The way down south

 

Did the first half of our south coast trip right after my wedding last year with relatives and friends visiting from Taiwan, 9-12Sept, 2019. Got to Mogo and didn’t have time to go further south, because we already booked accommodation in Canberra on 13Sept, even though I really wanted to go all the way to Merimbula/Pambula/Eden where I did my GP training ten years ago.

My husband actually made a trip down to Pambula/Eden while I was doing GP training there, but we “just missed each other.” We were attending the same church in Sydney at that time, but we barely talked to each other and he changed church even before we had the chance to get to know each other. Therefore, neither of us even realised we could have met up in Merimbula at that time.

Here's the link to the photo album from the two trips: https://photos.app.goo.gl/bC33fJer5iLyN5zf8 

25Dec, 2020

 

With border closures due to the recent COVID19 cluster in Sydney, we could only travel within NSW this Christmas (and we still haven’t diagnosed anyone with COVID in our clinic yet this year). Decided to complete the rest of our south coast trip. Passed through places like Batehaven, Broulee, Moruya, Narooma, Bermagui, Tathra, before arriving in Bega.

 

Checked out the Bega District Hospital where I did one week of locum during Christmas 10 years ago, and saw it was desolated! Turns out it had been replaced by a new hospital, the South East Regional Hospital! Everything was closed in Bega on Christmas day. Not even MacDonald’s was open! The kind motel receptionist gave us two boxes of frozen meals and a bag of cherries.

 

26Dec, 2020

 

A walk down memory lane, visited the places I used to live, walked on the main streets in Merimbula. There seems to be a lot more shops than ten years ago. Woolworth has been shifted to a much bigger building. First time eating at the MacDonald’s in Merimbula and the view was wonderful. Also ate some yummy local oysters.

Went down to Pambula and had a look at the places I used to work: Pambula Medical Centre and Pambula District Hospital. Also went down to the Pambula Beach to see if I can find the lazy kangaroos that lay by the beach. There are still many at the caravan park. I saw a Surf Life Saving rescuer use a drone to search the sea! Didn’t realise they utilise drones in their operations!

 

Went further south to the Curalo Medical Clinic in Eden where I used to work, and suddenly realised I never went further south than that place! I’ve never even visited the main street of Eden! So we decided to go further down along Eden. Had a $34 meaty lobster in the Eden Wharf. Went to Boydtown before turning back north.

 

Went to Tura Beach and realised there is also a large Woolworth. Went past a place called Jellat Jellat which had a strange metal fungus-like statue before returning to Bega again. Again, Bega looked like a ghost town and we were not impressed at all about the 50 minute wait for our Kebab at Master Kebab Bega!

 

27Dec, 2020

 

A blessed day today! The sunshine allowed me to see that beautiful aqua colour of the waters of the Merimbula Boardwalk, which I enjoyed walking on from time to time as a GP registrar ten years ago!

 

Had to hurry off though, because my husband wanted to see the Cooma Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre which closes at 2pm. Got to the Brown Mountain via B72 way, which is a easier drive than the Candelo way I used to drive as a GP registrar. But the Brown Mountain drive is still as difficult as it was back then!

 

Got to Snowy Hydro in time. Also went around town, had a nice lunch at the 123 Coffee House, checked out the Nanny Goat Hill lookout and the Mount Gladstone look out, before moving on to Queanbeyan. There is nothing much in Queanbeyan, but we had to book this place as the ACT border is closed to Greater Sydney.

28Dec, 2020

 

Woke up pretty early and went to the Googong Foreshores. Luckily the weather was still beautiful, even though the weather forecast said there was going to be a thunderstorm. Drove back to Sydney via some smaller country roads instead of the Federal Highway. Stopped by Bowral and had a look at the Dirty Janes Antique Market. Bumped into a good friend there! The weather started turning bad in the late afternoon, as we continued our way back to Sydney.

 

This marks the end of our Christmas New Year road trip. We probably won’t be going out much until the current Sydney COVID19 cluster settles.

