A Warrior's Journey

Just came back from a whole sunday spent visiting Hillsongs Church. Went to their 1130 am service in the city location. Apparently, Hillsongs church started in that city location way back and then moved on and expanded to their Hills location across the Harbour. Or so I'm told, I don't know much about Hillsongs history nor am I that interested to do any research. First of all, the music was great. The best piece of audio engineering/mixing I've heard in Australia so far. Then again, I've not been to much services anyway. Being Hillsongs, the music was excellent. The preaching however, was a lil want for me. My roommate thought it was simple and good. I felt it was too elementary and that it did not challenge enough.

I guess I've come along into my journey with God so far now that I think I know which kinds of services would best suit me, in the way God has made me, and I can honestly say, although I feel I'm quite 'charismatic' in my worship style (notice the commas, I'm using the term very loosely of course), I know I usually can't be ministered to or minister to others in a setting such as Hillsongs or City Harvest. To me, their sermons are simply too elementary. This is because their sermons are usually evangelistic. If there's one thing I have to admire about them (Hills and City Harvest), is that at least they're actively fulfilling the Great Commission in this generation. I can't say the same for most of the other Singapore churches.

Anyways, Hillsongs' music was fantastic, since its Hillsongs after all. I thoroughly enjoyed the musical praise and worship. The church was a lil smaller than I expected but thats cos I visited the City church. The Hills church is bigger. At night, I had the opportunity to visit the 2005 live album recording of Hillsongs at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in the CBD area. I instantly recognized the place, once I went in and saw the interior, as the venue for all the Hillsongs videos I've seen in the past. And here I was thinking that it was their church sanctuary or something...

The worship was great, the atmosphere was great. Imagine thousands of people jumping in unison in praise and worship and you'll have an idea of how it was like. I took a few pics, perhaps I'd upload them later when I get my Photoshop software. So when you buy the 2005 Hillsongs live album, hey, I was on it~! Along with a few thousand others... hehe.

I'm still visiting churches here and there... haven't decided on one and I don't wanna rush a decision. Perhaps this Sunday I will get Sayyong to bring me to Unichurch. Its the church affiliated to the Fellowship of Overseas Christian University Students (FOCUS). I know one thing though. I'm going to visit Hillsongs again for their Easter Sunday night service... Cos get this... DELIRIOUS and SONICFLOOD are gonna be at Hillsongs then!!! Haha, this saves me a trip to Toowoomba (that near Brisbane) to the Australian Gospel Music Festival. They're gonna be coming so near to me, this is going to be so cool... I won't miss it for anything.

Ok, school starts tomorrow. I should be getting to sleep soon. Til next time. PS, I'd try and upload some of my pics when my Photoshop software comes, cos rite now, its hard to post any online without any editing i.e. they're too big.

Til next time,
Drew

PSS Can those who read my blog like leave a comment or post on my tagboard or something, I don't even know who comes to view this blog wan~~

This is a photo of a boy I took during last years Fireworks Festival at the Esplanade. Just to see if the image will show when I load it up...

Just finished attending a FEVA (www.feva.org) event at All Saints Petersham church. It was quite cool. They had this outdoor tent thingy and videos projected onto a cloth screen. Got to meet some people. A gal called Karen and a guy also called Andrew. Both are first generation Aussies, which means they were born here. Andrew's from Indonesia and Karen's from Hongkong, which gives me some chance to practice my cantonese. Hehe... I'm getting good vibes from this ministry. If God wants me to step outta my comfort zone then this could very well be it then. As it seems, I think I'm the only international student amongst the 1st years. There are asians but they're all Australians I think. People who can't speak Mandarin even if they're Chinese.

Not that I have anything against them of course, but I don't really favor certain people in Singapore (oh I don't know... from a school called AC_) who absolutely hate with abandoned fervor their native mother tongue and who deplore people who are 'cheena.' I always believe one should know one's roots and be proud of them. I'm not that big a fan of chinese culture but hey, at least I'm proud to be one.

