Archive for January, 2006
Nice to have the reunion dinner outside for a change. Both of our mums then didn’t have to cook which they have done for years. It was good for the families to get together even though it’s a small gathering.
Good to be plunging backinto blogsphere .. making my return. The DSL line is doing better today. Much more stable. I’m still trying to figure out how to get the other desktop connected fully. Later-lah!
Met another Jason on Saturday and Sunday. I enjoyed our extended chat especially yesterday. God’s blessings on him …
We had a really good time after the Sunday Worship gathering … with a bunch of “remnant” BLCians coming over for lunch (most either are away back to their home towns or have prior family appointments). It was special too as this years first day of Chinese New Year falls on Sunday. 
Went to Uncle Caine’s place today (this is the new practice since Grandma passed away). As usual it was good food … less people this year … good to catch up with relatives … my brother John as always entertaining the kids and adults with his “magic tricks”… a good cup of wine or two … a pretty tiring journey home … had a decent nap.
Very fresh and awake right now.
Hope to recover the data files in the previous Hard Disk drive … fingers crossed time is short. Need to return the HDD back to the service center. 
Thinking about “contextualization” a bit more as I’m eavesdropping on an email conversation. Thought about the “homosexual question” too and how can we engage in these matters sensibly and faithfully.
Thanks to Mike Foong, I’m hoping to finally get something done in the upgraded version of the Emergent Malaysia website.
Had lots of Shandy (beer & lemonade mix) the last two days lots of chips from potatos to Chinese crackers! Yummy … but who knows what I’ll look like by the end of the week.
Read to Gareth a book on Baby Bunny. … but he slepted when I was reading “Decolonizing Theology in the Caribbean: Prospects for hermeneutical Reconstruction” not to him but to myself.
I enjoyed some solitude and silence when I somehow woke up around 3.30am on Sunday. Now, I’m having some beautiful time alone while everyone is asleep. Strange for an “extrovert” like me … but then again I’ve been appreciating this more nowadays.
I know I have a lot to do … the next few days. But I’m going to enjoy the holidays no matter what!
Bachelor of Divinity (BD) and Diploma in Theology (University of London External Programme)
I know Alwyn did this in amazing time … awesome!
Brian McLaren on the Homosexual Question: Finding a Pastoral Response
When i saw the title, I thought .. “I guess he’s going to try to reframe the question .. and fireworks are on the way.” As a pastor I found these words to be very true .. especially in complicated scenarios … “I hesitate in answering “the homosexual question” not because I’m a cowardly flip-flopper who wants to tickle ears, but because I am a pastor, and pastors have learned from Jesus that there is more to answering a question than being right or even honest: we must also be . . . pastoral. That means understanding the question beneath the question, the need or fear or hope or assumption that motivates the question.” But of course, as always in my experience of reading Brian these past years there’s always areas which some will find it hard to swallow or unhappy about or just plainly disagree
Brian McLaren on the Homosexual Question 2: A Blogger’s Response
So, we hear from one who diagrees with Brian …
Brian McLaren on the Homosexual Question 3: A Prologue and Rant by Mark Driscoll
This post now edited by the moderator equally causes a stir.
*Note: I think Andrew Jones’ Is the Blogosphere Ready for Mark Driscoll? provides an important context to Mark Driscoll*
*updated* Brian McLaren on the Homosexual Question 4: McLaren’s Response
Here’s an interesting quote … “I say all this not expecting to change anybody’s mind, but simply hoping that a few readers will know that there are people who take Scripture seriously, who love Jesus and want to be faithful pastors, who are not “relativistic postmodernists” at all, and yet who don’t find the issue as simple as some people do. We acknowledge the sincerity and good faith of our brothers and sisters who find that this all resolves very simply in black and white and without any shadow of doubt; we only wish they could extend the same grace and not assume or assert things about us that aren’t true.”
CHURCH & SOCIETY IN ASIA TODAY
While it’s important in this “flat world” to keep in touch with issues like the “Homosexual” Question above, there are also other immediate concerns we need to look into here in Asia. Of course, I think the rhetoric will be different. Hopefully …
How to have a good, healthy, constructive conversation on a blog
Healthy Blog Conversation Part II
Is ranting christian? – Healthy Blog Conversation III
Jason Clark chips in on how we can talk to and with each other through this strange medium of blogging.
A special Chinese new Year greeting to all who celebrate it and are included in the joy this season. I was reading these following words in preparation for the message for our Chinese New Year Worship gathering (first time for BLC as this is the first time day one of the Chinese New Year falls on on Sunday). I thought it is worth sharing today
“… to be free does not mean to be great in the world, to be free against our brothers and sisters, to be free against God; but it means to be free from ourselves, from our untruth, in which it seems as if I alone were there, as if I were the center of the world; to be free from the hatred with which I destroy God’s creation; to be free from myself in order to be free for others. It directs my attention, bent in on myself, to what is beyond and shows me the other person. And, as it does this, I experience the love and grace of God. It destroys our untruth and creates truth. It destroys hatred and creates love. God’s truth is God’s love, and God’s love frees us from ourselves to be free for others. To be free means nothing else than to be in this love, and to be in this love means nothing else than to be in God’s truth.”
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
On Freedom, July 24, 1932
From A Testament to Freedom, p. 206
Had a very painful and difficult morning today. Now a little better … Kyrie Eleison…
On a happier note, I’ve at least started intentionally working on my first module for my masters Had a good talk with Dr. Philip Siew who will be the sage to keep me on track. he was kind enough to say that he’ll be more like a fellow student who walks alongside me.
