Easter Long Weekend: Charlie’s first long distance trip, 15hours Sydney to Brisbane and back

15 April, 2022

 

Did an epic drive up to Brisbane in one go yesterday, leaving Sydney at 9am and arriving in Sunnybank Brisbane at midnight! Charlie had been good, sleeping when the car was moving. We still had to stop the car quite a few times to help him stretch, make sure he was not overheated, and feed him. In addition to the frequent stopping, there were some congestions on the road which delayed us by 1.5hours. I had to drive as well, because it wasn’t safe for my husband to do all the driving himself over such a long distance. It wasn’t a good feeling to be pumping my breasts in the car, but feeding expressed milk was the most efficient way to feed him when we were driving, as we didn’t have to stop the car when we did that. We brought a cooler bag, ice pack, milk warmer, cooled boiled water, and steam steriliser, which are all very important equipment for feeding! The cooler bag and ice pack acts as a “minifridge” so that excessive expressed milk and the pump containers don’t spoil during the car trip. We even brought the baby mobile, so there will be some familiar soothing music for him in the new environment. By the time we got to Port Macquarie, I felt I was going nuts already! One of my university classmates also came to Brisbane with his family, but they flew up instead of driving up, and I began feeling very envious of them. They flew by Qantas, which has its own domestic terminal, which they said was not congested with people like the other domestic terminal. Don’t think I will ever agree to my husband about doing a drive like this again in the future. There was a cot prepared for Charlie in the motel, but Charlie got very scared in the strange cot, so we had to place Charlie in between us on the bed. Not the most ideal situation, but nothing much we could do.

 

16 April, 2022

 

Thought my milk production would decrease big time due to all the stress of travelling like we did yesterday. Surprisingly, it didn’t! Maybe it’s the magic of the Taiwanese food in Sunnybank. Met up with the family that flew up from Sydney to Brisbane yesterday. Their 6 month old is only approximately 20 days older than Charlie and is smiley and friendly to everyone. Charlie is more reserved. Charlie is calm with strangers but only tend to smile to people he knows well. Sunnybank is actually a pretty good place to visit when you cannot go back to Taiwan for Taiwanese food. We haven’t been back to Taiwan since January 2020. Began meeting up with relatives and friends today.

17 April, 2022

 

Had a family portrait session with our wedding photographer Alex. Although it was quite tiring, it was something worthwhile doing, especially with a 6 month old baby, as this is a time when babies reach some important milestones. Furthermore, it was a rare opportunity where we could have professional photos with Chris’ relatives. And most importantly, photos taken at home cannot compare with photos taken by a highly skilled professional!

18 April, 2022

 

This is the day when we realised “it’s a small world in Brisbane after all”. We were taking it easy and didn’t arrange to meet anyone in the day time, but bumped into Chris’ cousin whom we had only just met for lunch the day before, and an aunty who had played an important role in Chris’ life whom we only just met for dinner the day before. Don’t know if it’s simply easy to bump into people in Sunnybank and Calamvale, or it’s God’s providence.

 

19 April, 2022

 

Did another 15 hour drive today. Left Brisbane at 7am and arrived in Sydney at 10pm. The traffic was really bad on the way towards Gold Coast. We stopped in Tweed Heads, as I’ve never been there before. It is actually quite a nice place to take a vacation. Then, we were intending to stop at the service station in Ballina but the misleading signage led us to exit the highway before reaching the service station and we couldn’t get back onto the highway without going to the tow centre! At Ballina, we took a photo of the big prawn. Charlie was tired. Then, the next stop was Coffs Harbour, and we stopped by the big banana. Charlie could barely open his eyes. By the time we got to Taree, it was dark already, and we didn’t bother taking a photo of the big oyster as it is too ugly anyways. The weather was pretty good until the last 30 minutes of our drive. When we got home and placed Charlie in the cot, he began grinning happily. When we placed the baby mobile back onto the cot, Charlie pressed the start music button using his hand for the first time! He used to press the button with his feet before! That’s quite a leap in his fine motor skills at 6 months and 9 days!

COVID 19 diary part 3: the Plateau

The Passover/Easter long weekend

With the COVID19 shut downs, this year’s Passover is more similar to Exodus 12:22 than the usual Passovers. “…None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.” Tried celebrating it the “Messianic Jew” style (=Christian Jews)!

https://www.celebratemessiah.com.au/live/

Looking at Exodus 12 in more detail, there seems to be some parallels between the Passover, the Christian life, and the current COVID19 pandemic.

1. Israelites must stay home when disaster struck Egypt: people must stay home to avoid catching COVID-19.

2. Eating lamb: “eating Jesus,” where we study the Word of God and developing a closer relationship with Christ. If we don’t spend time connecting with God now, when the pandemic is over, we will “remain in Egypt,” as we will not have enough strength to “leave Egypt”. (In the bible, Egypt is often used as an metaphor for the world.)

3. Eating bitter herbs: For the Israelites to remember how their ancestors endured hardship in Egypt and thank God for delivering them. Christians should be prepared to face hardship and learn how to depend on God in these difficult times.

4. Eating unleavened bread: During the Exodus, it was because the Israelites did not have enough time to wait for the bread to rise. Yeast as a metaphor of sin: getting rid of sin, living a simpler life with a greater appetite for spiritual things over materialistic things.

