It's great singing Christmas carols - well, the Christian ones anyways. The others are just kids songs at best and blasphemy at worst.

But I wonder why we don't sing Christmas carols throughout the year as well. The lyrics of most of them are applicable all year around. For example, imagine singing these on a "normal" Sunday:

Joy to the world! The Lord is come:
let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare him room,
and heaven and nature sing.

[...or]

Hark! the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King,
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconcile.

[...or]

God rest you merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas day,
To save us all from Satan's pow'r
When we were gone astray;

[...or]

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
Oh come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
come and behold him, born the King of angels;
O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

[...or]

Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, Love's pure light
radiant beams from Thy Holy face,
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.

Certainly none of these lyrics would seem astray from what we often sing, and perhaps even better. They are so full of the gospel!! If you are reading this, let me encourage you to ask the musos to sing them at church in a month's time.

Anyways, Christmas has gone for another year, and the New Year is just around the corner. But we shall continue to celebrate the birth of our King all year around.

This blog got mentioned on one of my fav Christian websites: Grace not Works.

Check it out here!!

Exams have finished and the preliminary results released. I wasn't too confident in any of my 3 exams, but I passed all of them, so all is well. Of course, passing isn't the most important thing when you're studying at Bible college, but it's still nice to pass so you can have an enjoyable holiday.

So now I'm bumming around with not much to do for the next few weeks. Trying to get started on my newsletter to wrap up the year, but...that's kinda work, so I'm procrastinating. :P

I'm house sitting for a family at college over the holidays. They live just down the road from SMBC, so in theory I could go over to the library and be really studious and read up on stuff for next year.

Nah.

You can see what kinda mood I'm in, can't you? (even without looking at the imood thing on the side) I've just been relaxing and sleeping a lot and not much else. Next week I'll start to be a bit more proactive and call/email people for lunch/dinner.

In the meantime...I'll keep vegging. =)

<< Give thanks to God for the past year and for the many things I've learnt at SMBC. Pray that it won't become merely theorectial knowledge but that I can understand it for my own personal growth and for ministry. Pray also that I will get good rest over the holidays and be refreshed for the new year. Pray that I can encourage people as I catch up with them and share with them God's goodness. >>

One down two to go...

Had my first exam today - Church History. Don't think I did crash hot, but nevertheless, it should be enough to pass. It was a pretty straight forward exam, except the stuff that I studied wasn't exactly in the exam.

I did a silly thing though. Made a grand entrance by turning up just in time. Everyone was wondering where I was and whether I slept in. Well, I didn't. I just kept thinking that the exam starts at 9am - which is true. So I planned to turn up at about 8:50am. Except that I forgot about reading time!! Which starts at 8:50am. Oops!

Perhaps a bit blasphemous for me to be borrowing these words, but anyways...

Last night for the first time ever, I:

• Wrote a 3,000 word essay (previously all my essays have been only 2,000 words)
  
• Stayed up all night to write this essay
  
• Sat in front of the computer for 15 hours straight with only 2 short breaks!
  
• Only got 45min nap before chapel started

Man, I am so thoroughly knackered at the moment! My eyes were going funny when I finished writing the first draft. I could barely read over it. But I had so much trouble writing this essay it was like trying to pull my own teeth out - very agonising! >:|

But at last it's done. I will have to start studying for exams now.

Though not before I have a very long appointment with my pillow first.

...z

...zzz

...zzzzz

...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Ah, it's good to be back home in my own bed again. Got back from college mission just before midnight on Sunday night. Been catching up on some much needed sleep. The family I've been staying with the past week has a little boy who likes to wake up at 5:30am - the problem is that he likes everyone else to be awake with him as well!!

There's so much to tell that I can't be bothered to type it all up. But perhaps a few highlights...

• Arriving at my billet's place in the middle of an engagement party. Yummy food. :)
  
• Meeting another Ernie who is an atheist and having a conversation about God.
  
• Teaching scripture class in a public school for the first time and telling them about Jesus.
  
• Meeting kids who have wanted to be a missionary since they were 3 years old!
  
• Going to Girl's Brigade and participating in 'synchronised swimming'.
  
• Making up 'dance moves' to memorise John 3:36 - and the kids looooved it!!
  
• Dancing to Christian kid songs and doing puppet shows.
  
• Hearing that 70 kids became christians at one of the public high schools in 1 day!
  
