BUILD themesong - final (draft)

November 14th, 2008

Pheewww! after all these changes, including last minutes ones, finally Jen & I came up with final draft of Build themesong. Here goes the lyrics:

Marilah Kita Saling Membangun
(Efesus 2-5)

Bait 1:
Syalom saudara seiman
Oleh darah Kristus Yesus
Kita diselamatkan

Bukan kar’na usahamu
Hanya oleh kasih Allah
Berkat karuniaNya

Reff:
Marilah kita saling membangun
Bangkit bersatu, dan bertumbuh
Dalam kasih satu sama lain
Menjadi dewasa dan kuat
[Dalam Kristus, Kepala kita]

Bait 2:
Syalom saudara seiman
Oleh kematian
Kebangkitan Yesus Kristus

Jalan damai tersedia
Antara kita dan Allah
Surga pun terbuka

Bait 3:
Syalom saudara seiman
Kita beroleh hidup baru
Berjalan dalam kasih

Pegang teguh kebenaran
S’lalu mengucap syukur
Memuji nama Kristus

The English translation is like this:

Let Us Build Each Other Up
(Ephesians 2-5)

Verse 1:
Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ
Because of the blood of Christ Jesus
We are saved

Not because of works
Only because of God’s love
Because of His grace

Chorus:
So let us build each other up
Attain the unity and grow up
Through love for one another
To maturity and fullness
[Of Christ, our head]

Verse 2:
Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ
Because of death
And resurrection of Jesus Christ

Reconciliation way is made
Between us and God
Heaven’s door opened wide

Verse 3:
Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ
We have a new life
Walk in love

Holding on to the truth
Giving thanks always
Praising the name of Christ

Hahhahaha it’s much much much shorter than the first & second draft. And the music is also much much much better than our original, big huge thanks for those who’ve been giving feedbacks ;).

Hehehehe for those who’ve been wanting to hear the music, wait till this Sun! Both of us will wait till Sunday (after ppl give feedbacks) and then we’ll finally finalise the song - i’m sick of changing stuffs again and will love to finalise things hahahaha….

The End

Heart Life Voice & social injustice

November 1st, 2008

Thanks to few Pelitans that accompanied me last Thurs, we went to the FREE Heart Life Voice album launch at Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst. As it’s written in the inside of the album, HLV is an album of songs reflecting the Biblical challenge to pursue justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). it’s a project of Micah Challenge, a campaign encouraging Christians to care for the poor and speak out for the powerless as an essential part of faith. Different musos and songwriters around the world took part, including Garage Hymnal’s “Call For Mercy”.

Once we arrived there, we could see that the place was veryyyy small compared to the number of ppl coming, making the night very packed, hot & sumpek. No chairs at all, so we need to sit down on floor or stand up throughout the night. Probly they didn’t expect so many would come. It was very short, only 1 hour (minus talking2 time & late start). The format of the night was varying from live performance of the musos, playing the CD while watching on some presentations, interview of how this project started, as well as a dance performance while one of the track was playing. My (and a few others’) favourite performance/song was of Andrew Kitchen’s, whose song “Oh Come The Day” is the best!! And i did enjoy the dance, very very good!

Despite of the album launch event, i think it achieved the point of raising more awareness of social injustice and how we as Christians should act; especially since it’s been in my mind for quite a while. (and that is also part of my reason of inviting more Pelitans to the events, beside of free music gigs). The executive producer Mark Evans had his own little research, of the (about 250, if i’m not mistaken) contemporary worship songs nowadays, only <2.5% of them speak about God’s heart for the poor and needy, in contrast with the Bible’s numerous references on that issue. As it’s emphasised throughout the night, they hope that through the album we’ll be able to not only sing songs about social injustice, but also act based on our faith. Although it’s constantly repeated of how we should walk our faith, they didn’t mention much (if at all) about how we can act, or what we can do to halve the world’s poverty by 2020. I was wondering about that, but when i got home and have a look closer to the album, now i understood. Instead of providing lyrics (i whinged about that haha), in the booklet they provide facts about poverty, Bible materials on God’s heart for the poor, and practical steps we can take to have a heart for God, a life of integrity, and a VOICE for the poor and marginalised. Wow! That actually a powerful tool to promote the idea through the album.

