.^g]">[g] ¹⁹This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

which is amazing to think that God's love and Jesus didn't come to blame us or make us feel bad but to save us so graciously. Later on that day we made paper lanterns with cellophane with Nat and sang lots of I am the Way, the Truth and the Life :) we played with the kids, the parents had a sausage sizzle and talked with each other and some of the people from the church and it was awesome! I really miss them so much now... they're so sweet and cute, and the things they said.. I was gonna melt! :D The minister there gave us books as gifts and wizz-fizz and fizzers.. yay! :) We really got loved so much by them! :) Nat and I then went to Bondi to go shop a bit, and I must say that I'm really proud of her, she didn't buy anything at JB HiFi! =P

Later that day I also got a call from PreUni about working there so I'll be working there from now on, and a call from one of my student's mum and we arranged a time so I'm pretty excited and really thanking God for answering my prayer for work :) Pete told me today that it's quite probable that we'll buy our plane tickets for the Japan mission this week, and perhaps God is opening more doors to make going overseas for mission for Him possible. At the same time, I'm not too worried if I don't end up saving enough for mission, perhaps it's just His way of telling me that He doesn't want me going which I know is for good & all under His plan!

Loooong blog tonight! :) sorry have had a lot on my mind. It's freezing! :( stay warm everyone & continue to live God glorifying lives (:

lots of love,
shirley :)

CAN I SCREEEEEEAM?!

??!?!?!?!?!?!??!


I could scream right now; but I shall take deep breaths instead.

How do you be honest with someone yet be considerate and sensitive to their feelings while you're blowing up inside?
How did Jesus do it... ??!



On a side note, it's finally holidays! :) and i want to be sleeping lots.. and may just self-learn japanese as it is a lot more expensive than expected :(


by the by, this deserves a FANCLUB; i'm going to buy potatoes this week and try it! :D

The final stretch.

makes

slightly better (:
heaps more to read, let's get to work!


edit @ 4.02AM:
am really tired.. but amfinished going through john's notes :D thanks for being a lifesafer, john!
see you guys on the other end!

Attempt #1 @ making red bean rice (pot bab)

'


So this was my first attempt at making this; the day before my 2 exams haha.. :) though it didn't turn out the purple that I thought it would, it was an interesting experience and it didn't take too long to make either!
I definitely will try to soak the beans longer & maybe even simmer them after that to make sure they're soft.. because they were a bit harder than desired this time, even at the end :(

Taeyang - Wedding Dress (English Version by Kevin Lien) W/ LYRICS

ahhh! :) D-8 TIL SOLAR!
& this is a fantastic cover :)
Now I know it's late,
but I just can't wait
until all these exams are OVER.

LOL of the day. - a YG Family heavy post :)

After a year of owning the 2ne1 album, I watched the MV for Fire for the first time today!

So here it is; at 3:21 of the MV, here is GD making a cameo appearance! =P



credit as linked :)



This was back in the days when he was depressed and I think he was getting treatment for it, but it's nice to see him being so goofy :)

Missing Taeyang & Wedding Dress epically! :( His album comes out in 9 days, anyone in for a group order? :)

I saw a really good dance cover of WD today; this dance group is pretty awesome - it's in the States, though!



and their cover of Haru Haru; they were JUST like BB... almost. =P

some happy snaps @ judy & venus' 21sts; i love you girls! (:

am about to go do my stats exam in a few hours.. and i feel like i don't know anything! :(

Am also thinking about looking into the TESOL diploma the Jane told me about.. but I should do this after exams! D:

My mum made me support food! :) am feeling really loved right now & am going to try a bit harder to understand my parents' POV in whether I should be continuing with law right now..
peace! :)

exam time!

Wow.

It has been a loong time since I blogged, apparently!

In exam mode at the moment, and struggling to study... and yes it's a problem, because it makes me not want to study at all! (so I don't!)
but got an exam boost today! :) love you so much Nicole, haha! :)


and many many many thanks to all the encouragement sms's, messages, FB messages + prayers + words of encouragement I've gotten from everyone.. I feel really loved :D and thanks for reminding me that the result doesn't matter & to trust God because I've been saved into His wonderful family! :D & to Mum for always reassuring me that it's okay if I need to repeat the subject.. hehe. :)

congrats to Joel + Caleb for their baptism today! all these babies at church, so cute!

What I learnt about today..

Exodus 34: what Jesus would say to us if we were in a room with him; face to face, toe to toe, knee to knee.. and Andrew used a wonderful example a mother who has twins who have down syndrome. One of the kids sorta.. didn't do so well at toilet training and he came in crying at a family dinner because he couldn't control himself and stuff.. and he was just so helpless and he was just in tears. The first thing his mum does when she runs over is give him a hug.

Just like we are sinful creatures who are just shamefully.. in sin.. God loves us; and the glory of God that moses was overwhelmed to only see a glimpse of we see in his son, Jesus.

When Jesus was alive, people were so close as to touch him, punch him, spit at him.. and kill him
even though he's God's glory in person and so if we were to see Jesus face to face and looking him in the eye.. he'd tell us non stop that he loves us; even if we are sinful, he loves us + despite everything he loves us.

This morning @ Extreme, Dan gave us a great talk on Revelations 19-20, and about how Kesus is going to defeat his enemies when he comes back and he'll judge everyone, because God records everything we do in his books, showing that he doesn't take sin lightly and that he's a just judge
but at the same time, he's merciful + he records those who have faith in his son in the book of life, which you can do nothing to get into apart from have faith


things I'm thinking about now..
changing courses... :( but there's much to think about and consider; should think about this after exams!!


and this is us, haha, Nicole, me + Nat! :) today we were colour coordinated again, and in height order + age order, all wearing navy + wearing glasses during service (I took mine off afterwards :( ) !! :D thanks Karel for taking the pic :)

PS. am so full of praise + thanks to God for Extreme. :) I love you girls! (and guys!) please continue to pray for our mission to Southside in 2 weeks!!