Brother Ministry House - BMH

This is the house I am living now. A fun and happening house.

Let me have a briefly introduction of this house. According to the name, you may think that this house is for guys only and working something for our Lord Jesus Christ. If your guess is that, Congratulation! You are correct!

As part of this house, we support the ministry of OCF and LYCC (Church), in terms of human resource or temporary accommodation. Which means the guys in the house are being actively serving in OCF or church. For example, we host a welcome night dinner every semester to welcome the new comer.

By being actively involve in OCF and Church events, BMH not just a house with 7 guys, but developing to

Parking station/Meeting spot
BMH currently become a meeting spot before the events, instead of meeting church.
Since we have sort of free parking outside the house, drivers can park their car here to save the time of parking hunting.

Material collector
Quite a lot after-event materials will be come to house and being well used. on one hand, most of them are food ingredients, this is good that keep the cupboard have enough stock and it is a good news for the Chefs in the house.
On the other hand, we received some commodities, such as kitchen utensil, pillows, bed linens etc. I am happy to keep it and give them to right person. Recently, I am benefit by this. Most of my friends who visit my room probably know that, I sleep in my sleeping bag all the time as I don't have a proper bed sheet. But now, because of this Friend, I can sleep with doona now, Thanks Calvin.

Since my room is the first room you reach from the main door, most friend will come in and having a chat for a while, it makes my room become a guest room. Because of these, I would like to have a mini sofa in my room. I am welcome all the friends and enjoy have time with them.

Put The Armor of God

I will put on the full armor of God so that I can stand against the devil’s schemes. For my struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark word and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Therefore, I put on the full armor of God, so that I may stand my ground when evil come comes, after I have done everything, to stand.
I will stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around my waist,
with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and
with my feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which I can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

FT Student Life in Melbourne

This is a sunny Saturday, really good weather outside, I wish I am in the beach now, yeah!

Come back, Jack! Enough dreaming, back to study!

In reality,I am in the LAW library with Tim, we are studying together but different subject. I am studying theology and he is studying for his actuaries exam. Sometimes I thank God that he still need to study even he is working now, so that he can keep me accompany. Sorry, a selfish thought.

I plan to finish the evangelism essay today so that I got some time to polish it.

Thanks for yours encouragement, I should always remind myself that it is a privilege to study in Theology, although sometimes I had discouragement. My Pastor also reminded me that the qualification doesn't make me a good servant of God. God treasures our heart only! Thank God I haven't thought about that, I don't think the stress in study at the moment will shake my faith. Actually, I know that I have room to improve, I haven't do my best yet. I need to discipline myself on the study , pray for diligent and wisdom, the wisdom that I can put the little knowledge I learnt into the essay, and the answers in the coming exam, to show that I understand the knowledge. Moreover, I pray for the wisdom that I can apply the theology in my life, act in out, practice it in different areas of my life. It is whole life issue and seems very hard to achieve, keep praying for it. "What is impossible with men is possible with God." (Luke 18:27)

Pray for Neil's recovery and his health!
Pray for those who are looking for job, putting their trust in God.
Pray for those who are studying, diligent and discipline in their study, getting strength from God all the time!
Praise God for the wedding of 燿基 and Hiuman today, opening a new page in their life, pray that they will be a couple to glorify God

What am I doing???

I am coming to the point of confusion. Sometime I don’t know what I am doing these days. I suppose studying is main task in my life now. One year theology course, it is not very long but I found that it is very hard to study most of the time. There are 66 books in the bible, 39 in Old Testament and 27 in New Testament. I suppose I have at least read once of each book and roughly have an idea of the purpose of writing of each book, it is a big job. Another struggle I am going through is writing. Writing is an issue for me for very long time. I always take a lot of to write email or other writing staff. I cannot convey my thought systematic and clearly, I feel like I am loser of writing. Actually, I don't have time to self pity, I have exam in 4 weeks time, I need to well prepare all the answer before the exam, otherwise I will failed, very strangle forward.
However, another important life issue is bothering me. I knew that it is not the right time to start it and even think about it. But I can’t stop my thought. Sometime this issue affects my study. Alas, I should focus on God all the time.

