Yohana's Diary

Happy 11th Anniversary To Us

2009-10-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

I believe that every year our marriage getting older is something to celebrate. How many percent of marriages last more than 11 years long?

This year is our 11th Anniversary and I have known my husband for longer than 13 years. Amazing how fast time flies when you DO having fun. Now look at us, 11 years later, with our marriage stronger, more content, loving each other in more mature way. Less arguments sure feel great, huh?

This year has been like a whirl wind, suddenly we are already in October again. To be honest, I was caught off guard that suddenly that day was my anniversary day. My mind was constantly on our new company. And my husband is always shy with anything smell like anniversary or birthday, but he NEVER forget my birthday or anniversary even though he is never all too sweet about it.

So we celebrated it by going to eat Teppanyaki at Surabaya Town Center. I think it is the most enjoyable dinner we had in a while. There is joy, content, peace, laughter between us. We were truly relax enough to enjoy ourselves.

But the best part is one very special gift that we received that day. The gift is from my pastor Philip and his wife, Irene.

I think what I always do is not that uncommon that every time we have our anniversary I like to ask God to pour more of that Canna Wine into our marriage, to make it always stay loving, stay fresh, and more mature. The older the better, just like the wine that Jesus made in Canna.

Well... when I pray for the Lord to give us Wine from Canna, I was talking figuratively off course.

Hey, what do you know... suddenly that day our pastor and his wife, who just returned from Jerusalem, gave us the real Wine of Canna ! It said on the label " Marriage Wine " ! Wow !!!

When I called them to thank them of the very thoughtful anniversary gift, they were both confuse. It turn out none of them knew that they gave us the best anniversary gift ever ! They don't even knew that day was our anniversary !

We all have a laugh about it. It was God doing something very very sweet to us. The deeper I knew about God, the more I found that He is a humorous God. He can be FUN. And He has many creative ways to make me laugh out loud !!!! I truly enjoy His humors !!!

A Short Vacation To The Mountain Side Of Bali, Ubud.

2009-09-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

Summer 2009

2009-08-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

This summer we went back to Taipei for 3 reasons.

The most important reason of all, we went back so we can baptist Richard's grandparents. The second reason is for the children to see their grandparents, the last time they went back to Taiwan is 2 years ago. The third reason is for business reason.

THE GRANDPARENTS

2 weeks prior our journey to Taiwan , we received a phone call from my father in law that his father had a stroke and in a coma. Then soon after that his mom maybe because too tired she was hospitalized also but at a different hospital.

With the support of our church brother and sisters who support us through their prayers. We went to Taipei actually absolutely with no experience and pretty much clueless on how we should tell the coma grandpa and the sickly grandma about Gospel.

What we learn later on is that no matter who clueless and inexperience we are but if God decided to be merciful to our family, there is no power in the world that can stop God from working to save our beloved grandparents.

I am not trying to act humble when I say that we are clueless and inexperience. This IS our FIRST time ever trying to tell non-believers about Gospel and want to baptist them too.

Before we went to Taiwan, I prayed to the Lord. I said, " Lord, I believe that there is nothing impossible or too difficult for You to save Richard's grandparents. As long as we do our part in telling them about the Gospel, then your power will take over after that. I just have one small request Lord. Can You give me a sign if grandpa has received You as his personal savior?" . I asked this because he is in a comma and I am guessing he will not be able to speak loudly or something.

So when we arrived in the hospital where he stayed in it's ICU, Richard and his dad went straight inside. Richard did not waste time, he just start whispering to his grandpa's ear about Jesus. Then because we only had 30 minutes, Richard asked his grandpa who is in comma to follow his prayer to receive Jesus as his savior. Right after Richard said Amen, all of a sudden his grandpa open his eyes and his lips moving for sometime before he return to his comma. Only until the next day God reminded me that this is the sign that I have been asking for. Praise Him !

From the first hospital we went to the second hospital to visited Richard's grandma. When we arrived, his grandma was crying begging for everyone not to safe grandpa because she said his condition is too pitiful and she also wants to die together with him. Anyway they are both in their 90's.

Again, Richard didn't want to waste time. He start asking his grandma if she knows about Jesus. To be honest we expect her to say no. But she said yes! Richard asked, "how come?". Then she told Richard about her past that Richard never know. She said she was given away by her parents to another family but she still knows the news about her siblings and she said she has 7 siblings who all converted to become Christians!!! Imagine how surprise we were ....

Then Richard just straight asked her if she wants to receive Jesus as her savior too? She said yes!!! Hallelujah!!! So Richard lead her in the prayer and she repeat what ever Richard said. Then Richard asked Kai Kai to pray for his great grandma! So sweet .... during this time I was with La La but I keep praying in tongue to support Richard. The Lord is so GOOD !!!

THE KIDS

For Kai Kai, he can easily adjust himself to his grandparents , uncles, and cousin. But for La La it takes time because the last time she saw them she was only 18 months old. Plus she is more shy than Kai Kai. But after a while, she start to blossom again to be her normal lively self. She start laughing nonstop again, chatting with her grandma in Mandarin !!! Then she suddenly sang many Mandarin children songs that she learned at school in Surabaya at the delight of her grandparents ! She impressed them with her singing ! Heck... even Richard and me were very surprise because we never heard her sing this many Mandarin songs back at home ...

It is so easy to please La La because she is just like me, us girls luuuvvvvv to travel and shop, hahaha! La La doesn't care if we bring her to a business meeting or just for a short walk to the market. As long as she can be outside of home, she is happy.

On the other hand, Kai Kai prefer to stay home to play with his cousin Rong Rong. He is busy teaching her how to win battles of Pokemon....sigh....

But I managed to drag him away from home to go to Taipei Zoo and to the aquarium at the South of Taiwan. Far from home.

Weird thing is, Kai Kai constantly miss eating his Western diet and Indonesian diet ( just like his mommy ). But La La prefer Taiwanese diet. Just like her daddy.

They both had a blast buying toys here in Taiwan because the truth is , toy shopping in Surabaya sucks !

We also brought them to eat and play at the night market in Kaohsiung.

Pic: Real Oysters hanging all over us ! Cool !

BUSINESS

One reason we went back to Taiwan is for us to meet our new supplier. Again, God is always good to us. With His help we met a new supplier. To cut the story short. His name is Jacky and he is from the same University in Taiwan with Richard but he is older. For some amazing reason, he treat Richard like his younger brother and start teaching Richard a lot about the inside story of this Solar business. Then Jacky also bring Richard around to see some other factory owner and he tells Richard so many facts about solar application products ! Very very useful facts !

He even brought us to see his parents' in law home in the hill. His in laws family own the whole hill. That one hill hold 300 relatives of his wife. Very cool. All of them grew organic vegetables, fruits, chickens and over 2000 pigs ! All organic ! I ate the best organic chicken in my life ! Those chicken only been fed with organic corn that they grew themselves in that farm. The taste is soooo goood. When Jacky told me someone cried after tasting the chicken, I thought that is exaggerating, but when I taste the chicken myself....well.... let's say that....I am very close to crying myself. The chicken is that GOOD ! I am a believer myself now. So right away I made a few phone calls to Indonesia to arrange so that I can return his kindness. If he showed me what a great organic chicken should taste, and my oh my, I will never be able to enjoy chicken ever again after I taste that heavenly chicken. Well.... I want him to feel the same about white pepper, Chinese Five-spice blend, and curry. I have my own connection where I can get freshly harvest then dried then grind Indonesian best spices at it's best. I just wish I can taste my spices on his chicken though ..... sigh.....

At the end, we all shake hand and make an alliance. He supplied OSRAM with his products, and he agreed to be our supplier and we become his sole distributor in Indonesia. God is Great!

He even said that he knows that we are blessed people and he knows that God has sent us to him so he has to treat us well. This statement came out from the mouth of someone who is not even a Christian. Amazing isn't it? When God decided to open all the doors in heaven to bless us, who can close those doors?

Test

2009-08-11T07:47:00.001-07:00

Test
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Birthing A New Company

2009-07-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I am able to sit in front of my computer to type again. Partly because like usual the computer has problem, second, hubby doesn't want to stop using it, third, I am too tired to use it when no one used it, fourth, I am too busy with our new born company.

That's a lot of excuses huh?

Alright, let's get down to business now ....

HISTORY

Last year, hubby prayed to God to give him an idea on what kind of company he should open. He prayed and wait and prayed and wait some more until one day God told him specifically to open a Green Energy business. Another word, selling solar system and applications. You know, solar panel and wind turbines? Off course you do ...

Then hubby told his missus , and his missus thoughts he is weird but because Proverbs said a wife should always support her hubby, so his missus said nothing ( thank goodness! ).

The next 6-8 months, hubby tried and tried to get suppliers but not a single company wants to even reply his emails, faxes, letters, etc. Very very frustrating period for him. But hold on..... there is a reason always behind everything that happens in our life. God always has a better plan.

One day, hubby received a phone call from our Pastor, Ps. Philip Mantofa who I have mentioned a lot in my previous entries. He called because he wants hubby to come to his home to help him received surprise guests from Taiwan. There are 13 businessmen from Taiwan who suddenly showed up at his home because God told them in words and in vision to visit Philip to give him a good prophecy that our church will be used by God in an amazing way. But one businessman in particular, he has a second tasks in Surabaya. I will tell you about it soon. Keep reading....

So at one point, hubby was chatting away with one of the guest. The conversation turn to the usual question, like :
"why do you live in Surabaya? " , and "what do you do here?".
Hubby answered " My wife is originally from Surabaya" and " Beside working in the father in law's company and still managed to teach at 2 Universities, I also want to start a company".
Then the guest asked, " what kind of business do you want to open?"
Since he failed to get even one supplier, hubby was planning to say he is going to start a computer business, something that is actually in his previous working experience. But suddenly hubby felt like there is a fist hit his stomach and he when he open his mouth, instead of saying the word computer as he planned to do, he said, " SOLAR!"
The guest was very surprised, then he told his friend who came with him about my hubby's plan.

To shorten the story, we both met that other man, Mr. M in Shangri La.

Mr. M told us this himself. He said few weeks or days ago, God told him to go with his brethren in Christ to Surabaya, first of all to tell Ps. Philip the prophecy for our church, and the second assignment from God to him was... to find his distributor in Surabaya ! Mr. M own a factory in China that made solar applications products that sold out like a hot cake in the States.

Right now, we are more than just his distributor. We are brother in Christ. We are partner with him.

So, Mr. M becomes our first supplier ( more than that actually )

Since then, God opens all the doors to us. By His Grace, we are currently walking into our promise land. God showed us His plan and He gives us His favors on daily basis. Everything that the Bible say and promises is true. There is no explanation that can describe how we suddenly become super lucky! The only explanation is GOD!

Until now, we are being chased, yes I used the word "CHASE" to describe what happen. We are being chased by so many companies all over China and Taiwan ( so far, because we are looking only in that area for Indonesia buying power is limited ) to be their sole distributors. I don't even know, how many are they. I lost count some time ago. This is what it means that when God's favor is on you, you will be chased by His Blessing. When you don't look for His presents, but instead you are looking at His presence, then His favor will be unto you.

If you know the normal business practice. It is hard to get distributorship. They will ask you to sign a contract that will show that they have a certain sales target that you have to fulfill. Things like that. Some has to pay a huge amount of money. Some has to do certain things that definitely not easy to do for a starter company such as ours.

But again, when we stayed in His plan this is what is going to happen :

We saw CEO ripped their contracts because we honestly said we can not yet fulfill those requirement to sell in large quantity, then the CEO and employees gave us a blank paper so we can write our own draft of what kind of contract we would like to have. Have you seen anything like this?

We saw, that when we honestly told them that we can not order a container, we can only order samples, then those CEO told us that we were not the first company from Indonesia that already wants to be their distributors but they reject those other bigger Indonesian companies and they received us, the tiny little company to be their distributor for not only Indonesia territory but for South East Asian territory.

We saw how God can help us meet the right person that knows the original factory owner who made a certain product ( his classmate ! )and that at the end help us bring down the retail price considerably. The factory is in Taiwan, but we met this Taiwanese businessman in Jakarta when we "coincidentally" become neighbour at the expo.

We saw how God has place me right next to a high ranking custom officer at the airplane when I face a crisis with custom.

When Ps. Philip told us to test to find out if all of these suddenly "super lucky" things is really from God, we asked them "Why do you chose us?". They always stays quiet for awhile and think first, then we heard all of their answers always the same, "I don't know, but for some reason I like you! " . Yes, when they can not answer why, then you know that it is because of God's favors is on you.

