I've arrived safely in Sydney

Hi, guys - I'm back in Sydney. Praise God for a safe trip home:) My luggage arrived 1 day after me, but without any drama, so thank God for that, too....

Thank you for all your prayers and supports. I know that I was carried by His grace and your prayers through these whole three months.....

I've been catching on my sleep a lot, unpacking, doing the laundry, and trying to reflect things that I've learned in the past 3 months since I arrived. Will go back to work tomorrow. Please continue to pray for me as I try adjust back to life in Sydney. Please also pray that God will lead me to the next chapter of life (which I still don't know) and for me to trust Him enough to follow His leading and be obedient.

Will write me when things are more settled. Take care and God bless!

Updates

Hi, all! I`m still in Japan for transit, my flight for Sydney will leave tonight and I`ll get to Sydney on Sunday morning (there is a high possibility that my luggage won`t be arriving with me).

Ok, so far it`s been a challenging 2 days for me. When I flew from Cuba to Mexico (to catch the flight back to Sydney), I was escorted and detained like an illegal immigrant;P The thinkg is my visa to Mexico is only for 1 entry, so when I have to fly trhough Mexico, I didn`t have a valid visa to enter into the country. So they had to escort me to make sure that I won`t be sneaking out of the Mexico Airport. So along with the escort, etc. they also kept my passport with them and by the time I`ve got it back, I found that the check-in staff in Cuba didn`t attach the luggage stickers in my boarding pass.

To make matters more complicated, Mexicana airlines found out that I needed visa to transit in Canada. Therefore they changed my flight to a different route and they told me that my luggages won`t be arriving with me in Sydney because of the flight changes. So now I`ve got 2 problems: missing luggages and not having the luggage stickers as the evidence.

Please pray for me so I would continue to trust God and not to vent my frustration to the airline/airport staff. Please also pray that my luggage will arrive safely in Sydney with me. Thanks for praying!:) I`ll see you guys soon!

Las Despedidas

I´ve been out most of the time this week, mostly to meet up with people the last time before I leave Queretaro.

This morning I met with Mary, the Compa coordinator here in Qro. We had a wonderful time sharing about ministries, about Compa, about the needs here in Qro, and about our personal stuff too. She said to me: ´Although I´ve just met you, it feels like I´ve known you for a long time and I feel comfortable talking to you´ And it´s the same to me. Her last question for me was: ´When will you be back to be Compa staff worker?´ - I´ll let God answer that question for me:)

Then I went to the Bible Study at the Engineering Faculty for the last time *sob, sob* We ate this fruit thing covered in chili sauce and we need to throw the skin while eating them (forgot what it´s called). I was having a stomach ache the whole time so I was really struggling to listen and understand the study. At the end of study, the group was praying for me. We stood around in circle with me in the middle and each of them would say a prayer for me. And it´s kinda cute to hear the things they pray for me, like: ´Lord, please let Rose come back here to Qro very soon. And this time, let it be forever,´OR ´God, I didn´t get a chance to know much about Rose, but thank you for her presence in our Bible Study and for her to share the yummy little biscuits with us.´ There is a tradition here to throw someone into a pool during the farewell, but I was saved cos there wasn´t any pool around:)

Tomorrow, I´ll meet up with Mia and Jessi, then I´ll have a debrief with Jessi, then I´ll head to Global for work and for my last class with Maricela. On Friday night, we´ll have a real farewell party (la despedida) for me at Global - we´ll need a lot of Kleenex for me:)

Last ministry updates before leaving Queretaro

I love this place! I love my family and friends, the people, the culture, the ministry, todos y todos (everything)! The things that I don´t like are cockroaches (we have lots of them in Sydney, too), the dryness, and the cat calls - but I could live with them! So it´s with a heavy heart that I´m going to leave this place:(

The cafe is going well. Things are not as bad as I feared before. Jessica is coming back to work there next week, but she has continued with her English classes with Pati last week (Pati is a non-Xtian whom Jessi´s following up on). I´ve been encouraged by my friendships with Helena and Jessi. And thank God for Ahide, she has been accompanying me to go to places and help me practice with my Spanish (she doesn´t speak English) - please pray that God would provide a friend and a mentor for her to encourage her to grow in the Lord. Please pray for a guy called Jons, who are in Helena´s Monday English class. He almost prayed the prayer to accept Christ a couple of weeks ago when Rafa shared the gospel to him, but he didn´t because of a little interruption that happened. Since then, we´ve never seen him in Global anymore and we didn´t have his contact (he´s not an official student of the English class, so we don´t have his record). And thank God for my friendship with Maricela, please pray that Lluvia would be able to follow her up when I leave and for me to be able to maintain the friendship with her even when I´ve returned to Sydney.

I´ll be catching up with Mia, another chinita (well, half chinita, cos her Dad is from The Netherlands) from Brisbane, on Thursday. Thanks to Jessi for calling her and following her up. I hope we could continue to encourage each other as we meet up for the last time before I leave. Please also pray for Mia that whether she is to do a mission work or a secular work in Queretaro, she will live her live honouring God and be a witness of the gospel (she has a strategic job of teaching English!)

My family is amazing!:) They love Asian food (it´s unusual for Mexicans), so I´ve been cooking some Asian stuff for them and we had good quality times together. My sister here, Marianita, will go to Uni this July so I´ve been telling her to join Compa Bible Study once she´s in Uni. Marianita is quite different to girls of her age: she loves reading her Bible so muccccchhhhh and she has this huge hunger and passion to relate intimately with God, I find it very encouraging! And my mum, what can I say? I learnt so much from her: she has a stressful job, 2 kids to bring up, chores to do, meals to prepare, Bible study and talks to prepare, meetings to attend, and she does them joyfully without any complains no matter how tired she is! Please pray that God may continue to help this family to grow in their love for God and for one another, and that God may continue to use them to be a blessing to others!

And last but not least, my Compa Bible Study group:) I´m so gonna serve with Compa here if I am going to do a mission work. My friends at Compa here are like my second family. I´m really encouraged by their love for studying the Bible and for one another. I love the way they study the Bible (going through and studying the Bible passages faithfully) and their passion to apply it in their daily lives. I just wish that I could speak Spanish better, because most of the time I could only understand 80% of the discussion and they´ve moved to another topic by the time I finish arranging a simple sentence to say in my mind:) But thank God for their kindness and patient:)

One of the thing I notice from my Christian friends here in Qro is the balance they have in studying the Bible as God´s Words and relating to Him intimately. And I love this balance. Unlike many Western Christians, Christianity is more than a doctrine to them. Relationships really matter to them and thus they want to have a dynamic, intimate relationship with God. The Word of God, the prayers, the fellowships with other believers help them to have this intimate relationship with God and to hear His voice. For me, it´s very refreshing and inspiring to see this!

