Rain

It's been raining most of the day and that is a very nice thing.

My Delightfully Domestic Evening

I’m smack bang in the middle of a wonderful evening. I’ve been having a lot of these lately, but don’t usually have the opportunity to Blog about them, however as I’m alone at home for this evening I’m taking the time to do it!

My evening thus far:

Ian walked me home from work, and we had a really lovely time just talking about our days and what’s happened etc. He left to go off to the Boy’s Bible Study and I pottered around the house for a bit until I went to Wellcome (the local grocery store – yes, it IS spelt with two L’s!). I had one of those cool times where you keep on bumping in to a friend around the aisles and walk back to the site with her.

I came back, swept the floor and made my dinner of mince-meat burritos which I thoroughly enjoyed whilst listing to 96.5. I’ve just put on The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe to watch, but before I get all comfy I’m going to freeze the rest of the mince and get into some more comfy clothes :) Then, I’m going to sit down with my treat of apple juice and salt & vinegar chips, and most likely fall asleep whilst watching the movie!

Isn’t that just delightful?? I’m feeling very domestic! I haven’t had a night like this in a while and so I’m going to end my Blog now and continue on!!!

"How are you doing?"

"Fine Thank-you" is often my response. That or "I'm alive" which was my most popular turn of phrase when asked this question, right up until I caught myself saying it at my Pop's funeral... *bashful grin*

Why is it though that even in the most common day of questions, we very rarely tell the truth - or much less expect it when we ask it of someone else?

I know for some people it's not a question they're really asking, more something to start the conversation... I do it myself for goodness sake! But I also know those who REALLY ask, and how much this means. When they've earned the right to ask just through their genuine enquiry... that you don't feel the expectation to say what you think they want to hear - but because they sincerely care, and in light of that you're free to say "bloody awful!" or "bloomin' fantastic!" whatever the case may be.

As I write this I'm going over people in my head whom I often tell the truth to in this respect and who I don't... is there more to why I'm not honest to everyone? I don't trust everyone, and so I'm not going to load information that's personal on to people, but still, I think the request, whatever the forum/reason should be answered as honestly as possible, albeit phrased in an appropriate way. If I'm feeling like crap, then not say "great thanks", but "yeah - about that!" both are short and sharp and can lead on to other things easily, but at the same time one is honest and the other is not.

anyway - the random thoughts continue!

random thoughts

Some random things to share:

• If you want to waste time looking through the interactive cards on hallmark.com is an interesting alternative to youtube
• Dido's new album comes out later this year - yeah!
• Flowers really do make your house nicer
• My bonsai is still alive - Double Yeah!
• Summer has started to hit in Hong Kong :(
• Australian Cadbury's Chocolate tastes better than the stuff you by on Hong Kong
• I need to start a sign out/sign in file for when I loan my books out to people
  

Just Do as He Says

Tonight I listened to two sermons, one from a Franciscan brother by the name of Robert Hugh, the other by my own minister, John Menear.

The one by John Menear, spoke of Jesus’ first miracle. Turning the water into wine, with the clever title "Pitcher tells a thousand words"

While listening I remembered a book I found while cataloguing a library that outlined why the wine was actually juice because Jesus never would have condoned alcohol. The fact of the matter is that he created 600 liters of wine, and in doing so not only blessed a couple, but also, through John’s retelling, painted a picture of the new covenant...of purity through Jesus, and Jesus alone, using the ceremonial cleansing pots to hold the excellent wine. (much more to the sermon then just this though!).

I found a parallel between John’s words of graceful, all encompassing covenant and those of Bro. Robert Hugh’s in his sermon “To be Human is to Fully Accept the Glory of God”. He brought the interesting concept of belief in a “contract god” or a “covenant god” into his homily which he’d also referred to yesterday at St Thomas’s in Lancaster, PA (although I understand the talks were quite different). The thought was a new one and one that after discussing it this morning with Ian and hearing it again this evening in this sermon I wanted to give it some thought, especially as too I often act in my belief of a contract God – a term of service which I must live up to, and when I fail … well, I fail and feel that that contact is in some ways null and void.

An extract (although I encourage you to listen to the whole thing) states:

What goes with that [covenant God] is that we have a God who simply says to us, each uniquely and by name, “I love you”. Not, “I love you IF”, but “I love you. I love you unconditionally and I love you for you and not for your performance”. And the God of covenant goes on and says “I accept you where you are right now in your life, warts and all. I rejoice with you in your life with everything that is fine and noble and strong, but I don’t just stop there because I never engage with something that is less than ALL it means for you to be you. And therefore I also engage with you when you are by no means strong, but weak and fragile. When you are confused and lost and even radically broken. And it’s because I engage with you where you are and as you are and as all you are that I declare you unconditionally beloved and totally accepted.”

