Beautiful Day

Thursday, March 31, 2005

We're back

We had so much fun in the trip to the Gold coast.
We went to the Movie World, Sea World, Wet and wild and spent a day at Brisbane as well. The weather was fine, quite warm, so we had lots of swimming. We stayed at a holiday resort near the surfer's paradise close to the beach.
Peter used to live up there for a while, so we went to see his old house,etc. He found his old mates and we had a lovely time together. He saw his old girlfriend, her parents and her children. I heard a lot about this girlfriend and she's a very nice lady. I actually feel sorry for them, she could actually be quite good for him. Peter was quite happy to see her eldest son, who's now 15. For a while Peter thought it's his son. He's very tall and handsome, but very quiet. Peter really likes her parents, I don't know how many times he's told me(maybe 30 times?), that they're really really nice people. Even though he broke up with this girlfriend, he still remained contact with her parents.
We stopped on the way at Port Macquarie to see Peter's parents. They looked quite well. For a while Peter was quite worried about his father's health.

Jamie has been such a prayer. She prayed for a lot of things, and it worked a lot of the times. Like Peter couldn't find a service station for a long time, and she'd pray and a service station would appear the next second. So any time we're in any kind of trouble we'd just get her to pray. On the way to the Gold Coast, she prayed, "Dear Jesus, please help us to get to all the world, and any world..." And on the way back, she prayed, "Dear Jesus, please help us all to be happy, that nobody cries and nobody winges, and we'll sleep all the way back except daddy..." She's very annointed for praying for car parks.
Ellie's such a book worm. She reads and reads and reads. She loves her books. She's 7, but her reading level is at 12 year old.
Kate's really cute these days. She loves cuddles and kisses, and of course lollies.

I missed the Delirious concert on Sunday, and apparently it was really really good.

As seen by Susan @ 7:14 PM

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Off we go

We are heading off to the Gold coast for this Easter break tomorrow. Will be back in the middle of next week. So I guess I'll have a pretty good blog fast....hehe
You probably can't believe it, ever since we got married, we haven't had any holidays except for Port Macquarie(which we used to live, and Peter's family still lives)and New Castle which is a break in between.
Sooooo, first family holiday....kids are so excited.
Peter's a very down to earth, practical and hard working husband. So I have been trying to romance him up a bit. I kept telling him the importance of date nights(although we still haven't had any yet)and family fun times. So I guess he figured out a trip will quiet me down a bit for a while....lol
Actually I don't really know if I really want this trip at this time. I sort of feel missed out on Sunday night delirious concert at Hillsong church. But, he's determined. Once he made up his mind, it would just be next to impossible to change his mind. So, I won't complain.
Well, see you next week!

*****
Ellie's had a tooth hanging out for ages and Peter's been trying to get it out for her and she always refused. Just now while she's asleep Peter got it out....and she didn't even wake up. Peter's finally happy now. Poor Ellie.

******

Hope you all have a fantastic time over Easter!!

As seen by Susan @ 11:36 PM

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Notes of Bobbie Houston's teaching -Hillsong Colour your world women's conference 2005

Her title is "Beloved daughter-- Let's get better."
The story she told was John Hagee's wife went down the stairs going to the kitchen, and she slipped and fell off the stairs and injured herself. She couldn't move so she yelled out,"John!!!! help!!!" John rushed out, with a gun pointing toward her(remember it's in Texas), so she creamed, "Please! don't shoot me! I'll get better!"

This has been a theme for Hillsong women also for this season.

1. Let's get better at loving God.
2. Let's get better at loving people.
Getting people home to heaven
3. Let's get better at identity, confidence, character.
focus on the truth, not the lies... your gift will never take you where your characgter can't sustain you.
4. Let's get better at wisdom, insight, revelation, understanding
5. Let's get better at changing the world
Bobbie felt that her calling is to gather the girls, creat an enviorment, lift the ceilings so that the greatness within you can come forth.

