The first fruits of my SLR

Hope in a Hopeless World

To all those who read this blog... after many months, I think its time to revive it.

So what's been happening in the life of Pat?

Last weekend, I went to YF CAMP 2009 which was held at Camp Bornhoffen. This year the camp theme was Hope in a Hopeless World. Out of the different years which I had been to YF Camp, I found this camp challenging, convicting and refreshing.

Throughout the camp, our speaker, Pete Ko presented us with some thought provoking ideas:-

- As Christians we aim to be like Jesus (ie. Christ-like)... But why?
Jesus was the perfect Adam, an example of how we as man was supposed to rule the world. Could it be that why we aim to be Christ-like so that we can be what God intended us to be?

- As Christians we know that we should put our faith in Christ for salvation is through him and that one day we will join him in Heaven... But then what if we are already in this new creation? As said in 1 Cor 15:20, Jesus was the firstfruits of creation.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead,the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Many more ideas were presented throughout camp, all of which challenges me to think about and test with the Bible.

Nonetheless, something that happened today reminded me of how real all this was, the idea of creation, heaven, hell and most importantly God. Tonight I was having dinner with my mum at a restaurant and out of the corner of my eye I noticed some of my friends who I had grown up with during my youth. I went and said hi to them and had a a bit of a chat and went back to join my mum. Whilst eating dinner, it saddened me to think about how those friends at one stage were on fire to know Christ and then... they fell away. And we all know that for those people on judgement day, they wont be coming to heaven with us. I feel so helpless... I dont know what I can do to change them, to bring them into a relationship with Christ... one thing I know is only God can change them and I pray that he will. Like the theme of YF Camp 09, Hope in a Hopeless World. Jesus is our Hope in this Hopeless World.

BLT Plus: Fuelling the Fire

BLT Plus 2009: Fueling the Fire



Date: August 21-23, 2009... mark these dates in your diary!





"To love God with all our heart" is what we are commanded to do,

and yet, often our heart seems untouched, unmoved and hard as rock.

Christianity often comes across as being all head and no heart.

As well as this, ministry is often something we do because we have to,

rather than something that flows from the heart.
Life and ministry has dried up and is lifeless.



Andrew Hong will address the heart of the matter which is the heart.

He will speak on the "heart" of our life and service for God.

In doing so, we hope that we will "fuel the fire" in people's hearts.



There are now three strands being offered:

* Strand 1: Uni/Grad Workers

* Strand 2: Workers

* Strand 3: Prime Timers



Location:

Currimundi Recreation Centre

Currimundi Rd, Currimundi, QLD



Speaker: Andrew Hong



Normal Price: $95 (closes 7th August, 2009)

Early Bird: $85 (closes 24th June, 2009)



BLT Plus 2009 Registration Open Now! Click here to go register!

Are you equipped with the armour of God?

For those who read my blog, aloha!!

I know its been a while since I have written in my blog. I've been a bit busy lately with some personal issues. But I'm back. Hope you enjoy the blog.   

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EPHESIANS 6

The Whole Armor of God

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

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A few weeks ago, I came across this passage from the Bible which I want to share with you all. (Ephesians 6:10-20). What it reminded me was the fact that we are in a continued spiritual warfare. I don't know about you, but in amongst our busy lives we can often forget about the war that we are fighting. However I assure you this war is very real, my life is a testimony of this. 

Nevertheless, we should not get too comfortable with our lives. We have to be ready everyday for whatever challenges we are to face. We have to make sure that Satan does not get a foothold to bring us down.  We have to have the full armour of God and stand firm (Eph 6:13). 

As we continue through each day, we need to be equipped for the fight. Putting on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes of readiness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:14-17). We should be encouraged to keep sharpening our sword of the Spirit through God's word and keep praying at all times. So that we can boldly proclaim the gospel to those who have yet to hear the good news. 

We should all keep persevering in the running the race hard for God, not for our glory but His. 

St Patrick's Day

Well as you all know yesterday was St Patrick's Day. Unfortunately I was the not the sole reason for the celebration even though it so happens my name is Patrick and I am also a saint as well (ie. in Biblical terms). 

