God is a Great God!

My dad is amazing ..... and my heavenly father is even more so!! My dad is a testimony of God's goodness. He went to see the cardiologist on Friday for a check up and found that 5 arteries in his heart were blocked .... a few up to 90% blocked! He had had no symptoms other than slightly laboured breathing.

The doctors said that they could do by-pass surgery on 4 of the 5 arteries, but the 5th one which was blocked 70% they could not reach because it was in an awkward location. On Monday he went in for the 6 hour operation and they were able to by-pass all 5 arteries!! Dad is in intensive care at the moment but the doctors said the operation was successful and he has already stopped bleeding, which is a good sign. Praise God for his healing! We serve a God of miracles!

This is a picture of my dad when he won discounted tickets to the musical "Wicked" in New York. Instead of paying over USD$200 each he got 2 tickets for just $26.50 each! He said that he asked God in the morning to give him a fruitful day. And then, being the amazing and generous dad he is, he gave the tickets to mum and I as he knew how much we both love musicals! He was happy, as he went to Times Square Church (the church which David Wilkinson founded) with Jono for the evening service and was ushered to the front row of the packed church.

New York New York

As I sit at my kitchen table trying to finish my reading for my theology class, I thought I would take a moment to digress from the riveting discussion about contextual Christology and reminisce about our trip to New York.

It was my first trip to New York. I now know why people so love New York - the hustle and bustle, the ease of getting around, the many sights to see and the range of food to eat! We stayed in this hotel which was perfectly situated within walking distance of Times Square and Central Park and with a subway station entrance just outside our hotel entrance.

Some of the highlights were that we saw 3 musicals for about USD$27 per ticket (you can't see Wicked, Chicago and the Wiz for that in Brissie), a sushi buffet which was nearly 1 NY block long (anyone who has been to NY can tell you how long some of those blocks are!), a yummy Malaysian restaurant called Nonya (the chilli crabs were amazing!!!), the incredible view from the top of the Empire State Building, the fantastic shopping at Century 21 and the weird and wonderful street buskers in Central Park.

Niagara Falls

We then went to Niagara Falls, and it was fortunate that Jono had been there before as he was able to plan our attack of the American and Canadian sides of the tourist activities. My favourite was the "cave of the winds" which is on the American side and is basically a walk way at the foot of the American bridal veil falls. You can go right up to the falls onto the hurricane deck! Each spring they rebuild the whole walkway and deck, as the falls freeze over. I'm glad we went in summer! It was amazing having that much water crashing down on you. Mum and dad went onto the hurricane deck twice,as you can see in the above picture!!

We did everything - the maid of the mist (which is a boat that takes you right up to horse shoe falls), the journey behind the falls, the aquarium and even the Niagara Gorge discovery centre (which had an elevator which takes you on a journey through the earth's core - it took mum and dad several minutes to work out that it was only a simulation :o)!. But the piece de resistance was that we had an awesome view of the horse shoe falls, the larger of the two falls, from our hotel room. Probably would have been a more romantic trip for Jono and I if we hadn't decided to share the room with my parents :o) But I think Jono was in photographer's paradise with all the amazing photos he took.

Touring Chicago with the Lais

Hmmm, it seems so long ago that mum and dad came and visited us in the US, but in an attempt to procrastinate and avoid reading for my next subject "Systematic Theology 2 - Christ, Sin, Man and Salvation" I have thought to start on the long overdue project of updating my blog! :o) hehe

My mum and dad came over to US on 20 June and we had a fantastic time - showing them around Chicago in summer. We went to Millenium Park where they have these two huge fountains which have water falling down the sides onto which they have faces of different people projected. Every few minutes they have this water spout which appears to shoot out of the person's mouth. All the kids would gather around to catch the water coming out of the mouth. Needless to say, since my mum and I are the biggest kids out there (one of the requirements for being a Sunday School teacher I think), we were in the thick of things!! It was lovely and refreshing after walking about in the hot sun.

We also went on the architectural river boat tour - which was excellent! It brought back memories of my architectural studies and the various forms - gothic, art deco, naturalism, moderism. This is us outside the Wrigley Building - which is one of the iconic buildings in Chicago with its white terracotta ornate cladding.

Chicago is really lovely when the sky is blue, the sun is shining and there isn't a foot of snow on the pavements!!

