Paul Long's Ramblings

I wonder what will be the outcome when the report goes public on 7 January .... From Free Malaysia Today Tue, Dec 29, 2009 National KUALA LUMPUR: Teoh Beng Hock was murdered. Top Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand (picture) has sufficient evidence to prove that he was killed. The Parti Keadilan Rakyat organ, Suara Keadilan, reports in its latest edition that her forensic report will be presented at the January 7 inquest into Teoh’s untimely death. The weekly quotes unnamed Health Ministry sources as saying that Pornthip reached her conclusion after a second postmortem at the Sungai Buloh hospital. The report adds that Pornthip has made known her findings to all relevant groups, including the Teoh family and the Selangor government, which commissioned her services. Teoh (picture) was the political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah. Yong is the Seri Kembangan assemblyperson and a member of DAP, a member party of the ruling coalition in Selangor. O...

Yesterday I picked up two new comic books from my local library that I had booked a few months ago. I had a good evening curled up in bed reading them. One of them was X-Men: Magneto Testament. All five volumes of the mini series in one glossy graphic novel. It is an "origins story" that seeks to piece together and harmonize (as there are discrepancies) the various snippets of Magneto's origin from years of comic book story telling by many different writers. WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD! But I have tried to be as general as possible and it is based on history so .... :-) It has no typical comic superhero story-lines - no Magneto using his mutant powers etc ... well just once but he doesn't know he has this power ... But it's a great read as it strives to be as historically accurate as possible so it is a good historical graphic novel (unlike Dan Brown's DaVinci code!). It's a story of how Magneto (Max Eisenhardt) as a young boy learns to survive and fight ...

I think I have become more "kiwi" this Christmas holiday season ... I have always been fascinated with how things kind slow down here during mid December and January and how so many people disappear for their annual Christmas holiday breaks. Even church attendance drops as members take off for their holidays. Then there's the frantic holiday shopping sprees to take advantage of the huge Christmas and the Boxing Day sales. As I came to NZ in late Jan 2007 and went back to Malaysia with the family in 2007, I was not affected in 2007. In 2008, well, I was still in my super savings and frugal mode - with the purchase of a house and a whole lot of other commitments. Christmas holiday season was pretty quiet for me. Then came 2009 and with my mum visiting and planning to stay for 5 weeks plus (and over Christmas too) ... and I knew it was the ideal time to experience a typical Kiwi Christmas holiday season. So with money saved and time blocked out ... we went for 2 holiday br...

May you have a blessed Christmas and New Year!! Christmas is quiet here for me in NZ and it is a nice change from the hustle and bustle I have grown accustomed to!

I'm off for a camping holiday tomorrow with a group of friends from church. Am in church waiting (on my day off too!) for a geothechincal engineer who is almost 2 hours late!! A bit sore at him for asking me to come in early - 8;30 AM to open up for him and not or calling me to let me know he is running late While waiting I found this hilarious piece on the Onion. I forsee more of such networks dying! Yes he's here!! Internet Archaeologists Find Ruins Of 'Friendster' Civilization

This has been a quiet morning ... and so far, a quiet afternoon as well and I am thankful to God for this. It has enabled me to spend time correcting and working on my carol sheet chords as I am the sole guitarist for our carolling team (tonight and tomorrow afternoon / night). As I think of Christmas and our purpose for going carolling (to share the Christmas story via Scripture and song) to different groups on non Christians, I found myself wishing that we could add this carol onto our carol sheet. But it's not exactly a crowd favourite ... Anyway this carol, " I heard the bells on Christmas Day " is fast becoming my favourite Christmas carol. The tune and lyrics have never failed to move me since I first took the time to sit down and listen to it (surprisingly only last year!). Last Sunday I closed my Advent sermon with this youtube clip of the song (below). Not my favourite version of the song as I like the traditional version but I liked the video adaption (images) H...

The Freedom to Refuse Love Often hell is portrayed as a place of punishment and heaven as a place of reward. But this concept easily leads us to think about God as either a policeman, who tries to catch us when we make a mistake and send us to prison when our mistakes become too big, or a Santa Claus, who counts up all our good deeds and puts a reward in our stocking at the end of the year. God, however, is neither a policeman nor a Santa Claus. God does not send us to heaven or hell depending on how often we obey or disobey. God is love and only love. In God there is no hatred, desire for revenge, or pleasure in seeing us punished. God wants to forgive, heal, restore, show us endless mercy, and see us come home. But just as the father of the prodigal son let his son make his own decision God gives us the freedom to move away from God's love even at the risk of destroying ourselves. Hell is not God's choice. It is ours.

Over the last few days I have been privy to many P & C matters. Matters that I cannot share with others. I started this morning feeling exhausted. I tried to turn in early but tossed and turned in my a tiring dream filled sleep. Too much on my heart and mind and it does not help that it is a super busy period with caroling, 6 sermons to preach in 2 months (5 more to go!) and a service to lead the worship (and I am also on leave for half of the time!). And then today I had two more P & C matters to listen to!! I feel so drained and my mind has been lapsing into occasional momentary "zombie like" ("catatonic" is too strong a term :-)) moments. The thought of having to deal with a couple more delicate P & C pastoral matters before the week is up is almost "paralyzing". It is a huge privilege to be a pastor ... to be taken into a person's confidence and told things deep within a person's soul - sometimes for counsel but always for prayer. ...

Our annual church BBQ held on 5th Dec was a great success. Some photos can be found on our church website - click HERE . Then look for: KCC BBQ December 5th 2009 The annual KCC BBQ was a relaxed affair, with members and neighbours meeting and talking over food and carols. The weather was lovely despite a week of rain preceeding it - praise God. Click HERE to see pictures of the BBQ. Was particularly pleased that among the many neigbours who came and enjoyed themselves, many were first timers and almost all our Hindu neighbours came! Was great too that the local High School teacher in charge of TT came with his wife. Weather was taken care of in a marvelous way by God. One week of heavy rain ... and then came Saturday and the ground dried up so well we could sit and play games on the grass without even a tinge of muddiness

Just posted up my Pastor's Notes. Click HERE

Got back from my family holiday earlier today. A wonderful but tiring holiday ... which I suspect is normal? :-) Will blog on it next week... Just too busy right now preparing for a busy next few days of ministry and my Sunday sermon needs fine tuning! Till then ...

Despite the poor weather forecast, am hopeful for good weather for our church friends and neighbours BBQ tomorrow. Fingers crossed!! (in prayer that is ... :-)) Going to be a busy day preparing and running the BBQ. Thank God for an incredible team of people handling the BBQ - enthusiastic, energetic and well organized! Glad that I am not preaching on Sunday but I am going to go and standby mode in case I need to as this Sunday's preacher's son got rushed to hospital earlier this morning. Quite a number of other emergencies and pastoral matters currently happening. Praying all goes well as I am going for a long planned family holiday on Monday. Been playing around with my new itouch / ipod - my Christmas present from my mother! :-) Nice but still not used to it yet. Was fun using gmail on it though. So much easier to do a quick check of my emails. Ah and my credit card details were stolen yesterday ... hmmm,.... so now no credit card for a week or so. Real pain as unexpectedly I...

My son got baptized on Sunday. Great day for the whole family especially since my mum's arrival on Saturday meant she was there for the baptism! For more photos, click HERE (church website) and follow the link under Baptism Service November 2009.

Just posted up my Pastor's Notes. Click HERE to read it. Not been blogging much as I have been pretty busy. Lots happening and my mum arrived on Saturday :-) and my boys are basically on holiday as their exams are over. Steven has just one more paper tomorrow but it makes little difference :-)