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!!