Tuesday, May 29, 2007

I HAVE A HOUSE!!!

We have a house!!! =D Yay! More details soon, when we go back to take pix. Meanwhile, just wanted to share my joy with all my readers, friends, supporters etc. =)

This comes after over 8 months (!??!) of prayer, searching, house visiting, excitement and disappointment. But, oh, how faithful God has been. Even when I doubted that He would ever provide us with a home, He has not stopped caring about us, and answered my prayer to get a house before our wedding. =)

Not just any house. A house that Mel and I both love... it's very clean and airy, and feels just so open concept and breezy and refreshing! And when I first walked in the door, it felt like "home". Awww.....

=D

Anyhow, want to give thanks for God opening this door (literally!) for us. Ths current owner is a Christian lady, and she has been really sweet and hospitable to us.

There's much more to give thanks for, but for now this will do. =)

Now I can really start thinking about paint colours and furniture and lights and all that stuff. Cool! =)

Monday, May 14, 2007

building deep

today the ultimate road trip (TURT), ForeRunner's staple missions project, began with a bang! it's been a great day so far, getting to know the students and finding out what they're like.

but what touched.impacted me the most was the sharing by my colleague and friend Alvin. he shared about things that he has experienced. painful times, times of growth and sorrow and stretching and testing of faith. i was hugely encouraged by his willingness to be so vulnerable and open with the team, and very touched by how God has been so real in his mum's life.

it also got me thinking about my own heart life. recently i;ve seen how task-oriented i can become, and how that really drives me away from God and from people at times. i'm reminded that it's so important to always have God as my source of joy, my source of security, my source of significance, my source of life.

we sang the song "Hungry". i wept because i feel so much like the writer felt.


* * *

hungry, i come to You, for i know You satisfy
i am weary but i know Your touch restores my life
so I wait for You, so I wait for You

I'm falling on my knees
offering all of me
Jesus You're all this heart is living for...


come fill me, and renew my love for You.

help me build deep. roots that will last.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

May Update

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Japanese women don't get old or fat

by Naomi Moriyama & William Doyle

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thank you mel =)

captured moments

We led worship at SP last week, and it was an awesome experience! Especially cos, for the first time ever, we had a team of dancers with us! It was really a liberating time of just praising God. Check out these pics:

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eeleen leading worship

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really awesome back-up vocals!

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me at keys!

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beautiful dancers...

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guy on the left shared his testimony of how he very recently received Christ. it was amazing to hear, and very encouraging.

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our full team - the biggest ForeRunner team ever!!! =)

Japanese tea party?

Yesterday mel bought me the Japanese cook book that I've been eyeing. Yay! (For those who are interested, Borders has it at $20 cos it's soft-cover. The MPH one i hard cover and a whopping $33!!!)

I spent the evening reading the first two chapters. Hee... I LOVE IT! Lots of cool but simple recipes for the basic Japanese meals, like Japanese omelette, carrot-tofu, teriyaki chicken etc... and all the recipes are totally from scratch - so not like you use teriyaki sauce from the supermarket - everything from the raw ground-level ingredients.

i'm looking forward to spending an afternoon at the nearest japanese supermarket (actually, cold storage might do just as well, according to my mum) getting the basic starter stuff, like bonito (seaweed) flakes, mirin, sake, dashi and rapeseed (i've never heard of this!) oil.

maybe when we move into our rental home, i can have a japanese party for some friends and try out the recipes in the book, and be hostess in my pretty purply yukata (summer kimono). =D ooh, that would be fun...



More on yukata:

A yukata is a cooling garment to wear. Like other forms of clothing based on traditional Japanese garments, it is made with straight seams and wide sleeves. Unlike formal kimono, yukata are typically made of cotton rather than silk or synthetic fabric, and they are unlined.

Traditionally yukata were mostly made of indigo-dyed cotton but today a wide variety of colors and designs is available. Like the more formal kimono, the general rule is the younger the person, the brighter the color and bolder the pattern. A child might wear a multicolored print and a young woman, a floral print, while an older woman would confine herself to a traditional dark blue with geometric patterns. Since the late 1990s, yukata have experienced a bit of a revival, and many young women now wear them in summer in personally distinctive ways not limited by tradition.This garment is very traditional.

This is a picture of a young woman in yukata in Kyoto, Japan. My kimono looks a little bit like her's, but darker and purpler.

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Devotion 2

Currently grappling with some work-related decisions on projects to take up or not take up etc. I really wanted God to convict me that it is "His" idea, not mine. In the midst of this, this devo really reminded me that it's really NOT about what I can offer to God, or what creative plans I can concoct - it's only by His Spirit that the task at hand can be achieved. Not quite the answer I am looking for, but part of it.


* * *

Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord Almighty. - Zechariah 4:6

One of the best-known verses in the Bible regarding the Holy Spirit is recorded in Zechariah 4:6. The word might comes from a Hebrew word meaning "a powerful force, an army, a band of trained, valiant soldiers." It also encompasses other resources, such as riches. The word translated power means "to be able to reach our goals by human ability--our own wisdom or clever manipulation of others." Zechariah is saying that we do not do the work of God by either great human strength or great human ability; we do it by the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

Exodus 31:1 says: "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'See, I have chosen Bezalel...and I have filled Him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts--to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship... Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you.'"

My daughter, Becky, observed that God had to empower them by the Holy Spirit for the artistic work. For the past four hundred years they had done nothing but sit in the slime pits of Egypt and make mud pies. But when God called them to engage in works of artistic craftsmanship, He gave them the power of the Holy Spirit to do it.

When we are born again by faith in Jesus Christ, from that moment on we are to rely on the Holy Spirit's power and live under His control.

Prayer:

Lord, take control of me and use my life to bring glory to You. Amen.

To Ponder:

Is there any area of your life where you're not relying on the Holy Spirit's power?

- Navigators online devo 1 May 2007

Devotion 1

This spoke to me about my own heart of worship. Recently, we've been leading quite a few sets of worship, and each time, it's a struggle between expectancy of what God will/can do, and the willingness to surrender to however it goes. This devo was pretty humbling and a good reminder.


* * *

For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? Some of us always want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other saints of God dealing with us all the time. A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above.

If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to "walk by faith." How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, "I cannot do anything else until God appears to me"? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, "Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!" Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life— our work is our standard.


- Daily bread online devotion for 1 May 2007