hey

I hear the whole world is on Facebook now. I feel so out of the loop! I really enjoyed this cartoon from Elsie's blog.



Apologies to swurple, jade, and jely cos i only just read ur messages. I wish I had read them earlier.

Its recently passed 11 months since I broke up!

Also, life is actually ok! Things with God are a lot better, things with myself are heaps better, and things with people at church are better.

I'm a tad tired after a sudden swamp of commitments are Church and family and work, but it should improve soon.

This passage means a lot to me atm:

27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me,^[a] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30I and the Father are one."

Psalm 88

Psalm 88

I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil^[a] of Heman the Ezrahite.

1O LORD, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
2Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!

3For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
4I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
5like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
6You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
7Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
Selah

8You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror^[b] to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O LORD;
I spread out my hands to you.
10Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you?
Selah

11Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

13But I, O LORD, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.^[c]
16Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
18You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.^[d]

Contentment

Hebrews 13

1Let brotherly love continue. 2Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." 6So we can confidently say,

"The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?"

1 Tim 6

Teach and urge these things. 3If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound^[b] words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 6Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7for we brought nothing into the world, and^[c] we cannot take anything out of the world. 8But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Phillipians 4

10I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

2 Cor 12

7So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations,^[a] a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Graduation

Plants

I went to this really nice place called Eden Gardens where they had some really nice garden designs and sold plants there. Me and my brother bought some cactus like plants and a flowery kind of plant. I figure that if I can keep this plant alive, maybe in a few months I might get some fish.. And if I can keep the fish alive for a few months maybe in a few months after that I might consider progressing a bit further in some human relationships as well..

But I'll see how I go with the plants first..

Uncertain..

I had a long lunch with Wayne and we had a really good conversation.
After a lot of thinking I realised that these are the 3 questions plaguing me:

1. How does one become a Christian?
2. How does one stop himself from sinning?
3. How can one change to be more holy?

Mr Howard says voters deserve to know what went on in the meetings
between Mr Rudd and Mr Burke in 2005.

He says the Opposition Leader is not being honest.

"Mr Rudd keeps avoiding, dare I say it, the inconvenient truth," Mr Howard said.

"The inconvenient truth is that he hasn't told the truth."

The Prime Minister says voters want their leaders to be candid.

But Mr Rudd says Mr Howard is being hypocritical by questioning his integrity.

"I tell you what didn't happen at these meetings and at this dinner," he said.

"What I didn't do is I didn't take Australia to war on the basis of a lie.

"I didn't say that when it comes to children overboard, that people
deliberately threw their kids into the water.

"I didn't authorise $300 million to be paid in bribes to Saddam
Hussein's regime."

Mr Rudd says he is happy for honesty and integrity to be front and
centre of the next election campaign.

on the plane..

I'm on the plane right now from Hong Kong to Sydney, the last trip of
a very, very long holiday.. I was counting the other night, and I
realised that in the past 3 months, I've slept in 20 different beds…

1. Home in Sydney
2. Home in HK
3. Dorm room in Beijing
4. Hotel Room at the Westin, Beijing
5. Overnight train from Beijing to Xian
6. Hotel Room in Xian
7. Overnight train from Xian to Beijing
8. Overnight train from Beijing to Taiyuan
9. Hotel Room in Taiyuan
10. Overnight train from Taiyuan to Beijing
11. Overnight flight from Hong Kong to London
12. Hotel Room in Zurich
13. 2nd Hotel Room in Zurich
14. Overnight train from Zurich to Venice
15. Hotel Room in Venice
16. Hotel Room in Florence
17. Hotel Room in Barcelona
18. Hotel Room in Berlin
19. Overnight Flight from London to Hong Kong
20. Overnight Flight from Hong Kong to Sydney (now)

Of all the nights, the worse was easily no. 10, where I wasn't able to
buy a sleeper ticket, and had to settle for the A$10 "Hard Seater"
ticket – essentially China's bottom class seating. It was so bad I
wrote 2 pages in my journal recounting the experience of nearly
suffering a nervous breakdown that I was going to blog but I never got
around to it. There was smoke everywhere, the lights were on all
night, I was squashed with 3 other large mainlanders in very tight
seating, all the while keeping an eye on my luggage, and trying to
pretend I wasn't a wealthy foreigner. I managed to sleep an hour or 2
before the shaking of the train pulling into a station at 4am woke me
up. I got back to my dorm at 6am, slept an hour and went to class.

My trip to Xian was great, although spending New Years countdown on a
hard sleeper bed wasn't very exciting. On no. 7, this drunk
Queenslander who was there with us got left behind in LuoYang while he
was trying to go to the toilet. The train left without him and he was
stuck in freezing temperatures at midnight with no phone, no money, no
jacket, and not even a train ticket or identification. Its lucky he
ever got home alive!

No. 14 was also eventful. I expected European overnight trains to be
far surperior compared to its Chinese counterparts – it was at least
10 times more expensive for a similar distance. Unlike Chinese trains,
we got rooms with real doors. Unfortunately, this only gave us a false
sense of security, since at 4am a thief picked the lock and tried to
steal our wallets. Thankfully my Dad is a very light sleeper and
didn't get any sleep all night, and accidentally scared the thief
away.

Right now (no. 20) is my 3rd night on a plane and I think its worse
than the sleeper trains in China. Cathay's come out with another new
range of Economy Class seating that gives even less leg room, if that
were possible. All 3 times we tried to get Business Class seats but
the economy must be booming since 2 out of 3 times they've been
completely sold out.

ARGHHH

Sometimes things are just so difficult, life is so complicated,
emotions so overwhelming... hopefully things will be improve after i
return, but what if they get worse...

Barcelona..

is more dangerous than I expected.. and they have the weirdest
business hours. shops and museums open from 9 - 1, then close for 2 or
3 hours, and close around 7 or 8. Restaurants serve lunch at 1-4, and
dinner from 8-midnight!!?? Apparently everyone has long afternoon
naps..

But yeah theres a lot of petty thief here so I hope I get to Berlin in
one piece!