worship;

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth
Matthew 4:24

what God did for us;

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 NKJV

Wednesday 27 March 2013

Nostalgia.

Haven't blogged in a while,

And Easters coming up..thinking back and listening to one direction..over so many years so many things have changed. Many people have come and gone and a thought has been on my mind for a while.. that it's better to regret what has happened than to regret and ponder about things that could've happened and the 'what ifs'. There's been many what ifs in my life so far. Like what if I had stayed in Auckland, what would my life be like?
Since I've moved here I kind of miss Auckland. All the things I've escaped and the new things I'm experiencing now. It's a big change. Its been a month and a week and I just want to return to my old life at Auckland. Attend high school and live the normal life..

Ah, so many thoughts kept up in my head right now; this personal blog I come was originally just for me but now I know people read this and all the thoughts I want to write are stuck here. But ohwell, better said now than regret and forget.

Firstly and final for this post:
One Direction, Still the one

Nostalgia. What if. These words, continuously tread around my mind.
I miss. The times back when I was so carefree about everything.

Argh. Ok that's my thoughts for tonight. Goodnight

Monday 11 March 2013

Dunedin #1

Wonderful southernly greetings to you!
Many of my friends would know that I've moved down to Dunedin on the 17th February. I apologize for not blogging since the beginning of the year but it's been busy since I've arrived here.
Things are great right now, I've met great friends, a great church and have had some great memories already. Believe that God has opened this path since the beginning of my journey.

Well, to recall what happened, I didn't settle in a day or two. It actually took a good few weeks to familiarize myself and let the feeling sink in that I'm alone..

But through the loneliness and hardship, I believe God's constantly watched over me and he's accompanied me. Reaching a point that I'm satisfied with being in my room alone because I know God's present in my room through the bible I meditate over and the comfort he's provided.

Some of my friends/blog readers just want to know everything that's happening..cause I don't really update through facebook often and don't get a chance to chat.
In saying that, I'll try sum up the past 3 weeks at Dunedin briefly..(sleep soon, have lectures tomorrow morning from 8 -_-)

Week 1: known as o'week,
orientation week is practically a week to confirm courses, get to know people and places. Well to be perfectly honest I didn't have any friends Monday morning after my arrival the night before. It was the first time to ever be this alone...unfortunately Monday morning there was a loud siren at 7am and to my surprise I didn't know what to do..I wasn't even sure if there was a fire and if there was, I had no clue where to go..I stayed in bed and waited for the siren to stop and I was clueless to the situation..minutes passed and the siren silenced. I checked outside and after some time a large group of people started to come back into the halls. Yeah, I missed the fire alarm, day 1. No one to contact or ask..just a good laugh now that I think about it, fob asian fresher -_-

Luckily that morning I made a few friends at breakfast. Everyone wore name tags and I met a guy named Jaume and Te Rana, we had small talk and I had to confirm my course at uni in the afternoon so I left and made my way to campus..
Arrived on time and found out that I didn't have anything else to do after my confirmation..from the experience in the morning I decided to talk to a guy who was also in line. There was nothing to do. We went to a cafe and his name was Emeka, he came from London to study commerce and during his stay here his ultimate goal was rugby, to play with the Highlanders and hopefully New Zealand.

The remainder of the day passed slowly. I arrived back in Salmond Hall in hope to meet new friends, every meal intended to have a conversation based on
-your name
-what you study
-where you're from

Honestly, it was a hard day to make friends; you don't know anyone because you came last night and everyone who came few days before had the jist of what to do and had friends. I remember that night reading the bible alone in my room,

Romans 14:13
'Therefore let us stop passing judgement on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling blocks or obstacles in your brothers way'

I came to a conclusion that this passage were reassuring words of God. No one who is God's pupil will judge me and that I shouldn't judge people by what I perceive. Had a good nights sleep in hope that God will answer my prayers soon.

Day 2: sports day is an event where all the colleges (halls of residence) gather and have a competition in sports. It's like an athletics day but the events are all team sports and against other colleges. I was thankful to meet new friends in my favorite sport, soccer. We won, lost and drew but overall had a good outcome, meeting new friends.

Day 3: Ice Skating was on that night but from soccer the previous day I sprained my ankle so I went to the physiotherapy clinic recommended by one of the residential leaders. It was a long walk to the clinic but eventually I arrived and got it checked by a 4th year physiotherapy student. Nothing was serious and time had my recovery in its hands.
If you know me..you know that I love iceskating and regardless of my injury I went iceskating and it was..so fun! The night was good and made many more friends :)

Day 4: at Salmond College there is a main common room where we have a pool table, table tennis table and table hockey. It was one of the first times I went that day and it was great. Showed off my pool skills haha, and had a great time just relaxing that day with new friends.

