Monday, June 22, 2009

Vacation from vacations

The topic is a little misleading. I am not taking a holiday from holidays ... haha. In fact I think I need to take breaks every now and then and not just breaks like weekend types of breaks because I find that my weekends can be just as busy as my weekdays. I am talking about taking a real holiday, not the kind where you get more tired after one, but one where you almost literally do nothing, have nothing planned when you arrive.

I had my first (or at least I think it was my first) holiday where I did not come home more tired than when I left. I have just returned from a holiday in JB with a group of good friends. We left on Friday morning with virtually nothing pre-planned but looking forward to whatever came. Eventually all of them visited Singapore but I decided to stay where I was and just relax. It is rather liberating to be able to wake up, go for a nice breakfast (the food we had in JB was very good from local Malay dishes like nasi ayam penyek, lontong, bakso and laksa Johor to Chinese delicacies like roast duck and salted egg fried crabs), return to the bungalow and just relax, play games, play IPhone games and sleep whenever you wanted to, not having to rush from one place to another enduring the heat and haze and (hehe) flu.

That is exactly what I did and I enjoyed it ... it was different. For the longest time, whenever we would go on vacation, whether family or friends, we would normally be rushing from one place to another and then at the end of it I would reflect and wonder where did the holiday go? Well this time I decided to stay back and enjoy the huge, well furnished airconditioned bungalow and sleep whenever I felt like it. :)

I did meet up with some old friends though and joined them for a few meals and this I enjoyed a lot as well as they were friends I had not seen or kept in touch with for sometime. I think overall my level of activity this time around truly qualified my vacation as a vacation from vacations (the type that tires you more than energises).

Jesus be blessed.

Friday, June 12, 2009

A little behind time as well ...

Dear all,

Here are two book reviews I submitted for a book review contest in KDU. By God's grace I ended up winning third prize for the staff category for the Hobbit review.

:)

The Hobbit review
http://tlc-kdu.blogspot.com/2009/02/book-review-contest-hobbit-reviewed-by.html

The Great Gatsby review
http://tlc-kdu.blogspot.com/2009/01/book-review-contest-great-gatsby.html

God's timing is perfect as I needed the money which I won to pay for something unexpected.

Jesus be glorified.

Completion

Hi.

It is almost time for Hillsong 2009, so I feel I have to summarise the rest of Hillsong 2008 (haha) so that things can proceed forward (after almost a year).

Some highlights:

1) As I mentioned before (many months ago) I am awed at being a small part of the congregation of 25000 followers and worshippers of Jesus gathered together to worship God in His Holiness and Splendour. God is great. The atmosphere during the worship services was awesome ... I felt a freedom to just worship God our Heavenly Father and to pour my heart out to Him (even as His Word in the Psalms tells us too: pour out our hearts to God). It was liberating. :)

2) The messages were timely and sometimes humourous (esp Joyce Meyer's messages) and contained a lot of Biblical teaching and truth. I just pray that I have learnt from that and that I am now a different person than I was one year ago ... for the better.

3) The workshops were eye openers as I got to learn from those God had anointed, some sessions being very practical and fun. It was a privilege to listen from people such as Leeland, the Hillsong Worship Team and Judah Smith.

4) Our hosts, Peter and Beth were kindness personified and we were taken care of so well. Thanks again Peter and Beth and all of Jesus best blessings on you.

5) The trip home (and there) was safe. God is good.

This year around, I do not plan to blog day by day of the Hillsong Conference as you have seen that I can take ages to do so ... haha. I pray almost daily for the healing and protection of God over us as we prepare to brave the journey into Australia, esp from the H1N1 flu. Exodus 15.26 and Psalm 91 are great comforts. Hopefully and prayerfully, by then the H1N1 will be a distant memory.

Jesus bless you.

Jesus be blessed.