Had a conversation with CN & NH in the bus trip home about the issue that was raised; basically we know we should help the poor, but we don’t know in practical how it looks like, and it’s hard since we live in a very comforting and blessed-in-abundance Sydney. On one hand, we don’t want to emphasise too much on social injustice action without the gospel, lest we become just a social organisation, and since what people really need is the real food of salvation. But on the other hand, if we emphasise on the gospel without social injustice in action, then it’s also wrong, since James 2 said that faith without works is dead….  So how??
While we pause for a while, a lady sitting beside us (coz all of us were standing in the bus) meaningfully smiled at me. hahaha i was quite puzzled, but i reckon she must be listening through our conversation since we spoke in both English & Indo campur-campur hahaha (must not underestimate Aussie’s understanding of Indo language haha). When she got off the bus a moment later, she smiled to me again and agreed, “Yep - faith without works is dead”. And I smiled back at her - she must be a Christian too ^^ Hahaha i was a bit embarrassed but also very encouraged, altho it’s only a minute encounter with her. Hihi at least our conversation had also encouraged another nice stranger :)

Anyway, back to the issue. Yeah, so i’m very struggling lately with the words of James 2:14-17. I know we can take part not only by donating money, but also to give our time and energy to volunteer in a Christian social organisation, or to speak out about the issue to our church members - being a representative or sort of. But it’s easier to be said than to be done. What can we do and act that is in line with our faith?? How??

Then at my most astonishment and almost disbelief, at the next night (i.e. last night) after i got home and opened up my email, God somehow answered my question and prayer straightaway! Compassion Australia, the Christian organisation that i’m supporting atm, sent an email about their Fast For Food campaign this November. Wow. At least now i’ve got something to start with =)

The End

microsoft office yay!

November 1st, 2008

hmph i guess between the choice of whether-you-can-live-without-internet or whether-you-can-live-without-microsoft-office, i found it harder to live without microsoft office! hahaha it’s funny how i became very very disorganised without word & excel (and powerpoint, to some extent), and it didn’t annoy me as much as if i didn’t have internet.

I repaired my laptop a few weeks ago, hence all the softwares were gone; so that’s the story. finally after delaying and delaying, i bought the original Microsoft Office 2007 last Thurs and installed it this morning –> phewww! what a relief!

oh well… that also means that i need to re-organise myself and catch up with all the works that i left behind…

oh well… bring it on! :p

The End

Sydney Passion Conference

October 24th, 2008

A lot of us went to Passion Conference at Syd Entertainment Centre last Tuesday, yeah i think it was alright, not too bad. Around 8,000 ppl came. They said not as packed as Burn Your Plastic Jesus. hihi not many ppl know beforehand that it’s actually a conference, but with only 20-30 mins talk and the rest (3 hours!) was very-loud music, yeah i’d categorised it as more like a rock concert than a Christian conference! hahaha
No one is really sure what’s the direction of theology of Passion, that’s why we’re there to find out (even Josh was there ;p)

well, the music was too loud till you can feel your heartbeat pumping and your ear deafening, the songs weren’t familiar (they didn’t sing my favourite songs from Passion at all!), the key the music in was too high (you know, Chris Tomlin’s range), not congregational at all. but at least the talk itself wasn’t too bad, the preacher Louie Giglio at least still mention about basic Christianity, how Jesus became sin for our sake just because of God’s grace and there’s nothing else we can do. it’s much better than Hillsong’s talk when i visited there a few weeks ago.

what makes me very disturbed was that before the talk, Louie asked us to pray in 2-3 ppl, one of the prayer points was to ask God to be with us that night, and to bring what He intended to be in heaven now/that night. We prayed something else instead, and Janet had to explain to an ESF young girl that God is already with us.