Day 5: it was coming to an end of o'week and tonight was bowling. But the same day me and my friends bought cruiser boards cause the walk from uni to Salmond College took 20minutes. With the board it took a bit longer than 10mins. Well in the evening we went bowling.. Yeah..I also enjoy bowling.. Met even more new people from everywhere in New Zealand as well as internationals. Our college went to a local bowling alley, I scored 140 the first game and to my surprise they wanted me to play in the finals with other high scoring players.
(final outcome, not so good)

Day 6: Saturday we had a beach bash. We arrived at a beach 30min from Salmond College. We just enjoyed the sun and games while it lasted. The water was amazingly clear compared to Auckland's beaches.

Day 7: the lords day, after an eventful week it was the Lords day (Sunday). I wasn't sure where to go as there weren't many signs of Korean churches and unfortunately it was one of the rare occasions I missed out on church. I was really disappointed in myself and sorry to God. Mum wasn't too happy as well.
Looking back the bible was in the same position a week ago. I felt I betrayed myself and God, I get frustrated at others who don't attend church and that day I missed church, and I also didn't meditate daily..
Since the day I left Auckland I had no one to tell me off for anything I did. As long as I had money, time and friends there were no restrictions to what I could do. The freedom at uni was so different to high school and living at home. As I reflected back on the week I read the bible;

Romans 2:24-25
24) As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
25) Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.

I was reminded of myself and thought that it was a great verse to describe my present situation. We could assume that the circumcision is a sign of being a Christian, cause back when Paul wrote this book to the Romans it was known that Jews were circumcised as a sign of their religion. But as for us, we could compare circumcision with one of the signs in the 21st century which is a baptism. I've been baptized and reborn a new.
However as the bible says circumcision has value IF you observe the law. It hit me that night, when I knew I hadn't followed what God had wanted me to do, I've been sidetracked and occupied by the world. And the value of my baptism was gone, I was just another lost soul in the world. Through the observation I gained, I prayed and got myself back on track; to glorify God through every action.

I thank God for helping me and showing me what he wanted through the bible, I believe when you pray and seek he will without a doubt fulfill what is needed. He's waiting outside your door knocking, but you're preoccupied by what's going on that you can't hear him. Only when you focus to him and pray His resolution will become focused.

Concluding, as it's a real long post of just my first week, I want to say that whatever may happen set sight back onto your priorities. What is it that you need, is it facebook, shopping, that extra 10min in bed? Or is it our daily bread, His words of wisdom or His glory? Whatever you may do, constantly reflect on yourself, on your day and ask God, pray to Him. Then things can only get better from there because He's absolutely amazing!!

Enough for a single blogpost, will upload photos at the end of this for you all and more posts coming up on my blessed journey so far in Dunedin. :)

God Bless, and goodnight!

P.S. not sure how to move the photos and add headings to it...but it's pretty self explanatory mostly..

P.S.S. Last photo, I'm sleeping on the way to the beach cause we had a tour (Baldwin St, steepest street in the world) and I was pretty tired from the week..





















Thursday 3 January 2013

2013

Beginning of a new year.
First moments of 2013 at church and made some goals/prayer topics for myself!

Well...here are the things that I am praying to God for and hopefully you can pray for me as well:

-to make friends that will be a good influence to me and my university life.
-to find a good church to attend at Otago
-to meditate God's word daily
-to spread God's word to my friends
-to have a heart to help and serve others
-not to be ashamed of God
-not to be easily tempted by the Devil
-for my siblings to seek God more
-for my family not to forget the family worship every Thursday evenings
-for New Zealand to become a better place


First bible verse I received in 2013:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:1~2

Honestly, I don't know what this really means. Hopefully through the year I'll understand this verse and realise something extraordinary. But for now, all I can do is pray and meditate on this bible verse.


Also, in 2013. Our worship band at church have decided make a t-shirt for our team.
Going to blog about that soon :) but till the next post, stay safe and God Bless! He really and truly loves you and we should love him with all our hearts and souls too as it says in the bible and in this song:

He answered: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and Love your neighbour as yourself"
Luke 10:27






2012

Well... 2012. What do I have to say about that year, it was quite eventful. Events that have made who I am now and things that have changed my perspective on things.

1) Forgetting the past
Even though this year I've been forgetful at times. I mean things that I no longer want to remember. Things I should move on from, the past. The times I've felt pain and misery. Biggest thing for this was girls. Through girls, they've shaped my life, cause at this age I've come to realise that what we talk about with people always include the opposite sex. What attracts us and what doesn't.
Well, from girls I've learnt to forget things that may be painful and also learnt from those things so I might not make the same mistake.

