Naomi, the 6 years old preacher.

Although my 6 years old daughter sometimes drives me insane, she can be such an angel sometimes. No wander Jesus is quite fond of little kids.

Naomi has this habit of just going off tangent and getting distracted. Trying to get her to do something that takes 2 seconds always end up taking 10 mins, and that's after about 50x reminders or 10 mins worth of nagging. At least she gets distracted with her own stories and singing, and not so much negative things. For example, when she goes into the shower, she'll start to sing and hum, and she can enjoy that for ages before I remind her to start using the soap. On my first instruction to do anything she always says, "One more minute", which normally ends up being 10 mins, unless she actually thinks that's how long 1 minute is. So I end up having to remind her to start using the soap again and again. On average, I probably have to do this 5-10x before she actually starts using the soap to wash her body. Just incase you're wandering, no, she won't let me wash her, and it's been like that with pretty much everything since she was about 3-4 y.o.

As usual this morning I had to remind her 10x to put her shoes on while I was doing a thousand other things to send her to school. Finally she sat down to do up her shoe lace/velcro thing. Because we were running really late, I yelled "Hurry up Naomi!! Hurry up!!!"  and you know what she said???

She started preaching!!!

She said, "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, patience. Patience mummy!!! Patience!!!!"

V and I looked at each other, and we were trying so hard not to laugh!!!!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile she started singing this song on the fruits of the spirit!!!! Just peacefully, as usual, taking her time. Oh well.... what can we do?????

Galatians 5

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control.

Our house-selling journey

What you are about to read is not one blog entry written overnight. I'm taking you through a series of events which have challenged and stretched us in the past few weeks. Each blog entry below is date stamped as the events took place, and it's a 'growing entry'. As new events unfold, it'll be added to the bottom of this entry.

Sat, 6th Aug 2011

At the moment there's a few things happening in our lives that are affecting our finances. To be honest, I am feeling challenged and stretched. My faith is being challenged. We're at a junction and we are in desperate need for God's wisdom and guidance. 

Both of our homes in Perth and Melbourne are on the market right now. The one in Perth has had its very first home open and it is looking promising. 

The Melbourne one has been in the market for two weeks, and apparently it doesn't show any sign of success. 

In the mean time there's just been a few things chewing up our hard earned dollar. Like the car regos, yearly council rate bills, and many more. We're also in the process of building a new home, and that's been our dream since we moved back to WA. To be able to build this new home of our dream, we need to sell both properties. Not only that, we just want to walk away from financial pressure that could be stopping us from fully serving Him. 

Honestly, in the past few days I have been quite concerned with the sale of our homes. Every time negative thoughts come into my mind, I always try to remind myself that we have fully surrendered our life to be a vessel to display God's love. We asked God to fully intervene in every situation, every area of our life, so that His glory might be revealed. In my heart I desire for our homes to sell quickly, and against all odds we'd get a very good price for them. But I know that God said, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (Isaiah 55:8). So rather than speculating how He is going to work this time around, I'd rather just surrender everything into His hands and just let go. 

However, today after a home open, my Melbourne agent emailed me with feedback he gets from the visitors, and he was saying all these negative things in the property market right now. So he suggested that we lower our asking price by about $20k to get a quick sale. As soon as I read his email, my heart stopped. 

I am at a cross junction and I don't know whether to turn right or left. In my heart I believe that my God is a God "who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Eph 3:20), but at the same time, my faith is being challenged. The question is not 'can He?' ... but it's 'will He?'

There's been many times in my life that God said 'no' to me. Against my faith, against what I believed, He said 'no'. 

But when he does that, there's always an explanation in the end. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel, and He always end up shining through it all. So tonight.... I surrender.

Sunday, 7th Aug 2011

Something is seriously wrong. After all these talk about finances, today I accidentally dropped my phone in the drainage right as I opened my car door. I know it's my fault for not being careful enough with it, but OMG... seriously??!!!

I mean.... I don't mean to brag about this... but we've just pretty much given away $2k worth of donation to God's servant, and this is what's happening in our lives right now?????????

On Friday we got ripped off by a car dealer service centre, $1100's gone just like that.

Today I dropped my phone in the drainage, $700's gone. Just like that.

What's gonna happen tomorrow?

Right now I can so choose the wrong attitude and blame God for not magically intervening for our finances. For not dropping $10k from the sky. For not providing a miraculous healing to our other car that still needs to be fixed. Right now.... I can so demand for the $2k I've given away to his servant. But I know exactly that it's just what the devil wants to hear. It's just what the devil want to see.

You know what???!!! In Daniel 3, when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was summoned before the King for refusing to bow down to his man-made statue, this is how they replied:

 ¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us^[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

I know that my situation is nothing at all compared to what those three were facing. We're facing financial challenges partly because of our poor past judgement and decision and carelessness. But still, sometimes the smallest challenge in life can feel like the biggest thing, and right now.... I just want to say that if this is the devil trying to attack our finances, bring it on!!! Because EVEN IF GOD DOES NOT deliver us out of this difficulties, we REFUSE to have bad attitude like he wish we did! We will not be moved. We will continue to praise Him and worship Him and be grateful for all the things that He's done for us.

Because we know that at the end of this... there will be light. God is always faithful.

Deut 15

¹⁰ Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

Friday, 13th Aug 2011

Living with God is such an amazing journey. It is so interesting, exciting and full of surprises. Sometimes the surprises may not exactly be 'ideal', but they're still surprises. As if what's happened in the past few days isn't enough. Today we're 'attacked' again by another event which really stretched and challenged our faith.

