My journey...

A friend of mine sent me the below petition and already 595 people from all around the world have signed it.

Do you remember February 1993 when a young boy of 3 was taken from a Liverpool shopping centre by two 10-year-old boys?

Jamie Bulger walked away from his mother for only a second, JonVenables took his hand and led him out of the mall with his friend Robert Thompson.

They took Jamie on a walk for over 2 and a half miles, along the way stopping every now and again to torture the poor little boy who was crying constantly for his mommy.

Finally they stopped at a railway track where they brutally kicked him, threw stones at him, rubbed paint in his eyes, pushed batteries up his anus and cut his fingers off with scissors.

Other mutilations were inflicted but not reported in the press. What these two boys did was so horrendous that Jamie's mother was forbidden to identify his body.

They then left his beaten small body on railway tracks so a train could run him over to hide the mess they had created.

These two boys, even being boys, understood what they did was wrong, hence trying to make it look like an accident.

This week Lady Justice Butler-Sloss has awarded the two boys anonymity for the rest of their lives when they leave custody with new identities.

They will also leave custody early only serving just over half of their sentence. They are being relocated to Australia to live out the rest of their lives. They disgustingly and violently took Jamie's life away and in return they each get a new life! Please .

If you feel as strongly as we do, that this is a grave miscarriage of justice .. Copy this entire email and paste into a new email then add your name at the end, and send it to everyone you can!

As a normal human being, when we read such injusice, we would automatically react. How can these two boys do such an inhumane act. How can they be given freedom. I do not even know if this is a true story or someone wanting to see how many people he can get to sign the petition. After reading the story, I too was angry. But as I thought about my journey as a Christian, our challenge is "how do we love such a person who we feel are enemies of the world". We are called to love even our enemies. What is their worth as a person? Yes they have committed a terrible act but they still have their worth.

Christ died for such a person too. Sin is sin. We are sinners saved by grace. Put yourself in their shoes. We do not deserve salvation from sin. Though we may not have done such horrible acts like these two boys has. We do not deserve to be loved unconditionally by God. We do not deserve to enter His presence and to walk together with Him yet God provided a way for us through Christ. Even though we have hurt Him very much by crucifying His son, by worshipping idols, by turning our backs on Him, by taking Him for granted, by using His name in vain, our unbelieve, by the way we live, yet He still longs for our companionship. He still longs for us to return to Him.

I remember a story told to me a long time ago. This person's parents and family were killed and torchured by Nazi and he was very scarred by it. Yet he came to experience the love of God and it completely changed his perspective in life. He was even able to hug the soldier who apparently killed his family. He found foegiveness and salvation in God and was able to forgive and love those whom he once hate.

Everyone is given the same amount of love if only we are willing to accept it. It is amazing what love can do. Espescially given to those who do not deserve it. Jesus is our greatest example. He gave His life for us who do not deserve it.

I do not want to judge whether these boys deserve to be locked up the rest of their lives. It is not for me to judge. My question is, are we able to love such as these like Christ love us? The message of the Cross.

People whom you care about the most are the ones who hurt you the most. At times it feels like a dagger is stabbed into your heart. Maybe it is expectations of each other not met. Or have we misunderstood each other's intentions? Whatever it is, I pray that God will help us see things from His perspective. To understand each other more clearly. To place Him in the center of our friendship that this friendship may bring Him joy and that He will be pleased with it.

Turkey is such a lovely country. So rich in culture and history. The early church history is from there as well. To think that Turkey was once a christian place but now it is 93% muslim. What happened? God tried to warn the churches in the book of revelation to repent and turn to Him but I guess they did not take heed. I saw a church which was later converted into a mosque when the muslim spread in the country. They still had the image of Christ and Mary on the walls. They also had the Quran verses painted together with those icons. The cross on the door was changed into an arrow.

It was in Nicerea (not sure of the spelling) in Turkey that our Fathers of faith gathered for the first time to have a theological discussion about Jesus. Is he human or is he God. Thus came our Nicene creed. I always wondered why they called it Nicene creed. What is the meaning of Nicene. Now I know. Because it was in Nicerea that they came up with the creed.

It was such a great trip. I totally enjoyed listening to the stories and the history explained by our guide. He explained in such a way that it captures your attention. He made history and culture interesting. Not to mention he was cute too. hee hee. The Turkish are so friendly. At one place, we met a lot of youth going for a picnic and they offered us cake. They are just so warm and welcoming and friendly. They believe very much in community. One of the thing that the chuch has lost along the way.

Our Guide on the left

The sad thing about the trip. On the first day, after taking about 200 photos, my memory card died on me and I lost all the pics. Then on the second last day of the tour, I dropped my nikon D70. It is now not functioning. I was so upset. But I still managed to take more than 2000 pictures during this trip which I will post a few on my flickr blog when I find the time.

The group size was about 18 people plus the tour leader and they were all very nice people. We had fun. We took care of one another. It was good. We saw snow in Spring. It was not suppose to snow but it did. We did not bring much warm clothing so I was freezing but it was all worth it to see the snow. The place is so much more scenic with the snow. Even the guide says that he hardly experience snow in spring.

