The youth leader “package”?

This post was inspired by my brother’s recent style of fashion. He has been doing a fair bit of shopping and getting some really cool clothes! All stamped and approved by ClosetOverload. Haha! Then I got reminded about Mimi’s post on VanNess about packaging, read more here. She was basically mentioning about how the heart is the most important when it comes to serving God! Duh! But she did put a disclaimer which I quote “But I should put a disclaimer that the package should show the showcase the heart so don’t beautify the heart and leave the package neglected.”

This then brought me to my curiosity about many youth pastors or leaders around the world. They seem to have a certain image, which I can’t exactly pin-point. But there is something about how they dress, their hair cut and their gestures! And this was when I noticed that the clothes by brother bought were along those lines as well! And he replied me, “I’m reaching the younger generations”, as such, the cool clothes! I especially love his checkered loofas. Here are some of his clothes that I took picture off! A recommended look to reach the younger generations? What do you think? Although I do need to emphasise that the heart is still more important than the outward appearance!

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at theoutward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Attempting a healthy lifestyle

As many might know, I’m not really the fittest person. In fact, I’m one who often falls sick and really isn’t really sporty. But ever since, my sheep, D, has finished exams, she has been encouraging me to go for morning walks with her. And when I mean morning, not 8am, but 6am! But I figured, since I am so used to waking up at 6plus, thought I should do some exercise! Well… it’s too early to tell, I’ve only succeeded two consecutive days. We took a nice slow walk to the city and back yesterday, which I estimate about 5km? I honestly didn’t feel really tired!

So today, as we were walking, we noticed the new bridge that links from the City to South Bank – known as the Kurilpa Bridge and figured since the both of us have yet to walk on it, we thought we’ll try! And we did! It was really nice, I love the look out points and the really clean water fountain taps for drinking. But halfway through our walk back, my legs and feet were cramping up! We had to stop for 2 stretches, once at South bank and once at Regatta. I don’t exactly know the actual distance, but I reckon, about 6km? It was fun, and a good form of exercise! The weather was perfect for the walk, cloudy, a slight cool breeze of wind! Just perfect!

When we got home, we wanted to have chocolate muffins for breakfast, but I figured, that it was really unhealthy! So we had cereal breakfast with fruits later on (or rather only I had the fruits!). It was delicious! And we watched Game Plan! I loved it, I’ve watched it a couple of times and I am still moved by the movie! I think D was totally in love with Peyton! I really like that name!

Anyway, hopefully I can do the same tomorrow morning again! But looking at the time, highly doubt so, plus I have to babysit my niece tomorrow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CAITLYN!

Household experimentation

Firstly, summer is really kicking in the sunshine state of Queensland! Despite the super hot weather yesterday, the household decided to do some random baking and cooking. We were just in a baking mood:) No further explanations needed! The day for us was basically, two fans at high speed, really brainless Hong Kong movies (that I couldn’t appreciate much), extended grocery shopping because of the aircondition in coles, sweet chick flicks, some bedtime reading and God time. OH yes, I forgot to mentioned that I also had a 2L bottle of frozen coke “choke slam” me!

I was just stumbling through blogs and found a Chcolate, walnut & Berry muffins recipe from Karen Cheng.

Chocolate, Walnut and Berry Muffin Recipe

2 cups self-raising flour
1/3 cup of castor sugar
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
1/3 of chopped walnuts
1/2 cup of frozen mixed berries
60g melted butter
1 egg lightly beaten
1 cup of milk

Makes about 8-10 muffins.

1. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa into a large bowl.
2. Mix in butter, egg, milk, walnuts, and berries. Combine well.
3. Spoon mixture into greased muffin pans.
4. Bake in 180C oven for 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Note: I think 1/3 cup of castor sugar is enough for little kids. The muffins taste mildly sweet with a nice tang from the berries, which is fine if you’re topping the muffins with chocolate icing or sweet yoghurt. But if you prefer your muffins to be a bit sweeter on their own, I suggest you use 1/2 cup of sugar. Enjoy!

