Back to December

Wow. I didn't post anything in November! Where have I gone?!

Well, well where do I begin? There are so many things on my mind right now I don't know how to start, what to mention first. My head is like a bunch of tangled threads. And I don't want to forget the things that I want to mention here. Gosh!

So let's start with the usual stuff, like the cool fact that I am in Australia right now! And the sad part where I'm not in Sydney :(. Anyways, I've been in Australia since October 25 and I did go to Sydney - :)))) - for a very short time :((((. I met all of my friends - I miss you so much already again - and visit some of my fave place there - Saap Thai, Madang, Market City, Darling Harbour, Hurricane, every place in Sydney is my favorite! We went for karaoke and had soju night like we used to do when I was Sydney. It was very fun. But things have changed too. I met many new faces too, and I couldn't help myself not to feel a bit left out. I mean, I don't know. Sometimes I wish things can just stay the way they were. Everybody is going forward right now. They don't go karaoke anymore. They don't have soju night or movie night as well. Somehow it felt like... Everyone's growing apart. But the good thing is you all still made time to go there with me. I feel very thankful for my short stay in Sydney. I wish I can go back and forth to Sydney anytime I want. How awesome would that be!

But then again, if I were in Sydney right now, will things stay the same? I mean, Fanny is in Makassar preparing her wedding, Adit is going back to Melb very soon - seriously, WHEN?, Ivan with his new relationship, Ryan is busy with work and his IELTS, Luke with his college and university, Candy with her TAFE and Ayu will be busy starting a new life with baby boy - with Ko Willy too, etc.. I mean, will I be enjoying Sydney as much if I was there? One thing for sure, I'd be needing a PT if I live in Sydney because, boy, the food in Sydney cause me mouthgasm.

Oh another thing that I really miss in Sydney is CLC and The Brigades, my dearest church and youth!! They'll be having a Christmas Celebration later this afternoon and I really really really really want to go there and celebrating Christmas with them!! ><

I miss Sydney so damn much.

And a little bit surprisingly I miss my home in Indonesia too. I already miss TWO of my friends' wedding! :( I don't want to miss another one anymore. If I can be in three places at the same time, I'd be super happy. Ha! But the good thing here in Perth - I know right? Perth is borrrinng! - is that I've learned some serious stuff about being a mother. And I have my super cute niece, Brooklyn, that I can play with! Have I mentioned that she's the cutest baby alive?! I mean, I am now freaking out I might love her more than my own kids! She's soooooooo beautiful! I never know I'd love a baby this much. I want to kiss and hug her all the time. All. The. Time. She's cute when she's sleeping, smiling, and she keeps on making that cute baby noises - aguuh, ewuuh, awuh - and melt my heart. She makes Perth so much better!

And talking about Perth, have a guess what I do here everyday! Other than taking care of B of course. Let me give you a clue. It starts with E and ends with asyway. I need help! I already gain a fatty 2 kg since I came! I mean I should've been skinnier since I hold B most of the time! What is happening!! Not to mention, I have major breakout! :( I've got pimples everywhere on my face. I really need help.

I need to talk about other stuff. Like how fast time flies (I said this a lot ey?). I mean it's December! It's almost 'the end of the world' - sarcasm intended. And how unpredictable my life is right now. I mean if two months ago someone told me I would be spending the next three months in Perth, taking care of a baby, I would've laughed it off. And visiting Sydney?? And Melbourne? Tots unpredictable! And how I'm befriending my sister's friends back at Indo. I mean I never see it coming, ever. Or how I befriend my senior in primary school. This whole unpredictability thing that happened recently got me all excited and scared at the same time. I keep on making guesses and predictions about my future. What will happen next year? What will happen next week?

I think my fear got me stumble a little bit. I mean I'm not sure if it's even related but I don't feel too close with God nowadays. It's funny how my faith has been fluctuating very frequently. And it's strange how my previous post was about the fullness of my 'righteous tank'. But I still push myself to do the QT and talk to Him. I just don't feel as connected. I hope this phase will disappear as soon as it appeared. Because the world is going crazy nowadays.