PS. Feel free to see my photo page to see the people I mentioned and the places I ´ve been to.

Las Mañanitas

Unlike in Australia, in Mexico we celebrate Mother´s Day on 10 May (it doesn´t matter what day of the week it is). And even though it isn´t officially a public holiday, the people stops what they´re doing to celebrate the day with their mums. Most of the students don´t have to go to schools, most of the shops are closed, and most of the people have meals (lunch: 2-5pm) with their mums at the restaurants.

Another custom that is very common here is called ´Las Mañanitas´. It is a traditional Mexican serenade that is sung after midnight for special people during their birthday or during Mother´s Day. To hear the most commonly sung Las Mañanitas, click here.

One day before the Mother´s Day, I was invited by my Compa Bible Study friends to join Las Mañanitas with them. We gathered at Compa´s headquarter at 8pm for practice and we left at about 10pm. There were about 12 of us altogether. We went around to each other´s house and some of the grandma´s houses to sing the ´serenata´. We sang about 3 to 4 song in each house that we visited.

We wake our mums up by singing loudly for them:) And once they got up, we´ll shout ´¡Que salga!¡Que salga!´to ask them to come out of the house. We´re invited to come in to some of the houses and in one of the house that we visited, we were served with warm atole (drink made of milk and some sort of flour) - ¡Que rico! yummmm...

We got to my house by 3am and I felt soooooo bad having to wake up my mum because I knew that she has to get up early in the morning to work. But she is a very nice and appreciative person, so she was very happy that we did the las mañanitas for her even though we wake her up at 3am!

Then, I was going to stay at my home and not finishing the las mañanitas, but thanks to Alvarito who told me that we´re only going to 2 more houses very close to mine, I changed my mind and went with them. And guess what time I arrived back home? 7 in the morning!!!!Jajajaajjajaja......It was a great cultural experience, though!:)

In my opinion, in Mexico, a cultural event like this is a good opportunity to make contact, build relationship, and witness to the non-Christians. Because during the las mañanitas, not only the Compa student came, but also their non-Christian friends and family. During this time, we have lots of time (the whole night) to get to know each other and much opportunity for the non-Christians to see how we act and how we relate to each other. Please pray for the Compa students that they may continue to live a Godly lives and to boldly share the message of the gospel as they relate to their non-Christians friends and family through cultural events like this.

Mexican Life, Culture, and Food

I found that a lot of Mexican cultures to be very similar to Indonesian cultures. Just to name a few:

- Being fashionably late. In Indo, we call it ´jam karet´and here it´s called ´PM´, which stands for Puntualidad Mexicana (Mexican punctuality).

- Our love for chilli. But the difference is, Mexicans have more types of chilli than any country I´ve ever visited.

- Our love for siesta. In Mexico, they have different expressions for siesta: ´tomar/echar una siesta´(that´s the common one), then you also have ´echar un coyotito´, and ´planchar las pestañas´(literally means: ironing the eyelashes)

- How the pedestrian crossing work. Just like in Indo, when you see zebra crossing it doesn´t mean you can cross the street anytime you want! You need to wait until the road is clear before you could cross the street because none of the car will stop for the pedestrian.

- We don´t need to wear sitbelts in cars and you can take as many people as could possibly fit in your car without the fear of being caught by the police.

I don´t think I experience much of a culture shock, because we just have too many similarities!:) Having said that, I find a few customs to be a little bit peculiar, like: the way the camion (bus) works around here, the way guys and girls are relating to each other, the Mexicans love for lemon and salt.

The Mexicans eat anything and everything with ´lemon and salt´. ¿Why? I don´t know!:) Lemon and salt are considered the basic ingredients for any food. They even have a song that goes like this: ´Te quiero con limon y sal´,which literally means ´I love you like lemon and salt´(It means something like: I love you just the way you are, and the way you are is enough for me, awww....)

Another interesting thing I found here is that Mexicans love to eat ´bangkuang´!!!!!!How strange! I thought the fruit only exist in Indonesia! Here, it´s called ´jicama´. And guess how it is eaten? Off course with lemon, salt, and chile!:) (which reminds me of the salty chile that we eat with rujak in Indo!

They also have a fruit salad thing that is similar to our ´rujak buah´ (fruit salad). It´s called ´los gaspachos´here. It´s a mixed of fruits cut in small pieces, mixed with salt, lemon, chile, chamoy (the sour fruit salt), and poured with orange juice! I loveeeeee it! I´m gonna try to make them when I´m back......

In general, I love most of the food here! My favourite is ´gorditas´. It´s a fried tortilla bread, filled with either cheese or migajas (minced meat) and the stuff: either nopales (cactus), or chicarron (pig´s skin), or papas (potatos), and SALSA!:) Will definitely miss it when I leave:P

Photos´ Link

Click here to view more of the photos:)

Ministry Updates - May´07

Where did the time fly? I thought I´ve just written the April´s ministry updates and it´s already May!

This week is tough (but it´s also gonna be a great opportunity to learn and be trained in Godliness). None of the long-termers are gonna be around. Justin and Lluvia are in the States and Jessica has just had surgery. Things have been ok with the cafe and English classes. But there are hitches here and there, like one of the staff arriving really2 late today, we´re running out of the flavour for the coffee, we needed to pay for food order that we didn´t even know, and we didn´t close on-time because of some people from the church came after our closing time and ordered some coffees....I´m just so used to be in charge of things and be work-oriented (instead of people oriented), so I found myself to be very frustrated today when things weren´t perfect and no one was doing anything because there is no one in-charge when the leaders are away. I have to try so much to go against my natural inclination to be upset and take charge of things.

I also find it hard to do ministry while there are so many customers in the café. I´m worried that tomorrow I won´t have time to sit down and talk to Maricela. I don´t know if it´s just me who´s being overly worried about everything and I don´t know if it´s ok to just leave the other staff making coffees by herself...I need God´s wisdom to know what to do and not to be anxious....

In the morning for the next week or so, Helena and I will take turn to visit and accompany Jessica starting from tomorrow. I hope I would know how to look after her needs and not too tired to work afterwards.

Prayer points:

* Thank God for the friendships established. Please pray that I may be able to share the gospel and encourage to the people God has placed around me.

* Thank God for Jessica´s surgery that went well. Please pray for her recovery and for us to be able to look after her well.

* Thank God for the many people that could come to the café. Please pray God may continue to use the cafe, the staff, and the Christians there to be a witness of the gospel as the main ministry.

* Thank God that the staff could have some holiday and rest. Please pray for them to be refreshed when they come back and ready to continue their ministry with perseverance. Please also pray that during their absence, the cafe and the ministry would still go well.

