Day 36

No, this is not strategy 36 which says to win is to run and fight another day. This is PDL day 36, a reminder for us that we have a mission to accomplish. In fact, it's nearly Mission Impossible, to go into the whole world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

So remember, you're Tom Cruise now! We're in Mission Impossible: The Great Commission!

Anyway, thought I shared a sentence I read today:

One problem long-term Christians have is that they forget how hopeless if felt to be without Christ.

How true is that! We always rely on ourselves, our families, our friends, etc but we're hopeless without Christ. We need to wake up and be sensitive towards Christ's presence in our lives.

Do you feel it?

Do you have what it takes?

If not, be afraid, be very afraid................you'll fail!

Good news is, it's not too late and please don't apply strategy #36 from Sun Zi Bing Fa.
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This is a posting from our cell group blog.

Spiritual Disciplines Reading

If you had the opportunity to read day 28, the last section talks about spiritual disciplines. Coincidentally, it's also something that we wanted to start on week 5.

However, most people don't know what're spiritual disciplines or at least quite blur to it.

Here's a recommended reading site for this information. It's in English but it's very easy to understand.

The Water's Edge

Below are some previews:

"Superficiality is the curse of our age…. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."
-Richard Foster, "Celebration of Discipline"

"The spiritual life is first of all a life.It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived."
-Thomas Merton, "Thoughts in Solitude"

"Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."
--Leo Tolstoy

Once upon a time, a group of men from Chicago left their jobs in the high-rise office buildings, moved to the prairie, and bought some farmland.
"We're farmers!" They all declared to each other. And all summer long they would go to the field to watch their crop grow up. However, when September rolled in, their fields were filled with goldenrod and all kinds of wildflowers and weeds.

"Where's the corn?" they asked each other. And they wondered what they could have possibly done wrong.

Growing up in the church, I have often noted the fact that so few "long-time church members" experience the significant life-change expected from many years as students of Jesus. Like those city boys, they purchase the land, but do nothing to cultivate a field in which growth could take place.

Why do so many of us feel like we just have not grown very much in the likeness of our Master? Are we just spiritually "thick-headed?" Are we just not "built" to be spiritual giants? Or have we simply not been taught what it means to be a student of Jesus?

Show Me The Love

I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6

A good reminder for us from PDL day 9 ;)

How often have we thought we pleased God by doing more offerings in terms of financially or time? We sort of comfort ourselves or pat ourselves on the back hoping that God was pleased with our "substitute" love.

God made it clearly here: show Me love, not offerings.

How to show love? read Day 9!

Purposed Driven CG

What is supposed to be a highly publicized ministry didn't really start off the right pace. It was supposed to be the main event, the show stopper and the headliner for CLMC in 2009.

However, it seems to be just another "Purposed Driven" activity in the eyes of the commoners. Participation are quite low, not ideal to say the least.

Now with about 6 cell groups on our hands, the more important question is how to turn this "activity" into a ministry that's really purposed driven?

Will we overcome the "short term" mentality to further ahead?

Will we see the power of cell groups in multiplication through PDL?

Will we see lives get changed?

Will we see churches changed?

Yes, I think we'll.............!! It needs to start with "YOU".

Guess we all need to come before God and seek His Kingdom first.

Lucky 8 CG

Finally, it has been confirmed. We shall start with 8.

Bible normally uses "7" as the perfect number, for us Chinese, "8" seems to be lucky number!

For some, it's a new journey. For me, would it be a 3rd time lucky to get it right?

God help us all!

p/s: Everyone please read Purpose Driven Life book from Sunday, 12/4/09 daily!!

A Tribute To A Veteran (LSY)

Yesterday, 28/03/2009 marks another day where a veteran leader of our church has left us again, this time for interstate to Brisbane.

She first joined us back in 2002 and is one of the very few that has served in the church under 3 different pastors (Rev Chew, Rev Loi and Rev Ting). In Chinese, it's known as the 三朝元老. Certainly an amazing feat and great dedication she has showed for the church considering the high turnover of our church as our members are mainly international students.

