Back to normal...

Well its my third day back at work and things are slowly getting back to normal. Yesterday was my first PT session since I got back, deadlifts, chinups, bicep curls...fun fun fun! Last night was connect group...great to see all my friends again. Today I have my first Physio session since getting back...which actually means 30 minutes of talking footy with a few shoulder exercises thrown in at the end.  Dinner tomorrow night at my grandparents...kind of a friday night tradition...although I dont go nearly as much as I should. Sunday church and Footy...two things I missed most while I was in China.

Its interesting how things as simple as being able to attend church was something I missed most while in China. I really take it for granted how lucky I am to be able to go to church each week, especially when I think about those doing long term mission overseas, where the best they can do is download sermons over the net and watch/listen on the computer. There was two DVD's I had bought before my trip to China, showing the services where Sy Rogers was preaching, so i felt it best to give these to some of the people who are serving long term in Changsha. I pray that the message will bless them...Im sure it will...Sy Rogers was awesome!

But as things are slowly getting back in to routine, is that really what I want? I cant deny that during the trip I was not presented with possibilities, paths that would take me away from what I'm doing right now, take me away from where I am now. Which path to choose? Or am I just caught up in the emotions of the trip? More than ever...now is the time to press in to God so that I can hear his words of guidance.

Oh well...for now I can look forward to this weekend...especially Sunday afternoon...Carlton vs Collingwood! Only my second live game for the season and with an anticipated sell out crowd of +90,000 people, praise God I have my reserved seat ready to go!! Cant wait to see Juddy back at his best!

What would I change?

As I returned to the hotel on my final night in Hong Kong, I contemplated the past 3 weeks and would I do things any differently. What would I change given the chance?

The time I have spent in china and Hong Kong has been amazing. I cannot possibly count how much God has blessed me. God has guided me, directed me and most of all taught me a great deal through this trip. He also blessed me with a large number of wonderful new friends, who I am sure will still be part of my life long after I return to Melbourne and they are back in their respective countries.

I always believed that God has a plan and purpose for each of us and if we allow Him to guide us, we can do incredible things. Over the 2 weeks in Sanmenxia, God was able to use me for things I never imagined possible. But most of all He was able to use me to pour out His love on the beautiful children in Sanmenxia.

Before the trip I tried to prevent myself having a lot of expectations on the trip. Of course I had basic expectations of God using me in the way He intends to. But apart from that I was open to what God would do with me, where He would lead me. I have always been one to plan things out entirely. But this trip I was more flexible, I committed things into the Lords hands. Looking back, I see how amazing our Lord truly is to those that are faithful.

The people I got to spend this period with were all amazing people. They all contributed something special, something unique to the team. I remember each and every person and there is not one person I didn't share at least one special moment with, a moment that will stick in my memory. Probably my biggest concern prior to the trip was the group of people I would be serving with, culture clashes & related issues. But I truly feel overall we worked so well together as a team. I like to think of us all like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, while we were all different in shape, we all came together and made something amazing.

But that does lead to some sadness now as I return home. There were certain people who I formed much closer relationships with. When I remember these people I feel a sadness knowing I cannot see them as easily, I can't share moments with them as easily. I am a person who doesn't like forming a large number of shallow relationships, I prefer less, but stronger and more intimate relationships. This is where I know I will need to work hard to ensure I don't lose these relationships, no matter how far apart we are physically.

But where I can contact the other members of the team, be it through Phone, Internet or Mail, I don't have that same access with the children from the welfare center. I know in the coming weeks and months, more and more I will miss those beautiful children. Over the past few days, at different points I will recall different moments with different children, be it playing a game, reading a book or just giving one of them a hug. Even thinking about those special moments now brings tears to my eyes.

So getting back to my original point, what would I change...I don't think I would change anything. Maybe over the coming weeks as i reflect more, i will think of changes i could have made. There are small things i would do in addition to my preparation for this trip, for example ask for donations from people at home. But I feel that as long as you prepare yourself emotionally and physically for God to use you, you go with an open heart and a joyful smile, you were be a blessing to the children.