I saw my first employee showed up at my door when just the day before I asked God to send me an employee right at my door instead of me placing an ad in the newspaper then have to find the right one out of 200 people. Then the second one too ....

I saw my first forwarder that God sent right after I prayed too. A strong brother in Christ.

I saw my first agent that God sent right after I prayed again.... she is my forwarder's wife. A strong sister in Christ.

I saw my landlord that also from God, another strong sister in Christ. I can not find a better landlord than her so far or maybe never. So protective of us!

I saw God sent another sister in Christ that help us to be the supplier of a chain Home Building Center that will display our products.

I saw God gave us another supplier, he is not a believer, but even he at the end has to concede that we are so blessed by the Lord and he believes that God sent us to him so he believe he has to treat us special. Imagine that, huh?

Unbelievable things like that will happen, when God pours His Grace on us.

Let me say this clearly. Everything great that happen into our company has NOTHING to do with how good we are !!! To be honest, we are still a baby in this business. But thank God! We can be a baby as long as HE IS THE BIG DADDY !!!

We have done nothing to deserve all this. IT IS PURELY BY HIS GRACE.

I asked hubby to wrote a diary to record everything that God has done. So that when we faced crisis, we can still recall, remember all the great thing that HE has done, and we will be able to have more faith. That's what King David told us to do. To remember the great things that God has done. To be thankful. To never forget how many times He has save us in the past. It is very important to wrote down, to record, because human minds tend to forget easily.

By His Grace, He also help us to stay humble.

In real life, crisis do come. Even when He favors us, crisis will still come because during this time our understanding on how nothing we are without Him is being shown so plainly. Only when we surrender, then He will come to rescue us so that we will never mistakenly think we can save ourselves. I am writing this statement because He just save us from major crisis. I do not speak something that I only heard from somebody else. I speak from experience. That's why having a personal experience is extremely important, because without it, can you say you know Him at all? Can you say you are Obama's friend if you never hang out with him on daily basis?

I learn that we can not be holy with our own strength. All we can do is to have a strong desire or to have the heart that wants to please Him. Our performance will always be spotty. That's why He calls us to be a believer, not a performer or an achiever. We tried to do everything righteous yet crisis still come. We tried to import stuff by declaring their true value, yet custom do not believe us and then caused trouble that almost caused us Rp. 200 millions. Things like this will happen here. Unfortunately. We are constantly tempted to reduce the value. But only by His Grace, not by own strength, until now we are persevere to do business, the Godly way. You have no idea how big is the temptations out there to just bribe to get things done. Sometimes I am already ready to give in into the temptation, but praise Him. I report first to my BOSS up there that I feel like giving up already, and I need Him to rescue me from sinning. Oh how I cried because I feel so disappointed with myself when I am already on the brink of disappointing Him. Then He came and rescue me ... from my sin. Praise His Holy name !! Jesus is His name.

I learn the importance of praying and begging for His mercy and grace every morning. It has to be done every day, preferably every morning because what the bible said is true. His grace and mercy is new everyday for us. Begging like this helps us to stay humble. To remind ourselves how everything we have actually is given by Him and that has nothing to do with how good we are.

LIVE IS GRACE.

So why does God bless us so much? What's the purpose you asked?

The answer is this:

Maybe not to make us into the next Tycoon such as Liem Siu Liong for example even though with God everything is possible.

But one thing is sure. His first task to all of His children still valid. To bring Gospel to people who doesn't yet know about it and also He bless us so we can bless others.

In my previous entry on " Army Of God ", there is an important story that I did not wrote there because I think it is better to write it in this entry.

After we had a great meal together with Rev. Jaeson Ma, Howie, and Rev. Jonathan Chow. On the way back to his hotel, Jonathan suddenly asked Jaeson to pray for us.

And when he lay his hands on our shoulders, he gave us a prophesy:
"God has open every door in China and Taiwan because God will use both of you in TECHNOLOGY, to bring gospel there !" --- for safety, let's just say we did that already few months ago.

I will posted our company website here so you can see what God has done for us.

Support us with your prayers. It is really not easy ( I feel ) to do business based on God's law. But I believe , even when I fall, He will catch me and rescue me, all my life.

Army Of God Crusade, 14-16 May 2009, Surabaya, Indonesia

2009-05-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

Pic: A party is not complete without a feast of Indonesian seafood! Howie, me, Richard, Rev. Jonathan Chow and Rev. Jaeson Ma who took this photo with his blackberry.

From May 14 till 16, 2009, I was involved in the Army Of God Crusade that is being held in the old airport Juanda runway in Surabaya, Indonesia. This event is done by my church, Mawar Sharon ( Rose of Sharon ).

We have an amazing, over-the-head, mind-blowing, experiences in this crusade ! Absolutely indescribable unless you can be there yourself to experience it with me.

I am so blessed that our church leaders place me and my husband to be the companion of one of the speaker, Rev. Jonathan Chow from the Bread of Life Church in Taiwan that sponsored both crusades that I went to in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2008 and 2009.

Rev. Jonathan Chow is such a sweet man and very anointed too as a teacher of the Word of God. The more we get to know him during this time the more we love him as a person and the more we respected him as a man of God. His preaches can move you to tears ! They are just so touching and helpful. Absolutely sweet.

Our very busy scheduled started from May 12 when we go to the Airport to pick up Jonathan with some other friends too who also have to pick up their own assigned guests. Then we brought them first to check-in in the hotel, then dinner together in the hotel.

The next day, we had half a day of free time before we have to bring him to Juanda airport because some of his friends like Rev. Jaeson Ma, Ps. Philip Mantofa, and Van Ness Wu, a member of the famous boy band F4 would be interviewed by 40 local reporters and few groups of international reporters too.

The next day is the Asia For Jesus Conference. So in the daytime, at Mawar Sharon Church we have a conference then at night time is the crusade. If in the daytime I received a more in depth lesson from the speakers then at night time is the time to put that lesson into use or to see the proof that the lesson I get is true. At daytime I learn to have more faith then at night time I put that new and improve faith from God to use for praying so that not a single soul will escape from salvation.

When I am writing this entry , months has passed so a lot of details are gone now. Oops!

But I hope a pictures can speak a thousand words, so since I showed you more than one picture I hope this entry ( minus my writing) can speak thousand and thousand of words to you !!

Pic: A long lost sister? Do we look alike? Some people said we look alike....
Pic: Rev. Jonathan Chow and us

Pic: The gang!
Pic: Taking a picture together with Mr. Ari Wibowo, a very humble brother in Christ !
Pic: Rev. Jaeson Ma and us, He's the coolest pastor from the States!
Pic: Us with Vanessa Sien, Taiwan's Idol. She has an unbelievably sweet voice ! Can not wait for her to have a Long Play recording !

Pic: Us with Rev. Jonathan Chow, and Van Ness Wu

Pic: salut to our brother in Christ, Van Ness Wu who stayed in that position through out Jaeson Ma's sermon.

Pic: At the translators tent.
Pic: A Duet between Rev. Jaeson Ma with Van Ness Wu of F4. A prophetic song ! You can buy it, just look for Jaeson Ma music CDs collection in your nearby Christian Store.

For more info about Jaeson, you can visit his blog. He has a very neat blog with so many knowledge about God that will sure to help you.

Shanghai Throught My Camera

2009-04-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

Mind you though, my husband was worry that I will be too tired carrying my Nikon so he told me to only bring my small Sony camera. There are many times when I regret not to bring my Nikon, such as when we go to the Shanghai Museum, it's dark inside and we can not use flash light, this is the moment when I miss my Nikon.....(sigh). But since I only have Sony I have to make do with it somehow. Some of these photos have to be edited heavily so they can be more presentable. So let me present it to you my Shanghai photo collection ....

Pic: Chinese paint brush that I saw .

Pic : Instead of billboard, this is advertising boat !

Pic : This photo is my favorite shot of Richard in Shanghai.

Pic : I was attracted to take a picture of that cat on the roof.

Pic : Next year, 2010, Shanghai will have a huge Expo, and that blue statue is the symbol.

Pic : View from my hotel window.

Pic: This area is full with wholesaler Fashion seller. Talk about drop dead on your feet when shopping ! This place is too big ! After 2 malls , I gave up.

IF you want to read more about Chinese cuisine and to see the food photos, you can click HERE.

My Amazing God

2009-04-03T23:37:00.000-07:00

Just like everybody else, I prayed to God so that He may use me more in amazing way because I want to know Him more and please Him more. In the past few weeks I have learned few new things about how He works. I have learned that when we want to do good things, He will open the ways so we CAN DO those good things. I have learned also that just because you can not 100 % comprehend your own request to Him, but when you say your declaration out loud to Him. He will take your words as if you really mean it. Let me rephrase that words to make what I mean more clearly.

God said that He wants to use people with "the right heart" to serve Him. I found that the "right heart" doesn't mean "the perfect performance". People with the right heart are people that even though they still makes mistakes everyday, but their hearts never stop wanting to love God more, to be better, to serve Him more, to sin less, everyday ! God knows how imperfect we are. He knows our weaknesses . He doesn't care much about our performances, our achievements, our talents, our gifts. What He cares the most is weather we have the right heart to serve Him or not.
People with "the right heart" can still make mistakes everyday, they may sin everyday, they may still get angry, but after that, they will asked God to forgive them and repent and then they will try harder to be better the next day.

I learn about the meaning to have the right heart only now.

I know that I am still full of mistakes, I sin on daily basis even though after that I regret it very much and I will pray to God that He may forgive me once again. But I have never stop wanting to be a better child , to serve Him more, to be used more by Him, etc. I made that pledge so many times without truly understanding on how He will use me more for His works. My thought was I will spend more time in ministry. Go here and there with my church friends, you know, be more active in church activities. Start helping out more with altar calls. Something like that.

Overall I have never thought that it will be like this ....

On March 27, we went to see our first supplier in Chongsan. We took a ferry from HK airport to there. Days before we even go, I have this strong feeling that I have a job to do there that has nothing to do with our business trip and it is the most important thing that I have to do. But I have no idea what that is. How can I prepare for a job that I don't even know, but I keep on having a strong feeling that the only way I can prepare myself for this job or assignment, is by making myself closer to God. Read bible more, pray more, but don't know what to pray exactly. It's a weird feeling. Because of this strong feeling, when I packed my stuff, I also packed my anointing oil that my mom gave me from Israel. I have no idea why I felt the urge to bring it with me.

Our supplier, Mr. M, is also a Christian. Even the story on how we got to know each other is already a miracle.

My husband one day told me that he felt strongly that God wants him to open a company that sells energy saving products. Solar products, wind power products, thing like that. When I heard that I thought he is having a delusion because we both do not have the back ground on that. Our current company has no connection what so ever with a technological company like that. We are on servicing industry.

In the next 6 months or more, my husband had been trying with his own strength to contact any suppliers that he found from the internet. He contacted so many of them by phone, by fax, by emails, by sms, by letters, yet not a single one of them replied. Needless to say, he got very depressed and disappointed, but he did not want to give up. From my point of view, this become a proof for me that the vision is not from God.

One day, our Pastor suddenly received 13 Taiwanese businessmen. So he called my husband to come over to his home to help him with His guests. When my husband made small talks with one of the businessman, that man asked why R lived in Surabaya. So my husband explained that his wife is from Surabaya, and now he works in his father in law company while teaching in the universities too and he plan to open a company of his own. Originally because not a single one of companies that he contact ever replied, my husband wants to start to open a computer store because this is closer to his area, but when R opened his mouth to say " computer store ", he felt there was a hand that punch his stomach that knocked out his breath and when he open his mouth to let the air out, what came out was "solar".

The man he talked to was suddenly very interested with R. He told my husband that one of his friend that come with him ( Mr. M ) to Surabaya was told by God to go to Surabaya to look for his distributor that will help sell his solar products.

To make the story short, we met Mr. M in Shangri-la Hotel, my husband had a discussion with him and at first he will only sell his products to us but he can not promise a distributorship to us yet because he needed more confirmation from God about us. Understandable off course.

Since then, God keep on helping us to get more suppliers. Even more amazing, they all insist for us to be their distributors even though we keep rejecting their offers because we got scared too. When we told them we can not order one container because we can only order samples, they still wants us to be their distributor even though most of them have been contacted by more rich Indonesian businessmen from Jakarta first. When we told them we can not sign the distributor agreement because there are clauses that we can not do , like predicting how many sales we can do in a year etc, basically the boss himself ripped the old agreement, then he drew a new one according to our request which is like almost can not be called a distributor contract because it is so loose. Most of them directly said that they will sent every request from South-East Asia to buy from us.