Some of the ministries she has held over the past includes but not limited to:
1. Zone leader for 2 years
2. Local Conference Secretary
3. LCEC Secretary
4. Sunday School Superintendent
5. Small Group Leader
6. Choir member
7. Prayer meetings

Her "constant" laughing tone will certainly be missed most by us! However, the heart of a faithful servant will be forever remembered. We may also miss her cooking (remember the porcupine meatballs? :D)

We could only pray for her as she starts her new chapter of life and hopes that she will get used to the new environment soon. Let her heart continue to grow in Christ and be a role-model where ever she may be.

Oh, for those who don't know. Her name is Liew Sin Yee! :)

Afternoon Service

One of the much talked about issue at the moment: Should we vote for a change of service time to afternoon, instead of the current evening time?

Let's go back into history a bit and let's evaluate on the pros and cons.

History
When City Ministry, CM (now known as CLMC) started, the service was in the evening at 5pm. This is because CM was under Camberwell Methodist Church and they have services at 9am, 11am, and 1.30pm. They couldn't really fit in another slot in the morning due to lack of pastor resources.

As CM was like a nomad church, once we moved from different venues to different venues, our service times are started to be affected by the change. We slowly move to 6pm and then the current 7pm after English service took the 5pm slot when it was available.

So up to today, CLMC has 5pm English Service and 7pm Mandarin service, with an exception of 2007 where 1.30pm Mandarin service was introduced briefly.

Pros for afternoon service

• People can finish earlier (around 3pm)
• Public transport would still be plenty
• People won't be hungry during service as they would have eaten before coming
• More free time during evening/night

Cons for afternoon service

• Your whole day are basically "stuck". The service time is in the middle of the day, which made activities with longer hours not possible.
• People normally feel sleepy after having lunch and afternoon is normally nap time
  
• Morning sports session may need to be cancelled as other activities would be pushed to start earlier (eg, choir, Sunday school, etc).
  
• Less free time during the day

Summary
Now that we roughly seen the history, pros and cons. Let's think for a while and see which would be a more appropriate choice?

Some of the things we must consider before making such a big decision are:
1. Who is our target group? Inner city people or suburban? Family oriented or Student oriented?
2. What are we trying to achieve with afternoon or evening service?
3. What differences will the change create?
4. Where do we see our growth from now onwards? Are we outgrowing our capacity where a 2nd service might be needed?
5. How will the change be in line with our church vision & goals?
6. What are some other alternatives or compromise we could implement?
7. What do you really want to achieve from the change?
8. What are your motives in the change? For individual or church benefits?
9. Finally, how would it affect you as an individual with the change or not?

Anyway, since most of us wouldn't think so much. I'm hoping this would encourage most of us to start thinking deeply and ponder on the consequences of on a decision.

Sleep Mode

Almost all modern laptop these days have the "sleep mode" function. It's called differently according to the O/S.

Sleep mode can go by many different names, including Stand By (Microsoft Windows), Sleep (Mac), and Suspend (Linux). When placed in this Sleep mode, aside from the RAM which is required to restore the machine's state, the computer attempts to cut power to all unneeded parts of the machine. Because of the large power savings, most laptops automatically enter this mode when the computer is running on batteries and the lid is closed. More

Most people today hardly shut down their laptops instead they have it on sleep mode to save power and faster reboot. Depending on laptops, I think shutting down & turning power on is quickly than coming back from sleep mode?

Anyway, haven't been touching about CLMC for quite a while now. Things have been rather quiet after the big news. Christmas is just around the corner, where it should be the busiest time of the year for Christians & churches, it just seems to be one of the quietness time of the year for us. Previously, there were talks of possible large bilingual celebration in the Melbourne Town Hall, Christmas Shoebox thingy, etc. However, it seems all just gone into smoke as usual. All talks, no actions?

Looking on the bright side, I heard they are organising or should I say looking for volunteers to help the Salvation Army to get donations for Christmas. It's good that something is being done but how many will actually get involved? 5? 10?

Wait a minute, what about the rest of the church members? I think only 1 small group is operating now, instead of the supposed 3. What's happening? Nobody cares? Nobody knew about it?

I smell lack of responsibilities here? Can't blame the new Zone Leader for it as he had just "taken office" plus, not officially announced yet! As far as I know, the previous Zone Leader has been reminded months before summer actually begun. I can't think of any good & reasonable excuse for letting such things happened except lack of responsibility. It's not too hard to understand why people wouldn't want to step up & fill the gap. Some even want to stay away from it.

