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! >>

Merry Christmas everyone!!! Hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ. I was able to have a good, quiet, restful, day today just chilling out at home.

Some people (*ahem* you know who you are) have complained that I haven't been writing on my blog. Sorry!!! I've been busy trying to write up my newsletter and get it sent by Christmas. Hopefully you've all got it already - if not, let me know and I'll send it again (there were a few that bounced cuz the account was full).

Only another week of work left to go before I leave the secular workforce. Feeling a mixture of bittersweet. Definitely excited to be starting college soon and leaving my boring job behind, but at the same time, knowing that I'll miss the few friends that I've made while I've been there.

In the past 2.5 years I've been working there, there hasn't been a lot of meaningful relationships...maybe 3-4. Don't know if that comes as a surprise or not. But I find it quite hard because people relate by gossiping, and since I try to stay away from all that, I often get left out in all the conversations and I don't get invited out to lunch and weekend stuff as much. And sometimes their worldly value system is so overwhelming it kinda grosses me out.

You might say that's a good opportunity for evangelism, and that's true to an extent. But it's usually just a few comments in a normal conversation in front of everyone. And whenever I've tried to speak up about it, it either sounds like I'm being self-righteous or I'm taking things too seriously. Is it just that I'm saying things in all the wrong ways? I don't know...but workplace evangelism is quite hard. So for those of you out there who are struggling with it - don't despair, you're not the only one finding it hard. I'm certain that God is at work nevertheless.

<< Thank God for the relationships I've built at work and for the conversations about Christianity. Pray that God will provide other Christians in the lives of these people that one day they too will come to know Christ as their Lord and Saviour. >>

I was having lunch with some of the guys from church today, and we started talking about the past year - highlights, lowlights, what God has been teaching them - and things to work on in the coming year. I'd like to share some of my own reflections on the past year. But I'll save that for my next post.

But in the meantime, I'd like to hear from you guys! Please leave a comment and share with me what God has been doing in your life this past year!

I'm back!

Wow, it was a great holiday and I had a fabulous time!! Shopping in HK and sight seeing in Beijing. Took lots and lots of photos. I'll put them up eventually and say more about them then. At the moment just glad to be back home.

But there's no time to readjust to the Australian lifestyle. It was straight back to work on Monday (with piles of stuff waiting for me when I got in), and lots of ministry stuff to follow up on. I've booked out most of my lunch and dinner appointments this week already! There's plenty of people to catch up with, but here's a few of the tasks I need to get stuck into:

• Write my 4th quarter newsletter.
  
• Raise more funds for the next 3 years.
  
• Prepare 2 sermons on Phil 3.
  
• Finish children's talk for Cowra Mission.
  
• Organise KYLC & KYC.
  
• Prepare for church ministries for next year.
  
• Holiday program for TG.
  
• Upload photos from holidays (as well as a backlog of wedding photos from the last few months).

All this before the end of the year!

<< Thank God for the great holiday and for safety in our travels. Pray that I can be diligent and focussed now as I pick up all my tasks and ministries and prepare for the new year ahead. >>

*sigh*

It's a few hours before my plane takes off, and it's only now in the wee hours of the morning that I can begin to think about having my holiday.

Somehow I managed to do most of the things mentioned on my previous post. And in addition, I resigned from work on Friday! It was a bit of a shock to everyone, and quite a disappointment for my manager. They tried to persuade me to stay, but God enabled me to stand firm and instead used the opportunity to explain the gospel to them. I've never had to resign from a full time job before (for various reasons - not because I was fired!) and I never realised it can be such a nerve wrecking thing.

So with that I'm off for 2 weeks. I doubt I'll be online in that time, so I'll have to update you when I get back. Bai bai!

<< Thank God for the time of rest and pray that I can really relax and be refreshed so that I can come back and be ready to power on! Pray also for my work mates who heard about my plans to study next year and to be trained in teaching the Bible. Pray that I will have opportunities to tell them about Jesus and that God will challenge them to turn to Him in faith and repentence. >>

Oh, one other important thing! My uni group at church is organising a dialogue dinner next Friday. The theme is "If I were God I'd...". And we have at least 20 non-Christians coming!!!!!! Please pray for the speaker and for the hearts of the non-Christians!

D'oh, I wanted to write more, but my lift to the airport is here! So long, farewell!

I'm going on a holiday soon! Yippee!!
But not before I finish a million-and-one things before Friday.

After the 2 supporters' days, I need to work out who are the new people to add to my newsletter distribution list, tally how much money I have raised, who needs reminders sent out, and who has offered other kinds of helps. And I'm overdue for my 4th newsletter for this year. But there's no chance of me finishing that until I get back from my holiday. But a special thanks to all those who made the effort to come along (and even miss out on the footy!). And an super BIG thanks to Jackie for cooking for me on both Saturdays and paying for it all as well!!

