Above all else

Hi everyone This year has been a momentous one. Just before the start of 2007, which was christened a Year of Victory, my church had us go through an exercise, challenging us to "look far", "go deep" and "ask big". For "looking far" I wanted to establish a prayer group in the office that would endure time (and staff turnover!), so that I could build a long-term habit of being a marketplace minister. Thank God that He has allowed our group to be a blessing through our activities - the coffee sales, the zoo trip and the Christmas parties, and for myself, that it has forced me to try to set an example! Amazing what people can do under pressure :) So, prayer no. 1 ANSWERED! I pray that it will yield even more fruit in the new year. For "going deep" I wanted to ensure that I had a regular QT and word time. I think I might have completely and utterly failed in this, if not for the fact that God forced me to regularly stop, think and reflect i...

Whew what a busy Christmas season. I was reading the account of Phillip and the Egyptian official in Acts 8:26-40 yesterday morning, and I remember thinking to myself that it was important to avoid falling into the trap of reading for the sake of getting Word time over and done with, but rather, making sure that I identified some practical lessons for application! Anyway, here's what I learned: 1. the angel said "Go" and Philip went. Lesson 1: obey God. He is saying to us "go"! Can you hear? 2. the Egyptian official was already a seeker, trying to understand God. Lesson 2: trust God. He has already prepared the hearer. Will you speak? 3. after that first step, God gave Philip a fruitful ministry and a godly family - in fact he was so successful that many years later, he was even called "Philip the Evangelist" and had four godly daughters (Acts 21:8-9). Lesson 3: God is good! God has an amazing plan for your life. Will you accept? Christmas is such a go...

Another true story. Teaching my son letter sounds - you know, "fff" for "F", "sss" for "S" and so on. So he's going "eh", "buh", "cuh", "duh", then he gets to "P" and looks very puzzled, clearly cracking his head over what "P" sounds like, and ends up "PUI!" and spits in my eye.

True story about my daughter. On the flight up to Lijiang, my daughter was sitting with some of my other friends because we were scattered all over the plane. As the plane was going to land, the stewardess told my daughter to fold up the meal tray. My daughter asked my friend why she needed to fold the meal tray. My friend said the meal tray might hit her if it wasn't stowed away properly. My daughter's response? "Then I'll sue them!"

Here’s my update on the Lijiang trip. I learned three important lessons, one renewed, one new, and one old but unlearned! The old lesson is this – God is in charge. Despite my usual reaction of horror at the absence of detailed planning, I was once again proved wrong by events. Whether or not we have a plan, God’s plan always proves to be best. I don’t think this means that we shouldn’t plan, but rather that we should make ourselves available to God’s plan. Despite our failure to announce our arrival at the schools, both secondary and primary schools were pleased to receive us and let us take some classes. I think the most astonishing case was the primary school, where we turned up completely unannounced, and then found out it was meet the parents day and the classes are all free for us to take. Absolutely perfect timing, despite us having no plan to even visit this school until the day before. Simply amazing. Personally, I had planned out what I was going to say to the students. You w...