Theology Course

I can't imagine that this is week 6 of theology course and I submit two essays.(Although one I have to resubmit and I guess another one need to resubmit as well) Thank God that I got this opportunity to study in theology class and I have a chance to take this great challenge.
I enjoy study the bible in such academic way, it really helps me to explore my vision of the bible and the knowledge of God. However, I struggle very much to prepare class and do the essays. I believe that the course will improve not only the skill of interpret bible, but the writing skill. Writing is my weakest and I really want to improve it. God, please help me.

Principle of Evangelism is my favourite subject because it is a practical subject that teach me how to another some 'THOUGH questions' that non-Christian will ask. For example:
1) Why there is suffering in this world if God is love?
2) Christianity is a killjoy religion...

These really help if I am in the situation that a non-Christian ask these question. SO what is the answer?

1) This is God's world. Suffering and death are not God intended to make in the beginning of the world. God is very sad same as you feel. It was because Evil entered this world and it corrupted every part of the world and humanity, and it leads to death and conflict.
God do not sit down somewhere we cannot see and do nothing, actually, he sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to come this world and die on the cross and raise 3 days later, it defected the power of Evil. God hate evil as you hate. He promise Jesus will be come back to the earth to bring the judgement and complete the job, restoring the world and humanity. But before the 2nd return of Jesus, suffering still appear because this world still not prefect and it is the consequence of sin. What we can do is align with God and trust in him and he will save us, rather than assert independence of God and condemned.

Humility- I am not!

I have a thought that humility is not going to be a issue for me as a young Christian for last couple of years. As I did not have anything to boost. But I am WRONG! Totally wrong! I am such a sinner in front of God even I believe in Christ. I still have a sinful nature in my earthly body. I proud of my humility, I proud that it is my characters and I forget that I struggle to seek others benefits before me all the time, thank God that I have been reminded by my brother in Christ.
It reminds me that I am just a sinner who strive very hard for humility and other spiritual fruits, I am on the path to be perfect, but I need to keep remind myself I will never reach the destination until the judgement day.
God, please forgive my sin, help me to please you, to glorify you and seek your help all the time, I ask the holy spirit to help me, putting your teaching into practice, Amen!

Can't sleep, Too early?!

A night that I can’t fall asleep. Is that too early for me? May be, cause I have been slept very early these day, almost 3 to 4am! What did I do? People said scumming, what does it mean? play TV game, Xbox. I haven't been played for long time, I am now playing a fighting game, don't know it should be classified as RPG or not, it calls Marvel Alliance 2, most of Marvel Heroes appear in the game, such as Iron Man, Captain America, Spider Man, Wolverine etc, it is a really addictive game. Player selects 4 heroes to form a team, then try to complete different missions. You can combine heroes power to perform a great damage attack, so fun, and there are a lot of locked hero and feature waiting for me to unlock, that's why I spend almost 5 hours per day to play. Oh, no, I am writing sometime I didn't expect to write, never mind, I will write it

Having Faith in God??

Thanks for everyone who read this blog/like this note, and whose put their comments.

I have a question for myself, what happen if I can't get the student visa on time?

Would I lose faith in God?
Would I hate God?
Would I became grumbled?
Why God didn't listen my pray?
Didn't I trust in God, or I lack of Faith?
God didn't want me to go back HK?
God gave me a lesson to learn?
What should I do?

Typical answer is, keep trusting in God, wait for his guidance patiently, believing he give the best always, any Christians can say that (easily, isn't it?), But the truth is, I am just human being, always being weak and with doubt, how would I trust in Him when the situation is totally out of control? I want to say that waiting is the most torturing period in Christian Life(at least for me, I just experience 3 months ago).
Looking back to Jesus, he waited for 30 year to start his ministry; he spent 40 days in the dessert before he started preaching(Matt 4). So, for me, What is time frame? I knew that there is no answer. Like Job, I am sure he didn't know when do the suffering time pass, he even thought this suffering will not end and ask God to take his life.

Practically, pray to our heavenly father is the only way to comfort us. Pray for his mercy and grace, forgiving our sin, expressing all my feeling, good or bad, even complain to him. He is the one who created me, he understand me more than myself, ask for his guidance and keep moving on my daily life, such as reading bible, doing my work, caring people, loving my neighbor.

