Denominations

It's strange how my conversations at office these few days seem to revolve around denominations.

Actually, we have charismatics, Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, etc at the office. As different as we are, I shared my dream with them to unite us all together. There may be some 'bad blood' or 'not so fine' experiences in the past, but all sides should put the past behind, remember what brings us together, and not focus on what sets us apart.
This, I believe, is not 'sweeping things under the carpet', but more towards building relationships based on our common love for God and hope in Christ, and what He has done for us, not what/how we are doing things for Him.

"Unity in the midst of Diversity".... the motto I am trying to share at work ....

Ordinary? I don't think so...

LG
Originally uploaded by ngoy.

I was on the verge of canceling our LG meet yesterday. However, I felt the nudge not too. 1/2 our group was not around. In the end, we still met up (Kevin, Olivia, Paul, and myself). Nevertheless, it is still an uplifting meet as we explored the book of Ruth.

Ruth was an ordinary woman. She led an ordinary life. Her story was not any extraordinary than anyone of us. She embraced God even though she is not part of God's people at that time. To cut the story short, she became one of the ancestors of the great King David, and later Jesus Christ himself.

I asked us to ponder on the mundane and, what seems, insignificant events of our lives. At any point of our journey, we may question why certain event happens. And what may seem ordinary now, may well be of great significance later on. We shared our stories and later felt affirmed by book of Ruth that none of our ordinary experiences throughout our lives were actually ordinary per se.

As you can see in the picture that our LG is not ordinary as Olivia is trying to nail my head. 8-)). Must be the stress.

One for the Record

the mamas ready!
Originally uploaded by sivinkit.

well, as you can see both mothers were pretty "ready" for the babies to come. This picture was take during the last combine LiFe Group meeting at the Berry Residence.

Now, we can all see the newborns who enjoyed their stay in mummy's tummy for 9 months. It's our responsibility not only as nuclear families but as a church (i.e. faith families) to welcome the two latest additions and guide them in this world that God has placed us all in.

Selamat Datang.

Elysia Kit Kye Xin & Eliana Joy Seidlz

BLC's Youths' Night Out - Last Week

Wow..so many new posts, a new poster and a couple of old posters whom haven't posted in a while =) Can't be letting the 'youth' of BLC go un-represented right? *hehe*


Who are we? - We're the 'youth', but it boggles us that the 'older people' of BLC keep calling us the young adults. I mean, like..."huh?" ;) We're also commonly known for 'goofing off' and definately, eating =D


Recently, a new Life Group was formed, known as the Baptism & Affirmation group for now. Also popularly known (popular to all except one! ;) as James' group - the Next Gens.


We combined old members of the previous Life Group with a few newer BLC-ians. We've been rockin' since day 1! God's been wonderful to us, and has been among us every time we meet, and I believe with us individually too.


We've grown and transitioned together nicely, it's been a great beginning. We're a close and tight unit. When Rev. Sivin, our current Life Group facilitator postponed our usual Wednesday meeting, we couldn't help but still meet...to eat of course! =D


It won't be for quite a few years more before BLC has youths proper. But for now, we're willing to represent ;) Until the kiddies grow up and are due to take their rightful places with youth-hood *haha*

Stations of the Cross

I'm looking forward to another round of a kind of mini-tradition (in the healthy sense of the word) for BLC. This week all of us - especially the LiFe Groups and even the children are invited to work on 13 stations based on Journey to the Cross

After Palm Sunday, Holy Week begins on Monday so the Father's House will be open from 8pm - 10pm. It's open not just for BLC members, it's open to all who are interested. This year we'll open the Father's House from Monday to Wednesday, Close on Thursday for Maundy Thursday, and have a Good Friday service. Of course, we will have an Easter sunday celebration.

I came across some interesting sites to enrich one's preparation for the Stations of the Cross this year. Thanks to a site my friend DJ Chuang webmasters eQuip Blog Check out the following:

online stations of the cross

Stations of the Cross: children and their families walk with Jesus.

Helped a Child Lately ?

Matthew 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

What are we going to do for those less fortunate than us ? Why we can walk of course and yes we can have some fun doing it ! World Vision is having it's fun night walk again soon. The full details and registration forms can be found at their web page here. The event is roughly as follows:

Date: 16th April 2005, Saturday
Time: 5.00pm - 9.00pm
Venue: Taman Arboretum

(Hill next to KL Golf & Country Club)

Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur

Theme: Jungle Walk
Put on your safari hat/ khakis/ bandannas etc!
Best Dressed Participant will take home prizes

BLC are going to participate in this event and we of course would like to see many of our friends also join us, so come on have some fun and help the kids at the same time. If you are interested in participating please contact me by e-mail at david.berry@gmail.com or pop into the Fathers House one Sunday before registration closes on the 8th April so we can arrange to take part as a group.

BLC'ians you can see me on Sundays to register your interest.