God is just so amazing!

Not only we get distributorship for free with a very loose contract, those supplier becomes our friends too. Everything just came together in such miraculous way.

Because it's all started with God sent the first and most important supplier direct to us, now we both know that this is a vision from God. He did it on purpose. Just imagine if R could find suppliers on his own before we finally met Mr. M. We will never know that this vision is from God. I would have thought that it's all because of R's hard works paid off. There is another story on why God did this to us too.

When I was 8, I made a request to God that I want Him to force His will on me even though I know that I may not like it, It maybe painful because it is against my will, but deep down I know I will be better off this way then I get what I want but it is bad for me. It is better to get what He wants to give to me only. Since then my life has never been the same. In my life I never have many choices like most people. I hate it before but now I know it is a blessing. Too many choices can confuse me and lead me to the wrong way. It is better this way, more simple and safer too.

Knowing that this agreement is still in effect, I made another agreement with Him that if He started this whole thing about opening a technology and energy company then He has to help us to finish it too. I want only suppliers from Him. I want only employees from Him. I want only location from Him. I want interior designer from Him. Everything has to be done His way, not ours.

After we have our first supplier, I started to look for a location. Because I relied completely God made our landlord has no choice but to rent their place to us ( this is another story but i don't have time to tell you ). Then when I asked for an interior designer, I got it too from Him. Then when for a long time I couldn't make myself place an ad on newspaper to look for an employee ( I felt I should not do that ), then I made a request to God , " God, if all my life you leave me with no other choice but Your choice, then You can surely sent me an employee directly in front of my door without I have to place an ad first . You know that now is the time Lord, thank you, in Jesus name , Amen "

Guess what?

Someone did come to my front door, to be exact to my dining table. My own cousin's husband who happen to live next door. He graduated from University of British Columbia, he is very smart and he happens to have experience in areas that we will need him for like building website. maintaining it, answering questions, and later more technical matters too. He is more than capable to do this and he seems to be interested with this job too. He said he knew that if he wants to look for a job in here , he will wants to work for a company like ours. I guess God put that desire in him, huh?

So knowing that we finally get our first employee, we left to China. And like I said that I had this strong feeling that in China I will do God's works I felt so excited with the possibilities. Mr. M already mention earlier that later he will asked R to testify on how we met. So I thought R would do most of the talking. But God has different plan.

The first day we arrived, Mr. M treat us dinner at a Korean restaurant. While we ate, we share a lot of stories about God and family. This is the first time that Mr. M get to know me personally, before he only communicate with R. Never with me, even though he can speak English just fine.

While R and him talked, I felt the urge to get my hand phone and to read the bible in the middle of eating great Korean food. I have no idea which bible verses that I should read so I just pressed randomly on my phone. After reading it quickly I knew I received a message from Him but I do not yet know who is it for. So I just keep it quiet first and I continue eating and talking.

The next morning, I went to re-read the bible verse that I got in the restaurant again. But instead I felt I need to read something else first. I get another message, it is about don't be scared with the current circumstances, look to God, He will keep you safe. I had a feeling that I will be asked to speak soon in the factory. I was right.

When we were in Mr. M's factory, after business discussion, he asked R to testify first, then suddenly he turned to me and asked me to answers some of his Christian employees question. I was very surprised and I only had time to pray quickly to God to anointed my mouth so that what ever comes out from it will only His words and not mine. Then when I open my mouth , the Holy Spirit just took over. Without feeling nervous, scared, I started to tell them about how God's works. I spoke with the authority that definitely not from me. I knew then that I am just a mouthpiece. I am being used for His works in amazing way. Not by my own power but by His power only. It was awesome ! What ever I said just match right on with the bible verse that I received that morning in my hotel room. Without preparation, I was able to speak so well, in a way that they can easily absorb and it was so well organized that I can bring the preaching into a point that God wants to tell them and then I ended it right there because I already prayed that let it be only His words and not mine. I don't want my ego to interfere. As you can tell, I am only a simple person. I have no experience on speech. I have never been to a bible school. I am not even a very smart or gifted person. But I do have the "right heart".

From the factory, Mr. M brought us to see his supplier who happen to be a Taiwanese and a Christian also. We drove 2 hrs to Shenchen to meet him. While the men talked, I just sat there quietly. After that we went back to Chongsan. On the way back, suddenly again, I felt I need to read my bible on the phone. It was still on the same page that I left it on when we were in that Korean restaurant. I felt I need to give this message to someone right now. I knew right away that it was not for us, I knew also it was not for Mr. M. I feel that it is for that man we just met back in Shenchen, but I don't know anything about him since they always spoke in Mandarin. A language that I am not good at. So I asked R to tell me about that man. Then I asked Mr. M. The more I knew the more I am convinced that the message is for that man. So I gave it to Mr. M to delivered it to him. I realized that God doesn't want me to tell that man myself because can you imagine how will he take it? A girl he just met dare to lecture him on his own factory? Do you think he can accept the message from God gracefully if I deliver the message like that? That's why God let me give it to Mr. M because I found out later, Mr. M is his spiritual father. After hearing the message, Mr. M also confirmed that the message is definitely for that man. I am not going to say it here because that is his private matter.

By afternoon I was so exhausted because I have not sleep well for 2 days. Mr. M suddenly wanted to bring us to have a massage ! God is good, I had 3 hours of a great massage without it I don't think I can do what I am going to do next !

What happens next was, Mr. M brought me to his employee's underground church gathering. He did warned me that he wants us to speak and again I thought I will be just a background speaker. But again, God has a different plan for me.

Since we have a very busy day there is no way I have time to prepare for a preach. So when Mr. M finished his preaching, he preached that if we rely our strength on God then we will be like an eagle fly high on the sky. Then suddenly he turned to me and invited me to speak. Just like in the morning, I only had time to quickly pray for God to anoint me to speak so that the words that comes out from my mouth will only be His words and not mine. Then I walked to the front, faced my audiences, I opened my mouth and God took over again.

God's message this time is about we should involved God not only for big thing but also for small things too. But first to start, I felt to make the point more clear God wanted me to threw my self on the floor, facing down, with my nose pressed on the floor, God started to preach. This is what God wants all of us to do, to surrender completely to Him, to be shameless in begging for His help, to humble ourselves completely in front of Him. Then when He saw his beloved child in that position, how can He refused any request we made? That is exactly what I do when my circumstances has overwhelm me so much that I have no more strength to even sing praises to Him. I will just throw myself flat on the floor in front of Him and just cried my heart out to Him , begging shamelessly for Him to help me, to surrender myself to Him completely. I keep on talking with my face still pressed down on the floor. After that I raised up.

Needless to say, with that kind of opening, everybody eyes are on me. Then using my life example, I started to point the audiences one by one. I started with " When I was your age... this is what God did to me". The message built from the smallest thing up to the big thing. How my mom taught me to pray for a parking spot . Then how God make my dead gold fish alive again when my mom prayed for it ( I was 7 ). Then when I was teenager, God did it again with my dog, my dog got hit by a truck until her head become as soft as a bun, the skull absolutely smashed, but yet when my mom prayed, she was alive again. Then when I was twenties, a shrunken cashmere sweater can come back to it's original size again after my mom prayed over it. At last when I met my husband by God's grace. There is nothing to small for God to handle and there is nothing too big for God to handle too. Just involve God in every part of your life so that you know Him personally, not just by what other people has telling you.

Again, when the message was delivered, I ended it because I don't want to speak with my own words.

That night Mr. M asked me if I don't mind to preach in his own underground church on Sunday. I will be the main speaker this time. I surprise myself when I accepted his offer with happy heart insted of scared and refused. He said there will be more people there.

That night I thought I need to prepare well , so I opened my bible and pray but what I got was a feeling that what's important right now is for me to rest ( I was dead tired ), and not to worry about what I will have to say tomorrow. So I went to sleep.

When I woke up the next day, I went to pray and read bible again but again I felt that God doesn't want me to think to much. He wants me to be worry free and 100% relying myself on Him. So after I read view verses trying to find a great one that can impress people, I gave up. I know it is wrong. Instead I asked God if He has any message for Mr. M that I can deliver? He did give me a nice message for Mr. M that I am gladly give.

At the underground church Sunday service. amazingly I was not nervous at all. See, when you asked God to use you more for His works, even when you don't fully understand your own request, He will take you up on it, but after He gave you the chances to be used by Him , it is up to you if you want to accept it or not. If you do, He will enable you somehow. Like what I was experiencing right then.

But I was still surprise when Mr. M asked me to bless his church for the first time because this is their new location. Their church, just like the church yesterday, just got busted again so they have to move to a new place. Even though this will be their third meeting there but they never properly bless it yet and now he gave me that honor to bless the church. I was so overwhelm by the honor to do this ! I keep on asking God in my heart, " Who am I Lord that I would receive this honor to open your house? "

So when it's time for me to preach. I told them we have to dedicate the church first to God because it is very important. Then I asked everybody to kneel down in front of God. I started the prayer by declaring to God how unworthy I am to do this. I am only His servant. I am a sinful person. But I want very much to do His will . Then I asked God to bless this place, to purify this place with His blood, and to send His angels to guard this place. To bless, purify, guard and use the congregation more and more in amazing way. After that I let the Holy Spirit do the talking.

Again, I was just a mouth piece.

I almost makes a fool of myself when I tried to over prepared my preach the night before. Thank God, He told me that I should not lecturing on them because God said the congregation is better than what I expected. God was right. If I stubbornly insist on looking smart and start lecturing these people I will be the fool.

I started by asking them how many of them can hear God speak to them audibly? About 40% of them lifted their hands ! I was very surprised. Then I asked how many of them can see vision from God? Only 2 hands up, Mr. M and his right hand man. I congratulate people who lifted their hands because I can not hear or see vision, YET. But for the rest of the congregation who is just like me, I told them not to loose their hope yet, because their time has not yet arrived. Even mine.

Then I tell them my experience how I can hear God through bible. All it takes is for us to take that "leap of faith". There is no short cut. There is no other way. If we want to know our God personally, we just have to take a "leap of faith". Then I demonstrated it by jumping off from the stage. You can not know God by bywords from other people. You can not say that you have been to Brazil by only reading a book of Brazil or watching a video of Brazil. You just have to do it.

I told them how both my husband and me lock ourselves in on different room and just dedicated that hours to God. We both have to be patience. Waiting is not easy. R waited for 3 hours a day while I can only do 1 hour a day with no result for at least 2 weeks. But we were persistent. Then God came. Then nothing ever been the same again. Then we start to live.

Take that leap of Faith. Try God. In His time, He will answer you !

Again, I stopped talking when I felt God wanted me to finish.

When we ready to leave the place, Mr. M's wife and another lady asked me to pray for them. I was so overwhelm again with the honor. But I also realize that I am not knowledgeable enough on this. For now I can only pray my simple pray, but after that I sent SMS to my Ps. Philip Mantofa to give me word by word what to do and say via SMS.

From the church we went to Guangzhou airport, it's about 2 hours drive from Chongsan. Then we flew to Shanghai.

In Shanghai, we were very impressed with how beautiful that city is. We went there so we can see the expo for our product type. Again, supplier pressing us to be their distributor. God IS good. Always.

I will continue telling you my story about Shanghai on my next entry ...

Celebrating Last Year Christmas With New Friends

2009-03-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

I should have write this entry last Christmas but I have been so busy lately so I neglected to write this story.

Richard, me and our church friends went to Bakti Luhur, at Wisma Tropodo blok N-22 in Surabaya before Christmas. Actually, that day event was just one tiny part of the big Christmas activity that our church had for everybody ( member and non-member ) who have the heart to spread His love to other people. Practice what we've learned so to speak.

Action always speaks louder than words, am I right? So now it's the perfect time for all of us to show our love for other people.

It is always easier to just donate some money and then we feel that we have done the world a huge favor.

Well, what the church has proposed for all of us is a challenge that not only we should be grateful that we CAN donate ( money, clothing, food, toiletries, books, toys, etc ) but we should do more than just gave material thing. We should sacrifice our times, our energy, our talent, our heart, for others who can NOT give anything in return.

Everybody are welcome to join in. Love is always universal language. And love is always welcomed.

