Recently, the ushering team of Ablaze [otherwise known as the Welcome Team], received a Christmas gift from our dear brother Tim Pan. Part of the Welcome Team consists of a sub team called ‘Foyer Hosts’ and one of the things that these guys do during set up is prepare food. For a while now the team haven’t had a proper table to prepare food on and at times they would need to prepare food on the lecture theatre tables across two rows of chairs, which can be quite awkward and a potential disaster if a whole plate of food is knocked over. Our awesome brother Tim Pan, who mind you is not from the Ushering team but rather the P.A ministry [Sound], bought a brand new table for the team. He wanted to keep himself anonymous but I just had to let the whole world know about his generosity. I believe this is the start to break through in our service, as ministers in the church step out to serve and bless others beyond their own ministry area. I was personally so touched because this reminded me once again that we’re the BODY of Christ, one whole unit moving together, and we need to look out for one another.
Thanks so much Tim for your generosity! We’re so blessed by you!
Wow! I can’t believe I wrote nothing on my blog for the whole month of November! Incredible! Man, where do I start? God has been doing so, so much. I don’t know how to funnel through all that God has been doing; it’s sort of all accumulated like a mass of vomit which is waiting to explode! Hahaha. Wonderful imagery Lucy! Lesson to be learnt from this girls and boys… NEVER leave your blog dead for too long! Okay well, maybe I should start with that one big thing that everyone has been asking me about, the Singapore missions trip! For those who don’t know, Torchie, Nick, Justin, Wes, Lauranne and I went to Singapore to join Y Hope for their camp where 700 young people got together full of excitement and expectancy for God to move!
Our mighty mission trip team! We’re all strangely scattered around the whole world right now. Justin & Wes in PNG, Lauranne in KL, Torch in Thailand, Nick in HongKong and me in Brisbane. REALLY miss these guys right now!
God totally blew all of our expectations during that trip and opened our eyes to the possibilities of what He can do if we allow Him to really do it. At the camp, we met countless numbers of young life group leaders between the ages of 13-17, many of who had only been Christians for one year. The spiritual depth and maturity in these young ones was incredible. Although they were still ordinary young people, crazy about High school musical, ADD and that can stay up all night playing badminton, their desire for God and His kingdom was amazing and reminded me a lot of young Jesus at the age of 12 when He was lost and His parents found Him at the temple sitting under the word of God. These guys in Y Hope reminded me of that child like faith of little Jesus that said, “Don’t you know that I need to be about my Father’s business?” What kind of young person says that?! Well, I saw it first hand for myself at Y Hope.I learnt that your external attributes of age, background and history have nothing to do with what God can do through you! As long as you’re willing and give your heart and life fully to Him and His work, there’s no stopping what God can do! Photo of all the youth at the Heroes Y Hope Camp
I experienced countless God moments during the trip, not just at significant events such as at camp and meetings, but also during car trips and waiting at the bus stop with our brothers and sisters from Y Hope. Every moment, God deposited a greater burden in my heart for His Kingdom merely through being amongst the many great men and women from the Y Hope leadership team. Man, these guys are SOLD OUT for the kingdom; they literally live and breathe the great commission!! I observed the leaders and saw nothing but willing hands and feet of Jesus Christ; and I believe the reason for the great growth in their youth ministry is due to the hard work that they have invested, and due to each one of them not holding back anything for God’s kingdom purposes. Good bye at the airport So inspired by all of these great leaders!
For myself personally, I was so challenged to get my life right before God as I realised that in order to see these great things come to pass in Brisbane, it starts with me. This trip really summed up everything that God has been challenging me in this year; to choose between living sold out for His kingdom, or to live comfortably and to just stroll along with whatever. These past 2 years have been a lot like that, and I guess it all comes with being in the early 20s when the decisions you make now have a greater impact on the rest of your life. I thank God for His grace in guiding me through this decision process; now I’m convinced that there is no better way to live than for His Kingdom!!! I want to be sold out for His Kingdom purposes, and I want to see young people rise up to be sold out for His kingdom purposes as well!