Anyway, yesterday I made a call to my family friend, who was unavailable at the time. Therefore I left a message on his phone. It went something like this...

"Hello *****, It's Patrick here. Can you call me back on **** ****? Im calling from the pharmacy"

So then I wait one hour....            No response

Two hours....                                  No response

Five hours....                                  No response

When I eventually get home, I decided to call him again and yeah he picks up

Friend:   Hello?

Me:         Hey *****, How you going?

Friend:   What up?

Me:         Just tried to call you earlier. Left a message on your phone. But I thought I might call                     again since you havent returned my call

Friend:   Oh was that you?!

Me:         Yes

Friend:   I thought it was someone playing a prank on us...

Me:         Really?

Friend:   Yeah. I thought someone pretending to be St Patrick called up to play a trick on us                         since today was St Patrick's Day

Me:         Well..... BLAH BLAH BLAH 

So yeah that was my experience, the joy of being called Patrick and calling someone on St Patrick's Day

Star Wars (Kung fu version)

Transporter 3

Transporter 3 is back!!

(For all those who dont want to have the movie spoiled,  please do not read on)

So once again Jason Statham plays Frank Martin who surprising finds himself stuck on another mission for a evil mastermind played by Robert Knepper.  Unfortunately Frank is unable to back out as he has a high tech explosive attached to his hand which will explode once he gets too far from his car. 

Frank finds himself transporting with a girl called Valentina who he then find out that she is the daughter of the environmental minister and the real package for his mission. 

What happens next... Watch the movie!!

Quick Review. 

Action: This movie is action-packed with Frank racing around in a black Audi S8. He also really enjoys bashing up guys with his hugh biceps and 6 pack. 

Romance: This was a bit hard to follow logically. They had a scene with Valentina stealing Frank's keys and he had to strip tease in order to get the keys. What happens is that he very boringly strip teases for Valentina and suddenly falls in love and sleeps with her. Logically doesnt make sense considering he could have just knocked her out and taken the key. 

Storyline: The storyline was alright but the movie was good for the action packed into it rather than the logical flow of the storyline. Like the storyline was bad guy takes minister's daughter for ransom in order to get papers signed allowing biological hazards to enter the country and then ends up dying just when he thought his plan was flawless... and what best way to die than to explode. 

RATING: 8/10

Noodle Box: Proudly Non-Chinese

Well this is how the story goes. Last night we finish the basketball game and we headed over to calamvale maccas. Me being a typical asian with a stomach for rice went over to noodle box and got some food. 

I had a look at the menu and thought something with rice should be alright and hence i order a Nasi fried rice. This is the part where it gets interesting... I can tell that obviously even though the chef is of asian background, he cooks for non-asians. The rice was floating in chilli oil... 

In my past of working in a chinese take away and eating at market square alot. i know one thing nasi goreng should either be cooked in curry powder or tomato sauce... BUT not chilli oil. 

Then comes the price. For a small its 7.95 and for a regular size its 11.95. Just to help you get an idea of how big the portions are think of regular being the size of a mug. 

Its a little $.... Not that great... So i think Noodle Box  has a rating of 3/10

Looking for a Job during Recession

For all of those who are trying to look for a job at the moment... I know its tough. With the Recession just kicked in and companies cutting staff by the month, the chances of finding a job is hard.

But dont worry Hamish and Andy have found a new solution. They call it "Summer Jobs" - Basically if you cant find a job, all you have to do is start working for them... Enjoy!!

Transformer 2 ... is it for real?

Dont know if this is a fake but either way it looks cool

"NEW" Wii Game #1 Bleach: Shattered Blade

Since my last blog about purchasing new games for my Wii, I have had a few recommendations. 

1. Wii Fit

2. Smash Brothers Brawl

3. Guitar Heroes: World Tour

4. Bleach: Shattered Blade

Unfortunately some of them do cost quite a bit so therefore I have started from the cheapest recommendation. Today I went and purchased Bleach: Shattered Blade. 