Interestingly, they didn’t mention about Holy Spirit at all throughout the night, as you would’ve thought of from that kind of worship meetings.

Had conversation with Josh recently about music/passion/emotion/feeling etc, and we got to discuss a bit about Passion Conf on the way back home with him.

Hmm funny when you looked around the people that night, a lot of them seemed really “into it”, or emotionally deep-looking worshipping God, etc. Beside the fact that the music was too loud, i did enjoy expressing myself/my love to God during singing, and i enjoyed (half-) raising my hands - you know, something i won’t ever do in focus for the sake of others :p. But you know what, ironically i feel almost nothing - it feels kinda empty. That’s because there’s almost no substance/content in the lyrics of the songs - no matter how popular the song is, and the talk was very basic normal Christianity stuffs.

Eventhough some of the songs aren’t too bad, the music really distract the point. Like a part of the song by that David sumthing had the lyric “You are my joy, you are my joy, you are my joy…” repeatedly. Me and Hilda beside me were saying that we can’t feel any joy at all, it’s very painful instead, with our ears deafen and throat sicken. lol.

Compared to the emotion that arises out of deep conviction of the truth of God’s Words (through the sermon or Biblical songs), that kind of feeling (that is aroused by music) is nothing! And to compare with recently Rice Regenerate, it’s nothing too. Or even other conferences that i’ve been to.

That makes me all the more thankful to God for the music ministry of evangelicals here in Sydney, and what a good Bible teaching as well from the Sydney evangelicals. Don’t take it for granted, friends!

Well i know this is a very subjective experience, and i could talk hours and hours about this, so i better stop there ;P hahaha.

Another things that makes me wondering is that, what is it of this Passion movement happening in the world that draws thousands upon tens thousands of students on each occasion? Is it the music? worship? great singing? What about the talk? do ppl come to Passion more because of the music, or because of the talk? (obvious answer, isn’t it?)

Hmm what about if we have an event with great teaching and great music? wouldn’t it attract more people?

The End

Bapaku Memegangku - draft 1

October 11th, 2008

Hmm this is draft 1 from Garage Hymnal’s Holding On To Me - see here for more details. To listen to the song and see the english lyrics, visit their myspace in here.

Bapaku Memegangku

Dipilih sejak awal
Hanya oleh kasihMu
TahtaMu ditunjukkan
Surga dipanggil rumah

Ku tinggalkan segalanya
MengikutiMu Tuhan
Kau tahu nama, hidupku
S’gala suka, dukaku

Bapaku memegangku
AnakNya dib’rikan
Bapaku memegangku
Takkan dilepas

TanganNya terbentang luas
Terdengarlah seruNya
Dengan darah, berat hati
Firman Allah pun pergi

Bridge:
Inilah doaku:
Pegang aku
Tanganku tak kuat
Walau kegelapan
Meliputiku
“Terpujilah Tuhan!”

Hmm any thoughts?

The End

Over-enthusiastic youth!

October 11th, 2008

Hahaha starting a prayer group meeting at workplace isn’t as easy as i thought. certainly there are some rules @ work that i need to abide, which i didn’t think of before in my excitement of meeting fellow christians, and got me into trouble hahaha…

Instead of consulting with my manager and my bigger manager of the technical department (which i belong to) first about starting the prayer meeting, i told the big head director straightly about it, and both my managers weren’t very happy about it. They got me to sit down (which i wasn’t aware of the situation at all), and told me that they are very open to talk about religions/faiths, and so they couldn’t understand and felt very upset when i didn’t talk to them first and instead turn to WS straightly. They didn’t really agree with the idea of having a prayer meeting, coz it seems separating the christians from the other faiths in the workplace, it seems very exclusive, it doesn’t match with the company’s values; and the implication of this is that other religions must have the same chance to have their own meetings, and that has never been thought/happened before.

