Never Give Up

As I am going through the toughest time of my research, I found this song which will be presented in this Christmas choir.

你是我的主，引我走正义路
高山或低谷，都是你在保护
万人中唯独，你爱我认识我
永远不变的应许，这一生都是祝福

一步又一步，这是恩典之路
你爱 你手 将我紧紧抓住
一步又一步，这是盼望之路
你爱 你手 牵引我走人生路

First Christmas in Melbourne

David is a young doctor from Sarawak, working in Monash. We are invited to his house for our first Christmas in Melbourne, together with other church members. We are glad not only because we are feeling the warmth welcome, but also the worship and grace sharing we have during Christmas. This reminds us of our Heavenly Father, who has sent his only son Jesus to die for us in Cross. There is nothing better in Christmas that we find a place full of christian, sharing the peace and joy of Christmas together.

理想

昨天是我们第一次在Melbourne过圣诞。去了两个家，充满感恩。
第一间是爱玲妹妹的家，还有Sebastian。其实这是Sebastian的家庭聚会，我们有幸成为一分子，真是上帝的恩典。有一位弟兄是越南侨民，在澳洲长大，却在越南服侍。虽然不是一个宣教士，却有宣教士的志愿和理想，为同胞服务。他在一家农业商会当CEO，为农民争取更高酬劳，并为他们的居住和医药福利着想。在分享当中，处处显示他的胸怀和抱负。

Walking with Christ

There is nothing that will bring us more joy than walking with Him. It's joyful to know Chee Tat had his baptism recently. With grace, he will have Jesus' company all his life.

We have been attending New Hope Chinese Baptist Church on the third week of our arrival. A 3 year-old church for mandarin speaking immigrants from China, as well as Malaysia. It is about 30 minutes drive from our house. Without a car, we will not be able to find a suitable church so quickly. As Abraham always built the altar whenever he arrived in a new place, this is our place for worship for next few years. Kids enjoyed the superb well organised Sunday School as well.

Attending the bible class every alternate Friday near the church, and every alternate Wednesday near our house is another great time to meet up with other brothers and sisters, as well as to share and pray together.

People need the Lord. The joy of sharing gospel and bring people to Christ is beyond imagination. They are mainly Chinese from mainland China. A move to Melbourne had enabled us to feel for their needs.

Coming Saturday (The church worship is on Saturday evening, due to logistic reason) will be my first sermon in Melbourne. With grace, He had allowed us to participate in church life faster than what we expected.

His name is to be praised!

Freezing

Winter is freezing. Our car is freezing as well, coated with a layer of ice in the morning. However, His grace is always warm.

Activities in Melbourne

Our first outing in Dobson Park on 8 Jun, about 40km away from our house. That's the time we first drove that far away from our house. Tao's birthday party was in one of the bible study group we attended regularly, mostly from Hong Kong and one brother from Sam Tet (Haha.. found a senior buddy in Melbourne). We had our first day trip two days ago to Melbourne City, visited Victoria Market, museum and state library. Guess what, we were having family fun time in the library playing computer games.

Schooling in Melbourne

Lim Tao started his first day at kinder (owned by Uniting Church) yesterday. He is the only Chinese in his class. The kinder here is very much different from Malaysia, mainly playing. The classroom is settled up by different playing stations/corners, more than 10 corners (art and craft, puzzle, drawing, music, computer, reading, clay, block etc)and of course some outdoor activities. The kids here are well-behaved and respect each other, no shouting, screaming , fighting among the kids. They obey the instructions set by the teacher. Surprisingly, the teacher is a very soft-spoken lady and you cannot imagine she can control and manage the class without shouting at all. No homework, of course. The maximum hours for kids in kinder is 10 hours a week, either 2 days a week or 3 days a week.

Lim Yue enjoys her school very much, no homework and no book bring back from school. Today is school market day. Each pupil need to bring something to sell at school. The objective is to learn how to count cost, loss and profit.

I know that they will enjoy very much with the education here. However, I do worry when come the day they have to go back to Malaysia....So, I am a home tutor now to guide them with the Malaysian syllabus, especially Bahasa, hopefully they would not suffer so much later...

Hospital

05 June 2009

Cycling to work in the morning. Meet up with my supervisor, Prof Sam Berkovic. Attend the first weekly comprehensive epilepsy meeting in Repatriation Hospital, followed by an epilepsy round in Austin Hospital. This is my first day in work. 

Meet up with Ramesh today, the first Malaysian doctor I met in Melbourne, getting to know more about the medical life and routine here. He is already one year in Melbourne.

New life in Melbourne

A new car, Mazda 121 (1997, 80000km). Guess how much?

A new bicycle, which I assembled myself. Of course, with a helmet.

Extra large Yao Zha Guai in winter.

And new playground for the kids. 

Heater,  

       

A complete kitchen (most things you see are wonderful gifts from brothers and sisters in Christ) and free gospel newspaper from the market in Boxhill (one of the Cina towns in Melbourne).

Accommodation

Finding a house in Melbourne is not easy, this is the first comments by most of my friends, agents and proven by our experience. Usually it takes 2-3 weeks. However, our house is confirmed in 3 days. We inspected four houses on Saturday (23 May), submitted the form on Monday and on the same day itself, all agents called back with a positive reply. Isn't it a miracle? This can only be achieved by His grace. No one we met believed we found a house in such a short period of time. This is a 3 rooms house with a heater, kitchen and a bathroom and one toilet, and a big garden. 

Unfurnished! Sounds empty? Amazingly, we had most of our furniture without spending any money. Pastor Hong, a very helpful and dedicated pastor, had rent a track and sent us a dryer, set of sofa, kitchen utilities, a fridge and .... And now our house is full.

Loretta and PS

We know Loretta through Pastor Tik Wah; and we know Tik Wah through Jin Yih. She was so kind. The first thing was Melway (the most important map in the world if you live in Melbourne), and a set of cups and plates and .... a great dinner in a Hong Kong restaurant with his husband PS. He is a biochemist in Boxhill hospital who taught me how to start my gas heater.

Augustine

Augustine is Pastor Wong's brother, who drove 50-60km to pick us up from Oi Ling's house. We spent 5 nights in his house, with his wife Yao Chen and son Matthew. He had treated so warm till our kids don't want to follow us to the new house anymore. We learned a lot about Melbourne from his family, everything from daily living, news, politics, sports etc. He worked in Vision Australia which is a government organisation helping the blind and that showed how much welfare is invested by the government. We had a good time in his house and made us feel like home. Another angels.

Oi Ling is an angel

The moment we stepped into Melbourne airport, we realised what 'cold' means. It was 7 o'clock in the morning, freezing. There came a warm lady, whose name is Oi Ling. She is Li Hui's sister-in-law, who picked us up in the airport, brought us to her house, served us food, and of course helped us to understand the importance of heater. Tao slept in her bed, didn't sleep well in the plane, though he enjoyed the movie a lot (watching cicakman 2). 

Farewell in KLIA

Time to leave KL (7.30pm on 22 May 2009). Farewell was warm. And we are touched. Mun Fai prayed for us for the first time. And Yue Xing was the youngest angel who accompany us in the last day in KL. Mei Kuen was with us as well. (Please send us the photo with her face if you have one)