Happenings

Leadership Summit over the next two days; have to leave half-way for revision lecture but thankfully school is only 5 min drive away, WESS STAFFORD !! =)

Returning to Singapore on the 3rd Dec ? I have to book my tickets first. Again i will only be stopping only for a few days, then head back to Indonesia for a week or so, then head back to Singapore, (dont ask me why, i dont even know how to begin explaining =X ) Can’t wait to sit down and chat over meals with friends, share life growth =)

My younger sister is getting married on the 21st of Dec ! So happy for her, told my elder sister that i will wait for her to get married first, haha !

Exams next week ! i am quite confident in the Lord. Have to keep my guards down and keep to my timetable. Freedy its Crunch Time NOW, Rise up like Obama Did !

*listening to Light up the World, Desperation Band

blessings

sometimes when I think God is not blessing my life, I might just be looking at the wrong place.

for the past two weeks I was terribly ill, the worst I had in years. cold, red rashes and mouth infection, all lined up and came out fully blown. I looked back recently and asked God why didn’t He heal me, why my prayers were not answered.

being jumpy in my thoughts, I reflected and realised past two weeks in relationships aspect it has been the most fruitful of time since I came melbourne. breakthrough in relationships through heart to heart sharing, heart that was opened to receive advices, initiative to establish new friendships. (met a friend that I got to know on my flight back to sg last semester) for a nerd like me, realizing that I am interested in ppl is an inconvenient truth.

but yea, a classic lesson from God. As I walk with Him, blessings are abundance as I follow His Spirit’s leading. Praise Him!

Testimony to church on Sunday

hello good morning church. my name is freedy prajitna and I am from 
caufield lifegroup. I am an Indonesian as you can tell from my name, 
but from my accent and behaviour you will guess that I am from 
Singapore. I spent the past 14 years of my life studying in spore 
since the age of 9, and I received Jesus to be my saviour at the age 
of 16 through hope Singapore.

I arrived in melbourne earlier this year in February to start my 
second year in monash to continue my accounting degree. I remember I 
arrived on a Saturday night and I called Corinna knowing that church 
service is on Sunday, and Justin picked me up the next morning, and I 
have been here ever since.. a proud member of the church and serving 
in kfc.

As I was preparing this testimony I sat down and reflected on how 
God’s hand has moved in my life for the past six months and my life 
has been filled with blessings.

in my personal walk with Jesus. over the past six months I have grown 
to be a more independent Christian. I don’t mean that I don’t need 
anybody, what I mean is I have grown deeper in my Christian faith. 
being in a bigger church setting in hope Singapore for the past six 
years, have allowed me to
be spoon feed with the ‘right’ Christian beliefs and values. For 
example attending lifegroup and church is important to me because 
everyone else in church is attending them. When I am here in 
melbourne, I have many moments before God when I felt ’spiritually’ 
naked because I find myself asking questions to my self that I never 
ask before. ” is attending hope church important?” in Singapore 
travelling to church is five mins but it takes me almost an hour 
coming from the city. I prayed through and begin to personalized 
Christian values and attitudes into my life. this is why I think my 
faith in Christ has become stronger.

I am blessed with a caregroup that is lead by jasmine. Jasmine is a 
leader that has a genuine heart to serve God. She is a good listener 
and has provided good advices in my life. Ian is my shepherd, despite 
the two of us shares a quite different personality we share similar 
family backgrounds and Ian always has a heart of wanting to do more 
for God.

there is still so many people and so many things that I have yet to 
experience..

I am blessed by God through this church in many ways and I am praying   
for growth in church and myself. God’s work is moving through my life 
in this church and I am excited in the days ahead with waverly church.