It’s not that they would forbid us the christians having prayer meeting, but it’s just that i didn’t tell them first and instead talk to WS, certainly it’s the number #1 rule at company that i broke: if there’s anything happen, tell your immediate manager first, then it becomes the manager’s responsibility. Now my bigger manager had to talk to the HR manager and the boss’ son JS about this issue.

Hmm it’s not the most pleasant conversation i had in my life, but i can totally understand their reasoning, and thank God that they talked to me in a very calm and nice ways (but deep cut into the heart of the problem lol); and i totally understand it’s my fault of not telling them. It’s just i myself also don’t understand why the thought of telling them first didn’t cross my mind at all. I told them when i talked to WS it’s purely coincidental (i bumped into him when i was making coffee!). I explained my reasoning behind the idea, that is, christians everywhere, not just in workplace or church but basically everywhere, love to meet and gather with fellow believers for encouragement and strengthening of each other. It’s the nature of christian gathering, and not meant to be an exclusive and seclusive group; it’s not like we had something to hide or secrets.

I felt really bad tho, i cried in front of ZG in the ladies changeroom, and thank God she’s there to comfort me. She said it’s partly her fault of not telling me to tell them first, and it’s just everyone is excited about the prayer meeting and we didn’t really think much about it. Half an hour later, my bigger manager approached me for the second time, she and the HR manager thought it’s not a good idea, but since WS owns the company and he can do whatever he likes, he’s christian too and he allows it to happen, and so be it. But there are several rules that we must obey: the meeting shouldn’t exceed 30 mins (coz that’s our lunchtime), no noise, company’s matter stands ahead the prayer meeting in regards to booking rooms, etc. And she warned me next time not to do it again, and i had to take full responsibility of my actions. I thanked her, and I apologised of not thinking through these matters.

At the end of the day, i apologised again to both my managers, and they quite understood that i did that not in purpose, and that i’m just an “over-enthusiastic youth” that don’t really think much about it. And this is how we solve a problem: talk about it openly, address the matter and fix it, so that on Monday we don’t have anymore grudge over each other. Certainly there are things to be learned thru this experience.

Oh by the way, we still have our first prayer meeting yayy! 5 ppl including me came, it went very short (we started late - coz no one was really sure it’s still on or not), and 3 out of 5 are very excited about this, i didn’t have to sort of lead the meeting they already talked what we wanna do with the meeting, what format, what we will do, how often, etc. (The boss’ son JS came by for a few minutes to explain the rules, and we’re happy about it). (And apparently all 4 of them had associations with hillsong if not going to hillsong themselves - which is a good indicator what ‘type’ of christian they are). The 3 excited colleagues are very mature (middle aged) christian i can say, who has been working in the company for years and years. They said they’ve been wanting to have this kind of christian support group for a long time, but it’s just no one had ever put the things together, and they’d got caught up with work etc and so forgot about it (and they thanked me for doing this). And so we’ll decide the stuffs at the next meeting.

When i reflect upon this at the way home, i couldn’t help but thinking back to Phillip Jensen’s talk at Challenge about church-planting entrepreuner - that a characteristic of an entrepreuner is they don’t think much when starting something, they just do it, and apologise later. Hahahaha perhaps i have that characteristic?? i dunno, we’ll see ^^. But just like Andrew Lim’s said in his elective “Giftedness in ministry”, he challenged us to start a new ministry by the end of this month and see how we go with it. And so i did, i started, i’ll be responsible, and i’m committed to make it work.