* Thank God for the opportunity to come to Mexico to observe, learn, and minister alongside the people here. Please pray for physical health, strength, joy, patience, and wisdom especially in the last leg of my time here in Qro while the long-termers are away. Please pray that I may not act with my emotions and that I will not be bossy. Pray that I may continue to serve God and the people humbly and gently.

- Thanks for your supports and prayers. ¡Dios les bendiga!:) -

La fiesta de quince años

I had a nice cultural experience last Saturday. One of the girl from the youth group was celebrating her 15th birthday. In the US, they usually have big parties on 16th b´day and in Indo, it´s 17th bday. But in Mexico, they have big parties when they´re celebrating their 15 años! (It´s called ´Quinceañera´ in some part of the Latin world).

It started with a service at 5.30pm at church. The birthday girl, Fatima, was all dressed up in lime-coloured ball gown and sat in a special throne in the front middle of the church close to the flowery gate. We sang praises for 45 minutes or so then the pastor gave a sermon and words of wisdom to the birthday girl. Then the dad of the birthday girl read a Bible passage and he asked the pastor and the pastor´s wife to put on a necklace on Fatima as a symbol that they will help look after her spiritually. Then we had a photo sessions with the birthday girl after the service and we headed to a salon (an open space where they have functions here in Mexico) for the party.

We arrived at the salon at 8ish then we´re served with a simple dinner of pasta and grilled chiken with pasta. Then we were dancing:) At first, Helena (the other intern from the States)and I didn´t wanna dance, because it was quite daunting to dance among the Latins! They are especially endowed by God to be able to dance well:P But we were dragged by Fatima´s dad, so we didn´t have any choice but be polite:) But I loved it, because it´s clean (there are no unusual moves), and we did group dance most of the time:) I went back home with my family at around 11pm, but the party went on until after 2am.

I enjoyed the time so much that I felt very sad when I think about leaving this place, these people, this church, these ministries, and these families....

Please pray that I will live to the hilt even in these last 3 weeks and that God would use this experience to stir my heart in the direction that He wants me to go *muchissimas gracias por sus oraciones* -_-

Random Musings and Pensamientos

*Lluvia & I: Learning Mexican cooking * With my sister - Marianita *

* I didn´t bring camera to Compa monthly fellowship. But it was really good: we sang, we played some games and we heard a short reflection from the Bible. It was really encouraging and I don´t feel left out even though I´ve only met one or two people before the night....

* I love joining Compa´s Bible Studies and fellowship. So encouraging!!!! I think if I do a mission work anywhere in the world, I would do student ministries, it´s so strategic and it´s so encouraging to see these universitarios getting excited about learning the word of God and applying it! What I also love to do also is to encourage these young people to give back and contribute to their local churches.

* I think I like the model of student ministries here in Mexico than in Sydney. In Mexico (or in other parts of Latin America, in fact), the student ministry works with the uni students on weekdays and these students would go to their local churches on the weekends. I think that should be the way. Because if the young people are trained in Uni and go to church there too, who´s gonna help the local church to grow?Aren´t we robbing the local churches from their future leaders? - that´s just my thoughts:)


*With Monserat, the girl from next door´s shop * With some of the Cisneros family @ Guanajuato*

* 2.5 weeks away from leaving Qro and I´ve started crying.....I don´t know if I´ll ever get a chance to come back to this place? - ¿Quien sabe? Si,Si Dios quiere:)

* I´ll be leaving Qro just after my friend´s birthday on 19th May - perfect timing!:)

¿Quien?

´¿Quien?´is Spanish for ´who?´As you could guess from the title, I´m gonna share about the people and the events that I find exciting in the past week.

* Through the Spanish classes, I got to meet two people that I´d like to share with you. The first one is Mia. It´s a long story, but I got to know her because I catch on Mexican ´curious´culture: I kept asking my teacher about her until she introduced me to her. Mia has Asian appearance and she learnt Indonesian back in Uni. She came from Brisbane and she is here to teach English. Wow! I shared to her what I do here in Mexico and it turns out that she is a Christian, too. It´s exciting to meet another Christian from Australia who looks similar to me (Asian), not to mention how I could identify myself with her free spirited outlook on life. It turns out that she is thinking about doing mission work with a church here, so I invited her over to my church this Sunday and introduce her to the people here. I don´t believe in coincidences, I believe that the meeting is arranged by God to connect her to a mission org, Christians, and evangelical churches here in Mexico.

* The second person is Maricela. Maricela is the teacher in some of my classes, but I first got to know her at Global Grounds. According to her, she has been taking English classes here at Global on and off for 3 years. She is not a Christian yet. But she was asking me in the class what I´m doing here in Mexico and I answered her with my limited Spanish. Then while she was in the English class at Global last week, she asked Justin (the long-termers here) about what they do here in Global. Justin got to explain to her a bit more about God, Christianity, and what compels them to do ministry (the love of Jesus). Then this week, I asked her if I could take a private Spanish class with her and if it´s better to take it in the school or outside the school. She quickly answered that we better meet up outside the school and do an exchange study between English and Spanish. Wow! It´s an answered prayers (I´ve been praying specifically for her since I got to know her a month ago)! It opens up so much opportunity to get to know her and to share the gospel to her. Then after school today, I heard from Lluvia (Justin´s wife) that Maricela agrees to do meet up with Lluvia to learn more about Christianity while Lluvia comes back from the US in June. Please pray that the meetings would be happening and that I would use the opportunity wisely to share the gospel and for her to accepts the grace of God through Jesus.

* The third exciting thing this week is Compa (Mexico´s IFES/Perkantas). Because of my schedule, I could go to their Wednesday´s Bible Study and this Bible Study is happened to be lead by my friend whom I met through the café, Alvaro. All the Bible Study was in Spanish and I got my turn to read the passage and to answer the questions in Spanish. That was daunting and exciting at the same time! It´s very encouraging to see them studying the Bible and be faithful to what it says. The way they study the Bible is very similar to how we do it in church in Australia: they´re going through the book of the Bible and answer the questions related to the passage. Please pray for my Spanish to get better and please pray that despite my language limitations, I could still be an encouragement for the students in the Bible Study. I´ll go to the monthly Compa meeting this Friday. There´s gonna be spiritual and physical food there. I´m really excited about it, too!:) I´m gonna share the photos and the story afterwards.....

* I had an encouraging conversation at work today with one of the Christian girl who´s working with me, A. She is the only Christian in her family and she´s currently struggling, because the missios who look after her spiritually have just left to go back to the US. She felt quite lonely and unloved. We talked (in Spanish) about what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus, what it meant to be a good Christian, and from Romans 8 when Paul told the Christians there that there´s nothing that could separate us from the love of God through Jesus Christ. Please pray that she would be reminded of God´s love for her shown through His Son, JC. Please pray that she may stand strong in this difficult time and that God may have provide good Christian friends to encourage her in the faith.