When will our people learn about responsibilities and not just having the authority to act without responsibilities? How can we entrusted them with greater roles that demands more responsibilities? Is this what Christian leaders are? By God's mercy, we'll be forgiven so we have no fear or guilt for our wrongdoings? Or are we not doing anything because we didn't hear what God wanted us to do? *Hellooooooooo*

Some people might say this is summer period, so things do get a bit slow & slack. For me, it's not acceptable to just go with the flow, we must work against it especially if it's a bad flow. Let's just hope our "Sleep Mode" will wake up well when the time is right. Sometimes, my laptop will give me a blue screen of death after waking up! Hopefully we won't have to see that. However, our system is definitely not stable now, too many software crashes. :P

Fix it before it's too late. Be Responsible & Accountable.

The Victorian State Government made a mistake in predicting growth, causing massive transportation problems for the state. Now, Victorians are asked to be patience for another 6 years minimum for the West Gate Alternative to be built. Probably another 30 years before things get back to normal again.

圣旨到~！

30/11/2008，the day CLMC has been waiting for. Finally, after all these months of waiting & praying, we had our answer.

For those long timers, after years & years of prayers, years & years of disappointments, it's just a great relief! We finally see more smiles & looks of relief after hearing the news on Sunday night. For those who went back & didn't get to listen to the news: for 2009, CLMC will have a new pastor!~ Her name is Rev. Melody Ting, currently in Perth. Previously, she was from Camberwell church as well. By the way, she's serving in the English Congregation in Grace Methodist Church. Could she be serving in our English Congregation too? Seems likely! Also good for the English Congregation as they have complaining about lack of pastoral care for ever since they started. Some info about Rev Ting from GMC below:

The Annual Conference (AC) has designated a pastor for our english congregation! Praise God. Rev Melody Ting will be transfering from the church at Papua New Guinea to Grace MC in February 2008. I met her at Sydney during the youth convention, and she's a very friendly and approachable person. So guys, pray for her safe arrival to Perth next year, and also that she can find a home to live in. Above all, please make her feel at home and work alongside her. 2008 is truly going to be a new chapter in GMC. New pastor and new venue. More

CLMC also will have a theological student, name Simon (Tan or Tang?). I think he's Mandarin & English capable as well. Currently, he's serving in Trinity church. Not sure whether he's serving in our Mandarin Congregation or not, it'll all depend on how Rev Ting arranges it.

Will the LCEC read and maybe some apply some of my proposals for them, especially for the pastor & theological student? Let's wait & see.

Before we go any further, we need to thank Rev Loi who has been with us for the past 6 years or so. We thank her for the sweats (hard works) & tears (prayers). Hope that she'll get used to her new role as the Annual Conference Pastor. For her to minister our church, as inexperience as she was, she did a pretty good job to stand till the end because our church is different to those traditional family churches setting.

Anyway, a week ago before the 30th Nov, most of us has already given up hope not just on the AC, Bishop, etc but also on God. On the 28th (Friday), where we normally catch up for prayers and stuffs, we called it off because we felt helpless, we felt the end-game has been set and there's no need for us to do anything else. We just gave up.

Again, God proves to us that we are wrong and if we could persevere that extra week, we could have truly experience God's power & faithfulness! Now, though God open the way when there seems to be no way, we are at the "lowest point" or less ideal position to accept His wonderful grace. I just hope that we all learnt that lesson and will not give up in the future should similar situations occur.

Though we had a change of pastor, the journey ahead is still long & blurry. It's going to take time to rebuild and gain momentum. She's only expected to join us on 1st March 09. Let's all not take this for granted and start praying for our church from this moment on.

Our church needs leaderships & directions. By just saying "let's listen to God, let God choose, let God's will be done, etc" wouldn't help. The church expects the leaders to have heard it & bring it to them. Let's hear you say "God wants us to this way, that way, let's do it, etc". How good is our current leaders relationship with God? If the answers are typical "i'm reading bible daily, i pray a few times a day, etc", I would be really worried.

God has again opened His door for us, it's up to us how we walk through it.

By the way, Oliver is our new zone leader according to reliable sources. Let's support him in prayer too and give out what we can to support the small group ministry. He's a small group leader with 5-6 years experience.

