Things that I thank God for in 2016
Things that I need to work on:
My journal for my Ambon holiday:
31/12/16
Today we watched lots of fireworks at night. Some of them were big and some of them were very colourful. We were going to light some firecrackers, but we couldn’t because they got wet from the rain.
1/1/17
Today is the first day of 2017! We stayed home because it was a public holiday. I got to play a lot ! 😀 There was a lot of guest coming to our house to celebrate the new year with us. They were all of Guakong’s friends and family.
2/1/17
Today it is still a public holiday in Indonesia. After lunch, we went to look at a beach, but I was very tired! At dinner, we went to Mum’s cousin’s house to eat dinner. The food was very yummy! When we got home , we played with “Magic Onions”. They are fireworks which you throw to the ground and then they make a popping noise and shoot sparks.
3/1/17
Today we went to the beach to swim. The beach was very dirty and rocky. After I swam, I ate fried white potato (kasbi goreng)and pineapple jam cookies (nastar) at my cousin’s house. It was very yummy (the food, not the house).
4/1/17
Today, Uncle San and his family went back to Singapore. I think I will miss them because they were all very kind to me and fun to play with.After we went to the airport to farewell them, we went to a big mall called ACC (Ambon City Center). My mum thought it wasn’t far from the airport, but actually it was 50 minutes away! We ate dinner there, in a restaurant called “Solaria”.
5/1/17
Today, I played basketball with my dad and little brother. I sat down most of the time because my finger hurted a lot. Dad met and played basketball with a guy who wanted to be a pastor! For dinner, we went to Mum’s friend’s restaurant called “Bakso FB”. The bakso (meatballs) were delicious!
6/1/17
Today, we went to a cafe called “Kopi Joas”. We were going to order some coffee, but to many people were smoking, so we went out. After that, we went to Mum’s cousin’s seafood restaurant. We ordered some prawns and squid. It was yummy!
7/1/17
Today, we went to a small village. There was a pond
Kids are having their school holiday last week and this week – so I decided to work from home most of the days (also with colleague away – there’s little point coming to the office). I have been enjoying working at home with kids and Lina around – I managed to get solid work done and at the same time spend time with the kids.
Some of the things that we’ve done together:
Thanking God for the place, time and company. No work is perfect – but this is pretty close – I realised work that works for me – is the one that allows me to do things outside work easily.
I feel that I am having a holiday myself – realised that we don’t have to go away for holiday to have a holiday.
Ladies and gentlemen, hereby announcing that little Matthew has turned to three!!!!
Semakin bertingkah, cerewet, bandel – tapi gemesin, and definitely a blessing for us. Never a dull moment with si Matt.
Jet is turning five today!
We celebrated it with family and friends from Pelita last Saturday at Tea Inn. We had a good time – most importantly good company.
We are so blessed to be part of God’s family. Thank you for your presence on Saturday – and mostly thank you for bringing Jet in your prayers.
And the yummy taro ice cream cake! It didn’t last for long.
Yesterday night, Lina and the kids were busy decorating cup cakes for Jet’s teachers and friends at school.
And here is the result – beautifully decorated yummy cupcakes:
And Jet had a blast sharing his birthday with people at SOS Pre-school today.
This was taken from our last visit to Maroubra beach, December last year.
It was a short visit about half an hour, but the weather was perfect. And somehow when I look at these pictures, they give me some sense of peace. We should visit Maroubra beach once more before we go back to Kingsford in few weeks time.
Jet has settled in in the new school now, and he started to experimenting a little bit with his drawing and colouring. Before he doesn’t like use different colours, he usually just use 1 colour for everything.
The left and the centre were our family drawing. But we are a family of four, who is the other one? Could it be Jet is prophesying? The fifth member is apparently Jimmy Giggle from the TV show Giggle and Hoot. The right drawing is a monster cat.
From left: Jet at the park, Daddy and Jet, the toy that he got from Oma (kinda like potato head)
Above is actually Matt’s colouring. We are quite surprised that he is a multi colour kind of boy from the start, unlike his brother.
Jet and Matt were baptized last Sunday, 13/02/2011, among with other 3 other GFI children.
It was a humbling and a moving experience for us, we are now making our commitment to bring up our children as God’s children publicly. It was also a good reminder for me on what baptism really (in this case children baptism) means.
I’ve taken an excerpt from Baptism Service which I think does the explaining of children baptism really well (note: I’ve reformatted them slightly – emphasis are mine, I’ve also listed Jet and Matt not the other children):
Baptism: An explanation
Jesus said:
"Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.(Mark 10:14-16)
Children are baptised on the understanding that:
- They will be brought up as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, and that
- When they are old enough they will take upon themselves the promises that are made on their behalf.
Therefore, let us pray that God will grant to Jeremiah and Matthew that which by nature they do not have, that by the work of God’s Holy Spirit they may grow up to know the forgiveness of their sins, and to put their trust in the Saviour who laid down his life for them.
The meaning of the children baptism is simply summarized by the 2 points above, for us the parents to bring up as followers of Christ (our promises), with the hope that they themselves one day confess that Jesus is their Lord and Saviour.
Oh, how we long for that day to come.
The godparents were also making a promise, their promise is to pray and seek to encourage both Jet and Matt in the name of Jesus Christ. Kuku San is Jet’s godfather and I i Chen is Matt’s godmother.
And then the congregation prayed together.
We receive Jeremiah and Matthew into the congregation of Christ’s flock and pray that they will not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, but will bravely fight under his banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and continue as Christ’s faithful soldiers and servants until the end of their lives.
Amen.
Amen indeed.
Matt got wet first.
Jet went next, Kuku San was supposed to hold him but he was so scared – so I had to hold him instead.
See Jet, it wasn’t scary at all – it’s just water (from the rest room 🙂 ).
Today we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We had a little fight on the afternoon (ironic I know) – thank God, that He did change my hot head-ness and we still managed to make up and had a good time afterwards.
We went around the city (as usual), bought a Hazelnut Ice Tea at ChaiTime then we went to Chinatown, did a little window shopping. We ended up the night with a nice dinner at Kazumi Ikazaya (we’ve been going to Japanese restaurant a lot! – what can I say, Japanese food is nice and healthy).
I notice those hands were skinnier and wrinkled 🙂 – I guess they’ve been working hard for 6 years.
This is how we look like at year 6 of our marriage – still good looking!
Thank you Lord.
Matthew turned two last Tuesday. We had 3 celebrations with 4 cakes in total!! He’s very spoiled.
Celebration #1 on the 14th – mom and grandma bought cakes for him.
Celebration #2 – at Sunday School – we brought cakes and goodies bags for his Sunday School friends. Below are his faithful Sunday School teachers.
Celebration #3 – Sunday evening with family and friends. We had lapis Surabaya cake, very yummy.
Thank God – he had a good time with his celebrations. We are entering the terrible two phase – we are praying that it would be the terrific two instead.