Crikey, we miss Australia

As you can see from the video above we are hard at work studying at Trinity! :o)

We have finished the first semester at Trinity and are due to receive our marks any day now. Trinity is highly academic - but even in the midst of studying and preparing assignments we still find time to have a laugh... I think it is the Aussie larrikin spirit.

Celebration of Hope

Never one to turn down the very attractive look of canteen lady I donned the hair net in order to help pack food parcels in "Celebration of Hope: Hunger and Thirst" at Willow Creek church. It was only two hours out of my day and it was a great cause - packing 4 million food parcels for children in Zimbabwe.

It was very well organised, with people working in stations to pack hydrated vegetables, chicken flavour, soy and rice into plastic packs. Obviously we had the Mok-Ong team (Chris, May Yen and the awesome Ong kids - Rachel and Nicky - and myself) working like a well oiled machine in the process packing line!

We were told stories of kids who were so hungry that they would eat stones or mudcakes - which were literally made from mud, just to have the feeling of something in their stomachs.
It was very humbling to know how well we live and how other people in the world still do not have basic necessities like clean water and sufficient food.

Chris Tomlin and Israel Houghton in Chicago!

Woohoo! We (Jono, May Yen and I) went to a concert last Saturday - Chris Tomlin and Israel Houghton. It was awesome!! It was like a two hour plus worship session. So fantastic to worship God led by some amazingly talented singers, song writers and worship leaders. God is soooo awesome - it was really wonderful to hear some of Chris Tomlin's stories and experiences of worshipping overseas in Brazil and the Ukraine.

Rockin' in Chicago

We have some downtime in between the lectures, tonnes of reading, exams and assignments to hang out with friends. Two weekends ago we went over to the Ongs where May Yen cooked this yummy seafood pasta dish and we got to play on Chris' toy (oops,I mean mental relaxation device) - the Wii Guitar Hero. It was a lot of fun singing and trying to play the drums (I am soooo uncoordinated :o). Thankfully (for your sakes) Chris has made a video which has a soundtrack which has masked my enthusiastic but off key singing :o)

Turning Green with Envy?

We said a tearful goodbye to Dad and Phil on Wednesday. We are so homesick!

So we went to the city yesterday to see the St Paddy's day celebrations. Each year they turn the Chicago River a kelly green colour with 40 pounds of orange vegetable dye.
We were one of the thousands of spectators on the riverfront waiting for this momentous event with the cold Lake Michigan wind blowing on our faces until we could not feel said faces. We imagined Irish Dan being with us as we waited. After about an hour of waiting and wondering "Could this be the year that the river doesn't change colour" two men race by in a metal dinghy and throw in a pot of dye amidst a roar from the frozen crowd - which immediately turns a 4m x 1m section of the river bright green. A slight anti-climax to say the least.

However, with a little bit of time we are told the whole river turns an impressive irridescent green colour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqlhAQebhWE&feature=channel_page

Three churches in 24 hours

The challenge we put to dad and Phil last Sunday was - how many churches do you think we can go to in 24 hours? - the answer was three - Willow Creek on Saturday night, Crusader's Church on Sunday morning and City Church Chicago on Sunday evening. Each church was different and each church had its different vision and calling. All in all I definitely got something from each of the sermons

Excited to bring back some of the things God is showing us to Brisbane next year! Especially excited by what God is doing back in International City Church in Brisbane!

Steak for men

On the final night that Phil and dad were in town Phil takes us to this steak place called "Smith & Wollensky" where the steaks are huge and the dining is refined. The steaks were enormous and literally filled the plate - but so tender and delicious. My mouth is watering as I write this blog -me being a meat-a-saurus and all.

I didn't realise how iconic this restaurant was until I saw it in the movie "Devil wears Prada" - they have a Smith & Wollensky in New York as well.

Super super sweet chocolate and super views

Had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - one of our favourite restaurants to eat at. Luckily we went on a weekday as the wait was not too bad, compared to last Saturday when we tried to take Dad and Phil and ended up walking out when we were told that the wait for a table was about 1 hour!

Went to the signature lounge on the 95th floor in the John Hancock building which is one of the taller buildings in Chicago. You can enjoy the views for free if you buy a drink. We bought these hot chocolates which tasted like they had come from a packet and had about 5 teaspoons of sugar in them. But the views were really spectacular - even the ladies toilet has a panoramic view!