I don't know whether I can still trust in God when I am in suffering or frustration in the future, but one thing I am very sure, God is always be with us, he still listen our prayer all the time.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matt 6:33 KJV)
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. (Matt 4:4 KJV)
Ask, and it shall be given unto you; Seek, and ye shall find; Knock, and the door shall be opened unto you. (Matt 7:7 KJV)

Experience trusting in God

I have experienced a down and up time today. It is regarding to the Student Visa.

I lodged the application of student visa on 19 April, about one month ago. You may knew that I planned to go to HK for a month on next Sunday. I am so worrying that I can't get the visa on time. If I haven't got the student visa, which allows me to multiple enter Australia, I will get trouble to enter Australia one month later.
I went to immigration department this morning, planning to get a Bridging Visa B which allows me to enter AU when the student visa in the process. After waiting for more than an hour, the officer told me that I need to get the approval of my case officer to get Bridging Visa B, so I called the hot line centre, they said I can't talk to the case officer and it will takes more than 4 weeks to process the Bridging Visa B. The only thing that I can do is waiting the student visa to be granted. Sigh!... I knew that, I knew that going to happen, they are no so helpful. I won't call you if I can wait! I am calling for advise, I mumble to myself. I was so disappointed, I seems to be ruined my plan again! The possible situation is , if I could't get the Student Visa before I leave, I may need to forfeit the air ticket, as it can't change the departing date. I felt really hopeless, I don't have plan B for this, maybe forfeit a $1000+ air ticket is a plan B! I was wondering if I still leave on next Sunday night without a student visa, would it cease the application of student visa?
After I went back to home, checking my email, I found an email from immigration centre, they said I didn't provide a copy of OSHC receipt which I had sent to them before, so I called the hot line again, but I didn't expect them to keep the call record, the operator informed me that I just called them an hour ago. I was just wondering what document they actually asking for. The officer didn't answer my question, so I sent the OSHC receipt to my case officer again and left my phone no., so that they could contact me ASAP. I was so disappointed, it might take another week for them to process the student visa.
After a while, my 'Cutie' housemate, Ivan, came to me and asked me"why you look so sad?"Yup, I am not the person to hide my feeling in my home. I told him where did I go and what did I do, then he just simply said"No worry, if God want you go to HK, he will let you go" Such a helpful reply! He didn't comfort me but try to teach me, it seems I don't have faith in God! I felt a bit angry but after I calmed down I just realize this issue is just out of his understanding, so I just told him it is the matter that I may make wrong decision. I shouldn't hope that I can get some support from him. He still young and innocent in some sense.
Two hour later, a miracle happened! They granted a student visa to me, all the problem solved.

The point I want to draw from this experience is, what can I do if I made wrong decision? How can I ask God for help? and What should I do after I ruin my plan?

First, I think I should accept myself that I can't always make the most appropriate / right decision, but I should pray before I made it. Putting in practice, I should pray before I do the online application of student visa and bought the ticket.
Second, I should accept the issue will come out at any time, it just part of our life. No matter how perfect my plan is, some issues still come out. It maybe God want me to learn how to trust in him.
Finally, weighting which choice is benefit to my spiritual life and a better way to serve God.

Another normal week Start!

Basic Christianity, by John STOTT. A easy reading Christianity book recommend by senior, I should set a goal to finish to within this week, I hope I can do that.

The COE letter was issued and I should start apply the visa tmr, hopefully the process will be smooth.

An missing air mattress was reported, I will make a call to the company, I should count the 12 air mattresses before I return, stupid!! It will quite trouble if the say yes or no that they got an extra one, if they say no, I have to buy a new one, or if they say yes, I may need to go somewhere to pick it, sigh, my bad.....

I still haven't finish the BHC handover document, I should done by this week!

Monday, starting of a week!!!

Childhood and my great Grandmom!

I don't think there are anyone to follow this blog now, because no new post, maybe. It doesn't matter. I wrote my childhood because I learnt some phrase verb about this topic, so I try it out.