Confession of a Nerd

Summer Holidays Reading List

1) The Snowball – Warren Buffet and the Business of Life

2) Too Small to Ignore – Wess Stafford

3) End of Poverty – Jeffrey D. Sachs

4) Have a Little Faith – Mitch Albom

Thinking of Getting…

5) Pete Sampras’s biography

6) Steven Gerrard’s biography

7) Barack Obama’s Dreams from my Father

Ah, just come into my mind now that maybe i should consider opening a bookshop in the future, eh but i am already considering on opening a cinema !! 0_o I am quite The nerd i know. I dont have to be convinced with ten thousand reasons why reading is good blah blah blah, its wired-in me by my Creator, all i have to do is to channel it to my passion, and refrain myself from purchasing books everytime i am at Borders !! =P

here in my life.

Here in my life

I have never walked on water
Felt the waves beneath my feet
But at Your word Lord
I’ll receive Your faith to walk on oceans deep
And I remember how You found me
In that very same place
All my failings surely would have drowned me
Still You made a way

[c]
You are my freedom
Jesus You’re the reason
I’m kneeling again at Your throne
Where would I be without You
Here in my life
Here in my life

You have said that all the heavens
Sing for joy at one who finds the
Way to freedom truth of Jesus
Brought from death into this life
And I remember how You saw me
Through the eyes of Your grace
And though the price was Your beloved for me
Still You made a way

This song speaks to me today. Somehow i am into songs that i cant sing well; songs which are originally composed for female singers. For a divine reason i felt broken today, i felt deeply confused and lost for all the reasons that i can think of; its one of those days that i find problems with my world. God spoke to me about His freedom for me. Indeed, i remember how He found me, when i was 16, know nothing about Him, all my failings and brokeness should have drowned me, but i am still here because He has been faithful in all my growing up years. All that will be said, and all that will be done, have to be central and focused for God’s glory and purpose alone.

 And i remember when He first saw me and opened my eyes, He paid a price, that His son was to die on the cross so that i can live, it is a precious price to pay for each and everyone of His children. No more condemnations, no more judgements, we are all paid at an equal price.

About Sponsoring Kids..

I think its no big deal that one is sponsoring a kid, i have talked to many christians who are doing so, and lives are changed because they are willing to log unto a website, pressed a few buttons and save on their own expenses. I have been thinking about this for quite a few weeks now. Spent a few nights surfing the internet for possible websites, the ideal one that i was thinking about is sponsoring a kid and i can visit the kid in the coming holidays, not just because i am skeptical, but i want to learn more. I want to personally experience and be there physically, understanding how my donations are spent, how the kid is doing, how the organization is run etc.

It has to be the Holy Spirit convicting me on monday morning. I woke up and the first thing that came to me was to my mind was to sponsor two kids, a boy and a girl. I did this with compassion. I know that the money that i have now is not mine, they belong to my parents. But God has entrusted me with the money through them, it is not that i have heaps, but through this i hope it will always remind me that i need to accumulate wealth and i need to cut down on my expenses. More than these reasons, the main reason why i am sponsoring these kids because its my act of thanksgivings to God for His abundance of blessings in my life; i have never worry about having enough food on my plate, clothes warm enough to wear, neither should any kid in this world. It is not by nature random probability chance that i have enough and my neighbour doesn’t, i am divinely given enough so i can give him.

So these kids are in Malaga, on the northern part of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Seems like a good decent place to have a quiete holiday. Maybe i should go at the end of this year.

Thanking God

Been away from word pressing for a while, but now i am aiming again to find more time to word-press! ( is this even the right word to use 0_o) Want to thank God for my assignments that came back, think God has blessed me greatly, i never think that i will actually enjoy study before i came to melbourne.

Exams are coming and papers will end on the 11/11/09. There are roughly 3 months or so holidays before the start of a new term, so exciting !! there is a list of skills, a list of places, a list of things to do, a list of this and that.. will be planning and praying through, this will be my long-holiday before i graduate next year ! wow, think about it, graduate and embracing manhood 0_o.. .. maybe i want to do masters.

Read Richard Stearns Hole in the Gospel. Man this kind of book, i can never get enough of such books. I am acting on some of the thoughts i have been thinking for quite a while, small steps but ya, always think global but act local.

Future; blurring the line between fantasy and reality.