At the end of the day, yeah i might be just an “over-enthusiastic youth“. I might not have think much about the consequences of my actions. But what i want them (and not just them, but the rest of my colleagues) to see is what or more exactly, who I’m enthusiastic about - i.e. Jesus Christ and Him only. It’s not just a random enthusiasm, but a real, eternal one, may it be a fragrance of life for them too. And if it takes an “over-enthusiastic youth” to light up the sparks of the “once-enthusiastic-but-now-less oldies“, so be it. And now i just realised - it’s my mission at the workplace. May it be yours too. =)

The End

what a very encouraging day =)

October 9th, 2008

hehe i’ve almost never had such an encouraging day @ work as today! =D Praise God!

i’ve had an idea of starting a Christian prayer group since the beginning, but haven’t really sown the idea until the beginning of this week. (coz i’m waiting for the relationship to be formed first-then waited for the exact moment hehe). When i tell it to my lab colleague+bestfriend now ZG, immediately she & her husband JG were excited about it - they thought it’s a very good idea. (fyi both of them are elders in their church, and JG is a lay preacher too ^^). So i’ve asked around, found another 2 colleagues interested to come, and sadly, also found another once-used-to-be-christian-but-not-anymore-coz-too-busy-with-work-and-life colleague =(

so here came today when i have to ask permission from our big manager JS about having the prayer group and also to borrow one of the meeting room upstairs. Instead of JS, I bumped into his dad, one of the 2 top directors, WS, this morning when i made coffee, and his reply was very surprising (and very encouraging too!). he is very supportive of the idea, bcoz he himself is a christian, and guess where he goes to church?? St. Thomas Anglican Nth Sydney! Yep - it’s the church where D&F and G&A are having their weddings there! (ZG said he’s also one of the leader/elder there). mentioned that my friends are having weddings there hahaha. the pastor is Simon Manchester, and i said that i’ve heard his talks before from podcast and he just laughed at me hahaha. i asked whether his son JS goes there too, and quite sadly he replied JS hasn’t been to church lately - he said he’s looking for one but haven’t really gone anywhere yet - and he said we can pray for him as well in the prayer meeting.

Unfortunately WS can’t come tomorrow since he’s working on Sat so Fri is his day off. But to my surprise (again), before lunch time he told me that he told another colleague CA from Finance - who i’ve just found out is a christian too - about the meeting, and CA is very excited about it too. “because CA is part of the team too”, said WS. News travel fast! Great! the more the merrier!

And in the afternoon, to my surprise and delight (again, for the 3rd times in a day!) WS came by to our lab (me & ZG) just to say how he is very encouraged by our bravery to step up and ask the director/manager around and have the great idea, and he wished us well for tomorrow. Wow! We were stunned! I really really really thank God for having him as the big director - he’s just soooooo encouraging! Thank God for this opportunity!

Explained and asked JS and he’s happy for us to have the prayer meeting, and so we’ve booked the room, and we expect around 6-7 ppl to come.

Aaaahhhh i can’t wait for tomorrow!! Let this be the start of what to become the salts and lights in our B&W Company! =D =D

The End

Our first project ;)

October 2nd, 2008

hehehe another update for the song translation thingy: our first project will be Garage Hymnal’s song (My Father’s) Holding On To Me - got a direct ‘order’ from AJ himself :p (recommendation denkk hehe) Thank God for this opportunity! =D

hmm it’s quite a hard song (Bapaku Memegang Aku?? hahaha). i need to admit i don’t really like the song ;P but it’s a very lively song and apparently one of their most popular song (esp with the youths).

The English words is like this:

Holding On To Me

Chosen since the start of time
Resting in your grace divine
Showing here on earth your throne
A people calling heaven home

Left my things and followed you
Choices you already knew
You knew my name, my life, my call
When I’d rise, and when I’d fall

My Father’s holding on to me
He gave His Son for me
My Father’s holding on to me
And He won’t let go

His arms outstretched and lifted high
We hear the word incarnate cry
Drying blood and heavy hearts
Breath of Life from God departs

Repeat chorus

Bridge:
This is my deepest prayer:
Hold me, O Lord
My hands are not so strong
Though darkness hides your love
And doubt consumes me
My soul cries “Holy Lord”

My Father’s holding on to me…
My Father’s holding on to me…
My Father’s holding on to me…
and He won’t let go

Repeat chorus 2x

Words Copyright © 2006 Andy Judd (Admin by Garage Hymnal)
Music Copyright © 2006 Andy Judd and Lynda Thoms
(Admin by Garage Hymnal)
From Garage Hymnal, ‘Take my life’ (2006)

Visit www.garagehymnal.com for free church music resources

Now, i need as much help and ideas as i can! Keep in tune!