• Teaching a lesson on justice, mercy and grace, and God providing the perfect opportunity for me to illustrate grace to one particularly naughty boy.
  
• Playing handball for the first time in 7 years and beating all the Yr 5-6 kids. =D
  
• Going to Hyam beach - reputed to have the whitest sand in Aust.
  
• Coming home...
  

<< Give praise and glory to our Almighty God for the way in which he used our team to bring the gospel to the people of Nowra. Thank God for the way in which the local church worked alongside with us in many things. Pray for those who are new christians, and also for those who are interested in finding out more. Pray that the christians there will continue to grow and mature and to be active in reaching out to the lost. >>

There's much more that I could talk about, but I'd get really long winded. Let's just say that everything smoothed out and we got our act together (for most things) and God was pleased to use our meagre efforts.

I've been resting yesterday and today. But I'll be off again to Club 5 this long weekend. Look forward to catching up with many old friends and meeting new friends. And especially looking forward to sitting under God's Word and being challenged to serve Him with my whole life.

I've also got to get back into college stuff fairly soon. I've got one last Greek quiz to go, and a major OT essay to write. Then come final year exam!!!!

Anyways, I'll worry about all that in due course. For now, I want to just enjoy the rest of my day off. Ahhhhh...

It's one day before College Mission at the moment. And everyone's kinda in panic mode, doing last minute preparations - or for some, still finishing off essays!!!

I'll be going down South to Nowra for 9 days. I'm in the Primary Section, so I'll be mainly running scripture classes in 3 different public schools. We will be doing "Who is your King?" - the kids version of 2 ways to live. So please pray that many kids will come to put their trust in our Lord Jesus.

We've got a pretty packed program: like a daily devotion with primary kids at the local Christian school; Boys Brigade and Girls Brigade; School Assemblies and church services; some street evangelism and home Bible study groups, etc, etc...

I'm not feel as excited for this mission as I was about Cowra or RICE. But perhaps that's just cause I'm not as prepared... :P

<< Please pray that we can all be faithful and diligent in our preparation so that we can present the gosspel as clearly as possible. Pray that the people in Nowra will hear the gospel and be cut to the heart so that they will turn in faith and repentence. Pray also that the local Christians will be active in inviting their friends and also in doing the evangelism themselves. Pray that we can work well together as a team and to be salt and light to Nowra in our words, thoughts, and actions. >>

Ok, gotta go finish preparations...

PS Yay, less than a month since my last post!!

Just popping in to let you all know I still exist...though my existence seems pretty boring right now...I'm so sick of writing these days. Ugh! Essays, essays and more essays. :(

Well, hopefully you have received my belated newsletter by now. If not, let me know and I'll send it again.

Right now, I'm busy writing an essay for Church History on Jansenism - that's Jansen, not Jensen. But I'm sure in a few decades, they'll be asking people to "evaluate the impact of the Jensen brothers on the Sydney Anglican church in the 20th and 21st century."

Got research week next week, which means (in theory) that I'll be spend most of the time catching up on my Greek. There's just so much stuff to memorize! After coming back from research week, we have College Mission coming up very quickly. I'll be heading down South to Nowra and teaching the Primary School kids there. I'm looking forward to it, but boy, do we have lots of stuff to do. I'm all snowed under at the moment and I'm desperately wanting to come up for air (sorry for the mixed metaphors).

Lots more stuff I could say, but as I said, I'm sick of writing. If you are interested, then gimme a call and encourage me. But even if you don't there quite a few things I've mentioned there to pray about. All I can say now is...

BLEH!

Started another college semester. The three weeks of holidays went by so quickly! Got all my exams results back (including the Greek quiz on Tuesday) and everything went ok - yay!

This semester, my subjects will include:
* Exilic Prophecy
* Church History (1550-Modern Day)
* NT Greek
* NT exegesis: Hebrews
* Intro to Theology
* OT: exegesis: Chronicles
* Preaching Workshop
* Expounding Scripture (actually preaching sermons in small groups)

Like everyone else, just trying to ease myself back into study mode. Very lethargic and procrastinating heaps at the moment! Ugh! But at least I have a better idea about college life so hopefully I will re-adjust much faster this time.