Got the notebook back minus the data files. Fresh new Hard Drive but need to see whether a couple of friends can help me recover as much as I can from the faulty one.
I think my random “return” thoughts would be pretty dialectic .. here. I found some CDs where I ACTUALLY did back up some photos and and other stuff from the notebook. So, at least stuff from 2004 to near the end of 2005 is recovered.
Hope I can get my pictures. .. which are very very precious to me.
Times with Gareth has been pleasant the last two days. Especially the journey to school. I was so happy when I could surprise him and bring him back from school yesterday. He was REaLLY very happy and so was I.
considering perhaps I’d like to delve deeper into Dietrich Bonhoeffer as part of my reflections on the nature and mission of the church. Checking out the site by International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society is fascinating! so is reading his early thoughts on Reason and Revelation as well as Ecclesiology and eschatology! Phew!
I’m a little tired now … there’s quite a bit I didn’t manage to do as much as i would have liked too. Plus, there’s quite a number of internal and external interuptions which … *sigh* drains the energy out of you … but that’s just part of this life huh whether Chinese new year or not?
Might have a chance to catch up with old and new friends the next few days. Hope to get my self emotionally and socially ready.
Glad to get an invite and will await confirmation for an upcoming consultation (once confirmed then the blogs will begin)
Oh yes .. loads of devotionals to write for Lent and for Asian Reflections. whcih translates loads of work in away .. and yet it’s more than work… it’s ministry .. and yet i’s not just ministry it’s birthed out of one’s walk with God in thinking, feeling and relating!
and now… for some late night reading .. which will help in my sleeping …
Sorry for being so quiet for almost a week. My notebook crashed … the Harddisk was faulty. The Desktop at home had and still has problems with the modem (something to do with not Windows XP compatible) thus hanging all the time. There’s lots going on in spite of the silence in this blog. I hope to return soon in full force. But for now, I feel the “forced” absence hard to bear … Hope to get the notebook back soon and more importantly recover important data files in the previous hard disk … I was planning ot back it up the the notebook CRASHED on me! Am I feeling lousy? Yes … but that’s life. There are others things I need to do … and thankfully there’s still a desktop to do it (actually I’m borrowing Gareth’s desktop at home and now sitting in another pastor’s chair using her PC) … *sigh* and yet grateful to still say something here*
I first heard this song in Malaysia sung by Tim Hughes himself (before it became big). It’s stuck on my soundtrack ever since. Still one of my favorites.
I thought it would be nice to post up the songs which has shaped me or been part of my soundtrack for life thus far. Whether it’s older songs or newer ones. It’s part and partial of the journey Good song to get ready for Ash Wednesday.
3 in 1 because we didn’t have a Christmas party or New Year’s Party the last 2 months plus many of us will be away for the Chinese New Year. So let’s all gather with tid-bits, food, drinks and frienship old and new and whatever this Saturday. And we’ll celebrate all three in one this weekend.
emergent Malaysia “open” (there fore eMo!) Meeting
Date: 21 January 2006, Saturday
Time: 10am to around 12.30 (or 1pm) officially!
Venue: The Father’s House (or Bangsar Lutheran Church Premises). Map here
What are we up to? What’s happening?
well …
“This time round we will spend some time reflecting and sharing:
(i) Reflecting on what we’ve done/where we are as EM
(ii) Sharing ideas, plans, hopes and dreams for EM going forward”
With so much happening the past weeks, I’m looking forward to catch up with friends and get to know new ones and hear ideas and insights tossed around in conversation.
Thanks Mark Van S for bringing this up. According to him it’s the week on the web to invite Lurkers to come out in the open it’s Delurker Week!
So … tell me … what’s your name? where are you from? leave me an email and/or link. Tell me… how long have you been dropping by? what interests you on this blog? and whatever you want to tell me
The Art of Evangelism
10 useful points to reflect even on the way we do “evangelism”.
No wonder atheists are angry: they seem ready to believe anything (via Maggi Dawn)
My mind was drawn to Christian parents who are saying “We don’t want to impose our religion on our kids” when I read this… To me especially in a Christian tradition that practises infant baptism, I’m thinking the Christian faith is more about “including” the kids more than “imposing” … here’s what struck me… “His (Dawkins) conclusion is that no children should be exposed to religion until they are old enough to make a choice; anything else is indoctrination. But this is quixotic; how can they ever make any choice without knowledge and how can they ever have knowledge without running into Dawkins’s allegation of indoctrination? Furthermore, the concept of a child to be kept a blank slate, free from parental influence, is absurd – or does it just apply to religion, and if so, why? What about the many ways in which parents shape children (so constraining many choices) for both good and ill? Isn’t the point that children should be encouraged to develop thoughtful, inquiring minds and a strong ethical framework – and that this is possible both with, or without, religious belief?”
leadership as a contemplative movement
now this is counter-cultural … “When I intentionally seek quiet and restful space, I encounter the Spirit of God. When we separate ourselves from busyness and distraction, He comes to brood over us. In that place of shared rest I have nothing to prove, no one to influence, no way to “succeed” except to be loved. Restful people become a welcoming place for the Spirit of God, and in turn can offer peace and rest to others.”
Vigil Watch : 11 Jan 2006
Nice to see some of my pictures there