Shopping, shopping & more shopping

Was in shopping heaven last week with Dad and Phil. Actually got to check out Filenne's basement - which is only in Chicago city and is a store that stocks all the brand names for reduced prices. Have been wanting to check it out as we have Nordstrom's Rack and TJ Maxx (all discount brand name shopping) in the burbs but not Filenne's basement. Had a great time doing one of my favourite past times!

Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir & Gauguin

Went to the Art Institute of Chicago and spent half a day wandering the corridors filled with masterpieces from the Impressionistic period - such as Renoir and Monet. My favourites were Renoir's "On the Terrace" and of course Monet's waterlilies.

Also found out that the same Palmer who owned the Palmer House that we were staying at also donated a large number of impressionistic paintings to the Art Institute.

Popped over to Millennium Park and the ice rink as well - Dad and Phil had brought over the warm weather (10C) - so unfortunately there was no free ice skating available. But we enjoyed the warm weather and the sunny, blue skies.

Let the partying begin!

Dad and Phil arrived in Chicago last week. We were so glad to see them! But we miss Brisbane and everyone at home even more.

We were doubly blessed as we got to stay with Phil and Dad in Palmer House Hilton - this gorgeous hotel is right in the city and with walking distance of the tourist attractions such as Millenium Park, the Art Institute of Chicago and The Chicago Cultural Centre. The room was large enough to accommodate all four of us.

A&W heaven

Jono was in A&W heaven - all the A&W root beer on tap that you can drink from frosted beer mugs! I guess this is tapping into Jono's childhood memories of A&W in Malaysia.

The fast food industry is alive and well in USA - McDonalds posted an increase in sales last month. All the major chains - McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys etc have all got their $1 burgers. I must admit that we did have the McDonalds $1 chicken burgers once or twice while Phil and Dad were here.

This was taken just before we picked Jono's dad and Phil from the airport. We had just finished our last lecture for the term the night before and we excited to see dad and Phil and start our holidays!

Driving Miss Daisy

I knew I should have destroyed all photographic evidence of my atrocious parallel parking. Who knew that Jono would send it to all and sundry :o) In my defence this was on a very, very, very wide road in the city where it probably didn't matter that the car was half a metre from the curb. Anyway, the car was in one piece when we got back - no car had swiped the left hand side of the car :o)

Whilst my parking could be improved I must say that I am enjoying driving in America (with the exception of the numerous potholes that one encounters on most suburban roads). They have this right turn rule where even if it is a red light you can turn right, giving way to traffic of course. And although it has snowed a few times since we have been here they plow the main roads quite quickly. The best thing is the freeways - where everyone goes about about 15-30 kph over the speed limit. This somewhat justifies one going at about the same speed in order to enter the freeway safely without being wiped out by oncoming traffic. It also makes use of my natural gifting of having more lead deposits in my right foot than normal. Whilst this sounds somewhat reckless the reality is that the speed limit on Illinois' highways is only 55mph (about 85kph).

Millenium Park

There is an awesome park in the city called Millenium Park which has some amazing architectural structures - one of which was designed by one of my favourite architects, Frank Gehry. The Pavilion has all these organic, juxtaposed stainless steel ribbons which creates this almost alien like structure. Apparently in June and July - when it becomes warmer Chicago becomes one huge music, Jazz and food party - looking forward to that!

There is also this amazing sculpture called "Cloud gate" which looks like this huge reflective metal bubble. Apparently it was inspired by liquid mercury. You can walk through or under it and view yourself in the reflective surfaces - it's like walking into a weird carnival hall of mirrors. It was fun walking around and exploring. Hopefully we can go back and maybe go for a skate on the ice rink.

Hillsong in Chicago

Went to City Church Chicago on Sunday. Awesome worship - they were doing all the latest Hillsong songs in an intimate theatre setting right in the middle of Chicago, about 40 minutes travel from our apartment and a few blocks away from the magnificent mile. Was a small enough church that we actually got to talk to some people and Ally, Pastor Kent's wife, came and introduced herself to us and made us feel really welcomed.

Christine Caine from Hillsong was also speaking on Sunday, so we went to the morning session as well as the evening session. Was an inspiring message about being authentic christians to be the church and not just to do church. To be passionate about God .... that when we are passionate about God it is natural to want to share how amazing God is and how much he loves us, it is also natural that out of that passion that we want to talk to God and to serve Him!

Happy birthday to me!

Had an awesome birthday week ... yes, birthday week! Jono has been spoiling me all week, with massages, cleaning the house, washing the dishes, washing the clothes, cooking yummy meals (Vietnamese rice paper wraps were out of this world!) and presents. All the guys from the midnight ICC prayer meeting sang happy birthday to me over skype, which was really nice.