Like, crazy in a devilishly way. I might be the only one in my, err, community, who believe in those 'Illuminati theory'. You can call me crazy or stupid or anything else, but seriously, have you ever read Vigilant Citizen - vigilantcitizen.com ?? As crazy as it sounds, something evil is at work at this world at this very moment. And it is more evil than ever. I had my doubts. And I didn't want to believe in those stuff at first. But look at Ke$ha's Die Young lyrics and video. And hello, Lady Gaga? And also Rihanna. And all the rappers and all those pop stars that started off innocently but then transformed into some sex machine on their second album. And the fact that the rhytm of those songs are very catchy yet with very wrong lyrical content.

Take a look at Bruno Mars. He started off with Just The Way You Are and everyone was like "Aww he's so romantic!" but then "Marry Me" came off and it's still catchy but the lyrics had gone a little bit crazy. And then now he came up with his new single "Locked Out Of Heaven" and it obviously promoting sex -  some of the lyrics are: Cos your sex takes me to paradise - in a wrong way for this generation, I'm afraid. And his other song "Young Girls" is about his 'addiction' to young wild girls. It's not so romantic anymore right? 

And Ok, I DID download those songs - the beat IS awesome - because my sister's husband kept on playing it every single day. And I ended up like the song. I mean I don't do the things that was said in the lyrics, but some - A LOT - younger generations might think, "Y'all it's cool. We gotta party and die young because Ke$ha said so. Sin is so 2013!" True story. And some fans can go very far for their idol pop star. They''ll be like: YOU've changed my life, I'm all about YOU. Stuff like that.

And I haven't finished. If you take a closer look at the fashion world and the music video and MTV nowadays, the things that they promoted are: occultist symbolism - one-eye sign, satanism, inadvertent cross, skull, blood, honestly what are so cool about them? They're not that artistic -, free sex, stupidity - see the show Ridiculousness - and violence. And there's only one word on my mind: WHY?

Why do the media mass go all the way to promote those things, if it not for a bigger, more insidious conspiracy? Just like hell is the real thing, so does The Devil. And it's not only happening in Hollywood. It's everywhere. K-pop, Bollywood, Indonesia. Everything's going crazy. And before I forget, look at Pitbull! Music videos used to be about the singer. And at first there were only kissing scenes. And then girls with bikinis. But recently I saw the bikinis are taken off already! And the girls are hiding their tits on Pitbull's shoulder. And in a lot of music videos they were doing orgy! I'm serious, what's with that? The media mass might try to dumb this society with sex, drugs, and self destruction behaviors in the name of arts, trends, fashion, and swaggy lifestyles. Do not trust the media.

Wow. I've been talking way too much!

But think about it. Be careful of what you see, read, or listen. And sometimes, just because they talk about God, doesn't mean that they are the people of God. See if their actions are as what they say. And if they believe in God and do evil deeds, it's not a permission or a justification for you to do the wrong thing. Because the devil tempted Jesus with scripture. So just. Be careful.

How did I go from my simple life to this heavy topic, I'm not sure, but I think I have delivered what I had in mind. I have to have my beauty sleep NOW. 

Adios!

And Happy Christmas all!

Oh one last thing, there's this email I've got, talking about how society try to make Christmas as a 'normal holiday', without any relation to Christ. Well hello! It's called CHRISTMAS for a reason. So let's make it a Christ's season! Jesus Christ is the reason why we celebrate Christmas. Not Kris Kringle. Or the pine tree. Or even snow. You wrap those gifts, and putting the ornaments on a christmas tree to celebrate His birth. Not to celebrate a 'holiday'. Gosh, what's with this world!

