Paul Long's Ramblings

What a sad story from Malaysian Mirror ... A personal note: My eldest will be sitting for his final High School (Secondary school) exam paper today. Next year he hopes to enter university. He is a hard working intelligent young man, though he may not be a straight A's student. I am more than confident he will meet the criteria that will allow him the privilege to enter the New Zealand University of his choice - according to merit. He has NZ PR status and is of Chinese ethnicity but he is not discriminated against. No wonder he loves NZ and even as a mid year teenager he wants to contribute and give back to the community. Compare his lot with this poor girl, a Malaysian citizen but of mixed heritage (and supposedly the wrong heritage). I thought our diversity is our blessing? Click here for that! And I thought the government is so concerned about the brain drain and want best minds and professional Malaysians working and living abroad to return to help the nation. I would have t...

I have been struggling the last couple of weeks with tiredness - due to a lot of unexpected things happening, a lot of ministry work, some major year end church activities and 4 more sermons to go for 2009, and pushing hard to make sure when I take my holiday breaks I am really on holiday!! It hasn't helped that it has taken a long time for my eyes to readjust to my re-corrected prescription glasses, and having to get used to an extra pair that I need to use when I am using my PC. So many literal headaches the last couple of weeks and getting home feeling so tired and surviving on short power naps (they do help!) Thank God that the last two days, headaches have been less intense and so I think the worse is over. I like these set of comics! :-)

Another little gem from Henri Nouwen ... I like the insight in the 2nd paragraph ... 2nd line. How true ... Only those whom he called by name, with whom he broke bread, and to whom he spoke words of peace were aware of what happened. The Hidden Resurrection The resurrection of Jesus was a hidden event. Jesus didn't rise from the grave to baffle his opponents, to make a victory statement, or to prove to those who crucified him that he was right after all. Jesus rose as a sign to those who had loved him and followed him that God's divine love is stronger than death. To the women and men who had committed themselves to him, he revealed that his mission had been fulfilled. To those who shared in his ministry, he gave the sacred task to call all people into the new life with him. The world didn't take notice. Only those whom he called by name, with whom he broke bread, and to whom he spoke words of peace were aware of what happened. Still, it was this hidden event that freed hum...

Interesting news report from the Malaysian Insider. On a side note, it is amazing for me to note that so many of my former classmates are working and living outside Malaysia. And I never thought I would be doing so as well ... Malaysia’s next export: Maids? By Lee Wei Lian KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — The nation’s mismanagement of talent could have serious repercussions not only on its ambitions to become a high income economy on par with that of developed nations but could also lead it to fall further behind even its counterparts in the region. Head of research at Corston-Smith Asset Management, Lim Tze Cheng, recently did a tour of South East Asian countries and came away sufficiently impressed that he feels Malaysia may soon be found lagging behind its neighbours that it was once ahead of. He cited a recent visit to the Philippines, a current major supplier of maids, where he visited a company, International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) and he drew comparisons to local port cha...

Posted up my latest Pastor's Notes. It's Advent period!! To read IT, CLICK HERE p/s A carol that has to do with Christ's 2nd coming! Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing, And Heaven and nature sing, And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns! Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy. No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as, the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love, And wonders of His love, And wonders, wonders, of His love.

This photo was taken 2 weeks ago - on my son Steven's birthday before we went to attend a friend's 60th birthday bash. When I finally looked at the photo last week, I noticed that my tummy had become rather prominent. :-) Of course I at first wanted to creatively blame the look on my shirt (as it is an older shirt) but that only emphasized the point further that I have put on weight. *sigh* So I have been trying to be good and not eat too much and do a bit more walking. Not sure how much the size of my tummy will go down but at least I have dropped 1 kg in just over a week (but I still need to drop a few more!) But my mum's coming next week and I am looking forward to her cooking up a storm! *drool* ...especially since the weather is so much warmer meaning I can do some nice cooking with lots of oil using my electric wok outside on my back deck. Have not been able to do too much fried stuff as it would stink up the whole house. NZ homes are just not built for Malaysian styl...

Just posted up my Pastor's Notes. To read, CLICK HERE.

My youngest Steven is really enjoying life in NZ. He happily graduated from the Project K programme. That's a picture of him receiving his graduation cert. Then he won the school doubles table tennis trophy. That's a picture of him with his partner Prasad (came to NZ from Cambodia when he was 5). The other photo is the new silver plated TT trophy donated by our church - The Kelston Boys School Table Tennis doubles trophy donated by the Kelston Community Church! I am very happy we are able to do this. And the boys are thrilled with the trophy as it is a much nice one that the Singles trophy. The funny part was our informal ceremony after the year end tournament where I presented the trophy (when not yet engraved) to Steven. He was not expected to win and they narrowly won based on number of points won. He also got the Harlow Cup for Academic endeavour. It's a Year 11 (his year) special prize for all round excellence in the academic part of school life. He also won the S...