As for mimi, she decided to make up her own recipe from her head to make scones, although the shapes were too small and looked like cookies, which ended up great anyway!

Mal on the other hand, with Josh’s helped made super yummy egg rolls, I couldn’t get enough of it, I reckon you need some serious egg flipping skills!

Thank God for the much cooler weather today! Had a pretty fulfilling day with an early rise and shine at 6am. Took a walk with Doris for about 5km at 6.30am! It was a great time of sharing and funny random conversations! After all that exercise, we came home to have a massive breakfast of crumbled fish, baked beans and fried eggs with strawberries on the side! Mum used to say that fruits for breakfast are really healthy! We also took a stab at watching twilight, it wasn’t as bad as everyone told me, or maybe it was because of everyone’s poor comments about it caused my expectations to be really low. Did some reading in the afternoon and met Mich at coffee club for drink and catch up! Awesome day spent!

Falling in LOVE…

An abstract from the book “every young women’s battle”

• A radiant bride greeted her guests with a brilliant smile as she entered the reception hall after the wedding ceremony. She gracefully moved about the room, the train of her white gown flowing along the floor behind her, her veil cascading down her button-adorned back. She conversed with each guest one by one, taking the time to mingle and soak up the compliments. “You look absolutely lovely.” “Your dress is divine.” “I’ve never seen a more beautiful bride.” “What a stunning ceremony.” The lavish praising rang on and on. The bride couldn’t be more proud or mre appreciative of the crowd’s adoration. She could have listened to them swoon over her all evening. As a matter of fact, she did. But where was the groom? All the attention focused on the bride and never once did she call anyone’s attention to her husband. She didn’t even noticed his absence at her side. Scanning the room, I searched for him, wondering. Where could he be? I finally found him, but not where I expected him to be. The groom stood alone over in the corner of the room, with his head down. As he stared at his ring, twisting the gold band that his bride has just placed on his finger, tears trickled down his cheeks and onto his hands.

When I read this, I was like, my goodness, this is the worst bride EVER! Who would ever do something like that on their wedding day! SERIOUSLY! But as I read on….

• This is when I noticed the nails scars. The groom was Jesus. He waited, but the bride never once turned her face toward her groom. She never held His hands. She never introduced the guests to Him. She operated independently of Him.

I just sat there with my book in shocked. And realised that I have probably done the exact same thing countless times. Literally, my heart just wept! I don’t know about you, but when I read this, my heart was so broken.

Jesus just longs so much for us to acknowledge Him, introduce Him to our firends, be alone with HIm, cling on to Him for our identity, to gaze longingly into His eyes, to love Him with our ALL!

What about you? Do you have this relationship with Christ? Do you experience the incredible joy of intimacy with the One who loves you with a passion that is far deeper, far greater than anything you could find here on earth?

Purity in this sex-saturated world

Challenged in the most subtle things that I never knew could affect so much.
Convinced that we need to step up a standard of purity in this sex-saturated world.
Convicted to live a life that is Holy and pleasing to God – guarding my mind, heart and body.

Yup, thats right, I have finished reading Every Young Women’s battle by Shannon Ethridge & Stephen Arterburn. I kind of started this booked in the middle of my semester but never finished it because of my busyness, but within these 2 days, I finished about close to 20 chapters. I was so into completing the book! Many times as I was reading, I kinda wished I read this much earlier, but I guess its’ never too late. There were many things that God really spoke to me through this book. And discussing everything here might be just too much, if you haven’t read the book, I encourage you to, there is a men’s version too! I read it fast also because my housemate wants to read it too! And some of my girls…

One area I was really challenged in was the area of drama-ing. Although I can argue that Asian dramas are generally more tame compared to American sitcoms/dramas like Friends, Gossip Girl, Friday Night Lights and One tree Hill, I cannot deny the fact that a lot of the dramas are promoting a lot of ungodly mindsets about relationships, marriage and sex. Moreover, dramas always have happy endings despite all the terrible happenings, sadly that doesn’t happen much in real life. The guilt, the shame, that bad memory, is something that people have to deal with. But thank God that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). I never knew that dramas could have that much effect on how you think about such things. Recently, with God’s help, I have reduced a lot of drama watching compared to previous times, but its still something I can continue to work on. Especially for American dramas.