The week was topped off with dinner at Famous Dave's rib place where they serve the food on garbage can lids!! We went out with Ong's to celebrate and we thought, given the decor of restaurant of moose and deer antlers and hunting paraphernalia, that Famous Dave's should be called Hunter Dave's. Went back to Chris and May Yen's place to have birthday cake and coffee.

All in all a great birthday week, especially all the well wishes via email, birthday presents of flowers, birthday cards, concert tickets to Chris Tomlin and Israel Houghton and sleepwear.

We even had a heat wave over the weekend and beautiful warm weather - only sadness is that all the snow has melted and I'll have to wait for the next snow fall to go sledding.

Multi-tasking like crazy

Can't believe how long it has been since my last post! Life has been really busy. I'm in a Theology class at the moment and trying to read a book for my Counseling class at the same time. Talk about trying to multi-task! haha

Since my last post I've had my first exam ...... an exam I had to sit before my first class in counseling! There is tonnes of reading but I am enjoying learning so many new things! One of our classes is "Personal Assessment & Ministry" which has been good for me since I'm not the most introspective person - it's been like a lightbulb moment when we have gone through the personality analysis. This week is looking to be really busy for me as I have four pieces of assessment due! Welcome to student life :o)

We went to a small HIM church, affiliated with Ps Che Anh, called Chicago River Church last week and they were really friendly. This week we went to Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows which I enjoyed. Worship was at least closer to worship at ICC - but still not the same - ICC rocks in worship!! We have really been spoilt when it comes to church - we have at ICC a really unique and amazing culture, a church which has amazing worship and one that I believe has a freedom from being open to God's Spirit and grounded in his Word and in prayer. The thing that I did take away from this week's sermon was to "pray without ceasing". That the original Greek meaning for "without ceasing" or "continuously" was a slang word for a hacking constant cough. That prayer should be an involuntary, constant action. That prayer should go beyond being a chore and an action but to be really a part of our identity as Christians, to be almost an involuntary action. And that prayer is not complaining on our knees but coming to God and bringing him to our point of need. So I encourage you to get into prayer to the point where it is part our your identity! We have been encouraged by the awesome prayer meetings at ICC. We can feel the intensity and know that God is going to move in such a powerful way!

Went to Woodfield Mall after church yesterday and had an awesome Japanese buffet at Todai. The king prawns and tempura prawns were awesome! Jono and I ate until we were stuffed as this was our weekly treat. But we are amazed by the appetite of these Americans. There was a chinese couple next to us who were machines - I think they each ate at least 5-7 plates of food!! One thing about America is everything is BIG - their small soft drinks are equivalent to our large sizes in Australia, even KFC has a buffet option which is cheaper than their 2 piece meals - how crazy is that?!

Orientation at Trinity

We had orientation today at Trinity. Was kind of a surreal experience waking up for my first day of school. Felt like a kid with my backpack and my packed lunch (didn't actually need it as Trinity provided this yummy buffet lunch).


As you can see the grounds at Trinity are like something out of a postcard, with grey leafless trees dusted with snow like icing sugar. I'm still getting used to the cold and thermals have become a part of my daily wardrobe - thanks to all the ICC guys who gave us thermals! They are predicting that the end of this week will be even colder with temps going down to -25C!!!


It has really hit me over the last few days that I'm in bible college ...... I think it was trying to read "to Know and Love God" which really brought it home. As a good friend (who shall remain nameless) of ours commented "who knew loving God was so complicated!". But I definitely think that this will definitely be a growth year for me ..... an extremely steep learning curve.


This is me with Chris and May Yen in the Trinity Chapel. Speaking of church we have been catching the ICC morning sunday service via the live stream. So we have been experiencing a taste of home every Saturday night. And we have been praying for all you guys. The wonders of skype has been that we have been able to pray with everyone in the ICC midnight prayer meetings. Keep up the good work guys!

God rescues

We bought a second hand car (a green 96 Toyota Corolla) last Thursday. Since we still had the rental car (a Chrysler PT Cruiser) and had not arranged for our car insurance we kept driving the cruiser until Saturday when we had to return it.