People start to sign up for these events. They can choose which events or activities they want to join in, what day, what time also. Believe it or not, some events have to be closed early due to overwhelming amount of people who wanted to join that events. Orphanages are always the big hit with people.

I do not remember anymore how many orphanages are open for us to visit. They are just too many. And that had not include other important places too such as nursing homes, homeless, jails, hospitals, etc.

I chose to go to Bakti Luhur with my cell group friends. Bakti Luhur is a place for orphans, elderly, and people that need special care.

When we arrived in Bakti Luhur, we were assign different areas. Mine happens to be the children and some adults area. I am confuse too why there are some adults mixed with the orphans.Like always, I am the photographer of the night.

The MC who entertained the children was my very very good friend Lely. She was awesome! She entertained those children and adults and the nurses too singlehandedly. I guess because really not many people can be so charmingly sing and dance like her. Most of us will be like me, absolutely clumsy in front of so many audience.

After a period of dancing, joking, and singing, we entered praying time and we also read bible too. Again all done by Mrs. Lely Sarwono, hahaha. Who dares to stand next to her and try to be like here, she is just too good!

But when it's time to pray for these children and the adults too, all of us from the cell group go down and find a person who will want us to pray for them. It turn out everybody need a prayer. Well, who doesn't right?

So we prayed for them, bless them, hugged them, and just love them.

Then we distributed the food , drinks and the toys too. And then we hand fed them one by one.

This event started 2 years ago with a smashing success. The people who went 2 years ago begged the church to do it again this last Christmas. Yayasan Sentuhan Kasih was founded on 2008 Christmas time because of the overwhelming request from the church members who are so thirsty to spread the love of Jesus Christ to other people. So if you are interested, you are more than welcome to join us for Christmas 2009 !

Pic: Isn't she beautiful?

Let's Do More Good Work!

2009-03-16T02:19:00.001-07:00

Since I join Gereja Mawar Sharon, I keep on learning a lot all about who God is, what is His plan for my life, and so much more. I realize this is going to be a long journey of learning, but that is what makes this is great because that would mean my life will never stay the same and boring and stale because my God is a creative God. He created the whole universe, didn't he?

Another thing that I learn is that doing good work is really good for my soul. Or anybody souls in that matter. Why is it feel so good? It's because you do something that God wants you to do to begin with. Or in other word, you were created for this. So no wonder it feels so good.

We also makes sure that all the glory should be for the Lord

Today agenda started because my good friend Fadjar met her old friend. Both their children had leukimia but now they are both cancer free. This lady invited Fadjar to come and visit the children cancer section in the General hospital.

Pic: Fadjar standing with the doctor.

Our church, Mawar Sharon, recently just launched a Yayasan Sentuhan Kasih, it's a non-profit organization, or a foundation that is separate financially from the church's body and is dedicated solely to help people in need all around Indonesia.

So Fadjar contacted the head of the Yayasan Sentuhan Kasih if they can help her bring some little gifts to the hospital. It turned out to be the Yayasan Sentuhan Kasih helped her even more. Not only they help to give gifts for the children and the parents too, then send 38 people to minister to the children and their parents, also to entertained them too with a puppet show , singing, and a balloon show.

Fadjar not only help initiate this event but she also help providing the nice towels with the embroidery for the children. She told me her testimony how God helped introducing her to a towel maker who sold her those towel with really low price. God also introduced her to a person who has a printing company and this person donated all the free coloring books. As long as you keep at it, and not giving up, and you have the right heart to please God, He will help you. Just like He has helped Fadjar too.

It was a happy day to go to the General Hospital. First we got together in the church to received briefing from the leader of the Yayasan Sentuhan Kasih, brother Liang. He gave us the basic on what we should do and what we can not do in the hospital. He also divided us into several teams so that each of us can minister to the children efficiently. Then we leaved to the hospital in our separate cars to meet again in the hospital.

When we arrived in the general hospital, we directly follow our team leader. Like usual, I got the job as the photographer. I am not sure how I should get myself prepare for this job though because this is totally new to me.

This is also something that I only recently learned. When I let God to lead me, I ended up having fun while working for Him. Now I understand what it means when God said:

"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Matthew 11:30

He never meant for us to carry everything by ourselves ... and actually most of the time we make ourselves carry burden that is not ours to bear anyway.

I am learning something new everyday in my journey with God. Why? First because that's what He wants for me to do. Second, I asked Him to mold me and teach me His way everyday. Just ask, and He will give. Pay attention that I am not asking for riches here.

So now that we arrived. The men in our group start to carry the gifts for the children and their parents. Look at the photo below, they are all smiling and happy and excited to bear those burden. Another proof that when we are doing God's will, we will be happy. Inside His plan, we will be happy and content.

Actually I am not in entertainment team, but since my own team is not ready yet so I start taking pictures of my friend who was busy performing puppet show for the children. Look at the children reaction, they are so happy!

But off course there are some children that are too sick to be excited with my friend's performance. We can only pray in our heart for their recovery.

Then after a short while I have to go to the children rooms with my team. While my friend conversed with the children parents and the children themselves. I walked around to shot some photos. Too be honest I am not comfortable to take their close up. I brought 2 lenses, one is for long distance and the other has the zoom fixed, but it's great for indoor. I don't need to use flashlight because the aperture is only 1.8. Great for time like this. But I don't want just to be a photographer. Because we are forbidden by our leader to pray for them openly unless they request us to pray for them. We can only pray in our heart. All the while we were hopping that one of these family will ask us to pray for the child.

Again like I said, as long as our heart is willing, God will open the ways. One of my friend just said to me less than 2 minutes that he really really wish that one of these family will ask him to pray for their child, when we entered the next room suddenly the mother of this baby asked my friend if he did not mind to pray for that baby. Both me and my friend were surprise that God can "open the ways" so quickly, but we gladly pray for the baby. I joined the prayer right after I shot the photo below.

For every parent who have asked us to pray for their children, we thanked them so much because we know that in this General Hospital, most of the people have a different religion than ours. They have no idea how happy they have made us when they asked us to pray for them.

So that's why, if God suddenly give you a chance to do something good. Take it! So, come on, lets do more good work in where ever you are !

There are always people who need your help, remember that !!!

God's Power Festival 11 in Taipei, Taiwan on Feb 6-7, 2009

2009-03-16T01:51:00.001-07:00

A year has passed since FKA 9 ( Festival Kuasa Allah ) that is translated in English into God's Power Festival 9 in Taipei and now we are back again in Taipei for God's Power Festival 11. This time the number of people who went with Ps. Philip Mantofa is less. Last year was 60 and this year is below 30, but that doesn't lessen the joy of serving HIM !

Most of our friends arrived on the Feb 5th, but we arrived on the Jan 29th and on the Feb 3rd, our bothers and sister in Christ, Lely, Adrian ( her hubby ), and Rudy arrived in Taipei. All of them slept in Richard's home. This time, it is going to be much more fun than last year for sure. Last year we just got to know each other only.

I have to say that even though our number is less than 30, but our enthusiast on working for His Work is not lessen. From our number, we split ourselves into several prayer group that later would be assign into certain time slot. Then all of us take turn to pray. Some of us even join several prayer group so they can pray for more hours than the rest.

Since the five of us were the only one that did not stay in that hotel with the rest of the group, they assigned us for the last time slot. This is a new experience for me too. This is fun! I enjoy this small group praying time with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The first night of the crusade, there was a time when I was worried that there will be too many unoccupied seats but 20 minutes after we started the crusade all of a sudden those seats are filled.

God really works in amazing way. And to be here to witness Him working is truly an honor that we all feel.

On the first night of the crusade I was assigned a job as, hmmm.... what else, a photographer. Adrian was the one who assigned me this job. He gave me a special badge that would give me the freedom to move around the room. On the other hand, his wife, Lely, did not agree that I should spent my time to be a photographer. She would rather have me be a part of the prayer team. Well, since Adrian asked me first so I accepted his job offer.

Well.... who knows that in Taiwan, it seems that the male or females officials just could not believe that I am one of the Indonesian photographers. So everywhere I go they keep telling me to stop taking pictures. Even after I showed them my badge they still gave me a hard time. On the other hand, they never stop male photographers even the illegal one who take pictures with their handphones. This is just so sexist of them.

So on the second night, I throw in my badge back to Adrian. I told him I quit. Now I want to try to be one of the prayer people. This is my first time also so I was still reluctant to do it alone. I joined my other girlfriends. We made a team of 5 people.

Now I am going to share what I learn as a first timer prayer team member.

The first lesson I got was... as long as we have the right heart or the strong desire to serve the Lord, He will always open the ways for us to serve.

So here we are, 5 girls who barely can speak Mandarin. To do healing prayer, first we have to ask the person or their accompanying family member about what is their sickness. Then to do exorcism, we have to know what kind of spirit(s) that person may have then we have to tell it/them to get out. Both of these procedures will require us to be able to speak Mandarin yet none of us are that fluent in Mandarin. But God is good. If we can not speak Mandarin to them, God can send Indonesian immigrants for us to serve. Yes, somehow, we got Indonesian people only. Out of maybe around 10.000 people somehow God gave us 5 Indonesian families ! How amazing was that? So if you have a strong desire to be used by Him, and to serve Him, don't worry, keep on believing that He will open the ways one day. Just don't give up hope yet.

The first person who prayed to was an old grandma. She is from Pontianak. Even though she is Indonesian, but she is more comfortable to speak Hakka dialect. Now she lives with her daughter who married a Taiwanese and already has a baby. The grandma was a soy bean milk seller. Several years ago, she had an accident with her soy bean milk cart. First she fell off then the cart crushed her left knee and lower leg. I believe the cart broke her knee, but because she is scared, she never wants to do a surgery on her knee and leg, even though the doctor recommended her to do that. So in the past several years, she barely can walk. She can only walk 2 meters then stop then walk another 2 meters again. She constantly in pain. There is not a single day that she didn't have to take pain killer pills. She also said that every day she always cried in pain.

After we pray together, she said she no longer feel any pain! All of us were so happy to hear that. so we brought her to the doctor for medical check up. On healing crusade like this, there will be some doctors stand by to verify if a person is 100% healed or not. After making her do some exercise movement such as walk, stand up-kneel down-stand up, lifting her leg here and there, the doctor said that yes, this grandma is now free from any pain. But the doctor said, the grandma still walk with a noticeable limp. Because she never get a proper medical treatment on her leg, now the leg bone become shorter. The damaged leg is about 3 cm shorter than the healthy leg.

So we brought her back to sit. 2 of my friends are supporting her legs with their hands. Then 2 other hold her hands, and I hug her from behind. We all prayed so that God makes her two legs go back to the same length again. Really, you know, it only takes God a few seconds to work and with my own two eyes I saw that her short leg suddenly slowly growing lengthening itself to match the length of her healthy leg !!! I thought my eyes play tricks on me !!! While I stared at that miracles, my 2 friends who were holding her legs up started to cry too because they said, they can feel the leg grow and it's like "crack...crack...crack..." like that! The grandma herself said she suddenly feel a deep cold on her damage leg. After that we asked her to stand up and walk.

With our own eyes, we saw her walking tall and straight, without any limp at all. The grandma was as surprise as us. At first she walk slowly but then because she started to realize more and more that not only she is now pain free, but her damaged leg is now totally healed and it was the same length as before. Then she start walking faster and faster and then she started to jump around. Then she stop and she cover her eyes and started crying and praising God.

How awesome is that to witness this yourself?

Beside this grandma, we also prayed for a lady ( an Indonesian again ) who was abused by her husband who now left her with her baby boy who can never stop crying. It really broke my heart. She said, the people around her keep telling her that it is all the baby's fault. The baby who brought the bad luck that makes her husband stop loving her and now ran away. Those same people did not say anything about the husband habit to cheat before the baby even born. So now the baby was born rejected. The mother is under a lot of stress and she is also under the depression. Weird thing is, even though she can hate her baby so much and she wants to kill the baby ( then suicide herself ) she said she still loves her cheating abusive husband and she still wants him back. I feel drained after prying for her and her baby. We did exorcism with her. But we all think she will need a longer counseling. I hope she will get it from someone from Taiwan church.

We also prayed for an old couple and a young couple. Both couple need to forgive their spouse in order for God to heal them completely.

Then there is another case with a child about 10 years of age. When his mom was 6 months pregnant, the doctor told her that there is a big chance that the baby she carried will be born prematurely. So her husband brought her to temple. Over there the people in the temple made her drank a piece of spell paper that was burned and then mixed in the water. They told her that would help her keep the baby. Yes, the baby was not born prematurely, but when the child born with down syndrome. The mother said that this child always angry and always hitting her and her husband.