 

Listened to a Christian speaker on the car during the road trip and began to understand why I have gradually been feeling distant from God: There’s been a lack of quiet time spent listening to and connecting with God, free from personal agendas. In other words, wanting to connect with God out of a true desire to connect, and not because I want to ask God for something. And despite knowing that I am nothing apart from God, who is the source of all living, that knowledge seemed to be in my head knowledge rather than a conviction in my heart. In retrospect, I realised I have walked across many “desert roads” due to my rebellions against God, where I thought I knew better than God about what was the best for myself and others around me, and tried to solve problems using my own ways. My own voice was too loud for me to hear God. Glad that I didn’t “miss” my husband in the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti6eJosPOtk&list=PL3F52B8EC7E050087

Just focus on what makes you happy, and everything will be alright….?

(The QVB Christmas tree decorations are shaped like viruses this year!)

“God wants all people to be happy, healthy, prosperous, and successful.”

“If you give your money to God, God will bless you with more money.”

“Give $10 and receive $1,000; give $1,000 and receive $100,000. . . . In short, Mark 10:30 is a very good deal.” (Gloria Copeland)

“Being a living testimony for God means to letting others see how successful your life is. When people see how successful you are, they will also want to become a Christian.”

“When we pray, believing that we have already received what we are praying, God has no choice but to make our prayers come to pass. . . . It is a key to getting results as a Christian.” (Creflo Dollar)

“God will make you become a better you.”

“Stay focused on God and wait patiently. Mr or Mrs Right will definitely come along and make you smile.”

Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to hear sermons and teachings in the church like some of those quotes just mentioned, spoken by fired-up pastors with a big grin plastered on their faces. Or church friends making comments/testimonies that sounds somewhat similar to the above. Sometimes, hearing these things can make us feel really fired up and high!

It sounds like, if you could correctly channel your mental energy, you could harness its material results. It is as if they’re saying “positive thinking” will most certainly lead to success!

The “name it and claim it” gospel, the “blab it and grab it” gospel, the “health and wealth” gospel, the “prosperity gospel,” and “positive confession theology.” Whatever you want to call it.

Is this how things work in a fallen world? 

Is the type of “faith” described above a “God-granted, God-centered act of the will”. Or is it far removed from praying “Your will be done”? 

Jesus taught his disciples to “give, hoping for nothing in return” (Luke 6:35), while prosperity theologians teach their disciples to give because they will get a great return.

Did Jesus say, “I come to this earth to become a ‘better me’”? Or is the following link a better depiction of what Jesus came on earth for?

https://www.kevinhalloran.net/christmas-bible-verses/

Is “being happy, healthy, prosperous and successful” how all Christian lives ought to be in this fallen world? And that whatever you encounter, “God will always make everything turn out fine”?

Is the "name it and claim it" formula even biblical? And is it a rigid formula that applies to all situations?

Far from it. 

One of my middle school classmates, a beautiful empathetic woman whose life had been greatly transformed by God, still passed away from leukaemia, despite her strong desire for healing to happen. She never ended up having the chance to get married to a Mr Right who will make her smile. Sure, from an eternal perspective, everything turned out fine, as she is now with God in a place where no tears will ever be shed again. However, from an earthly perspective, things did not turn out prosperous or healthy at all.

Some Christian couples I know never ended up having children, despite their strong desire to do so.

And there are some Christians whose families got wiped out by natural or man-made disasters.

Some single Christian ladies I know who believed that Mr Right will just drop from the sky remained single despite having reached menopause had told me that if they could turn back time, they would have been more proactive in trying to find a mate, and not to expect men to reach the “high standards” they had set for them. After all, in this fallen world, there is no person in the world who will meet everything on God’s checklist. I mean, if a man is a saint so perfect and self-sufficient, does he even need a helper?

Some people in the Western nations seem to have an inflated sense of entitlement. Here is a question I'd like to put out to those who believe that the "name it and get it" formula rigidly apply to everything: Are you more entitled to receiving health and wealth and a perfect Mr/Mrs Right from God than say a girl born into poverty and forced into child prostitution? Or a woman who died at a young age from cancer? Or a boy who grew up orphaned?