* Praise items:
- Thank God for His Son, JC that through Jesus we could have hope and eternal relationships with Him.
- Thank God for his wisdom, love and sovereignty in carrying out His plan for this world. And thank Him for using imperfect people, such as us, to take part in His wonderful works and plans in this world.
- Thank God for the answered prayers, for the wonderful week, and for the people He connects me with.

¡Bajan!

I couldn´t sleep, I had too many things on my mind, I´m too excited about my week, and I had too much energy in me....So I´d better do some de-brief by writing a random blog entry on taking a camion (bus) in Qro.

+ Taking a camion has been one of an interesting experience here in Queretaro. A special skill is needed: to get on the bus, make a payment, and take a seat while the bus is moving!

+ The way the drive drives the bus and the shocking jumps everytime the bus is bumping on the speedbumps, makes it impossible to maintain your balance if you´re standing on the bus.

+ Even though there are bus stops, but the camion could stop anywhere the drivers wants to stop.

+ There are 2 ways of getting of the bus: to press the button from the back door or shout ´bajan!´(let me off!). Today the bus driver didn´t stop the bus even after I pressed the button several times, I finally have to shout ´bajan!´100 m from the place I wanna get off. (I don´t like shouting ´bajan´ for 2 reasons: I find it a little bit rude to ask things without saying ´please´, but that´s how Spanish works. And my accent would cause so much attention and turning of heads from the rest of the passengers:P)

I think I´ve gotta at least try to sleep, I´ve got a full day tomorrow and the day after....Buenas noches!:)

Strangers in the world - 1 Peter 3:1-7

I´m currently going through the book of 1 Peter for my devotional. The title of this blog: ´a stranger in the world´is taken from this book. This book was addressed to Christians at that time who were dispersed throughout the regions: what is their standing before God (His elects), what is their standing before the world (aliens and strangers), how are they to act in the light of their status, how are they to cope with the sufferings, how are they to relate to the people around them. We could definitely draw a parralel between us and them. Just like them, we are in this world but we are not to be part of this world. Just like them, we are God´s elect. And just like them, we are struggling to live as God´s people on this side of heaven.

I believe it wasn´t a coincidence that I came accross John Piper´s article on submission for Christian women that is taken from 1 Peter 3:1-7. Here are some excerpts of the article:

(A Christian woman) does not put her hope in her looks. She puts her hope in the
promises of God...She looks away from the troubles and miseries and obstacles of
life that seem to make the future bleak, and she focuses her attention on the
sovereign power and love of God who rules in heaven and does on earth whatever
he pleases...She does not fear the future; she laughs at the future. The
presence of hope in the invincible sovereignty of God drives out fear...That is
what Christian women do: They entrust their souls to a faithful Creator. They
hope in God. And they triumph over fear.

The article goes on talking what submission is and is not. To read full article, click here.

Ministry Updates - April 2007

*The crews @ Global Grounds Café*

Five more weeks before I leave Qro. So far, four weeks have past since I´ve been here. The past 4 weeks that I´ve been here, I spent most of the time getting used to the life here in Mexico, trying to get to know people in and outside church, helping around the house, helping out in the cafe, and learning the language.

Having been here for 4 weeks make me realise the importance of doing a long-term mission work. I think coming as a short-termer, my roles are mostly as a learner and observer. It´s quite hard to build on ministry and relationships when I´m only going to be here for 2.5 months. Relationships and ministries take time. Knowing these facts, I think I have to adjust my expectations accordingly.

The things that I´d love to do for the rest of my time here are as follows:

1. Supporting the long-term ministries and workers here.

In the next couple of weeks, Jessica, one of the long-termer, will have a surgery while the other long-termers, Justin and Llluvia, will go back to US for a couple of weeks in May. During their absence, I´m sure they could use a bit of my help at Global.

The English classes at Global have attracted quite a few non-Christians, thus it provides a tremendeous opportunity to share the gospel. One of the student in Jessica´s class, Pati, is a non Christian, who came to join the English class @ Global. Jessica invited her to come to a women´s event at church and she came! After the event, she said to Jessica that the talk touched her heart so much that it felt like it was spoken especially for her. Because of the Uni holidays, etc., I haven´t got much chance to be involved in the English classes, but I´m quite grateful to be able to observe how the English classes are really helpful in building relationships with the non-Christians and in sharing the gospel to them on a personal level.


2. Meet up and encourage the girls from church that I met through Bible Study and Youth Group.

I think it´s really hard to be a Christians here in Queretaro. Evangelical Christians are minorities here. The girls in the youth group don´t usually have any other Christian friends at school. Some of them are really struggling to live their lives God´s way while everyone around them don´t. And most of them are struggling to share the gospel to their friends because they don´t have enough support and encouragement to do it.

In the church where I serve, Iglesia Horizonte, there´s also lack of female youth group leader. Imagine 1 staff worker following-up all the girls plus following-up the non-Christians. It´s just impossible! So while I´m here, I really hope to encourage the girls and the leader as much as I can by meeting up with them to pray and read the Bible. (Even finding time to meet up with the High Schoolers here could be hard, especially when they don´t have that much resources to travel on their own)

3. Get involved in the Student Ministry with Compa (IFES in Mexico)

Because of the Easter holiday for the Uni students, I could only arrange the time with the Compa leader this week. Hopefully, I´ll have a chance to get more involve in the Student Ministry at the Uni that is situated opposite the café.

Prayer Points:

* Please thank God for the non-Christian contacts that the staff here are able to make. Please pray that through this relationship, the non-Christians could get to know Christ and come into relationship with Him.

* Please pray that I may make use of every opportunity I have while in the remaining 5 weeks I´m here to minister to the people God has placed around me.

* Another prayer point is for my uncle in Indo. Please thank God for the second surgery on his brain on Saturday that went well. Please pray for his recovery and most importantly, please pray that he may use the opportunity God is giving to come to repentance.

The Aguas Calientes´adventure

´Be careful of what you asked for, because you might just get it.´ Just when I thought to myself: ´how could I learn to trust God if everything is going so smoothly here?´, God put me in a situation where I could learn to trust him and to let him look after me.

Recently, I´ve been enjoying the resources from a church called Sovereign Grace Ministries (CJ Mahaney, Joshua Harris, etc). I´ve been reading their church members´ blog and found out about their new church plant in Aguas Calientes: Iglesia Cristiana Gracia Soberana de Aguas Calientes. I wasn´t sure if I´d be visiting the church because I couldn´t find the church address anywhere and I wasn´t sure if Carolyn, the blog´s writer, would reply to my request for the church address in time (because I emailed her at the last minute). But she did!:)

So when everyone went back to Qro after the conference, I stayed there by myself. I was really tight on money and I didn´t bring my credit/debit card with me. I insisted on staying despite my tight budget because I thought I´ve come a long way here, it´d be ashamed not to visit the church. When I rang the pastor´s number, I got to speak to his brother, Esteban, who is willing to speak English with me (pheww, what a relief not having to speak Spanish on the phone:)). When I tried to check the direction of the church with him, he offered to pick me up from the hotel and I accepted his kind offer.

