MYC fun and craziness

I'm back at home after an awesome MYC, and I have to pack again to go back to college tomorrow. MYC was so much fun, and really amazing in terms of being challenged and encouraged in my faith aswell. A little segment of conversation I particularly liked seems to encapsulate the main idea of the talks, in addition to the craziness that is CU...

Bella (to Sean): You're a complete Christian even if you stand on ladders cutting basketball hoops with knives.
Sean (to Bella): And you're a complete Christian even if you go around spraying people with deodorant.

Such crazy times. MYC is always great cause I get to spend lots of time with all my friends, and build deeper relationships. But I've also met so many new people that are really cool, and I look forward to seeing everyone again this week. I also look forward to seeing all my 2nd year education friends at 9am this Monday for an EDUC262 lecture, hehehe won't that be fun?!

At other MYCs the talks have been full of different ideas, related to eachother but different. This time, though, it seemed like there was one main idea repeated and elaborated and reinforced over and over again. But that idea is the most important in the whole world. If you were only going to know one thing in your life, it would be that salvation comes only through faith in Christ and not through our own works. I thought it was awesome that we did spend so much time dwelling on this amazing truth and praising God for it. I also really liked Scott's answer to the question I asked during question time about whether having the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Spirit are different things.

'We don't get more of the Spirit. The Spirit gets more of us.'

It is a challenge to be daily offering my life to God, and to be offering more and more of my life to him. God is so awesome and completely worthy of all our praise! I've been reinspired to live for God, and I pray that this passion doesn't fade, but also that I'll be faithful and joyful even when I don't feel like it.

I think it's pointform time now, as I reminisce upon all the wonderfully crazy and sweet things that happened over this week.

* The Bens, Bec and Sonny wearing school uniforms on the first day and having prefect elections.
* Amalya and Isabella being there.
* The black nails club - Sean, Shan, Ali, Roxi...for some reason I had trouble convincing others. But then the nailpolish looked like it was going to run out so I stopped trying to recruit new members.
*Playing twister with Roxi and Ali, and also watching other people play once I had changed back into my long skirt.
* Watching Sean attempt to cut the ropes of the basketball net with a kitchen knife. Not so much funny as scary. But a little bit funny.
* Having tea with 6 sugars one morning and watching everyone elses reaction...then watching my reaction. If you noticed carefully, I didn't do that again.
* Shan's death metal Galatians performance. I walked in and had that hilarious look on my face because I knew *exactly* what was going on.
* When we were voting at the AGM, Fiona wanted to put a simpsons quote on her form. So she decided on 'One for Martin, two for Martin'. She didn't want to write it while Heather was standing next to us collecting forms so she waited, but by the time she'd finished the forms had already been taken into the next room, so she ran to the other room and gave it to the people there. So, unfortunately, her 'one for Martin, two for Martin' wasn't as anonymous as she hoped it to be. It was pretty hilarious at the time.
* Thankyou Manda for your commitment to serving us through music. I know there were heaps of issues to organise and work through. Thanks heaps. And also thanks for talking in small group.
* Singing Kumbaya in a circle of girls, and sounding beautiful all together.
* Going to the beach on the last night...having good conversations, witnessing craziness and Roxi telling me my theme song which is 'tale as old as time' from Beauty and the Beast. Other people got theme songs too.
*The emotion and thanksgiving that was in the open mic time. Then it made me all emotional. Hehe, I'm a little emo. Not really.

Just because I'm getting really, really bored

For some reason I was reminded of the underpants game - that one where you take wellknown sayings, titles or quotes and replace one of the words with the word underpants. Oh yes, its a classy game. It's a very fun game to play, anyway. I've realised that the titles of the Harry Potter books are particularly hilarious. I was laughing out loud just thinking about it.

* Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Underpants (or the underpants stone)
* Harry Potter and the Underpants of Secrets (or the chamber of underpants)
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Underpants (or the underpants of azkaban)
* Harry Potter and the Underpants of Fire (ooooooooooow - or the goblet of underpants)
* Harry Potter and the Order of the Underpants (or the underpants of the phoenix)
* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Underpants (or the underpants prince)
* Harry Potter and the Deathly Underpants (or the underpants hallows)

Or Harry Underpants, or Underpants Potter...

Hehehehehe....ah, I am so bored. See, this is the kind of thing I think about if I'm left at home for too long. Yes, the underpants game is fun.

I love this song

We've started singing this song at church and it's one of my favourites at the moment.

What the Lord has done in me

Let the weak say I am strong, let the poor say I am rich
Let the blind say I can see, it's what the Lord has done in me

Hosanna, hosanna to the Lamb that was slain
Hosanna, hosanna, Jesus died and rose again.

Into the river I will wade, there my sins are washed away
From the heavens mercy streams of the saviours love for me

I will rise from waters deep into the saving arms of God
I will sing salvation songs, Jesus Christ has set me free.

Hosanna, hosanna to the Lamb that was slain
Hosanna, hosanna, Jesus died and rose again.

Quality Christian fiction...?

I paid a visit to Koorong today, and as I looked at the fiction part of the store, I was reminded of the blog discussion of only a few posts ago. The one about the lack of quality Christian fiction. I don't know where you can find quality Christian fiction but it doesn't seem to be at Koorong. There are some excellent books at Koorong, about theology and general Christian living, but the fiction books there all seem to be lightweight romance. The kind of books that have a warm and fuzzy message but are generally superficial or have underdeveloped characters or are just badly written. I'm all for romantic subplots in books, but romantic fiction generally doesn't interest me, particularly if it is poorly written. I'm not sure its edifying to be presenting so much romantic literature anyway. Then again, I haven't read any of these books so I can't really say much about them. Maybe some of them are okay. But I'm looking for books that will challenge and interest me, both spiritually and intellectually. There has to be some good Christian fiction out there somewhere, right?

'Go Sean...it's your birthday....'

Hehe, Sean's party was crazy fun. There weren't that many people from CU there, just me, Roxi, Shan and Fiona...and Sean, of course :P Then there was one other person I knew from class, and the rest were Sean's school friends. Yes, they are incredibly crazy, particularly when they are drunk. And for any drunk people who wish to ring me, my mobile number is o4.

Sean had booked the Redoak for before dinner, but when everyone got there, we found it was closed. So we went to P.J. O'Brien's Irish pub, where I had my one alcoholic drink for the evening. Brilliant! By the time we got to the Teppanyaki restaurant, some people were already drunk, but the majority weren't so it was alright. Teppanyaki is fun, and I managed to catch most of the fried rice they threw at me, just a little bit got on my skirt. It was a black skirt so that was okay!

After dinner we went to this bar that apparently was supposed to be really good. When we got there, there were absolutely no people there, but that rocked cause it was like we had our own little private bar. And with cheap drinks, you can imagine some of the people got even crazier. I had a raspberry cordial with lemonade, which I think affected me more than the beer! We played pool and, just cause it was his birthday, Sean sunk a whole lot of balls and won the game. Then there was the singing I've had that stupid 50 cent, In Da club song in my head since then, but with the lyrics 'Go Sean..it's your birthday...and so on. Hehe, it's always fun to meet friends of friends, and now I know who those people in that inferno's email are. The people who hoped it would be a jacuzzi/stripper place.

Happy birthday Sean!!

Hope you've had a great day, my lovely, crazy chauffeur!


I've spent the whole day doing Tongan things. It was the opening of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations Tongan branch, so there was a big service at Auburn Uniting Church. I got to dress up in Tongan clothes, and thats always fun. The actual service ran very much to islander time. It started about half an hour late, and went for almost three hours. But the music was so good that it sort of didn't matter. I got really really bored in the sermon though, as it was in Tongan and I didn't understand what was going on. Tongan music is completely awesome though, particularly this choir that sang today. And after the service there were some Tongan dancers, including one girl from my church. Tongan stuff is cool...I am really blessed to be involved in their culture the way that I am.