Finding a Home at BLC

Thanks to Sivin for inviting me to participate in the blog. I feel honored! This first post will be to introduce myself and my family and why we have started attending BLC.

I’m Amy, my husband is Eric and our son is Noah (almost 2 years old). Our baby daughter is due to arrive any day now! We are Americans and have been living in Malaysia for 3 years. Almost all of that time has been in Kajang, mainly because it is close to UKM. We studied Malay there for about 9 months and then Eric has continued studying and just completed his Master’s Degree in Linguistics. I have mostly been a full-time wife and mom, with some part-time work on the side.

Before coming to BLC, we attended a Malay speaking church in Kajang. It was a good experience for us in many ways, mainly in learning the langauge! But as our family has grown, our needs have changed. We didn’t fit in so well in a church of mostly university students. And even though we are comfortable in Malay, we didn’t feel like we were growing and learning as much as we should, or participating in the church life. Sometimes we just didn’t have the energy to wade through all the cultural and language barriers. We realized we needed to worship in our own language and to find a church that was suitable for a growing family.Well, BLC seems to be a place where lots of families are growing!

We found out about BLC through the internet, of all places. We checked out this blog along with others related to it. We read some of Sivin’s posts as well. We could see that BLC was a different kind of church. We were impressed with the kinds of things people were writing about and the kind of community that was represented. We decided to give it a try.

We liked BLC immediately. People greeted us warmly. There were tables and chairs, candles – really nice ambiance. It felt like coming into a café in some ways, more than a church. The cross made of lighted pictures sets a nice tone too. Then there was the kids' area and the emphasis on intergenerational worship. We had come at just the right time apparently, because all of this is just getting started.

So we felt comfortable right away. We have started attending a Life Group and getting to know people little by little. But we still have a lot of people to meet and a lot of names to remember! So please forgive us if we forget your name, or can’t quite remember if we have met you already.

We are looking forward to great times of fellowship with the BLC family, to mutual encouragement in the Lord and to being a part of a community that is seeking to obey God and show His love to others.

Creating a Home Together

"Many human relationships are like the interlocking fingers of two hands. Our loneliness makes us cling to each other, and this mutual clinging makes us suffer immensely because it does not take our loneliness away. But the harder we try, the more desperate we become. Many of these "interlocking" relationships fall apart because they become suffocating and oppressive. Human relationships are meant to be like two hands folded together. They can move away from each other while still touching with the fingertips. They can create space between themselves, a little tent, a home, a safe place to be.

True relationships among people point to God. They are like prayers in the world. Sometimes the hands that pray are fully touching, sometimes there is distance between them. They always move to and from each other, but they never lose touch. They keep praying to the One who brought them together."~ Henri Nouwen

Take Time to Look at Your Life Part 2

So how is Life with Yourself? Here's the second installment for those who find questions helpful. Very often once we understand ourselves better, we'd very likely find it easier to discover the answers we're seeking for. :-) Enjoy the quest ...

How healthy are your sleeping, eating, and exercise patterns?

What experiences and factors are influencing how you feel about yourself at the moment?

What activities replenish you? Are you finding enough time for them? If not, how can you make more time for these things?

What are you learning from the books you're reading?

Is there a question that keeps surfacing in your heart — one you might have been staying too busy to hear? Could it be that this is God's question for you as well?

The Scent of Velvety Pink Flowers

** Originally from The Hiking Path Meant for One **

Looks like she couldn't wait =) Congratulations to Rev. Sivin Kit and his wife May Chin and their son Gareth, as Elysia Kit Kye Xin was born healthy just a while ago!! May Chin's fine and resting up now and good thing Sivin didn't faint!



Looks like he couldn't wait either! Just got an SMS from Sivin about the baby and sitting nicely in my inbox, were pictures! =) So exciting! That was real quick Reverend ;) But we're all excited! It's all good!



I was going to post up this picture before I went to sleep at midnight, but didn't have energy to do so but as soon as I got up, armed with all the news I have just received, I couldn't wait! This picture paints the accurate of the doting father Siv

in is. I absolutely enjoy looking at it. I have many other pictures of Sivin with Gareth but this is the most recent. I was about to blog about them waiting for Elysia's arrival but guess like I said, she beat me to it! =)

For more, you could visit Sivin's blog =)

Welcome Ms. Elysia Kit Kye Xin! We can't wait to meet you!! And congrats Mr. Gareth Kit Kye Ler on being promoted to the eldest child!

***Picture of May Chin and baby Elysia courtesy of Rev. Sivin Kit.***
***Blog entry title and closing message courtesy of Jochebed Jayasooria.***

No Accident

Excerpts from our LG meeting....

http://ngoy.blogspot.com/2005/03/no-accident.html

A look at my life

Sivin posed a few interesting questions in the last post Take Time to look at your life, Pt1

How would you describe your relationship with God right now?
In all honesty? Comfortable. But kinda stuck, like it's not going up or down.