In the second session she continued with the title and gave more tips on how to become overcomers:
1. Do not devalue your femininity
It's God given, who are we to devalue and question His creation?
2. Loose the "them and us" mentality.
It's not competition, it's together. Seasoned identity, established identity is very attractive and workable.
3. I'm a women, hear me roar.
Good men quinge when women manifest. Are you a drama queen?
4. Decide to be a well of life or a well of death.
Eve actually means life spring. What will we be to the men in our world?
5. Decide will I be known for opening their spirit or closing their spirit?
Se can send them to their caves real quick. We can ruin their day, week or season or we can be a blessing.
6. Be content to fill the gap.
It's part of our mandate to be whateve is needed.
7. Understand that women are masterful of gathering.
Let true personality come out
8. Learn to be low maintenance
Men love working with low maintenance women and baggage free people.
She talked about stories of travelling with Brian, she was nearly traumatised trying to catch up with Brian. Once when Darlene travelled with Brian and Mark, she rushed so hard trying to catch up with Brian that she even forgot to get her luggage.
9. Become indespensible to detail
Women share infomation to get close, men don't. Stay sharp, men have very short concentration span.
10. Boys and girls play differently.
Tone it wisely when men are around. They can only cope it for so long. That's why men's conference is only 24 hours, cause they can't cope.

As seen by Susan @ 11:27 AM

Hillsong Colour your world women's conference 2005

These are comments at Phil's blog about colour:

Hi all, just got back home from colour -- it was awesome!!
Just realised, actually this is what I've learned so far, that I'm red. That's it. Only red. no other colour. I'm a bit horrified by this revelation. There's just so many other colour that's missing in my world and I need to go find....

The atmosphere was great... everybody received a warm welcome: red carpet entry with guys cheering and clapping on both sides, which really made one feel like a princess, everyone's dressed up and smiles, beautiful music everywhere, beautiful coffee, food, volunteers everywhere who were just too eager to help and greet, the boys were extra kind and nice almost make you feel weird, they clapped, cheered, served icecream, food, almost too nice to be real.
Teachings were very practical, down to earth, but it was very hard to sit through a session without being teary.
Bobbie's message last night was "Don't shoot me --- I'll get better!" showing us ways and areas where we could get better.
Vera this morning talked about how as a girl or 6 left and abandoned by her own parents, full of rejection and rebellion and disappointments, later found God, and how God transformed her into a beautiful princess, and through forgiveness she had led her mom to the Lord...
Merilyn shared about her heart toward children and orphans in Uganda, how she believed that these children they rescued will become leaders of the next generation of the nation and to the world.
Holly Wagner spoke about marriage and relationship, how the Lord told her, although she had so many success in her ministry, if she failed as a helper to her husband, she hasn't fulfilled her calling at all.
Then Lucinda spoke about living life from a position of strength of private world.
These are just little bits and pieces....I gotta run.

Holly was soooo awesome. One minute everyone was crying, the next minute everyone's laughing. She just captured all the girls' hearts. There was a massive amount of people responded to her altar call at the end of her message. She looked so stunningly beautiful.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer, she had an operation, and should be having another one now, but she came to colour instead, and will go back straight away to her second operation.
She was mainly talking about being warriors. She listed in both sessions of different mindset on the broad road and narrow road.
Warriors don't freak out; they're not complaining; they rise in the midst of challenges and trials; they endure; they don't quit; they stay at the post; they train new recruits, the younger ones; they know how to use the armours and weapons; they're stable and prepared; their faith is real and know the Word; they stay committed to the cause; they were made for the cause; they don't abandon the army, but are honoured to be entrusted with the battle; they know their enemy; they hold fast to what has been promised to them, not the lies of the enemy; they follow orders(they don't have to have all the answers, but they have all the faith for this day); they know they're part of the team, they're never alone(She has positioned herself well for the battle, as she has planted herself in the house of God); they focus on what they're going to, not what they're going through; they keep their eyes on Jesus.