The only thing I need to do before my next trip is study mandarin more diligently in the lead up to the trip, but hopefully my passion to return next year will drive me to study hard!

My Mission Trip to China...

Well like I mentioned yesterday, Im off to China in two weeks time. This will be my first mission trip and while I must admit I am a little nervous, I am also really excited about the ways in which God can use me while I am over there. But no matter what happens, its definitely going to be an amazing experience! The below image shows where in China I will be.

My schedule for the trip is as follows:

2nd April - Fly to Hong Kong
3rd - Meet with mission team and fly to Xi'an in the afternoon.
4th - Orientation and travel to Sanmenxia.
5th - Tour of the welfare center
6th - 10th - Work with the children in the welfare center
11th - Rest day
12th - 14th - Work with the children in the welfare center
15th - Work with the children and debrief session in the afternoon.
16th - Travel back to Hong Kong via Xi'an
17th - Team ends after breakfast

The focus of the center I will be working at is abandoned children and young people who are disabled. Actually I have been using the incorrect term a lot, they are not actually orphans, but abandoned children. A lot of the people cared for at the center were left there by their parents. This is something that weighs quite heavily on my heart, the fact that a parent could even consider abandoning their child...but nevertheless I just hope that the time I can dedicate to spending with these children can make a difference in their lives and show them that there are people out there that do love and care for them.

The welfare center I will be traveling to is a new center which only opened last year, so we will be only the second group to travel there. But being a relatively small city, its really going to be different to what I experienced on my previous trip to China, where I was mainly visiting the larger and more well know cities.

So at the moment I am going through my preparations, my flight has been paid for, I go to pick up my VISA today, and this weekend I need to start purchasing things I need to take. One of the big things they ask us to bring is toys for the center, but I will most likely buy these in China.

So no doubt on return from my trip I will upload some photos to my blog to give you a glimpse of the wonderful experiences that Im sure to have!

I know it has been a while...

I know its been a long break since my last post...but I feel I have a new set of topics that I feel God has put on my heart to share. But tonight I just wanted to give a bit of an update on things...

Well it is 2 weeks until I will be setting of for China on my very first mission trip as I have mentioned previously. I will be traveling to the city Sanmenxia where I will be serving in a Orphanage. I will writing a post that more comprehensively covers my trip in the next couple of days.

Apart from that I have been working hard on a series of different projects. I am back at the gym working hard (be prepared for a scattering of gym related posts to come haha). The AFL Premiership season commences next week with the season opener being the mighty Blues up against the hapless Tigers. Cant wait!! The only downside to being on the mission trip will be that I miss 3 weeks of AFL...how will I cope? 

But something I wanted to quickly share tonight was something that I have been thinking about quite a lot lately, in relation to planning what Im going to do in the coming months. Sometimes I go ahead and try and map out my future, without taking in to perspective what God wants. Sometimes I worry so much about whats going to happen and what I am to do.

But it is times like this I remember the passage in Matthew 6:25-34 where Jesus says the following:

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
 ²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

The verse that stands our for me is verse 34 where he says do not worry about tomorrow. The fact is as long as we continue to put our faith in God and live our lives pleasing to God and following his word, we have nothing to fear and nothing to worry about.

So while I know I get a bit stressed over current situations, be it work related or personal life related, I always remind myself to live a life with faith trusting our loving father in heaven.

A shorter post

Okay...someone said my posts are too long...so today Im just going to share a couple short points that stood out to me during a recent message I was listening to.

We can sometimes lose focus on the big picture. In the past I would continually give to the church, I would continually give to others. But over time I began to think along the lines of "God...Im giving and giving and giving and giving...but Im not receiving, Im not getting anything back". But then I realised...how did I actually get what I had to give in the first place? Then you begin to see that you do receive, that God is continually blessing your life. How do you keep your position in your job? Through the love of God. Philippians 4:19 says:

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

As long as we are faithful to God, God will be faithful to us. We must learn to continually be faithful in our sowing.

