Top Five Things I Miss the Most

#1: Toilet seat-covers in public bathrooms.



#2: Self-pay stations at gas pumps.



#3: Friendly customer service.



#4: Laundromats with giant commercial washers & driers to wash my blankets.



#5: Freeway Interchanges.

Love so undeserving...

This week some people paid us a special visit, all the way from Brea, California! After a jam-packed couple of very busy days of speaking at conferences and other Christian engagements here in Sydney, Jim's former boss and his wife met with us for dinner last night. Though it was a brief visit, we were so blessed and encouraged by the depth of their godliness. They also brought with them lots of "love" letters from the staff at ECCU!

During our short time of prayer together, my heart swelled with thankfulness and humbleness. We were tremendously moved by their gesture of love, generosity, and care. Being so far away from our loved ones, sometimes we forget that we are not lonesome sojourners. We have many people, whom we’ve known for years and whom we haven’t even met, praying for us with the same hope that we pray, which is for all of us to be the best representatives of Christ’s heart, hands and feet. Thank you M & C (and everyone back home) for your love! We long to hear from you more.

P.S.: I hope I don't get into trouble for posting their pictures without their permission!

One Thing Led to Another...

This past weekend was pretty "memorable". It started off on Friday afternoon when I decided to accompany a friend who wanted to check out a dog-friendly park/cafe in Sydney. While at the park, Buddy (our Labrador Retriever) decides to take an unexpected swim at the canal that runs along the side of the entire park! I run over to get him and to my horror, the sides of the canal (which are completely made of concrete) slopes down about 5’ at a steep angle! I’m semi-panicky, but Buddy is not even fazed; he’s just having a yabba-dabba-doo-time swimming in the dirty water.

Thankfully, an older gentleman comes over to help. He reaches over and is able to grab Buddy by his collar. But as he tries to pull him up, the collar comes off and Buddy is back in the canal! The little rascal is too fat to be rescued! Then these two younger men rush over, one of them holds on to the edge with one hand, puts his leg over the edge, and grabs Buddy by the back of his neck with his other hand and pulls Buddy up to safety. Buddy thanked everyone around by spraying dirty canal water on us as he shook himself off!

However, the drama continued as soon as we got home. After giving Buddy a quick bath in the backyard, we noticed that the hot-water tank was leaking. So we turned it off and said, “No worries. We can call the plumber tomorrow (Saturday).” Tomorrow came and we couldn’t get a hold of our real estate agent whom we had to notify first. She was at an auction selling a property and wouldn’t be able to get back to us until she was done. To make the story short, the earliest that a plumber could be scheduled to come was Monday.

Still, the fiasco didn’t end there. After dinner, we were cooking some food for Sunday’s lunch for our church gathering and, forgetting that we didn’t have hot water, Jim drained some beef fat down the sink. He doesn’t tell me this important fact until later when I was about to do the dishes and realized the sink was clogged due to the fat that had solidified in the pipes. We plunged it, poured hot-boiling water, plunged it again, poured Drano, and plunged it some more with no success of unclogging the sink. We were stuck with dirty dishes and pots piled up on the kitchen counter. And the cherry on top of the icing of this disaster-cake was that we had to boil some water over the stove to bathe ourselves.

Thankfully, the chaos was over by Saturday night. The next morning we had a wonderful time of devotion with our Harbour City Church members; and though served with plastic plates, cups and utensils, we had a nice, tasty and warm lunch. The plumber came early this (Monday) morning and everything got fixed. Call this series of events what you may: Domino Effect, Cascading Failure, Chain Reaction, or Butterfly Effect. The important fact is that the end result was still a triumphant victory. God ALWAYS sees us through, even in trials that seem petty and secondary. God is good!

Have you ever had a crazy weekend like that?

Housing Madness

Renting a living space in Sydney is getting harder and harder. Not only are the prices going up from being way too high to even higher, but there is a lot of competition, and in some cases, discrimination.