Also, a big thank you to the AC board of Appoinments for allowing CLMC to experience a little change. Otherwise, the exodus might be too hard to be prevented.

Size Matters?

Often we heard of the phrases about "size matters, big is better", etc but is it really so? Without a doubt, generally speaking size does matter. For example, bigger house, bigger car, bigger family, bigger wealth, etc.

However, bigger things also come with bigger disadvantages. How so?

Bigger house = more cleaning up to do, more maintenance, etc

Bigger car = higher petrol consumption, higher road tax, etc

Bigger family = more disputes, more financial burden, etc

Bigger wealth = higher risks of losing it, lost true friendships, etc

So, does that mean we shouldn't go for bigger size? Just be content with smaller things or stick with something that has worked nicely before?

The more important point to consider is whether we are able to handle the consequences or disadvantages of being big or small. Take the CLMC situation for example.

Due to the cultural background of most church members (from Sarawak), they prefer a large group gathering a.k.a Youth Fellowship. Some of the new or first generation church members prefer small group gatherings a.k.a cell groups. So, very often we have "debates" on whether to keep small group or go for the large group gathering methods. Sometimes debate do not go to public but rather toilet-talk (if you know what I mean).

From my point of view, we shouldn't revert to large group gathering methods or stick to the small group methods totally. We should have 1-5 or 1-6 gatherings style. It's known as 1 large group gatherings in every 5 or 6 small group gatherings. The large group shouldn't replace the small group meeting on that week.

This way, we can keep the bond strong for each cell groups as well as the cohesion between cell groups. The large gathering shouldn't be wasted on playing too many games or talk rubbish. It should be used as an opportunity by the pastor or leader to educate the members of the church vision & goals. In the cell groups, members can then apply what they learned from the large group gatherings with the support of all members.

Why couldn't it be a 1-6 for small groups (1 small group in 6 large gatherings), I think the answer is pretty obvious. What are we trying to achieve? An easy way out to the problem of leaders shortage? Building an even stronger inner circle that's indifferent or ignorant to the outside world?

Problems we faced in small group should be addressed properly and solutions must be brainstormed together. However, having said that, those who doesn't have small groups mentality shouldn't be in the leaders circle. They can only cause more harm than good. They should step down from their positions.

Another thing is about getting feedback. Every year we have the committees asking for feedback. What's the purpose of it? Feedback are to be listened to initiate change. If we are not ready for changes, don't bother with feedback. It's just a waste of time. To ask for feedback, you need to know what you want to know about first. Not asking blindly.

Anyway, with the future of CLMC small groups in jeopardy, whoever is the zone leader has a very heavy responsible on his/her hands. May God be with him/her.

The Return of Monopoly

Arguably one of the most popular board games of all time, Monopoly. One would have thought only kids play that game, I mean I played it when I was like 9 years of age! I still remember the days playing against my cousins in a small town called Mukah. Who would have thought of playing the actual board game again? I have played the computer version of Monopoly last year but got bored as computer AI is still not as smart! So I've unistalled it.Until recently, thanks to one of our cell group members named Betty (the self proclaimed, cutest of em' all), she bought a new version of the Monopoly (World Edition). She was quite desperate to play the game each time. Pity Ye Seng who has to accompany her to play the game most of the time (also letting her build hotels, houses, etc and let her win the game :P)

So, as her group mates in the small group as well as the Friday gatherings, we decided to play the game as well. My oh my, it has since become an addiction for us!! For the past 2 weeks, every Friday & Saturday we would stay back after the gatherings to play monopoly! It normally ended around 1-2am! Even during exam periods!

Each time we have different winners, but normally the interesting thing is finding out who the loser is! Maybe it was due to me who during our 1st game mentioned that I'd never lose a monopoly game before, so they all wanted to see me lose! Bugger! I lost on the first night! Went bankrupt after hitting "Paris" with 3 houses I think. Then the cute Nexus who was the victor also lost on other nights. He only managed to buy 2 land titles and was hoping to lose 1/4 way through! By the way, Betty always seems to get the "Free parking" to collect all the taxes! Don't know how she does it, EVERYTIME! A bit unfair...:P
Betty
Nexus

Anyway, next time if we do play, I'll be the banker. I'm going to change the rules a little bit to add more spice into the game! Maybe we could have recession periods, booming periods, land prices falls, auction of land titles, lower interest rate loans for players, etc! It could be more fun!!