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I spent some time playing it today and I must say that it is a little repetitive. So here it is a quick review of the game. 

Gameplay: There are a few different modes which you can play: Arcade, Story and Versus Mode. There are a series of moves you can do with the nunchuck and the remote. Chop, Stab and Slice.  You also have a range of heavy attacks like critical hits, bonus hits and also of course the favour bleach move... BANKAI... 

Its kinda awesome seeing them use their bankai but also repetitive when you use it more than twice in one match 

Graphics : The graphics on the game isnt too bad. Its still supports a 3D environment and

 allows you to run around. As well the characters are slightly 3D... like most anime now turned wii games. 

Rating: 6/10

A 7 year old Kobe Bryant... you kidding?

You think Kobe Bryant is awesome... 

Watch this kid dunk (as well as take out his little brother)

Secondhand Serenade - Your Call

Dedication to Bobby

Bobby was a dog I once knew. He was smart. He was obedient. He was sneaky. There are just too many words to describe him. However, one thing is sure, Bobby is unique and no other dog can replace him. 

To Bobby, 

I still recall the first time I met you. A happy little dog running up to the gate with Mimi trying to find out what I had for you. The thoughts of you jumping up and down with your tail wagging. 

I still recall the months you spent with me at my house. Keeping me company when I was home alone. It was great fun having a companion with me, it made my house feel more alive. 

I still recall how naughty you were when you did your 'little poo poo' around my lawn, which I had to pick up each morning. I cant say that you understood my disapproval... but I guess you kinda got the idea when you started poo-ing in my neighbours lawn. 

I still recall when I took you out for walks. You were always curious about everything. Whether it was the pole/ tree/ car. You found everything interesting like a new toy. Simply urinating on everything. 

I still recall waking up in the morning and having to groom your hair and hand pick out all the thorns that you managed to get from rolling around my yard. 

I still recall when you played tag with me running up and down my street without a leash. Not to mention that time where you chased after your true love. 

I still recall the last time I held onto you. You were in my arms like a baby... so lazy to even move. 

Sorry I wasnt able to be there in the final minutes. I dont know if there is much point to me saying sorry for those nights you had to wait til late for your meals. I hope you enjoyed your life as much as I enjoyed spending time with you. 

 This is a video of Bobby when he was at my house... 

Wii game recommendations

Once upon a time, a boy named Pat was strolling along the narrow path and came across a tribe of natives. 

Pat noticed some men waving around white minature spears, others were holding steering wheels and in the centre of the ring was something peculiar. 

It was in a white robe and had eyes which were blue in colour. Pat found it intriguing as to why the natives were worshipping this thing....

So he took one home himself. :D

Anyway on a serious note, I now have a dilemma. I have a Wii but now the thing is I need games to play on it. So if you have a Wii or played on one please recommend any Wii games that would be worth buying in my comments...

Aint this world so small

In this world we have so many people. Australia alone has 21 million people. And what are the chances that someone who serves you at a 3G store is related to you.... 

1/21, 000, 000 = 0.000004%

Now that rare...

So here is the short story. At the end of last year, I bought a new phone from 3G. (For those who want to know I got a Sony Ericsson W910i.) A few days after i got the phone, it started stuffing up. At first I thought i was going deaf but soon enough i realised it was actually the fault of the phone. 

Therefore i go back to the 3G sunnybank store and tried to be civil in my enquiry. But luck never goes my way. I had to literally lecture the staff member in order for them to understand my issue. 

And...

Today I go to three store again with kiratsukahara and funnily enough the girl who i lectured alot with was a friend of his. Its so funny that the world is so small and everyone is somehow linked to everyone else. 

Despite my lecturing of kira's friend.... I feel that kira will get Three  one day (ie. within the month) :D

Greetings... Burnt... PAIN!!

Well today is Chinese New Year - The year of the Ox. 

As usual you exchange greetings... blah blah blah. 

Anyway, our plan for the day was to head out to the Gold Coast and have a nice swim on the beach along with the hundreds celebrating Australia Day. Despite warnings of thunderstorms and the group dwindling from 8 to 5, we still headed out to the coast. At first we had rain as we drove down to the coast but when we got into surfers paradise it was all sunny. Praise the Lord. 