And I’ve also seen some people who only want to focus their mind on the positives and ignore the realities of life. Some believe that “achieving happiness” is their ultimate goal in life. Eating good food, travelling to exotic places, having fun and being happy is what they showcase to others in their social media. Or, for the more “pious” ones, just focusing on praising God and doing nothing, getting high on “worship”, and God will eventually make everything turn out alright. However, I see this as the “ostrich mindset”. It is like, when the fire alarm had sounded, and you keep your ears covered up saying there’s no danger because you don’t hear the alarm. It is like, some financial difficulties or potential dangers are coming your way, and instead of facing reality and dealing with the problems one by one, you just escape on multiple vacations hoping everything will turn out fine without you having to do anything. Or, you are in a failing relationship, but instead of self-reflecting and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what could be causing recurring problems in your own life, you put the blame on to others and believe that someone better will come along without you having to do anything.

Some “health and wealth” people even bring Ponzi-schemes and Pyramid-schemes into the church, making outrageous claims about the magical effects of the health products they sell. An even more extreme case I know is a Chinese church in Sydney that is preaching about how the seven year tribulation is coming very soon so the church has to prepare a place for “safe refuge” and encouraging church members to contribute a certain amount of money for a rural NSW land the church is buying for “refuge”, so they will get a small piece of land to park their caravans and plant food when the seven year tribulation comes. But in John 2:14-16, Jesus tells those selling things for money in the church to “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 

The irony is, some people are focused with making themselves appear successful and/or running what looks like “a successful church” but at the same time are totally out of touch with the needs of the community, totally lacking in awareness of the difficulties that the majority of the world population is facing currently.

I'm not saying people should all just be miserable and negative. I have nothing against success or being blessed by God. In fact, God has given me plenty of success and blessed me abundantly and I can never thank Him enough. What I am uncomfortable with is 1) the attitude of taking things for granted rather than giving thanks for what God's already given, 2) the attitude of using God like a money shaking tree/ genie in a bottle, where one's motivation for worshiping God is to fulfill one's own desires, 3) placing God in a box, thinking that God has to follow a rigid set of formulas you set out for Him, 4) excessive positivity or negativity that is out of touch with reality (eg. in one extreme, the refusal to acknowledge the presence of suffering in the fallen world, and in the other extreme, excessive paranoia and picking out problems even when there are no problems).

COVID 19 diary part 5: The way up north

5August, 2020

Had a déjà vu moment this morning when the Queensland Premier announced that Queensland will close its borders to all of NSW and the ACT on Saturday at 1am.

 

I was supposed to be heading up north in a van with my husband early this morning, to get some of the “treasures” he’s left behind in Brisbane when he was living there. But, why are we still in Sydney now?

 

Let’s rewind:

 

22July, 2020

The situation is very bad in Victoria. When the Victorian Premiere was addressing the media, this dude next to him suddenly pointed two middle fingers! What’s going on? Did he think the Premiere is too incompetent?

 

Actually, this person was doing Auslan sign language. Two middle fingers meant “lazy”!

http://www.auslan.org.au/dictionary/words/lazy-2.html

Which reminded me, my husband had been working from the living room couch since March. This is the perfect sign language for me to use every morning, when I prepare to leave for work and see him still sleeping in bed. But then again, I should just be glad that I still got a job.

 

29July, 2020

I don’t work on Wednesday mornings. Therefore, I was relaxing on the couch with my husband watching TV, when something suddenly made us jump in shock! The Queensland Premier suddenly announced that Queensland will close its borders to Greater Sydney effective from 1am Saturday morning! Recently, there were two sausage-lipped teenagers who went to Victoria to attend illegal parties and shoplift, and they lied on their declaration form saying they’ve never been to Victoria, avoiding hotel quarantine! Subsequently, they were diagnosed with COVID19! There were eight days where they potentially spreading the virus around in Queensland! Seemed like this really scared the pants off the premier!

 

So, my husband and I had to make a sudden change of plans, and get his things from Brisbane a week earlier than we had planned! After all, the situation is more likely to get worse than it is to get better. If we don’t get his things now, don’t know how many years later it will be before we can go get them. My husband misses his things a lot and can’t feel at peace unless they are safe within his reach.

 

I have to agree that the situation in Victoria is very bad. However, it’s not so bad in NSW, because most cases contracted COVID19 through known contacts. I work in a region with lots of Chinese, so members of the community had been extra careful since January. I’ve been referring one or two people for COVID19 testing every day and so far I still haven’t had anyone test positive. But we still acted on the side of caution and did not arrange any catch up with family or friends in Brisbane. We planned to just quickly go, and quickly leave!