And says the God of Covenant “let your energy be grateful energy, not anxious energy. Because already in and through your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, already the victory has been won and your salvation is assured and the redemption is wrought and your forgiveness is given. Already you are citizens in a forgiven universe.”

It’s a theme I’ve heard so often in other words, but not in the phrasing of a covenant, which I’ve always viewed to be a scary thing, where if you break one of those you’re really in trouble. As Ian shared this morning, a contact is between two equal parties, a covenant is not. A contract you sign feeling you can meet it, but we can never do all we need to if the Laws of the Bible were a contract. All of us would fail every time. And THAT is why we worship and serve a Covenant God – who accepts us just as we are – even though we’d like to think we’re able to do the job ourselves. When we have enough wine, and when we're woefully inadequate.

The other similarity between the sermons is what was said about Jesus. First, Mary said to the servants at the wedding “Just do as he says”, secondly God said of Jesus when introducing him “this is my son, in whom I am pleased”, virtually saying as Bro. Hug recounts “do as he says”.

Oh that I may, not out of effort or duty, but gracious service to the “Master of a forgiven universe”.

If you want to listen to either sermon just let me know - they're bonza!

A Day with the Dogs

Today the saying "every man and his dog was out and about" was true of Kowloon Park...

A Girls Night Out

Tonight we dropped Dory off at the border crossing between Hong Kong and China. Katrina took her over to get the bus, but four of us had a fun (and cheap!!) night out in Sheung Shui.

Save this Tree!!!

I purchased this tree yesterday, literally bought off the back of a truck, for less than I would pay for a hot chocolate… with the only problem being that now I have no idea what type of Bonsai it is! One of those problems with not continuing with my Cantonese studies is that the only English that the man whom I bought it off spoke was "Lots of water, every day water".

I am faced with the knowledge gained this morning after reading numerous websites on bonsai maintenance that should it be an inside tree and I keep it outside it will suffer, and if it is an outdoor tree and I keep it indoors it shall die. Its variety also affects the fertilizer, amount of water, sunlight and care it receives!

Seriously... bonsai's are scary things with baby sitting services and even hospitals all dedicated to their care.

Isn’t it beautiful though?? Stay tuned for updates on its progress... or lack there of!

Any and all help would be appreciated :)

P.S. We think it might be a "Baby Jade Bonsai Tree (Portulacaria Afra)" Check out the link and let me know what you think!

Let me make it clear: it is OK

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21059109-421,00.html

I’ve had this news article open in my Firefox browser since Monday, looking at it now and then, encouraged that some semblance of sanity is in our court system today.

I guess it’s been encouraging for another reason too...

Since coming to Hong Kong I’ve found myself unable to keep abreast of issues that I would back home just through the natural course of life. I didn’t watch one Super 14 match last year. I almost missed the Queensland State elections and would have if not for my mother reminding me to go and vote. The weather is horrible to conceive, either blessedly cold during the humid summer months which I’m jealous to consider, or stinking hot when we’re all lovely and cosy which I’d rather not think of!

The list goes on.

In a feeble attempt to have some idea of what is going on in the world I log on regularly to the BBC and news.com.au websites, and listen to a Brisbane radio station 96.5. While often I find this a helpful exercise, lately I’ve been astounded by the amount of junk we let invade our senses. Perhaps it’s a continuation from what I experienced in the States after watching TV for the first time in 8 months.

We are bombarded with companies jockeying for our attention. We are tempted by tales of sexual dalliances of the rich and/or famous. We are saddened by the filth that pervades the actions of abusers and users and perverts… and at times our governments. We are told to rely on one source for information, with that information then being proved inconsistent later in time. We humiliate and demoralise those in power instead of encouraging them. We idolise indiscriminately.

I sit at my computer tonight feeling sick with information overload – but it’s not information – it’s just data. Data that keeps me feeling like I’m informed.

So with this background, I was heartened by the words in the article above:

Justice Benjamin said he took the unusual step of calling the children to court after they expressed a wish not to see their father. "You may have received mixed messages from others close to you about whether it is OK to see your father and spend good times with him. Let me make it clear: it is OK," he said.

There was goodness in those words expressed by that Judge, and for right or wrong they have given me some hope this week, far away from home, that amidst the plethora of scandal that I come across each day we have not gone down the tube… just yet.

Transcendental Idealism

In a burst of insanity I asked a very good friend what to blog on this evening. He skyped back to say I should blog on Transcendental Idealism.

