Last two weeks of Melbourne..

The past two weeks at Melbourne has been the most eventful one for me. Last saturday Evelyn asked me to ‘baby sit’ 27 kids! Family group planned a Christmas Outreach event at one of the community centre and they needed help to take care of the kids while the programmes for the adults were running at the main hall. Praise God for the weather that day because the weather forecast was a sunny with a possibility of showers, but it came only after the event has ended! Together with Sinyen, Admund, Ken, Ian, Anna and myself we tried out best and failed totally to match the energy of the children, (despite asking them to run a whole one round on a standard track and field!) Felt very grateful to God for the games to run smoothly, and for the last minute fellow volunteers who gave in the best-est of efforts, future fathers-to-be indeed! Again its proven that Anna is someone totally different from me whether we are or we are not serving together. Maybe its a female thing but she is a perfectionist at the detailed small things, I am the big picture kind of person. (again maybe this is a male thing too!) But i appreciate her for looking after the very few children who needed more attention than others. (one small girl cried when i was saying out my name at the introduction!) Quite wasted that we didnt take any pics, i was too busy enjoying myself too.

What just went past was Caufield lifegroup Christmas Birthday 2009. Anna helped out in decoration and food distribution. We went to shop for decoration items for two days. I am begining to realize that her favourite shop is the Reject shop where the items are cheap and creative juice is needed to produce eye-pleasing decorations. Again i found myself blowing balloons (for the third time!) this semester with Admund before the start of lifegroup. Food spread was way more than enough, i confessed i took home the most amount of food, a whole packet of nandos, few slices of choco mousse cake, a big plate of roasted pork, a box of pizzas and a tray of turkey leg. We had very fun games. (I took pics this time and can’t wait for Jas to post them up, Jason has a pose for a shot at Melbourne Asian of the year) I received U2 album from Yensia. Okay i am not a U2 fan because all their songs sound the same (?)

Love the involvement to be a blessing to the local community, big scale, small scale, doesn’t matter, all done for the love of Christ and men.

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.

NEA First Musical Chair Champion- ME =P

Semi-Finalists : Shipeng, Freedy, Chai, Nicholas. Guitarist: Joshua. Camera/Sound man: Alvin

I am deeply encouraged by Donovan’s Cg today, I came down from work and have enjoyed myself very much.There is so much life and laughter ! Donovan and Shipeng took only two weeks to adjust to their transitions from Neb and now they have integrated themselves so well among the people. And of course they are well-supported ! I appreciate Liehao making jokes out of his ITE teacher, Alvin’s  dedication to nicholas, and Joshua is taking care of Zhirong so well ! There is so much potential in these leaders in the Kingdom of God !! Keep up the good work guys !!

Note: For Additional Laughter, Put the cursor over at the 2nd minute, and keep pressing for your pleasure; Donovan laughed the loudest.

Disclaimer: No animals was tortured in the creation of this video

Camp Break

Heroes Camp was such an awesome experience ! In other camps i wont like to play games, but in this camp i actually played games throughout the whole night ! (Captain Ball and Volleyball) Was so tired in the next morning that i took naps whenever i stop moving from place to place.

The camp teachings are great in depth, yet they are so easy to understand because they were shared in stories through the lives of David, Abraham, Esther, Moses and Paul. (woo i actually remember all of them) I think the best part about them is it is encouraging to know that these heroes are so ordinary; they see the way we see, feel the way we feel. But God still use them powerfully in their times to shape nations, so what is it about schools that we can’t conquer? Other highlights include the free Ben and Jerry ice cream that was given out to shepherds and cls ! Debbie got the deal for us just two days before the camp and got them at a cheap price from the distributors ! Heard that eevoon introduced her to the distributors so thank God for her too, my sheep responded that he wants to be shepherd next year because of the Ben and Jerry ice cream, awesome ! It was also the first time i ever direct a drama in leaders’ performance, there are so many times that i feel like giving the whole thing up and pass it to jasmine and debbie, who both have been superb in providing ideas and tying up loose ends, but i thank God for the experience, it was really fun ! Thank God for christene too for teaching dance to the Uls, there is no way in a gozillion years that i could that by myself.  

I am most thankful to God for moving so evidently in the camp, through the sharings from my people i can see that individual hearts are aligned back to the kingdom, broken covenants are mended and new promises and being spoken through the ministers. It is a privilige and a sheer enjoyment to be a pastoral leader to be in a centre of God’s works through the lives of His people. Great Comission is for the whole world to believe !