The Lord Grants Sleep to Those He Loves

The cupcake cake from Ceanne and Lawrys wedding

Hello again,

The term has fully kicked in now and I’m back into the swing of things. I remember starting the first semester when it took me weeks to settle in. This time round after a week and a half I’m adjusted to the time table and new room.

The subjects this semester are getting even more interesting. Especially the class where we learn about Cross cultural (inter cultural actually) communication. It’s amazing how much we learn in this class. Essentially it address the universal issue of ‘What you here and what I say are two different things”.

This week I’m spending most of my spare time preparing for a sermon and trying to keep up with all the reading.

Also my parents are up visiting which I’m very excited about. I’m going to catch up with them again on Saturday.

Finally I figured this semester would be a good one to start getting a little more musical. I’ve started playing (or practicing more specifically) guitar in church and am looking at buying a guitar.

I was reading Ephesians ages ago and came across the following

“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,”

I figure if Australia can be known for its drunkenness this it should also be knowing for its hymns and spiritual songs. The plan is to get together with some friends and start learning a few, especially the psalms (yay for Sons of Korah!)

Ok got to go

-Matthew.

P.S. I learned a new Chinese proverb the other day ‘the stupid bird flies early’. I find it very fitting. If you know you’re not so good at something it just means starting early so that you get a head start. It reminds me most things can be done, they just might take longer for me to learn (such as learning guitar!)

Prayer requests

• Please pray that I would always remember to weigh what God things over what people think. I’ve been forgetting to do this a lot recently L
• I’ve been doing a few late nights and early mornings. I’m not sure if this is something I should be doing (the lord grants sleep to those he loves – psalm 127:2)

Praise

• We are making some progress with the retirement village, I’ll keep you posted.

A New Semester!

When I came to Sydney I packed everything into that black suitcase. 6 months later I've some how managed to accumlate all this stuff!

Well I'm back after a long (3 week!) holiday and have moved rooms. At SMBC they move all the first years around mid year so that we get to know different people.

I've been getting very lazy at updating my blog but hopefully this will be the turning point.

Study for exams ended up actually being a lot of fun. I really feel I learned a lot, especially from Church History. It feels good though have finished the first set of exams and I’m really looking forward to the next half of the year.

This semester looks like its going to be a big one. I have a lot of ideas about things I would like to get involved in outside of college, but I think I’ve probably over estimated what is possible with the amount of spare time I have. (I seem to do this every year!)

One thing I’m pretty excited about it seeing if we can get involved in doing some visits to the retirement village just next door. There are so many reasons why this makes a lot of sense and I just really pray that the retirement village will be receptive. My friend Richard is also very keen to do this so we’re going to have a chat to them later this week / early next week.

The other idea is to become a little more musical. I’ve been practicing some songs on guitar and will hopefully start playing along at church shortly (in the background and probably unplugged for the start… phew). If this works out alright I might also start organizing some informal worship times here at college. First things first though, I need to find a guitar!

Finally, I’m going to try to keep learning Mandarin. I find myself using my Mandarin more and more here in Sydney. The other day I tried buying some cloths in Mandarin which was going really well until I found out the lady I was talking to didn’t speak Mandarin, but rather Cantonese! Lol that seems to happen to me all the time, but she was very polite and she seemed to understand what I was saying.

Pray requests

• That the retirement village next door (or one close by) would be receptive to having some SMBC students visit the elderly there.
• I’m organising another trip to China (QingHai) please pray that the organisation of this will go well.

Praise

• Praise God for the opportunities available to me, both here in Sydney and overseas! Especially in regards to ministry with and to Chinese people.