What have you been doing to cultivate your relationship with God lately? What spiritual disciplines have been most meaningful to you?
I've been reading the bible. Praying a little, trying to get my feet back into Christian fellowship. The most meaningful spiritual discipline, I guess, is meditating on God's word and chewing on the issues that surround my faith. I've no idea if this is a spiritual discipline or not, but it has helped me gain confidence in asking God the tough questions.

Has God spoken to you recently through his Word, in prayer, or through other people? What has he said? How have you responded?
Truly, I've not been listening well! But a recent event in my life made me realise that nothing is forever. What you amass for yourself - reputation, power, money - may be gone just like that. Having witnessed it happen to others, I realise that my treasure is not on Earth but with God. Having that kind of belief does help me weather sudden, terrifying changes in a more calm way because I know God has a plan for me, no matter how dark.

Are there some particularly rough spots in your life that you'd like to talk to God about? Is there anything you need to confess?
Rough spots? Well, currently my doubt about my career. I made a career move a few years ago because I thought "God told me to". Now, I realise that it could've been wishful thinking on my part. Another part, however, was convinced that it wasn't, so I have to fight these two conflicting viewpoints.

A lot of times I feel like a fool for making that career move, but when I see the positive aspects of that move - more skills, money and friends - I have to realise that God knows what he's doing. Now, I only can trust him to lead me to a new place. That's scary.

And I confess that I doubt God's good intentions a lot, no matter how I try not to.

Take Time to Look at Your Life Part 1

We all seek for answers in life. But too often it starts with "Is it ok to do _____?" or "Can Christians do ____ or ______?" I find good questions make a whole lot of difference where the direction of our answers are aimed at. Since Lent is a good season for self-examination, let's start with Questions for Personal Reflection focused on Life with God:

How would you describe your relationship with God right now?

What have you been doing to cultivate your relationship with God lately? What spiritual disciplines have been most meaningful to you?

Has God spoken to you recently through his Word, in prayer, or through other people? What has he said? How have you responded?

Are there some particularly rough spots in your life that you'd like to talk to God about? Is there anything you need to confess?

The Da Vinci Code?

I got an email from an old friend today and he asked me what I thought about the Bestseller Novel the Da Vinci Code. Here's my short reply:

The Da Vinci Code has been making waves and lots of money. some
Christians are a little bit anxious with his claims. Personally, I haven't read the book and thus can't comment much (I'll probably wait for the movie Tom Hanks will act in). I'm surprised that some Christians feel "shaken" but I suppose a "faith" that's not challenged needs some "growing" to do, But I do recall reading similar ideas of Jesus marrying in some other book (I forget) ... if you don't mind me just giving links ...

The links I gave him were the following, and I'll quote my favorite parts:

N.T. Wright on Christmas & the Da Vinci Code

Now we see something similar with the Da Vinci twist. Once you've read one of these books you've read them all. Dan Brown, the best-selling Da Vinci author, is the best writer I've come across in the genre, but anyone who knows anything about first century history will see that his underlying material is laughable.

Truth, as often, is stranger than fiction, and makes its way not with a flourish of trumpets but with the slow, sure tread of actual evidence, accumulating like grains of sand rising into a mountain, while the conspiracy theories build houses of cards which get blown away in the first breeze.

The evidence for Jesus and the origins of Christianity is astonishingly good. We have literally a hundred times more early manuscripts for the gospels and letters in the New Testament than we have for the main classical authors like Cicero, Virgil and Tacitus. Historical research shows that they present a coherent and thoroughly credible picture of Jesus, with all sorts of incidental details that fit the time when he lived, and don't fit the world of later legend.

We are on solid ground when we talk of Jesus of Nazareth announcing God's sovereign rule, clashing with the authorities, and being executed by the most brutal method then available. Still more remarkable, we are on solid ground when we speak of him being raised from the dead three days later, with his dead body transformed into a new sort of physical life which couldn't be hurt or harmed any more.

I admit N.T. Wight tends to be more detail (some think longwinded) but NT Scholar blog friend Conrad Gempf adds more humor to this serious issue in Taking Da Vinci Code way too seriously :

I don't know about you, but I am SO tired of answering questions about Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Last week it was the Discovery Channel and since they wanted to devote a whole programme to it, I doubt they'd like my comments:

Dan Brown is a novelist and The Da Vinci Code is fiction. Asking a New Testament person to comment is like asking a Marine Biologist to comment on Finding Nemo. The expert is of course going to say that sting rays do not sing and clown fish do not talk.

Enjoy the thriller for what it is, but when the lights come on it's time to leave the cinema.

And for those who like sermons, read "The Bible Code: My thoughts on the da Vinci Code and more"

I'll probably wait for the movie ... it's cheaper than buying the book. :-)