Took these photos last week. My first year of trying to plant vegetables and other green stuff. First year I was here I only went as far as to buy a few young chilly and capsicum plants. This year I decided I needed to try and do a little better - and each year add on a bit more. I was a bit adventurous as I decided to plant from seeds, which takes longer. Was later told it was mistake for 2 reasons. 1. I do not have a conservatory so it meant I had to plant later (best if they are planted in punnets indoors where the seedlings are protected and warm so when spring actually comes they will be of a decent size and can be transplanted to the outdoors). No wonder the seedlings from the shops are already of decent size at the start of spring! LOL - I am obviously pretty ignorant 2. We had an unusually cold spring so not enough sun and warmth and too much wind and cold making it hard for the plants to spring forth from the seeds and when they do, they struggle to grow. Ah ... now I unders...

I am following this mini saga (side show) with interest as I see some parallels between Malay rights and special privileges (in Malaysia) and Maori rights and special privileges (in New Zealand). First, from today's NZ Herald. Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia publicly fronted over Hone Harawira's inflammatory email for the first time yesterday, saying his behaviour had been "unacceptable" and had prompted a flood of racist and abusive emails to the party. She said neither she nor Pita Sharples would be attending a hui in Kaitaia today at which the party is due to decide on any disciplinary action against Mr Harawira. They would instead leave it to the party president and council members. Mr Harawira had expected the co-leaders to attend and did not know they would not be until the media rang. He told the Herald it was disappointing that they would not be attending. He had understood today was chosen because it was the only day on which the co-leaders could attend. ...

Just posted up my Pastor's Notes. Click HERE Ramblings .. . I have found it both difficult and not so difficult to write a weekly Pastor'as Notes for my church bulletin. It is not required of me but I thought it would be a good thing to do in terms of personal discipline. The basic idea was that if I can keep coming up with something "fresh" each week, it would help me gauge both my "spiritual well" (one gauge as how well I am keeping myself spiritually fresh), and also whether I would be able to take on a heavier preaching load next year. It has been difficult in terms of putting down my thoughts in writing and (of late) keeping the number of words down to make it fit into the allotted space. But not been so difficult i n the sense that there is so much in the Bible (more of a too much material problem). Interestingly the added benefit is that I have had more and more people come up to talk with me (appreciatively) about stuff I have written. I felt esp...

It has been a tiring few weeks. One major reason has been a problem with my prescription glasses. *sigh* Makes my eyes so tired that I literally have to shut them. And of course it is hard to focus. Hope the new ones are ready soon. I tend to sleep a little earlier too as I literally can't keep my eyes opened but I dream a lot and get up often as my "brain is not happy" to be asked to power down when it has a lot on its mind :-) The human mind is really a wonder! Anyway, I have finished this Sunday's sermon early, which is good as I have a lot to do this week. And this time I am not going to work harder in resisting the temptation to look at my sermon before Saturday. And since I have a birthday party on Saturday, that might help as well :-) It's a good time to pause and do some re-centering. Been a while since I posted up anything on my slow but steady "run" with Dr. Alex's book so here's one ... under his 'HEROES AND SUPERHEROES" cate...

Been a while since I highlighted some Malaysian news. Very depressing. Malaysia Boleh One Malaysia policy??? CFM CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF 15,000 BIBLES The Christian Federation of Malaysia ( CFM ) calls for the immediate release of the 15,000 Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia currently being withheld by the authorities.To withhold the use of the Bahasa Malaysia Bibles is an infringement of Article 11 of the Federal Constitution which gives every Malaysian the right to profess his/ her faith as well as to practice it. This has been going on for years! For the full statement by CFM , click HERE For the news report, click HERE Spat over qualifications Ex-mufti faces another controversy PETALING JAYA : New controversy has emerged over the arrest of former Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul with the Islamic Development Department ( Jakim ) now questioning his qualifications. Jakim claims that Dr Mohd Asri did not major in Syariah law, but in Arabic Studies, and that there was no du...

Just posted up next Sunday's pastor's Notes. Click HERE .

J Jennifer. My wife. We will be married 19 years in a week's time. Long time and lots of ups and downs as in all normal and healthy marriages but most significantly, still going stronger and stronger! :-) Won't say anymore lest I embarrass her but it is great to be married to Jennifer! Jokes. Ah ... a great life line for me. Jokes (good ones that is) lightens my mood, brings relief to a tense situation, breaks the ice in a conversation and is often good for a sermon illustration. And that was a list just off the top of my head! I can't imagine what my life would be like without humour. A related story ... One of my favourite posters of Jesus is one that was drawn by a Jesuit Priest from the Phillipines. (I gave it away to someone who needed it more at a tough period in his life than I so I do not have it anymore. I do miss it!) This priest works among the poor and I bought it from the Daughters of St. Paul shop that is located along Jalan Gasing. I went back many times...

We had another great Light Party this year. For more photos go HERE (courtesy of Ken B). The photos are only for the puppet and magic show sections. No, I was not involved in the puppet show I had a blast even though I limited it to a 15 minute show and it was good to see familiar many familiar faces of some of the neighborhood kids as well as some new faces. Strange that I cannot seem to post up more than 5 photos per blog? And I could never figure out how to properly format them nicely for a blog post ...