We're Permanent!

I mean, Permanent Residents of the Commonwealth of Australia! Thank you all who have prayed and supported us in this endeavor. We can now serve in Oz without worrying about extending temporary visas every two years. Praise God for answered prayers.

Here we are celebrating Australia Day.


Buddy is particularly happy; afterall, he is an Aussie dog.


Celebrating the Aussie way: eating some Italian Gelato!

P.S.: We still love the U.S. of A. and are hard-core Americans!

Celebrations

I can't believe January is almost over! These past two months have flown by so quickly. Nonetheless it has been an interesting couple of months. The first two Thanksgivings, Christmases, and New Years have been super quiet, and quite lonesome for us. But we have closed 2008 and begun 2009 with so many blessings from the Lord. We've had an abundance of encouragement and love; we've had both times when we were blessed and times when we were able to be a blessing to others. Here's a photo journal of the last two months.

Gina and Helen came out for a 2.5 week visit.
They both left great impressions in our hearts.


We were encouraged by Peter A.'s ministry to us and to the students of S.O.W.


Jim had the opportunity to encourage a Korean-Australian congregation with the Word of God.


While Gina and Helen were here, everyone in the photo go their minds
together and threw me a surprise b-day lunch.


We had the opportunity to take a short break & go on a family road-trip to see the southern part of Oz.


One of many Christmas lunches and dinners we were invited to this past year.
This was actually on Christmas Day.


Ernie and Dana came to stay with us while they took a long-deserved vacation down-unda.
I think they had a good time. They were awesome guests!


On New Year's Eve, about to watch the fireworks over Sydney Harbour.


Celebrating a friend's b-day.


Thanking God for His blessings upon the first year of life of our friends' child.


Meeting up with good friends we hadn't seen in over a year.


Jim being encouraged by fellow MTW men who are serving in Oz.


Visit by Diane and Ken who have been praying for us, but whom we met for the first time!
What a blessing they have been!


Celebrating another friend's b-day over brunch.

These may look like random photos of a bunch of meals we've been having with friends, but to us they represent the times we have been connecting with people the Lord brings our way. Looking forward to seeing how God will bless us in the next few months!

Oh What Fun!

This is what I find Buddy doing
when I let him out to play in the backyard...

















If you haven't figured out yet, he is playing with a lizard.
That lizard is scared-stiff! As soon as it moves,
Buddy takes it in his mouth, tosses it over, and as soon as it
tries to get away, he grabs it again in his mouth,
brings it closer to him, watches it; if it moves, he grabs it again,
and so on and so forth. Interesting past time, eh?

So thankful!

Every morning we wake up we are so thankful to God for so many things. We are daily reminded of God's faithfulness in our lives, so even though in the past two years we had missed out on the traditional Thanksgiving Feast, we celebrated it in our hearts with much joy. This year's Thanksgiving Day was extra special. We celebrated it with TWO wonderful feasts (Thursday and Friday) and with TWO wonderful guests (Helen and Gina) from one of our sister churches in the U.S.! So thankful!


Thanksgiving Dinner #1 at our home, before the turkey was carved.


The spread.


The spread close-up.


Expert turkey-carver.


Thanksgiving Dinner #2 at our friends Lisa and Damien's place.


Without the hosts.


At the other end of the table.


More guests.

Good friends.

The reward for volunteering to carve the turkey. Matt looks jealous.

Spoiled! Not the food! Me!

These are some of the MANY delicious things my gourmet-chef husband has been cooking and feeding me:

Beef & Mushroom Stroganoff on Friday.

Shrimp Bisque on Saturday.

Potato Soup for Sunday.

These are some of my favorites!

P.S.: None of these are my actual pictures (I was busy savouring every morsel and forgot to snap photos). But they are pictures I found on the web that look the most like Jim's creation. No matter what it looked like, it tasted SUPERB.)

Irresistible Love or Irresistible Horror?

Lately my stomach has been in knots. There's a lot of turmoil and distress in and around all our lives due to political, economic, and personal life challenges. It's so easy to lose sight and suffocate under a cloud of negativity during vulnerable times. A dear bother up in Brisbane sends out a weekly encouragement message to his community, and below is what he sent this week. It reminded me of our hope. Thanks for the encouragement D.C. I hope it brings some comfort to any disquieted heart our there.

Christians live in these uncertain times too, but with the assurance of a present reality and a future hope. The present reality is that God, as the well-known song goes, has got the whole world in His hands. The future hope is His return to make all things new. These are the truths our friends need to consider as they ask where is God in all this. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote this comment to the question of why God has not landed in force and invaded this troubled world.

"God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else—something it never entered your head to conceive—comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it."

Age-Defying Beauty

Today it celebrated the 35th anniversary since its opening by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 Oct 1973. To my surprise, there were no celebrations of any kind that I know of. Kind of sad. Well, this is my own dedication-entry to this unique landmark. Can you guess what it is?

If you guessed Sydney Opera House, you are right!

This photo of us was taken back in November of 2006.

Congratulations Sydney!