The other thing I wanted to encourage you with was the following line: maintain your integrity in times of hardship. It is so easy to compromise our beliefs when the going gets tough. You are facing a big problem and all you want to do is survive it, to find a solution and sometimes we are tempted to but our belief to one side and tackle the problem on our own. But we must learn that its imperative we never put God in a box, we never take the approach we can do things without him. I will draw on Philippians again, this time 4:13 where it says:

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

The key word here is "everything", not some things...everything! For we must recognise that we can not do anything without the power of God with us. So when we are looking at a troubling time, dont worry...for you have God. A perfect example was Jesus when He went into the desert to fast for 40 days and during this time the Devil came to Him and tried to tempt Him, but he was not tempted!! He did  not compromise His integrity!!

One final verse I want to mention, something that Jesus says and it again highlights the fact that we can do nothing with out Jesus:

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Hope in hardship

I know that God is always with me. From the moment I wake up in the morning, to the time i rest my head on the pillow at night...He is always there with me. I know He loves me...there are countless verses throughout the Bible that testify to that. I know that if I listen to Gods purpose I will lead an awesome life, an extraordinary life!

But despite these things...I still face hard time, I still come against problems. Whether it be in my workplace or my social life, there are going to be troubles.

I have been put in situations at work where it is near impossible for me to achieve what my boss expects of me using my own skill and ability. I feel under pressure...that there is no solution. But in these times I know that there is still a hope...and its name is Jesus Christ!

Psalm 46:1 says it well:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble

See the point the Psalmist makes in stating that there will be trouble. He is not saying "God is our refuge and strength, but we wont have troubles". No...he is acknowledging the fact we will face troubles, BUT we have a hope in our amazing God!

Romans 8....what a chapter! So many verses that speak encouragement to us for times when we face troubles. Some that stand out are verse 28:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose

Verse 31:

If God is for us, who can be against us?

And also verses 38-39:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But sometimes I feel like Im on the edge...like I cant take anymore trouble. But you know what I do in these situations...I just pray. I just pour out my feelings to God. And I also praise Him. You might think thats crazy! "Why you praise God when He hasnt even done anything yet?" Well the fact is He has already done something for me...He sent His only son to die for me on the cross! Thats the most powerful thing anyone could ever do for me! To die for me and take my sin, my punishments upon himself...even when I was still a sinner. When you put it all in perspective...you come to realise that God has already done amazing things for us...He loves us more than anything else possible.


And at the end of the day...nothing is impossible with God! So the problems Im having in my life...be it work related or otherwise...these are actually trivial...but God will still work in my situation...as long as I have faith and praise Him.

Sorry if my post today is a little incoherent....Im in a huge amount of tooth pain right now and its causing me trouble thinking straight. But I just pray that when you are facing a problem...dont despair...for we have an amazing God that loves us and will never leave us! If we follow Him...he will never lead us into a situation we cannot survive

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

One of those months!

I havent blogged for a couple weeks due to the craziness of work. Lets hope that this week is a bit more normal. I was going through my timesheets and there was a stretch of 3 weeks where I worked 60+ hours and the last week I worked less than 50 hours was last year. But despite all that there is little appreciation from the management here...but I guess what do I expect from them. At least this week I have the weekend in Syd to look forward.

Points of note over the past couple of weeks

• Did two presentations in Parliament house last week...quite an experience. 
• Discovered that inside the private areas of Parliament house they have a Westpac bank, travel agent and a Qantas check-in machine!
• Saw Steve Bracks in Stephen Conroy's office.
• From all my work trips to Canberra over the past month, I already have a free flight to Syd saved up with my Frequent Flyer points
• Saw the Blues in their intra-club hit out last Friday...FOOTY'S BACK =D
• Tried yum cha at docklands yesterday...overpriced and not overly good =(

Well thats it from me...