We told them that God wants them to ask forgiveness from that child because they drank the spell paper. After we prayed for forgiveness from the child and from God. Suddenly that child just hugged and kissed both of his parents for a long time.

God is good.

There is an extra story too, while I knelled down to pray for this boy, suddenly someone knelled right next to me. I looked at that person and I thought, wow, Taiwanese prayer team member really knows how to dress up so fashionably. Later, that man asked me about that boy in Mandarin. My Mandarin is so bad so I have a hard times to explain it to him. All of a sudden R showed up and then he told that man that I am his wife and he better of talking to me in English. That man directly switched to English and right away I know that he is a native speaker. Then when we both shake hands to introduce ourselves, he said his name is Vanness Wu. My husband explained to me that Vanness Wu is one of the boy band member F4. Good for him now that he is involve with God's ministry ! Vanness Wu is not the only celebrity that we saw in God's Power Festival 11 and even God's Power Festival 9, last year in Taiwan. Vanness Wu and other celebrities will be coming also for the Asian For Jesus Conference in May, 2009.

On
More photo shots of Taipei, Taiwan:

The Growing Years Of My Son

2009-02-25T23:08:00.000-08:00

8 years has passed, now my beloved son is already in grade 3 at his school. He has grown so much in both physically , mentally and even spiritually.

Physically, his shoes size and mine is almost the same now. If my shoes size is 6.5, his shoes size is already around 5.

When he was small he was a fussy eater, now, he can eat 5 pieces of fried chickens on one sitting. Everyday he eats 4 to 5 meals a day, beside his snacks, candy, and milk. But he still weight only 30kg because he never stop moving. He has a very healthy body.

Mentally, he grow more mature, more caring with his sister. Part of the reason they fight once in a while is because he is too protective to his little sister without the wisdom of an adult. If you are a parent then you know that when you want to deal with a little child, you need to cajole them sometimes, or bargain, trade with them. You will need a lot of hugs and kisses to make your kids do what you want them to do. Well, my son basically just yell at his little sister not to touch hot stuff, stand on the chair, etc. Of course his little sister is not too happy with that style of command. Hence they fight. But don't forget that he never mean to hurt her.
Spiritually, he has grown in amazing way. I have few stories about him in term of his spirituality. Since he was 4 years old, with the innocent of a child, he has tell his friends about the Gospel. Using the same style that he use when he is commanding his little sister, he likes to ask his classmate if they are Christian. If the answer is no, then he will declare it to them that they will go to hell. Oh jeez.....

If the answer is yes then he will continue the interrogation. Next he will ask them if they pray and read bible every day. If their answer is no, then he will ask them how can they call themselves as a Christian if they do not know the Word and never talk to their God everyday? Oh man ....

As a worried mom I told him to tone down his interrogation style ....

When he was small usually the conversation ended here. Mostly because the other children do not know how to respond back to his question maybe. But now that he is 8, his classmates are smarter.

One day, one of his classmate said like this to him. This friend happens to be raised in a more liberal household. When my son threw the same questions to that boy, that boy said that his mom told him that as long as they never hurt other people, they don't do bad thing, they will go to heaven. And my son answered ... " Doing good thing while you still alive on earth is a good thing. But that may only help you to have a good life while you are still alive. Going to heaven has nothing to do with your good deeds. You can only get it through Jesus and only by His grace. "

Wow ....

I asked him how can he give an answer like that? Did he learn it from the Sunday school teacher?

He answered, " From you mom ! "

I was surprised because I do not remember if I ever teach him that.

Then I realized. Every night when we read bible together and pray, we always said this prayer that I taught him, " Holy Spirit, please teach me tonight, help me to understand, to remember, and give me the strength to do it, in Jesus name, Amen ! "

Only now that I realize the power of the Holy Spirit when you invite Him into your daily prayer time. Many times the Holy Spirit gives me the wisdom to teach our children that is beyond my own level of wisdom and understanding. Many times I was even amaze at what I said myself in front of my children. Is like I also learn the meaning of this bible verses for the first time together with our children. It's true that in front of the God, all of us are just like little children.

So yes, my son learn on how to answer like that from me, but only through my mouth, the truth is, our teacher who taught us that kind of wisdom can only be the Holy Spirit himself. I was just a mouth-speaker. A tool.
Another story ...

One night when only me and KK were reading the bible and praying together. I opened the book of Jeremiah when on that chapter, Jeremiah was angry and asking some tough questions to God. The kind of questions that many adults ask too. In fact, not to long ago, a 50s years old lady who has done years of ministry asked me the same questions.

Just for your information, my son likes to interrupt a lot....sigh....

Jeremiah 12:1 b

"... Why are the wicked so prosperous?..."

At this time, my son started to interrupt me ... " Off course a lot of them are rich, mom !" ...

I was getting annoyed at him because he always interrupt me before I can even finish a verse. So I asked him, " Why do you say off course ?"

With an air of know-it-all, he answered me ... " Off course the wicked are rich mom, don't you know? They are rich because the wicked people will do anything they can to get rich! Unlike us "

I was blown away with his easy straight to the point answer, so I forget that I was annoyed just now, and I continue to read the verse.

" Why are evil people so happy? "

Predictably, my son interrupted me again at this point. Loudly he said, " Off course they are happy mom! "

I asked him, " Why do you say like that? "

Then again, he answered me like I am very slow indeed, he answered me slowly, word by word,
" Off...course... the evil people...always ...happy...because...they ..always...do...what ...they ...like...regardless.. what...their action..will ...do...to..other...people! "

I was laughing like crazy when I heard his answers.

After I can manage to stop laughing , I continue again reading.

On Jeremiah 12: 3b , Jeremiah was truly angry at the injustice, then he asked God ...
"... Drag these people away like sheep, to be butchered! Set them aside to be slaughtered! "

When my son heard this verse, he suddenly sit up straight ( he was laying down before ), and he firmly said, " Oh no.... now he ( Jeremiah ) is getting stupid..."

I was laughing again like crazy, I have never heard anyone dare to call a prophet stupid. And now out of a babe's mouth, he dare to call Jeremiah stupid.

Let me give you the explanation that I found at the bottom of the page on my bible.

If you read the whole chapter you will know that God didn't give a straight answer to Jeremiah. God gave Jeremiah a challenge...

The explanation for Jeremiah 12: 1-6 :
"Many people have asked, "why are the wicked so prosperous?" Jeremiah knew that God's justice would ultimately come, but he was impatient because he wanted justice to come quickly. God didn't give doctrinal answer, instead, he gave a challenge. If Jeremiah couldn't handle this, how would he handle the injustice ahead? It is natural for us to demand fair play and cry for justice, we must realize that ourselves would be in big trouble if God gave each of us what we truly deserve."

My son knows this ...

The explanation for Jeremiah12: 5,6 :
" Life was extremely difficult for Jeremiah despite his love for and obedience to God. When he called God for relief, God's reply in effect was, " If you think this is bad, how are you going to cope when it gets really tough?" God's answers to prayer are not always nice or easy to handle. Any Christian who has experienced war, bereavement, or a serious illness knows this. We are to be committed to God even when the going gets tough and when our prayers for relief are not immediately answered."

So true ....

The explanation for Jeremiah 12: 14-17 :
" God chose a people through whom to demonstrate His care for the world. The nation of Israel was given much; thus, much was required of her. But she repeatedly failed. The fate of other nations depended on their willingness to demonstrate faith in God whether or not God's chosen people accomplished their task of witness. God's love extends to reach every square inch of the globe."

Now, think about the world's situation today.

Think about the global crisis that the world has to face together.

Think about those ultra mega rich people who has started this crisis.

Remember that you are THE chosen people of God.

I believe now is the time to stop throwing questions about why the wicked are so rich and happy because none of us can handle it if God gave each of us what we truly deserve.

Take account of your situation right now and ask this question to yourself, " If my situation right now is bad, what if next year is going to be worse? How will I handle the worse crisis ahead? If I believe that I AM God's chosen people, then God will want me to be better than others. Stronger but not by my own strength, but by His help "

It is time to grow deeper in the Word.

The help can only come from being consistently and truthfully knowing your God. If you do this part of the bargain, THEN God will keep his part.

Happy Birthday 3 Years Old Lala

2009-01-24T03:52:00.000-08:00

Her First School Birthday Party

2009-01-19T05:48:00.000-08:00

Pic: The older boy has to keep holding LL's hand while trying to push the ball into the circle by his leg. She's also.Pic: A kiss from her closest friend, Jessica.Pic: Again, an older student has to gently help her to walk the plank.

Pic: Jessica loves LL very very much, she is always the only one who give LL a big kiss and a bear hug.Pic: "Happy Birthday Gabriella"....
Pic: An older girl likes LL very much, I think she can be a very good older sister. Look at her helping LL to stand up, tidying up LL's hair.

Heavenly Hair Salon....

2009-01-19T02:03:00.001-08:00

Have you ever read this verse?

Luke 21:18
"And yet not a hair on your head will be lost."
International Standard Version (©2008)

I just had an experience where this verse can means literary.

Do you know that there is nothing too small about your life that you can not share with your Creator ?

Since I was small, my mom always told me that I should involve God in every part of my life, no matter how small.

Let me start from the beginning.

My father's hair is curly, but my mom's hair is straight. Since God knows that my parents will only have one child, He wants me to have both of their hair types in exact proportion. Hence, my top hair is curly, yet in a horizontal straight line exactly at below my ears level, my hair is straight.

For not so good hair dresser, they usually do not know what to do with my hair. As a result, I always had a bad hairstyle! When I said bad, it's really bad alright....

Most of the hairdresser didn't want to deal with my complicated hair, so they always suggested me to straighten my hair. And the result of continuous straightening my hair was disaster. I probably lost 30% of my original hair volume. Plus 10% more from childbearing.

So when I finally met the RIGHT hairdresser, Mrs. Hitomi, at Suki Hair's Salon in Vancouver. For the first time I can truly see the full potential of my hair. She can cut my hair in such a way that my hair can be what they suppose to be despite the curly and straight combination.

Her motto was something like this, " You will never have a bad hair day if you follow the natural grow of your hair".

Having a haircut done by her was like taking a science class. Because I have 2 different types of hair, she use 2 different types of conditioners. One for normal, the other for dry because curly hair is usually drier than straight hair.

I am not trying to be disgusting here but her haircut really makes me feel pretty.... ( haha )

The biggest lost I felt when I have to leave Canada is leaving my hair dresser behind .....hics.....

Sayonara Hitomi....

When I move back to Surabaya, I was not prepare with what the humidity can do to my hair. My hair explode ! To cut it short, I keep making mistake after mistake because I really do not know what to do with my hair. I was never happy when I had to go to a hair salon because I always expecting a disaster. And it always happen....

I always wants to have somebody else hair. Soft wavy type is always my dream.

Since my returned back to Surabaya, I go back to my old habit of straightening my hair. When in doubts, go straight. That's what I thought.

I have tried relaxing, smoothing, and ion, I have pretty much tried all the method of hair straightening. I did it every 4 months and I am just so tired of it.

So after exhausting every ideas on what to do with my hair I finally gave up. I gave up listening to so many hair dressers. I gave up on trying to have a great hair in a very humid country by my own ideas.

So I go back to square one.

I kneel down and pray to Him who made my hair in heaven.... here is my prayer....

" Father in heaven who created me. I know how much You love me. I know you don't make junk. I am your masterpiece. There is nothing wrong with your design. Please help me to have the kind of hair style that I was meant to have. Don't let me make a mess with my hair again somehow. Please makes me look good....pretty pleaseeee..........in Jesus name, Amen"

I went straight to the salon and ask them to perm my hair curly again so that when my root grow, my new hair will blend in with the permed/curly hair.

I know alright, that the hair dresser actually wants to make my hair wavy because she has heard my whinny wishes too many times. But somehow during the process of making my hair wavy something must have happened.

When I saw myself in the mirror, I could not stop laughing....

I look exactly like 3 years ago !!!

Her perm actually did not go as she intended. Instead of wavy, my hair goes back to curly. And some part of my hair actually did not get enough chemical so they kind of straight just like before. So some part of my hair is curly, and the rest is straight. How amazing is that???

But after assessing my hair, she said I look better with this curly style. In a weird way, even I have to agree.

