LC Retreat

I'm so suppose to be studying but who can stop posting about His greatness :) Lols Had LC Retreat last week, basically a retreat where the LC (local committee of OCF) come together for a retreat to discuss and plan for the year ahead.

Ours was at Willy's place this year round and being able to enjoy God's creation and at the same time sit still to listen to His voice was just amazing!!!

Lots of brainstorming were done within those few days and I believe coming up with the theme was one of the toughest. The funny thing was, each of us had ideas that were running along similar lines - on faith, confidence in Christ and equipping ourselves with the amour of God and reaching out. We had a few doubts on how faith can be a difficult topic to tackle and basically we had all these ideas but it was all a blur - this was Saturday night.

We were all pretty tired that night but prayer before that was just so enjoyable. One of our prayer was that God will refresh us by Sunday service the next day and lead us wherever He wants to lead us as we were pretty tired already then. Guess what? God did so alright, more than we could ever ask for.

My Sunday service experience started quite wierd for me in a way. We have never been to Every Nation Church before (except Willy) and we were already sweeping and cleaning up the hall in a primary school preparing it for service beforehand. I would say it really gave a feeling that we're part of the family in Christ even if it means we never met before.

They were a small congregation made up of probably 5 families mainly from Philipines and South Africa. I instantaneously fell in love with this kid whose around 4 or 5 from the Philipines, he was just simply adorable!!!!! Half the congregation were about the knee height and the other half were adults. One family even drive a nearly 3 hour drive from Bunbury just to come to church, leaving at 7am when the service starts at 10.This routine happens week after week :)

The service started with someone volunteering to start the service with an opening prayer and the pastor going up and reading the 3 titles of songs they were going to sing for that day. I was kinda confused at first to admit. They never had a worship leader in front nor did they have any musicians on stage. How and where would the worship songs come from???

The answer? A CD playing on the Cd player and an OHP projector to project the words for us to sing from. However sequence the Cd played, thats how many times they sang the verse and chorus and bridge. The funny thing was, worshipping God never felt so real.

It was now sermon time and Pastor Francco went up. Even with the title of his sermon, all of our jaws drop wide open.

Living the Life of Faith

Exactly what we have discussed! Even the key verses that we were looking at was exactly the same ones pastor used! Coincidence? I would believe it was God working. Pastor Francco actually only decided what he wanted to speak on that very Thursday before. Pastor spoke to us after the service and with the expressions we had during his sermon, he actually thought we were disagreeing with him or something. All 4 of us LC just had the shocked look as each of us were in awe. I believe boths side were super touched when we shared about it as pastor Francco himself had no clue what we were planning on and we on the other side had no clue what message he was going to speak on. It left most of our side with tears in our eyes as God really felt so real. It was as if He was standing right in front of us and leading our steps, assuring each step we take.

One word for what happened:

AMAZING!

However small that the congregation was, I find it was a meaningful one. It was one where you can see the genuinity of the Pastor and his burning passion to live for God according to God's rules and not his.

Btw, I fell in love with this fellow too. Her name's Salty, a fat cuddly cat who kinda sounds lik she has a sore throat when she tries to meow but that doesnt make her any less adorable!! :) She was sleeping with me on the bed one night :P


These are the four of us and hope that you can continue praying for us that we will continue reflecting the fact that its not about us but about God!! :)

I loved the way Max Lucado put it.

When God looks us and heaven's stagehands direct the spotlight towards the star of the show, I need no sunglasses as no light will fall on me.

Signin off: It's not about me

Changes

So long since it was last ever the same
Changes are everywhere
Looking at it is shocking
As the past still seem ever so real

I'm glad that many things are over
And yet I wish some could last forever
From breaking my heart into a million pieces
To letting me see the power of Your glory

Reminiscing the past
It was 18 years since my first breathe
and You've been leading my steps
through my joy and tears

Placing all my hurt in Your hands
Placing all the people I hurt in Your hands
Placing all that I am in Your hands
As in Your loving arms I belong

I want to glorify You
help me do so my Lord

Signin off: Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord..

OCF News

Love da video :) One used for today's OCF (Overseas Christian Fellowship) meeting!! Loved Mr Ow's acting! Haha, we basically laughed through his announcement hiaks..Happee watching!!! :P

I should really tell ya more on Missions Day where we go out and help families or individuals in crisis in need. It was such an amazing experience lo. You know how when we as christians think of missions, we'll most probably think of places that are a few thousand kilometers all the way in Thailand or some other country. It really stuck me that missions could be right next door.