On the next day, I was waiting and waiting at the hotel until pass 11 am (the service starts at 11am). But no one was coming to pick me up. It was really hard not being able to contact them and to be uncontactable. Not wanting to miss the church service, I decided to take a cab despite my lack of budget. The cab driver was following the address that Carolyn gave me, but we couldn´t find the church. Having told my situation to the driver, he kindly stop the taxi meter when it got to 30 pesos and went around for the next 30 mins to help me find the church. Finally I asked him to let me off at a hotel so I could ask around. After asking at the hotel, I went around the area and still couldn´t find the church. I asked another people and they kindly gave me lift in their car and helped me try to find the church. Still we couldn´t find the church......

I was stranded on the deserted street of Aguas Calientes with only 220 pesos. I don´t know how much it would cost me to take a bus from Aguas to Qro (It would definitely be more than 190 pesos). If I take another cab to go the Central de Autobus it would cost me at least another 30 pesos and I doubt that 190 pesos would be enough to take me back to Qro. At that moment, the thought of not being able to go back to Quetaro really scared me......

I tried to use the public phone to ring the pastor´s number, but the public phone around there needs a card different from mine and it doesn´t accept coin either. I have my Australian mobile phone, but I couldn´t ring the numbers because I need the city code to make a call from overseas phone. By God´s providence, I was able to contact Antonio, my tech savvy friend in Mexico City. He searched the city code and I was able to contact the people from the church - finally. It turned out that their car broke down and they´re only able to pick me up from the hotel 30 mins before I rang them. But I have already left the hotel and they couldn´t contact me.

By that time, the church service has already finished. But they have a special baptism event on that Sunday and they invited me to join them. So they finally found me and picked me up from where I was. It turned out that it was the first Sunday that they moved their church service to a new location - that´s why I couldn´t find the church!

It was such a blessed experience! I could see how God´s providence was at work in my situation:

- The kind taxi drive who is willing to stop the taxi meter and help me find the church.
- The family who is completely a stranger to me was willing to take me in their car and drove me around to help me find the church.
- Antonio who was happened to be in front of his internet and was able to find the city code for me.
- The kindness and the generosity of the Sovereign Grace family in Aguas: Raul Jaime´s family who picked me up from where I was stranded and gave me a lift to the central, Pastor Elias Reyes and the church family who let me witness their very first baptism and who invited me to have lunch with them, Esteban who welcomed me as a sister and insisted to pay for my bus ticket to Queretaro without him knowing my situation (Esteban kept reminding me to accept their kindness because that´s what the Bible is teaching us: to treat God´s people with that kind of hospitality).

I am simply amazed. God is totally trustworthy and He is always true to His promise to look after His children.

Relationships - A mess worth making?

I love this excerpt from the book ´Relationships - A mess worth making´:

The problem with relationships is that they all take place right smack dab in the middle of something, and that something is the story of redemption, God's plan to turn
everything in our lives into instruments of Christlike change and growth. You and I never get to be married to a fully sanctified spouse. We will never be in a relationship with a completely mature friend. We will never live next to a neighbor utterly free of the need to grow and change. We will never have self-parenting children. We will never be near people who always think, desire, say, or do the right things. And the reason for all of this is that our
relationships are lived between the already (Christ's finished work on the cross as full atonement for our sins) and the not yet (His return in glory).

Here's the point. The hardship of relationships is not just that they can be difficult. The hardship includes what God calls us to be and do in the middle of the difficulty. God
calls each of us to be humble, patient, kind, persevering, and forgiving. God calls us to speak with grace and to act with love, even when the relationship lacks grace and we have not been treated with love. Because of this your
relationships will take you beyond the boundaries of your normal strength. They will take you beyond the range of your natural abilities and beyond the borders of your natural and acquired wisdom. Relationships will push you beyond the limits of your ability to love, serve, and forgive. They will push you beyond you. At times they will beat at the borders of your faith. At times they will
exhaust you. In certain situations, your relationships will leave you disappointed and discouraged. They will require what you do not seem to have, but that is exactly as God intended it. That is precisely why he placed these demanding relationships in the middle of the process of sanctification, where God progressively molds us into the likeness of Jesus. When you begin to give up on yourself, you begin to rely on him. When you are willing to abandon your own little dreams, you begin to get excited about his plan. When your way has blown up in your face again, you are ready to see the wisdom of God's way.

I absolutely agree with the authors. I think relationships in this fallen world is a hard-work. And even when you have worked hard at it, you´ll still experience dissapointments. But I also agree with the authors that despite the mess and the dissapointments, it is still worth it! It´s worth it because God is using our imperfect relationships to mould us into the likeness of His Son. And not to mention God´s good gift of the joy, love, and good moments in relationships. Relationship really is a mess worth making!

One of the things that I love about Mexican culture is the close ties of the family relationships. During the conference at Aguas, I had a chance to spend time with the Cisneros family. The family consists of Snr and Sra Cisneros, Adiel (the youth pastor), Lluvia (the wife of Justin, the missio from US), Jonathan (he didn’t come to the conference), Daniel, and Brisa. Also living with the Cisneros are Axel (the nephew), Abuelita (Sp for grandma), and Tio (Sp for uncle). I love the Cisneros. Their love for one another that is very obvious. I love their generosity and hospitality towards visiting missionaries (they usually invited the missios to stay in their house). Snr Cisneros (se llama Gerardo) is a very kind and Godly father, who loves to listen to audio Bible on his MP3 wherever he goes. Sra Cisneros is a very warm person, who loves to give me a hug. I feel really loved and welcomed around them. And being with them makes me feel like being part of their family.

But as I get to know people more, undoubtedly, we will frustrate each other with our imperfections. The exciting & interesting quirks will become annoyances. We start showing our true selves. We become less patience with each other. That is always the case with any relationships. It is the time when God calls us to continue to love one another (1 Peter 1:22, Romans 13:8, Jn 13:34, etc), to bear with one another (Eph 4:2), and to forgive one another (Col 3:13). It is the time when God is using the relationship with its frictions, struggles, and frustrations to mould us. So yes, even at times like this when relationships are frustrating, they are still worth it!

Semana Santa

I was away from Queretaro for the whole week last week. In Mexico the week before Easter is called Semana Santa (or Holy Week).

