You’re Done, 4 Gospels

Finished reading the 4 gospels on time, with time to spare! Wahahahahaha…

I was a bit worried in the middle of John that I might not be able to finish before end of April. But Mark was so easy to read, as I expected. That’s y I left it to the last one for 最後衝刺之用途. Actually, I didn’t have to 衝刺 too much. Mark was rather easy to read that I didn’t feel like I was rushing at all.

I have to thank the Holy Spirit for 鞭策 me in days when I felt lazy. It’s so easy to skip devotion, I have to say, especially, I can fall asleep within 5min of lying in bed. (oh yeah, I do my devotion before bed.)

But now that I’ve finished the 4 gospels, I have to head back to my original reading: Isaiah. Have started it but I’ve already forgot everything. Probably have to start again. And the regular devotion does not actually have a deadline/target so I can see that my progress is going to slow down again… I could potentially impose a self-target but I know that I won’t follow thru so what’s the point of forcing myself. Might as well just go at my own pace. I just have to keep going and not to slack off.

One day, one of these days, I will finish reading the whole Bible!

奸爸爹!

The End of Luke

Finished the book of Luke lu! Yeah!

Not quite on schedule if I have to finish all 4 Gospel by the end of April but not too far behind, either. At least I have already conquered the two longest one out of the 4.

Already started one chapter of John, the book which I am least familiar with. It’s actually quite nice to read a book that I don’t know much yet cos I feel like I’m learning new stuff as I’m reading instead of just reading the same old story again.

Gan-ba-dae! 1 month and 9 days to go!

Matthew

教會今年的讀經運動，頭四個月讀哂四卷福音書，我二月先開始，而家好努力咁想趕番ｄ進度．

上星期睇完 Matthew 喇，進度唔錯嘛！

其實咁樣幾唔錯吖，有個 target 咁睇，個 target 又唔係 attain 唔到，做到既時候又好有滿足感．

其實，今次係我人生第一次睇哂成卷 Matthew, 慚愧慚愧，不過有心唔怕遲啦！:)

下一卷是 Luke! (對，我是 skip 了 Mark, 諗住最短呢卷留返最後先睇）

出事了

到現在仍是有點難以置信．

只是希望那已是谷底，不要有更多的壞消息就好了．

不會問為什麼發生在我（身邊的人）的身上？其實這些事每天也在發生，只是今次，輪到發生在我身邊的人身上罷了．

只是希望，可以好番就夠了．

是神對我們信心的考驗嗎？神，祢是真的會幫助我們嗎？

老爸竟然叫我去祈禱：一方面，是高興的，因為或許他終於覺得信仰不只一種精神寄託；另一方面，是擔心的，因為連一個一直對宗教抗拒的人都希望宗教會是一種可能的時候，就知事態是多麼的嚴重．

如果通過這次能夠令一個 sort of drift away 既信徒重新找回信仰和令一ｄ身邊未信的人接受基督的話，勉強來說，也可以叫做值得吧．

但，我情願發生在自己身上，精神上憂慮比身體上的痛楚更難過；而且，physically, 我覺得自己比較挨得嘛．

覺得自己好似乜都做唔到咁，不擔心是騙人的，但除了擔心，geographically 這麼遙遠，真的是除了禱告，還可以做什麼？

你要有勇氣，意志，堅毅，和對神的信心喲～～

神已經為我們安排了最好的！是時候學習交托了．

Caroling

Went caroling with church on Thur night. I’ve only done it once before and it was caroling at different congregation members’ house.

It has been quite a few yrs that our church has stopped caroling. This time, we’ve decided to do it in the neighborhood, singing carols to ppl we don’t know as an outreach event. And my goodness, it was cold! Last time, we always get to go into ppl’s house and jumped into the car between houses, but this time, we can’t go into strangers houses and we were basically going door-to-door. No chance of warming up.

Really appreciated the teens who came out. I know they were really after the food but still, they are willing the face the cold and possible mean ppl who would slam the door at us. Not to mention 小賴 who was basically the singing leader. 沒有他氣運丹田既歌聲助陣，我哋呢班蚊之咁細聲既雜牌 choir 又點會成到氣候？And of course, there are the few who are 年過半百既 brothers and sisters 亦都冒著嚴寒出席，真係唔話得．

Some of the kids though… are so attention deficient… annoys me sometimes cos they would agree to do something but 10min later, they are tired of it and were totally distracted already. When are they going to grow up???

求神保守

小妹剛做完手術，一切暫時都安好，感謝神．求神 continue to take care of her for her speedy recovery.

呢一兩年來，家裡的人的身體都出現小小的問題，雖然 thank God that none of them was big problem, 但都令人擔心，什至連詹占的家人的身體也出現問題. In one aspect, maybe I'm getting old and that's y ppl around me are having issues. On the other hand, 求神祝福＆保守家人及身邊的所有朋友，both physically and spiritually．

And You Call Urself Christian??

Read a silly celebrity news the other day. “身為基督徒的林曉培，稱信仰令她徹頭徹尾地反醒…(something about her relying on God)” “她說﹕「唱Live就似一夜情，只得一次機會，錯過了就帶來遺憾。」”

Er… Hello?? Assuming that the quote of hers is not bent by the media, what kind of comment is that? From a Christian? You’ve got to be kidding me. What kind of Christian is it that treasures one nights stand?

So many HK celebrities claim to be Christians these days as if it's the "cool" thing to do. Are they real Christians? I know that I should not be judging people. I have any flaws myself. In a way, it’s gd to have famous ppl as Christians cos it kinda helps “promote” Christianity or at least raises the awareness of it. But if these “high profile” Christians say or do irresponsible comments/actions like that, doesn’t it become bad examples of Christians and makes other ppl think that Christians are all hypocrites? I know of quite a few ppl who disrespect or who would not even be interested in Christianity bcos of the bad examples that they have seen in the past.