Now I can not wait to let my original hair grow long enough and replace this imitation curly hair. For now, I just have to nourish my hair back to their original healthy condition. Before the dark ages when I keep torturing them with all those chemicals.

Here is my newest photo, taken today, in my daughter's school. She had her first birthday party in the school. She will turned 3 in a few days.

From her school, I went to have a moisturizing hair treatment on my cousin's salon. When she saw my hair, she said " Hey... since when your hair goes back to curly again? Your hair look better this way ! "..... haha..... so it was not just me who think my new hair style is like the old one....

When my husband saw me for the first time with my new hair style. I told him like this, " Honey, look! I look the same like 3 years ago! ".... he answered, " Finally....".

My son comment was, " Mom, I like it that your hair is curly again. Keep your hair at this length. Before was a bit too long "

I know that I will still admire people who have a soft wavy hair, but trust me, there are people who also wish to have naturally curly hair like mine. One of them is my church friend. She said I am so lucky that I don't need to perm my hair anymore while she still have to get her hair permed regularly. She said perming her hair is such a trouble, tiring, and costly too.

So people, what do I learn from this lesson?

God is never wrong. He is always right.

5 Days In Bali

2009-01-08T05:06:00.000-08:00

After successfully taking care of 2 children by ourselves, we are more confident to bring them to Bali the next day after we go down from the mountain. Both kids are so excited to go to Bali by air, especially LL who loves to take airplanes.

We left to Bali from Dec 26 until Dec 31. God must have have approve of this vacation because as far as I know, we are the only one who get the best deal on both airplane tickets and villas even though I booked everything just a little over one week from the departure date. I was too busy to plan our vacation too early, just when I plan to go that day to my travel agency, I saw it on the newspaper that Garuda Airlines has a discount (1/2 price ) on tickets from Bali to Surabaya, hehehe.....

Then my travel agency told me that there is a villa, called The Bidadari Villa that is still new and because of that their rate is still low. The other villa that she suggested to me is Bali Rich Villa. Both of these villas are located in Kerobokan, Seminyak in Bali. This is all her suggestion that I should try as many villas as possible. So for the first 2 days, we stayed in Bali Rich Villa, the next 2 days we stayed in The Bidadari Villa, then on the last day, we stayed in Mara River Safari Lodge that is located inside Bali Safari and Marine Park.

The first villa that we stayed in, Bali Rich is a little older, but it is located nearer to the shopping area. Another good thing about this villa, they have a Thai restaurant that also sell western food too. The food is pretty good and they are cheap for a hotel or villa standard. Another thing we like is they always prepare our breakfast right in the kitchen of our villa, so all of our eggs are still piping hot when we eat them. I have never seen our kids so excited waiting for their breakfast to be served. We usually have to keep on calling them to come to eat breakfast at home.
I also get a free extra bed with breakfast for both our children. Not bad....

Now I found that the best way to go traveling with our children is by making them very tired during the day. Then at night time, they are both too busted to be of any trouble. So our daily schedule while we were in Bali is like this, at 9 AM we ate breakfast together in our villas. By 11 AM we went out for sightseeing. By 5 PM, we usually already back to our villa to swim or play. By 7 or 8 PM, we ate dinner in our villa, I usually just order in some food. Then by 9, LL usually already fast asleep, while the rest of us usually sleep at 10. No nap during day time.

On our first day in Bali, we arrived already late, so we can not do anything, we just ordered some food to be sent to our villa and swam a little. LL refused to swim because the water is cold, so I invited her to swim with me in the hot tub.

The next day, I woke up early, around 7 AM and swam alone before everybody else woke up. Then when the breakfast arrived, we ate together and after that we went straight to the mall at Discovery Mall, the only beach front mall in Bali. KK wants to go to the beach, LL wants to walk around in the mall. I want to shop something, and R wants to buy DVDs. Well, this mall make it possible to please us all. Because it is located at a beach front, after eating lunch in the restaurant, we walked to the beach, then went back again to the mall to enjoy ice cream and shopped a bit.

For unknown reason, we found some dead fishes all over the beach...

From the mall, we returned to our villa to swim again and to eat dinner together. I also ordered for 2 masseuses to give us massage while we let the children watched some cartoon. We can have a spa right in our villa if we want to.

The third day right after breakfast, we moved to the The Bidadari Villa first. Then we asked their shuttle car to take us first to eat at Bali Deli before we went back to the same mall again to do everything all over again. I tried to let the children set the destination on their own pace. But this time we don't linger on the beach, so we have more time to walked to see the small stores outside the mall after that.
I have heard about Bali Deli for some time but never have the chance to try it. Well, I wish I go there a long time ago. This place has a great food, but the service is very slow. Beside the deli, they also have a gourmet grocery store. Their specialty or what makes this Deli famous is their sandwich. I tried it and I am very satisfied with it. R, who is a steak lover just can not resist to order their BBQ set that consist 4 types of steaks. His order came the last, really at the end of his patience, but one taste of it, I feel it is worth the long waiting time !!! Their steak is truly superb. You should give it a try ! And if it is possible I would have buy many of their sausages and ham to bring home for my mom.
It takes time to fully understand and appreciated this Deli. Now I understand why my distant cousin who sometimes lives in Bali said that she loves to eat here the most.

That afternoon, we finally manage to coaxed LL to swim in the gorgeous pool that this villa has. From refusing to swim, she enjoyed the pool so much that she swam with us for 2 hrs straight. She even dare to play jump into the water a lot, off course we caught her before she really in the water.

This is the fun part of staying in a villa that has a private pool. We can play as much as we wants without have to share it with anyone. Anytime we want too. KK even swam in full clothes, LL too.

At this villa, the manager made a deal with me because they are running out of extra bed for us to use, so he asked if I paid extra US $ 50/day, he will open the second villa for us to use and that price already include breakfast too. Off course I agree right away. So in The Bidadari Villa, I slept with LL in the master villa, while R and KK slept at the second and smaller villa, but both villas are located in the same closed area.

The next day, on our fourth day, we went to walk around Kuta area. The traffic was pretty bad at this time around because everywhere we go there are many cars and tourist buses. We went also to buy children clothes on Kuta Kidz at Bemo Corner in Kuta. I loves to buy dresses from this store for LL. The dresses are made with soft cotton and very light. I found a store that sell beautiful hand fan made with silk. I bought 2. They are great for a gift.

On the fifth day, we have to leave the villa at 10 AM because we have to move again to Mara River Safari Lodge that is located at Ubud. We were so excited about this place because we saw their brochure on our last visit to Bali, yet, reality is always more fun. All of us was very happy to know that from our room's terrace we can see elephants passing by carrying passengers, some zebras, a rhino, some ostrich and other animals. As you can see on the third video below how happy LL was.
Unfortunately, when we finally went into the safari, it rained very heavily. So we can not do much. At least before it rained, the children already ride the camels together. See some animals such as the baby tiger and baby lions and also the white tigers.
We manage to returned to our room to rest and take a bath before dinner started. While we stayed in our room, we enjoyed seeing the animals that walk around outside our porch. Then when it's time we head down to the dining area.

Now, this is my first time ever to know how it feels to be seen as a "FOOD". Here I am sitting nicely in front of my steak when there is a lion head only 40 cm away from me, looking at me and probably wishing that I am her steak ! That is quite unnerving you know! There is nothing wrong with the taste of the steak but some how it was hard for me to swallow it down when that lioness eyes just keep on looking at me or my kids and once in a while she will lick the glass that keep us separated.

When we entered that dining room, innocently we put our children as close as possible to the glass window because we wanted them to have the best view of the lions. But we forget that lions are the most active at night time. All this time we only saw lions when it is daytime so we never knew really how they behave when it's dark. We were not the only one who sit our children close to the glass window. Actually everybody did. Then once the children are all in place near the window, the lionesses started to come closer, and closer until they are so close and started licking the glass where the children are ( they completely ignore the pond that surround the building ). Then they start scratching the glass or slapping the glass right in front of our children.

I asked the waiter if the window glass is bullet proof or something ( hopefully stronger!!!! ), and he answered, " Ehm... I don't think so, but it's thick though "....as if that will make me feel more safe..... Then he added, " Mam, maybe you can exchange your seat with the children, the lions are always more excited when the children are near the window" ....Yikes!I took many pictures and even video when the lioness is busy licking and slapping the glass right next to our window, but my little girl with her itchy fingers managed to delete them all......sigh.....

The next morning, like usual, I woke up first, when I open the curtain, what a sight that I saw ! First I saw the caretakers ride the elephants while they pile up grasses and leaves on some spots in front of our room, then soon all the animals got together in front of our room to eat them. Also like always, LL woke up next, so we both came out to our porch and take some pictures. Then I woke up KK too. For breakfast and even lunch we always eat at the hotel dining room with the lions. They are totally different animals when it is day time. They just slept ..... boring..... but at least I can be a little more relax now to enjoy my meal.
Since our flight back to Surabaya would not leave until 6 PM, we have plenty of time to play in the safari first. The kids went to ride the camels again. They keep playing until it's time to go to the airport to return home. The children are very happy with their vacation.

The first video was taken at Bali Rich Villa, the second video was taken from The Bidadari Villa.

The third video was taken from inside our room at Mara River Safari Lodge, and the second video was taken from the veranda/patio/terrace of our room.

The bidadari luxury villas and spa is located at Jl. Bumbak No. 27 Banjar Anyar Kelod - Kerobokan, Kuta Utara - Bali - Indonesia.
Phone : +62 361 847 5566
Fax : +62 361 847 5548

The Bali Rich Villa is located at:

Jalan Raya Kerobokan 107, Br Taman, Seminyak, 80361, Indonesia

Mara River Safari Lodge and Bali Safari & Marine Park are located at :
Jl. Bypass Prof. Dr. Ida Bagus Mantra Km. 19,8 Gianyar 80551 - Bali - Indonesia

Telp: +62-361-950-000
Fax: +62-361-950-555

Bali Deli Seminyak is located at:

Jl. Kunti 117 X, Seminyak, Bali
Phone : + 62-361-738-686
Fax: +62-361-738-6881
Email: balideli@balideli.net

Short Vacation To The Mountain

2009-01-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

Pic: Kebun Raya Purwodadi
Pic: Playing in Kebun Raya Purwodadi

My baby girl loves animals as much as her brother does. Few months ago I brought her to see Taman Safari 2 in Prigen Pasuruan. Just 2 hours away or less from Surabaya. Both our children were so happy to see so many animals walking around our cars. We can even touch them since they keep coming to check us out and most likely to beg for food.

So I made a promise to my daughter to bring her back to that safari place.

For this Christmas holiday, I decide to make 2 vacations. For the first vacation I bring my family to Batu, a small town on the mountain. But on the way there, we made a quick stop to see a botanical garden that is just right on our way. This garden is called Kebun Raya Purwodadi. To better understand about this garden you can read Duncan Graham's Blog.

I am so glad that I bring my children to see nature. They both were so happy! Much more happier than when I bring them to the mall. Especially my boy. He is so curious with everything. He keep talking so excitedly non stop about everything he just saw. He ran around trying to capture bugs. He even come prepared. He brought a used cookie plastic container from home so he can keep his new found "pet" inside so he can inspect them in more detail later.

His little sister is still to slow and maybe still a bit scared to catch bugs on her own so all she did just cheering her big brother when ever he caught one more bug. Then KK generously share his "pets" with her. They are so adorable together. So curious and so happy !

From Kebun Raya Purwodadi, we went straight to our usual hotel when ever we go to Batu , we always stay at Klub Bunga which I believe is the best place in that town. For this visit, since I did it at last minute, I got their executive room on the top level.

Pic: Eating Gelato together at Klub Bunga

This is our second family holiday where we go without bringing the children nannies. I am curious to know if I can take care of these 2 children with out the nannies help. Well.... the answer is yes. I fount out that actually it is easy because KK is big enough to take care himself and LL is still small, but she is pretty easy going person, except about eating. She is very picky.

But the whole time we stayed here, the hotel provide us with 3 meals a day with all you can eat buffet. So there is always something that my picky eater girl can eat. Thank God!!!!

We stayed in that hotel for 3 days and 2 nights. We had a lot of fun together. I arrange a relax trip to Taman Selecta. This place on Dutch colonial era was called the little Swiss. It was built in a 20 hectares land in 1928 by Royter Dewvild, a Dutch man. This Garden is located in a valley at 1100 meter from sea level. The first Indonesian President Soekarno and the first vice President Moh. Hatta, both loves to stay here.