Ladies & gentlemens, get your dice ready! A new & improved monopoly will be on the way!

打工皇帝

During the time of recession, what's the most important thing for most people? Money? Gold? Shares? Properties? I don't think so. I think it's a stable job that's what matters during the time of recession.

Money can easily be devalued (just look at AUD), Gold (prices have plunged), Shares (do i need to mention it anymore? ), etc. The best way to survive the recession is to keep your job!

At least a job keeps your income flow in. Try not to get into more debts during recession period. However, if you have "extra" pocket money, you can look for bargains to buy. I recently tried 3 new things as well: House, Forex & Shares. He he! Take it as a learning experience!

Keeping a job may not be as easy as it seems. A lot of companies are cutting costs by retrenching staffs, production plants shut down, etc. Australian working hours have also increased to increase productivity but in a costs cutting way.

Australians work some of the longest working hours in the developed world, a study has found. About one in five Australians, or two million people, work more than 50 hours a week, the University of Sydney study shows. The study tracked 8000 workers over five years, through to the first half of the year.

Full-time employees work an average of 44 hours per week and about one in three people want to work less. Despite the long hours, about 85% of workers have debts to pay, the report said. Employment standards have also deteriorated, and many workers are worried about job insecurity and work-life balance. Casual employees face job insecurity but many permanent employees work very long hours.

Paradoxically, many people enter self-employment in order to gain some control over their work but this is the group who are working the longest hours (50 hours a week on average)." More

So, what's the key to be able to last the long boring hours in the office? As Sam Hui would say, 最緊要好玩!

What about those unemployed people now? It's going to be a hard time out there. However, don't be so picky these days. Just get a job first and worry about tomorrow later. It's a matter of survival & gaining experience now.

Now we'll see how the Australian Governments handle the crisis and maintain the high living standards of Australians. We could learn a few things from them! Keep your eyes open people!

By the way, for Christians, make sure your offering do not drop during recession! Keep it up! I've channeled my offering towards the small group ministry previously, perhaps now it's time to move it into a different area. Been looking in sponsoring a child now. Maybe will choose World Vision. The money should be better spent than for our own pleasure yeah? In my opinion, the most important thing is to keep the offering level up, where you offer it is up to you! :D

Honestly, what have been done with the offering monies they received from us? I haven't seen anything yet? No mission, no sponsor, no outreach, nothing. What's more bewildering, we still need to raise funds or put in extra offerings if we are going to do something. For example, printing more flyers, buying multimedia projector, buy bibles, etc. Maybe someone should enlighten us?

Exodus - Next On Agenda?

For some funny unknown reason, I've always been able to relate what's happening around me as to what's happening around the world at the same time. The current situation that we faced is like the world economy. The timing is so similar.

The situation will only get worse as time goes on. The rescue packages by various Governments couldn't restore the confidence of the investors likewise, the new LCEC will not be able to restore the confidence of the members. Investors are looking for alternatives to shares or properties. Some of the members are looking at other places to go.

This Friday, there'll be an "emergency" meeting between for the small groups to decide on new leadership. It seems some members are not satisfied with the results of election held last Saturday. The outcome may or may not reduce the confidence level even more. This has never happened before: great objections to the election results.

As for me, I think we should respect the decision made during the election. The person should be given the benefit of a doubt to perform his duty. We must not have prejudice or pre-judgement towards him. Having said that, he needs to learn to work together with others and be a team player. To try to steal the spotlight alone will be a big mistake. The role is not as easy as it seems. In fact, I would rate it the hardest of em' all. Teamwork & communication will be essential for 2009. Teamwork means working together for a common objective and not blind obedience.

The last key event for this year would be around the 27th to 30th November. It would be seen as the biggest "market mover". Would an exodus be the consequences? Whether it would be or not, it's definitely something to think about immediately. We can't afford to waste another few months until March 09. Prevention is better than cure though some may argue the damage has been done. The newly elected LCEC must show its' members that they are capable of dealing with those issues, not just trying to cover up everything or ignoring it. I think they have to act fast, as a matter of urgency.