When we touched down, it was raining but for the rest of the time we were there, it was perfect weather. The day we left, it started to rain again.

I went hot air ballooning for the first time. It was on the hills covered snow with the volcanic rocks. You can't really see the snow from the picture below. A place called capadocea. Place where the early christians ran to hide from persecution. They carved holes in the rocks to live in. The built underground homes. You just have to be there to. I nearly cried because of the magnificent landscape which made me think of the awesomeness of our God. Everywhere you look, few hundred holes and most of them were churches where the people met to worship God.



I also went to Ephesus. Place where Paul went and stayed for months to encourage the church. Below is the front of the library. One of the largest in that time and the structure still stands. Of course with a little bit of help from the archealogists.



I did have my rest. Though not enough. I had long bus trips and during those trips, had a few revelations which I may blog about in my next entries.

I was just so in awe of the goodness of God and the wonder of God and the greatness of God.

For my faithful readers, I will be away on holiday for about 2 weeks. It will be a good time away. Easter came and gone and I have been so busy that I did not really think about the meaning of easter. It was more like work and work. This time away would be a good time for me to spend time with my family and also to spend time with God. To ponder about things which He is teaching me about His Kingdom. To hang out with Him. To have fun with my daddy in heaven. To discover different cultures and different landscapes so that I can be in awe of the creative God again. To enjoy His creation. Someone once said "It is not our doing but our being that is important. If we find that our doing is getting no where, then we need to look at our being" God is more interested in us as a person and our walk with Him. Our "ministry" and serving is secondary. This time away, i hope to be found in Him even more. To be amazed by Him once again. I might just have a good time and not get any revelations but that is OK. I know I will just be amazed at the different expression of God's creation. I will gain rest and be refreshed.

We had some "friends" from UK visit us for the past week. It has been fun having them around. Although we live on different continents, it felt like our hearts somehow connected cause we are connected by the same spirit. I always enjoy that feeling of family with people from different parts of the world because we have the same Father.



One thing which shock them when they were here was when they went to our pharmacy and saw whitening cream. In the west, they are trying to get as tan as possible with their tanning creams and here we are trying to avoid the sun and get as white as possible. Humans. We are never satisfied with what we have and how we look. We have a product for everything. If you want to get tan. If you want to get whiter. If you want to put on weight. If you want to loose weight. If you want to make your body firmer. what color do you want your hair to be. That is one reason why plastic surgery is so popular. Gyms are such a hit nowadays.

Why would people go through all those trouble to change the way they look? Not that they are never satisfied but I think it has to do with acceptance. Perhaps if I look better, people will like me more. I would find a better boyfriend. I need to be good looking to "make it" in this world. It is all about image. It is all about how I feel about myself in order for me to gain confidence.

What is our society telling us? Lifestyle is so important. To chase that dream of luxury living so that we can brag about what we have. But inside, you will always not be satisfied. Not be contended. That feeling of emptiness that you think could be fulfilled if only... I am in a better state that I am in now.

Fulfillment can only be found in God. Only when I find myself in Him then do I truly find myself. Find out who I truly am. What my reason for existance is. My value and worth is not in the way I look. Not in the things I have but it is found in God. His character expressed through my life. It is not even in the contentment of having a "better" half. Having a family. My contentment has to be first and foremost found in God. Having a someone to share this journey with is a blessing from Him. Having riches and wealth is His blessings. Having children are also His blessings. They are not to be the satisfaction of our life. The satisfaction of our life is when we discover Him. I know of people who are so desperate to find a husband and when they have finally gotten married, their life evolves around the person. Or friends who long for children and when they have one, everything evolves around the kid. The child becomes Lord of their lives. We need to find ourself in Him. To have true relationship with Him.

We can be as white as we want to or as tan as we want to yet we will never be contended unless we are found in Him.

As human beings we always pray and wish for good things. We always wish that it was us who will strike that lottery instead of the next person. We wish that we would have that BMW instead of our friend. We would wish our husband will be that tall dark and handsome guy. We wish that good things will happen to us. But when God does bless us with good things, we almost do not believe that He would do that. It is too good to be true therefore it cannot be God. It cannot be for me. But our God is waiting to bless us with good things. The best for us.

I have mentioned in my previous blog entries that as Christians, the extraordinary should be the ordinary for us. We say it and we say it should be. But when it does happen, how much do we believe it? We almost will forget about it when the extraordinary does happen and walk away thinking it must not be for me. For example, you are suddenly being offered a job that pays tripple of what you are getting and you will be doing less than what you are currently doing plus you would be doing something that you would really love and you are being offered this job. But you say that it is too good to be true. There has to be a hidden agenda. There must be something fishy. I better not accept it. Everything looks fine but there is no such good things that would happen to me. Know the saying "There is nothing free in this world". Where is our believe? Extraordinary? Does it only happen when there are signs and wonders? We say we want to experience miracles yet when it comes in a package that we do not recognise, we disregard it?

May we recognise the good things that He delights to give us. In no way am I saying that it is the prosperity gospel and that as Christians, we are to have prosperity and wealth and health all the time. But in our journey, God does delight in us and delight in blessing us as well.

May you be suprised by God in His little blessings that He would give you. His good gifts to you.