We tried our best to slip slop slap.... but at the end of the day we were all burnt. It made us look like we just came fresh from the oven. And i guess the question is what next.... pain?

Chinese New Year Eve '09

Well it's finally come to the time where all asians across the world come together to celebrate one important event... Chinese New Year. On top of that this year even more people are going to celebrate this event... 

You may ask... how so? Isnt there only a certain number of asians in the world. How could there be more? Well this year it so happens that Chinese New Year and the annual Australia Day fall on the same day. January 26th 2009. So to all those non-asian people out there, we appreciate very much you celebrating with us. 

On another note, some of you may know the common phrases used on chinese new year. 

1. Gong Xi Fa Chai 

2. Shen Ti Jian Kang (Hope you have great health) 

3. sun lian fai lok

Now I just want to talk mainly about the 2nd phrase... Hope you have great health. Well its CNY eve and i think  i have not started on a good run. On CNY eve, I Pat Lau stacked it falling backwards and spraining my ankle at 11pm at night. Now some of you may be asking what was i doing so late that could cause such an injury. Well its simple. Its called Midnight Badminton (Street-Style). Yes you heard correct i was playing badminton on the streets running from one driveway to another and i must admit it was hard to see the shuttlecock. After about an hour of intense badminton where you had to guess where the shuttlecock was cuz it was so dark... My opponent (a "rat" in regards to chinese zodiac) asked me "are you tired?" I was like "nah... Im still feeling young and full of energy" . But just as i said it I ran backwards to hit the shuttlecock, my foot tried to grip on the kerb and i went backwards. Pain shot up my left leg and my left arm. Initial diagnosis I had sprained my ankle and torn a muscle in my arm as i fell. 

Me,  trying to be a man, despite the pain slowly got up and held back the pain and tried my best to walk like normal. Now my ankle looks like a tennis ball and my arm feels like floppy. Its kinda cool considering i'm a really accident prone boy but also silly of me too. But ... Oh well that is my Chinese New Year Eve. 

Happy Chinese New year everyone

BLT 09: On Solid Ground

As some of you may have realised, over the last week I was not in Brisbane. I temporarily re-located to a small ensuite known as Watson Park, 15 mins from the Brisbane Airport. Now some of you may be asking why did I move?

The reason why I went to Watson Park was for a annual conference called BLT which brings together Christians from all around Brisbane. It was a conference started up two years ago to mimic a conference down in Sydney known as KYLC. 

In a general overview, BLT is a great event cuz in Brisbane we are all aware there are a handful of chinese churches and from what we read in the Bible, we all serve the ONE and only God and thus we are all part of ONE church... So this event gives us an opportunity for different churches to come together to bond and grow each other as one big family. 

TALKS: 

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This year we were fortunate to have two great speakers, Grant Thorpe and Gary Koo both up from Sydney speaking on the topic of "On Solid Ground". Grant delivered a series of sermon which encourages us to hold on our faith in Jesus emphasising the ffact that we need to be people of faith and certainty. In addition, Grant ends with two statements: God works for us (cf Heb 13:20) and works in us (cf Heb 13:21). 

Gary's sermons took a slightly different perspective. He firstly started with the topic of relevance - Why do we want to know about God? For God was the creator of all things including the heavens and the earth. And then he went on to talk about Sin.  Prior to Gary's talk I always thought that there were different types of sin. But as Gary points out... there is only ONE sin... for everything else like the seven deadly sin are only just "symptoms" of a much bigger sin. The sin where we say YES to ourselves and NO to God. That really opened my eyes. 

STRAND GROUPS

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This being my 3rd year, we tackled the idea of Systematic theology ( in simple where we look at topicals in an ordered and categorised way) We looked at the topic of "Resurrection" Through looking and filtering through heaps of passages which all included the word "Resurrection" we realised that much of what is preached in sermons is only a small slice of a bigger cake. We covered many areas including the nature, source, timing, purpose, escitology and consequences of resurrection. But even with the week which we dedicated to looking at resurrection we had only skim the top of the cake. 