<< Thank God for the relaxing break and time to catch up with friends. Pray that I can be a diligent student and not be lazy - especially when it comes to studying and apply God's Word to my life. >>

RICE is finally over for 2004! Phew! I haven't blogged much about it this year, but in short, it all ran very smoothly and the gospel was preached and God was glorified. On the first week at RICEfest I was looking after the jumping castle and horizontal bungee (fun fun fun!). There was a little hiccup at first getting them set up - they refused to be inflated and keep falling down...But in the end it all got sorted and there were many happy kids jumping around. =) I missed most of the gospel talks cuz I was running around doing other misc stuff, but Center Stage seemed very lively and all the feedback I heard about the talks were good.

For the 2nd week of RICE I was involved in the skit team. A very embrassing experience pretending to be a chicken and a superhero in front of 1,000 people. I was also on stage as Dr. Frankenstein doing a mime with voiceover. Hehehe...very funny skit! I had lots of fun doing that as well. All in all, 2 very successful events! And God was gracious and merciful because we had 70 (yes - 70!) kids who prayed the prayer for the first time. Whoa!!

<< Pray for the follow up for all of these kids. Pray that each church/youth group will be faithful in making contact and helping these new believers take their first step. Praise God for the amazing way in which all the leaders worked together over the last 2 months. And praise God for His abundant love for us through His Son Jesus Christ! >>

Hello!! Yes, I am still alive, even if this blog doesn't seem like it.

Ah it's so nice being on holidays. It's been over a week since I finished exams and after all the essays, I really didn't want to do any more writing - even to blog or to write my newsletter. But I'm slowly getting back into it. And I owe it to you guys to let you know how I've been going.

Exams were quite hard and some of it was completely different to what I studied. *boo hoo* But I have learnt a lot in the last 6 months! But now that I'm holidays I still have to study! :( There's a class quiz for Greek on Tuesday the first week back - and it's on a hard chapter of Greek. So I've been pretty good and doing a little bit of study each day. Hopefully it'll all stick in my mind and not leak out too early...

Other than a little bit of study, I've been spending most of my holidays just relaxing. Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but I AM actually relaxing. *give myself a pat on the back. There's still plenty to do at church and for RICE, but I can spread things out nicely without too much pressure.

Speaking of RICE, that's probably my main prayer point at the moment. If you don't know what that's about, basically, 23 youth groups from around Sydney are getting together to hold 2 evangelistic events hoping to reach about 800+ high school kids - and the first event is a fete this Sat, and then secondly a outreach night next Sat. Please pray that there will be no rain this Sat, and that many non-Christians will come to hear and respond to the gospel.

One of my goals for this holidays is to catch up with as many people for brunch/lunch/arvo tea/dinner/supper as I can (nup, I can't get up early enough to have breakfast). As I said I don't like writing and so I'd rather talk to people in person. Especially while I've been at college I haven't been able to do that at all. So if you're reading this and I haven't met up with you yet, then contact me!

Counting down...

Today is the first day of stuvac, and my first exam (Pentateuch) is on Friday. This is the exam that I'm probably most unprepared. We had 3 lecturers for this subject focussing on different parts of the first 5 books of the OT. But one of the lecturers I found to be quite hard to follow and I'm disappointed to admit that I didn't learn a whole lot from his lectures. So now I have lots of reading to do to try and patch up the holes in my learning.

My second exam is Church History. That one is a bit of a worry too, 'cause I have no background knowledge of history, so that means I haven't learnt any of it before and I have lots of new information to remember. It's one of my most interesting subjects, but also one that will take a bit of work. But at least I've got good lecture notes for this so I don't have to do any research.

And lastly is my Biblical Theology exam. This one shouldn't be too hard. We have been give half the exam paper already, so we can be really well prepared - but that also means that really good answers will be expected! I probably won't be able to study for it till after my Church History exam. So the 2 days after that will be cram, cram, cram! Not ideal learning, especially since I'm reading God's Word...hope to improve on that in the future.

I've had a few people tell me lately that they have been visiting my blog and actually praying for me. Thanks heaps!!! People have been very faithful in sending financial contributions, and a few other people have also mentioned that they would like to also support me in this way. I haven't been able to thank everyone individually, but I hope you guys know how much of an encouragement that is! =D (I hope you guys are reading this!)