So we go out on Saturday morning ..... and it had snowed the night before! Nice fluffy snow that was about 30cm (about a foot - have to start thinking in American measurements) deep. Our cars were covered in snow and there was snow all around our cars. So we go out and start digging our cars out - we had to borrow a neighbour's shovel because we had only bought an ice scraper and brush. Snow is really nice when you are inside in a heated apartment, drinking your hot chocolate with marshmallows - not so great when you have got it seeping into your boots, still falling down around as you try to shovel your car out.

We then started heading down the road back to the rental car place with me in the Cruiser leading the way, as I had the GPS, and Jono in the "new" Toyota. It was the first time we had both driven in snow. As I looked in my rear vision mirror to check that Jono was following me I see the back of his car start to fishtail wildly and suddenly he drove off the road into a snow covered ditch! It was a scary experience as I pulled over and ran back to his car. We had to get a towtruck to pull him out of the snow but Praise God, neither him nor the car were hurt or damaged!! We thank Him for being our protector.

90% off guitar

It's been awhile since my last post and soooo much has happened.

Interruption:JOnO here:
Korean Airlines wanted to charge me $180 AUD to bring my beloved MARTIN guitar as check-in luggage... so I said for that price I would just go and buy a guitar in the USA. So thats what I did... I was looking for a guitar that would be cheap but good. (A very difficult request). Well,guess what - the first music store I walked into I found this yamaha guitar - reduced from $499 USD to $100 USD... I played it and it sounds great... then I noticed it had a huge crack in the body - a fatal crack... so I bargained with the store guy and after about 15 minutes they reduced it to $50USD - thats a REDUCTION OF 90% OFF the original price - yes folks 90%!!!

Praise GOd... Now I have a great sounding guitar worth about $750 aussie - as long as it lasts me this year - I'll be happy. Praise God - I've never seen a deal like that in all my 20 years of visiting music stores. God is so Good...and yes I got a free strap thrown in plus some picks and a pen from the music store!

Our home away from home

We just moved into our cosy 1 bedroom apartment on the Trinity University grounds. Praise God for Chris' people mover. All the seats fold into the floor of the car so we were able to transport all the big furniture items in his car. Our rental car (a cute Chrysler PT Cruiser) was also quite a good car to move our belongings; we were able to fold down the seats as well and made several trips back and forth with all the smaller items. We moved on Saturday and we are pretty much settled in. We have been so blessed .....most of our apartment is furnished with free furniture! We even got some appliances for free (an analog tv, a rice cooker, a coffee maker).



It just snowed last night (the first time we have seen fresh snow! - we have seen snow on the ground, from the last snow storm about 2 weeks ago, which is generally a yucky grey colour). All the ground, our rental car and the trees are covered in snow. It is really beautiful - all white and clean. The snow flakes are really amazing .... they are little miracles in themselves ..... so intricately formed, it's really wonderful to see God's amazing creation.



We have been really busy getting everything set up - from our phones, to electricity, to getting a car, to enrolling in our subjects, to getting settled, to setting up the internet. The university has internet but we have been finding that we can't really skype or VOIP back to Australia with it. So we have had to get our own internet connected, which won't happen until next week.

Classes also begin next week and we have orientation starting on Monday. It is kind of strange to go back to University, after working for so many years. I'm taking 5 subjects this semester and Jono is going to be doing 6 subjects (but Jono's doing about 1.5 times more work than what I'm doing). Pray that we will get great lecturers and that we not only do well but that we really get to know God's heart better.

We went to the "Living Word Christian Center", which is about 40 minutes away from our place, on Sunday (thanks Doug for the recommendation). It is a huge church with about 18,000 members! There was a real freedom in the worship and in the true style of an African-American church there was a lot of audience participation with people just getting into the preaching of God's word. I think we definitely will be going back to this church.

Overflow of blessings

We have been soooo blessed. God really is our provider. Thanks everyone for your prayers! He has blessed us in so many ways:

house we have gotten a one-bedroom apartment on campus. Which we only applied for a week before we left Australia. Apparently the on-campus housing is in high demand. We asked if there were any two bedroom apartments available but all were taken.

furniture At Trinity University they have a furniture room (which holds past students' furniture) that is available free of charge for international students. We visited the furniture room on Tuesday and two families had just left so there was a lot of nice furniture to choose from. We got most of the furniture (futon/sofa, dining table and 4 chairs, 3 lamps, crockery, cutlery, pots and pans, coffee maker, chest of drawers, coffee table, 2 study desks) for our apartment for FREE! We only needed to buy a bed which we got for about 60% off the original price!

It is amazing to know that God can really do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine!!