I was badly stumped when i first saw this video. This is indeed revolutionary. Project Natal is fatal to the future of Playstation and Wii; there are other videos available, showing how players will no longer need controllers to play games.. Ten years down the road the future is going to be different. Currently there have been reports on how teenagers are stucked unto their PCs, dwelled deeply into their fantasy world of on-line gaming, emo-generation youths who are more comfortable communicating through msn than meeting friends in person. How about the idea that the ‘perfect’ friend can be created and be made available on screen? some one who can understand your feelings, someone who will always be there for you, someone who can offer you advices on how to make better friends in your ‘real’ world? Essentially this is what Project Natal is offering. And it scares me to imagine how lost the future civilizations will be, if computer programmes will satisfy all human needs, and humans will no longer need each other, will no longer see the need to feel hurt or betrayed.. humans will become more like robots.

One thing for sure, my kids will never get their hands on these.

prayer

I have been reading about prayer, “growing deep in God” by Edmund chan, it’s a gift from Soofeng before I came back. this post is about my personal thoughts on prayer, some reflections on my personal prayer life.

Prayer is the most fundamental part of Christian walk, no christian is a Christian without prayer. Christian living begins with a prayer, sustains with prayer, and ends with a prayer.(finally when God calls home)

Looking back, my prayer life has grown deeper through the years that I follow Him. maybe prayer is like dancing with a dance partner, the more I dance, the more synchronize I am with my dance partner. Indeed, I have learnt much about my dance partner over the years. He is the sovereign God, the more I dance with Him the better I wil be.

One problem that I have been struggling with, is not remembering my prayers. I am not sure this is a uniquely-me prayer problem, most of the time after I pray I will forget the fact that I have prayed. Underlying root issue will be about me lacking faith in believing that my prayers will be medicine. I came up with a solution, I will use the back of my journal to be a prayer section. Every prayer I make I will write down, every prayer answered I will give a tick.

i guess my point of this post, will be to encourage you to reflect on your prayer life. we are all far from masters of prayers, ( I have absolutely no idea how some ppl can pray for 3 hours in their private qt !) but I think to grow in our Christian walk, we have to grow in our prayer life as well. happy praying.

Love.

Mother’s day at Waverly church was all about Love, the selfless love of a mum for her children, the sacrificial love of God for His children.

I was telling someone how blessed it is for believers to have found and experienced Love. Love advertised by the world can sometimes be reduced to carrying out Obligations, Love advertised by the world can sometimes be reduced to lies, putting on masks and being ‘nice’ on the outside, Love advertised by the world, can sadly be reduced to Money.

But Love is so much more, love is so much, so much more. When it is being reduced from its fullest potential it shouts so loud to the inner souls, hoping for hollow hearts to hear. When love is being reduced, the practioner is merely wasting time away, lost in the midst of finding Love.

Perhaps the most noble aspect of Love is that it can be passed on to another person, and having receiving it, the person can express it out to another person, in another form, and yet not losing the essence of its appreciation and touch. Love cannot be counterfeit, when a soul feels loved, a soul feels a touch of God. It is Love that every human seeks, it is Love that satisfy.  And therefore it is Love that we seek, pursue, and give to others around us.

And Love is a teacher. In every season of my life Love seeks to deepen its roots into the lives of its believers.

To Love is to…

Love my family

- maintain close communication with each of them, be there to listen.

- is to pray for them on a consistent basis, pray for their needs.

Love my close friends

- know their lives, encourage them to my best in the seasons of life.

- bless them physically, emotionally and spiritually.

- guide and bring them closer to Christ, even if it means getting myself out of the way. (sometimes)

Love God

- is to do all of the above.

- to seek Him with my heart, with every detail of my life and every ounce of emotions. (watch myself from becoming religious)

- to dreamwith Him and for Him

- to discipline my carnal desires with fasting and praying ( a spiritual battle is constantly being wage within)

What does Love means to you? What does to Love means to you?

Love well, and He will walk with you into the next season of life.