So, instead of writing a fascinating blog on why I’m half princess half missionary (which I can give if you really want another time!), I’m directing you all to Wikipedia for a much better explanation on Transcendental Idealisim than I could ever give… and then writing a bit of a blurb down the bottom should you care to read my ponderings on this topic.

Reading from that Wiki page on to another about George Berkeley I was intrigued by these words:

"In reference to Berkeley's philosophy, Dr. Samuel Johnson kicked a heavy stone and exclaimed, "I refute it thus." A philosophical empiricist might reply that the only thing that Dr. Johnson knew about the stone was what he saw with his eyes, felt with his foot, and heard with his ears. That is, the existence of the stone consisted exclusively of Dr. Johnson's perceptions. It might be possible that Dr. Johnson had actually kicked an unusually grey tree stump, or perhaps that a sudden attack of arthritis had flared up just when he was about to kick a random patch of grass with a painting of a rock. Whatever the stone really was, apart from the sensations that he felt and the ideas or mental pictures that he perceived, was completely unknown to him. The kicked stone existed, ultimately, as an idea in his mind, nothing more and nothing less.

"Theologically, one consequence of Berkeley's views is that they require God to be present as an immediate cause of all our experiences. God is not the distant engineer of Newtonian machinery that in the fullness of time led to the growth of a tree in the university's quadrangle. Rather, my perception of the tree is an idea that God's mind has produced in mine, and the tree continues to exist in the Quad when "nobody" is there simply because God is an infinite mind that perceives all."

I appreciate in these two paragraphs the thought that God MUST be present in all, thoughts and perceptions, rational and belief… and furthermore, that even to believe in something it was God himself who has enabled us to. Theologically I think that this is a very sound view, but in honesty I find it difficult to translate to the physical world I live in. (I’m sure that philosophers though would find something wrong with those words physical world though!)

I’m much more comfortable thinking that the couch I’m sitting on is not just my perception, but an actual object that is … and that it is perceived the same way to all people, because regardless of how we perceive it, it IS. However, that being said, just because I’m comfortable with something doesn’t make it so, it just makes it easier for me to believe that it is so.

I guess this raises a lot of questions that my “after work brain” just can’t quite take in, but I shall continue pondering though and you might benefit (or not!) from the thoughts that make it through the fuse box of my mind into the “real” world.

What I do find fascinating though is that I always thought I was into philosophy… until of course I started to read a bit more philosophy and find I’m not THAT into it! Give me a good old theological text and I’m happy… philosophy for some reason scares me. A) Because I don’t understand it B) Because I think that if I did understand it I wouldn’t trust it because how would I know what I understood was what I understood and how can I trust something I’m not even sure exists?

… You’re Sick? Here’s some pills!

One of those things about living in a different country is getting used to the health care system.

For instance, I went to the doctor yesterday for a nagging cough which developed and a general cold/flu… anyway I walked out with the following:
Expected:
Cough Syrup
Antibiotics
Unexpected:
Anti-inflammatory Tablets
Tablets for my “sputum”
Heavy pain killers
Tablets to stop my stomach bleeding from the other tablets

Anyway, I found it a fascinating exercise :) Thank God that I have a doctor to go to, and can afford to go!

Food Eaten Yesterday... and where in the world it came from

Cherry Tomatoes from Thailand

Apple Juice from America

Vegetable Pasty from Australia

Mandarin from China

Salmon Steak from Norway

Frozen Vegetables from Australia

Tea from England

Ahh… the wonders of living in a country highly dependant upon importing goods.

For example:

"In 2003, local production[in Hong Kong] accounted for 5% of fresh vegetables, 31% of live poultry, and 23% of live pigs. Everything else was imported."

http://www.batgung.com/food-supply-in-hong-kong

(note: this isn’t a blog about my eating habits, but it is hopefully the start of some regular, and backdated blogging!)

Lene Marlin, Simulation Games, Engagements and Baby News :)

Quite some time ago while listening to Pandora I listened for the first time to Lene Marlin. Simply said - I've become a big fan. Head to her site - not only can you listen to her songs and get a taste of her music and sound, but you can also play a very funky little game where you save a little girl's balloons from some horrid monsters!

Actually, speaking of on-line games, we've been testing a few lately. Thanks to Adam for sending this one our way... as Richard can testify my lunch times got a little crazy with wanting to make as many shoes as possible... I think the most I lasted was 5 days until I needed to put an end to the start of an addiction... some powerful awareness happening through those simple simulation games though.

Congrats to Joy and Flash who announced their engagement recently :) hugely stoked for you both and looking forward to meeting you Joy when you come by our way early next year.

