Returning Home

The last 2 months have been packed with loads of work and preparations. We have just finished our family reunion here in Europe. Joel has just returned back to the US to work for the rest his summer holidays. Joanna will be returning to Melbourne on Wednesday for work and we will be returning to Malaysia on Thursday. We have a lot of packing to do these few days and our final submission of our thesis proposal before we return to Malaysia to write the thesis. We have travelled a lot as a family and have wonderful memories of our short time together in Europe. There's a lot that we have seen and experienced not only in the last 3 weeks but in our 9 months of stay in Brussels. The 9 months have passed very fast. We thank God for all that He has shown us and taught us through the lectures, research and most of all the interaction with the diverse cultures here in CTS. This will probably be the last blog from Europe. Bye ...

Apologies

It's being a lo...ng time. Silence is not golden. It just means we are either lazy or busy. Well... we ARE BUSY. We have been busy typing but not on this page but on Microsoft Word for our essays. Yeah... I know I promise some of you some pictures from our ministry week in Sweden. Will post a few here for you to see. It takes time even to select the pictures. BTW, we have exactly 65 days more in Europe. Time really flies. We have seen a lot and experienced a lot ... The stay here has enriched our lives and perspectives. God has been faithful and good as He has always been, no matter what we are doing and where we are. Do continue to pray for us as we finish the last 2 laps of our course work here in CTS. Then we begin another lap of writing our dissertation when we get back to Penang. We have less than 6 months to write before we submit the thesis in Jan 2008. The past 6 month have really stretched us in terms of our brains, our stewardship of time, finances and resources and at the same time maintaining our relationship with God. We thank God for this opportunity to grow in knowledge and wisdom and in our view of God and what He is doing throughout the nations. Well... got to stop now. Here are the pictures I promised.

Beautiful Spring Flowers in the garden of our host family's house.

This is our host family in Bie, Katrineholm, Sweden. Bie is a small town of about 700 people. They call this a village.

Left to Right: Sonya (Tommy's Mum), Tommy (CTS Teacher and Team Leader), Bendt (Tommy's Dad), J.D. from US (CTS 3rd yr student), Lydia (Penang, Malaysia) and the camera man - Isaac Chan. This is a typical dinner. Lunch is their main meal.

Lunch - Swedish Meat Balls, Homemade. It was very good and yummy and is much better than what you get at Ikea.

Closer look at the swedish meat balls. Sorry, only can see but imagine the taste.

Ok... that's all for now.

Sun, snow, rainbow and hail - all in one week!

It's been a while since we posted anything. Nothing much has changed except for the interesting weather. We thought spring has already started but no... we were wrong. Seems like it's still winter. After a rainy and gloomy spell, we enjoyed a few good days. The sun was out, the skies were blue and it was warm (around 14 - 15 degrees). Here are a few pictures:

Sunday, 11th March 2007
We visited an international church in Leuven. This is a small town about an hour from the school with a catholic university that had the largest Theological Library in Europe. The church, pastored by a Dutch couple, meets in one of the chapels every sunday.

They have many nationalities, particularly chinese (mainly from China and Hong Kong).This picture shows a group presenting a mandarin song. It was really good.

After the service, in the courtyard of the university, where the church meets. As you can see, it was a sunny sunday.

Monday, 19th March 2007
Well, lo and behold, the weather took a turn.. the days were getting colder. It got so cold that it actually snowed on Monday afternoon. For the last 2 weeks, it has been the coldest for us since we came to Brussels. Well, that's because we were back in warm and sunny Penang during the coldest period. This week has been a fantastic week. We had Sun, snow, rainbow and hail. Spring is colorful but winter is heavenly.


Below are the little footprints of our friends in CTS. Not sure if they belong to the geese or the ducks. Anyway, isn't it amazing how straight they walk? A pair of ducks gave birth to 4 ducklings earlier but one of them died because of the cold. It's so sad.


Tuesday, 20th March 2007
A beautiful rainbow to remind us of God's Covenant with Noah. If you look carefully, there's actually 2 rainbows. God is so great and majestic.