I’ve learnt that I can’t afford to be complacent or to choose what’s convenient any longer while there’s a world that’s far from being saved. While we have the great commission at hand, we can’t sit back and just stroll along with whatever comes our way, but we need to be proactive and intentional in everything that we do. One thing that I know I want to be more intentional and proactive in is in my investment in the lives of the people around me. I can’t expect people to grow just by chance- it starts with someone making the effort to disciple and invest into their life! For the past year I have been so caught up in the operational and procedural sides of ministry, when in fact these things don’t hold the church together at all- but it’s the quality of people that hold the church together and that move the church forward! I’m so convicted of this and convinced that discipleship is the key, and I’m determined to make this my priority! NO EXCUSES despite what season of life I’m in!
Last night, Lisa preached about “A New Day” which really meant so much to me. I cried as she shared about Abraham dying to his desires as he took Isaac to be sacrificed for the sake of obeying God’s call. I knew deep down in my spirit, despite how much my flesh wants a ton of other things, I WANT GOD AND HIS WAY! I thought through all the things that I needed to die to and thought how incredibly painful it is to let go, but in the end I decided that this is what I want, to live for the Kingdom.
Oh and here’s a picture of the Y Hope spirit being brought back to Brisbane! hahaha. Gave a Camp shirt to each of my Spice girl buddies! Don’t we look so hot! haha
I’m so excited about 2009 and can’t wait to see the incomprehensible things that God will do in our church! I believe with all my heart that God is going to breath into the church a new spirit and revival will take place in our schools, universities and workplaces as each person jumps on board whole heartedly with what God is doing. I want to be part of it and I pray that each one of you reading this blog would choose to be part of it too!
For those who missed out on my school dance concert, here are some pictures to fill you in on the awesome show you very unfortunately missed out on! The kids did some an awesome job. So proud of every one of them
Grade 8 Dance (Hip Hop)
Grade 9 Dance (Hip Hop)
Grade 10 Dance (Contemporary) No matter what, contemporary is still my favourite dance style.
Independent Thinkers are analytical and witty persons. They are normally self-confident and do not let themselves get worked up by conflicts and criticism. They are very much aware of their own strengths and have no doubts about their abilities. People of this personality type are often very successful in their career as they have both competence and purposefulness. Independent Thinkers are excellent strategists; logic, systematics and theoretical considerations are their world. They are eager for knowledge and always endeavour to expand and perfect their knowledge in any area which is interesting for them. Abstract thinking comes naturally to them; scientists and computer specialists are often of this type.
Independent Thinkers are specialists in their area. The development of their ideas and visions is important to them; they love being as flexible as possible and, ideally, of being able to work alone because they often find it a strain having to make their complex trains of thought understandable to other people. Independent Thinkers cannot stand routine. Once they consider an idea to be good it is difficult to make them give it up; they pursue the implementation of that idea obstinately and persistently, also in the face of external opposition.
Independent Thinkers are not the type who easily comes out of his shell. Speaking about their emotional life is also not one of their strong points. Anyway, social relationships are not particularly important to them; they are happy with just a few, close friends who find it easy to share their intellectual world. They find it difficult to establish new ties. In love, they need a lot of space and independence but this does not mean that their partner is not important to them. Independent Thinkers often make a cool and reserved impression on others; but this impression is deceptive: they can hardly bear it if people close to them should reject them. They prefer a harmonious, balanced relationship with a partner who shares their interests and with whom they can realise their visions.
Praise God for His incredible provision in providing me a one year contract at Macgregor State High School for next year! =) WAHOO! So it looks like I’ll be staying! =)
I really thank God for allowing me to go through the season of learning to trust Him more. The scripture in Matthew 6:33 is so true that when we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, all our needs are provided for. God never sells us short! He’s our awesome provider and is faithful to those who are faithful to Him.