I used to watch Dragon Ball Z all the time when I was a child, it is my favourite animation even now. It really takes me back. I had a lot of toys of Dragon Ball Z, figure, poster, cards...... I lot of good memories.
I was growing up in a 5 members family, my parents, younger brother and grandmom. We lived in a 7-storey building until I was in Form 2, I spent 14 years in the old building. It was a really old building without elevator and we lived on 7th floor. That means we had to climb up and down the stair at least once per day, it was a good exercise but it doesn't make me outstanding in sport at that time. However, it was a reason why my grandmom was so healthy that she could bring me up in her late 70s. She took care of me very well. I learnt doing all of the houses work from her. We went to "Yum Chai" in the morning for a hour, then we went to an outdoor wet market for grocery shopping, you can buy anythings you need in this market, meats, fishes, fruits, house ware, kitchen ware, clothes etc... you can find any daily commodities in this market, even now. I didn't shopping when I was in HK, but now I can't didn't it with anymore. At that time, her job was paying money, and my job was taking the grocery, she is very clever, she knew that where to get good beef, which shop sold nice BBQ pork, which is my favourite food, and I just followed her. During lunch time, She cooked lunch and we ate together in front of TV, it seems to be our side dish, even nowadays if I am in HK. I ate BBQ pork and she ate her salty fish, which could serve for 2 meals. I helped her to do the laundry as well. I can't remember when did I start to help her, she asked me to help her or I took the initiative to help. During Afternoon, she either watching TV or having a nap. At night, we were sharing same bedroom, I remember that she always woke up by my cough in the middle of night, around 3am, and she gave me hot water to drink, put on some Chinese herb oil( White Flower Oil, I still using it now. If you born in HK, you must know what it is) to relief my dry and contracting throat, as I have asthma(slightly) when I was young. She play an important role in my childhood, I'll never forget about her, she is a good grand mom, a competent grand mom who you can't ask for more. I miss her.

Nothing impossible in God

I heard a good news from my dear brother last week, gather and scatter are just part of our life, I felt very happy for him. There is nothing impossible in God, he is watching us all the time.
What is God's plan in my brother? Thank God for hear our prayer, I look forward about it. God bless, my brother.

Happiness & Rejoice

I felt a bit empty this week, I was keep thinking what should I do to make me happy, or something I will look forward, but the answer is NO, I can't found anything make me happy for a certain period, even when I was playing game, the excited and happy feeling won't last long. It reminds me that our happiness(feeling) is limited, we can't laugh or excited for 7days 24 hours, as my friend said, they only found in psychiatric hospital. It's true. So what is the problem of me?
I always felt the emptiness after I organize some events, it may be the reason. Anythings else? maybe, I may share it later.
What is Rejoice? In Philippians 4:4 'Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:Rejoice!' Rejoice is an attitude that we always have hope, and it must link with Jesus, we can't rejoice by ourselves, we are too weak and too easy influences by our circumstance. But it is very hard, how do I always excited about Jesus come back again?

Interesting Conversation in BMH

Thank God for the Belgrave Heights Convention, it was smooth but not perfect. I got some constructive feedback from Senior and Junior. It was just a starting, we are currently in a serious conversation now!!! Our topic is that, how's your believe? Why you become a Christian? Do we true in God? All are the great questions.
I will keep record!

What did I do today

Today started with a cultural morning, we have a nice breakfast in South Yarra,after that we had a cup of coffee at a cafe called St Ali. What a relaxing day.
I was spending time to write another article which I suppose to post on this BLOG, unfortunately I can't finish it, hopefully I can post it soon.

Due to excess cooking ingredients in the fridge, I volunteered to be the chef for tonight again. I plan to cook two main dishes; A1 curry with Oyster Blade, Carrot and Potato, Stir fry mince meat with beans. I was too ambitious to cook two dishes together and it was kind of fail. The curry was diluted by the carrot and potato, which is not suppose to have, according to the cooking method on the pack. Anyway, my dear housemates still enjoyed the meal, that's good.