Wednesday, 21st March 2007
After the snow and the rainbow was the hail. They were like pellets of crushed snow fallling like rain. It's really amazing. The white spots on the grass are hail.No.. we didn't go out ... we don't want to be 'injured'. It reminded me of Sodom and Gomorrah, only it was much worse than this. It was fire and brimstone.

In Malaysia, people talk about food. Whenever we meet people, we ask "have you eaten?" (that's the typical cantonese greeting anyway). Here, the day's converstaion evolves around the weather. It's interesting also to observe how many people's lives and activities are controlled by the weather. If we can talk about God like we talk about food, weather or politics, etc, our lives would be so different. May our lives be centered on the Lord and what He desires to do in our lives and what He's telling us throughout the day. If we can see God in every area of our life, we will have a right perspective and response to what happens to us and around us.

Do continue to uphold us in prayer for our studies and the remaining months here in CTS. Also, we will appreciate your prayers for us while we are in Sweden from March 30th to April 10th for ministry with the school.

Spring Is Here

This is a typical day in Brussels. It doesnt look very uplifting. If we are not careful we can look like the weather too - gloomy and depressing. We have to learn to look beyond the clouds and the gloomy skies. In fact it has been like this for days in the last 2 weeks. The sun only peeked out for a few minutes and then disappeared. It has also been raining everyday. Temperature now is between 5 to 10 degrees celcius in the the daytime. But hey, spring is coming. The flowers and leaves are are starting to bud - there's a ray of hope.Here it is. Isn't it beautiful? New life !!! This shot was taken on a rare sunny afternoon - just one day to catch this beautiful sight. How can anyone not worship the Designer and Creator? One can really sing "How Great Thou art"


P.Isaac answering the higher call - cleaning the ceiling of the chapel 25 ft high. No, he's not playing, this is part of his duty here in CTS and he enjoys it.

Food for thot: Just as the building was reflected on the rarely still waters of the lake, may our lives also be a true reflection of Christ. May the Lord help each one of us to BE transformed into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ as we surrender to Him and submit to His working in our lives. God Bless each of you.

P/S : I finished my essay in time and now working on the next one on Isaiah. God is revealing a lot of things to us through the studies, research and writing. He is also speaking to us through the Bible Reading. Let's keep going and not give up.

Pastor Lydia

Arrived In CTS

We arrived safely on Saturday morning 8 am in Brussels, including our bags (they were securely strapped and wrapped, cost us RM27, didn't want to take any chances cos we have goodies in our bags - to celebrate CNY and we can't get them here!!!) We were picked up by our CAmpus Pastor, Ken Krake, if you all remember him, we asked PCC to pray for his granddaughter Esther Grace.

When we arrived, we found out the school had organized a visit to the COncentration Camp in Breendonk which is about 40 mins. drive from the school. P.ISaac being a fan of history, decided we should go. SO we left our bags, and joined the students. It was truly an experience. We had to pretend to be prisoners. We can't show you all the pictures cos it was dark and cold in there.

Below are some clear ones:

This is the entrance to the camp.












One of the cells. The tin is their toilet which they have to empty every morning.












The place where the prisoners were hanged.













Urns containing the ashes of the victims.













They call this the cattle carriage - used to transport the prisoners to Germany and other
concentration camps. The journey can take a few days and the prisoners stay in the carriage without food or water. Whatever they need to do they do inside the carriage.








We are now released from the prison. So we can smile.












Back to CTS, this week is a whole week of lectures from 8am to 1pm on Isaiah - Exegesis of Isaiah. Tough, thought provoking and heavy but very insightful. Appreciate the wealth of the word of God and amazed at how God works through the weakness of His people to accomplish his plan. Challenged to trust God and God alone - that's the message of Isaiah. Well, pray for us this week, especially me (P. Lydia), I have an essay due next friday on the Gospel of John, which I was supposed to do when I was back in Penang. Now I have to really burn midnight oil but the problem is I am sleepy by 10 pm. Jet lag lah. Then I have to start the next essay on Isaiah before the next course. Appreciate all your prayers.

Love and Prayers. Will update later.