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Translation from google:

对于一些有趣的不明原因，我一直能够与发生的事情我周围，以发生的事情在世界各地同一时间举行。目前的形势，我们面临着就像是世界经济。时间是如此相似。

情况只会变得更糟随着时间的推移。一揽子救援计划由各国政府不能恢复信心的投资者同样，新的LCEC将无法恢复的信心成员。投资者正在寻找替代股票或财产。一些成员正在寻找其他地方去。

这个星期五，将是一个“紧急”会议之间的小团体来决定新的领导班子。这似乎有些委员不满意的选举结果上周六举行。其结果可能会或不会减少的信心水平甚至更多。这之前，从来没有发生过：伟大的反对选举的结果。

就 我个人而言，我认为，我们应该尊重作出的决定在选举。人应该考虑的利益，毫无疑问，履行自己的职责。我们绝不能有偏见或判决前向他。话虽如此，他需要学习 共同努力，与他人合作，并成为球队的球员。试图窃取单独的焦点将是一个很大的错误。的作用并不容易，因为它似乎。事实上，我的速度，最难的旅馆'所有。团 队合作与沟通将是至关重要的2009年。团队精神是指一道为共同的目标，而不是盲从。

最后关键事件，今年将在11月27日至 30日。这将被视为最大的“市场先行者” 。将大批的后果？是否应该或不，这是肯定的东西想立即。我们不能再浪费另一个几个月到3月09 。预防胜于治疗虽然有些可能会争辩的损害已经完成。新当选的LCEC必须显示其'的成员，他们有能力处理这些问题，而不只是试图掩盖一切或无视它。我认 为，他们必须迅速采取行动，作为紧急事项。

The Moments

For the past week, I've been waiting for Friday to come as I anxiously awaits the Friday prayer gathering. Maybe it's the only time I can gather with a few friends to come together before God and pray. The last Friday (10/10/08), the gathering was a bit "weird", it seems most people are not focus or very motivated. Perhaps the latest series of church news have discouraged them or causing them to lose faith. Some didn't even turn up that Friday.

So I was determined to try something new to try to keep the fire alive. From Saturday (11/10) right up to the last minute before it starts, I was praying & planning on how to make it better. So, I used something I learnt from the Korean people. I selected 2 hymns for the night (I never lead a prayer meeting with songs before because I didn't know how to sing properly). The hymns are 奮起歌 & 求主引我. We also tried shouting "主啊！主啊！主啊！after the song then pray out loud. It sounded funny at first but who wouldn't! To have a look at how Koreans pray, check this post.

The feeling that night for me is pretty good. I can feel everyone tried to pray out loud and most importantly, everyone prayed earnestly. Let's hope we can go further and experience the Holy Spirit among us more often! By the way, someone told me the number of attendance for Friday actually outnumber the Wednesday one, Wow! Keep it up, people!

Then we had our Local Conference on Saturday morning, not too impressed I would say. Everything was worse than we expected. We had 91 (or 93?) members on the book however, only a maximum of 31 turned up. During the whole meeting, people come in & out, the attendance was hovering around 25-29 for most of the day. It was not a good sign for the church! Less than 1/3 of the members are present! Should our church leaders be concerned about this issue? It doesn't seems like it. Perhaps as usual, they would shift the blame to timing, exam & assignments period. Back in July, I wrote a letter to our Pastor-Parish relations Committee (PPRC) regarding this matter, and I did get a lot of unwanted trouble because of that. Nonetheless, they should now be able to see much clearer the reason for my letter. The election process was quite terrible I would say, nothing spectacular or worth mentioning.

Anyway, I was supposed to lead the small group 3rd W on that night itself. I wasn't totally prepared though my leader, Bick Seng did try his best to translate the materials for me (I don't know how to read Chinese) and sent it to me on Tuesday. When I saw the materials, I didn't know how to lead it in an exciting way. So I just prayed, Oh God, help me again!! I didn't get any answer or tips though. -_-

When the time came for me to lead, I just led naturally hoping my experience would be enough to carry me through it.The first few parts were quite dry & boring, to be honest! However, luckily all members participate more as time went by. So, I was able to lead better and eventually managed to get more sharing out for that night. The topic is about God's lamb (not too exciting I know! :P). However, I've added sub topics like repentance, forgiveness and salvation to it. Hopefully all the members will hear it and act on it. I guess that's the way God answered my prayer. Instead of telling me what to do in advance, He wanted me to trust in Him all the way, He'll open the way when times come. Hallelujah!