<< Thank God for His love and grace in providing me with so many faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who support me in so many ways - prayer, transport, money, lunch/dinner, accomodation, the odd word of encouragement, even just understanding my limitations in ministry. Pray for these fellow workers in the gospel that God will continue to bless them abundantly in their godliness and understanding of His Word. >>

I doubt if I'll have time to blog again in the next 2 weeks until my exams are over. But I'll try and get started on my newsletter afterwards!

Again, I have failed my readers on this blog. No updates for like a month. It's become a regular habit, isn't it? =(

Even without me telling you, I'm sure you can guess that it's been incredibly busy. If you've been keeping track of my assessment schedule, you'll see that I had a lot of assignments due. And though I really don't like writing essays (still don't after a few months), I am learning heaps through the research and in the lectures.

Especially in church history. I never like history in high school 'cause I didn't want to memorise people and dates and events that were largely irrelevant to me. But I've discovered that history is not irrelevant, and even more so in church history. So much of what has happened in the past still has an impact on us today. And much of the struggles of the church and for the individual christian has been faced in the past and discussed. Very, very interesting to learn about!

I think what's been keep my most busy though is church ministries. I've enjoyed teaching Romans over the past few week (although it's HEAPS of work preparing it and thinking about different ways of leading it). I've been reminded about a lot of things I learnt a few years ago when studying Romans.

Organising SCCCA was another HUGE task! We had two of our seminars pull out on us at the last minute! >:( We almost killed ourselves trying to find someone else to do it. It was also hard to find time to prepare my seminar on Biblical Theology - I mean, how do you cover the whole Bible in 90 mins?!? I don't think I did very well in my seminar, probably 'cause I had too much material. But we had a good turn out on the day and about 30-35 people came. Still thinking about how to improve it for next time...

Well, that's a quick update of what's been happening. The outlook for the next few weeks is much the same. Except that instead of having lots of assignments, I now have lots of exams coming up. And instead of thinking about SCCCA, the next big thing is RICE - more about that in weeks to come.

Stay tuned and keep praying. Forecast for next update is in 2 weeks - right before exams start!

I've neglected this blog quite a bit lately...sorry! It's hard to get back into writing once you stop. Writing's never been one of my strong points. Esp now when I have to write thousands of words for essays at college. Eek! It's almost like torture for me!

Easter holidays was pretty good for me. I got a lil' bit done the first week before I went to camp. Camp was excellent. I did indeed catch up with some of my old Sunday School kids. It's only been two years, but they've all grown and changed in so many ways. I spent most of my time with the boys, and it was good to be able to hang out with them and not be their teacher anymore. And it was encouraging to see some of them serving now in ministry, some even co-leading Bible studies.

My seminar went pretty well too (from my perspective anyways). People were interested and had lots of questions to ask. I think they got the main idea I was trying to get across to them. The talks from Ephesians were clear too and The food and sleep was decent. But after coming back I've been feeling quite lethargic and unmotivated to work. :(

<< Thank God for the rest over the holidays and for the enjoyable time at church camp. Pray that I can get back into the mood to study. >>

I've got a few essays to work on at the moment and we are starting our Romans studies this Fri at EYF. I've got a talk to prepare for next Fri and the South region SCCCA training day is coming up on 15th May. It's a bit mind boggling at the moment. I'm struggling a bit with it, but just keeping my head above water...

<< Pray that I can continue to enjoy what I am learning at college and to enjoying serving people in ministry. >>

Back into the full swing of things...for a week anyways. I didn't do as much work as I had hoped to do last week. But then again, no one ever does. At least I got one essay finished. Had a Greek quiz today and then an ethics quiz tomorrow. After that, I gotta get stuck into my Mark exegesis essay.

We only have lectures for this week, and then we're off on holidays for Easter! Woo hoo! I guess it'll be more like a working holiday, since there's a fair few assessments to get stuck into. And I'll be away at the WS church camp over the long weekend. Other than running a seminar on apologetics (ie answering tough questions about Christianity), it should be a pretty good relaxing time. I especially look forward to catching up with some of the kids I used to teach back in 2000 and 2001.

<< Thank God for Research Week and being able to have time to knock over some assessments. Pray that I can continue to be disciplined over the Easter break. Pray also for my seminar at church camp and pray that I can have a good time to relax and to catch up with people.>>

As usual, Easter is a good time to reachout to friends with the news of the gospel. At church, the Simply Christianity course is coming up to its last week this Friday. I don't know what kind of response to expect from them. But timed nicely together is 2 other evangelistic events right after its conclusion. First up we have the "Trial of Jesus" on 4th April. The church will be set up like a court room and the case is "Is Jesus dead?" Basically we want to show people that there is credible evidence for the resurrection of Christ, and to invite each person to make a decision about it. Then the following week, we have a person from Jews for Jesus coming to speak on the significance of the resurrection for a Jewish Christan.