We have a very beautiful sporty Audi A4. It's our black shining knight. It's our precious 'son'. It's our hearts' pride. But the stupid thing has costs us nothing but grief since the start! I am trully sorry if you're a big Audi fan and you're offended. I suggest you stop reading because I am about to express my frustration to the fullest.

For the past year and half, this pretty car has costs us arms and legs to maintain. This time around, the driver seat window all of a sudden just stopped working. At the last servicing, we asked the service centre to give us a quote, and they did. Apparently the 'regulator' was broken. They found broken glass pieces in it and it needs to be replaced. She said it was going to cost us around $500 to fix it. So we booked the car in, to fix the window.

This morning we dropped the car off. In the afternoon, they rang and said the car should be ready by about 1.30pm. At around 1pm they rang again and said they've replaced the regulator, but when they tested it with the new regulator, it still doesn't work. They think it may have something to do with the power supply, but they don't know that for sure, and it may take some time to figure out what it is. Hence they don't even know how much it will cost to actually repair this second problem. So I said, "So what now?" and she said, "Well you just have to pick it up and book it in some other time".

V & I just looked at each other feeling like we've just had enough of this car. Seriously.... Not only we had to spend another $500 for the car, the problem is not even fixed!!!! It's like we've just wasted away our hard-earned money again! It felt like we've been ripped off, again.

We were soooooooooooooo....... 'undescribably' angry.

Anyways, this evening we were at Metro church for a worship event, and they were taking up collections for this young pastor who had a ministry in Cambodia. Giving people hopes in a broken third world country through Jesus Christ. I was moved to give, but then I remembered how we've just been ripped off this afternoon by the service centre. Keeping the amount in my head, I turned around and ask V how much he wanted to give, and he said exactly the amount I had in mind.

Ignoring the wasteful expenditure we had in the afternoon, I said to God that nothing's going to stop us from sowing into His kingdom. Although we can't go to Cambodia to make changes and to bring hopes to their people, the least we could do is support the ministry of those God has called and equipped to actually do the work overthere. I'm sure the devil wants to use the recent unfortunate events to stop us from giving, but we're not gonna let him do that! Never!

Romans 12

 ⁶ We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your^[a] faith; ⁷ if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸ if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,^[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Although in the past few weeks we've been ripped off, although we haven't felt the fruit of our givings, although we felt like God's been saying 'no' to a few of our prayers and wishes, we just refuse to believe that God isn't listening to us or that He's not helping us. We refuse to believe all those crap negative nonsense that the devil's trying to put in our head.

Despite of our circumstances, we choose to continue to believe that GOD IS LOVE, and because God IS love, He is unable to do any harm. We are His children. His beloved children. He never has any plan to harm or hurt us. Like a father's love to his daughter, God's love is just immeasurably more than what we can think or imagine. We choose to believe that He's about to do a great thing in our life. We've given our life to Him as a vessel to display His glory. In His own ways and time, His glory will be revealed. 

It's exciting, it's interesting. I wander what will happen tomorrow.... bad or good, bring it on! Because there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. We will reap what we sow. His glory will be revealed through our testimony, and it is exciting to see....   

Wednesday, 17th Aug 2011

Told you living with God is just so exciting! Last night I went to a work event and I won the latest HTC mobile phone, HTC Evo 3D. For those Android freaks out there, you'd appreciate how cool this phone is. If you don't know much about phone, let's just say it's better than the iphone :)

Anyways... with my recent stupid lost of the Blackberry Torch, (yes, the one dropped in the drainage), I was super happy yesterday when I won this phone! I wont get it till it's released in mid-Sept, but I'm happy to wait. 

To top up the great news.... recently at work I was told that WA won a national competition and my share of the prize was about $500!!! 

I have been praying for a tablet pc, and after all those stupid expenses, my tab just goes down the priority list, which means I won't be able to buy it till all the other expenses are settled. I mean, we dont even know how much the freakin Audi is going to cost us to fix.

So I just choose to believe that this $500 prize won is God's way of saying yes to my prayer for a tab. Oh how I love Him so much, and I promise I don't just love Him when things are good, but also when things are bad. Well, I'd try my best anyway.... to love Him and to praise Him, in good and in bad...

Wednesday, 24th Aug 2011

I'm not sure if this is a good or bad news... our Perth home has received an offer. $20k lower than we expected, but our agent's pretty confident he might be able to boost it up a bit more. The bad news is... we can't sign the sale contract yet because our Melb home hasn't sold yet. We can't sell the Perth home unless the Melb one is sold. Otherwise we'll end up in a pretty ugly situation.

So we've had a long hard thought about it, and we've changed our marketing strategy a little for the Melb house. We'll check buyers' response after this weekend's home open.

This home selling journey has challenged not only our faith, but the faith of those around us, family, friends, even our agent. It's quite funny actually, because he said he's surrounded by a few born again Christians in his family, but he's never really taken his faith seriously. But he knows our situation, and he knows our faith, and he was saying that he's praying hard for our Melb home to sell for us! 

Talking to God lately, I was like.... "mmm, you know God... if you wanna show your glory, now would be a good time, coz a few people are watching" (LOL). I know that's just cheeky, but hey... you never know. God works in a mysterious way, and sometimes He's got a pretty good sense of humour. 

Anyways... we've surrendered the whole situation to Him. So we're just going to take our hands off the steering wheels and let Him do what He does best: looking after His children.