Ernest & Carmen

Alright, no response from you slackers! Either that, or I've lost my small group of readers due to lack of updates.

Ok, my own reflections on the past year (in random order as I remember them):

Highlights

• Going overseas for the very first time in 14 years and seeing my parents and relatives and revisiting childhood memoirs.
  
• Going to Beijing and seeing some of the cultural heritage on display there.
  
• Being part of RICE and evangelising to 400+ youths from all over Sydney.
  
• Organising EYF's first ever Dialogue Dinner and having 50+ people turn up!
  
• Learning about the OT from great lecturers at SMBC and surviving all the assessments and exams.
  
• Bringing 2 people from my church to Club 5 with me to consider full time paid ministry.
  
• Going to KYLC for the very first time!
  
• Saltlight Productions "This Way Up" Album launch.
  
• Going to Preaching Conference and learning from some of the greatest preachers of our time.
  
• Church camp up at Apollo Resort with our very own camp T-shirt.
  
• Deciding and being accepted into SMBC for next year.
  
• Having lots of my good friends getting married!
  
• Joining a Street Evangelism team with Ecom.

Whoa, this list is much longer than I expected. There is indeed much to be thankful to God for! I shall be a brief with my other lists.

Lowlights

• Leaving work behind, particularly the friendships I've built over the years.
  
• Talking to my parents about Christianity and seeing them in remain in their stubborn and stiff-necked ways in rejecting the gospel.
  
• Being critised and/or unappreciated in my ministries.
  
• Feeling like a one-man-band sometimes in trying to motivate people to be like-minded in how we serve at church.
  
• Sometimes seeing little or no fruits in my ministries.
  
• Seeing those who were at church at the beginning of the year but are now no longer attending anymore.
  
• Anticipating leaving the fellas at Brightside/Wongside/Whiteside.
  
• Not being disciplined with my QTs and prayers at times.
  
• Ungodly actions and attitudes which I made no effort to keep in check.

A lot of the times, these lowlights have become times where God has challenged and taught me things, such as...

Lessons learnt/reminded of

• I am human. I need rest.
  
• Resting is good. It's ok not to be working 24/7.
  
• Holidays are fun! (seeing a theme here?)
  
• God is sovereign and is able to use my strengths and weaknesses to achieve His purposes. So even when I stuff up there is no need to despair.
  
• God is faithful and will look after me in the midst of troubles and hardships. I may not understand why, but I only need to trust Him and see what He is teaching me in this time.
  
• Even though I have been a Christian for many years, I still need to humble myself before God and sit under the teaching of His Word. There are still areas of godliness I need to be disciplined in.
  
• I need to stop judging people so harshly and have more realistic expectations of them.
  
• I am the visionary type when it comes to ministry (ie one who likes to plan and strategise) but I need to work on how to impart my visions to my leaders.
  
• I write terrible essays!
  
• I can be impatient at times and easily frustrated.
  
• I don't like bitter melons (yet).
  
• I don't like being dependent on people but need to learn humility in being served by others.
  
• God is faaaaar more patient with me and is slowly molding me into Christ's likeness.

<< Praise God for 2003 and the many, many things that have happened and the things I've learnt. Pray for 2004 that I won't forget these lessons and will continue to press on! >>