Brigades Christian Church family food friends holidays Jesus religion thoughts

Posted by Unknown in Brigades, Christian, Church, family, food, friends, holidays, Jesus, religion, thoughts

Back to December

The Brigades: Save The Generation

Untuk kali ini, post nya dalam bahasa Indo, well I will mix it though, soalnya kalo dalam bahasa Inggris kayaknya bakal susah. Lagipula aim post ini juga adalah untuk anak-anak Indonesia so I hope this post bisa memberi sebuah pengertian baru bagi yang membaca, atau hanya sebagai sekedar reminder buat orang percaya :)

Seperti biasa, tiap hari Minggu saya pasti ke gereja - gereja CLC atau Christ Living Church - dan seperti biasa juga, gereja CLC kebetulan punya dua kebaktian: umum di pagi hari dan untuk anak youth (which is Brigades) di sore hari. Terus terang saja, semangat untuk selalu hadir di dua kebaktian ini memang ada, tapi bukan berarti tdk pernah pudar. Contohnya saja hari ini, beberapa - well, banyak - anak Brigades yang tidak bisa datang ke kebaktian sore, termasuk saya. Rencana besar hari ini adalah pergi ke kebaktian umum dan pulang ke rumah untuk kerja tugas.

Tapi rencana hanyalah rencana. Wktu sy kasi tau tman2 yang lain kalo sy tidak akan datang, well, jadinya tambah banyak yang mau ikutan 'ditch' the service (sepertinya ini juga karena kekompakan anak muda jaman sekarang sih). Anyway, in the end I decided to attend the service, walaupun suasana hati sudah sedikit terganggu. Tapi rencana Tuhan memang tak pernah terpikirkan, tak pernah terbersit di hati. Seandainya sy tidak mendongkol, tdk mungkin juga saya tersentil sama isi khotbah sorenya. Dan tidak mungkin juga kepikiran buat share isi khotbahnya di sini. Here it goes.

Yang bawain khotbah Ko Wawan, mantan anggota Catchers - nama grup youth sebelum Brigades terbentuk, beberapa anggota Catchers skrg adalah bagian dari Brigades - yang pendetanya dulu sama dengan pendeta Brigades, Pak Agus. Well, obviously, his preaching is as amazing as Pak Agus's!

Satu pertanyaan inti yang ditanyakan adalah: Is being a Christian is enough?

Ada tiga main point yang menentukan seseorang sebagai hamba Tuhan yang sejati atau hanya seorang Kristen yang biasa2 saja:

1. Kekudusan/Pengenalan akan Tuhan
Ibaratnya orang yang lagi PDKT (dan saya yakin 1000% pasti kalian smua pernah merasakannya), sebagai seorang Kristen kita juga harus melakukan pendekatan terhadap Tuhan, supaya bisa memiliki hubungan yang intim dengan Nya. Kalo seandainya sama calon pacar itu perhatiannya berlimpah-limpah maka sama Tuhan itu, 'supposedly', berkali-kali lipatnya lagi!! Kalo sama gebetan bisa telpon2 sampe 5 jam, maka kita juga harus sering 'berbicara' kepada Tuhan - in this case, praying is the keyword. Percuma mengaku sebagai orang Kristen kalo doa saja bisa ketiduran. That's not how it works. You can't be loving God and not trying your best to please Him.
Tuhan pasti, PASTI, akan menggenapi janjiNya kepada kita, tetapi kita harus menguatkan hati dan bertekun di dalamNya, dan tidak menyimpang ke kiri ataupun ke kanan (Baca Yosua 1:1-9 untuk lebih jelas.).