I’m convinced that no matter how strong I think I am as a Christian, doesn’t protect me any more or make me any less vulnerable to these temptation than others, so stop trying to fight it and just flee from it. Sometimes as Christians we can just easily take for granted that we will never struggle with compromising in the area of relationships, sex or marriage. This is where I think we are so wrong, because many of the examples given by the authors in the books are from Christians. Also in the bible is clearly states: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it (1 Cor 10:13). So don’t be complacent, and never let your guard down. Because once you do, Satan will use this opportunity to cause you to fall into sin.

I’m convicted in guarding my mind, heart and body as well as my fellow brothers’. Sometimes I realise I do a lot of subtle things unknowingly, either through the way I dress or through my joking statement. You just never know how much damage or hurt it can bring to a person. I have a bad habit of blaming it on the way I was brought up, growing up with heaps of guys, as such feeling very comfortable to interact with them. But I’m not a little girl anymore and everything I do has its consequences! So I am learning to be more aware and to not put myself in compromising situations that might cause my actions to be questionable.

There were many other things that God spoke to me specifically, but its really too much to go into detail, and I would definitely encourage you to read it if you haven’t! It’s a must! You will get reactions like “Oh my goodness! Amen! Yeah! I shouldn’t do that!” And don’t read it with a defensive mode, but really allow God to speak to you as you read it!

Exercising my gift

Honestly, before my prophecy, I never really thought much about encouragement as one of the gifting from God. I mean, why couldn’t I get one of those cools and super powerful ones like gift of healing or discernment or wisdom for that matter. And I used to question God about it… asking Him why don’t I get those fancy spiritual gifting! But God created me this way and I love it! And if that’s my role in the church, so be it! So it was really affirming for me when they said to not look down on that gift.

So I figured, I shall start exercising it! Write down encouragement cards! And I did! I had heaps of fun, I remember as a kid, my favourite things about preparing for my birthday party was to wrap my goodie bags! So I thought that’s why I should do, make exam goodie bags with a little encouragement card attached to encourage all those who haven’t finished exams! And I really had fun – it also kinda made me reflect my friendship with each and everyone of them, how all of them have been such a blessing to my life. There’s a purpose for each item in the, what I call – rachel mama study-pack survival kit!

• Boost chocolate bar – According to my research paper that I did in foundation, chocolate helps relief stress!
• Energy bar – obviously to give you energy yo study
• Chupa Chups lollipop – for when you are feeling sleepy, suck on the lollipop and study, hopefully it will keep you awake
• A packet of shapes biscuits – just something to munch on! Please do eat proper meals though!
• Oreo cookies look-a-like – Twist, lick, Dunk! Remember to take a break and do something else!
• The cup – DRINK LOTS OF WATER!

Okay.. most importantly, remember to pray, have a good night rest too! Exams are not the end of the world! Have fun!:) PS: Will be praying for you too!

Frozen with Love

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILSON, STEVEN, SAM & RAI, MAMI & CAITLYN

Excuse me for the lame title! I won’t even bother to explain it… either you get it or you don’t! Hahaha… Don’t know why I’m feeling so tired, my brain isn’t working at its maximum! I think you can tell from the title! Anyway, we had our november birthday celebration in Lifegroup today! FUN! My roomie and I wanted to raise the stakes a little higher this month, by preparing a little bit more snacks, but our surprise wasn’t exactly very subtle, it was a total last minute idea! We tried! HEE! Yeah, I finally got down to making my Oreo strawberry with white chocolate cheesecake! It was quite a winner, my sheep commented that it was the most professional looking one thus far! I’m improving, I hope! Hahahaha… AND of cos, Welcome Caitlyn to her first ever lifegroup with Judah4!!:)

It was the first thing I did when I came home after I finished my exams yesterday! I had so much fun in the process!

