Zoom, zoom! Ondé-ondé!

 

Time seems to march even faster thesedays – it seems like it was only last week that I was planning to head back to Indonesia for my wedding, and now I’m nearly married for a month. Christmas seems just a short while away and now everybody’s already talking about Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day or even Easter. Time marches on, what can I say – marching seems to slow compared to the pace, perhaps it’s more appropriate to say that time zooms along!

It is nice to have leisure weekends though, when the time-space continuum seems to bend a bit to allow people to relax. 🙂 When the Indonesian Church is on, I seem to be busy with practices, prayer meetings and just being with the youth – having meals in Chinatown or just having coffees in the city. Today, after church, we went to Chinatown for lunch but because I was still full after a hearty fried rice that Yani made for breakfast, I wasn’t hungry at all. I had some Vietnamese iced coffee instead and two Ondé-ondé (fried sesame balls with sweet mungbean paste filling). Vito and Novi came along to drop me and Yani home but we stopped by Bunning’s as I needed to buy another glory vine for the verandah. They stayed along and watched an old VCD of mine, which is also one of my personal favourite: Heart and Souls – an old 1993 movie with Robert Downey, Jr. and Kyra Sedgwick, among others.

After the movie, I felt pretty sleepy so I had a nanna nap in the spare bedroom while Yani slept on the couch – I got up earlier and planted the glory vine, water the yards, pruned the overgrown jade plant and oleander trees near the driveway and then did the dishes. So it was quite a productive afternoon! I had some leftover fried rice for an early dinner and then a cup of Russian Caravan tea just to round my hunger down just now. After my night shower, I will be ready to head to bed and face Monday. Just one day of work and then we will have Australia Day holiday – the office will be quiet with so many people taking a day-off and opting to work from home.

Talking about church, I am really rejuvenated by the sermons at Edge Church International – City Campus. Today, Ps. Jonathan Fontanarosa shared about the message of Salvation. Back to the very foundation of Christianity and it was a good reminder to assess ourselves whether we are truly aware of God’s grace and the meaning of sin and repentance. Listening to the messages at the church makes me hungry for more and more messages – the sermons challenge me, rebuke me, edify me, uplift me, and teach me. It makes me want to be at church every week and feels bad for missing one Sunday – not out of fear or ritual – but I feel bad for missing a powerful message that I could’ve listened to and be blessed by. Today’s message challenged me to really be an obedient disciple who values God’s grace. I am compelled to ask God for more of His grace and guidance as I face my days – I acknowledge my limitations and weaknesses and without His grace and His strength, I will fall time and time again.