2. Iman
I believe there are a lot of debates going around about this particular thing we call faith. Banyak orang yang imannya kandas di tengah jalan, tiba2 hilang bgitu saja kalo sudah mencapai jalan buntu. The thing is, iman itu tidak tumbuh dalam waktu satu hari, juga bukan dalam sekejap. Iman itu butuh proses. Banyak org berpikir, biasanya org beriman pasti mengalami banyak mujizat. You know what, it's true! Hanya mujizat itu bukan sesuatu yang 'wah', yang bisa bikin org2 ternganga. Mujizat adalah suatu mujizat, no matter how simple it is.
Satu ayat yang sangat menggugah adalah dari Habakuk 2:1-3, bunyinya:
(1) Aku mau berdiri di tempat pengintaianku dan berdiri tegak di menara, aku mau meninjau dan menantikan apa yang akan difirmankan-Nya kepadaku, dan apa yang akan dijawab-Nya atas pengaduanku.
(2) Lalu TUHAN menjawab aku, demikian: "Tuliskanlah penglihatan itu dan ukirkanlah itu pada loh-loh, supaya orang sambil lalu dapat membacanya.
(3) Sebab penglihatan itu masih menanti saatnya, tetapi ia bersegera menuju kesudahannya dengan tidak menipu; apabila berlambat-lambat, nantikanlah itu, sebab itu sungguh-sungguh akan datang dan tidak akan bertangguh.
Terkadang kita merasa kalo Tuhan tidak mendengarkan kita atau tidak menyertai kita, and we start to wonder and worried, thinking when will I get the blessings? Tetapi Tuhan telah mengingatkan kita untuk selalu beriman di dalamNya! Orang dikatakan setia bukan karena tidak pernah selingkuh, tetapi karena ketika godaan untuk selingkuh itu ada, dia bisa menahan diri dan memilih untuk setia. Begitu juga kesetiaan kita terhadap Tuhan. Seharusnya pada saat2 terpuruklah di mana kita harus berada semakin dekat dengan Dia. Di dalam menghadapi masalah ato struggle, jangan lari, jangn merasa miskin, ataupun merasa terpuruk. Tetapi bukalah mata lebar2 supaya ketika janji dan berkat Tuhan itu tiba, kita bisa menerimanya dengan kesiapan hati.

3. Karakter
Karakter kita itu diibaratkan sebagai cawan yang dipakai untuk menampung berkat Tuhan. Lalu cawan seperti apakah yang layak? Tentu saja cawan yang sesuai dengan kehendak Yesus. Karakter adalah hal terpenting bagi diri seorang Kristen. It's not about your religion, it's about your attitude as a Christian. Besides, Christian is not a religion, it's a lifestyle. It's a relationship between you and God in Jesus Christ. Karakter yang baik adalah di mana kita tidak bergantung kepada lingkungan, kekhawatiran2, atau musuh2 yang kita punya.
Cawan diri kita harus dibersihkan dari hal2 tidak berguna itu, supaya bisa menjadi kosong dan diisi oleh berkat Tuhan. Caranya: berdamai dengan Tuhan, dan berdamai dengan diri sendiri.
mungkin kedengarannya simpel, tapi ini bukan hal yang mudah. Yang terpenting adalah bagaimana caranya melepaskan diri dari masa lalu yang membelenggu, dari godaan2 dunia yang besar dan kelihatannya menjanjikan. Sekali lagi di sini menunjukkan betapa pentingnya diri kita untuk 'menguatkan dan meneguhkan hati'.

So.. Do you know God really well? Do you have faith in Him as a Christian? Are you living a life according to His words? Have you made yourself available to God? Apakah cawanmu sudah siap untuk menerima berkatNya?? Think about your life. Think about your daily life. Think about your purpose of living. Do you think being a 'mere Christian' is enough?

Well, I hope my post can help. I feel a bit weird using Bahasa because I'm not used to it. I was wondering whether to use Jakarta style (lo-gw) since I'm not from there. But I can't really use my hometown accent cos it will only confuse you even more. Thus, jadilah post ini. Sedikit aneh dalam tatanan bahasa, but I hope you get my point. Dan semoga isi khotbah ini bisa memberikan impact bagi yang membacanya, cos it touched me deeply. Jadilah anak Tuhan yang sungguh2! :))

Quote of the day:

Segala sesuatu yang dimulai dengan ketakutan tidak akan membuahkan keberhasilan.

Wawan Kurniawan


God bless! :)


PS. Full version of khotbah bisa diakses di official website The Brigades , enjoy!