Once again, I know I shouldn't be judging other ppl. I have to make sure that I see the log in my own eye rather than the speck in my brothers. But come on, I at least won't promote one night stand la. I have to admit, I'm a conservative on certain issues.

Psalms

Finally! Finally finished reading Psalms. Psalms is probably one of the Bible books that I dislike the most. I found it very difficult to read.

Why did I read it then? 事原係there was this Bible reading campaign in my church last year to encourage us to finish reading the Bible all the way thru in 1 yr. 起初我都跟得上, 什至一度比 recommend reading 仲要快, 漸漸地我就開始落後,但仍努力地希望能趕上,但好境不常, once I hit Psalms, 完全係停滯不前, well… 係有前既,不過係超慢囉.

But I didn’t give up. Even though it has been another yr after the campaign (and obviously, I failed in that campaign), I am still hanging on. 以比蝸牛更慢的速度去讀, and finally I am finished!!! Well… one of the reasons that it took me so long was bcos I went to read Acts instead for a little while (and actually finished it). Hrm… another reason was that I was big lazy bum law… didn’t read everyday…

I know that I don’t like Psalms even before the campaign. Well… my impression about it has improved somewhat but still, can’t say that I like it. So repetitive. Yea… I know I know… it’s supposed to be songs and stuff and in that case, it’s really not so repetitive compared to some of the Hip Hops and Raps these days. And I do found a few of them less repulsive but again… I wouldn’t say that I like to read Psalms…

In any case, 我既努力都算無白費,終於都睇哂. And I had just started Proverbs. Hopefully, it’s an easier read. Another book that I don’t really look forward to is Isaiah. I have this feeling that it’s a very boring book. I’ll see. It will be a while before I hit that book anyway.

Once again, yay for finishing Psalms!! I wonder if I’ll ever have the urge to read the whole Psalms again in my life. :P

Prayer of Saint Francis

讀協記既應該都好熟呢首 hymn, 呢首係其中唱得最多既一首。一直都覺得呢首 hymn 既 melody 好好聽，但就其實一直都唔知佢講乜，唱咗咁多年一直都係唸口枉。
兩個星期前既一個 sunday service, 再唱返呢首詩歌，發現ｄ歌詞原來寫得好靚。再加上嗰日既 sermon 同呢首歌好呼應，聽完 sermon 再唱呢首歌真係好正。

Make me a channel of your peace,

Where there is hatred let me bring your love,

Where there is injury your pardon Lord,

And where there's doubt true faith in you.

Make me a channel of your peace,

Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope,

Where there is darkness, only light,

And where there's sadness, ever joy.

O Master grant that I may never seek,

So much to be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

In giving to all men that we receive

And in dying that we are born to eternal life.

其實好多時唱詩既時候，都冇乜留意歌詞，其中一個原因係因為好多時我連首歌都唔識唱，我淨係顧住唱準個音（尤其是我呢Ｄ五音不太全既人）都已經用去咗我大部份既 processing power, 邊有時間去留意歌詞？但間唔中當你有機會睇睇ｄ歌詞既時候，就會發現原來好多既詩歌ｄ詞真係好靚好正。當你明白一首歌既內容之後，再歌落去都會有味道，有 feel 得多。

Church Website (Advertising Post :P)

Wa... Friday already. This week kinda flew by.

Have been working on web site stuff on my free time at home. I have two websites to manage these days. Both of them comes from church. I inherited the management of this one site about 1.5 years ago and it has been a bit of disaster. The original site wasn't written too well so it's quite hard to manage. Luckily, most of the things on the site do not change too much so it's pretty low maintenance. I have done some changes to it but it still looks quite ugly. well...it's probably my fault. I should have done a better job on changing its look but I really don't want to...

Another site is a new born baby. It's the website for my own church. Ya, my church hasn't had a website all these time. 真是有夠 outdate 的. Anyway, this one is starting from scratch so I can get all the files and scripts organized the way I wanted. From finding web host to actually writing the html were all done in solo bcos in the tiny aging congregation that I'm in, not many ppl could help me on that. 但也由於是一手一腳的包辦，所以是很有心機的去做啦．Although it's just a very simple website, I'm no designer so it took me a quite a long time to finalize on the layout and design of the page. It's still very simple but I like it cos it's clean and neat. And that's pretty much the best I can do by myself without an artist to help me on the art side of the page.

Content 方面，shamefully, 真的是很不濟，因為也是我寫的，跟我一起讀過中學，認識我的人也知道我作文是多麼的叻．I have asked ppl to help me but I didn't get any response, 無奈地唯有自己從其他教會網頁左抄左抄的拼出來．

還有要做的是 English + Chinese. Chinese 仲要 traditional chinese + simplified chinese. 本來有個可以打中文的教友可以幫忙的，but again didn't hear much response. 咁一不做，二不休，continue solo. Hope that he can help out in the future updates of the site. Right now, I just want to get it done instead of leaving it hanging.

Finally everything is finished last night. Honestly, there's really not that much on the website right now. Mostly having the site so that ppl know that we exist. Content 方面，還是慢慢的 expand 吧．There's also not much pictures on the site (besides the gallery page). Asked for pictures and once again, no response. 唯有有時間的時候自己去拍完再 upload吧．

After so long, here's the link:
http://www.torontoclc.org

Comments and suggestions are welcome. Can either tell me directly or use the comment form on the website bcos the forms are submitted to, of course, me! haha...

I'm glad that I can use what I've learned in work in web programming 去為教會出一點點的綿力, maybe that's y I'm still stuck with this job! ha.