The fun part about Selecta is we can feed the big fresh water fish in their ponds. Then we can take picture in their flower garden. We can also play too. Less than 100 meters from Selecta, there is market too where we can shop for beautiful plants, fruits, and other gifts. The kids love it.

Pic: At the playground in Selecta

Pic: Daddy's little girl
Pic: Picturs of the flower garden in Selecta.

I also brought the children to see Agro Kusuma. In that place we can see how they grow our vegetables and fruits. They use 2 system, organic and hydroponic. Most of the organic fruits and vegetables in Surabaya is supplied by this company. Over there not only the children can pick a few red strawberries ( most of them are shipped to Surabaya together with other suppliers and yet they still can not filled the demand ), I also can buy a lot of organic vegetables freshly pick but with only a fraction of the price that I usually pay in Surabaya. For example for a red bell pepper, in Surabaya I paid Rp. 15.000 for one but here I can get 4 !

So as you can guess, I go crazy. I bought 20 kg of oranges, 20 kg of apples, 2 kg of red bell peppers, 2 kg of green bell peppers. etc.

In the late afternoon, we usually already back to the hotel to swim in their warm water pool and then we go to eat our dinner. After dinner we usually are too tired so we hit the sack early. I think this is the best arrangement when traveling with young children. We start the day early and ended the day early too.

After 2 nights there, we drove back home, but first we made another quick stop at the Taman Safari 2 to see, touch, and feed the animals. At the entrance, the caretakers of this place sell carrots and peanuts that we can buy to give to the animals. I bought a lot and yet still not enough. The kids loves it so much! Even LL is not scared to hand feed the carrots to the deers, llamas, etc. The kids never stop giggling. Since this is holiday, the amusement park is so full. So we decide not to go there because we need to rush home so we can make it to go to the church for Christmas service. I guess the children are already satisfied because they don't mind we go home directly.

But because the traffic is so unexpectedly great today, we made another quick stop to eat lunch in this unique place.... to see more photos about this restaurant you can click here.....

Pic: This girl loves to have her pictures taken. All of these shot is done in less than 2 minutes.

Pic: My son loves to collect giant clovers for him to gift

Pic: KK always shares his finding with his little sister.
Pic: We were amaze at the size of the clovers in the hotel.

The Growing Years Of My Son

2008-12-14T08:37:00.000-08:00

8 years has passed, now my beloved son is already in grade 3 at his school. He has grown so much in both physically , mentally and even spiritually.

Physically, his shoes size and mine is almost the same now. If my shoes size is 6.5, his shoes size is already around 5.

When he was small he was a fussy eater, now, he can eat 5 pieces of fried chickens on one sitting. Everyday he eats 4 to 5 meals a day, beside his snacks, candy, and milk. But he still weight only 30kg because he never stop moving. He has a very healthy body.

Mentally, he grow more mature, more caring with his sister. Part of the reason they fight once in a while is because he is too protective to his little sister without the wisdom of an adult. If you are a parent then you know that when you want to deal with a little child, you need to cajole them sometimes, or bargain, trade with them. You will need a lot of hugs and kisses to make your kids do what you want them to do. Well, my son basically just yell at his little sister not to touch hot stuff, stand on the chair, etc. Of course his little sister is not too happy with that style of command. Hence they fight. But don't forget that he never mean to hurt her.
Spiritually, he has grown in amazing way. I have few stories about him in term of his spirituality. Since he was 4 years old, with the innocent of a child, he has tell his friends about the Gospel. Using the same style that he use when he is commanding his little sister, he likes to ask his classmate if they are Christian. If the answer is no, then he will declare it to them that they will go to hell. Oh jeez.....

If the answer is yes then he will continue the interrogation. Next he will ask them if they pray and read bible every day. If their answer is no, then he will ask them how can they call themselves as a Christian if they do not know the Word and never talk to their God everyday? Oh man ....

As a worried mom I told him to tone down his interrogation style ....

When he was small usually the conversation ended here. Mostly because the other children do not know how to respond back to his question maybe. But now that he is 8, his classmates are smarter.

One day, one of his classmate give said like this to him. This friend happens to be raised in a more liberal household. When my son threw the same questions to that boy, that boy said that his mom said that as long as they never hurt other people, they don't do bad thing, they will still able to go to heaven. And this is again my son answer ... " Doing good thing while you still alive on earth is a good thing. But that may only help you to have a good life while you are still alive. Going to heaven has nothing to do with your good deeds. You can only get it through Jesus and only by His grace. "

Wow ....

I asked him how can he give an answer like that? Did he learn from the Sunday school teacher?

He answered, " From you mom ! "

I was surprised because I do not remember if I ever teach him that.

Then I realized. Every night when we read bible together and pray, we always pray this prayer that I taught him, " Holy Spirit, please teach me tonight, help me to understand, to remember, and to do it, in Jesus name, Amen ! "

Only now that I realize the power of the Holy Spirit when you invite Him into your daily prayer time. Many times the Holy Spirit gives me the wisdom to teach our children that is beyond my own level of wisdom and understanding. Many times I was even amaze at what I said myself in front of my children. Is like I also learn the meaning of this bible verses for the first time together with our children. It's true that in front of the God, all of us are just like little children.

So yes, my son learn on how to answer like that from me, but only through my mouth, the truth is, our teacher who taught us that kind of wisdom can only be the Holy Spirit himself. I was just a mouth-speaker. A tool.
Another story ...

One night when only me and KK were reading the bible and praying together. I opened the book of Jeremiah when on that chapter, Jeremiah was angry and asking some tough questions to God. The kind of questions that many adults ask too. In fact, not to long ago, a 50s years old lady who has done years of ministry asked me the same questions.

Just for your information, my son likes to interrupt a lot....sigh....

Jeremiah 12:1 b

"... Why are the wicked so prosperous?..."

At this time, my son started to interrupt me ... " Off course a lot of them are rich, mom !" ...

I was getting annoyed at him because he always interrupt me before I can even finish a verse. So I asked him, " Why do you say off course ?"

With an air of know-it-all, he answered me ... " Off course the wicked are rich mom, don't you know? They are rich because the wicked people will do anything they can to get rich! Unlike us "

I was blown away with his easy straight to the point answer, so I forget that I was annoyed just now, and I continue to read the verse.

" Why are evil people so happy? "

Predictably, my son interrupted me again at this point. Loudly he said, " Off course they are happy mom! "

I asked him, " Why do you say like that? "

Then again, he answered me like I am very slow indeed, he answered me slowly, word by word,
" Off...course... the evil people...always ...happy...because...they ..always...do...what ...they ...like...regardless.. what...their action..will ...do...to..other...people! "

I was laughing like crazy when I heard his answers.

After I can manage to stop laughing , I continue again reading.

On Jeremiah 12: 3b , Jeremiah was truly angry at the injustice, then he asked God ...
"... Drag these people away like sheep, to be butchered! Set them aside to be slaughtered! "

When my son heard this verse, he suddenly sit up straight ( he was laying down before ), and he firmly said, " Oh no.... now he ( Jeremiah ) is getting stupid..."

I was laughing again like crazy, I have never heard anyone dare to call a prophet stupid. And now out of a babe's mouth, he dare to call Jeremiah stupid.

Let me give you the explanation that I found at the bottom of the page on my bible.

If you read the whole chapter you will know that God didn't give a straight answer to Jeremiah. God gave Jeremiah a challenge...

The explanation for Jeremiah 12: 1-6 :
"Many people have asked, "why are the wicked so prosperous?" Jeremiah knew that God's justice would ultimately come, but he was impatient because he wanted justice to come quickly. God didn't give doctrinal answer, instead, he gave a challenge. If Jeremiah couldn't handle this, how would he handle the injustice ahead? It is natural for us to demand fair play and cry for justice, we must realize that ourselves would be in big trouble if God gave each of us what we truly deserve."

My son knows this ...

The explanation for Jeremiah12: 5,6 :
" Life was extremely difficult for Jeremiah despite his love for and obedience to God. When he called God for relief, God's reply in effect was, " If you think this is bad, how are you going to cope when it gets really tough?" God's answers to prayer are not always nice or easy to handle. Any Christian who has experienced war, bereavement, or a serious illness knows this. We are to be committed to God even when the going gets tough and when our prayers for relief are not immediately answered."

So true ....

The explanation for Jeremiah 12: 14-17 :
" God chose a people through whom to demonstrate His care for the world. The nation of Israel was given much; thus, much was required of her. But she repeatedly failed. The fate of other nations depended on their willingness to demonstrate faith in God whether or not God's chosen people accomplished their task of witness. God's love extends to reach every square inch of the globe."

Now, think about the world's situation today.

Think about the global crisis that the world has to face together.

Think about those ultra mega rich people who has started this crisis.

Remember that you are THE chosen people of God.

I believe now is the time to stop throwing questions about why the wicked are so rich and happy because none of us can handle it if God gave each of us what we truly deserve.

Take account of your situation right now and ask this question to yourself, " If my situation right now is bad, what if next year is going to be worse? How will I handle the worse crisis ahead? If I believe that I AM God's chosen people, then God will want me to be better than others. Stronger but not by my own strength, but by His help "

It is time to grow deeper in the Word.

The help can only come from being consistently and truthfully knowing your God. If you do this part of the bargain, THEN God will keep his part.

My Baby Girl Is Going To Preschool

2008-12-04T19:04:00.000-08:00

Why is it we always dreaded the day when our children has to go to school for the first time? We always worry that they are going to be sad, miserable, being bullied by their friends, tortured by so many homework, etc...?

We were like that too with KK. We were worried that he will cry for a week looking for his mommy and daddy. Then we were worried that every morning we have to drag him to school. We will count the hours until we can rush to pick him up from school. Partly because we miss him so much already. We imagined that when we arrived in the school to pick him up we will see his face plastered on the glass door, watching and waiting for his parents to come and save him from the school.

So now when it is LL's turn to go to school for the first time, we were doubly worried because she is a girl, she is a lot more sensitive than KK, a lot less tough, she cried a lot easier with the least provocation. Worry....worry...worry....

With KK, our worries were proven wrong on all account. On his first day at school, not only we don't have to drag him off from the bed because he is so excited to go to school, he also did not cry at all, and in fact we have to dragged him home for the first week.

Well... this time we were half right. She did cry until the second week. Her teachers said she cried the loudest in the class....oops.... But, she can take care of herself. The teachers said that now if they heard her scream ( very very loud ), they know right away that someone must have touch her stuff. She really doesn't like it when her touch her crayons and stuff. On the other hand, she also never touch their stuff too.

After 2 months, suddenly she start to speak out in either English or Chinese or Bahasa or her baby languages. Now she talks a lot and very funny too. She is also good at sport ( unlike her mom thank GOD! ). She loves soccer, hahaha. She loves dancing too. She is still a bit shy at times, but she is getting better, now she wants to shake hands and say bye bye to new people.

Also, she eats much better when she is in the school with her friends. The school, Surabaya Taipei School, gave her morning snack and lunch too. I am very satisfied with this school. My daughter becomes very polite and she said if she is good, the teacher will give her a sticker, hahaha....

At home, she is a difficult eater. very picky, likes to spit out the food when she gets bored chewing at her food. But at the school, she always eats by herself, never spit out the food, and even though she is the slowest eater ( my goodness! ), but she always finish her meal somehow....

I also applaud the school's cook for a job well done on cooking and planning a well-balance menu. I know, because we received a monthly menu list. For only Rp. 250.000 or US $ 21 / a month, she gets breakfast and lunch that consist of 3 - 4 meals.

Her school fee is US $ 1,000 / semester. For each class, they have 2 teachers. One is from Taiwan, and the other from Indonesia who will teach her English. Her teacher said that she is the student that improve the most in speaking English. I believe that's because KK mostly communicate with her in English at home.

Now after 3 months later, not only she stop crying, she is not scared to dance on the stage too on the grand opening of her school on this new building.

My little angel is a school girl now! She loves school so much, we never have a problem with waking her up in the morning. When KK is still not ready yet to go to school, she will keep calling him, " Come on, KK, let's go to school !!!!"...... hahaha.....

Summer In Bali

2008-07-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

This summer I have a promise to keep with my son. I promise that I will bring him to Bali for a vacation, because he's been begging me after he saw how nice our belated honeymoon in Bali last year. But this time my parents, my kids and even their nanny will come with us.