<< Please pray that all these various events will be able to present the gospel well and encourage people to see the truth and importance of the resurrection. Pray that the hearts of non-Christians will be challenged to respond to this truth rather than just acknowledging (or even rejecting) it. >>

Tomorrow night, I'll also be having dinner with a bunch of high school friends whom I haven't seen for ages. It'll be interesting to see their response when they find out I'm at Bible college. None of them are Christians as far as I know, though one of them has been interested for some time but not willing to make a committment yet. Most are nominal Catholics, quite intelligent (ie 95+ for TER/UAI), career orientiated, and generally uninterested in religious things. But I hope that I can use Easter and Bible college to bring Jesus up in conversation and to challenge them as well.

<< Please pray that God may open opportunities for me to tell the gospel to my friends. Pray that I may be bold and not shy away from the topic of Jesus. Pray that I can be a good witness to them, and that they will be interested in talking about it. >>

By now, all of you should have received my latest newsletter. If not, let me know and I'll send it again. It's actually quite hard to send bulk emails, 'cause there's all these restrictions as to how big your email can be and how many people to send it to at one time. I don't know how spammers manage it!?!

I'm starting to cope a bit better with time here at college now. Not quite there yet, but I'm not procrastinating as much and I'm starting to make use of the small blocks of time. There's regular stream of assessments due now (average of one a week), and I really gotta get stuck into them. At the same time, I don't want to have my head stuck in a book all the time. I need to be spending time with people and serving and encouraging them.

Next week is Research Week - which means that there will be no lectures on and we can focus on getting some of those assignments done. Well, that's the idea anyways...Let's just hope I don't waste it!

<< Thank God that I'm slowly adjusting to college life and improving in my time management. Pray that I can be disciplined next week and use my time well to complete my essays. Pray also that I can be continually spending personal time with God in my quiet times. Pray especially that I will be able to keep building relationships with my the staff and with fellow students and not be forever hidden in my room. >>

An update on the Simply Christianity course I'm running at EYF. Tomorrow will be the 3rd week of the course. So far, we've had 2 non-Christians who've come both weeks, and 3 who have come for only one of the two weeks. Hopefully we'll have all 5 of them this time. A pat on the back for those who've been bold enough to invite their friends. =)

Generally, I think it's going ok. It's always hard to tell with a new group. People are a bit shy and awkward. And they hardly ever (or never) go to church. They all have fairly different backgrounds. They don't seem to have a lot of questions at this stage, which I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. But at least they don't seem to have a lot of pre-conceived ideas and are pretty open to the material I present to them. But I do hope that they are understanding it all and that God will use it to change their hearts.

This week we're looking at Jesus' mission - to seek and save the lost.

<< Praise God for these people who've turned up to learn about Jesus. Pray that I can be clear and faithful in explaining the gospel, and that God will move them to be challenged and in reponse turn and accept Christ as Lord and Saviour. >>

It's towards the end of week 3 here at college. Assessments are starting to pile up now and my schedule is filling up with stuff. I've started a new section on the left with some of the upcoming stuff so you can pray for me.

<< Give thanks to our God that I am really enjoying my time at SMBC. Pray that as I start to write essays and do exams that this will not become an academic exericse but instead a life changing one as God's Word lives in me. >>

Every year, SMBC is involved with a number of different missions around Australia and even overseas. Just found out that I'll be involved with a large mission in Nowra in September. I have no idea what the place is like and what we'll be doing, but I look forward to getting to know my team of 20 and working together for the gospel.

<< Pray that I can get to know the people on my mission team and that we can work well together. Pray for the lost in Nowra that God may prepare their hearts now so that they will be ready to receive the good news of our Lord Jesus christ. >>

At church we are starting a 5 week Simply Christianity course this Friday! It's a very exciting time for EYF as it is the follow up to our first outreach event a few months ago. I'll be leading the non-Christian group while Jeremy leads the Christian in doing some training for evangelism.