Prior to receiving this job offer, a student teacher had been offered the position first and when I heard about that I was quite discouraged as I felt overlooked. I thought, “Why didn’t they consider me?”; and so I began to wallow in the thought of not being good enough. Praise God though for His Holy Spirit who comforts us and reminds us always of the promises in His word. During this time, God began to speak to me about the priorities of my heart and questioned me in why I felt down. This is what God said to me during this time of struggle: “What are you really concerned about here? About doing my will or about being recognised by others? Why have you placed your security in what others think of you? Have I not called you? You will be in the place that I desire for you to be not because of your eloquence and skill, but because of my great might and power.” And so I repented for putting my security in the wrong place, and entrusted my life back into His hands once again- making the choice to be content with wherever God puts me, and choosing to make God’s will for my life my greatest joy and goal. God also challenged me to be supportive and encouraging to the student teacher and to even encourage her to take the job, and so I did. It was great as I was able to build a good friendship with the student teacher during this process. At the time she was quite keen on taking the job. I mean come on, it’s Macgregor- who would turn down Macgregor!? I knew that it would have to be a miracle for her to change her mind.
God is amazing and after the holidays I found out that God provided the student teacher with an even better job offer; and I so knew that THIS was GOD because this job offer was perfect and a completely rare opportunity!!! So she turned down the Macgegor position and so now one was available.
I won’t go into too many details as to how I ended up getting the position, but in the end it so happened that they didn’t offer the position to me at first because they forgot that I was drama trained since I’m so involved in mainly dance! So what I thought was a moment of being overlooked and “not being good enough” was actually just an innocent mistake. The drama teacher that I’m replacing told me that there were 4 other potential applicants but she didn’t even consider looking at them as she wanted to offer it to me. PRAISE GOD FOR HIS FAVOUR! God really does make a way when He wants us somewhere!
So yes, I will be at Macgregor State High School for 2009! PRAISE GOD!!!!! I’m also so glad to be able to see many of my life group members through year 11 as well! GO V10 Macgregor crew! God is bringing revival to this school! WAHOO!
As mentioned in my previous post on ALC, I was blown away by the time of prophecy where words of life and encouragement were poured into all of our hearts. Attached below is my prophesy which I have been listening to over and over again today, and the more I listen to it the more confident I am of God’s presence with me as God confirmed through the prophesy that He has heard my prayers and has seen my heart. I for some reason always thought that the burdens upon my heart were naive and immature, but for some reason God decided to take it seriously and is firming His call in my heart more and more. I’ve always felt fearful of proclaiming out by faith the burdens, dreams and visions that God has placed in my heart- but through the word of prophecy spoken out in the presence of my brothers and sisters, God used it to kick me out of my fearful little hole, and so now I’m accountable to many. I’ve posted the prophesy up here so that you all who read my blog can also keep me accountable. There’s no turning back now. Praise God for bringing these things out in the open for me
Ever since high school, I guess I’ve always known that God wanted to use me to reach the broken and especially those in extreme circumstances. Over the years, God has made that call more and more apparent as I’ve crossed paths with certain individuals in challenging circumstances, and through these experiences God has broken my heart more and more. For those who have followed on with my blog since last year, you would have read a poem that I wrote called Children in my Heart. I wrote it in response to a dream that I had of topless dark skinned Children dressed in red cloth living in some poverty stricken place in a hut made out of straw. I saw myself helping these kids and I still remember vividly how they looked, but I still have no clue where they might be from. Ever since then, God has continued to stir this burden in my heart for people, kids in particular, in extreme circumstances. Here’s the poem that I wrote a year ago:
Children in my heart (2007)
I see you in my dreams My heart sinks at the sight of you, I’ve heard of you through prophecyBut I don’t know where to find you
I have read about you in magazinesI have searched for you in books,I have seen you on televisionI know exactly how you look