5. Sojourners: Like sojourners, our stay in any one place is transient. The world is not our home.

6. The ten plaques forced the pharaoh to let the Israelites go, so they can leave Egypt and serve God: The COVID-19 pandemic shakes us as we are forced to adjust to a different way of life. This can result in a shift in our mindsets and make us see things from a new perspective. Some of us begin to reflect more on our relationship with God and issues related to life and death.

7. Judgement on all the gods of Egypt: The COVID-19 pandemic impacts the world in many ways. It has already adversely impacted global economy, disrupted education and work, and even caused several countries’ health systems to collapse. With the social distancing rules, people have to change the way they socialise. Church buildings suddenly became empty: state of the art church buildings and concert-like worship no longer seem to be of any use in the current situation. It is a time for people to reflect on whether their lives and ministries are built on a solid rock. As people are forced into isolation, away from the noise, some people find that they can better hear God’s voice when they seek God in a quiet space.    

The Exodus vs today:

Israelites: The preparation of the people of God so they can enter into the promised land.  

Christians: The people of God, learning to relate with and serve God, and experiencing revival (individual, local, national and global level).

In the Passover custom, the Jews try to get rid of all the yeasts in their house, as yeast is a metaphor for sin. Rather than getting rid of yeast, I got rid of moulds over the Easter long weekend! When I was sorting through my clothes in my closet, I discovered that the wall behind the clothes became moulded! Took the opportunity to reorganise my clothes and pack up some of the clothes that either no longer fits or are too old. Realised that my buttocks had grown so big I could no longer fit into most of my jeans! Reorganised many things in my house. Finally had the opportunity to clean my room to the point where it is the cleanest it’s ever been in my life! I also YouTube searched ways to fix my Nespresso machine, which broke many years ago, and got my husband to fix it according to the video.

Watched a few episodes of “The Chosen,” starting off from the episode five which is on the Wedding in Cana (I had already watched the first four episodes last year).

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaeSz8m8MXVX-HiuZbGQ1u_YXL-Arfy-Q

This Jesus series is quite different from the usual movies about Jesus in that the followers of Jesus were illustrated in a more 3D fashion in their character development, which makes the whole thing seem a lot more personal.

23 April, 2020

The Australian COVID-19 graph have stayed pretty flat for quite some time (very few new cases each day). This could be one of those rare opportunities where we could get a property for a bargain price. And so that was what we did. Life suddenly flowed into my husband the moment he signed the contract, turning from sleepy to manic. He began drawing all sorts of impressive pictures of the dream home, both 2D and 3D, on the computer! And not just some random sketches, but very professional stuff!

28 April, 2020

Thank God things didn't turn out so bad in Australia. The NSW premier has announced today that the NSW coronavirus lockdown will be relaxed slightly on Friday, 1May, so that groups of two adults will be able to visit other households for social gathering. It is great to see that we will soon be "passing over" April, into the Pentecost in May! And it will be nice to catch up with some people.

The seven "I AM"

During my visit to Taiwan in February, I went into an art exhibition in Taipei with the artwork “Who are you?” That piece of work left a significant impression in my mind. Around that time, I heard a sermon where the speaker said, “at the same time as asking God the question “who am I?” we should also be asking God “who are You?””

The WSCCC CP10 church had a series of seven “I AM” sermons from the book of John between March and April. 

http://wsccc.org.au/cp10/sermons/

According to John’s Gospel, “I AM”:

1.       The Word who became flesh (John 1:1-14)
2.       The bread of life (John 6:35)
3.       The light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5)
4.       The gate/ Good Shepherd (John 10:1-21)
5.       The resurrection and the life (John 11:25)
6.       The way, truth and life (John 14:1-14)
7.       The true vine (John 15:1-8)

Rev Chadd Hafer reminds us not just know these things, but to think about how we are to respond as we realise who Jesus is.

On Good Friday, the sermon is on the seven paradoxes of Easter.

1.       The good shepherd becomes the Passover Lamb. (John 10:11; John 1:29; Isaiah 53:7)
2.       The light of the world was arrested, betrayed, tried and died in darkness. Everything happened before the rooster crows. (John 1:5; John 13:30; John 18:3)
3.       What is truth? The truth was falsely tried and convicted. (John 19:37-38)
4.       God's only son replaces ‘a son of the Father’ Barabbas. Release Jesus or Barabbas? The name Barabbas in Hebrew means ‘a son of the Father,’ a religious name. Jesus is taking the place of God's guilty children. (John 18:40)
5.       Jesus the living water thirsts: to fulfil the Scripture (Psalm 22). He said “I thirst” in the middle of the crucifixion (John 19:28).
6.       ‘The resurrection and the life’ dies. “It is finished!” And bowing his head, he gave up his Spirit. (John 19:30)
7.       The Bread of Life and the True Vine. Jesus broke the bread as his body (Matthew 26:26). The first miracle is Jesus turning water into wine (John 2:1-11). The guards pierced Jesus’ side and water came out. (John 19:33-37)

(As an aside, Mona Lisa Florist and Café, which is close to the church, has some pretty reasonably priced coffee and flowers!)