TOPICALS

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Apart from just listening to sermons and doing strand groups we also had a workshop on what it means to be a christian man. One of the things that seemed to appeal to me was the point made about "Christian Men needing to lead with humility". The description of this reads - Sometimes men can become domineering or overwhelming... (Yep that was me) ... There were a series of workshop and on the last one we were fortunate to see things from the female perspective. Here we found out that women were different not only in the physical sense but other characteristics as well. 

Just in brief 

 - Women want to be understood

 - Women like to use non-verbal language

 - Women are more sensitive in an emotional sense

 - In order to get from A to B, women may drag it out by multiple figures. (To Clarify, if you ask men a question they would be direct and say YES/NO... but for women they say a sermon just for the simple YES/NO)

So some things about men

 - Men have fragile egos

FREE-TIME

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Coming from me, a lazy bum who doesnt do much sport, I would say that this BLT camp i have done more sport than i have done in a month. We spent a lot of time playing 3-on-3/ 4-on-4 basketball and Soccer in the rain .... (Note: Uncle P is a great goalkeeper)

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

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What else happened at BLT... For the first time in BLT history... Our strand Leader YY, did a rap in front of all those at BLT. 

Well that is all I will say if you want to know more come to BLT Plus 09. It is held at Mt Tambourine from 21 -23 Aug 

Memoir: 18th January 2009

Before I begin.... 

In response to the recent poll about what one would do if their child was blue and convulsing. What actually happened was the mum brought him into the pharmacy and asked what to do. By that stage the kid was in deep trouble... The only option was 000

Anyway... 

Before i keel over and collapse from exhaustion... just wanted to notes some highlights of the day. 

The 18th January 09 is special for: 

- The day lawrence left for his one year placement at Gladstone

- The day a cricket ball came out of nowhere and hit me in the ankle on the basketball courts

- The day I got wasted by a basketball into my face (had a huge headache)

- The day marking the first game of Wasabi of Season 3

- The day Andrew went flying 

Anyway... i will be absent for the rest of the week so happy chinese new year everyone.. Take care

Born Innocent... but do we remain innocent

Have you ever been in a situation where you always thought that your friend was always the ideal role model, the one who is innocent to the materialistic things of this sad world... then one day the world just gets turned up side down. 

I mean in the current day and age where relationships form at younger ages, primary school children are learning about the male and female reproductive system earlier, break up rates are on the rise... finding someone who is still innocent and blameless is like finding Atlanta, the lost city. 

Well the other night I was chatting to my friend, who I have known for 3 years now. All along i thought they are in high school, doing well at school and has a vision of what to do in the future. There is no way they could not be innocent. But last night i found out that they had actually already been in a couple of relationships before... 

I guess i didnt know what to say... I think the only thing i could think of is that we are have our faults... we have our own secrets.... And to say that we are innocent is a lie. 

The truth is we are all to blame. We are sinners from the beginning ... We are only saved through Jesus dying on the cross for us, taking the punishment for all our sins. May we never forget that... Amen

Happy New Year

Aloha to all, 

Happy New Year and God blessed.

Over the past week since NYE, alot has happened. 

- Sister came back

- We re-did the backyard (well part of it which required us to move rocks to the left hand side put some weed control thingy underneath and then move the rocks back to the right hand side and put weed control thingy etc)

- Built a new wall unit... It looks great

- Built a new book shelf

- Rearranged our study room

- Got exposed on a friend's blog where i used an alias

- Went to some Indian Restaurant in west end called "sitar" (www. sitar.com.au) - I must add the naan there is great its massive and tastes awesome i would recommend eating the cheese and garlic one. :D

and i guess for now...

Sister has left this morning at 4 am back to melb so now im back to the "single child syndrome" or that is what i call it. 

So... what next? 

Well i going to my first 21st party of 2009 tonight. One of many to come this year... The beauty of turning 21 myself... It seems it will be party hard and spend much on pressies...