I am striving to make my way to youPraying for the most strategic positionA place that is close to youTo reach you in your helpless condition
Where are you my mystery child?Burden of my heartI promise I will find youBut I don’t know where to start
I carry with me good newsGood news which will heal and restoreDo not fret about your brokennessFor your Saviour is knocking at the door
Although I do not know you,I will recognise your faceFor Jesus is sending me to youBy His love and grace
You will no longer be disadvantaged You will no longer be enslavedFor Jesus is sending me to youand in Him you will be saved
Mystery child, how I long to meet youAnd How I long to know where you areWait for me for I am definitely comingI promise I am not far
Mystery child, your Saviour is making a way Wait for me; I’ll bring Him to you… everything will be okay
I’m in awe of what God is doing, and of how He brings all the puzzle pieces together. I’m still uncertain as to how, when and by what means that God will make these things happen, and I wonder how God will ever use someone like me who can be so selfish and so full of wickedness; however more and more God is running me into situations which are breaking my heart more and more and He’s teaching me bit by bit to identify with His love and compassion. These past few months while working at Macgregor, I’ve encountered a few kids in some challenging situations. I met a girl who approached me about being physically abused at home and she showed me the marks on her neck to prove that she had been beaten and strangled. This wrecked me to bits; I wouldn’t have been able to tell that she was struggling with this! She told me with such matter-of-factness and without emotion, I didn’t know how to respond! I felt so helpless as a teacher- all I could do was report it to the guidance counsellor and that was it! I praise God that they are providing support for her now but still… I felt so helpless and so wanted to do something but I couldn’t. As strange as it sounds though, I knew that God was doing something; He was working on enlarging my heart for this unique niche of people.
The scripture that Chris spoke was spot on for me in Psalm 27 as I had been fearing what the call of God over my life may mean for me personally. What does it mean for me and my family, my relationships, my comfort and my safety??? What kind of people will I end up running into and will that be risky for my own life? Psalm 27 brought a lot of assurance to me that God is with me, and that He has seen and heard the troubles of my heart. I thank God so much for His word, it was certainly much much needed.
I’m excited about what’s up ahead. More than just the fulfilling the call, I’m looking forward to the journey of identifying more and more with God’s heart, and being able to draw nearer and nearer to Him through out the process. What a privilege it is to be entrusted with such secrets of His heart!!!! I’m honoured and pray that God would mould and shape me however He wishes in order to shoulder His plans to the end.
Wow, what an awesome holiday these past 2 weeks have been! They have flown by too quickly! *Sigh*
I really thank God for the many words of life that He spoke into my heart over this break, and also for the many lives changed! It was indeed a fruitful holiday and God fully capitalised on the opportunity to do something fresh in people’s hearts. Praise God for His wonderful grace and for privileging us with the opportunity to know Him more and more.
Below are a few snapshots of what I got up to on the holidays. I think much more can be said in a photo so here goes
ALC 2008
A life transforming time for all of us no doubt! Refer to my ALC blog entry for more on this!
SPRING CLEANING!
One of my major holiday projects was to spring clean and organise my room, which I found extremely therapeutic As you can see in the photo, that was the beginning of a work in progress. This may sound weird but I have been craving a good spring clean of my room- so now every section- and I mean EVERY section and corner is now sorted and placed in order. I now have categorised tags on boxes and folders so I know where things are, and I have thrown out a whole pile of clothes. It feels so good to now have everything in order. Yes, I am your typical choleric/melancholic. I like structure and order. I also spend time sorting out files on my computer so now everything is much more accessible, thank GOD!
DANCE COSTUMES
My other bizarre holiday project was to dye costumes for Macgregor SHS’s upcoming dance concert, DanceOdyssey. The clothes were mean to be maroon but unfortunately turned out a strange grape colour. hahahahahahahha… Oh well- it’s for a contemporary performance so anything goes! Oh yes and my hands were stained purple/pink for a few days. I tried telling people that it was from rescuing a family in a burning house, but yes, ho ho my jokes aren’t funny.