While I could bore anyone who does read this blog (I probably do already!) by more pictures of new born foals, I'd much prefer to end with telling the world how very excited I was yesterday to hear the news that the Curtis family is expecting a sibling for Abby Grace. Will & Ness, you guys are amazing parents and while unfortunately I wasn't able to speak for long, I thought I'd remedy that by telling the world how much confidence I have in you both as you continue to nurture and cherish your growing family. Sorry I can't be there to be a propper "aunty beth" or "aunt lizzie" to your little ones. Thank you for your support and continued friendship though the distance is not small. My thoughts are very much with you!!!

Pulling a Mr Kightley

“Were she prosperous or a woman equal to your age and situation I would not quarrel about any liberties of manner. But she is poor. Even moreso than when she was born. And should she live to be an old lady she will sink further still. Her situation being in everyway below you should secure your compassion. Badly done, Emma! Badly done. She has watched you grow from a time when her notice of you was an honour; to this, humbling her and laughing at her in front of people who would be guided by your treatment of her. Oh... it is not pleasant for me to say these things, but I must tell you the truth while I can... Proving myself your friend by the most faithful counsel, trusting that some time you will do my faith in you greater justice than you do it now.”

For a long time this quote from Emma (Jane Austin) has been my ideal in friendship and honesty. Inspiring me to tell the truth, or ask a question even when it might hurt the other person. It is not often that my ideals are met – and this week this particular one was.

To have people care enough to be honest and upfront is a noble thing and one that marks true integrity and character. I know I don’t always do this, actually, I do it much less than I would like to think, and when I do, don't always have the tact I should – but goodness me – how thankful I am when others “pull a Mr Kightley” in their relationship with me. Ask a question, define a relationship or just speak out the truth even when they don’t know how I’ll react.

The Gift of Losing my Camera

I thought I lost my camera this week, and was devastated at the thought I would no longer have it. Rather odd I know but this camera has been with me to weddings, births, up a glacier, tramped all around New Zealand, traveled through the Australian bush (via car, foot, horseback & 4 wheel motorbikes), all over Hong Kong, and has even gone around the world (east-west) when borrowed by a friend. It has been so much a part of my life that it, now battered and scratched, almost feels like an extra limb, or perhaps more correctly, a third eye that captures events that too quickly fade from my memory.

It was a real sense of grief. Very much a security blanket in an unfamiliar world that passes by all too quickly.

I woke up one night and really had to work through this grief and come to terms with the loss until until after quite some time in prayer I felt peace about the situation – why did it mean so much to me? Was it an idol in my life? (it wasn’t and isn’t for the record). Why did the loss make me feel so alone? Why did I miss my family and home in such an acute way all the more?

What amazes me is that I was prepared on a number of occasions this past year to give the same camera (Cyber by the way is his name!) away to people who may have needed it more than I. People, when offered, turned the offer down so it remained (much to my benefit) in my possession.

It really highlighted the difference between voluntarily giving something away, and having it taken from you. We’re happy to part with our money to help out a friend or the like, but if that same money gets stolen we’re mad as all get out. We’ll give our time to someone over a cup of tea, but we get frustrated when someone wastes it with idle chatter or gossip or an endless meeting.

Spiritually too I was really impacted. I want to learn and grow so much, but often don’t voluntarily let go of the things that hinder me. So God in his graceful sovereignty allows big challenges come along that knock my breath away – all for good, but none the less painful. The result is often the same, but the manner is very different.

Anyway – a fairly personal blog tonight, but did want to share a) I lost my camera b) I found my camera c) I’m thankful for both.

thoughtswordsactionshabitscharacterdestiny

Adam shared yesterday the passage from Proverbs 4:23 “Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” and I was reminded of this quote by Frank Outlaw that used to hang in my Year 12 homeroom:

"Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words; they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character for it will become your destiny."

"May the words of my mouth May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." Psalm 19:14

Love as a Lifestyle - 1 Corinthians 13

I’m often fascinated by my own reactions to portions of scripture that I have studied before or heard many times. This morning the chapter of 1 Corinthians 13 was new to me, even though it is one of the most recognisable passages of the Bible, and I’ve meditated upon its contents repeatedly.

I wanted to share it here for easy reading for those who like me who may have avoided it recently because we've heard it so many times before and.. well.. we think you know what it says, and for those who might never have read it. For any and all may it impact your life as it has mine this day.

(Verse 11 was especially convicting 1 as I reviewed my actions in light of the words below and how childish I have been recently in so many ways.)

