CNY & PSSC

Monday 26 January is Chinese New Year: all over the world, Chinese of whatever religion will be celebrating by having a Reunion Dinner on the eve i.e. on Sunday night with family. Then on the day, there will be visiting of relatives and friends, giving of Ang Pows (red packets with cash) by the married folks to the young and unmarried, and eating of cookies and mandarin oranges and all kinds of food.

Year by year, however, as the children grow up and leave home to study, work or marry, the family reunions and gathering become smaller, and evolve as all things do with time. Some people take the long holidays (in Malaysia the 1st and 2nd days of the CNY are public holidays) to travel overseas or around the country. Some don't mark it altogether and continue working or doing whatever they enjoy in their free time.

This year, one brother and family will not be here, and one niece and nephew too. The patriarch is also absent, having gone to his home in Heaven, his real home as is ours. And we're missing Ethan for the 1st time. He's on the other side of the globe, in Denmark, and I doubt he'll miss the CNY traditions and festivities.

Monday 26 January is also the day "the survey to determine if Logos Hope is ready for the Passenger Ship Safety Certificate (PSSC) is scheduled to begin... With that day rapidly approaching, work has gone into overdrive aboard the ship! People are working into the night to ensure that everything is finished in time and with excellence. One of the biggest jobs is the generator, but many other jobs need to be done by next week. The deck department is renovating the steering gear room, which contains the rudder and the emergency steering controls. The project team is welding up any holes in bulkheads (walls) and checking that every wall can withstand fire for specified lengths of time...." (Logos Hope News)

He has been working hard in the galley, and hopefully, God willing, the ship will be able to start its maiden voyage from Koge soon.

Opening of Nacscom Day Centre & Hari Seni

Saturday January 17 was the launch of the National Council of Senior Citizens Organisations Malaysia’s (Nacscom) second day care centre at the Semarak DBKL flats in Setapak. The first one was opened in Damansara Jaya on Jan 10. See Star Online report here.

The Semarak centre comprises an open area on the ground of Block B and a flat on the first floor containing a Reading Room and a Computer Centre. Hope EFC helped organise the Hari Seni at the open area with artists from far and wide: a painter from Iran (Ivy's English language student), Orang Asli weavers, a Chinese pottery man from Cheras, art students from Dasein Art College doing paper greeting cards, a craftsgirl making caterpillars from kitchen towels and disposable chopsticks, local Malay portrait artist and painter, ceramic painting artist May and sister Betty, and floor chalk artists from Australia, Hong Kong, and Canada (3 young girls from YWAM)! Our youth helped at the Origami table and the colouring contest for the younger kids. It was a wonderful morning of art and creativity, friendship and FUN!

The weather was sunny and breezy, and everything went swimmingly well, imho, all praise and glory to God! Despite that Saturday being a replacement school day, there were still many children and teens who came to provide enough "business" for every table to keep them busy. In fact, it may have been a good thing as otherwise, we would not have been able to cope!

For great pictures, go to Priscilla's post here. She said, "I HAD A FANTASTIC TIME!!!!" So did I! And so did many others, thanks and praise be to God, and to all the willing and cheerful volunteers, helpers and donors! God bless everyone of them, and the dear old senior citizens and the residents there (who did the gotong-royong cooking and serving, dancing and enjoying!)

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?

Psalm 22

"As we await the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus' second coming, let us do so by serving Him with praise and thanksgiving for what He has accomplished for us on the cross." Elsie Cherian, Asian Reflections Year Three January 15

My Saviour, Redeemer
Lifted me from the miry clay
Almighty forever
I will never be the same

‘Cause You came near
From the everlasting
To the world we live
The Father’s only Son

You lived and You died
You rose again on high
You opened the way
For the world to live again
Hallelujah
For all You’ve done

Hallelujah
For all You’ve done

Reuben Morgan "For All You've Done"

2009 Home's Kool

Saturday night was the Homeschool Gathering & Dinner at the Subang Lake View Club, organised by KV and David. I thought Elliot did a good job as MC together with JEu, but then that's a mother's biased opinion. It was good to have the teens take charge and it was a happy (I would say) pandemonium. Well, what will you get when you've got more than 170 over parents and kids of all ages (over 50 families) in an open dining area (next to the swimming pool) with a deplorable audio system, and without a raised platform or stage. There were enthusiastic joyful performances by children (violin, guitar, percussion, voice etc), and an even more enthusiastic joyful Dad, but only the few tables in front had the pleasure of sight and sound. Adults were busy talking, and some smaller children were doing what comes naturally (making noise), all very distracting, especially for the few of us who took the mike to talk a little about homeschooling.

