I’m glad I survived my “translation” assignment for my Bishop during the special thanksgiving church dedication and anniversary celebration at Sunway Lutheran congregation. Sometimes I felt my mind went blank or at least I wasn’t as sharp as I should me. The vocabs were getting jumbled up, I landed up doing some level of paraphrasing rather than dynamic equivalent work. I admit, my physical body was a little tired. And that affects everything.

I REALLY enjoyed the above mentioned service tonight. Especially, three items. (1) The “short TV magazine” type movie they presented – taking us to all the 5 venues the church has worshiped the last 15 years. (2) a more artistic creative pantomime-like presentation describing their move to the new premises including elements of comedy and tragedy which I thought was great. (3) interestingly I appreciated the financial report on how the church managed to raise the current funds for this building project and an honest sharing on the need to repay back their loans.

The buffet was good. I enjoyed numerous conversations especially catching up with some of the pastors, and also ended up talking with the people who did (1) and (2) mentioned above. I think they were encouraged when I picked out specific parts of their presentation and pointed out to them why I liked it. Maybe this is where being a son of an artistic father who’s still involved in the entertainment industry has rubbed off a little on me. Not much. just a little 🙂

At times, being able to notice some things doesn’t have to be painful … it can be joyful.

All in all I was inspired by this church of around 100 people who have been faithful all these 15 years and it’s great to be part of their celebration tonight. They are more from the Chinese speaking background. So there were some stuff which I could appreciate though I’m not fully at home with. But it was great. I noticed how we Chinese aren’t really that stiff .. there were some good dances tonight. I couldn’t help keep on smiling when the “pink” Aunties did their “praise aerobics” routine. It’s more taichi-like than breakdance-like but I thought it was pretty contextual 🙂

I’ve always been encouraged by Rev. Lim’s ministry. I recall when BLC started her church was one of the first who supported with a financial gift. She’s also been a great source of input in the examination committee I’m heading for the denomination. A wonderful partner in ministry.

Ok I think the above wasn’t that random … here are more random thoughts …

it’s not easy to teach someone to say “sorry”. I noticed where one can do it easier, another struggles more.

What a joy to play a part in helping 8 adults in a process where they are initiated into the “reign of God.” It’s merely the beginning, but still worth celebrating. One family missed today due to children who fell ill but they are on when they are ready 🙂

The air-con wasn’t tip top today for our church … there were many guests to witness the baptisms which was encouraging … I think we had about 103 adults today with 21 kids. The 6 air-cons were working a little too hard. Time for servicing.

Got an SMS a while ago …. another hospital episode which needs prayer.

Reading the blog posts on Good Friday did me some good. In short, it’s nice to see people benefit from the stuff I’m involved in. So, often we only hear what people don’t like or find missing (which I think will always be there). But just to hear how some are blessed is good enough for tonight. I treasure feedback like this.

Got an SMS earlier tonight with words of encouragement for the Easter service this morning. God you are so gracious to me.

Good to see some people today who have been missing for “ages” 🙂

Discovered a blog … should we let people know when we discovered them?

hahahah … a principal from a conservative seminary shook my hand in the afternoon and then told me indirectly he’s come across my blog. Now, during the Christmas season last year a Bible college principal told me the same thing. How many seminary educators read my blog? would that change the way I blog?

Man … I can’t forget the roast pork I had for dinner. Awesome. Lent is over. Chips tomorrow …

I’m going to get some Ribena now even though it doesn’t have much vitamin C for me … it’s a nice drink. Or maybe I should switch to Shandy – lemonade beer? hmmm ….

I need to learn to get REALLY happy for a change after learning to enter into pain and struggles (which has been a hard lesson to learn). I confess I can’t be a “rah! rah!” Christian … but I can celebrate. Joy is good … (almost typed food where I corrected it to good …) anyway, off to the fridge now.