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I talk a lot about God and the Bible and the Church, but I fail to ask about your needs and then help you, I'm simply making a lot of empty religious noise. If I graduate from theological seminary and know all the answers to questions you'll never even think of asking, and if I have all the degrees to prove it and if I say I believe in God with all my heart, and soul and strength, and claim to have incredible answers to my prayers to show it, but I fail to take the time to find out where you're at and what makes you laugh and why you cry, I'm nothing. If I sell an extra car and some of my books to raise money for some poor starving kids somewhere, and if I give my life for God's service and burn out after pouring everything I have into the work, but do it all without ever once thinking about the people, the real hurting people-the moms and dads and sons and daughters and orphans and widows and the lonely and hurting-if I pour my life into the Kingdom but forget to make it relevant to those here on earth, my energy is wasted, and so is my life.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Here is what love is like--genuine love. God's kind of love. It's patient. It can wait. It helps others, even if they never find out who did it. Love doesn't look for greener pastures or dream of how things could be better if I just got rid of all my current commitments. Love doesn't boast. It doesn't try to build itself up to be something it isn't. Love doesn't act in a loose, immoral way. It doesn't seek to take, but it willingly gives. Love doesn't lose its cool. It doesn't turn on and off. Love doesn't think about how bad the other person is, and certainly doesn't think of how it could get back at someone. Love is grieved deeply (as God is) over the evil in this world, but it rejoices over truth.

Love comes and sits with you when you're feeling down and finds out what is wrong. It empathizes with you and believes in you. Love knows you'll come through just as God planned, and love sticks right beside you all the way. Love doesn't give up, or quit, or diminish or go home. Love keeps on keeping on, even when everything goes wrong and the feelings leave and the other person doesn't seem as special anymore. Love succeeds 100 percent of the time. That, my friend, is what real love is!

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Yes, there are the three pillars that will endure forever: faith, that is, to be convinced about that which is ultimately important in life; hope, that is, to anticipate and work towards its fulfilment; and compassion, that is, to embrace it with love and practical care. But when it is all said and done, compassion is at the very heart of it all.

What more can I say?

Versions in order of use

NIV

Paraphrase by David Sanford

Paraphrase for those involved in Compassionate Ministries

The Message

Paraphrase on Christmas Love

Polling Booth with a View

Louise and I made the trip in to Wan Chai to cast our votes for the Queensland State Elections on Friday. Lynda (who is visiting) came along and had a whole lot of fun when they couldn't find my street. Apparently, my home does not exist according to the books in Hong Kong, but due to the amazing thoughtfulness of my Mom (she wrote an email giving the number for my district and I was able give this to them) I was still able to cast my ballot for Lyle to win the seat of Toowoomba North.

Even though as I write, with 74.7% of the vote counted, it doesn't look as though Lyle will get in, I still think this endeavor was worth the small effort we made, and huge effort many people have put in for many months, not least of all Lyle and his family.

I've heard it said recently to only fight the battles you can win. At the time I must admit I thought, "Yeah, that makes sense", however, in light of this weekend's events I'm not sure I would still agree, or in fact ever really believed that line or have at any time followed it in my actions. Some battles, some causes, are worth fighting even if you don't end up at the same place you envisioned when starting. You still need to pick the battles you fight wisely, but you don't always need to enter them knowing you will win without a fight. Whether you win or lose does not make your fight or belief valid.

In this specific instance, Water Recycling, the Public Hospital System, Family Values and other matters are ones that have long term implications and are thus worth fighting for in a public arena, whether or not the majority of people agree with the views we hold or are voting for, or the candidate we believe will carry those views forward on our behalf as citizens.

Anyway... no matter what the outcome, I still reckon I had the best view from any polling booth.

Chasers - Trojan Horse

I was hanging out with Mike & Helen and Maria last night and when this video came up in conversation. I laughed my head off as Mike described it and found it even funnier watching. Aside from the language I hope you enjoy it, and remember your history lessons when next asked to park a Trojan horse overnight.

13 minutes

In 13 minutes I will have been living in Hong Kong for one year. I'’d love to write something profound and meaningful about this event, and while a reflection that is more interesting may follow in the weeks to come, for now I just want to say "thank you".

Thank you God for being faithful. Throughout my whole life, and in this past year specifically, you have been faithful, and based upon that I can trust and believe that you will continue to be. While these words are far from adequate, it's moments like these I'm glad for your omniscience... "Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely Oh Lord"

Thank you friends and family: for releasing me, supporting me and encouraging me. Especially when I've been too busy to write, or an emotional wreck, your belief in me and what I am doing has been an abundant source of strength.

Lastly, thank you to my colleagues and friends who have put up with me this past year. I think you all know that I have good days and bad, just like I would anywhere else, but you put up with me and through it all actually seem to want me to hang around! It is extraordinary how much of a family you have become.