<< Please pray for the hearts of the non-Christians as they come to know Jesus through the Gospel of Luke. Pray that they will be teachable and will ask good questions. And pray for me too that I may teach the Word of God faithfully and clearly so that these non-Chrsitians will have an opportunity to understand and respond to the gospel. >>

As expected, it's been a hectic week! With church ministries and college lectures & assessments, I hardly have time for anything else right now.

Thanks to everyone who've asked me how I'm going and have been praying for me. You have been an invaluable source of encouragement. I'm enjoying everything so far and staying awake in lectures! :P But I just need to organise my time a bit better and prioritise things.

Especially with my church ministries as well. It's still kinda the start of term so there's a few Bible studies & related stuff I gotta sort out. And in particular I'm trying to do more personal ministry with the leaders, but it's much harder to find a time that works well with my college timetable and is good for them too.

And I haven't even made a start on my newsletter yet! Ack! >:(

<< Thank God for my faithful brothers and sisters who are in partnership in the gospel with me. Please pray for strength and wisdom as I try to manage my time and work load. Pray also for my relationships with people at church that I won't be too focused on things to do and end up neglecting them. >>

And just a gentle reminder: if you've been reading this blog but you haven't been praying for me - please pray for me! I need God's help! :)

One of the worst thing about adjusting to college life must be the internet - or there lackof. It's quite expensive and slow compared, of course, to the unlimited cable that I've been used to. So I'm afraid that updates on this blog, plus replies to any emails might be a bit slow. :(

But other than that, college hasn't been too bad. Believe it or not, we had our first assessment on Monday (yesterday) already worth 5%. It has been most intensive learning NT Greek the past 4 days. We crammed about 6 weeks of work into 4 days. I *think* I understand most of the ideas, but just have a lot of vocab (nouns, verbs and adjectives) and stuff to learn.

Been meeting lots of people as well, and basically forgetting everything due to sheer volume. So everytime I talk to people, we all have to introduce ourselves again. But I think I'm starting to match names to faces now at least.

This week will be a bit more laid back, doing just orientation and things. But I think I'm going to keep working hard on the Greek so I can be ready to go when lectures start next week. So as usual, not much rest of me.

I've met the rest of my housemates, and they're all pretty easy to get along with. In particular, John is an overseas student from Korea here to learn English for the purpose of further theological studies. Very friendly and polite guy. I should have no problems getting along with all of them. Unfortunately, we rotate every 6 or 12 months, and so I'm most likely going to move come June (which is actually only 4 months away - drats!). But that just means more opportunity to get to know the other fellas.

Anyways, they say time is money, and this internet at college is costing me. I'll really really try to update at least every fornight, or even every week. But please keep praying for me!!

<< Thank God for the great housemates and for the many great people I've met over this past week. Pray that as I learn Greek and other subjects that it will not be purely a academic exercise, but that it will be a life changing experience as I get to know God more through His Word and as I fellowship with those around me. >>

Bye bye Wongside and hello SMBC!

I've been spending the last 2 days packing and moving into my new home at SMBC. I was expecting to move into a little room shared with another person. But instead, I'm living in one of the houses owned by SMBC with 3 other guys. I haven't met my new housemates yet, but I must say, it's very much like Brightside all over again.

The house is a little bit old, but all the bedrooms have been renovated and looks pretty good. Except for the kitchen and bathroom which is a bit old. But I guess you can't expect to have everything. I've got a living-room-turned-bedroom and it's almost 3 times my bedroom in Wongside! =) We've all been provided a nice wardrobe, book shelf, desk & chair, and bed and mattress. Everything's in pretty good condition. No old saggy beds or decrepid furniture.

Nice.

Tomorrow I'll be starting my first day of New Testament greek. Looking forward to finally starting college so that I can get some routine back into my life.

<< Thank God for my new home and for the providing such a nice place. Pray that as I get started at college that I can settle into the place and get a routine going so that I can be an effective and effecient servant for God. >>

Last night us guys spent a bit of time sharing and praying, which was a very nice gesture. These guys have been my family for the past 3 years and they've been very generous and encouraging to me. It's been a great time living with them and getting to know them and I'm sure I'll be back to visit often (like those who've gone before me :P).