2) Intimate relationship with God
This year has probably been the year that I've gotten most close with God. God has anointed me the position of being a leader at church. Even though I'll be gone from 2013 because of school. In the short time of being the leader in 2012 I've learnt so many things about God. Things that have allowed me to change myself into a person who God would want to use. This has lead to me being afar from bad habits. e.g. smoking, girlfriends, alcohol.
Even though there may be the occasional event of doing these things, I've noticed a great decrease of it in my life.
I believe those of you whom have kept up to date with my blog have noticed a change in me over the year. Over the experiences that I've been through that have brought me closer to becoming a genuine Christian.

3) Blogging
Yay, started to blog in April 2, 2012 through the influence of Chelsea!
It has helped me to reflect on myself. Although I haven't blogged a lot in 2012, reading my previous posts it helps me to remember the time that God has been acting in my life.
The feelings that I wouldn't want to forget. God's presence and guidance have been felt and recorded on this blogspot and I'm really thankful for Chelsea and the creators of this site. And...hopefully I'll continue to blog in 2013!

4) New and old friends
Friends and popularity played a big role in 2012. I've always been concerned about what others thought about me. I guess I was obsessed with popularity. I overcame that factor with the help of some deep talks with Steph and Chelsea, resulting in me being less active with making new friends although there are the few exceptions, you know who you are.. :D tai! Although I've become distant with some friends (literally as well) I believe things happen for a reason and even better friends await them. I've also become even closer with a specific group of friends I can call my closest friends, and I know now that it's better than having many casual friends. I want to thank you friends for being my friends. Friends that have still stayed after all the things that have happened! God Bless you all :)

Well got a lot of more to write, and things that have occurred in 2012..but it's in more detail in some of the other posts on my blogger :) here's a photo blog of 2012 and beginning of 2013!


Key events in 2012!



Beginning of 2012 (January)



Start of being a leader (February)



Botany Market Day ft. Chelsea (March) 



Youth For Christ conference (April)



VTD camp (April)



Marie off to Korea (May)



Botany Ball ft. closest friends (June)


17th Birthday (July)



Chelsea off to Malaysia (July)



Botany's Got Talent Finals(August)



AUT careers seminar (September)



Youth Church Camp (October)




YFC Arts Festival (October)



Graduating Highschool (November)





Youth Kosta (December)




Christmas dinner with entire family (December)



Coromandel ft. James Song(December)

2013 events so far!


Summer Church Camp (January)


God Bless you all! Hope for a successful year of getting closer to God and living life to the fullest! 
& Happy New Years! 

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Summer talk.

Christmas holidays have begun and I haven't updated in a while :) anyways ;Keeping things short and sweet. Had a great time with God recently, and having a good rest:)
At coromandel right now for holiday and thinking about an issue that has risen.

Why is it that every girl I meet, we become close friends then...they get a boyfriend or something. Its not every but it seems like most of them! It feels like you've led me on aswell. But I just haven't had the guts to ask you out and I don't really want to ask you out to be honest. Cause I ask Gods approval first, and yeah...I'm always left alone, 2nd...3rd...4th...choice.
It's not just one time it happened but multiple. Like...I get to know you better, seems so swell...then out of the blue you have a boyfriend.

Anyways, prayed about it. Have my own opinions and what God is telling me.

Believe God has someone even better awaiting for me to mature first. Live with that hope :) stay as their friend and just kickback. Gods got something amazing planned, I know it! :)

Anyways, in bed right now, it's 2am. Coromandel is good so far, just that it's quite distant from my house. Went shopping this morning, got a giraffe shirt and beach slippers(?) If that's how you call it.
Day before, was Christmas. Celebrated at church in the morning then came home, opened presents, went on a family bike ride, made dinner-made sushi:) like heaps..., then played monopoly and watched a movie! 'Twas good day! Merry Christmas btw, and happybirthday baby Jesus.
Day beforeeee Christmas, went shopping, ate, and watched a movie with a friend. Good day buying gifts for others and helping out homeless people on town streets!
Before that was Wendys white Christmas party :) good good.
Then before thaaaaat was youth-kosta. Got a post coming up for that...hopefully :)

Anyways, sorry for not blogging in a while. But yeah~ better late than never! Have a good Summer break and see you soon.
God Bless!


A picture blog of the events :)


18-21 dec: youth-Kosta preview! My group, #7


22 dec: white christmas party


24 dec: eventful shopping day


25 dec: Christmas day!


25 dec: Christmas dinner!


26 dec: boxing day shopping


26 dec: on the way to Coromandel


26 dec: at Coromandel