Sorry my notes are messy, as English is my third language...lol(Vera's signature phrase)

Notes from Vera's message:
1. When God's calling you, He always has His people in mind as people who will help you. Example of two pregnant women in the Bible, Elizebeth and Mary, how Elizebeth had helped and encouraged Mary.
2. God always greet you and treat you highly as a beautiful princess, even before you look like one or become one.
3. Smart girls understand with high favour always comes with responsibility.
Example: she was staying at a hotel, and was wondering why the room was so messy. Later she realised that she had put a "do not disturb" sign on the door--Do we put such a sign on our doors so God can't come in and clean up?
4. With God all things are possible and He Always finds a way.
5. Follow Mary's example, just believe, accept, rise up and go.
6. When people are gonna believe in you and lift you up, stay humble and give all credit to God.
7. Never underestimate the power of encouragement in the gathering of people of the same journey.

thought from donna's leadership session (Kylie's comment)

what is your bowl of red lentils? what immediate comfort/ easy to settle for thing could take you off course?

So far(at the beginning of tonight's session) Colour has registered 10821 delegates from 26 nations, but amongst the students there were 38 nations represented, 944 volunteers, they have used 60 km of toilet papers, 2500 rubbish bags, 46200 icecreams were handed out, 27600honeycones, 4800 chocholates, people in the call centre have spent 840 hours talking and chatting to people on the phone, 2.7km armband were used, 238 compassion children were sponsored, 725 gifts were placed under the gift tree...
I'm so tired these are all I can remember for now...

As seen by Susan @ 11:17 AM

Monday, March 14, 2005

Merilyn Hicky at Hillsong

Merilyn Hicky was speaking at Hillsong church yesterday morning, and her message is titled "Mustard seed faith".

Sometimes one word of faith can change a person's whole life. One day she felt impressed in her spirit to call some partners in person to pray for their plan for the year. She argued with God that she didn't have a lot of time to do so. But nevertheless she did call. One lady she called was in such a shock, she suffered from an accident and her face was quite destroyed. She didn't go out much at all and she lost her hope toward life. And on this particular day she cried out to God, "God, if you're real, have Merilyn Hicky call me today." Then Merilyn prayed with her, and not long after that, the lady's face began to heal. She saw again lately and could hardly tell that anything was wrong with her face.

1. Matt17:20 Faith is what you speak to the mountains.
When she first started out doing deliverance sessions, she did everything wrong. They didn't have any teachings, and there weren't any resources available at that time. Nevertheless, people were set free.

2. Luke 17:4-6 Faith will cause the roots of other things to be pulled off.
There's a lady that has a daughter who goes to Bible college. Then she's murdered. She was stabbed 17 times. The murderer was a serial killer. The lady felt God wanted her to forgive. It was very hard for her to do so, and God specially told her to give an offering to the Gideons society so they could give a Bible to the murderer as a gift. Later the murderer gave his life to Christ by this act of forgiveness and kindness, and more so, he led lots of others into salvation. He later went to the Bible college and became a minister. So although the lady's daughter died, God used the murderer to continue her daughter's calling.
Merilyn also shared her own testimony of how she forgave a person that was very annoying to her in the church. After she forgave, she couldn't even remember what the other lady had done to her. The roots were pulled out and completely gone.
3. Mark 4:31-32 Mustard seed will become a big tree.
We don't know who we're ministering to. We're all like the mustard seed and can grow into big trees.
One day a couple came to Merilyn and ask her to pray for them. She did, didn't know who they were. They were just very normal people at that time. And their names were Joyce and Dave Meyer. Now today they're a very big tree.
She showed her own video clips of the scenes when she ministed to the muslin countries. Thousands and thousands of people. It all started with a tiny mustard seed.
We're all given mustard seed faith, and if we allow them to grow, they'll become giant trees one day.

As seen by Susan @ 2:33 PM

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Deliverance

This can be a totally flack(Thanks Craig for the new word I just learned the other day...hehe), if you think deliverance is totally a joke, please(!!!) don't read on. I apologize first. But for those who are slightly interested, I'll rant just a little bit.

A few years ago I was involved in a deliverance ministry for a little while. It was quite interesting what I learned in that period of time. I've witnessed tons of manifestations and testimonies.