<< Thank God for the providing these guys in my life and the way in which they've served and supported me. Pray that Wongside will continue to be a place of ministry where the people and the house can be used to bring glory to God. >>

I'll miss you guys! :'|

Aaaaahhhh....good to be back home again. Been surviving on camp food and sleeping on crappy beds cocooned in my narrow sleeping bag. There's no place like home. =)

Firstly, here's a run down on...

Cowra Summer Breakout
To describe it in one word - AWESOME!!! (keke...in joke as well) I was great fun working with my team of leaders in JBs (Jumping Beans) section and teaching Kindy to Year 2 kids. Each day we'd start off in Concert Time with Club 35 (Year 3-Year) kids singing songs and watching Dr. Kaboom blow something up!! Then we'd break up into our sections and have some games, a skit, memory verse, more songs, and crafts.

Our main point was that Jesus is God's Son, and we need to believe/trust/have faith in Him for life. in response, we repent from living the wrong way and live God's way.

I must admit that I was often clueless as to what to do and how to do it. Having never taught little kids before, I didn't know how to discipline them or give appropriate attention to them. But the other members in my section were great! I learnt lots of things from them and they were patient with me. It's hard to put down what I learnt, because it's often just a bunch of little quirky things. But I wanna go back again next year to have another go.

Jen has put up some Mission Reflections and there's a really cool story about two of the JB kids and how they were influenced by the things we taught them.

We also did some visitations - ie visit the parents of the non-church kids and try to invite them to some of the evening events. We had a sports arvo/evening with the kids and it was sooo tiring running around with them I was sore for two days afterwards (hmm...is this a sign I'm getting old...???). Other events included a (swimming) pool night, ladies' dessert night, men's breakfast & darts, BGR night, movie (Matrix) night and a Nathan Tasker concert!

It all ended with the Big Bash on Saturday where there was free face painting, hair spray & wraps, balloon animals, lolly guessing comp, sponge throwing, etc. Some sections also performed songs they had learnt. We had lots and lots (and lots and lots - excuse the pun :P ) of fun performing the Son of Man song.

I also had to preach on Phil 3 twice while I was there - once to my mission team and a second time at the local Baptist church. I didn't get a lot of feedback except to say that the illustrations and applications were good and appropriate. I tried to contextualise it as best as I could and I kept adding and changing things throughout the week with my experiences of Cowra. The only thing I could pick up on myself to work on is making eye contact and using my voice better - esp making sure I slow down and pronounce big words clearly.

I preached at the Baptist church on our second Sunday there (which was also our last day before going home). Towards the last 5 mins of my sermon, I started to feel really tired and I could hear my voice starting to drone. I really had to struggle to just lift myself and to keep going. Which was a bit ironic, since my point was to tell people to keep going in their Christian walk, and in particular to keep going in evangelism and their partnership in the gospel - and here I was losing steam!! :|

A most exhausting trip, but definitely most enjoyable and worthwhile. I had some really good conversations with other team members and got to know a few of them. Look forward to the reunion on Feb 14th (hmm...the date is a bit...awkward...). Though funnily enough, we've already had a mini reunion at KYC 'cause lots of them were there in Katoomba.

<< Praise God for the opportunity to serve in gospel partnership with so many other Christians both from Sydney and in Cowra. Pray for those who have been touched by God's Word and pray that the seed planted in them will come to bear fruit one day as they come to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

Thank God also for the team and especially the members in JBs section. Thank God for the way in which we bonded and worked well together and supported each other. Also thank God for the many things they taught me and pray that I can use it in the future to minister to others. >>

Enough ranting for now. I'll write about the other stuff later.

Ack! Lack of posts and updates again! And the drought is doomed to continue.

I've been flat out preparing for Cowra Summer Breakout. And in particular for a sermon on Phil 3. I've finished it, but I don't feel 100% about it. Need to practice it a LOT and to probably touch up on things here and there.

Busy, busy, busy. Rush, rush, rush! Ahhhhh! I'm sure I've forgotten to pack something!

I'm leaving in a matter of minutes, and I'm starting to feel excited and nervous. My first mission! Don't know what to expect.

<< Please pray that I can work well with my team as we seek to preach the gospel in Cowra. Pray that I can speak clearly and faithfully from God's Word so that lives are changed for the glory of the gospel. >>

Straight after Cowra, I'll be going to Katoomba for KYLC and KYC back-to-back. So that means I won't be around for almost 20 days! So check this space after Australia Day. I'll tell you all how it went when I come back.