<< Thank God for the amazing generosity of the brothers and sisters around me - in giving money, in offering practicaly help, and especially in praying for me and encouraging me. Pray that I can trust God to provide my needs for the coming 3 years. >>

Cowra Mission is coming up quick and fast...and I've got stacks to do. I've got a kids' talk to do, plus I'll be preaching for the first time. The kids' talk is on Jesus' baptism in Luke 3:1-22, and the sermon is on Philippians 3 - it's such a great passage I don't know how I'm going to manage to speak for less than 2 hours (at least)!! But alas, I only have 20 mins...hmmm....

Besides talking, I have to get things ready for craft and games and memory verse...ai yar!

<< Please pray for wisdom and an insightful mind as I teach the Bible to 2 completely different audiences. Pray that God's Word will enter the hearts of those who hear it and bear fruit for the glory of our Lord Jesus. And pray that I can get the rest of the things prepared together with my team. >>

There's also a number of responsibilities to hand over at church - Dialogue Dinner for the uni youth group, "What's It" box for the high school group, last study on Biblical theology for my Sunday School class, KYLC & KYC conference for the church, and RICE outreach for next year. AI YAR!!!

<< Pray that God will grant me an abundance of energy and extra hours in the day. Failing that, pray that there will be people who can help out with these things, and be able to do them without my supervision. >>

And then there's the next (and last) AIM day tomorrow (which I'm really looking forward to) and numerous people to meet up with for lunch/dinner and my room needs to be cleaned up and my bags packed and clothes washed and...u getting my gist now?

I think this one week itself qualifies me for a holiday!!

<< Thank God for the great opportunity to be trained at AIM. Pray that I'll learn heaps and heaps and be able to apply it to the ministries at my church. Pray for safety on my holiday and a relaxing and refreshing time so that I can come back ready to hit the road running (or sprinting rather!). >>

I'm in!! Yay!!

I received the acceptance letter from SMBC yesterday confirming my enrolment for next year. Now I have to apply for Youth Allowance and resign from work and prepare to move and raise finances and work out my timetable and pay for college fees and...on it goes...

Tomorrow and next Sat (22nd), I'll be asking people to support me through college by praying for me and giving money. I haven't really had time to think about this because I've been trying to study for my exam next Tuesday. But tomorrow will be a morning tea at 10pm, and there'll be cookies, scones, finger foods, dips, and cinnamon scrolls. Please come along if you can!

I'm kinda a bit nervous about it because it's so strange to be asking people for help, especially for money. I'm normally pretty independent and I hate to trouble people for even the smallest things. So to ask so many people to help is definitely a most humbling experience!!

<< Thank God that I was accepted into SMBC for next year. Pray that I can get all the things that needs to be done with minimal stress and chaos. Pray especially for the supporter's days tomorrow and next Sat that people will be willing to contribute to the work of God's Kingdom by supporting me in prayer and with money.

Thank God also for teaching me humility in all this and forcing me to rely on Him for all things.

And thanks especially to my blog audience for your prayers throughout this year!!! =) >>

Once a year the nation unites.

People line up along the streets for hours. Voices in the air buzz with excitement. Others huddle and squash up before TV screens, mesmerised by moving figures.

As the moment approaches, they hold their breath. Transfixed. Temporarily paralyzed. The tension builds. Conversations muffled. Waiting.

Once a year the country pauses together for one purpose.

Sounds like a snapshot of Australia Day or something equally patriotic, doesn't it? But alas, if it was only so. The scene I was describing was typical of what I saw throughout the day yesterday - Melbourne Cup day.

People everywhere milling around TABs and lining up in temporary stalls. Clutching crumpled pieces of paper in their hands that costs them anything between $5 and $5,000 (or more!). People studying the newspapers and deep in philosophical discussion about each horse and jockey. Office workers hungrily lapping up the $2 sweeps for their chance at winning $50. Then moments later regretfully wishing they hadn't wasted the money (even though that's exactly what they said last year). And the lucky few who win regretfully wish they had put more money on it.

Men and women, young and old. United in their idoltary of greed and money.

It was as if the floodgates had opened. Colleagues who usually carry themselves with a degree of distinguished mannerisms now show a rare display of distasteful and undignified outbursts - everyone's an equestrian expert and everyone wants to be heard (and a couple of beers certainly don't help)! And those who don't normally even try to hide their crude, brutish nature...well, I won't even comment on that.

Shockingly disgusting behaviour. Such banal existence. But it's only to be expected from a nation of sinful beings who've rejected their Maker.

Now if only I felt the same sense of revulsion about sin in my own life.