We have church conference on Wed-Fri in Aguas Calientes. Monday and Tuesday were our days off before the conference, so Helena (the other intern from US) and I decided to go around and visit places. On Monday, we went to the pyramids of Teotihuacan (1 hour from Mexico City). On Tuesday, we went to San Miguel de Allende with Dani and Brisa. San Miguel is 1.5 hours away from Queretaro by bus and it is famous for being a ‘gringo- town’ because of the numbers of American and European tourists and residents there. I think the trips were a bit of overkill for both us. It was the combination of the tiredness and the bad food that we ate at a café that caused both of us (Helena and I) to be really sick on Tuesday night. I got up 5 times to go to the bathroom during the night and I had to take a 4 hour trip the next morning to Aguas Calientes for the conference. I took the medicines I have and I prayed that I could be healed the next morning - ‘God, I really look forward to go to Aguas for the church conference and to visit the Sovereign Grace church plant. I know you’re able to heal me, so please do so. But if I’m still not healed in the morning, I would be content resting and staying at home and not going. Amen’

The next morning, my stomach was still painful and I thought to myself – ‘I’m still gonna get ready and go to church. If I’m still sick by the time I arrive at church, I’d go back home, but if I feel better then I’d go’ When I got to church, Jessi gave me Imodium to eat and I was ok apart from the remaining little stomachache. So I went to Aguas Calientes with the church members on the Wednesday morning. I survived the 4 hour trip and the rest of the conference *yay! Praise God for healing my food poisoning and allowing me to go to Aguas!* (Poor Helena had to rest at home for the next couple of days, but thank God she is fully recovered now)


The conference went well. We were sleeping in a huge house that
no one is living. There is no bed, so we all sleep on the floor in the
different bedrooms. The conference consists of talks, testimonies, and singing. I still had difficulties in understanding the testimonies, because the people usually speak very fast (especially my Mexican brothers and sisters). But the talks and the songs are easier to follow. I recognized most of the songs from my limited Spanish praise and worship songs collections. The preachers were going through the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter by chapter for the bible talks – I could probably understand 75% of the talks.

After the conference, the church people stayed for another night to go around the city. Then when they left on the Saturday, I stayed another night by myself as I was planning to visit Sovereign Grace church there in Aguas.

EQUIP 2007

One of the many good Christian resources that I´ll miss during my time in Mexico is: EQUIP - The women conference held every year. We´ve been going through the book of James in the main talks of the EQUIP conferences in the past 4 years. This year, the main talks will continue on the the book of James, ie. James 3:1 - 4:12.

Following the main bible passage, some the electives are going to be about ´the use of tongue´:
A. Better than gossip
Women love a good chat and gossip seems a harmless way to develop intimacy. Why then is God concerned about gossip? Does it matter if we are just sharing ‘prayer points’? How can we help each other develop more healthy relationships?

B. Lost for words
I wish I knew what to say when my boss says Christians are homophobic, when my friend talks about abortion, or when my family reacts to debate about stem cell research. How do we develop a Christian understanding of these and other complex issues?

C. Stress relief
From health to work to relationships, there’s so much we worry about. So how can Philippians 4:6 say ‘Do not be anxious about anything’? How is it possible? What does God say about stress relief?

D. The essential mum
Motherhood is an enormous privilege. But in the midst of all the pressures and theories, it’s easy to lose perspective. What is essential to being a mum? According to God’s word, what are the clear principles and what are just our cultural norms?

++++++++++++++++++++++++


I´ve found the talks at EQUIP to be very encouraging in my walk as a Christian. Therefore, I´d like to encourage my women friends who are in Sydney on May 12, 2007 to join the conference. Or, if you´re outside Sydney like me, you could get the talks on the CD!:)


I´ve been thinking of how much we take for granted the abundant great Christian resources we have in Sydney. In places like Mexico or Indonesia or many part of the worlds, it´s really2 hard to have good Christian teachings and resources. Therefore, if you have Christian friends or if you are supporting any missionaries around the world, the CD from the conference would be an excellent gift idea to encourage them!;) (Yup, I´ve been distributing the CD from the past EQUIP conferences here in Mexico:))

Quick Updates

One of the many fountains in El Centro, Queretaro

Just a quick updates of what´s happening this week:

+ I´ve been working at the cafe (Global Grounds) a few times now. It´s quite fun learning to make coffees, but it´s also good to know that by helping in the cafe, I could be helpful and give the long-termers some free time to speak to people they´ve been following up.

+ The trip to Festival de Vida has been cancelled because they aren´t enough people going, but the trip to the leaders´camp at Aguas Calientes on the week after next week would still be happening.

+ I´ll start my Spanish classes next Monday. It´ll be 3 hours per day Mon-Fri. I´m really looking forward to it.

+ I´ll be going to the Single Women Bible Study on Saturdays, then Youth Group at night. On Sundays, I´ll be helping out with the Sunday School:)

+ We´ll be planning some reach out events for the cafe next week. Please pray for the wisdom for the planning.

+ Overall, the Mexican people that I´ve been meeting have been so friendly. I wouldn´t have to worry about making friends with them - theír culture is just sooooo, sooooo, soooo different to the western culture.

+ I got lost one time, I took a bus and I didn´t know where to get off until it took me to the last stop. It was quite scary but the bus driver was kind enough to tell the other bus driver where to let me off.

+ I haven´t got any interesting/funny language faux pas yet. I guess I´ve been learning hard from other people´s mistake, hehehehe (thanks for sharing them!:)

The buildings at El Centro, Queretaro

My new home - Queretaro

I left Mexico City on Friday to continue the journey to Queretaro (Qro). I was really spoilt during my stay in Mexico City (errr, except for the cold shower:P). It almost felt like going back to Jakarta, where you have your home there, where you speak familiar language (English) all the time, where you´re surrounded by the people you know well but you haven´t met for a while, where you have friends to hang out with and to drive you around, and where you always try the new hip places in town. It´s a mix feeling that I have to leave Mexico City (sad to leave the familiar people, but glad to start getting involve in ministries at Qro)

My new family in Qro is amazing! I wouldn´t have chosen any other family even if I could:) My mum, Sylvia, is a very Godly, hardworking single mother. My sister, Mariana, is a very warm and beautiful girl who loves anything Japanese from anime, manga, cherry-blossoms, to Japanese food. And my brother, Alan, he´s a cool dude with dark curly hair and his electric guitar, hehehe....I´ve settled well into the family ever since I stepped into the house - that´s how amazing they are!

During my second day at Qro, I had an orientation trip to El Centro (The city centre). I was given an instruction sheet of what to do and which buses to take, I was accompanied by another intern and a Mexican friend who weren´s allowed to give me any clue on where I need to go at all:) I didn´t get lost - yay! But I was concentrating so hard to find my way that I didn´t get a chance to enjoy El Centro:P (But, don´t worry, I have plenty of time to do that!)