Anyways, the church seems like a nice homly place and it seems like a cool ministry. Ah well, I'm going to join them for a few Bible studies and stuff and we'll see how the Lord leads...
http://www.feva.org/feva/fevadev/images/pec.jpg

My new Powerbook, christened "Anduril", after the Flame of the West, Aragorn's blade forged from the shards of Narsil. If you have no idea what I was talking about... forget it.

As you can see, its been hooked up to Creative Speakers, a USB mouse, an what 'luck', an old monitor left behind by Alexroy (thanks mate!), thus enabling its dual display~~~

Okok, enough doodling with my new toy for today... gotta hit the sack!

I have reanimated my old livejournal blog. While this one (my blogger account) will continue to update y'all on me personal life as well as lessons I've learnt in my journey with the Lord, the other blog will be more of a 'professional' nature.

Pretty much self explanatory, just give it a visit!

Sorry people for those who have been waiting eagerly for this blog post, yes the small little handful of you. I'm safely in Sydney, have settled down for the most part. Still trying to get over the culture shock that is inevitable but nothing too serious. I'm so missing you guyz back home already... :(

I'm currently going through the orientation week and COFA (College of Fine Arts) is quite interesting so far. Its very very small... about the size of NAFA I think. However, it has a few labs here that are all stocked full of Macs!! Imagine a roomful of G5s!! Its also very cosy and homely atmosphere over here. The SA seems to be really all out for the students' welfare. For example, they even gave out free lunches to the students today. The course I'm in has an intake of about 100 a year so its more or less like FSV in that respect. The whole school is about 400-500 people. First thing they tell us in Orientation is how we're the 'elite' who have been selected from over 4000 applicants. Sheesh, where have I heard these before...

Anyway, saw a Christian club on campus as well. I had actually been researching them for sometime. www.feva.org, check em out if you want. I'm going to be joining them this thursday for a first year orientation thingy, see how things go. For now, seems to be very few asians where I am. In fact, today I was feeling so desperately alone till I finally managed to find some Singaporeans amongst the first years. How did I know?

Unaccented english. Haha. Or rather, 'singapore accented' english.

3 hours to being at the airport,
7 hours to leaving Singapore,
9 months to setting foot in Singapore again.

I will miss you all so much. But this is something I have to do. To hone my craft, I cannot remain in Singapore. This will hopefully be a period of growth for me as a person, spiritually and as an artist. You can be praying for me in these areas.

May I be a witness for Him too in campus. That those 'artsy farty' types will not be so preoccupied with asking the questions while ignoring the evidence...

Pray for me, for my heart as I make this transition. It will not be easy, but my strength is in Him, in my weakness, I will be strong.


E: I will miss you most of all, but you know that already.

Ron, Ivin, Xuexin: My brothers in arms, my band of brothers. Through all the blood and tears you've been there for me. Thank you for being there when it counts. Don't worry about replacing me cos I'm irreplacable =P Just want you all to know that you will be in my thoughts often enough while I'm over there. I've got your back.

Zhihui, Philip, Jiasheng, Simon, Marcus, Daryl, Erwin, Eric: Thanks for all these years of friendship. Behave yourselves while I'm gone, and remain in contact via that mailing list!

Pearlene: Thanks sis, for being you. For being there for me whenever I needed a listening ear.

Bixia, Violet, Mimi, Gail, Qingwen, Victor, Tintin, John: Thanks for the friendship and the guidance. Being on staff was a ball of fun. I'd be back~~~!!!


The next entry of this blog will be in Sydney~

*exits stage left and centre*

I'm leaving on the 14th Feb, buts its an early morning flight so if you're coming to send me off at the airport, I'll be there around 9plus. SQ231, 1am flight. If you are coming, let me know via sms or something k?

Welcome to the planet
Welcome to the existence
Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now
What happens next?

I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to the resistance
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here.

- "Dare You To Move" by SWITCHFOOT

Oh I stayed up all night to do this, assembling it... presenting the Gundam Astray Red Frame~!!!
Facing off against, STICKFAS~~~~~~


"Well, do you yield?"


"NEVER, you do not scare me~"


"Very well, so be it."


"URGH!"


=Swoosh=



GAME OVER