We went as a team under YWAM (Youth With a Mission). After splitting into smaller groups,each group were assigned a house to help at. We went to this single mother's house where she fractured her ankle and she has 5 kids ranging from 1 years old to 18 years old.

It was really a tough time for her as she couldn't really do much chores in the house as she wasn't able to move about properly. All we did was come in with some tools, help clean what we can and fix up a bit of her garden. I think what made the trip significant was the prayers we had for her on our way there in our cars. Cleaning had never been so fun before!! Like what Cheryl mentioned, its like whatever's thrown at you or however dirty it can be, we weren't worried bout it and in turn go OK, lets get this cleaned!! :)

The lady's kids lovely and doing things around the house that I never did at that age. One of the girls who are probably around 9 or 10 was carrying her 1 year old sister and making sure she didn't cry whereas when the mother said she wanted coffee, 1/2 sugar and... the 12-year old boy just left what he was doing and went and boiled water and made the perfect coffee for his mum. He was helping me clean his brother's room by the way. He has really big eyes which he said won him a few awards for having the biggest eyes for an Aussie. :P

The family was just such a happee family to work with and you can see how thankful they were for us to come by. We did not manage to make everything sparkling clean but results from helping out for that few hours were instant as rooms and the kitchen are cleaner, gardens have less weeds and so forth. I believe it was an eye opening yet rewarding experience that if you put anyone in our shoes to be able to help out these people and see results happen in front of your eyes would feel the same way as well.

Okies, this is all from me this time :) Back to studies....and dim sum later with WC com :P Heheee

Signin off: Yummmmmyy

Faith

I need faith
God, help me have faith
I do believe
Help me overcome my unbelief
I surrender whats ahead
Into Your mighty hands
God, take charge of my life

I'm lovin it! Yeah~

Today's been great! Loved it!!! Wait..wat's even shocking is that I'm actually blgging after all these while!! Haaha :) Sowee readers! Dun expect much from this log for the next couple of months. The reason's simple: I need to figure out my future and I need good enough grades to do so. Gonna be counting upon God here! :)

Anyways, lets go back to today. Was able to meet Li and Lemon today after a whole month of not seeing them. Wanna guess where we went for lunch?????

IKEA

Yes, we actually went all the wy to Ikea to have lunch and believe it or not it was the first time in my life that I've actualy stepped foot into an Ikea. Being from a small "kampung", it was no wonder that I acted like a sakai. I was literally like a child who was going to the Toy store - all happee and all :) Heheeee Maybe that's why I'm looking into studying a course in Uni related to kids, ya think? :P Hiaks

All these while, Ive always seen like catalogues on Ikea and loved da stuff but never had a chance to go to one. Well, now that I do, totally loved da place man! Haha I must sound like a maniac now. :) Food there was lovely and fresh, din have my camera with me so too bad .. Can't show da food off. Summore coffee was $1.95 and free flow! Wher can ya get that here in the expensive land of Perth! Muahaaha

I bought like finger puppets cos I thought they will be great props for teaching Sunday school. Was playing with them at the train station :) Agree that Im childish yet? Lols

Anyways, these few days made me realize how small Perth actually is. Practically knew like half the people in bus when heading home just now, summore mostly they're ppl I know from Miri. It's amazing!! It made me miss home quite a bit.

Yesterday made me miss home even more! We had OCF Freshies Welcome and the place was packed with students!! It was a pot bless and everyone brought a dish along and guess what? The dishes were so Malaysian/Singaporean style that it really felt like I was back home. It felt like one of the freshies welcome that Uncle David organizes for Curtin Miri.

Well, I enjoyed myself heaps and when I went along with papa Ben to drive Wen Hui home(quite a long ride which was just what I felt like), it made me miss my family when we drive aroud in the rain lo. You see, its very rare to see super heavy rain, or maybe storm as u will call it, like that of the ones you see in Malaysia, here in Perth and yesterday night was one of the rare nights. It poured down like cats and dogs and we were warmly sitting in the car, chatting all the way. Man, I miss home!!

Ok ok, I'd better stop writin before ur sick of my mssing home stories!! Heheee heading of to Mummy Ho's place tonight to sleep over. More fun ahead!! Wohooo~ Love it

Signin off: Yes Im happee :)