1) Prices: Sydney is located in the east-coast of Australia, and the city center is actually not too far from the coast (thus the many wonderful beaches all around). Thus, the closer you want to be to the city, you pay more for housing whether you’re buying or renting. The further west you go, the more affordable it can be, but on the other had, the least convenient it is due to traffic, less accessibility, and also you find communities that are more segregated and less integrated with the mainstream.

2) Competition: As mentioned, everyone wants to be closer to the city, so there is a lot of competition in trying to find a place to rent in a lot of suburbs surrounding the city. The way it works here is, a real estate agency places adds for a rental along with the time the place will be open for viewing (what they call inspection) which usually falls on a Saturday. Then, the people who are interested will show up on the viewing day, only to get there and realize that there are tens of other people interested in the same place. Pretty normal at first impression since everyone has the right to view/inspect a place to rent. However, the crazy thing is that some people that are desperate to get a place will actually offer to pay more than the asking price of rent, and sometimes come with their deposit check plus 6 months of rent ready to hand it to the agent! Of course, it is highly illegal to do so but it happens. Check out the line of people waiting to view a place!

3) Discrimination: Rental candidates can be discriminated based on their race, marital status, income, age, and on a combination of some or all of these factors. One phenomenon that is pretty common here is that a lot of foreign students will rent a one or two bedroom apartment unit to share with 10 plus people! Sometimes a group of foreign students will put their veranda for rent! You can imagine what can end up happening in some cases: not only do they end up living out of their suitcases due to lack of space, but some may end up trashing the place (as in photo below), thus, making it difficult for other foreign students to rent. Foreign students aren’t the only ones that have it hard. If you’re a young married couple starting life in one income while one of you is still going to school, it is unlikely you’ll be given the keys to a place.

All this to say that we are SO blessed and thankful to have a place to live that is in an ideal location for our ministry purposes, and that is comfortable and ideal for the two of us. When we look back to the timing and the circumstances surrounding how we found and got this place to live, we thank God for it.

Next month we are due for a rental contract renewal and we’re hoping that, not only they allow us to stay continuously, but also that they won’t raise the rent on us (which is very possible due to the high demand of rental property) and if so, that it won’t be too much. Your prayers would be much appreciated.

P.S.: Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there!

Shedding My Skin

Below is in a nutshell a perfect metaphor of my life at this stage. It suffices to say that "skin" here equals "cultural norms and values".

"All animals, at regular intervals, shed their skin. Some, like humans, do it relatively unobtrusively in a sort of ongoing process (we shed 1.5 million skin cells every hour with a new skin surface every 28 days or so). Others do it quickly and cleanly, like the one-piece sheds produced by snakes and tarantulas. Most lizards are rather more leisurely about it, with their skin coming off in patches. Some lizards are like snakes, tarantulas, and stick insects: they climb out of their old skin, leaving it behind in one piece.

Going into shed is apparently not a real fun thing for snakes and lizards. Most get rather cranky during this time, with some individuals becoming hissy or snappy, objecting to being held or touched. The best thing to do is to respect their ill-feeling as much as possible. If you need to get in and service their enclosure, do it, but restrict actual handling to that which is necessary.

While reptiles may still eat when in the very early phase of the pre-shed period, as the period progresses, they usually lose their appetite. Most greatly reduce their food intake; others stop eating altogether until after they have shed. Some snakes will not eat while their eyes are milky; some will take a meal once the eyes have cleared but before they shed, while others will not eat until after they shed.

If your iguana is not shedding, and it is not the winter slow-growth period, then there is a problem. It may be that the environment is wrong, the diet is not nutritious enough to promote growth or normal skin renewal processes, or your iguana is sick. The iguana may also be psychologically stressed. A review of the environment and diet is necessary, as is a review of any other factors that may affect how the iguana responds psychologically/socially to his environment.

Generally speaking, don't pull the skin if it isn't ready to come off."

Happy Valentine's Day!

A piece of potato chip I found in the bag Jim and I were sharing earlier today.

My 40-Year-Old Hubby

As handsome as ever!