During the 3rd W time, I suddenly had a feeling that I don't want the moments to end. I was looking at my members sitting in circle around me, I just didn't want the moment to end, I want the sharing to go on & on, everyone to be with one another, etc. It has been a while since I've that feelings in small group. Hope it will last and I'll be able to share it with them next time. We need members to have such feelings for the small group to grow healthier. Add oil people!!

My small group members (this is not picture from last night :P)

Yen Shing & Bick Seng

By the way, yesterday we celebrated Yen Shing's birthday 1 day in advance. We managed to get her to join us to have covenant before God as well. Only told her to have 1 covenant instead of 4-6. She has agreed to read a bible passage daily. Woo Hoo!! Thank God! Hopefully everyone will try to keep to their covenant & grow deeper in Christ!

Looking forward to coming Friday & Saturday!

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As requested, translation via google. It won't be super accurate so if you feel blur, read the English part!

在过去的一周，我一直在等待周五来，我焦急地等待星期五祈祷聚会。也许这是唯一一次我可以收集与几个朋友走到一起在上帝面前祷告。在上周五（ 10/10/08 ） ，收集是一个有点“怪” ，似乎大多数人都没有重点，或者非常动机。也许最近的一系列教堂的消息劝阻他们或使他们失去信心。有些甚至没有出现在星期五。

所以， 我决定尝试新事物，以尽量保持消防活着。从星期六（ 11月十日）的权利直到最后一刻才开始，我祈祷与规划如何使之变得更好。所以，我用我学到的东西从韩国人。我选择第2赞美诗夜（我从来没有带领祈祷会前的 歌曲，因为我不知道如何正确地唱歌） 。是的赞美诗奋起歌＆求主引我。我们还尝试高喊“主啊！主啊！主啊！的歌曲后，然后大声祈祷。这听起来可笑，但在第一次谁不！要看看韩国如何祈祷，检查这 一职务。

这种感觉，那天晚上对我来说是相当不错。我能感觉到每个人都试图大声祈祷和最重要的是，每个人都认真祈祷。让我们希望我们能走得更远和经验圣灵在我们中间更经常！顺便说一句，有人告诉我，一些出席星期五的实际人数超过一个星期三，哇！请继续保持，人民！

然 后，我们有我们的本地会议上周六早晨，没有太多的印象我想说的。一切不如我们的预期。我们有91 （或93 ？ ）成员的新书然而，只有最多31人。在整个会议上，人们在与的，是出席25日至29日徘徊在多数时间。这不是一个好兆头的教堂！不到1 / 3的成员是本！如果我们的教会领导人关心这个问题？它似乎并不喜欢它。也许像往常一样，他们将转向归咎于时间，考试期间及转让。早在7月，我写了一封信给 我们的牧师，帕里什关系委员会（政党登记委员会）关于这件事，我也得到了很多不必要的麻烦，因为这一点。然而，他们现在应该可以看到更清楚的原因我的信。 选举过程是相当可怕的我要说，没有什么引人注目的还是值得一提。

反正我是要带领小团体第三W对，那天晚上本身。我没有完全准备虽然我 的领袖， Bick恒生没有尽最大努力争取在翻译的材料对我来说（我不知道如何阅读中国）和发送给我星期二。当我看到的材料，我不知道如何导致在一个令人兴奋的方 式。所以，我只是祈求，上帝啊，帮助我再次！我没有得到任何答案或提示的。 - _ -

当时候，我带头，我只是导致自然希望我的经验 将足以携带箱通过it.The头几年有相当部分干与无聊，说实话！然而，幸运的所有成员更多地参与随着时间的流逝了。所以，我能够更好地领导并最终成功地 获得更多的分享了晚上。这个专题是关于上帝的羔羊（不是太令人兴奋的我知道！ ：对） 。然而，我已将分议题忏悔，宽恕和拯救它。希望所有成员将听取并采取行动。我想这是上帝的方式回答我的祈祷。不是告诉我怎么做，事先他要我信任他所有的方 式，他会打开时候到来。哈利路亚！