Another one of my very important goals for the holidays was to really spend time with people. I had such a great time catching up with friends, and spending time with the girls that I love most.
One of these wonderful girls was Lauranne, who I unfortunately didn’t get a photo with at our hang out but here’s one of us at Church Anniversary. Lauranne slept over my place and together we watched a movie called Shawshank Redemption, which although was awesome, we only rated a 3 out of 5 (Sorry Ricky). I was so blessed by the meaningful heart to heart sharings that I had with this little dynamite of a women and cherish every shared God moment that we had together. We did quiet time together the next morning and prayed together for things that were a burden on our hearts. I really thank God so much for blessing me with not just a wonderful sheep, but an incredible friend who I absolutely love doing life with. After that, Lauranne came along with me to school (yes school) where I did some planning and Lauranne studied for biology. Although we didn’t talk for hours and sat at separate desks doing our own work, it was so great to just be there together. In a way it helped me to keep on task too hehe. So thank YOU lauranne! I LOVE YOU HEAPS!!! Thanks for spending that time with me- I value it heaps
I also had the opportunity to catch up with this spunky chick! (Yes again I don’t have a photo of our us at our hang out- sorry!) but here’s again a photo of us at Anniversary getting ready for the dance performance. These holidays, Liz and I have spent a lot of time working together on the performance for Anniversary, and I have been so blessed by her incredibly sweet spirit! Working together with her humbles me many times as I’m reminded once again of the kind of heart and attitude that God is looking for in His leaders. I learn so much from Liz about willingness to serve God in whatever way is needed- thanks so much Liz for being the sweet spirited person that you are. Love and value you heaps!
I also had the opportunity to catch up with this beautiful war horn hehehehe. (Doesn’t sound too nice when you say it like that does it? hehe) I had a really meaningful catch up with Bec in the car after our hang out, and I have to say that it was a moment that I will cherish forever. I was so blown away by Bec’s massive heart for God and for His kingdom, and also by her desire to simply obey God in whatever way is needed. At first I felt like I had to rush home after our hang out, and our chat in the car lasted longer than I had planned, but I thank God that I didn’t leave because God did something in that car during that very meaningful conversation. It was a God moment that I’ll never forget. Thanks Bec for being such in inspiration to me! Your life speaks volumes of God’s great love for people.
I also got to spend time with a bunch of incredible young women of God! Man, every time I caught up with these girls I overheard conversations about how they were going to invite their friends to church, and of them encouraging one another to invite each other’s friends or to start lunch time groups in their schools! What an awesome God honouring community! THIS is what God desires in the fellowship of His house; not just good company and lots of fun, but GOD Honouring relationships that build one another up in His ways. I am so inspired by you girls and thank you all so much for bringing such freshness in my own walk with God!
(hopefully no one was watching us on the other side of this window. haha)
(Hehe, asian tourists)
IGNITE & VOLTAGE COMBINED
And finally, here is us— Ignite + Voltage, experiencing a glimpse of a High School Service. I believe God stirred something new in the hearts of every young person, and is preparing every one of them to catch the massive flood of waves that He is going to pour into His church. God is doing something amongst the high school group! He’s raising up spiritual giants to shoulder what He wants to bring about. I was in awe as I witnessed young lives lifting up their hands in surrender to God. This generation is going to do great things and are going to be unstoppable!!!!! POWERLINES
And last but not least (A photo that I stole from Lauranne’s blog :)) here’s a photo of our first “Powerlines” meeting for all those who have been leading a lunch time group in their schools. Man, God is doing something!!!!!! We chose the name powerlines because it represents the sending out of “Voltage” or “God’s presence” to our schools. Can’t wait to see what God will bring about through these young leaders!!
Overall, an incredibly refreshing holiday. I remember at the beginning of the holidays I asked God for life change, to do a new work in my heart and in the hearts of His church and He did it and is continuing to do it. Thank God so much for such a fruitful and productive break! Can’t wait for what’s up ahead!
Don’t we look so hot! haha
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