The End

What is your dream ministry looked like?

October 1st, 2008

Had that question asked during lunch last Sunday. (yeah it’s from the same person that asked me a question on my previous post ^^ haha). Boy, i’ve never thought of that really. Well i do, but i kinda forget about it, been a couple of months now.

If, (this is IF) if God willing (and this is a dream right, so i can say anything that i’d like :p), my dream has always been to see/have Indonesian music ministry that has very good, biblical, gospel and Christ-centered songs. Like EMU’s. It’s just Indo isn’t as blessed with such great resources as here in Sydney. So I’d like to see one, if God willing.

Then being a good brother in Christ, that person encourages me to contact EMU ppl (esp Mark Peterson, he said - but i know the best person to contact will be Philip Percival ^^), to maybe use their studio or sumthing to record the Indo songs and make it available. And he really thinks that i can make that happen. Wow! no one has ever said that to me! ^^

So, i did. I sent an email to EMU and some other Sydney songwriters (got them from making connections during Twist hahaha), basically asking permission to translate Emu songs into Indonesian, and also i shared about my vision etc. I also sent them the translated version of Highest Place that Hilda did as an example.

Thank God some of them replied very quickly. Nicky Chiswell replied first, giving permission for her songs with condition that we send the translated version to her (apparently she has a very good Indo friend doing a PhD in translation issues, who is also a keen Christian - so she can look over it). And today Philip Percival replied, giving permission for (basically all) other EMU songs! yayy! Praise God!
To get the ’seal of approval’, we need to send him both the original and translated version, in order to check the theological direction on the right track.

I’m soooooooooo excited for this!! reallyy!!

I’ve shared with Philip my further (future, long-term) plan/vision, and tell him to let me know if there’s any opportunity to work things out. So, i’m keeping my fingers crossed!

- “I can do everything through him who strengthen me” -

The End

What is your passion in life?

October 1st, 2008

Had that question asked again to me during lunch last Sunday, and i couldn’t help but to think back to 2 events in the past.

The first one was during one of Charles’ talk in Pelita church (can’t remember when or the title). I think it was about whether the gospel is our passion in life. Then for the discussion question, i still remember clearly that one of the questions was “If people see your life, would they be able to tell you what your passion is?” or sumthing like that. Then the person next to me straightly answer “Music!” as my passion.

In a sense it’s yes and no. Yes i’m passionate about music, but not just general music, but more like music combined with the gospel and Jesus that i’m passionate about. and in a sense it’s also the wrong answer, coz the right answer should be the gospel in the center, reflected by music. Do you see the difference? **

The second one was during the interview with my current full-time job. The interviewer (now my boss) asked me “What is your passion in life?”. Straightaway there are only 2 things in my mind: God and the gospel. (not even music! i can’t believe that!). But then i thought “that sounds a silly answer! i couldn’t answer that in an interview?!”. After 2-3 seconds silence (but battling in my mind), finally i didn’t say that and answer another thing instead.

After i got home, i was reallyyy ashamed of myself. How could i being ashamed of the gospel?? How could i not be brave enough to say that?? Later on I confessed that to God, and pray for boldness.

So that was my story. Now i’m able to answer boldly to that question last Sunday “the gospel first, reflected in music”!

“I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus
For it’s the power, the power of salvation
For us who believe, from every nations
The righteousness of God revealed”

So, what is your passion in life??

(** For helpful reading on this, I’d highly recommend CJ Mahaney’s Living The Cross-Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing.)

The End