Some things I've been thinking about recently...

I've been thinking about what kind of books Christians should read, and what kind of movies they should read. How can Christians engage in the media of this world and still remain holy? I know there are some differing ideas about this issue, from different theological perspectives. I'm not entirely sure why, but Harry Potter seems to be a big example, although this issue is certainly not limited to that. Books that feature violence or sex or magic or whatever it is.

Today Mum was warning some of the parents at church about letting their kids see Harry Potter. She explained that the Harry Potter movies were too scary for kids - which I completely agree with - and also said that they encourage witchcraft so are not good in that sense. That's one view, particularly about books and movies with magic in them. I suppose this idea comes from a more charismatic perspective, that emphasises the reality of the spiritual realm. Therefore, witchcraft and magic are real, dangerous things and reading about them opens you up to negative spirits. I don't exactly know if I agree with that.

Then there are other Christians who think its okay to read Harry Potter (just keeping with this example for the moment). Lots of people I know from CU, including you guys, hold to this perspective. And I know you guys are completely commited to God and are seeking holiness. I haven't heard much of the argument about this perspective, why it is okay for Christians to read Harry Potter and other such things. I've heard the arguments for the other perspective over and over again, so it would be cool if I could hear your ideas.

Hmmm...I hope this makes sense. It doesn't make that much sense in my head but it's something I've really been thinking about lately. I want to be holy in what I think about and read and watch, but it's pretty hard to work out what's okay and what's not. Is it more to do with the actual subject matter or the way you respond to it? Yeah, I don't really know.

Stine's blog

Stine has succumbed to procrastination and has got herself a blog...

http://stinetizzle.blogspot.com

It's going to have lots of pretty pictures, I'm assuming.

Taking inspiration from Em....

Things that I love

*Rain...particularly waking up to hear rain

* Cooking...I made shepherds pie for dinner tonight, it was good.

* Reading...at the moment I'm reading a book of Arthurian legend. Violence is funny when written in archaic language, lots of smiting

* My new computer

* Daisy...she found her way into my bedroom today (!?)

* Maddie...she sleeps on my bed all day

* Singing praise to God

* Being loved by God even though I do stupid things

* Cold nights and a big warm blanket

* The Simpsons...6:00 every night!

* Music

* My family even though they annoy me sometimes

* Jam and cordial (Maite works for Cottees now, so when I was over at their house, I was sent back with a big box of jam and cordial.....sugar overload)

* Church

...and I probably could go on. I'm feeling much better than I was this time last week. So many people have been getting sick recently, it's so not good. I pray that you all feel better soon. I'm still at home doing nothing. It kind of sucks living so far away from everyone during the holidays but I will see you all at MYC, hopefully sooner. And I got to see my church friends on Sunday. I haven't been to my home church for weeks, so it was awesome to see people. Fatai and I always manage to have good talks about the books we are reading. The sermon was awesome too - about being washed in the blood of Jesus, and about coming to him for forgiveness everytime we sin. And the music is awesome, as always.

Just in time for the holidays, I have come down with a flu. I've had a high temperature and a headache for a few days. Fortunately, I've been able to stay at home doing absolutely nothing, so I'm recovering kind of quickly. I got Zoolander on DVD for my birthday, so I've watched that. Funny stuff. Although with me, I'm never quite sure if I've fully recovered. It's hard to know. Hopefully I'll be all good for MYC. Some more useful advice: don't drink large amounts of apple and blackcurrant juice if you're feeling sick. I drank heaps cause I needed to keep my fluids up, and I threw it all up...and freaked out cause I was throwing up red stuff that I initially thought was blood. Yeah, not so good but pretty funny.