Deliverance is sort of like going to a doctor for sickness. You can't just go to a doctor and tell him,"I'm sick, now treat me." A good doctor is not one with a lot of passion and persistance to heal you, although that can help. A good doctor knows what exactly your problem is, and what kind of treatment is available.The more specific he knows, the more effective the treatment will be. Say if you have a tommy ache and he gives you something for running nose, no matter how persistant he is, that's not much of a help. This explains why a lot of prayers and warfare didn't turn out to be helpful. Most of the prayers are like, someone's having a problem, say it's heart disease, but is given treatment from headache to stomoch ache, from back pain to a broken foot, from ear infetion to arthritis... just grab any medicine he can find and can think of. Anyone who has been involved in deliverance knows the more specific you discern the problem is, the quicker and easier the person will be set free. A lot of the counselling and prayers were all around finding where the roots are.

During the deliverance sessions, I'd see different demons manifest in different shapes. Sometimes they'd even talk to me and question me. Just for example, a few of the common ones, depression as dogs, lust and gambling like cats,anger like dragons, shame like snakes, lust of eyes(pornography)as spiders, cancers like headlice, homosexuals like scorpians(ever feels sting when you're around them?)....etc.

Take for example cancer. Chemos are like the treatment for headlice. An often neglected part is these things have nits. Unless the cancer is spotted at the very very early time, that it hasn't got a chance to lay eggs, they can be removed effectively. But most of the time, is the chemo has removed the cancer, and the person sings halleluia thinking he's all healed, the problem over, but after a certain period of time, the nits hatched and the cancer comes back. So the proper way to deal with cancer is to remember that after the chemo and all the result is cleared, know that the battle is not over! You need to excercise, build up immune system, take on nutritional products(like OPC) which is a daily battle of the cells, until all the nits are cleared. One of the strong hold for cancer is bitterness.

For depression, there's a saying,"Some people hate flees but will sleep with dogs." They don't like the symptons, but in another way they indulge themselves with depression, it's their pet, they love it, it's their friend. And Derek Prince once said something like, you can't be delivered from your friend.

As seen by Susan @ 2:24 PM

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Updates

Hi guys, sorry I haven't been here for a while. Sort of busy for other things.
I went to the Hillsong album recording night at Sydney entertainment centre, it was fun. Most people went there by bus, so we had lots of buses. Each bus had a bus host, who served chocholates, played bus games, gave out gifts,etc. The atmosphere was great.
Next week will be colour your world women's conference.... can't wait. I just love the women's services of this church. Never disappointed.
I'm having lots of fun with the song writing course at Bible college. I hesitated a lot at the beginning of the term wondering if it's a right thing for me to do, and now I'm really happy that I chose to do it. It's an awkward time for me, as it's 3-5pm, kids finish school at 3pm. Jamie just started kindy so I wasn't sure if I should do something for myself after school time. But it turned out that she loves her afterschool care, and a friend of mine helps me to pick Ellie up from school and take her to church to do dance class. I've only been to the classes 3 times and I already feel the result. I think song writing could probably be a thing for me. I'm starting to have some confidence about myself. I've always loved music, but I'm always frustrated that I can't sing or play very well. I just don't have the talented voice. But add all the bits together, (a little bit of singing, a little bit of piano, a little bit of being prophetic, a little bit of craziness...etc)who knows, I might be meant for a songwriter....hahaha
We're planning for a holiday at the Gold coast over easter. Kind of the first family holiday since we got married. Should be fun. Kate's grown up heaps and she's getting very independant. She loves her day care and her teacher said that she owns the place. It makes life a lot easier...hehe
I do have quite a bit of updates in my other blog. I love the studies and the Bible readings every day.

As seen by Susan @ 9:30 PM

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

New day creations

While I was in China, I visited a good friend of mine's place. It's very impressive. We used to have fellowship together. At the beginning we were sort of all students, and they were very poor, just about to give up their thoughts on business. Then a brother from the States got intereted in their effort and brought some practical help to them. And look at what they are now! It's been a while since we first met, and they've gone a long way.
One of the operations they have is a foster home. As you know, China is very strict with one child policy. So there're a lot of abandoned babies if they're born with some physical problems. The medical needs are mostly correctable. The foster home offers the abandonded babies new healthy lives and help them find their own family homes. They will later be adopted mostly by Christian families around the world. Basically every baby they take is a baby saved, otherwise the babies are most likely to be left to die. The more support they can have, the more babies they will be able to save and help.
Have a look, I'm sure you'll love it and be touched.

As seen by Susan @ 8:14 PM