Brigades Christian Church lesson

Posted by Unknown in Brigades, Christian, Church, lesson

The Brigades: Save The Generation

Life Group: Sharing

Every Friday Brigades has this thing we all call LG or Life Group. It's basically a bible study activity, led by Onnes and coordinated by Ko Willy. We were going to have a quiz (yes we have quizzes!) tonight but Onnes didn't come so we changed the topic and decided to do sharing instead, since it was Yulia's last LG - she's one of the LG member.

I am so happy to be blessed with people like them in my life, especially at this stage of my life. When each of us stepped up and shared their own story one by one, I got to know their background, their past life, where they stand right now, and what they're facing right now. It was so honest, so pure, so sincere.

Ko Willy was the first one to share and his sharing was very good - and very interesting - we are all proud of him for his decision to stop teaching Chinese in church on Sunday and focusing on his study to become a preacher. The second story from Eddie gave me a new perspective about him. But what touched me the most was when Fanny came up and share her part of story. She's never been the one who is easy to share about her feelings. But tonight she proved me wrong. She made me very proud of her for her bravery. And she also opened my eyes, nudged my inside, reminding me that God is still here, watching us all.

I also got the chance to get to know Yulia better, and also Terry, Fanny's friend. He also gave us lessons to learn. His testimonial was very real, and also applicable. He taught us about dreams, and how to keep on going when pressure was up. He also said that sometimes, we think God had closed the door for us and left us with nothing but pain and chaos. But sometimes we do not realize that He only wanted to direct us to another door: the best door of our life.

The thing with life is that it will never running out of challenges. It's like a game, the higher level means tougher monster. That is also happening in Christianity. When you have reached a certain level of faith, you might think you've been close enough with God, and that He will give you everything that you wish for. Of course He will give you the best thing in life, however, you have to do it in His time , with His way. We might stumble in a middle of our struggle, it might shaken our faith, but we have to realize that when our level of faith has been upgraded, God will not treat us like a child and pamper us all the time. He will treat us with the level of our faith maturity, to discipline us, so we can keep growing, keep improving our faith in Him.

My point is, if right now you think you're lost even though you've prayed with all your heart, well, don't give up! NEVER GIVE UP! Take those baby steps and keep on moving forward! If you were once a baby, take a responsibility to grow as a toddler/teenage in Jesus. Keep renewing your faith everyday by reading His words. Do your best, and He will provide you with everything you need, at the right time.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:33 - NIV

Brigades Christian lesson Life group

Posted by Unknown in Brigades, Christian, lesson, Life group

Life Group: Sharing

The Brigades Youth 1st Outing

Yeah, if any of you can't figure out what's it say, it's 'THE BRIGADES' with small r and i. LOL. Can you read it now? Anyway, that was one of the pictures from The Brigades Youth outing program! :D I was one of the organizer! hahaha (C Ratna and I, actually, but she did almost everything!! I'm her assistant :p)

It was all really fun, exhausting though! I and some other friends have to wake up at 4.30 in the morning because we need to be in Ayu's house by 5.45! We were all so sleepy and start heading to Lake Macquarie at 6 AM. There were little struggle at first, because we were heading to Pelican, Lake Macquaire and right when we arrived, the venue was changed!

But after that, all was well: we played kayak (it's like a small ship/canoe with paddles. Available for single or two or five - it's google-able), games (369 game, caterpillar racing, soccer, volley), had lunch, and taking pictures! oh and there's this clean shiny white horse named Blossom! She's sooo beautiful, and she belongs to a cute girl named Georgia who lived around the venue. We also took picture with Georgia and Blossom but no one has posted it on fb so I can't post it here. LOL! Will post soon when it's available.

All in all, I think this outing is a success! :) I really enjoy every bit of it - even though now I am over-exhausted; I can't even hold my own toast without shaking a little! But, this is just our first outing in The Brigades. I'm sure there will be more and more to come in the future. And who knows, maybe someday you'll be a part of this activity!

God bless!

Brigades friends thoughts

Posted by Unknown in Brigades, friends, thoughts

The Brigades Youth 1st Outing