Just when it was starting to get boring.... God sends a hailstorm!!!

Spiky squash-ball sized hailstones = lots of noise, lots of people going "AAAH MY CAR!!!" (the hailstones in the pic melted a lot before we got them on the towel and took pic as well... so most of the spikyness went too :(... )


Feeling sorry for all those people with cars... smashed windscreens and dented cars is not fun :(

Some random brave people went out with their golfclubs (and helmet) to play exploding hailstone golf...




And just as quickly as it all started - the sun came out and it ended! Strangely familiar... exactly the same as the carinya y12 grad, 2003 ;) Hehe I'm off to get me some more of those hailstones and find an unsuspecting victim...

--

"God is exalted in his power.
Who is a teacher like him?

Who has prescribed his ways for him,
or said to him, 'You have done wrong'?

Remember to extol his work,
which men have praised in song.

All mankind has seen it;
men gaze on it from afar.

How great is God—beyond our understanding!
The number of his years is past finding out.

"He draws up the drops of water,
which distill as rain to the streams ;

the clouds pour down their moisture
and abundant showers fall on mankind.

Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds,
how he thunders from his pavilion?

See how he scatters his lightning about him,
bathing the depths of the sea.

This is the way he governs the nations
and provides food in abundance.

He fills his hands with lightning
and commands it to strike its mark.

His thunder announces the coming storm;
even the cattle make known its approach.

- Job 36:22-33

Ode to Mary: a joyful spirit :P

Sorry Mary, I won't write you an ode longer than that. yet. hey Gray's anatomy is almost on and i don't have enough time to do you proper justice ;) you have, however, been immortalised in my blog. Hehehehe :P maybe one day... but to steal your words: remember psalm 121 in stuvac!

--

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

10 days to go! I finally get immunology and i've nearly finished renal - still on track! :D

Studying the body makes me realise just how complex everything is - how "fearfully and wonderfully made" people are, and how incredibly big and powerful God is, that he made every single one of us! And not only did he make us all, he knows absolutely everything about us... ow thinking about that makes my head hurt... so many people... :P

--

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.

(Psalm 139:1-18)

And so stuvac begins!

Here's a post to the well-neglected blog - today, i guess, marks the beginning of the stuvac week! 11 more days until first exam - here goes for a (hopefully) productive and focussed week of study!

Going into this week, it's been interesting to see how God seems to speak (or maybe better said as "how well I seem to listen") in proportion, if that could be said, to the amount of stress i'm feeling - when I'm tired and sick of studying and feeling hopeless about the amount of stuff that needs to be crammed into my brain in less than 2 weeks, it's when I realise again I can't do it all on my own, and the only way that i'm going to survive exams (and, indeed, the rest of life) is to be fully relying on God - if only my unreliable self would think like that all the time! (and if that's what it takes, then let life be stressful!)

So let me change that statement about this week to : looking forward to a week of study, praising God for everything he's given me (including, but most definitely not limited to: a brain, an awesome course.. and yes, even the stuff i'm having to cram into my head) and trusting that he's in control and what he says in Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Not that I have already been made perfect... or i really would be joyful all the time, and never complaining or grumbling :P Happy Stuvac everyone! (and to those not at Newcastle - happy.. um.. rest of semester! hehe)

--
His oath, his covenant, his blood,
Support me in the raging flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
This still is all my strength and stay

"...if you let yourself go, you’ll dive head first into a parallel world in which magic and nature work together. Miyazaki trusts that children will pick up on his complex ideas and accept them more readily than an adult audience. I think he brings real wisdom to the art of animation, something that Hollywood doesn’t have a hope of doing." Jaimie Leonarder, THE MOVIE SHOW SBS TV

I started studying.. then i watched Howl's moving castle with mum... again!!

But how can anyone resist Calcifer?? He's so cute...

Now I'm trying to decide whether or not to get the complete 14 DVD set of all of
the miyazaki movies... it's only $75.... and there's 14 DVDs (and 13 movies....).... *sighs* ... or maybe i should just stop playing morrowind and do some more study instead..

Going back to Newie tomorrow!!! :D but that means leaving home again :S

ugh... more liver to study... wheeeeeeeeee (oh hang on i'll save that for the renal system)

Holidays!!

Well it looks like i've finally got a lot of "free time" so I can finally catch up on my blog! :D

Last weekend in Sydney: Grace Chinese Christian Church turned 21! So the Wongs headed down to Sydney for the party to celebrate of God's grace and power demonstrated in that church over the last 21 years. We were there from 1993-2000 (when we were in sydney) so after not being there for 6 years (apart from the odd wedding/random visit) it was really good to catch up with people again :) and it was encouraging to see the way that God's grown the church and the people in it - every time we go back there's even more people I don't know!

Last week: On the way home from Sydney, I went to one of the Chinese shops and stocked up on food - which resulted in a week's worth of eating dumplings filled with BBQ pork or egg and custard, fried rice with everything (and we found out that sticking honey and sherry in fried rice does most definitely NOT make it taste better.. or good... .. *JERAM!!!*....), and in between eating and cooking, going to class and surviving through a last week of uni before....

HOLIDAYS!!!: So now I'm back home in Tamworth (since Friday night), having a general time of vegetation and gearing up to start the insane study regimen that's hopefully going to mean that i'll pass this semester!

last night i watched "Howl's Moving Castle" (another one by Hayao Miyazaki) - SOOOOOO CUUUTE!!!!!

oh and ..... I GOT TO DO STITCHES I GOT TO DO STITCHES I GOT TO DO STITCHES!!! (for the first time on real person!!!!) WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! hehehehehehehe... it's so weird when you're sticking the suture needle through real skin instead of fake skin stuff or foam... WOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!! :D

--

And continuing in the "Joyce's favourite songs" vein...

--
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,
Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower.
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.