在第3 W时，我突然有一种感觉，我不想的时刻结束。我一直在寻找我的成员坐在我周围的圈子，我只是不想结束的时刻，我想分享去＆ ，每个人都必须相互合作，等等这是一个，而自从我'维生素E的感情小团体。希望它将过去，我将能够分享这与他们明年的时间。我们需要的成员有这样的感情小 团体健康成长。购买石油的人！
我的小团体的成员（这不是图片从昨晚：对）


顺便说一下，昨天我们庆祝日元城门的生日1天提前。我们设法让她加入我们的上帝面前公约以及。只有告诉她有1个契约而不是4-6 。她已经同意宣读了圣经每日通行。胡加！感谢上帝！希望每个人都将尽量保持其与增长公约在基督更深！

展望未来周五和周六！

Our CG materials 13/9/08 - Running the race

Last Saturday, I had the honour to lead the 3W of the CG, thanks to our dear leader, Bick Seng! Haven't done it for quite a while now. I didn't have too much time to prepare for it as I was busy with other "annoying" things.

Anyway, just to summarize what had been brought up:

• Spiritual journey towards a better relationship with God is like a Marathon race.
• Each of us should participate in the race, not just be a spectator. In other words, "Kay leh fay"
• Before we start the journey, we need to:
  
  1. Know who am I - understand our weakness, admiting our sins
  2. Know who God is - knowing & experiencing God's character
  3. Know what God wanted me to do - get instructions before we start
  4. Experiencing God's power - building on small victories to build faith & confident
  5. Have support from others - Peer support is essential

1. Know who am I - understand our weakness, admiting our sins
   - If we don't know who we really are, how do we know whether we need any help or why do we need to be submissive or respectful to a Higher Authority?
   -For an athelete, it's important to know his ability, strength and weakness before competing in a race. Only then, he can ensure a better strategy to win the race
   
   
2. Know who God is - knowing & experiencing God's character
   - If we don't know God well enough, how are we supposed to sacrifice our lives for Him?
   - If you don't love your partner or know him/her well enough, are you going to risk your life protecting it just because he/she is technically your partner?
   - We need to experience God's characthers, not just know it by theory.
   - For an athelete, he needs to know who is he running for? Who is the country that he loves? Without it, where will the determination to succeed comes from?
   
   
3. Know what God wanted me to do - get instructions before we start
   - Often we read in the bible, the prophets are very lucky to have God whispering or telling them what to do straight up front
   - Now a days, you can hardly hear anything so direct. Most communication or revelations are from bible, words of mouth and other happenings.
   - We have to be close to God to know how authentic it may be most of the times.
   - We shared about God's plan for our lives
   - Do not walk ahead of God, walk with God
   - It's very hard practise, especially for us that prefers everything to be done quick & fast
   - For an athelete, in teams event, they are team orders in order to bring victory to the team. Individual success is least important. Likewise for CG, we need to peform as a group, not individual.
   
   
4. Experiencing God's power - building on small victories to build faith & confident
   - No champion is born without much hard works prior
   - Before we can achieve great things, we need to achieve small victories
   - Don't expect to be like Moses everyday to lead Isreal out of Egypt, open the Red Sea, etc.
   - Be realistic, raise the bar each time you have achieved something
   
   
5. Have support from others - Peer support is essential
   - Can we live as a lone ranger these days? Some yes, most no.
   - The 2C CG is designed to help all members to run the race together
   - 2C CG ensures everyone obtained success, rather than individuals
   - Covenants are followed up

Our 2C CG has definetely improved when compared to just about 1 month ago. We have more in-depths sharing, more encouragements, more breakthroughs, and more spiritually disciplined members.

We also had the opportunity to combined with Oliver's 2C CG last Saturday to distribute flyers, "Zhong xin", etc to the people of Melb. Very good experience. Our CG has been stagnant and distance itself from reaching out. It's good to see that we are willing to take the first step in reaching out again. Hope it continues!

We had guests last Saturday as well. Brother David & Sister Esther, who joined us yesterday. They are elders who are both disabled, however, they look a lot more cheerful than most of the people we ever saw! They were promoting the Christmas gift that Uncle Japhy promoted last year, i think it's called "yi chou kan" or something. It costs $5.00. Immeditately, our group decided to purchased a huge number of gifts to give to others.

Amazing Saturday I would say. Looking forward for more.