So far, I love the city. It´s full of colourful colonial buildings, soooooo beautiful! Just like the scenes in the telenovelas!:) The food is also interesting:) - I´ve tried eating cactuses, pig´s ear (well, we had that in Sydney and Indo,too), enchiladas, tamales, chicharron (fried pork skins), and gorditas (fried tortillas stuffed with various things - they´re so yummmmyyyy!!!)

I´ve also visited the church (Iglesia Horizonte) once and I´ve had a brief coffee making training yesterday. It´s quite daunting to take the orders and stuff in Spanish - arrrggghhh:) I´ve met with a few leaders from church and had a chat with Justin and Lluvia, an amazing missio couple whom I´ll be serving alongside with:) Exciting, exciting, exciting! (Mexicans would say: ¡Que padre!)

My family speaks English well and they speak English and sometimes Spanish to me. The ministry team here speak Spanish and Spanish only:) Some of them are very nice in making efforts to speak English to me, but in general they speak Spanish to one another. My Spanish has improved a lot since I got here, but it´s still very frustrating not to be able to express myself in Spanish. I could understand more than I could speak, so at times I find myself just just nodding and smilling.

Prayer Points:
- Thank God for the safe journey so far.
- Thank God for the great family I´m staying with and the ease to settle into the family
- Please pray that my language ability would improve soon and that the language would not be a barrier for me to minister to the people here.
- Please pray that I would not be timid in making friends with the Christians and non Christians alike and that I would have the courage to share my faith and my life with them.

Thanks for praying and God bless!

Visiting the Fletchers and Compa

On the ´camion`(the small bus) ; with the MQ gang at Mexico DF


The student group at ITAM; with the Fletchers (Charlie´s taking the pic)

The Fletchers are CMS missios from Melbourne who works with Compa (Companeros Estudiantil) or an equivalent of AFES is Mexico. They’ve been here for 6 years since 2001 and the student groups at universities have been growing since. On Wed, I took the trolley-bus and the metro from Antonio’s house to the Fletcher’s apartamento (yay! I could travel with public transport on my own J). There I had a chance to have lunch with them and chat and play with their boys: Jonathan (6) and Harry (4). Through conversations with them, I found out about the challenges in their ministry: The hostility towards the Christian leaders at some Universities, the lack of supports from the local church as some of them see Compa as a threat/competitors that tries to steal their young people, lack of good Bible training and good Bible colleges in Mexico City.

Charlie mentioned to me that Mexican Christians are very open about their faith (Hmm, I could also remember that Phil said the same thing). They are very passionate about sharing their faith and their relationship with Jesus to their non-Christian friends. I could see this through joining the students’ Bible Study at ITAM with Charlie. Before the Bible study started, the students were talking about the opportunity they had through submitting a Christian-themed article in the uni’s magazine. After the article was published, the article created reactions among the students and the Christian students were using the opportunity to have a discussion about Christianity with the non-Christian students.

The Bible study was held at a café close to the Uni. The students are currently going through the John’s gospel. They read the Bible in chunks then had a discussion using a few questions prepared by Charlie. The students who joined the Bible Study group come from different church backgrounds and yet all of them have a great desire to study the Bible and to share the gospel – Que padre!

At the Bible study, I receive the usual Mexican warm welcome. The students are very2 friendly and welcoming. They even made the effort to do a bilingual (English & Spanish) Bible Study for me! Si Dios quiere, I’d love to visit them again before I’m going back to Sydney at the end of this mission trip.

Prayer Points:
- Thank God for the Mexican Christians for being passionate about sharing the gospel with their non-Christian friends.
- Thank God for the ministries of the Fletchers among the universities’ students in Mexico City, for their faithfulness to the gospel, for their perseverance, and their creativity.
- Please pray that God may give Charlie and Kathryn the wisdom they need to bring up their boys in the Lord in the midst of the secular culture of Mexico City
- Please pray that God may provide the fund and the person to be an administrator to help the Fletchers with the work at Compa while they’re away on their deputation in June this year.Please pray that God may continue to help the Mexican students to grow in the knowledge and love of God. And God may continue to use them to reach out to the non-Christian students around them.

A pie in the sky

That pretty much sum up what my dad thinks about Christianity:(

When the opportunity came up for my parents and I to travel together to Japan, I know it would be a golden opportunity to talk to them about the gospel, but I also know that I may end-up leaving them feeling brokenhearted because of their rejection of the gospel. And yes, both things did happen. I really thank God, though, for the opportunity for me to share what I believe with them.

With mum, it started off as she said that she isn't a religious person. It made me really wonder though, because she prays with the incense twice a day, she's got a special prayer book that she uses in the morning - it seems pretty religious to me. But anyway, I told her that with Jesus there isn't any half way: you're either believe in Him with all your lives or you don't, because He is worthy of your everything and that He wants our everything. What kind of god would let the people give only what's left of themselves to him?

Then on another discussion (this time it was because of the thing that my dad brought up), my mum noticed how my auntie (Glo's mum) has changed to the better because of her relationship with Christ. It's awesome!!! (So Christians, make sure we live a holy life that we may glorify our Father in heaven:))

It was mostly my dad who asks questions about Christianity. He's got so much accusations and presuppositions about Christianity. The good thing is at least he thinks about it, but the bad thing is he thinks negatively about all aspects of Christianity *sigh* Some of the things that he has troubled of:

1. Why does the whole humanity has to be punished and suffer because of Adam & Eve's sin? Even human's law works better: children/generations after would not be punished because of the parent's/generation before's mistakes!

2. If Jesus is God (thus He has the same level as God), why did He say that He is submitting his life into God's hands (One of Jesus' saying on the cross)?

3. He's read somewhere in the Bible that God strucked people dead. What sort of a cruel God is that?

4. If God is loving and merciful, why can't he forgive people of their sins? (I was trying to explain that God is also a just God - he cannot let sins go unpunished, and He is also a holy God - he can't be with sinful human beings)

5. The reality of suffering speaks louder than the character of God, what sort of God would allow and do nothing about the suffering in this world? (Again, tried to explain that it is the consequences of sin).

In my opinion, my dad hasn't understood the severity of sin and its consequences. He also has his own opinions of what God is supposed to be like and how God could run this world better:(

* Please pray that God may be merciful towards my parents, that God would open their eyes and their hearts to see the severity of sin and it's consequesnces, thus they could see the grace of God that comes through Jesus Christ. Please also pray that God may continue to use the children and the Christians around them to keep sharing the gospel and sharing our lives in Christ with them*

A week in Japan

The four symbols of Japan:

*Geisha*


*Cherry blossoms*


*Mt. Fuji*


*The Golden Pavilion*

:: One week in Japan was an interesting experience. It's quite a challenge as my parents aren't used to that kind of traveling (taking public transport, finding our own way, getting lost, heaps of walking). Finding our way was also a challenge since the Japanese that we met could hardly understand us.