 

30July, 2020

I don’t work on Thursday afternoons. I took Friday and Saturday off work and headed up north at 5pm. We planned to spend the night in Coffs Harbour. Today happened to be the 9^th of Av on the Hebrew calendar: the day of destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem. The thought of driving 500kms in the dark on a day like this prompted me to send a prayer request to some of my intercessor friends. Listened to some spiritual devotions along the way, and was reminded about focusing on God’s glory instead of the movements of Satan, and place greater emphasis on praising God than the fight with the devil. Got to Coffs Harbour safely at 10:30pm, and found my social media newsfeed swamped with news about the passing of President Lee Teng-Hui, the first people elected president in Taiwan, and the president who initiated Taiwan's transition to the democratic era!

 

31July, 2020

We went to the following places in Coffs Harbour:

Muttonbird Island

Coffs Harbour Marina and Jetty

The Big Banana

Digger’s Beach

Forest Sky Pier, Sealy Lookout

 

Then we continue on towards the border of Queensland. My husband realised that the M1 highway has been modified and is now 100kms shorter! The road also became better and easier to drive on. When we reached the Queensland border, there were many cars waiting in line. After waiting for half an hour, we passed the border smoothly at 3:15 pm!

 

We drove through the Gold Coast and found that it looks very different from before.

We ate the Yatala Pies. My husband thinks it is delicious, I think it is ordinary.

We arrived at Garden City Travelodge at 7pm, and went to the Garden City Shopping Centre next to it. It was actually empty! There were only people in the outdoor dining area. Then we went to Sunnybank, which was even more empty, because it had just been marked as a COVID19 hotspot. There was no one in the restaurants! It reminded me of the scene in Eastwood, where I work, during January, when the local community got really scared about the COVID19. After buying dinner at the Fry Chicken Master, we went back to Travelodge. We looked at the news and found out that Garden City just got marked as a hot spot! No wonder it was empty! But then, that’s a good thing for us, because the less people we encounter, the less risk of catching the disease! Then, my husband’s friend come to the Travelodge car park dressed up like a scrubbed surgeon to drop off his things. They stayed a long distance away from each other and spoke through a video call.

 

1August, 2020

We began our southbound journey. First, we went to a farm in Park Ridge South to pick up my husband’s things. The owner had already opened the shed where my husband’s things were. He wore a mask as our car approached the shed and communicated via the phone. My husband was excited to see his things, but also devasted when he saw that many things got eaten by termites. If he comes to fetch these things a few years later, it will probably be all gone!

 

We initially planned to have lunch at Orion Springfield Central, but saw hundreds of cars lined up and not moving. We asked the traffic control person what happened, and he said a COVID19 drive thru testing centre had just been set up there. So we immediately drove away from that place!

After driving through Warwick, and then to the border of Queensland, we took lots of photos at the border, not knowing when we can come in again next time.

 

When we were approaching Armidale, the city of churches, there were noises coming from the boxes, and a fluffy shadow jumped out. When we arrived at Armidale Hideaway Motor Inn and opened the car door, a possum the size of a cat suddenly ran out! She was very frightened and hid in a corner of the motel wall, and I saw two additional little paws coming out from her chest. When we tried to put the possum back into the car, she ran away. My husband recalled that when he went to Queensland to inspect his things four years ago, an animal had made a hole in one of his boxes. It seems that this possum has lived in his box for at least four years!

We had dinner at New England Hotel, which had a beautiful fireplace. It was buy one get one free, a real bargain!

 

2August, 2020

Took a look around Armidale:

UNE

Booloominbah Historic House

St Mary & Joseph Catholic Cathedral

St Peters Anglican Cathedral

New England Regional Art Museum

 

Looking at the news, the Victorian Premier suddenly announced that Melbourne will enter into stage four lockdown at 6pm tonight! Wow, said and done on the same day! People will probably all rush out to shop for food!

 

Took a look around Tamworth:

Moonbi Park and Lookout

Oxley Lookout

Walked on the main street and had lunch at Tudor Hotel.

Check out the Big Golden Guitar

 

After having dinner at Albion Hotel in Singleton, we continued our southbound journey and arrived home at nine. What an adventure this was. Thank God for the excellent weather over the last few days.