Sound System

Had my first training of the sound system at the new church this afternoon. Boy, all these knobs on the console...it's overwhelming. Learnt a whole bunch of stuff, which always makes me happy; but I know I won't get it until I start my hands-on training. I think I'm a doer, and I learn by doin'.

So started me thinking about the people who tend the sound system every Sunday. It really is a thankless job. If the music sounds good and all goes well, most credit will go to the worship team, hardly will anyone think of the sound team...well except when problems arise. Interestingly enough though, this happens to be the reason I like this. Kinda strange, but o well, I'm just being me. Anyway, I like this new church...but why do I have this feeling that this church isn't for me? Because everything's too good and too easy? Where's my cross in this church?

Sigh...I heard through the grapevine about some problems that have been brewing in my old church. Honestly, I believe I still have an attachment to that church, because this bad news hurt. I don't like the people, mostly because they are different from me and I have no clue and no desire to learn how to get along with them. Maybe this is my cross. Is this where You have planned to be my home God?

"Whoever doesn't take up my cross isn't worthy of me!" So will I take up the cross!

Room Painting

We painted our friends' master bedroom and nursery this past Sat. None of us knew that they were expecting a child, so it's a nice surprise. Actually, babies I should say, since they already know that there are gonna be two. Fraternal twins! Apparently, fraternal twins are the norm, whereas identical twins are supposedly freaks. Interesting fact.

So the master bedroom's now blue, the nursey's yellow. I never thought that people needed to know how to paint, I always just thought people...well, people simply paint! The host corrected me in this regard, but then, he's an artist...

Well I hope the twins will be one boy, one girl, just as the parents wish. I hope also that the rooms turned out alright and T. wouldn't have to do too much touchup!

Rainbow

Second time I saw rainbows on my way home from work. Second time since we moved to the location in....2004. Wow we've been at the new location 2 years. Time flies.

The rainbows I saw today were not as distinct as the ones I saw the first time. I remember it was across the vast sky, literally from one end to the other, on Marine Drive. I so wished then I had a camera with me. It was so beautiful, so huge, so real, so almost touchable, yet still unreachable. The rainbow of promise.

On another note, I just found out tonight that a friend of mine goes to the Y too! But he goes in the morning, so I've never run into him. I thought about goin' in the morning too...but that'd take away from devotional time, which seems to be getting shorter lately. Still wanna start my day with that...so Y would have to stay in the evening/night.

I got invited to a regular homegroup at my new church tonight. Or every Wed. night. After some thinking and praying, I decided to commit myself to the bible study I'd been goin' to on Wed. I really wish that there were no time conflict and I would be able to go to both. But at least, this decision left me at peace. But again, I would love to get mingled into the new church soon...but all in God's good time and will, I guess.

B.D. Concert

So we went to a Christian concert last night in Abbotsford. First ever Christian concert for me. I enjoyed it, and I believe God did too. It's actually not too much different from the worship in a Christian conference. Or at least in the Christian conferences I go to. Hm...there's a difference between worship on my own and corporate worship. But then, it's all about the heart, isn't it?

Got a chance to check out my friend's new place in Abbotsford before we went to the concert. It's a fairly spacious basement, or ground floor. Still needs some more pieces of furniture to increase the home feel. But it feels very peaceful in there. And there's a pretty unobstructed view in front of the house. It was kinda dark so all I could see was the big sky. But I'm sure the view of the mountains must be breath-taking on a clear day. O mountains, I love mountains!

This past week, I've been basking in thankfulness. Not that things are perfect in my life; in fact, it's quite the opposite, and the road's still tough at work, apart from other things. As much as I wanted to do what Jacob did to his father-in-law, I had firmly decided last week to go with what I believed to be God's will. It's true that God's will costs, but then to be in His will is priceless...I have His confidence to say the least. This thankfulness must be one of the many "by-products" of obedience.

So I was sitting at one end of the tables at Estea where we decided to go for bubble tea after the concert, in extreme thankfulness. There was a total of 10 of us, one still yet to accept Christ. But aside from that, these are the Christian friends God's given me. And amongst them are one of my dear dear prayer partners, and some of the people in the bible study I've started goin' to. This is evidence of God's richness; cuz I never expected God to give me these many serious Chrisitans I could feel a connection to; yes I prayed for this, but I only expected God to give me one or two. Took a while to come, yes, the answer to my prayer I mean, and I don't know how long God would keep us together. But for as long as we are together, I do pray that we'd all grow in Christ together.

I'm typing away now, wondering what it is that brought us together. And honestly, what could it be but the Holy Spirit? I'm thinking about my two prayer partners, B and L. Here are the 3 of us, from 3 different backgrounds, 3 different living styles, 3 different walks of life, each born almost a decade apart, we pray in 3 different languages (well sometimes 4...) yet we all understand each other. And what about these new Christian friends I have? I don't know half of their testimonies, I don't know half of their backgrounds, but I feel a connection with them. And this is a gift from God.