Heading To Sydney

Busy day rushing for last minute gifts for our Australian hosts. Sherene has been gracious to accommodate our pressing demand for batik gifts from Karyawarna. It was also just a moment before that we had been blessed with extra cash to get the gifts that we wanted – what a way God provided in the nick of time!

It was a “slow” drive to KLIA – perhaps it is because I had been feeling a little out of place, kinda “not knowing what to expect and yet I should get excited” feel. Maybe I’m just too tired for any excitement. Joong Harnn and Kah Weng left us and soon we checked-in. Acts of kindness do have a different touch on the heart, it tells us that we are loved. I enjoy these simple moments of friendship, it is beyond what a cup of chocolate ice cream could offer.
Boarded the plane, MAS 747 carrier shared with Virgin Atlantic airline. 8:45pm tired and bored. 9:45pm Lemony Snikett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events lifted my mood somewhat. 11:30pm and after became A Series of Unfortunate Attempts to Sleep.

thawed and rising up...

Reckoning is the first step to a new level. I love words of hope and life and I love the way the Bible brings comfort to my seeking heart. I love how a desperate soul can find healing and emptiness turns into fulfillment. I love the presence of God. Cold hearts melt in His warm hands, and a doorway that did not exist yesterday appeared. I love the way God leads me to find rest and assurance and hope. I have entered the freeze zone, but now I can leave it and close the door. The pathway of worship and surrender, so powerful, so beyond any available natural remedy, so penetrating and so pure. There I feel whole again. There I am like a child caught in the hands of love. There I receive belonging and security. Hands are no longer unwilling and heavy, heart is no longer cold. What sense of renewal. What sense of liberty, meaning and really feeling alive.

There's nothing my God cannot do.

thawing in process...

God is good. I delight in the fact that nothing I go through is ever above Him, this thought makes me strong. Since I penned "the freeze zone", God has been working a way out for me and as always, I couldn't see it until much later. And whoa!

He knew how much I could take and how far I could go, He knew the extent of my heart's desires and the aspirations of my mind, oh He knows me well. It was time for me to get some rest. And I did, first a flu landed me in bed early (not implying that sickness is God's will). It felt like I had to be stopped from going on and on and on. A conservation I had with a close friend of mine struck me that I am that sort of person when something catches my interest, I would not stop working on it until I drop. Talk about knowing-thy-self, I hardly recognised this trait of mine would extend so far. But God knew all the while. The second is coming, next 2 weeks in Sydney for a 4-day conference then Newcastle for some ministry and more rest. The reality of this is still sinking and yet to be settled although I knew of the Australia trip since the middle of church camp. But I am still confounded by the way things worked out for me and Elijah to go for this trip, how we received the blessings and agreement of our leaders towards this trip, even now in catching up time to complete my outstanding assignments before I go... the list is endless. When God opens the door, truly who can shut it? Now the waiting and the observing of things unfolding to its places brings a kind of thrill and excitement to be in what He is working at.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for in your weakness My strength is made perfect."

freeze zone

"and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold." This is a stark reminder to me that something is at work to seap my love for Christ and siphon it away. I am glad to have the oppurtunity to hear Ps Kong Hee's sermon on the Attitude Of A Discipler while doing my assignment. I realised that one thing I do often struggle with is the problem of unwillingness. It's there, the silent stealth like attitude that slips under any other possible excuses that appears reasonable to me. Perhaps I am secretly disappointed within and did not give room to myself to deal with it. I think I did so, now it appears to me that it had been superficial. Enter the freeze zone, where your heart turns cold while you are not aware of it. Not before long it would be functioning devoid of meaning. Unwillingness, this is the key area now. Need a breakthrough, need to push through and not return here again. Thank you Lord for guiding me through this morning with Your word. "Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word".

legacy and tributes to the Pope

The passing of the Pope made waves over the globe lately, turning the nations' attention from the trail of wreck at Nias to Italy. There isn't much good news as headlines is there. Reading through the tributes and the efforts people have credited the Pope for his lifelong dedication and service seemed to strike a cord within me that we do tend to presume a somewhat eternal existence on the leaders we look up to - we don't think they would die and leave us. And when they do, we find it hard to let go. Some even suddenly realise how lost they are.

Much acknowledgements and credits were given by leaders of diverse nations and religious backgrounds, all commenting the warmth and charity of the Pope towards peace. What I can learn from this man is how he was looked upon as a leader who had broken through barriers which were new ground, e.g. he was the first Pope to have stepped into a mosque within his intention to improve Muslim-Catholic relations. What touched me most was the photo of the Pope visiting Mehmet Ali Agca, who is serving sentence in the Kartal prison in Istanbul for his attempt in assasinating the Pope and had seriously wounded him. Mehmet's brother claimed that the Pope was like a brother to Mehmet. For more read http://202.186.86.35/news/story.asp?file=/2005/4/4/world/10591603&sec=world

I think it respect and honor to have so many people and world leaders recognise and acknowledge the efforts one had done to make a change. I hear myself saying : "this life we live it once, to the fullest, to the farthest, most excellent voyage people would acclaim over and over, begins with this one step: what am I going to do with my life today?"

but she hung on for 14 days!

Terri Schavio, 41, died today after her feeding tube was removed 14 days ago. Above all the debates about whether it is humane to "keep her alive artificially" since she has been reported to be in a "persistent vegetative state" (thus giving us the impression that she's entirely deprived of all bodily functions), the mere fact that she had hung on without food or water for 2 weeks proved to me beyond doubt that Terri is certainly awake and very much alive. How would her husband and the courts choose to look at her case differently for 7 years is something I couldn't grapple. Looking at her photo dated year 2001 pinched my heart - she looked very much alive. Take a look at the link at http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/4/1/world/10572972&sec=world

Scottish new sources reveal chilling details of the Schavio case that would cause the reader to ponder what is really going on in the decision-making process. The report highlighed that her husband had refused Terri rehabilitative therapy after 1993 and the needed antibiotics in 1993. What is startling is the testimony of a Nobel Prize nominated neurologist, Dr William Hammesfahr who has an international reputation for treating brain-injured patients, commented after examining Terri and her medical records and x-rays that she has a chance to recover. Why don't you take a read:
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=318&id=324112005

I can't stop feeling bad for Terri. Yet I know she had fought well. Perhaps she knew what was coming at her. Perhaps she really had something to say about her situation. Perhaps she would have avoided the hassle with the courts if she would have had prepared her will. Nevertheless, I believe her miraculous sustenance for 14 days without food and water shall remain a silent rebuttal against the flood of madness that had sought to take her life.