Step 1: Crushing all the cookies

Step 2: Make the base, by mixing the crushed oreos with butter and laying it out on the baking tin

Step 3: Mix the Philadelphia cheese with caster sugar, vanilla, white chocolate, thicken cream and gelatin

Step 4: Add crumbs of Oreo cookies into the mixture and stir

Step 5: Pour into baking tin and decorate! (My favourite part!)

Step 6: Freeze in for about 3-4 hours – Top view (mine is really frozen cos I freezed it overnight! Hahaha…)

The final product on side view in a different lighting.

The long awaited day…

Firstly, congratulations to me for surviving this semester of closed book exams. It has been a while since social work had a closed book exam, by the grace of God, I managed to squeeze sufficient information to at least obtain a reasonable grade, or at least I hope I did. I excitedly thought that was the last ever exam I am going to take, assuming that fourth year social work would be more assignment based. To my horror, the courses I am taking next semester, specifically international social work and advanced research methodology have CLOSED book exams of 2.5h and 3h respectively. God bless my soul! So much for no exams… But who cares about that now, it’s the start of my 3 month summer vacation!

So what’s the first thing you do when you finish your exam, turn on your phone! And immediately get a call from your big bro saying let’s go for a celebratory dinner! By the time I got out of the exam hall, they were already waiting for me in the car, how nice! Since it was my happy day, I got to decide where to eat. My response was literally “anything but bread and cup noodles!” Yes, that was how unhealthy I was… Wait a minute, not really! I only had one cup noodles and loads of healthy sandwiches of ham, cheese, avocado and slices of tomatoes! Cos I was basically fasting the last week, so this was what I survived with this week;) WE HAD PEKING DUCK FOR DINNER! Awesome, my favourite was the skin in the wrap with the sauce and spring onion! YUM! Sorry, I was too hungry to even remember to take a picture, an internet picture will suffice! Had a good time of fellowship with my family! Plus I will be babysitting my niece tomorrow! Super fun, I’m looking forward to it!

Anyway, what I really wanted to blog about today are the things that I am looking forward to this summer:

1. Going back to Singapore to catch up with family and friends! (Ultimate priority!)
2. My first ever art therapy workshop (PS: for those who don’t know, it is using art as a form of counselling) – 1,2,3 December
3. Keyboard lessons at Believers Music (Not sure if my mum has signed me up for it yet, depending if there is still space) – Every friday for 4 weeks.
4. Volunteer work at St Andrew’s Community Hospital, working with aged care – once/twice a week
5. Definitely my LONG AWAITED HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR TO BRASIL + Short stopover at Paris! 19 Dec – 15 Jan
6. My big 21st Birthday Bash (Still in the midst of planning – got my committee all sorted out! Haha… sounds like some big event?!)
7. Thinking of working a bit in church with the children’s ministry (Still have to confirm that with my Sunday School teachers)
8. Reading heaps of books, but I feel over ambitious! – I have a list in mind: Courageous leadership – Bill Hybels, Captivating – John & Stasi Eldredge, Boundaries – Dr Henry Cloud & Dr John Townsend, Too Busy Not to pray – Bill Hybels, The Pursit of Holiness – Jerry Bridges and I thought I should enlighten myself with a Christian novel as well with Only Uni – Camy Tang (whom I love to read her blog – check her out in my links) Yeah, I know it is a lot of books, I will see, doubt I will finish them all!
9. I would love to bake, learn some basic photography and just do fun stuff!

That’s about all the stuff I can think about right now, stay tune for more details! I will definitely keep updating on my blog! It keeps me accountable for some reason! As for now… I think I should reward myself with some drama, I haven’t done that in a while! Surprise it’s not on my list huh! I’m equally surprised as you are! And to all those still have exams, all the best and I’ll still be praying for you! If you want more specific prayers, you gotta to drop me a comment to let me know what EXACTLY to pray for!:)

A 4-year-old’s financial advice!

