23.10.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:09 pm by Sarah
Good news: I have a new funky mouse that looks a bit like this:
Bad news: the thing sucks! The right clicker keeps sticking! …I don’t want to stop using it, though, because it’s so cool!
Meh..
Life has been generally normal – thus the lack of regular/interesting blog enties. Although I feel like life for people around me is changing significantly. It’s like I’m in one of those movie scenes where the main character is standing dead still and people are rushing around them in a multicoloured blur.
People are either getting married, finishing uni, doing their HSC or having babies… plus Haoran made another huge step towards MTS last week by resigning (2 months in advance). It’s kind of interesting to observe all these happenings from a point of normality.
Of course I’m sure the implications of Haoran doing MTS next year will hit me sooner or later… but for now, I’m in a happy bubble.
In an effort to get myself moving this week (my walking partner is unfortunately buried under a mountain of assignments) I walked to and from church on Sunday morning. It was quite nice and refreshing. Today I went exploring during lunch, with one of my workmates, and discovered a pleasant walking track along the bay. I’ll be bringing my walking shoes tomorrow. 
Permalink
17.10.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:01 pm by Sarah
Don’t you think that this end of the year is completely crazy-go-nuts??
Everyone is now recovering from the recent spate of camps/conferences and completely freaking out about the rest of the year….
Uni students are uni-ing hard and procrastinating harder, beach mission peoples are stressing out about their preparation, most people are starting to think about their christmas shopping, ministries are stressing out because they don’t have enough man-power, and no one has a free weekend to just chill.
I just found out yesterday that I can’t go to my whiz-bang work Christmas party (which apparently are usually huge and very sparkley and everyone wins prizes..) because we have TAFE supporters dinner. I was so bummed out. Of course I am happy to support Haoran in helping with the dinner… but couldn’t they have had the party on a Friday night when I don’t have stuff on?
In fact, our schedule is so full that the only time we can travel to Parkes to see my family is the weekend immediately before Christmas. Mum thinks it’s great because it’s so close to Christmas. I just wish we didn’t have to cut it so fine – especially when we have to travel to Sawtell on Boxing Day.
Despite my whining, I do actually enjoy the rush of having so much on and things to do. I just don’t enjoy the exhaustion that inevitably follows.
Ah well… what else are summer holidays for?
Permalink
09.10.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:02 pm by Sarah
Haoran bought me two presents last week (and when I say presents – they’re not neccessarily just for me). One was the new Fables comic, and the other was a Smoosh CD. The Fables comic was cool – I read it in 1/2 an hour – but it didn’t seem to top the last one somehow.
The Smoosh CD has lasted somewhat longer – the melodies stick in your head like nothing else. I should explain now that the band consists of two girls – aged between 11 and 13 (can’t remember the exact ages). Asya plays the piano and sings while her younger sister Chloe plays the drum and does back up vocals. The piano parts remind me of Caxton a little. The vocals can be a little grating after a while – while it’s extremely good for girls of that age. I can’t wait to see what they’ll do when they’re older. Â
Anyway after a relatively nothing sort of week it was nice to have a saturday morning to myself. Haoran went to WBW and I crashed at G and M’s to chat to M, read, eat a fantastic lunch, read some more and nap.
Then we drove down to Gerringong for 7pm houseparty and arrived just in time for dinner and gaming. I ended up playing a game called ‘Apples for Apples’ which was much fun. I forget I like word games because we don’t own that many.
We were one of the first ones in the kitchen on Sunday morning so I set up breakfast and waited for the more-weary-than-us people to dribble in. The talks that morning were on 1 Cor, I felt slightly lost without the context of the talks the previous day. Nevertheless they were goods talks, albeit a little broad. Although it’s a hard to preach on several chapters at once without being broad.
Other than that it was nice to get to know a few people who have crept up since I left 7pm service and catch up with all the others.
Our trip back required several stops to change drivers as we both kept getting sleepy. And we managed to make it a little late to the 5pm service and sit through Rob Elder’s excellent sermon before going home and crashing.
Permalink
03.10.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:59 pm by Sarah
Is it a very obvious cliche to say that Challenge was challenging? Well… it was and I’m not denying it.
Our three main speakers were John Chapman, Gary Koo and of course Philip Jensen. All very good and very helpful. Gary spoke on Ezekial which I found very interesting as I don’t remember ever hearing talks on that book before. And Philip did a very interesting talk on the last night - on time and our place in it. The trouble with Philip’s talks were that they were on after dinner – and often were pushed later because of dinner. As a result I was changing postion every 5 seconds to try and stay awake. As it was I left straight after the evening talks to sleep.
They had organised a wives program at the last minute (thank goodness) and quite few were there. We also had the benefit of the wisdom of Elizabeth Foord, Helen Jensen and Jacquie Marshall (who ran it) which I really enjoyed. Our studies were based around Ephesians 5. We also discussed and studied communication and how important it is to communicate in a godly way with your husband – as well as everyone else.
It was so refreshing to be in a room with a whole bunch of people who were or are or will be in the position of being a ministry wife (plus there were so many gorgeous babies!). It made me feel a little less anxious about next year. It also solidified some things for me. The issues we need to discuss, the sacrifices we have to make and the plans we need to… plan. Our interview confirmed these things even more and we’ve come away with quite a few tips and a to do list.
I also got to get to know a few people that I know through H – a whole lot better. A whole weekend to chat is infinitely better than bumping into people at 5 separate times at weddings etc and exchanging pleasantries. Â
 2 camps down – 1 to go!! (One.. 1.. get it??)
Permalink