:: The things that I really like about Japan is the food *yummmmm!*, the willingness of the people to help despite the language barrier, Japanese crafts (origami, Japanese papers and fabrics, Japanese fans) and the traditional Kyoto.

:: I found the fast pace of living in Tokyo to be quite stressful. The stations are always full of people who are running (yes, running) to their destinations no matter what time of the day it is. You'll also see people finishing work really late at night (around 11pm) and falling asleep on the train on their way home.

:: We took heaps of buses while we were in Kyoto and it's interesting how the bus works differently. The people would get on from the back door and pay the fares as they get out from the front door:)

:: We often take maps in Sydney for granted, but the maps in Japan are nothing like Sydney’s map. There’s no clear indication where to turn, how many more traffic lights before the turn, and even the street names aren’t very clear. Being used to read Sydney’s map, it’s really challenging to use maps in Japan to find your way.

:: There are many train companies and around 20 different local train and subway lines in Tokyo. The different train companies usually located at different locations. That means if you are in Shinjuku and you are looking for the train station, you need to know the train type (JR, Keisei, subway) to be able to locate the correct station.

:: I think overall we covered quite a number of places in our short stay in Japan. In Tokyo, we went to Asakusa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Tokyo Imperial Palace area. Then we went to Mt. Fuji (drove up to the 4th station), Hakone (the National Park close to Mt Fuji area), and one of the five lakes that surround the Mt. Fuji. In Kyoto, we managed to see the Golden Pavilion, the Silver Pavilion, the Kiyomizu Temple (one of the candidate for the new 7 wonders of the world), the Gion area, the bridge where they shot the movie 'Memoirs of a geisha', Ryoanji zen garden, Yasaka Pagoda, and the Sannenzaka slope.

Arrived Safely in Mexico City

*The aerial view of Mexico City from the plane*

Hi all,

Just a quick note to let u know that I've arrived safely in Mexico City (It's Monday nite in this part of the world:))

Haven't been able to write any update while in Japan as we're out all day everyday. Will let you know more about my week in Japan later.

Antonio picked me up from the airport and we went around the city for 1.5 hours because we got lost on our way back to his parent's place. Antonio's family is really nice: his parents are lecturers at uni, his sister is a lawyer, and his uncle is currently stay in his house overseeing the house's renovation.

I'll find out more about the metro (train) system so I could get around myself and won't bother Antonio too much. I'll be meeting CMS missionaries, the Fletchers, on Wednesday for lunch on the north side of the city and for the campus Bible Study in the south. Then I'll be meeting Keri and Dimity, my other ex-colleagues, who live in Cuernavaca (1 hr from Mexico City). I'll be going to Queretaro on Friday morning.....

Praise God that so far things have been going well. Met a few tias (aunties) on the flight to Mexico and tried to practice on my Spanish. I ordered my meal in Spanish and I had a very spicy Mexican dinner! (yes, it's spicy even for my Indonesian tongue!:))

Mexico City reminds me so much of Jakarta: the traffic, the building, the street vendors. I didn't feel unsafe or uncomfortable here - if I could survive Jakarta, I should be able to survive Mexico City:)

Ok, I'd better get some rest now since I haven't been sleeping much in the last day or two. I'll write more as soon as I find time....

Take care and chao for now!

Key dates of the journey

:: Jan 8-10: Mission Training with International Teams

:: Mar 5-12: A week in Japan with my parents

:: Mar 13-15: Mexico City

1. Catching up with ex-colleagues

2. Visiting CMS missionary: The Fletchers, who works with Compa (Mexican equivalent to AFES) to minister to the university students

:: Mar 16-May 21: Queretaro

1. Mar 20-26: 'Festival de Vida' in Tuxtla Guttierez (South of Mexico)
2. Apr 3-6: The Calvary Chapel Leaders' Conference in Aguas Calientes

:: May 21 - May 31: Merida and Cuba

:: Jun 3: Arriving back in Sydney

ITeams Mission Training

The mission preparation this year is started by the IT Mission Training held on Jan 8-10 at their Baulkham Hills office. I find the training to be really exciting as there were many suprise elements in it:)

For a start, we weren't given any info on the schedule for the 3-days training. We're just told to be there at 1pm on the first day. The purpose of this is so that we would learn to be flexible and to cope with uncertainty. It's a good exercise especially as we are so used to run on a nicely scheduled routine and tend to get frustrated by the lack of it.

Then during dinner, we played third world country simulation, where some people got to be the first class citizens, some the common people, and the rest had to be the third class citizens. The third class ppl only got to eat rice with bbq sauce and some lettuce. It is often the situation in the third world countries, where the disparity between the rich and the poor are starking and where injustice is often done towards the have nots. Through the simulation, we're encouraged to think how are we as Christians are going to respond to this situation in the country we're going to.

I find the testimony time to be an encouragement and to be a good bonding time. Through sharing our testimonies about our conversions, we could see how powerful God is. We could also feel the bonding that we have as God's children who have been saved from our meaningless life.

I also loved the 'Amazing Race' game. We had to visit countries, finish the task given, overcome challanges without talking to each other within the group (our group is the 'silent' group) *imagine what the people on the street think of us when they saw us not talking but giving signs to each other!*

My fave task during the training is 'the puzzle'. We're given different sizes and numbers of puzzle pieces between the member of the group. The challenge is to have a complete square in front of each member of the team, without talking to each other, and without being allowed to ask for the puzzle pieces from each other. What we could do it to offer the pieces to the other team members. I could remember my feelings at the time: confused, frustrated, fearful. I was fearful that I may not know the right pieces to give to the right people to help them. And I did exactly that: giving the worng pieces to the wrong people! Through this game, I learn to persevere - to keep going even in the midst of uncertainty, confusion, and frustration (it was the perseverance that get us to complete the task), to give everything I could even though I couldn't see the benefit of my giving, to look out for the needs of others even that means I need to give up on what I have.

From the training, these are the key verses that we are encouraged to live out:

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

Philippians 2: 1-7

Treasures in Jars of Clay

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us - 2 Cor 4:7

This verse teaches me three (3) things:

1. It is a great reminder that we have this treasure that is very precious and that we ought to share with others: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. It prevents us from thinking to highly of ourselves. We are nothing but jars of clay: easily cracked and broken. We have nothing to boast on. Let him who boasts boast on the treasure (1 Cor 1:20-31)

3. It ought to humble us. Feeble as we are, God still chooses to use us for His glory and to store His treasure. He does that to show that the surpassing power is from Him and not from us (2 Cor. 4:7). We're imperfect and easily cracked just like the jars of clay, yet it is through the crack that God's light often shines through.