Holidays and Reminders

Gen. 2:6-10 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.


1 John 1:7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Walking the Tightrope

It feels like I'm walking the tightrope of life. I don't know what to expect. There are encouraging gusts of wind helping me along, the unbalancing and destructive winds which throw me back, and the surprising winds which I have no idea how to read them.

All in all I'm learning to trust God the best I can, knowing that he is intricately controlling ths tightrope and knows where it is going. Even if I get knocked down and stumble, I know that His loving hands are there to pick me up and put me back on track. He has a plan as good and better than what I ever imagined. He knows my thoughts and desires, and He wants the best for me. He is someone I can rely on. He is the creator, the sovereign ruler and our loving Father.

Walk the tightrope in life. Trust in God. He will make my path straight.

1st Year Archi Students......

joshi says:
u get into archi?

[friend] says:
yea
but I think my timetable is stuffed

joshi says:
lol how so

[friend] says:
it says I have a class that starts at 10 and finishes at 6

joshi says:
thats about right
its called
a prac
every semester mate
design
over 2 days

[friend] says:
u serious

hehehe....

My Birthplace.....

I was looking at my photos and found this one of my birthplace and my humble beginnings...



Says a lot about me huh

Struggles

This week has by far been a week of struggles.

Here are some things I have been struggling with this week... please pray for me about them:

- General busy-ness
- RICE in 2 weeks
- Lots of RICE design/decorations/promo to oversee and coordinate
- Tiredness from driving to and from Sydney in 36 hrs
- Being tolerant and loving to people who are frustrating
- People around me to be more responsible for their duties
- Trust God when things don't go to plan, or things pop up
- My wrist: I injured it a couple nights ago
- Wisdom during the many meetings happening for various ministries
- Salty conversations with people I meet up with
- Should spend more time with my family
- Getting more sleep
- Insight for songs to pick for BLT+

Lots more to pray about but that is a start.

Living the Cross Centred Life

I've just finished reading a book by C. J. Mahaney on "Living the Cross Centred Life". Its a great book which reminds and/or tells us that we must live every day of our lives in the light of the Cross that Jesus died on for us. We must begin each day of our lives at the foot of the Cross, remembering how significant the Cross is for us.

So many of us live our lives centred on a range of different things. It might not be evident at face value, but we centre things like academics/intelligence, sport, technology, celebrities, wealth, prosperity, work (secular and even ministry) and many other things. These 'distractions' take over our lives and fill up all of our minds, and we forget about the one thing that has saved us eternally from an eternity of separation, suffering and death.

This book has especially reminded me that everything we do in our lives, from church and ministry work to simply going to the shops, should reflect what Jesus has done for us on the Cross. For example, how does the Cross affect me when I play sport? How does the Cross affect me when I bump into an old primary school friend who I used to dislike? How does the Cross affect my language to my workmates?

I would recommend this book to any Christian who wants to be reminded of how to live a Christian life in this world where so many alternatives are pushed at us. It is also great for new Christians who want to find out more about how the Cross should affect your life.

Reflections..

2008 has been a massive year.. and its definitely been the biggest year of my life so far.

Highlights (In no real order except for when I remember them):

- Serving in RICE and leading worship during the RICE Rally
- Making major progress (more than the last 10 years put together) in SDBC Youth with FiGS
- Turning the big two zero (not a teen anymore booo)
- Graduated university (still have to go back for my masters degree in 2010)
- Visited Sydney for the first time in 8 years, and attended RICE Sydney Rally 2008
- Competed in Gold Coast Badminton Open
- Ran the Bridge to Brisbane 10km run with the CCCB crew
- FiGS Camp, YF Camp and BLT+ (and was part of music for all of them I think)
- First real work job of drafting up the church CAD plans
- Stepping up to be a service coordintor of the 10:30am worship team at SDBC
- Got wound up in the RICE green team committee
- Set foot in the 'motherland' aka. China... (Shanghai and Beijing) and also visited Hong Kong (for the first time I can remember.... went there when I was 2), Singapore (for the first time in 13 years) and Malaysia
- Started playing drums at church
- Got stuck with some random girl (nah jokes... well random at times hehe)
- Went to Southbank for NYE fireworks for the first time
- Joined the Iphone bandwagon (and glad I did, useful little thing it is!)

Yeah, there's probably more that I can't remember right now.... you can add for me if you can remember :)

Christmas Day

Its Christmas Day 2008! Been a really good day for me... This is what happened...

1. Went to church.. and then decided to crash maccas with friends

2. Spent the day with my awesome girlfriend :) Made this 3D puzzle of the world... the last piece was so annoying to put in!