As usual, soccer match is on tonight and we had two games tonight. The first one was a "league game" another one was a friendly. Our opposition was 'ITALY' team at the first game, whom play with us for couple of times, and we never lose to them. We performed normally, no big mistakes, solid den fence and scored early. 2 -0 at half time.We kept attack and I scored 2 goals at second half, finally, the result 5 -0 , and we won. GG (Good Game) guys! We need a winning match to stop the continue losing for last two games.
For the second game, I was really enjoy it, as the opposition is stronger and we just lost to them last two week. A revenge game! Maybe only me to think about that. They have one good player who scored 3 in the last game with us. Let's call him "No. 9", I don't want to lose again and I took extra focus on him in this game, kept stay with him when he pass the middle line, even he passed the ball, we call it 'Man Mark' in soccer terminology, and it works!! I am happy that I can stop him and have a clean sheet for the first half, 0 - 0.
We kicked off for 2nd half, Chris J and I did a tactic on it; I asked him to stay at my right, getting ready to run and shoot. He got the ball, dribble pass the defender, kept running towards the right side line and shoot just before it out, that's it. It was a great goal. I was really excited that our plan works. It gave our opposition a surprise. We did it quite a lot of times. He is a fantastic player in our team, I really enjoy to play with him. It was neck and neck game for another 10 mins, I kept my position well, I didn't go to the front and stay back, we got few chances but didn't get a second goal. Sadly, we lost a goal. Without Chris, our attack really depend on J and A only, I can't help as I had to defend 'No. 9'. I got two chances and I shoot on target, it just nearly to be a goal. After some rest, Chris and I in the court again, I bet on few attack, running up to forward, pass to A, but he can't score any more. I guessed he was tried and kept standing very far from us, which made us very hard to pass the ball to him. Chris also tried as he didn't play soccer for few weeks, he never rest more than 3 times in a game unless we have 8 players. At the meanwhile,they got a second goal and "No.9" caught our goalkeeper mistake by pressuring, changed the score to 1-3. At the last min of game, I scored another goal as a comforter, I pressured on their GK and tipped in the ball, setting the score to 2-3. Finally the whistle was sound and the game finish.

That's the end of today.

What can I do?

Now I can do a lot of things that I want to do but I keep excusing by saying no time. Let me summarize what I have done in this long holiday,
1) Baking Cake
I was thinking for a long time to do that, finally, I baked my first cake last Thursday. It wasn't a successful cake as it became a pudding. I was so disappointed. However, a second try was good and I enjoy to bake cake
2) Spring Clean BMH
According to the senior housemate, the carpet wasn't cleaned for 10 years. Finally, we really can't stand it and because two newcomers, we have motivation to do it. For your information, BMH, stand for Brother Ministry House, a two-stories where I am living.

Seems I didn't do much stuff since I came back to Melbourne. Hopefully I can do more in the coming two months,
1) Finish the books I am reading
2) At least one BLOG per day
3) Spend one hour to read ENG news
4) Writing, preparing for IELTS
5) Preparation of new semester.

Relaxing Time in my whole LIFE

March, the third month of the year, a quarter of year past. What am I doing? as the title said, relaxing. Is that good? Probably yes. I can't imagine I have this 'gap' period in my life. No study and no job, you can call I am scumming. I thank God that he let me have this period of time, so that I could realign my purpose of life. Since the application of TR was rejected, I was really upset, I couldn't forgive myself as I ruin my plan, which is working in Melb as long as I can, earn some good money, feeding my parents, starting a stable life. It was all fail because I didn't take IELTS again, and I stupidly assumed they will accept my application. Therefore, I have to go back HK and start my career in my home city, which means a lower pay, higher living standard and faster pace. I don't mean back to HK is bad, but it just not my plan at this moment. I want to stay in Melb mostly because the committment of OCF. I like to serve in this Christian group and I think I will learn so much. After seeking advise from some senior Christians, there is one simple but important question that I should ask myself, where is the best place for me to serve GOD? I have no hesitate to answer this, definitely is Melbourne. Then, the question will be what can I do in the coming year. As I can't re-apply the resident visa, the only choice is Working Holiday Visa, but it seems didn't beneifit my spiritual life as it really just for staying purpose and no productivity, it didn't help to build my career also. Studying may be a good choice, which was recommended and I never think about it. That remind me how important to seek advise from others.
Finally, I decided to stay in Melb and study in bible college.

New BLOG

Finally, I put my thought into action, setting up a new BLOG. What is the purpose of it? I can tell you few, firstly, I can update my status to my friend who cant read chinese, secondly, which is the main reason, to practice my broken english. So friends, please give me comment if the passage got any mistake, I am very appreciate.