The planning was not hard. I just went back to the same travel company that I used for our honeymoon. But at that time because the travel agent that took care of me was on her holiday, another agent handled my case.

So she book 2 bedrooms villa at this secluded hotel in Uluwatu. This hotel owned by Koreans as a result, their breakfast menu is heavy with Korean cuisine. The most obvious clue is the Kimchi off course. Even for breakfast, they still serve Kimchi. Fortunately, my family loves Kimchi....

If I compare this villa with Aston Pradha Villa, this one seems more luxurious. It takes us 5 minutes to figure out how to use their high tech toilet bowl's manual. Yes, they have a manual stick to the wall to teach us, country bumpkin on how to use the toilet ! But I think the worker who built the villa where we stayed did a bad job because every time we had a shower, the bathroom floor will be flooded. Despite the top of the wall is open, somehow there was not enough air circulation, so the bathroom smell a bit all the time. But maybe that was just our villa only. Maybe other villas are fine.

LL was very excited and a little bit scared too in the airplane but because the flight is only for 40 minutes, she was fine. She fell asleep.

The kids were very excited with this trip. as you can see on the photos. But once they saw the swimming pool in their villa, they just became crazy! KK just dive directly to the pool !

Another thing also that maybe it's my fault. Because on the last day I found out that if I need to cook, I can ask the room service to deliver a small gas stove to my villa.This villa has a kitchen but the kitchen is empty except for it's fridge that has free drinks that will be refill on daily basis with juice and sodas. Because the location is so secluded, there is no restaurants around the hotel, you unless you have a rental car, you are pretty much stuck with the hotel food. Yes, they have shuttle car, but the schedule is not too flexible because it is far to go anywhere from this villa. So we ordered in food from room service. Guess what, a plate of fried rice/noodle can cost Rp.100.000 or US $ 10. Yikes ! So the next day we went straight to Papaya supermarket and stock up on instant noodle that can be cook with just pouring in boiling water. At Aston Pradha, my kitchen is fully equipped home style kitchen complete with a full size cooktop and utensils.

The rest of our stay in Bali, my family kept complaining to me that I chose the wrong villa this time because we spent too many hours on the road to go anywhere..... arghhhh.......

Sometimes I feel that maybe it is not a good idea to mix grandparents with grandchildren on a vacation. The grandchildren wants to stay and play on the beach as long as possible but the grandparents can not stand the heat etc..... So at the end, I sent the grandparents back first to the villa with LL, while KK stayed with me and his dad.

Because it's too far, this time I can not go shopping as much as I wish. Like last time, I mean. But my wonderfully understanding husband who happen to love shopping to, haha, took me for a shopping trip alone with him, without the kids. The kids are happier actually, because they rather stayed-in the villa with the swimming pool and the PlayStation. I love buying Bali style children clothes because they are usually made with soft cotton that can keep the kids cool and comfy. They look so cute too! For me, I love buying those ethnic necklaces, they are cheap and colorful ! They are playful. For hubby, he will just go straight to those DVDs stores and go crazy.

And since this time we went with my mom, so we made several stop at some gift shops. She bought so many snacks to give to everybody back home until we have to packed and shipped them first. My mom is expert on this though. she always do this everywhere she goes.

To keep the children happy, I brought them to Bali Bird Park, and Bali Safari and Marine Park.

For LL, since she can not remember the time when I brought her to the parks in Vancouver, this is her first experience and she was loving it! She is very curious yet scared too because there are many exotic birds running loose on the ground, such as albino peacock, etc. But for KK, it was so wonderful to see him running around full of curiosity to see both the birds and the vegetation. It's just like watching him back in VanDusen Botanical Garden again. Both of our kids love animals so much and especially for KK, he also loves gardening too. He loves gardening so much that he doesn't like to pick flowers, he likes to admire them while they are still alive. On the other hand, I still have to train LL not to pick my flowers from their branch, sometimes before they are even blooming.

Actually next to the bird park there is also Bali Reptile Park, but after spending some time there the grandparents started to tell me that it's time to go back, the kids must be already dead tired, let's go back now .... etc...etc.... (sigh)

The next day was the same again, but this time even I have to agree, we were too tired walking around the Safari. This place is huge! My father especially was so impress with this place. My parents are no very curious people. They have been to Bali many times but each time are always the same. They go there either because they have to accompany guests or a family wedding. So all they do in Bali was just stay in the hotel, go shopping , eat local food and that's it. My father has this image that Bali is still using a local standard on everything, and now he is in for a surprise, the old Bali is gone, and the new and more International standard Bali is in ! He just keep on saying how impress he was with Bali now. This Safari place really makes us feel like we are not in Indonesia anymore. Even R was impress too by this place. The food court also great, it cater to all kind of taste. Wait a minute, why do I always tells you about the food first? Hmmm.....

I guess it's because I forgot to tell you that included on my package to stay in our villa, we also get a seafood BBQ dinner cooked right in our yard next to the swimming pool that I and R missed completely due to our shopping spree .... you know what I mean right.... too much fun.... forgot about the time.... To be fair about this villa, they know how to spoil people in term of food. This is to offset my complain about their location and bathroom, so here are the photos of the seafood BBQ ...

Anyway, next time you go to Bali, bring your kids to this Safari place. You can spend the whole day here and most likely you still can not see everything they have, that is why people.... I am going back here again soon, on December, not only to finished what we missed, but we will stay in their new hotel in the middle of the safari, think of me sitting in my bedroom and I can watch lions outside my room, hahaha.... I am not kidding.....stay tune for my future update about Mara River Hotel ....

And now, I will let you enjoy my family vacation pictures .....

Bali Bird Park

Jl. Serma Cok Ngurah Gambir
Singapadu, Batubulan - Gianyar - Bali
Telephone: 62 361 299352
Fax: 62 361 299614
E-mail: sales@bali-bird-park.com

Bali Safari and Marine Park

Jl. Bypass Prof. Dr.Ida Bagus Mantra Km. 19,8
Gianyar 80551 - Bali - Indonesia
Telp: 62 361 950 000
Fax : 62 361 950 555

Pic: Believe it or not no body teach her to swish her hair like that in the camera. Sigh.... I guess for some people it just comes naturally .... and all this time I thought my son is already great in front of camera and here she comes ....

Children Photos Show Off Time !

2008-04-15T02:09:00.000-07:00

I would like to share some of our children photos that I took from January until March. Our children usually are quite enthusiast to be my photo model so it was easy to make all these shots.
I will put an explanation under each photo ( unless they are pretty similar ) so I won't bore you with too many words when basically I just want to show them off to you, okay? Alrighty then.....
Pic: My little princess in her little castle inside her little room at the attic.
Pic: Isn't she so creative ? She made many different poses for me during this photo shot.

Pic : My happy little angel on my bed.

Pic: The many ridiculously funny faces our son. He is also a very creative model and it's very understandable because he has been my model for almost 8 years and I have taken at least a million shots of him , most likely more than a million. His photos has taken many toll on my computer. Blew up the hard disk several times because of overload. Yes, digital camera is getting cheaper and it is cheap to only develop the photo that we truly love instead of developing the whole roll of film, but what about the price of mega big hard disk to store all that photos?
Pic: Me playing with my little girl. I am the cat that she wish she can have.

Pic: My funny boy
Pic: I am glad that both children likes to draw just like their mommy and their grandpa.
Pic: My little girl likes to share , I guess because her big brother likes to share with her too. Good example !
Pic: BIG smile!

Pic: She loves to play dress-up with our clothes, but on this photo shots she wore her daddy's sport ( quick dry ) shirt and his shrunken heat ( It shrunk when I put it on my dryer machine, ( ooopppsss ! )
Pic: Isn't she is sooo cute, trying to look like her daddy ?
Pic: I took these shots when my husband and my dad went to Jakarta for the Java Jazz Festival 2008. She missed them so much and can not stop asking about them, so I let her talk to them on the phone.
Pic: That's my idea to put metal plate ( = seng ) on the children wall, about 1.25 m by 1.5 m ( sorry I am so bad at measurement ) then paint it with the same wall paint so that it will blend in with the wall. Then I bought magnetic paper from the stationary store, printed some family member pictures on them, make sure approximately they are the same size when printed, change the background to white so that when I cut them off, the back ground is white, like a sticker. Now she has many photos of Richard, Kai Kai, my dad and my mom and herself. That way we can play "family game", by telling a story using her real family photos. Am I smart or what???? One thing missing, until now I still have not made some with my own photos ... Since I am always the one behind the camera, it's so rare that I will be the object of my camera.... sad....sad....sad....
Pic: They both want to sit on daddy's lap.
Pic: Look at her, I can just say " One, two, three ... " and she will automatically smile for the camera ! "Say cheese ..... "

Pic: On our last trip to Taipei for the crusade I bought her this cheongsam ( Chinese dress ). She look so cuteee on it !!
Pic: My 2 beautiful children. Too bad that I couldn't find a Chinese costume for KK. I don't know why it's so hard to get one in his size ! Can anybody explain that to me???
Pic : My goodness, I came to my room one day ( and many more days ) to find this little girl sitting on my make up table and start using my make up !!! She just turn to me and give me a big smile because she knows I am going to take her photo. She told me that she wants " pity-pity " which translated into "pretty-pretty".
Pic: Yes, she wants to be the first Indonesia female astronaut some day.

My Garden

2008-04-10T20:38:00.001-07:00

Pic: Those small white innocent looking flowers produced such a strong sweet smell that enough to make people feel like drunk! It's called "Kemuning". I owned about 50 - 60 plants here and one mature "Kemuning" tree. They can grown into a medium size tree, but the one you saw here is the dwarf species type and it can only grow to around 1 meter tall.

Pic: This plant looks like a butterfly in the daytime and when it is night time, the leaves will fall down and make a pyramid shape. Very cute !

Pic: When the seller told me that this mini shrubs is called Taiwan, I just got to buy them all, can you guess why??? ( Hint: My hubby's nationality )

Pic: My lovely rosemary, I have about 10 of them and all of the cactus belong to my son. I don't know why he loves cactus very much.

Pic: My beautiful orchids, I have about more than 30 different colors but not all of them were in bloom when I took this shot.

The last time I wrote an update about my garden was on March 3, 2007 and now it has already past one year from that time and my garden just keeps on evolving because the truth is that I don't know yet what style is and I am still trying to understand the characteristics of Indonesian tropical plants and which plants can grow well in my garden based on the amount of light that every part of my garden has or not.

If you want to see the previous entry about my garden, you can click here.

Here in Indonesia, the people who loves gardening are very trend oriented. I have no idea who set the trend but boy.... I bet they makes millions of dollars. Let me explain. In the past a year or so everybody who loves plants have been buying pretty much the same type of plants. When some friends hear that I love plants, they will ask automatically if I have that plant. I can't recall all the names, but one of them is so easy to remember, it's called "Gelombang Cinta" translated to " Wave of Love", another name is Jemanii and I think the scientific name is Anthurium. What ever that is, it cost an arm and a leg! The highest I heard is around several million Rupiah which is just totally crazy. In fact my notary sister's anthurium that recently received an offer to sell for Rp. 100 millions ( US $ 11.000 ) have just been stolen !

Pic: "wave of love ", anthurium. This plant may cost around Rp. 30 millions ( US $ 3,300 )

Funny thing is, I saw the same plant in my mother in law's balcony in Taipei and in Taipei it doesn't even cost 1/100 of that 11.000 US Dollars ! There is another plant that can be sold for about that price too and again I saw those plants looking quite pitiful ( not enough sunlight ) in front of a hotel in Taipei. I forgot the name. But to proof it to the people who live in my home that I was not lying I took the picture of those plants. Here are my proof ...

That's why when I started to renovate my garden, I made it clear to the garden store owners that this buyer will not look for what ever plants that is in fashion, and will not buy any plants that cost more than Rp. 300.000 ( US $ 30 ), and this buyer is only looking for either an indigenous plants of Indonesia or plants that has been brought to Indonesia for a long time that way I reduce the possibility of that plants to die in my garden!

So what ever you see in my photo collections are guarantee to be cheap, hardy, and mostly indigenous plants of Indonesia.

That way I proof it to a lot of people that you don't have to own the trendiest plants to have a nice garden. I called it "Yohana's Cheap Garden"....hahaha ....

I have received a lot of comments from people who knows what my garden looked like before I return home. They always give a positive comment.

One of the thing that make me can not stop upgrading my garden is the enthusiast reaction that I always get from my children. Every time I can find a new plant that they have never seen before they love it! What do you think ?