3. Had dinner with family~ I got home to realise that my dad put a PLATE under my bread roll AND gave me a box of tissues too! (inside joke for Will and friends)

The Past Month....

For those who do read my blog, you may have noticed a very quiet past month, and an even quieter year in terms of usually blogging patterns. Well..... I thought I'd do a quick recap of the past month or so, before going back to the extremities of very serious and very stupid blogs!

Batman: The Dark Knight
This movie is up there with one of the best I've seen, and even managed to pull me out twice to watch! Heath Ledger's awesome portrayal of the Joker is definitely the highlight of the movie, and also the movie ends with space for another Batman movie..... so looking forward to that!

The Idea of North
I only realised that I am a big supporter of this acapella group (been to their concert 5 or 6 times!) and also I have somewhat raised a new generation of fangirls for this great acapella quartet. These guys never disappoint, and nothing beats listening to TIoN live.

BLT+
This year's BLT+ was the biggest so far! We packed out the campsite with a cool 150 young adults keen to learn, read and study from God's Word. It was a timely wake up call for a lot of people to not waste their lives, but to focus on things which really matter. Manuscript discovery was also a timely reminder of reading the bible properly, and also hit me that I'm somewhat no longer a 'freshman' in BLT (been going for 4 years) and that its probably time for me to be encouraging and leading other young people to these events so that they can be equipped and trained to be leaders too!

Sydney
Arguably, the timing of the Sydney trip was soo bad. The week after included 2 assignments and crazy studying. But I can say now that It was a really worthwhile trip personally in terms of growth, and also forced rest. The trip didn't start off too well, as Jono and I missed the train to the airport, and only arrived at the terminal 5 minutes before boarding time. After we arrived in Sydney, Cindy drove us to Homebush to check out the olympic park and also the place where RICE E1 (RICEFEST) was held. Then we continued the trek to smak's place in northwestern woop woop suburbs. We checked out Macquarrie Shopping Centre, and then went to chinatown in the afternoon, bought takeaway chinese dinner, and went to the RICE Rally Rehearsal. The rehearsal was really great to be part of, and to take it how RICE works in Sydney, and thinking about the good/bad/interesting points and the similarities/differences with RICE Brisbane. Their band, choir, orchestra and dancers were awesome, and it was great to see all the kids involved too!

Friday we bummed around the city all day. Met up with Carson the traitor for lunch, and almost got myself into a bad position, since me and Jono met up with our own friends that day. My mobile ran out of battery, and it was so lucky I jotted down Jono's number like less than 1 minute before my mobile died. Otherwise, I'd be probably still be lost around Sydney! Met up with Jack, Pat, Jan and Warren and had dinner at chinatown (again). We gatecrashed Jan and Warren's apartment, before our mega one hour ride home which involved walking, tram, train and cab, and watching the police take down some random at central station.

Saturday morning was 5:30am start and we bummed around the city and the Entertainment Centre, where RICE Rally was held. During lunch, we were able to sit in on a Mark Driscoll talk on "10 things I wish I knew when I was 25". Will blog about that later. We spent the afternoon helping with the followup packs, and at night we sat in on the RICE Rally. It was amazing! 400 kids, listening to mark Driscoll's (definitely MA15+) talk, and going crazy and having fun at the same time! It was a moving experience to witness and help out in the followup room. Being surrounded by 500 kids who want to learn more about God is just mindblowing.

Sunday was pretty crazy too. Highlight was probably being rejected at the Qantas check-in (He told us we had to wait til the next day, and I had a heart attack), only to be accepted after 5-10 minutes of heated discussion from me and Dora, and compromising by having our check-in luggage on the flight after. As I walked out to the baggage carousels... behold! my suitcase appeared at the front of the line of bags. Note to self - Qantas is crap.

Now
Life is almost back to normal, but a lot of things have changed recently. Hopefully, there will be time to discuss these, but for now.... time to catch up on sleep!

Happening in the past week... in picture format!

Yes, its the 3rd week of uni, and assignments are pouring in. However, managed to have some free time to play pro evolution soccer. This is possibly the best team lineup in the world! Imagine the commentary in this game!! "Kim... passes to Kim... great pass by Kim... Kim's making a ruuun, and its KIM... GOAL TO KIM"



























After playing the beautiful game, I went to the local caryard to pick up my new car. Isn't it hot?





















Obviously I'm not the one in need of a new car... as seen by Tom's hot yellow space saver tyre after he ran over some police barriers earlier in the morning in his mad dash to church. That's dedication!





















Note the white sticker on the tyre "80KM MAX" hahaha good luck!