Still, it was great to see so many new families with young children starting out on the homeschool journey, and to get to meet many people some of whom are related or connected to so and so. It was also a real Malaysian getogether with folks from all races and faiths and more than a few inter-racial families.

Watch

Meditations on Matthew 24 (discussion in Cell Group of sermon preached last Sunday):

Wars and rumours of wars, famines and earthquakes... such things must happen, so Jesus said. That's Planet Earth from the beginning since the Fall of man, as the whole earth groans under the curse of sin. So do not be alarmed: keep watch, not on tumultous world events, but on your relationship with God. For our faith will be tested by persecution and opposition, false teachings and the increase of wickedness, because of which "the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."

Jesus is coming again, the day and hour unknown, so we need to be ready at all times to meet Him. Besides, the time of our own departure from this earth is also unknown and we should be ready at all times to be called Home. In the words of D.A. Carson, we are "exhorted to look forward to the Lord's return and meanwhile to live responsibly, faithfully, compassionately, and courageously while the Master is away."

O that I may be the faithful and wise servant with whom the Master will be pleased.

We sang the song Still last night many times. Now my head is full of Reuben Morgan's songs from his album which has been playing in my car: You alone are God... Sing my soul... Come live in me...

Still

Hide me now, under Your wings.
Cover me within Your mighty hand.

Chorus:
When the oceans rise
and thunders roar.
I will soar with You, above the storm
Father You are king over the flood,
I will be still and know You are God.

Find rest my soul in Christ alone,
Know his power, in quietness and trust.

(lyrics of still by reuben morgan)

Thank You, O Lord , for a lovely retreat to the Awana Genting Highlands resort with Fiona B and with You, for the refreshing cool, and the quietness and beauty of the place - such wonderful gifts from You! We walked and enjoyed the breezy air and birds' singing, sat and kept still on a bench at the golf practice place while a couple of novice golfers practised their strokes, talked and prayed when they were done and we were alone.

Then we drove back and lunched at a shop selling Nasi Dagang and East Coast cuisine: my favourite. In the car, this song by Reuben Morgan was playing. Evelyn W had led us to sing it last Sunday and it had been playing in my heart and mind since.

I've just begun John Piper's book "Desiring God" and was reading it there too.

O Lord, thank You for being You: You alone are God, and You reign over all.

Lost

I have a recurring dream about losing my handbag or purse. Last night, I dreamt I'd carelessly put the purse with money and documents, handphone and something else, on a bench in a busy area. The same panic, regret, anger at myself came over me when I realized it in the dream.

Is it because I feel that I'm losing control in real life? Too many things going on and to do. Haha, some will laugh. Is a housewife really that busy? Someone actually asked that recently, a girl just turned 21.

I need to "be still, and know that He is God; He will exalted among the nations, He will be exalted in the earth." The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:10,11

A New Beginning

Okay, I didn't write anything here at all through the year 2008. Just had no inspiration, I guess. Well, here is a new year, so here I am, trying again. This blog is still here, and I'm still here, not having checked out of earth yet, as I will one day. So till then, I must try to write, not just read and talk.

I'm using the Daily Devotional Readings, Asian Reflections Year 3, and I'm glad it starts with Psalm 1. And this is my prayer for the new year, that I may be like that Blessed man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked or stands in the way of sinners or sits in the seat of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and on which law, he meditates day and night.

Psalm 2 is very assuring in the light of the conflict going on in the Gaza between the Israelis v the Palestinians and the whole world, and news of persecution of Christians all over various parts of the world:

Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the LORD
and against His Anointed One.
"Let us break their chains," they say.
"and throw off their fetters."
The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
Then He rebukes them in His anger,
and terrifies them in His wrath, saying,
"I have installed my King
on Zion, my holy hill."
(Psalm 2:1-6)