Elijah Offering Video from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

I have heard from people that this blog sounds really serious! So I thought I shall enlighten everyone with a conviction that God has placed upon my heart! Tithes and offering! WOOT! Since young, I always have this habit of giving God loose change in my wallet, but God has been teaching me about wholehearted giving, but I think this 4 year-old boy, Elijah (boy, above) explains it best! Hope it speaks to you just like how it spoke to me! Just click on the link to watch it! It’s really cute!

Elijah, teaches us all how to manage our money God’s way… it’s a simple concept, yet so many of us haven’t mastered it. I hope this video challenges you, makes you smile, and encourages you to assess your own financial management of the money God has entrusted to you.

• Give 10% to God
• Give 10% to savings
• Spend the rest (maybe, not all of it!)

If Elijah can do it, you can do it to!!:)

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

Malachi 3:10

A balloon that POPS UP!

Leaders’ Presbytery – an experience of a lifetime. It was my first time being prophesied over by prophets. For the whole week, I had a series of mixed feelings, excitement, uncertainty, scared… plus a little stress with assignments and exams at the same time. I know I’ve been asking a couple of close friends and family to pray for me, so in my accountability to them I have to blog about it! I was eagerly waiting for my turn, but I somehow felt the more I wanted God to let me go first, the longer I had to wait, in the end, I was the last one! HAHA! But when it was finally my turn, I was so nervous! I might upload the recording (depending if it’s wise or not) and eventually do a transcript of it to make sure I don’t miss out any important bits! And of cos take some time and go through every detail with my shepherd. But because it’s the exam period, I thought I will just do a quick sharing of what really stood out for me in the prophecy I was given! You guys need to understand that the prophets knew NOTHING about me, not even my name, but they spoke such accurate things! I could literally here “AMEN” and laughter throughout my whole prophecy among the congregation!

1. Daughter of encouragement

Initially I was shocked when he first said that I had the gift of encouragement, an encourager of others, I was like “hello God, I’m normally the one that needs encouragement”. Suddenly it dawned upon, no wonder God spent half the time encouraging me in the last couple of weeks so that I in turn can encourage others! Yes God has been giving me a lot of encouraging words, as such I’ve been sharing a lot of it on my blog:) I love to encourage people, I love to help people in anyway I can!

2. Being mobbed by children

About children’s ministry, amazing! Such a confirmation for me!  A teaching aspect with patience towards children. I always wanted to be and currently am in the children’s ministry! I enjoy the gifting of having the ability to understand children and love being at their level, yes I often get laugh at for liking to be like a kid. But hey, in my defense, it’s a gift from God that not many people have!!

3. Faith to envision to run special event to draw people into the Kingdom of God

When I heard this, I almost wanted to faint! Firstly because he said I have a gift of faith, I was like God, you must be kidding me! Then when he went on the explain that I had the eyes of faith to see special events to draw people into the Kingdom of God! I was just in awe! Because somewhere in the middle of this year, God has been allowing me to vision a stadium of youths, rallying people to serve God, a large crowd out children going for this super fun exciting camp – like our explorer camps we used to have? (If you guys remember in Sunday School, they turned the whole hall into a spaceship! That was the best children’s camp EVER!) And I never told anyone about it because I figured it was all just a dream. But God saw that heart of faith! Prayerfully, it might come to past.

4. The positive and overcoming spirit

I think I heard the most “amens” in this section! A smile of a mile wide were that exact ones. And apparently I’m like a balloon that people try to push into a swimming pool and still pops up with a smile of my face! Enthusiasm goes a long way in the house of God:) For once being loud pays off! I have to admit, it does come alongside with embarrassment! A small sacrifice for the Kingdom of God!

5. Be wise about what you choose

Pressures of life… and I’m just trying to make so many decisions, wanting to do so many things. But I think there is so true in my life right now, I think many who know my well can testify to that. But yes… learning to recognise the voice of God and follow His lead, not mine!

Too many more to share, but I’ll just stop here for now… after I’ve done my transcript, I will share more thoughts! As for now… time to get a good night rest so I can wake up early to catch up on my studies!:) It has been a massive weekend!